#make shen jiu be something like yue qingyuan i think it might break him

[tcfactory]

Since my brain has been full of SVSSS brainrot lately:

I want a fic where the transmigration mostly fails and Shen Jiu wakes up from his qi deviation as User002 with the goddamn System treating him like he is Shen Yuan. Trashy yellow book what??? No, he doesn't need stats on his fellow peak lords, if he is supposed to follow a plot then he wants to see the script! You wretched floating rectangle, how is he supposed to play along if he doesn't know the source material?!

The stress of having what feels like a very pushy curse or an insanely weird demon inflicted upon him makes him deviate from some minor plot points and he gets punished for being OOC a couple of times until the System takes pity on him and directs him to Airplane bro, with the very clear suggestion that if he can't remember the early arcs of the story - System understands, User! It's very long after all. UwU - he should go and discuss it with the author.

He basically kicks down Shang Qinghua's door in desperation for some clarity and maybe an explanation, right now before he works himself into a stress-induced qi deviation, Shang-shidi. Shang hamster looks at his miserable scum villain, takes a deep breath, brings out all of Shen Qingqiu's favorite snacks that nobody should know about, makes a pot of calming tea and tells him everything.

Shang Qinghua expects Shen Qingqiu to be angry, to rip into him for writing him into this wretched life. And Shen Jiu is angry, but not at Qinghua. His anxious, mousy little shidi who lives his entire life under the looming threat of a horrible, seemingly unchangeable future doesn't look like a god. Shang Qinghua, who does his best to run his peak well and look out for his disciples despite his admittance that in the story the original Qinghua did a shoddy job - he doesn't look like someone who would have put pen to paper and written a tragedy if he knew it would become someone's reality.

And how could Shen Jiu, who has seen people sell their bodies and their very dignity for a cup of stale water, judge someone for writing a very bad yellow book so he can eat? Please. Peak Lord Shen might have developed a very discerning taste in literature over the years, but you can't fill your stomach with artistic integrity, Shang-shidi. Shen Jiu understands.

So they sit and for that first evening, Shen Qingqiu listens to all the differences creeping into the story, Shang Qinghua's retelling of the drafts he abandoned due to peer pressure, the long rambling tangents of the research he's done, even if they never made it into the story. Qinghua is so caught up in having someone to talk to that he doesn't realize that Shen Qingqiu put everything that happened to Qi-ge together, somewhere between the musings about how a sword inspired by kintsugi would be so cool looking, shame that nobody ever sees the thing, and the griping about how much one of his patrons complained about Yue Qingyuan dying without ever drawing his sword.

Later, when the snacks are gone and the tea is replaced with something stronger, he tells Shen Qingqiu about the stories he really wanted to write. About how he shamefully sneaked his dream man into PIDW, just so he could have some small part to himself, and oh, Shen Qingqiu will have to remind him about demon courting practices when they are both sober again, because it sounds like that Mobei prince is down bad for him.

He leaves that night with a newfound determination. Shang Qinghua might be resigned to the whims of his System and the shackles of the Plot, but Shen Jiu didn't burn the Qiu manor down and break his chains to give up so easily. This is his world, his sect, his Qi-ge on the line, and he would sooner wrest control from the System and become custodian of the world himself than let something take away and ruin what is his. He is the strategist of Cang Qiong Sect, there is no situation he can't think a way out of and he has had enough of tragedies.

Before any of that, however, he needs to go and have a good yell at his Qi-ge, smack his stupid face and then curl up in his arms for a good night's sleep. It's long overdue.

#svsss #shen qingqiu #shen jiu #shang qinghua #that last bit can be read as qijiu or platonic #but I'm personally very partial to qijiu. they just have so much tasty tasty tragedy to sink your teeth into #sqq fixing the world by directing his anger at the right thing for once? more likely than you'd think #idk how they would deal with all the binghe related nonsense but sqq is nothing if not resourceful #tc writes

[coolshadowtwins]

This is a section from this post that I wrote forever ago. I probably won’t ever continue it, but this made me laugh so here you go.

————-

Shen Qingqiu didn’t speak, simply fiddled with his fan in a nervous fashion that Yue Qingyuan hadn’t seen from him since… well, maybe ever. Even after the change in demeanor from the qi divination, Shen Qingqiu wasn’t one to show nervousness. The fact that whatever brought him to his peak set Yue Qingyuan’s nerves on edge.

Still, in an effort to hide how Shen Qingqiu s actions were effecting him, because only the gods know the lengths his shidi would go to in the future to hide his nervousness then, Yue Qingyuan asking in a calm voice, “Shen-Shidi? What was it that you needed this master for?”

“I have good news, and I have bad news.” Shen Qingqiu said. He sounded reluctant, and didn’t elaborate right away. When Yue Qingyuan stayed silent, in an effort to keep him talking, he continued. “….it only seemed fit to let the sect leader chose the order received.”

Ah, it was always like pulling teeth with Xiao-Jiu. Yue Qingyuan felt a fond smile break out, without his permission. Shen Qingqiu looked away, clearly uncomfortable, and he forced his face back to blankness. “Ah, well, if this one could chose, then I suppose… good news first. It’s often more rare to come by, these days.”

Shen Qingqiu nodded, once, determined, and then opened his mouth to assumingly give him the good news. Then, when no sound came out, he closed it slowly, looking to the side like he was reading something while also bringing his face up to hide the bottom half of his face. Yue Qingyuan had gotten rather good at reading his new facial expressions in the last decade since his friend had changed, so he understood immediately that Shen Qingqiu was embarrassed.

He frowned, concerned. Then frowned harder in more concern when the silence in the room continued. “Ah… Shen-Shidi?”

“This one… this one didn’t think his words through. The good news I have won’t make sense without the bad news, but if you still want the good news first, I think it might actually be a good entryway to the bad news.”

“If that is what helps Shen-Shidi say what he wishes to say, then by all means. This Shixiong is not so easily confused.”

“You say that now…” He was pretty sure he heard Shen Qingqiu mutter, but it was too muffled by the fan for him to be sure. And then, louder and with the fan gone for the moment, Shen Qingqiu said clearly, “I know of a way to get Shen Jiu’s soul back.”

Yue Qingyuan, who up until this point had been sure that the person he was speaking to was, in fact, Shen Jiu, could only stare. “…..what.”

#svsss #shen yuan #shen qingqiu #shen jiu #yue qingyuan

[hxnguxng-jxn]

I love shen jiu with all my heart and i agree with the anon below you write him very well! Can i request a Shen jiu x male reader angst? the reader being murdered by his own family that he loved and protected just for wealth and power? God how do u think shen jiu would react to reader being betrayed like that despite his overall kindness and amiable temperament from his own family no less. It can be a scenario or headcanon I don't mind either Thank you❤️

Writer's Note(s): I'm so glad you love Shen Jiu and how I write him! I know I'm not perfect but I try to keep all characters at least 60% canonical! (⁠*⁠˘⁠︶⁠˘⁠*⁠)

I have a few asks that need a lot of thought and time, so any short headcanons, I'll take them! I might need some to spend time on the others because some of the other asks I have are... very specific.

Info on Reader: Reader is intended AMAB, and uses he/him. Reader is described as being like an angel/bleeding heart to Shen Jiu, but Reader is fully human and Shen Jiu is just deeply in love. Reader is described as being a fighter. Reader also gets killed. Reader and Luo Binghe have a good but confused relationship (because of dating Shen Jiu).

Timeline: Could be canonical PIDW or a good-ending for Shen Jiu, I leave it up to you. (Preferably the good ending IMO)

【🔴】 Reader is killed, it was requested. Descriptions of killing demons and Reader being stabbed are shown.

Fujoshis and Fem Aligned Readers DNI || Please enjoy!

There wasn't a day, deep into your shared relationship, that Shen Jiu didn't think this was too good to be true. Waking up on a man's chest and not feeling scared or overwhelmed was a blessing to Shen Jiu, to see your sleepy face grimace as he gets up to teach his students. It's the breaking of sunlight that really has Shen Jiu at pause, your face illuminated by the soft purples and oranges of daybreak.

