#luo binghe: i’m a Demon Lord don’t fuck with me
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Thinking about a three way MXTX crossover, and the difference between the main pairs is so funny??
Shen Qingqiu is a 21st century fanboy who travelled universes and had his life controlled by an all powerful System he doesn’t really understand. And Luo Binghe is a Demon Lord and one of the most powerful people in his universe
Xie Lian is literally a god. Hua Cheng is a Supreme Ghost King and rules over the entire ghost realm (on land). They’re both 800 years old and have made Heaven shake on multiple occassions
Meanwhile Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are just cultivators. Sure, WWX is a demonic cultivator that can control the dead and Lan Wangji is the Chief Cultivator, but in comparison to the other two pairs? Their insane lives are verrrry normal
#wangxian actually get to feel normal for a change shdjsjsk#luo binghe: i’m a Demon Lord don’t fuck with me#hua cheng: that’s cute#xie lian: he’s like a baby version of san lang :’)#hua cheng: gege no#wei wuxian: im sorry you’re a WHAT#my posts#mxtx#svsss#untamed#tgcf
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Hey hun! Reminding you about that Moshang list like you asked!
Sorry this took so long, I ran out of energy and didn’t get any more until like, yesterday. Okay, so! Moshang fic recs!!
AN IDIOT’S GUIDE TO A HAPPY MARRIAGE by tagteamme. Chapters: 8/8, words: 156,680
Summary: In order to pay off a debt that's not his, Shang Qinghua agrees to marry a man that's as cold and unyielding as he is stupidly rich.
Vod Notes: I’m not normally one for modern AU’s, but there’s just something about aspiring CEO MBJ and flat out broke SQH somehow wiggling his way into his heart that gets to me. The characterizations in this story are flawless, and the customary Moshang miscommunication/misunderstanding had me tearing out my hair at several points, yelling at these two dumbasses; and that’s how you know it’s a good one. 9/10 because I experienced lots of stress while reading this, which actually is a sign of a fantastic story, I’m just really weak and pathetic and immerse myself in reading way too much, so actually 11/10! Depends on how you look at it I suppose lol
a rose by any other name by sarahyyy. Chapters 1/1, words: 6,795
Summary: The one where Shang Qinghua suddenly becomes Prime Demon Marriage Material™ (bc of the LBH/SQQ marriage).
Vod Notes: somft. MBJ just loves SQH so very much, and SQH is pining ad dense as fuck. The perfect Moshang fic recipe. They are warm, soft, clueless idiots in this while still somehow being entirely competent, and we love to see that. SQH is a man made of contingency plans <3 I love it when authors do my son justice. 10/10
How to Panic Your Demon King by StarlightLion. Chapters: 1/1, words: 7,816
Summary: Mu Qingfang is starting to wonder if this is a requirement to be a demon lord. At least this one isn't kidnapping him.
Vod Notes: A delicious one shot about MBj worrying about the love of his life, who is a strong, dedicated, talented man who has an unfortunate training mishaps and then tries to cover it up bc he’s also dumb and doesn’t want to worry anyone. Stupid man. SQH we love you pls take care of yourself. You’re giving your husband grey hairs. A special treat toward the end with a MQF POV! My sexy doctor man is exasperated and done with everything. 10/10
it must follow, as the night the day by Tossawary. Chapters: 7/7, words: 26,342
Summary: Airplane Bro transmigrates into his own web-novel only to find out that the System messed up his world! Shang Qinghua is a demon in this world! All the characters supposed to be humans are demons in this world! And all the characters supposed to be demons are...?
Vod Notes: You simply cannot go wrong with Tossawary. They have the most scrumptious servings of Moshang in all the land. For this specific one, we’re gifted with a lovely Role Reversal AU! It’s got everything! Demon!SQH who is a absolute mess of a man? Serious cultivator MBJ who is stoic and cold but has the heart of a hero (or just a heart hardwired for SQH specifically)? Espionage? Feed it to me slowly like grapes. 11/10
You Will Never Step Lightly in the Dark by Janusoverlord. Chapters: 11/11, words 57,218
Summary: Shang Qinghua wakes up in the aftermath of Tianlang-Jun's rampage on Cang Qiong Mountain and has to navigate the delicate political situation he now finds himself in. Luo Binghe is building a harem with Shen Qingqiu as his first, and honestly most terrifying, husband. Yet, Luo Binghe seems to be turning his eyes to Shang Qinghua as a possibility as well. Excuse you? What is this? He didn't sign up for this!
