#bingge steals sqqs harem au

[sun-and-moon-mushroom]

Day 17: Hostage Situation

AO3 link

(You know the ‘crack taken seriously’ tag? This is the opposite of that)

Ever since his youth, there had been very few things that Luo Binghe had failed at. Of course, sometimes negotiations with another kingdom fell through, or one of his wives was poisoned, or an ally would start plotting against him — but those were all easily solved. He would conquer the kingdom, cure his wife, and execute the traitor. This was simply how his life went — he would face a challenge, overcome it, and everything would return to the status quo. So, understandably, when he was rejected by an alternate version of Shen Qingqiu, who had married his crybaby counterpart, he immediately started making plans to go back and try again.

This time, when he found himself back in that other world, he was a bit more careful. He lurked around Cang Qiong, the little side-paths and shortcuts still familiar to him, even after so long, and waited. Then waited some more. Apparently, his other self liked spending so much time with his husband that it was almost impossible for Luo Binghe to find a time when they were apart. He spent at least a few weeks just lurking around the sect and observing the differences — Liu Qingge was alive for one.

He found himself spending a lot of time on Bai Zhan as he waited for his other self to finally stop acting like a housewife and leave to manage his empire in the demon realm. Even though Luo Binghe had certainly been discovering some new things about himself ever since meeting the other Shen Qingqiu, he thinks he would have still found Liu Qingge attractive, even before that. He greatly resembled his sister after all, but was somehow even more attractive — Luo Binghe spotted him returning to the Peak one day, face and robes still splattered with the blood of the beast he held over his shoulder, and had nearly collapsed on the ground from the sheer attractiveness of it.

Finally, after all those weeks of waiting, the other Luo Binghe left. Understanding that he probably didn’t have much time, Luo Binghe acted quickly — he needed a hostage, someone to threaten the other Shen Qingqiu with in order to make him agree to come back with him (he had a somewhat vague idea of what ‘consent’ meant, largely due to being expected to cure innumerable beautiful young women of things that would otherwise kill them). Based on his knowledge of the Shen Qingqiu from his own world, he knew just the person — Yue Qingyuan.

The sect leader was surprisingly easy to find and disarm — Luo Binghe found him lying face-down in his bed and crying over a bundle of old letters, which from what Luo Binghe could see, were rather poorly written and filled with swears and insults directed at him. Shrugging off this oddity, Luo Binghe grabbed Xuan Su, and tied Yue Qingyuan up with immortal binding cables, before using Xin Mo to bring him directly over to Qing Jing.

As he stepped through the portal, he heard a clatter, as the other Shen Qingqiu dropped his teacup in shock. A bit sloppy — he knew that his Shen Qingqiu would have been able to masterfully redirect the slip of his hand so the tea splashed over the face of the closest person he disliked (which was usually whoever was closest anyway). Perhaps marriage had made this one soft? Pushing the thought aside, because surely the drama of his harem would sharpen him up again, he held out Yue Qingyuan and held Xin Mo to his throat.

“Come with me or he dies!” he declared dramatically, a line he was quite used to, although usually he was the one on the other side of the threat.

“Oh,” said the other Shen Qingqiu, “I’d really rather not?”

Luo Binghe paused for a moment.

“… you’re willing to let him die then?”

The other Shen Qingqiu shrugged.

“Well, I’d really prefer not to go with you after what happened last time, and I’m sure he can escape by himself.”

Luo Binghe glanced at Yue Qingyuan, who was staring at Shen Qingqiu with teary eyes, and certainly not trying to escape at all. With a sigh, he dropped him onto the floor, where he lay like an especially depressed caterpillar.

“Who can I threaten you with then? Ning Yingying?”

“Eh.” said the other Shen Qingqiu, with uncharacteristic apathy. Luo Binghe started to wonder if this was actually a version of Shen Qingqiu, or if instead this was a timeline where a different soul completely just happened to have the same name and face.

“You would at least feel bad if I burnt the sect to the ground, right?” he asked with an increasing sense of desperation.

“Well,” said the other Shen Qingqiu, “I would certainly miss the bamboo, but Binghe is growing me some in the demon realm, so it wouldn’t be that bad”.

Luo Binghe turned around in disgust, only stopping to pick the sect leader back up again. He should have known better — for a Shen Qingqiu to seem nice compared to the original, he had to be missing something important somewhere else, and for this one, it seemed to be the ability to care about anything and anyone that wasn’t his own Luo Binghe.

Stepping back through the portal, he began wondering what to do next — his harem had seemed a bit stagnant for the last few decades, so now the other half of the population was open to him, maybe he should try it out? The Liu Qingge of this world was certainly pretty, and he had to admit the sight of the sect leader all tied up had been oddly appealing…

(Bingge then proceeds to form a harem out of every single person who wanted to be part of SY!SQQs if only he wasn’t so Binghe-brained)

#svsss #svsss au #shen qingqiu #luo bingge #my writing #febuwhump #febuwhump 2024 #bingliu #bingge steals sqqs harem au