This was dangerous, he says. This was like a breath of reality was breathed into something old and decrepit. He could feel warmth (or as many butterflies in his chest as he'll allow his heart to stand) spread to his limbs as if the cold wasn't biting late-Autumn.

That still didn't save you from him waking you up with throwing your clothes over your head and stomping around intentionally. And as soon as you get up, he no longer stomps and won't hear anything about being loud this morning. It's not your dear Jiu if he's not a bit cold.

Because of how your family will send letters, you await mid-day independent study hours to actually open your envelope within the private study halls with Shen Jiu.

Of course, demons are a main issue with your area of the woods and you knew it would one day catch up to your family and clans nearby. Shen Jiu scoots over and helps you decipher the message, looking into your expression to gauge what he's also reading.

Your eyes are down cast and your expression pops between those with bitter confusion, sympathy, and anger. You're a very emotionally driven person and he's seen you do stupidly heroic things before. Families like yours, especially the ones who send you monthly letters you hide from Shen Jiu, make Shen Jiu feel a bit confused.

Something about it didn't sit right with him. Shen Jiu wasn't the type to go out of his way to help just... anyone, and this family of yours doesn't inspire him to change that. Not even a bit. You're the only person in your family he could even care about, end of story.

But... because of high demon activity being involved, even if Shen Jiu (as Peak Lord Shen Qingqiu) didn't want to deploy his disciples to this mission, he had to report it. It was far away from where the Sects can get a lot of resources without high risk of losing it: demon raids, beggar clans who've gone rouge, horrible weather, potential of snow and illness, and that's just the obvious ones without magic being taken into account.

But Yue Qingyuan―the soft and pliable Yue Qi is long gone, but Shen Jiu swears someone as soft as him has say inside Qingyuan's mind―was a Sect Leader and could not allow the demons to take place in your home area. Maybe it was Shen Qingqiu's opinion being snuffed out in the meeting with all the Sects, or maybe it was your bleeding heart... Yue Qingyuan had no choice to issue it, even if anyone protested.

The casualties were predictable, up until the final fight.

First, the mountains that will accompany this mission. Qing Jing Peak, Bai Zhan Peak, Yue Qingyuan and specific disciples of him, and any spare elder disciples who the Peaks could spare for your numbers. It may seem like a lot, but truthfully, the demons that were reported by your family had many numbers above you.

Shen Jiu smelt something fishy, but it wasn't from their own end. And he made his thoughts known to you. Sadly, he's soft for you and let's his first wave of concerns go. He had maps to search.

It takes a week to get ready and stockpile your small army to meet the bad guys, and snow starts to fall especially near the flat plains of lands. Snow brings in sickness to younger disciples and if they aren't nursed quickly, they have to be sent back to the mountains. Food is mostly preserved until they get into towns for a break and medicine. The medicine is running thin and Liu Qingge was a close call with sickness before they even get to the battleground...

Oh, how he wished they'd never come when it's finally over.

Everyone who was alive from the demonic waves of battle were getting the wounded out and leading your family to you, where you and Shen Qingqiu were trying to get fresh water. The bodies of the demons were bleeding out, but some were slowly turning to ash as well and you didn't know how long until the rivers are tainted for a while.

You were swiftly trying to clean your bloody boots so they don't hydroplane while Shen Jiu rested on a rock nearby as you also do his too. He was going through the students that were still moving and appointed, with hesitation so great it took nearly an hour, Luo Binghe to instruct Yue Qingyuan about cleaning out the bodies.

Your family, who were surprised to see you, kept you at a distance as your knee-deep in water. You, the happy-go-lucky guy you are, offer a hug to your favorite family member, but they decline you. They are whispering between themselves before they ask about your health.

Not feeling queasy? Lightheaded? Sick? Your stomach doesn't hurt?

Shen Jiu is done after the fifth line of questions and answers in your stead, "Why would he not be? What is it to you about his health, as I see no doctor among you. If you'd cared or had a thought in your head, a doctor would be here and not you."

Of course, Shen Jiu's words aren't taken well but you quickly get them out of there as Shen refuses to apologize. It was unwise to push an apology from him, especially since he had been so fishy about your family to begin with... best let it go.

The second wave, was your undoing.

You were in the formation before him, and he hadn't seen you for sometime after he had taken to beheading demons first and fighting later. Twenty minutes turn to forty, and unease and fatigue settle in as he glides forward after your aura.

By the time he sees you, it's simply just your lifeless eyes staring up at him from a pile of demons you had most likely killed. A family member of yours was trying to pull the knife from your body, but was weaker from the pooling blood of demons all around you.

Shen Jiu didn't know what happened after. The feeling of flying forward was evident, and the weight on his sword was obvious. It was his sword cutting something...

By the time he came back down, he was already falling and gasping into ice from grief and lack of air. His lungs hurt and his body felt so numb. His feet hurt... his hands from palm to knuckle are scarred and cut... he smells metal... Where were you?

Anyone, from Liu Qingge to Yue Qingyuan, who try to touch him are batted away and told to basically fuck off. Let him have a goddamn moment... ! If the demons were all dead, good! Time to send humans in for treason and murder of one of their own!

After some time alone, his emotions are bottled again as he rests in the ice. He knew they shouldn't have come here, you were too soft. He had always loathed those with proper families and you had been a part of that once upon a time, but now that argument of yours about love made him feel things he didn't like. Betrayal for you. It wasn't his place to feel betrayed, he hated them. He feels hate. Justified hate.

While on the ice and watching your family heads being put in cuffs for trial, he finally feels it. Finally, something in him settles enough to be colder than any blizzard or frost has made his skin feel. His heart freezes over once more, but it still pumps blood bleeding for you faster as he panics realizes.

You're gone. Far and beyond, you're gone without him.

#The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System #Scum Villain #SVSSS #Reader Insert #x Reader #Male Reader #Shen Qingqiu #Shen Jiu #The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System x Reader #The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System x Nale Reader #SVSSS x Reader #SVSSS x Male Reader #Shen Qingqiu x Reader #Shen Qingqiu x Male Reader #Shen Jiu x Reader #Shen Jiu x Male Reader #Scum Villain Self-Saving System #Scumbag System #Scumbag System x Reader #Rén Zhā Fǎnpài Zìjiù Xìtǒng #Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong #Scum Villain x Reader #Scum Villain x Male Reader #Male Reader Insert #M Reader #Masc Reader #Original Shen Qingqiu #SVSSS Shen Qingqiu #SVSSS Shen Jiu #Original Shen Qingqiu x Reader

[veilchenjaeger]

First of all, hi! I love you! In a distant, non-creepy way, but yeah! I have no clue who you are but I saw your post about genderswapped SVSSS in the tag and god that's just amazing to think about.

You focused a lot on the Luo Binghe/PIDW aspect of it, which I love, but my thoughts immidiately went more to how characters in SVSSS would be changed.

Like if we take Shang Qinghua, who would be either be genderswapped from the start, or would be a trans woman now that Airplane is in her body. Part of her whole deal with Mobei-Jun is the grovelling, submissive attitude she keeps up in the beginning of their story. How would that read differently? Because it's mostly played for laughs, haha, look at that, that man has no dignity, that is not what men are supposed to be like, etc. But if it's a woman, it's seen more like her fulfilling her natural role, especially in a sexist society. Then it takes on more of a sad tone, of look what women have to do to survive, especially if Mobei-Jun is kept male. Personally I'd prefer him to be a woman in this AU, but then that raises the question, who else would be genderswapped?

How about Yue Qingyuan, Qi-jie? Who would be far more criticized for her preferential treatment of Shen Jiu, look at her, so irrational, her emotions are making her unfit to be a ruler.

Shen Jiu, of course, who visits the brothel. Rumours say that she's a sex addict, haven't you heard? Apparently she pays women to sleep with her, how terrifying. Because WLW are often put down for showing interest in sex, even if that isn't what Shen Jiu really was doing there. Either be chaste or be a predator.

