I listen to a lot of audiobook murder mysteries, which has me thinking:
Shen Yuan transmigrating into a murder mystery… as the killer!
There are a couple of ways the story could go.
First Option: Shen Yuan lets his System know, in no uncertain terms, he will not be murdering anyone.
Its response: [Alternate Plotline Initiated. New Assignment: Designated Red Herring].
Poor Shen Qingqiu finds himself stuck in a whole murder mystery series, and any time anyone is murdered, he somehow ends up being the number one suspect!
The victim? Probably picked a fight with Shen Qingqiu at some point.
(Shen Qingqiu tries to avoid such arguments, but it never seems to work!)
The murder weapon? Yeah, Shen Qingqiu is almost guaranteed to have touched it.
(Shen Qingqiu is severely tempted to start wearing gloves 24/7.)
The body? Either Shen Qingqiu finds it himself at some inopportune time, and/or it was stashed somewhere “only” he is supposed to have access to.
(At some point it's just: Shen Qingqiu opens a door… sees a body… closes the door. “Time to call the cops, yet again.”)
Shen Qingqiu ends up a tad paranoid about the whole thing, setting up cameras outside his house, in his office, in his car, etc. just to (hopefully) stop people from planting evidence any of those places.
If anyone asks about the truly absurd number of (eventually dropped) murder allegations, Shen Qingqiu insists he's cursed. Even with genre blinders on (making the number of convoluted murders in the area seem normal somehow), it's hard for anyone to argue the point.
For Shen Qingqiu's day job (when he's not busy being charged with murder) he works as a professor at a university with a highly regarded Criminology & Criminal Justice program. I'm thinking the original goods was a literature professor, with a strong distaste for cops, who was known for grading anyone in the criminal justice program exceedingly harshly. Naturally one of his students is the protagonist, Luo Binghe.
After his transmigration, professor Shen Qingqiu suddenly becomes a very kind and doting professor with a real passion for literature. This leaves Luo Binghe quickly smitten and makes him a very motivated amateur detective, since he's determined to prove his beloved's innocence as quickly as possible and as often as needed!
Second Option: Shen Yuan takes over after the original goods already committed the murder.
He wakes up with a splitting headache (the victim attempted to defend themselves presumably), looks at his bloody hands… looks at the victim… looks at the weapon… looks at his bloody hands again. “Damn it, Airplane.”
He decides he doesn't want to try and hide a body actually, just to be caught by the protagonist later and charged with a whole slew of things in addition to murder, so he calls the cops himself. He might as well take advantage of the fact he has a concussion and literally doesn't remember a thing. Maybe he can get the charges reduced somewhat and get a lighter sentence.
Of course the first cop that arrives at the scene is Yue Qingyuan, who as the #1 Xiao-Jiu stan gives Shen Qingqiu way too much benefit of the doubt. The most obvious evidence also keeps being erased or damaged by weird as hell coincidences.
Shen Qingqiu knows he certainly isn't responsible for damaging evidence and wonders if the System is working overtime behind the scenes to ensure there actually is a mystery for Luo Binghe to solve.
(After all, it wouldn't be much of a story if Shen Qingqiu was already charged and sentenced before Luo Binghe had a chance to even do anything.)
To his complete bewilderment, after a few days leave to recover from the concussion, Shen Qingqiu is actually allowed to return to his university teaching job. He decides to make the best of it, since who knows how long he'll be a free man.
As in the first scenario, a few months later and Luo Binghe is absolutely smitten, not to mention all the other students and faculty that have come to adore him.
As Shen Qingqiu has successfully endeared himself to pretty much anyone and everyone local that could actually charge him or provide eyewitness testimony, not to mention all the shady shit about murder victim Qiu Jianluo the ongoing investigation keeps digging up, the plot stalls for a bit until the state police (aka Huan Hua Palace) are finally called in by Qiu Haitang.
Unfortunately for the ‘HHP’ folks, the protagonist himself is on Shen Qingqiu's side, and Luo Binghe is perfectly happy to muddy the waters by conveniently “losing” evidence, sending them after every single red herring he comes across, and “accidentally” digging up dirt on all the shady dealings going on in their department.
The System keeps trying to motivate Shen Qingqiu to hide evidence, lie, or do literally anything suspicious to progress the plot further, but all its punishment protocols involve sabotaging Shen Qingqiu's coverup attempts (of which he has none) or revealing information to the protagonist (who is complicit by this point) so it's fresh out of luck.
Eventually the System gives up and Shen Qingqiu is congratulated for “getting away with murder!” despite the fact he didn't actually do anything.
“Seriously? Does it even count as getting away with murder when the original goods was the actual murderer? I didn't kill anyone!”
[...]