Vod Notes: holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck this one blew my entire mind! Not only do we have SQH looking out for number one (which is himself, bless you my son) when shit turns strictly bad, but we have a absolutely, one of a kind, PHENOMENAL badass SQQ who is supporting his bro and fucking shit up left and right and everywhere for Airplane’s sake. God. This was like drinking fine wine. Breathtaking, spectacular. My life has been changed. MBJ spends most of this being a big, sulky, upset mess but don’t worry, cucumberplane fixes that up themselves. LBH get’s put in time out by both his husbands (because this is LBH/SQQ/LQG), because he fucks up in this majorly and SQQ isn’t fucking happy and doesn’t let him get away with it just because he gives him the puppy eyes and I AM LIVINGGGGGGGGG!! TLDR: simply superb badass cucumberplane, sad boy MBJ hours, and LQG gets stuck with babysit the naughty demon king duty. VERDICT: umm?! 7000/10
A Queen’s Trials (And How to Speedrun Them) by daddykeehl. Chapters: 1/8(as of 4/17/21), words: 25,000.
Summary: Shang Qinghua is now well on his way to the same happily-ever-after that every protagonist gets, but two things stand in his way. The Queen's Trials, and a council that just won't give up. Too bad for them, they really don't know who they're dealing with.
Vod Notes: Sorry I can’t hear any of your questions over the loud, shrill screams of my absolute LOVE for this story. it’s not finished, no, but it’s set up in arcs per chapter, so I’m fine with waiting for the next one to come along, and so will you if you read this. Because, lemme tell you. Fucking amazing. An SQH who knows everything about the North? He’s God, dammit, why wouldn’t he? Using that to his advantage? Not just to prolong his life, but to legally win the right to marry MBJ. God, this story is just absolutely breathtaking. I was speechless when I got to the end of chapter one. The sheer level of worldbuilding! Catch me with actual hearts in my eyes. The small DETAILS! The magnificently built OCs! The culture, the writing! The character interactions! SQH goes around accidentally winning the lifelong loyalty of every badass, OP demon in the Northern realm. I am still screeching. daddykeehl you’re my number one. fucking 200k/10 heart eyes emoji, heart eyes emoji (also, it’s part of a series! The story before this one, Quick, Easy Steps To Realizing You’re The Queen Consort, is also VERY good.)
#moshing fic recs#vodka answers#ask box love twt#shang Qinghua#mobei jun#svsss#fic rec list#magikarp karpykarp
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I blame people expressing interest in this series. You know who you are.
For those who are not those people, have this SY’s pov that’s a direct sequel to this, which is itself a sequel to this. There’s also this one. It’s Shencest.
“Why didn’t you let me die?” Wouldn’t that have been better for them both? Shen Yuan would certainly have preferred that to being forcefully outed as the kind of pervert who, upon meeting his doppelganger, decides to fuck them.
Kill is obviously the superior option.
Shen Qingqiu doesn’t twitch. “It wasn’t an option. Liu Qingge would have done it, and I refuse to let him touch my body.”
Shen Yuan flushes at the idea. Liu Qingge? Shen Qingqiu must have misunderstood. Liu Qingge seems like the type that would wait to get married before having sex.
He might have done it to save Shen Yuan’s life though. He’s the sacrificing type.
Oh well, better to have shamed himself than having forced unwanted sex on Liu Qingge, probably.
Time to disappear and never come back.
Or he would if that was an option. First, he’s not well enough to do it. He’d fall off of his sword. Second, that would leave Shen Qingqiu the sole peak lord of Qing Jing Peak, and Shen Yuan isn’t ready to let that happen. He doesn’t think he could live with himself if he let Ming Fan return to the mean little bootlicker he was in the book, or if Shen Qingqiu’s continued existence gave birth to a second Luo Binghe, mistreated and underestimated.
He never thought his choice to remain would go down well, but he never, not even once, expected it would result in him and Proud Immortal Demon Way’s main nemesis doing… the things they are doing. How could he have expected it? He still doesn’t understand why he lets it happen. It’s just… Every time someone calls him Shizun, that wasn’t really him they were calling. Every time someone treats him with respect, it’s respect for the body he’s living in and the skills its previous owner had honed, nothing Shen Yuan himself had done. He’s used Shen Qingqiu’s standing for all it was worth without a second thought for the one who had earned said standing. Could he really tell Shen Qingqiu, the real Shen Qingqiu, that he couldn’t do whatever he wished with his own body, the body Shen Yuan stole from him? Even if he didn’t choose to do it, Shen Yuan’s arrival in this world still had killed Shen Qingqiu early. From a much less painful death, certainly, but still early, early enough that he wasn’t guilty yet of his worst transgressions.
He hopes Liu Qingge won’t ask for explanations when he visits tomorrow. He could never explain this to a man like him.
“Mu Qingfang said you needed to rest. Go to bed.”
Yeah, no. As much as it hurts him to recall the fog of lust and pain that had overwhelmed him, he can’t deny he’s still wearing its remnants on his skin. He feels gross. “I’m taking a bath first.”
“I’m coming with you.”
It’s not a request. Very few things Shen Qingqiu say are.
Anyway, Shen Yuan is too tired to argue with him. If Shen Qingqiu wants to follow him into the bath, Shen Yuan won’t say a word, especially if he takes care of preparing it, or, more likely, gets Ming Fan to do it for him.
_________
The hands travelling on his skin, identical to his in every way, aren’t mean. They tend to linger where they left marks, but they don’t press on them the way they sometimes do, to make sure the marks remain as long as possible.