Liu Qingge, who would not ascribe to traditional femininity at all, and would so be killed off in the beginning for breaking those stereotypes and being punished by the narrative for that, rather than her being a threat to the roll of the Protagonist.

Sorry for going off here, this really just tickled something inside my mind ^.^

HI! Never apologise for going off about lesbian SVSSS, my inbox is absolutely the place for that. And thank you so much for your kind words! Lesbian Bingqiu brings people together.

I honestly haven't thought much about characters other than Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe! That has three main reasons: A) I am a Bingqiu and especially Shen Qingqiu stan first and a human second, B) as you pointed out, a lot of these characters' plots could be used to showcase different kinds of sexism, which is technically a plus, but I personally am atm extremely picky when it comes to Stories About Sexism (as opposed to Stories Where Sexism Plays a Role), C) I think that a lot of these characters' plots as well as the general state of sexism in the PIDW universe would depend greatly on the genre this version of PIDW falls into. And I don't know enough about webnovel genre tropes to play around with that!

So, you've thought about that more than me, and you've got some excellent points here! Like, which characters do get genderbent? That works for some better than for others! And it's so intriguing to think about the way they would change accordingly, both in the PIDW universe and on the SVSSS meta level.

Like, Shen Jiu would likely have to be a woman, and yeah, the brothel visits would result in even harsher accusations like that. Not that I think Shen Jiu would care much more than he does in canon! But it would definitely play a major role in her downfall. (My brain immediately goes to Juvenal's take on Empress Messalina here bc I'm a useless historian. Did you hear the Qing Jing Peak Lord sells her body for fun? How disgraceful.)

My heart also wants Qi-jie ;-; I go back and forth on how much would change for Yue Qingyuan, because on the one hand, it would indeed be easier to paint Qi-jie as irrational, but on the other hand, kindness and compassion for her sect siblings might be expected of her and she might end up being seen as a victim of vile, vile Shen Qingqiu. (Especially since no one knows about the Qijiu backstory.) Again, I think it depends a lot on the PIDW genre! There might also be a lot of cultural stuff here re.: expectations and traditional gender norms that I don't know anything about.

Liu Qingge is the most difficult one imo! Bc on the one hand, he might work better as a guy, depending on the genre. Then again, Liu Qingge is gay and in love with Shen Qingqiu and that's important. The only thing I know about Liu Qingge is that they're trans because Liu Qingge is always trans.

Airplane tho! AIRPLANE. I have thought a lot about Airplane.

In a world of Luo Binghes and Shen Qingqius and Qi Qingqis and Sha Hualings, mousy grovelling Shang Qinghua would still keep a bit of that original ridiculousness, but she might also shamelessly use gender stereotypes to grovel even harder and even more effectively. Shen Qingqiu thinks it's setting back feminism hundreds of years. Shang Qinghua argues that 1) she never actually worldbuilt a feminist movement into PIDW so there's nothing to set back, and 2) if it works, it works.

I'm also intrigued by Airplane in the modern world, especially if we go for the "PIDW is targeted at straight men" route. Peerless Cucumber and Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky each give themselves obnoxious dick joke names to avoid unfortunate comments in a dudebro-dominated online space, completely unaware that the other did the same thing. Upon meeting post-transmigration, Shen Qingqiu is absolutely appalled that a woman would write that about Luo Binghe's tits multiple times with the exact same wording. (Don't think no one noticed your re-used phrases, Airplane!) Shang Qinghua shrugs and goes, "Bingjie's tits sell." Shen Qingqiu has an aneurysm.

Moshang would definitely only work for me if Mobei-jun were also a woman, for the exact reasons you listed. It's just... icky otherwise. (Also, making existing queer couples straight seldom sits right with me on a personal level.) What I love to think about is Mobei-jun as the stoic buff butchy queen of Airplane's fantasies that Luo Binghe couldn't be because that's not the kind of character who sells as a protagonist. Luo Binghe is too pretty and feminine for Shang Qinghua's taste; local femme4femme-in-denial Shen Qingqiu can have her. Shang Qinghua both wishes she had been a cool tomboy as a kid and wants to be thrown over a six feet tall butch's shoulder.

I'm getting carried away. The bottom line is: YEAH, there's a whole cast to fit into Bingjie's universe and so much to think about!

#genderbend cw #svsss #/trans shang qinghua would be so funny bc shen qingqiu would meet her and go 'huh??? why is shang qinghua a woman' #/idk where that would go or if it would change the dynamic too much due to an earlier airplane reveal or whatever but it compels me #/generally just. cucumberplane in this au. #/'haha guess you left your peerless cucumber in the real world huh? :)))' #/'...i'm a woman. no physical changes.' #/'.......WAIT peerless cucumber is a gi-- huh. yeah no that checks out actually' #/slightly obsessed with these absolute garbage women #[epistulae ad atticum]

[bao3bei4]

fellas is it gay (lesbian) to have mommy issues?

or, this post explained.

somewhat flippantly, i think mommy issues are more interesting than daddy issues because almost everyone has the latter in a boring way because men are terrible and we all know this, even if we don’t admit it. for mothers, however, we have an expectation of care that’s too often abrogated (to vastly varying degrees).

binghe to me has very typically gay mommy issues. but tshirt, you might say. his mother was very nice until she died. that’s true but that starts the abandonment. and she gets replaced by the worst mommy of all, original shen qingqiu. 

in a brief detour, i want to draw your attention to the section of unhappy queers by ahmed that destroyed my brain. she quotes lost and delirious, the bit where mouse is writing a letter to her mother:

"But the truth of it is I am addicted to you like chocolate. I always want to be around you. I'm some like stupid little puppy and you keep like kicking my teeth in with your words and your tone. Sometimes, I wish you were dead.”

that jettisoned my brain out of my skull, i think.

i think that that ambivalent stance towards the mother between attachment and degradation and identification and animosity is incredible. in that heady cocktail of emotions, the mother becomes both a generative & a destructive force. the generative is more obvious, but the mother figure encapsulating a death wish in both the annihilation of self and the literal self-harm sense is rich territory. she’s a scab we return to, as if by picking it we make her permeable again.

original shen qingqiu himself also has an evil mommy (yue qingyuan). actually, shen jiu, yue qingyuan, shen yuan, and luo binghe all form this awful mother quadrilateral. each of them is a failed mother or has a failed mother. and shen jiu is both and he haunts the narrative even as (in the main story) he never actually appears on screen.

he’s who shen yuan thinks he should be; and he’s who luo binghe thinks he should be. he’s also who they think the other ought to be. he’s very vers that way. so the mommy lens is play on the ways he’s made them both in his own image, and how he himself was made monstrous, and how bingqiu fit themselves around that.

back to the ambivalence of the mother figure. i wanna be clear here i’m using mommy super loosely. i think i should have clarified that sooner. i use it in the sufjan-ian sense, referring to the 2015 mommy issue ur-text “all of me wants all of you,” in which he elides SO neatly between

all of me wants all of you

and

all of me thinks less of you

and

all of me pressed on to you

each of which is ambiguously addressed to a mother or lover or savior -- some nurturer or icon to which hope has been abandoned.

we expect that mothers want the best for us. we hope that what she makes us into, she does for us. when we are not happy, we turns towards her to redress that. and as we move into mommy issues territory, we project our intense unreciprocated attachment and our deeply felt hurts, and our inability to reconcile the two in one figure. which. you know. shen qingqiu.

anyway here’s some of the particular scum villain tidbits i’ve been reflecting on. 

[watchmojo voice] epic mommy moment number 1: the endless abyss. 

there’s this bit, julia kristeva argues, from 4-8 months where babies began to realize that the mother is separate from them. in that separation between mother and child, the distinction between subjects and objects is formed. in doing so, we leave that prelingual state behind along with something else: the abject, which cannot be named or reconciled. kristeva repeatedly identifies the abject with the maternal. she describes it like this:

It is a violent, clumsy breaking away, with the constant risk of falling back under the sway of a power as securing as it is stifling.

so true queen. 

we see binghe’s understanding of shen yuan’s motivation take a sharp turn here. 