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I crave an AU where Shen Yuan gets transmigrated as some random npc and just… goes around the world you know? Traveling, sigh seeing his fav places from the novel, studying the beasts from that world, like dude just living his life and becoming a cultivator either by studying by himself (with the knowledge he has from novels from his world) or idk by the System giving him little missions about “building his character”
And just for a comedy side: he ends up helping a lot of people in his travels who become super grateful for this but… well maybe people misheard the first time and felt awkward about asking again so they just call him master Shen
This end up as a whole misunderstanding where rumors about SY and Shen Jiu kinda mix up
“Master Shen? Ohh yeah I heard he saved the daughters of that merchant”
“Master Shen?? The cultivator who is always visiting brothels? Shameless”
This ends up getting SJ a better reputation, SY unintentional good deeds (that have witness and proof) far surpasses the feeble rumors about SJ
SY and SJ end up meeting…. When SY is imprisoned for the death of the Qiu
He and SJ do look like eachother and Qiu Haitang hasn’t seen SJ in years, she heard about a Shen and concluded it must be him
Ohhh just to add to the mess: YQY was away from the Mountain when he heard about “Shen Qingqiu” imprisonment so he just rushed to Hua Hua Palace to free him… SJ goes after him, meets SY gets put in prison in his place bc Qiu Haitang was like “no wait actually that one fits more the Shen I knew” (which sucks to her testimony bc thats just saying “ops I made a mistake once maybe I’m doing again?”)but at this point SY was INVESTED in this bc fuck these people locking him up in a cave, they wanted a trial then he (with YQY support) is gonna make damn sure this goes right (for SJ, not QHT or the Palace Master bc lets be honest: one person’s word against a cultivator that has plenty of achievements and (recently) plenty of good deeds to his name… yeah not gonna work)
Things work out in the end, YQY and SJ go back to Cang Diong… and take SY with them. New younger brother acquired!!
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Fics where Bingge gets his own Shen Yuan are always a delight, but I do wish more of them let Shen Yuan dote on Bingge’s children!
I’d love a story where Shen Yuan somehow ended up in the role of ‘Head Imperial Tutor’ and became the children’s beloved teacher and fiercest protector.
Whatever harem drama, rebellions, or other nonsense is going on, he observes with only mild interest (plus much internal eye rolling, and maybe a little gushing over Binghe) but if anyone dares target his students he utterly destroys them.
Sometime after the Bingge vs. Bingmei extra (perhaps after Shen Yuan eliminates some threat to the children), Binghe actually notices Shen Yuan and just how closely his behavior mirrors the nice Shizun.
He’s a very gentle and attentive teacher, tailoring lessons to each child’s learning style, comforting them when the drama between their mothers causes them distress, and freely granting affectionate head pats and light fan bops.
Binghe fighting with his own kids for attention from his world’s kind Shizun, while juggling with Shen Yuan’s obliviousness, and the fact he must be careful never to seriously upset the kids (or he will face Shen Yuan’s wrath), just has so much comedy and cuteness potential!
In the end, Bingge not only falls for Shen Yuan, but comes to more fully love and care for his own kiddos too.
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I think it would be fun to do a "character swaps with older version of themselves" fic with Moshang. A post-canon Mobei-Jun who has been happily married for a while (probably at least 50 years old) accidentally touches some plot device artifact and time travels, swapping places with his 20ish-year-old self. Older MBJ wakes up in head disciple Shang Qinghua's bed where his younger self had been napping.
Younger MBJ lands in his own palace, where he is quickly found and fawned over by Older SQH, who can't help but think this MBJ is so cute. The System quickly confirms for Shang Qinghua that this situation has been sorted into a "multiple timelines" thing, so SQH doesn't have to worry about "protecting the timeline" by doing anything like hiding the fact that he's MBJ's husband. (So, there's an alternate timeline younger version of Airplane Bro now? He's just going to... ignore having an existential crisis about it. Yeah.)
Which is great because Older MBJ would not have thought about this at all as a potential issue. Older MBJ also thinks Younger SQH (Younger Airplane Bro) is incredibly cute and has no problem informing him that they're married in the future. Younger Airplane Bro is trying to figure what the fuck is happening, but he's having trouble thinking over the sound of how MBJ only became hotter: MBJ didn't get much taller, but he did get wider, heavier, more muscular, and hairier. Holy shit. Older MBJ doesn't even have any problems passionately kissing Younger SQH just to prove that they're married. And he smiles! He's so gentle and communicative! Comparatively!
("Luo Binghe is the Demon Emperor in my time," Older MBJ says. "Ah? Who's Luo Binghe?" Younger Airplane Bro lies very badly. "Hmmm, so you did know," Older MBJ says, and then makes some comment about LBH's husband that makes Younger SQH go, "HIS WHAT NOW?!")
Younger MBJ is trying to be cool, not really confused or scared, and Older SQH spoils him rotten by showing off the home that they're made together and how well the palace works to serve and defend MBJ. Linguang-Jun can't show up here because SQH will light him on fire if he shows his face. Younger MBJ doesn't even really like his SQH yet and is also struggling with how good Older SQH looks: a little taller, broader, relaxed and easygoing, answering all of his questions and explaining important things to him, dressed like a beloved demon lord's spouse, efficiently ordering everyone around. "Call me Gege," Older Shang Qinghua said with a wink, and it went straight to Younger MBJ's defenseless heart; he is developing new kinks immediately. Help him.
In the end, after a few days at most, they manage to switch Older and Younger MBJ back without too much issue. Older SQH is a little annoyed that his husband kissed an alternate timeline version of himself, but mostly because he sure would have liked that experience when he was only a disciple! Okay, SQH may have pet Younger MBJ's head and pinched his cheeks and hugged him and brushed his hair a little and shamelessly lavished him with good examples of human affection, but it's not the same!!!
Younger MBJ and Younger SQH in the alternate timeline are left in SQH's tiny head disciple house, completely flustered, sitting next to each other and barely able to look at each other. What. The. Fuck. Eventually, Shang Qinghua manages to say, "Uh, do you want to make out?" at the same time that Mobei-Jun says, "We should get married as soon as possible. Tomorrow."
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