Unbeknown to him, Luo Binghe automatically took his silence as, “Very good. You wicked disciple, you actually hid this from me for so long!” (ch 27) 

so we see silences (absence of language) identified with the horror of separation from the mother. so true queen (mxtx this time). 

epic mommy moment number 2: when yue qingyuan didn’t just tell shen jiu about his sword----

actually this post is getting out of control. i’ll stop talking here for now. i will begin again when i’m ready 2 publish the horror canon rework wip on these themes.

#x

[vodkassassin]

I hate that bitch ass yqy. Since ur sv prompts exist in an au of svsss, au yqy so that I might not want to kill his trick ass.

Akfjjd ur wish is my command. I’ll give u that SI YQY that u helped me brainstorm earlier, @dancibayo

—

Wake up, rush to work, take a fifteen minute break to eat the stale salad leftover from dinner two nights ago, back to work, and then head home to collapse, exhausted, into the sheets of his bed that he really should throw into the wash but never has the time to do so.

That’s that daily life of a run-of-the mill office worker, a low-income employee of a corporate empire, just another coil in a well oiled machine that never rests, never sleeps, never pauses in its fast-paced industrial production rates.

Life had been hopeful still, he faintly recalls, when he’d been twenty and freshly graduated with his business degree, looking at all the options open to someone like him. A promising student, his professors had said. A dutiful son, destined for a grand career, his parents had boasted. He’d never really put much stock into such praises, even then, and he’s glad he hadn’t —because otherwise, the reality of life would have been absolutely crushing.

Well into his early thirties now, and he can’t even remember the last time he even went out for drinks with coworkers — not friends. None of them have time for something like deeper, interpersonal relationships anymore.

It’s amazing, really, how much different his outlook is even ten years down the road.

It’s honestly just another day. There’s nothing special. Maybe he feels more tired? He can’t tell, really. He doesn’t think he’d have been able to, even in hindsight. It’s all the same.

He shuffles a loose stack of paperwork into a blank, cream-colored manilla folder and slides it into its plastic organizer. His head feels light. A glance at the clock tells him he’d accidentally worked through his meager lunch break, again. He really should stop doing that. His coworker in accounting tells him it doesn’t bode well for his overall work ethic. One of these days, it’s going to show consequences on his productivity, and he’ll get a visit from management. It happened to that one unlucky fellow from marketing.

He folds over his desk, pillowing his arms beneath his head. He’s so tired. It doesn’t matter that he missed his break, he thinks. He’d forgotten to pack anything for lunch anyway. He could have gone down the street to the deli, but really… his stomach swirls nauseous just thinking about it. Maybe it’s for the best he hadn’t eaten.

He closes his eyes. Slip in a quick five minute nap, he thinks. He’s managed it before, without getting caught. He can do it again!

He’s just so tired.

Just for a minute.

—

He wakes up numb. At first.

Something isn’t right, but he can’t really pinpoint what it might be. His entire body aches, but that’s normal for him. He can’t feel his fingertips, but that’s happened before. It’s not really anything to worry about.

He takes in a breath, and jolts as pain, tremendous pain, sears through him like hot, liquid magma, and he screams.

Hands are holding him down. Why? What’s happening? He was just taking a nap.

“It shows no signs of stopping,” someone says, voice tense. “Sect Leader, the only method that might possibly work, at this point, is to put him in the caves.”

Sect… leader?

What?

There’s a deep sigh, one that he can barely hear over the helpless, tortured keens that are pressing, relentlessly, out of his own throat. He writhes beneath the hands that hold him down, but they don’t budge.

He’d just wanted to rest!

“My dearest disciple…. If only you were not so quick to take risks. I’d thought we’d trained such impatience out of you?”

Something, beyond the pain he feels, curls nastily in his gut. It feels like shame. Is it responding to the disappointment he can hear in this stranger's voice? But why?

He doesn’t even know who these people are.

“Sect leader, there’s really no time.”

Another sigh. “Yes, I see. Very well. If it takes the caves to straighten this out, then so be it.”

His face feels damp. With the way that every single one of his nerve endings feels like it’s spasming and curling in response to whatever the hell is wracking his systems, he isn’t surprised that he’s sobbing. Even to himself, he sounds hysterical.

The hands that restrain him lift him up off the hard surface that has been cutting into his back. He feels his limbs jerk, as if on some sort of autopilot, instincts that he can’t ever recall having, and someone yelps.

“I told you to restrain him!”

“He’s too strong, shizun—!”

He feels like he’s underwater. Everything sounds submerged. His hearing muffled out, and he doesn’t know anything after that.

—

Sometimes he wakes up.

Most of the time, he’s asleep for it, and he’s just aware enough to know to be thankful for that.

But sometimes he wakes up, and…

—

“Dashixiong,” someone is outside to greet him when he exits. They bow at the waist , hands folded before them, and he watches them without words. “What a relief it is, to see you well.”

He isn’t well. He doesn’t think he ever will be.

But, he can pretend. For these people, who he has seen glimpses of in lightning quick flashes of memories that aren’t his, who he knows just peripherally enough to pass muster. For them, he can pretend.

He isn’t sure if he can do much more than that, though.

“Shizun has been waiting patiently for you,” they say, and turn to lead him down the path to where the rest of the peak sits. Looming over him, despite being technically lower in elevation. “He wished to speak with you as soon as you resurfaced.”

“I’m sure,” he mumbles under his breath.

His hand tightens, where it’s clenched around the hilt of the sword that rests, swathed, at his side. The fingers curls, knuckles white, where they’ve gripped the weapon for… how long was he down there for?

He isn’t sure he can let go of it, anymore. Will he be forced to always have one hand on his weapon?

He follows the disciple down the mountain.

—

Once, a long time ago, when he’d allowed himself to think about it, he’d thought that death might be a final rest. Sometimes, on the nights where he’d been forced to work overtime with no compensation pay, he’d even found himself cautiously looking forward to it.

Death isn’t a rest. If anything, it’s worse.

Being the head disciple of the ruling peak of a mountain sect of cultivators — it was something that he’d before only encountered in a few of the web novels that he sometimes perused, back when he was younger, back when he’d still had a moment of free time to himself, when he was still allowed to have hobbies.

He doesn’t recognize the setting around him, outside of the brief snatches of pre-recorded memories that he assumes came from whoever had occupied this body before him. Obviously, if this world was fashioned after a specific story from his old world, he had never read it.

He’s still not sure if that’s a blessing or not.

It’s hard work, in any case. His career from before, business and managing and organizing — it helps, somewhat, in the running of this peak that will one day rest solely upon his shoulders once his teacher finally ascends alongside his martial siblings.

What it doesn’t help with, is the training. Harsh, grueling, repetitive and taxing. And he’s handicapped, too, unable to use his own sword like all his fellow disciples and teachers do. It’s hard, he isn’t used to it, but his body remembers it, and he slowly begins to relearn what he was already suppose to know.

He doesn’t fancy dying a second time.

Death isn’t the rest that he’d once thought it would be.

—

There’s someone that makes those faint leftovers of his predecessor curl uneasily upon themselves whenever he sees them.

It starts immediately upon their first encounter, this skinny, emaciated and threadbare boy standing over the body of the man that he has just killed. The splatter of blood from the blow, sitting across his face and glistening in the soft moonlight that peaks through the trees, hasn’t even dried yet. This, coupled with the scowl of sheer hatred that adorns his young face… he looks threatening, despite his small stature. Dangerous, despite his trembling grip on the blade.

And yet, his — Yue Qi’s — heart stutters, crying so loudly for this boy that he can barely hear beyond the blood that rushes past his ears.

“Finally decided to show up?” The boy sneers, tossing the slightly rusted blade to the ground. It lands with a clatter that echoes in the silence of the woods that surround them. “... You’re too late. Much, much too late.”

Yue Qi stares at him, something sour climbing up his throat, and he doesn’t even know why.

“Why even bother coming at all?”

This is his first meeting with Shen Jiu.

As time goes on, and years pass by, this slip of a boy never ceases to confuse him and make his heart hurt wretchedly, in equal measure.

—

He is never really able to muster the courage to ask why.

__

Yue Qi becomes Yue Qingyuan, and Shen Jiu becomes Shen Qingqiu — something that makes the sneer on the boy’s face falter, eyes shining in mysterious fury before his face smooths out into that cold, impassive mask once more — and, really, nothing changes.

He’s still confused. He’s never not. But, he’s trying his best to do good by his martial family. He isn’t sure there’s anything else he can do.

His fellow head disciples — now peak lords — are fine people. He’s grown fond of them, over the years that he’s been forced to get to know them by his own teacher (he’s never called the man his shizun. Despite the leftovers that swirl inside of him, it’s not really his place). He cares for them, as much as he can bring himself to, but he can tell that even they must sense the slight distance between them that he just isn’t capable of breaching.

Even now, he’s still tired.

Shen Jiu, Qingqiu, is counted among them, despite his avarice and clear detest. That’s another he can’t help, the fondness (and odd, distant grief) that curls inside him whenever he looks at the boy, now man.

His predecessor had once loved him, he’s fairly certain, now that he’s had the chance to fully examine the feelings those shreds of soul can communicate to him. Whatever Shen Jiu had been to Yue Qi, he’d loved him, so fiercely and perhaps borderline obsessively that it’s stronger than any other leftover of his predecessor he’s ever felt. Stronger than the duty to his sect.

For that alone, he — Yue Qingyuan — will watch over Shen Qingqiu as much as the man, cold and hateful and hurt and abandoned as he is, will allow him.

It’s no surprise, really, that he eventually grows fond of him, too.

But love? No. He doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to bring himself to love his martial brother to the same degree of… fervor, that Yue Qi once had.

—

And then, Shen Jiu is hit by a familiar fever that Yue Qingyuan can remember feeling down his very bones, once upon a time — when he wakes, he isn’t the same Shen Jiu that he’s slowly, over the years, gotten to know. Slowly, over the years, grown to care for.

Knowing what he does, it’s very clear to him that this isn’t Shen Jiu at all. It’s someone else. Someone who Yue Qingyuan doesn’t know. Someone that Yue Qingyuan can’t even begrudge, because he knows it isn’t even their fault. Because he knows that, whoever they are, they haven't chosen this for themself.

It doesn’t stop him, in those first few weeks, from feeling irrational. He isn’t sure what he’s doing. He’s mourning, surely. Shen Jiu is dead, that much he knows. The fact that no one seems to even mind is —

It’s breathtakingly upsetting.

He hadn’t known… that he’d grown to care this much for the man that he’d never even gathered the courage to ask. Why.

He’ll never know, now.

—

The new Shen Qingqiu is.

He’s fine. He’s kind hearted, despite how hard he pretends not to be, ostentatiously trying to act as close to what he thinks Shen Jiu had been as he can. Beneath that, he is scared, and Yue Qingyuan can see it bright as day. Beyond his fear, he is kind, he is sweet, he is amusingly sarcastic without any of the vitriol. He is leagues lighter than Shen Jiu ever had the capabilities of being.

Yue Qingyuan can see why their martial siblings like him better.

It doesn’t make it hurt any less. But, he figures, that if he gives himself enough time, he can grow to care for this Shen Qingqiu in the same way that he’d grown to care for his predecessor.

—

Time. It’ll just take some time.

#svsss prompts #yue qingyuan #SI yqy #transmigrator YQY #Shen jiu #Shen yuan #vodka answers #vodkassassin fanfiction #dancibayo

[touchmycoat]

LOL when you said Hero my brain said noooooooooooooo cuz they all died dammit but then you said jmbnh and I perked up considerably :P. That sounds really really cool!!!

YEAH YOU GOT IT LMFAO. i'm gonna try to actually execute this (I hope), so i'm gonna slap the rough first outline under a cut for those who don't want spoilers ;) ;) but you already know where i'm going with this lolololol

Act I: Did you know the Xiu Ya Sword and the Broken Sword were lovers?

The Warrior is brought before the Emperor. Upon presenting the broken Cheng Luan sword, he is allowed to approach within 20 paces. "Did you kill him?" "No. Your Venerable Majesty's decree may have been dead or alive, but all warriors on the jianghu know it's the Emperor's wish to kill the Cheng Luan Sword personally." "Very good. Bring him before me." "Your Venerable Majesty, the Cheng Luan Sword Liu Qingge has escaped his bounds and is on the run." "No matter, Your Majesty, he will come here." "Oh? Why is that?" "Because the only two men to have bested him are here, and his sword lies broken between us."

The Emperor laughs, joyous.

"Very good! But Cheng Luan is not all you brought."

Xiu Ya and the broken Xuan Su swords. The Warrior is allowed to approach within 10 paces.

"How did you do it?"

"Did Your Venerable Majesty know the Xiu Ya Sword and the Broken Sword are lovers?"

-Red-

We get the heavily saturated story of the Warrior going to the Qiong Ding School of Calligraphy. He begs a character: 心, heart. He does so to figure out the Broken Sword's strength, because swordsmanship is embodied in calligraphy. He also fights side-by-side with Xiu Ya Sword, fending off the Emperor's attempt to be rid of the assassins. He gains enough cred from Shen Qingqiu to beg an audience with both Shen Qingqiu and Yue Qingyuan.

There the Warrior tells them that Liu Qingge is dead, and that LQG had been confident that YQY, with whom he'd had a one night stand, will avenge him. It's the Warrior's honor to come challenge YQY now. In a fit of jealous rage, SQQ stabs and kills YQY, then goes to battle the Warrior himself. Distraught by emotions, SQQ falls, and the Warrior walks away the victor.

Back in the Palace, the Emperor listens. He says he did know, yes, that the Xiu Ya Sword and the Broken Sword are lovers, but doesn't the Warrior think he's underestimated somebody in this equation? "Whom?" "Me. I've met Yue Qingyuan once, three years ago when he and Shen Qingqiu tried to assassinate me. Even then I could see his complete devotion to SQQ. He would never sleep with anybody else, not if SQQ is still at his side. So everything you said is a lie, except for one thing." "What?" "I think the Cheng Luan sword did know one of you, but I think the one he knew was you."

Act II: I think the Cheng Luan Sword trusted you.

"I think you, Liu Qingge, Shen Qingqiu, and Yue Qingyuan all colluded in order to get you within ten steps of me."

-Blue-

Despite imperial witnesses, Liu Qingge successfully faked his own defeat at the Warrior's blade. The Warrior carried and bound LQG himself. Then the Warrior brings his proposal to SQQ and YQY—he has a killing move as long as he gets within ten steps of the Emperor, so he only needs one of their blood on his hands. SQQ wounds YQY to keep YQY at home and makes himself the sacrifice. YQY does not make it in time to save SQQ but gives the broken Xuan Su to the Warrior anyways, because Xiu Ya and Xuan Su, just like their masters, should always stay together.

"You also gave LQG a way out. All of this is to get within ten steps of me. And now you're here. Tell me, am I wrong?"

"...Only about one thing. Your Majesty has also underestimated somebody."

"Who?"

"The Broken Sword."

Act III: The Broken Sword says you must not be killed.

-White-

Nobody was ever in actual danger. The Warrior did not kill LQG. He also will not kill SQQ or YQY. They only need to fake it for the imperial witnesses.

Only, the Broken Sword says the Emperor must not be killed. Xiu Ya Sword is furious—"You know what he's done to me and my country, yet you let him go three years ago and you'd let him go now. Why?!" But YQY will not say. SQQ vows to help the Warrior and stabs YQY to keep him out of their way.

But as the Warrior heads to the Capital, YQY also gives him Xuan Su. "Do you know why my blade is broken?" "No." "Neither do I. I've never wondered, either, but three years ago, when my blade nicked the Emperor's neck, Xuan Su suddenly sent me a warning."

"A warning about what?"

"A warning that I'll find out. I'll find out what broke my blade if I kill the Emperor, and that's something I want to remain ignorant of no matter the cost. Can you understand that feeling?"

"...Yes, I can."

"Who would have thought, of all the people in the world, it's the Broken Sword who understands me best? You understand it too? Tell me the feeling," the Emperor demands. "What is the thing you don't know, but the thought of knowing it terrifies you?"

"I know I must kill the Emperor," the Warrior states. "I know that he is a tyrant, and he runs a bloody world. I know I must kill him to save us all. What I don't know is why my heart breaks at the thought."

"You know you sound just like a man I used to know," the Emperor sneers. "He too criticized my methods. He too despised me. He too hurt at the thought of hurting me. Do you know why Liu Qingge must die by my hands?"

LQG steps out of the shadows, wounded but ready to kill.

"Because the Cheng Luan Sword took that man from me," the Emperor snarls, pulling his blade.

LQG approaches.

"Pass me Cheng Luan," he tells the Warrior. The Warrior grabs Cheng Luan, but hesitates in the throw. "Shen—!"

The Emperor runs him through. LQG falls dead at their feet. There are less than ten steps between them and the Emperor can kill the Warrior in just as easy a stroke. The Emperor does not.

"Who," the Warrior asks slowly, eyes on the fallen LQG, "is the man you used to know?"

"I don't know."

"I think I do. I think by coming here, I've learned the reason for my heartache."

"I think I have too. I wish you hadn't come. Will you still kill me, Shizun?"

"I don't know."

"Yes you do. This is something you've always known."

"...Yes, Your Majesty, I will."

The Emperor takes a deep, shaky breath.

"You didn't let Liu Qingge kill me."

"That's because he couldn't have," the Warrior says sadly. "Only I know how to kill you."

"Well I won't let you!" the Emperor snarls, furious. "I'll cut off your arms so you can never wield a sword again and your legs so you can never run again! You've left me once, I won't let you do it again!"

"Binghe."

The Emperor's eyes go wide, then red. He turns on his heel and takes less than ten steps away. His sword is still in the Warrior's hand.

"This character," he says of the scroll hung behind his seat, the one on which YQY has written heart, "holds the secret to his sword. Is that what you said, Shizun?"

"Yes."

"So many people want to kill me, Shizun. I know why. This too is something I've always known," Luo Binghe says quietly. "What's curious is why there is a man who doesn't want me dead, when my own Shizun will suffer heartbreak itself to kill me. Have you figured it out?"

"Not quite."

"May this disciple examine it?"

"...Of course."

He examines the character for a very long time.

"I see it now!" the Emperor exclaims. "As the Broken Sword understands me, I understand him. In my tyranny, I am strong. I am the only person strong enough to keep this country together. As long as I am alive, his world will keep going. His sword, his brush, his heart—it's all one in the same. It's all right here. Destroy one, you destroy the others."

"When you die, he will die too."

"No, Shizun." Luo Binghe's voice is so, so sad. "When I die, his heart will die too. It's the same for this disciple too. Killing me may bring Shizun heartbreak, but it will destroy my heart completely. Shizun, please. Please don't kill me."

"Turn around, Binghe."

When Luo Binghe turns, Shen Yuan has set LQG's corpse on its back and placed Cheng Luan in LQG's hands. His smile for LBH is sad.

"If you hadn't killed Liu Qingge, I really might have spared you," Shen Yuan says, wielding LBH's sword. "But now that he's gone...Binghe, this Master is sorry to have failed you. But I promise, it'll all be fine. The pain will go away quickly."

"Shizun..."

The sword is at LBH's chest. He thinks that even though it's his sword, he doesn't recognize it at all.

Shen Yuan wipes a tear from LBH's face.

"Binghe," he says, lifting the blade, "silly child. I wouldn't have stabbed you from the back."

He sinks the blade into Luo Binghe's heart. Everything shatters.

//

"Senior Disciple Shen!"

"It's self-destruct!"

"He's killed him! Luo Binghe's killed Senior Disciple Shen!"

Shen Qingqiu's head snaps up to where, in the sky, Shen Yuan's limp body had started to fall. He moves on instinct to go catch Shen Yuan, but he coughs up a violent fit of blood instead, falling back into Yue Qingyuan's arms.

"Xiao Jiu!" There's blood on Yue Qingyuan's lips as well and his face is ashen, but he's clearly been awake for longer than SQQ. "Don't—"

"Save him!" SQQ tries to yell. All of a sudden, a shadow speeds over their heads, catching Shen Yuan's limp body before it could hit the ground.

It's Liu Qingge. He's both furious and panicked. He has the dying Shen Yuan in one arm while in his other arm, he held another body.

"Up," Shen Yuan whispers, fading quickly, "Binghe. Quick, he's waking."

"Take care of yourself first!" Liu Qingge snaps. "I brought the body like you said—"

"Shixiong, please. I promised not to hurt him."

Teeth gritted, LQG launches them all the way up to the center of a miasmic black, where LBH hovers, surrounded by demonic energy. There's an immense blanket of demonic energy lifting from the earth, and people are screaming and running about.

"What's going on?! Where did all this demonic energy come from?!"

"Is he cursing us?!"

"No, no it's going away! Look! Senior Disciple Shen must have done something!"

"Has he saved us?"

LBH's eyes snap open and the first thing he does is attack. LQG just barely blocks the blow with both his arms occupied. There are tears on LBH's face and he's putting out an insane amount of demonic energy. He's screaming as he launches himself at Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan grabs LBH back with the last of his strength, gives LBH a firm but loving shake.

"Binghe!" he demands. "Watch."

LBH freezes and does as he's told. He watches as the last bit of life drains from Shen Yuan's body. He watches as LQG releases Shen Yuan's corpse into his arms. He watches as something goes white at his side, and it's LQG activating an array on the other body.

LBH watches as the pieces of SY's soul find a home again in the second body, which suddenly pulses bright with spiritual power. The body opens its eyes and takes a huge, gasping breath.

"Shen Yuan?" LQG demands to know.

"Shizun...?"

The person in the body lets out a little sigh of relief. He grabs LQG with one hand and LBH with the other.

"See, Binghe?" he chuckles weakly. "I told you it'll all be fine."

He faints.

//

The full story comes at the end. Shen Jiu still gets taken in and abused by Qiu Jianluo, Yue Qi still binds his life to his sword at Cang Qiong. Only, SJ's first strike against QJL mostly misses, and as QJL approaches SJ in fury, another little houseboy—the one who dusts and sweeps and mops but none of the hard work because he was born with a sickly body—holds out his broom and trips QJL. He means for SJ to get away, but SJ kills QJL instead. SJ still sets the house on fire, but he has no idea if the other houseboy got away.

After reuniting with YQY and entering Cang Qiong as a disciple, SJ is working in the field one day when he stumbles on a Master Shang's Medical Emporium. There's an incredible amount of rare flora and fauna in there, all great for cultivators. Intrigued, SQQ investigates and finds the source of all these goods to be a young man named SY—whom he recognizes. He swears SY to secrecy about his past and takes SY to Qing Jing, first to prevent SY from exposing him, but then they grow close. SY is very clever and knows how to make himself useful to SQQ. His level-headedness earns him a spot by seventeen at SQQ's side as senior disciple.

Flash forward to LBH's arrival on Qing Jing. SQQ is still cold and spiteful and petty, but with SY there, LBH is cared for. SY's older than LBH by what, five years? Takes baby!bing under his wing and mitigates the sour relationship between LBH and SQQ. As a joke (but not really), LBH calls SY "Shizun" in private, and SY gets a real kick out of it.

The thing is, SY is still totally a transmigrator. But just like Shang Qinghua, he transmigrated into a baby's body and basically had a whole other life in this world. Seventeen, eighteen years is a very long time to remember a novel you read a lifetime ago. While SQH's life changed, SQH's only a minor character—plus that's the author! Maybe he gets special privileges, while nobody else is allowed to influence the plot in a major way. Scared of potential repercussions, SY trains LBH and gives LBH as many resources on Qing Jing as he can, but does not tell LBH about the upcoming Abyss.

So SQQ still ends up kicking LBH into the Abyss. SY is filled with incredible regret. The relationship between him and SQQ go kind of awry too, but it's still mostly okay because SY knows LBH is not actually dead.

Just to level the playing field though, SY also doesn't tell SQQ that LBH is going to come back for revenge.

All this while, SY and LQG get to meet and become really good friends. Out of friendship comes love—they both crush on each other in a way that's super obvious to everybody else. SY isn't actually a very strong cultivator, but he is a voracious scholar (cough nerd cough) and hunts/forages a lot of wild stuff. LQG accompanies him every time.

Thanks to SY's training, LBH comes back from the Abyss a lot earlier than SY and SQH expected. LBH seeks out SY, but bad timing has him overhearing SY talk about how LBH dying at the Abyss was for the best—LBH assumes it's bc of his demon bloodline, but SY is really just placating other characters. On top of that, LBH finds SY and LQG all couply and lovey-dovey. LBH runs off.

Because why??? Why does everyone he cares about leave him, why does the entire world want him dead??? Even Shen-shixiong, somebody who cared for him, betrays him in the end. SQQ also gets word of LBH's return at around the same time and comes to hunt him down. In classic SQQ fashion, he only makes shit worse for Binghe, and LBH starts using Xin Mo like crazy.

When they get the word, YQY, SY, and LQG go running. SY learns about LBH being taken over by Xin Mo and asks LQG for a favor—go to my hidden lil mushroom grove and grab my spare body for me please? See, SY's physical ailments had him researching ways to clone himself and put himself in a better body. It's untested, but probably successful!! SY sends LQG to go get the body while himself and YQY and SQQ confront LBH.

During the battle, SQQ gets himself seriously wounded to protect Qi-ge. In a fit of fury, YQY unsheathes half of Xuan Su. LBH goes crazier as a response, and SY throws himself on the sword to save LBH from being eaten up by Xin Mo's power.

Believing he's killed the love of his life, LBH blue-screens. Unconsciously, he activates one of the most powerful skills the Dream Demon's taught him—Waking Dream. He plunges the entire mountain into a dream world of his own making. The world freezes, and everybody gets trapped inside LBH's world. They have no memory of this being a dream, but the few of the most powerful cultivators—LQG, SQQ, and YQY—plus the heart of the dream, SY, all manage to retain one critical piece of information.

As long as the owner of the dream dies, they can all be freed.

So in the dream, LBH becomes the Emperor, wielding all his forces to retain his power over his dream country. LQG, SQQ, YQY, and SY become assassins, all scheming to kill him.

YQY came the closest. He only has half of Xuan Su because Xuan Su is fundamentally bound to his life—half of the sword stayed outside in the real world with his body. Inside the dream, YQY and SQQ got to be lovers for years, and SQQ did not hate him. Upon sensing the boundaries of the dream, YQY could not bring himself to kill LBH and shatter the beautiful mirage.

If you die inside the dream, you die in real life—with one exception. If it's the owner of the dream who kills you, you get to go free.

That's what happened with LQG. LQG was still en route with the body, and SY didn't know if he'd make it. So SY was honest in the dream—had LQG remained in the dream with them, SY might really have allowed his baby bing to keep the dream going. He didn't want to hurt LBH with his own death. However, with LQG out of the dream, he knows LQG will probably make it on time with the body to save him. So he kills LBH and gets them all out.

The last scene is qijiu. SQQ is bed-bound. Nobody else has retained memories of the dream, only faint impressions. Only he and YQY know what happened.

SQQ demands to know why YQY refused to kill LBH. YQY explains, and the truth about Xuan Su also comes out. Happy ending happy ending.

SY of course survives. He gets a cool new body and apologizes sincerely for letting LBH get pushed into the Abyss. The plot has obviously changed in a major way already, and whatever happens from now on will just happen, it's fine. And LBH and LQG, his two favorite people in the world, will just have to get along. They'll all be best buds together hahahahahaha.

#hero AU #svsss #jesus christ this got long lkjfnlaksdjf #sv #but i think it works pretty darn well!!!!! #anon

[delicioussshame]

Here is the Luo Binghe route for the prostitution AU.

I don’t know how obvious that was, but Shen Jiu stumbling on Yue Qingyuan and Shen Yuan was an accident. Let’s say he was visiting his own favourite brothel. The thing is, that’s not what he told his disciples, and Luo Binghe and a few others came to the city with him. Luo Binghe might have been curious about his Shizun’s whereabouts, so he was following him from afar, and while he didn’t get the details, he got enough to guess that the man both Shizun and Yue Qingyuan followed into that brothel had to be a prostitute.

For everyone’s peace of mind, let’s agree Binghe is at least in his late teens. Also for the sake of my peace of mind, Shen Jiu is a bit nicer in this, because I’m not getting him killed after I got him laid. So Luo Binghe is supposed to be a stallion protagonist, so hormones are raging, and even if Shen Jiu isn’t Shen Yuan I guess Luo Binghe would still think he’s Fine. So when he sees a Shizun lookalike good enough for Yue Qingyuan, one that he could just… pay and get over with his attraction to Shizun, he’s very, very tempted. So he puts some money aside, gathers his courage and visits Shen Yuan’s brothel.

The moment he sets foot in the place everything that can fuck is after him, because hello, Luo Binghe here. But Binghe knows what he wants and asks for Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan doesn’t get why a man as overwhelmingly attractive as Luo Binghe has to pay a prostitute to have sex when he could ask out any married woman and no one would blame them for cheating, but Luo Binghe knows what he wants, and any attempt at sending him off toward someone more age-appropriate, because Shen Yuan feels like a cradle robber (despite not being that old) are firmly rejected, so he figures he might as well enjoy it. Cue giving Luo Binghe the time of his life. That doesn’t stop him from being Shen Yuan, so weak to Binghe and giving him advice and worrying about everything being fine. Luo Binghe is kind of charmed and has had a very good night, and figures he’ll come again when he can. Which he does. Often.

Shen Yuan gets a bit worried that Luo Binghe is wasting his money and not eating right and not serious enough about his cultivation since he’s so young and pure. Anyone could take advantage of him! He sees Binghe as his cute horny puppy.

Obviously Luo Binghe falls for Shen Yuan, because duh, he’s Luo Binghe.

And that continues until Luo Binghe falls into the Abyss.

Shen Yuan gets worried enough after not having seen Binghe around that he gets around to writing a Very Formal Letter to Yue Qingyuan, whom he hasn’t seen since the man had very gently let him known he wouldn’t return to his brothel because Xiao Jiu disapproved (while looking overjoyed), asking about the wellbeing of one of his disciples. He gets a Very Formal Letter back telling him that Binghe died.

Shen Yuan mourns for real. He also gets very, very sick of being a prostitute, but hey, he has a contract so he’s stuck there.

The first thing Binghe does when he returns to the human realm is show up at the brothel with an obscene amount of gold, looking to buy off Shen Yuan’s contract. The Madam tries to argue. Luo Binghe puts even more gold on the front desk and tells him he’ll pay as much as necessary, but he’s not leaving without Shen Yuan. This point is accompanied by demonic qi so strong everyone in the brothel can feel it and Xin Mo oozing malevolence, so the Madam shuts the fuck up, takes the gold and has someone fetch Shen Yuan. Who is very into slightly older and much richer/stronger Binghe spiriting him away, thanks. He has no issues at all with Luo Binghe setting him up in his palace and keeping him buried under luxury and love, none at all.

At some point in the future, Luo Binghe has to visit the sect for some reason or another and decides to bring Shen Yuan just because. Yue Qingyuan chokes when he sees who Luo Binghe’s spouse is. Shen Jiu isn’t a fan either.

Shen Yuan might possibly still be a little bitter about how the whole thing turned out, so he waits for the right moment and calls Yue Qingyuan Qi-ge right in front of Shen Jiu. Who breaks his fan in rage while Yue Qingyuan sweats all the water off his body, because Shen Jiu knew Shen Yuan looked like him, but he didn’t know how much Yue Qingyuan shared about him or that he basically had him roleplay him.

Shen Yuan is having the time of his life creating chaos.

Shen Jiu is pissed as hell and turns his hostility toward Shen Yuan for half a second before Binghe, who has no idea what happened, radiates demonic qi strongly enough that disciples run away in fright, and tell Shen Jiu that even if he is his Shizun, if he touches one hair of Shen Yuan’s head he’s dead. And he means it. Shen Jiu sneers but he retreats because he knows he has no chance of beating him, and Yue Qingyuan is way too mortified to do anything.

Shen Yuan is very happy because out of all of them, he’s the one who got the better deal.

The End.

And now, a fic about Luo Binghe’s return.

“Shen Yuan! Shen Yuan! Go downstairs now! The madam needs you.”

Shen Yuan blinks at the shaken serving girl. “I would rather not.” Whatever is causing the waves of unease that are disturbing everyone, he wants nothing to do with.

The girl seems close to tears. “You have to! He looks nice, but I bet he’ll kill her if you don’t.”

Shen Yuan definitely doesn’t want to go down now. Why would he go meet a murderer. He will regret the madam dying a lot less than losing his own life. “Who is “he”?”

She starts crying. “I don’t know! But he wants to buy your contract! Why did you get involved with someone so dangerous!”

Someone who wants to buy his contract? A few names come to mind, but none stick. The only person with both the means and the will to do so hasn’t stopped by in years. Not to mention Yue Qingyuan isn’t the kind of man that would kill for him. “I have no idea who it could be. Are you sure he asked for me? It must be some mistake.” He isn’t dumb. While some of the courtesans here court disaster by entertaining thieves and killers, Shen Yuan always favored scholars and public servants, much less prone to turning against him.

“There’s no mistake! He asked for you by name!” The serving girl pulls at his sleeve with force.  

This tiny slip of a girl could never hope to bring him anywhere he doesn’t want to go, but he has to admit to himself that if the man is that insistent, he will come to get him himself if Shen Yuan doesn’t come down, and that would make deescalating this situation that much harder. “Fine. Stop pulling, you’ll rip the fabric. I’ll come along.” Shen Yuan puts on his most placid mask and follows the girl to the front desk.

Where a very, very attractive man is waiting. For a moment, Shen Yuan is too blinded by the man’s sheer physical perfection to realise who he is. The next moment, he’s convinced he has gone insane. Dead men do not return from the grave.

And yet, there’s no mistaking that flawless visage. “…Binghe?”

His voice wavers against his will.  

Luo Binghe turns toward him, polite smile fading into true happiness. “Shen Yuan!”

For a moment, Shen Yuan thinks Luo Binghe will jump on him and take him here and now, for anyone to see, considering how hungry for him he looks.  

But Luo Binghe controls himself. “I came here to buy off your contract. Is that something you’re amenable to?”

…What? Why? What is happening? A mere disciple could never hope to buy off his contract. Then again, from the luxury of the robes he’s wearing, he probably isn’t just a disciple anymore. “Your sect master told me you were dead.” Important matters must be addressed first. Shen Yuan won’t be bought by a ghost, thank you.

“He was wrong. I had… family obligations to deal with, but now that they are dealt with, I returned to free you. Afterward, Shen Yuan can do whatever he wants.” His voice lowers and trembles a little. “He doesn’t have to come with me, if he would prefer not to. All I ask is that he doesn’t remain here. Shen Yuan is so talented, there are many things he could do if he chose to. Whatever path he wants to walk, this Luo Binghe will happily support, if Shen Yuan would let him.”

Shen Yuan stands frozen where he is. Not only Luo Binghe is back, he’s offering to free him? Why? Shen Yuan doesn’t understand anything.

This is unbecoming. “If you would follow me to my room? There are many things I would like to ask.”

“Yes!” Luo Binghe follows him almost too eagerly.  

The moment the door closes behind them, Luo Binghe traps him into an embrace too strong to be escaped from. “Shen Yuan! Shen Yuan! It really is you! I missed you so much.”

All anxiety he might have held melts into nothing. Ah, this is still his cute Binghe, too innocent for this place and yet refusing to let it corrupt him.  

He goes to return the embrace, but before he can, Luo Binghe pushes him away gently, leaving him destabilised.  

“I pray Shen Yuan forgive my presumptuousness. It had been years. He might not even remember me.”

Shen Yuan rolls his eyes. “Did I not call your name as soon as I saw you? Of course I remember you. I would like to know what happened to you, though.” From up close, Luo Binghe looks like the son of a rich nobleman, or maybe even a prince. Everything he wears screams wealth. He is startlingly out of place in Shen Yuan’s small and proper room. “Is Luo Binghe the scion of some rich family? Or did he marry a princess?”  

“I would never! The only want I would share my life with is you!”

Shen Yuan blinks at this declaration as Luo Binghe blushes. “Shen Yuan must forgive me again. I didn’t intend to be so blunt, but since it has been said, Shen Yuan must know only his memory keep me sane during those years. I would love nothing more than repay him for what he has done for me. All the wealth and power I control are his to command, if he wants to. But, as I said before, if he would rather try his fortune by himself, I will wish him well and let him go. I just don’t want Shen Yuan to have to share his bed with people he doesn’t desire. Even if it is how we met, he deserves better.”  

Shen Yuan notices Luo Binghe’s eyes are full of tears. He mindlessly uses his sleeve to wipe them off, a gesture familiar to them both. Luo Binghe has always been easily overwhelmed.  

The proposition is very appealing. Shen Yuan wants nothing more than be freed of this place. And since it is obvious that buying him wouldn’t even set him back… “Luo Binghe really wants to use his money to free this old man? Doesn’t he have better things to use it for?”

But Luo Binghe isn’t looking at him anymore. Through the open door to his bedroom, his eyes have caught the little altar with incense still smoking. “Shen Yuan, is this, can I dare ask if…”

Shen Yuan blushes. How ridiculous this seems now. Luo Binghe isn’t dead. He needs no offering. “Yes. I thought you were dead, and you told me you had no family, so I got into the habit of preparing offerings for you in case no one else would and just… never stopped. You can laugh at this sentimental fool, if you want.”

Luo Binghe kisses him, wet and hot and messy, hands tangling into his hair and keeping him there. “Let me take you to my home. Let me treat you the way you deserve to be treated. You will never lack for anything, I promise. If you don’t want to share my bed, that’s fine, but please, let me keep you by my side.”

His little Binghe is no liar. Shen Yuan could always read the truth of him on his face, on his body, in his every gesture. He knows too much of Luo Binghe to be scared of him, or to doubt him.  

Also, Shen Yuan has eyes. Who but the blinds would not want to share this man’s bed? It’s a good thing Luo Binghe put an end to the kiss, because if he hadn’t, they might not have left today. “If, for some reason, Binghe has taken a fancy to this old whore, I would love nothing more than accompany him away from here and into his bed, if he wants me to.”

“Shen Yuan!” Luo Binghe kisses him so more, and this time, Shen Yuan kisses back, allowing himself for the first time to accept just how much he missed this dear little client of his.  

“Is there anything Shen Yuan wants to bring along?”  

Shen Yuan looks at the garish robes, the maquillage and the fans he held on to for whatever reasons. “No. But I should bring some clothes. I have little money to buy new robes.”

“Shen Yuan doesn’t have to worry. From now on, only the finest silk will adorn his body. If he doesn’t like his current robes, he can leave them here.” His own eyes travel over the room, before they falter. “I just, if Shen Yuan agrees, I would like to take the altar back? He won’t have to look at it if it brings back bad memories. I will keep it in my room, as proof of his affection.”

The blush returns to Shen Yuan’s face. He will never stop feeling stupid for tending to an altar for a living man.  

Still. If it made Luo Binghe happy, it was less useless than it seems. “Luo Binghe can have it, of course.”

Luo Binghe seems ecstatic. “Thank you!” He extends his hand to Shen Yuan. “Well then, if Shen Yuan would come with me?”

Resolved, Shen Yuan takes his hand.

It’s so big now, strong and firm. Luo Binghe can easily hold all of Shen Yuan’s hand in his.  

It only brings him reassurance.  

His fingers curl around Luo Binghe’s, and his heart warms when they curl back.

He knows they won’t let go.

#The Scum Villain Self Serving System #Scum Villain #BingQiu