Maybe it’s to differentiate them.
Maybe it’s to make it clear whose body this is.
Today, they only wash him; without excessive tenderness, but without the expected anger.
Shen Yuan wonders what Shen Qingqiu is thinking. If he was right, he should have let Liu Qingge take care of him instead of unveiling their sordid affair. How will he deal with it?
Then again, Shen Yuan suspects Mu Qingfang and Yue Qingyuan will understand how delicate the situation is, and thus will take that secret to the grave. As for Liu Qingge, he’s not the type to gossip. If Shen Yuan asks him to keep silent, he will. He’s a man of his word.
They must be repulsed. Who would sleep with one’s double? Who could be so vain? Nothing good can come out of this.
Shen Yuan feels his eyes close as the warm water lulls him to sleep. The day has been demanding. He is deeply, profoundly tired.
His arm is being grabbed. A second later, he’s being forcefully pulled out of the water. “Don’t sleep here.”
Shen Yuan nods, trying to stay awake long enough for the towel to do its job.
He half-consciously goes for what used to be Binghe’s room. Most of the time, he isn’t willing to fight Shen Qingqiu for the main bedchamber. This is certainly one of those times.
Again, Shen Qingqiu refuses to let him go, instead dragging him into his, their, bedroom.
Shen Yuan ends up staring at the ceiling, as far from Shen Qingqiu as he can be without falling off the bed.
“You could have killed me.”
Shen Yuan understand that what Shen Qingqiu means is you could have killed my body. “We can die every day.” He was out with Liu Qingge. Death is always a possibility. A very distant one, because he doesn’t think Liu Qingge would let anything happen to him, but his presence is usually accompanied with that of deadly beasts, so.
“You’re not allowed to die away from me.”
Not from my hand, maybe? Not where Shen Qingqiu could not repossess the body he was born with?
If Shen Yuan were to die, he would want Shen Qingqiu to take the body back. It is his, after all. “I won’t.”
“You’d better, or you will regret it.”
How could I? I’d be dead.
Then again, if anyone knows how not final death can be, it’s Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan doesn’t answer, preferring to let sleep steal him away from Shen Qingqiu’s strange insistence and his stranger, unblinking stare.
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Chapter 26 “ What You Want” of “pride is not the word I’m looking for” quotes and commentary. Not a full list of favorite quotes or full commentary.
Oh, this got so long, though. I was like, “An opportunity to wax poetic about Moshang dynamics and characterization? An opportunity to talk about why my interpretations of Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua are Like That? SIGN ME UP.”
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【Beginning next mission stage.】
【Death of the Author - Part 2: The Secret Basement of Shang Qinghua.】
【Mission objective: place the Weeper’s Eye on the pedestal.】
Shang Qinghua slowly sits up on his sofa. He stares at the pop-up window for however long it takes his brain to roll over completely.
“I don’t have a fucking basement?” he says finally.
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AN: I have been waiting to use “I don’t have a fucking basement?” for months. Also, it’s been years for him, so Shang Qinghua is a little oblivious, BUT I would like to point readers all the way back to some paragraphs from Chapter 2.
Excerpt from Chapter 2: “A Horseshoe Nail”:
Shang Qinghua considers the point loss. What are his excuses character motivations here? Why is his unmerciful System not completely skewering him for this?
He is the servant of a demon lord, Mobei-Jun, the future Northern King, so he has a greater investment than most cultivators in the future of the Demon Realm, so it’s not unreasonable for him to seek out any bastards of Tianlang-Jun without handing the demon baby over to a righteous sect. He’s also a Peak Lord of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, so it’s not unreasonable for him to be interested in any rumors of the whereabouts of Su Xiyan or what happened to her, for political leverage or whatever. The character of Shang Qinghua originally was and still is a spy - on top of being a shameless coward willing to cling to anyone’s thighs and then stab them in the back, in order to stay alive or advance himself.
There are plenty of magical artifacts in this world that might give a power-grubbing weakling like Shang Qinghua an insight into the future. As Peak Lord of An Ding, Shang Qinghua is, in fact, in a pretty good place to get his greedy hands on one of these magical artifacts. Isn’t that what a good spy and overall ambitious snake would do?
Especially a spy serving a demon lord extremely likely to get fed up with him and kill him at some point? While also serving a righteous cultivation sect extremely likely to execute him for eventually betraying them? Of course Shang Qinghua would obviously want to know how to save his own ass from these ticking time-bombs! And how better to save his own ass than shamelessly clinging to the golden thighs of the protagonist, who will one day conquer every other demon lord and all righteous sects?
Following Luo Binghe means being on the endgame winning team!
Shang Qinghua looks over the pop-up window’s numbers over again, in regards to the loss of points. True, how exactly he tracked down Su Xiyan’s half-demon baby when the Huan Hua Palace Master failed is a bit of a plot-hole, but the rest can be easily explained away with a bit of creativity!
Oh, the rest of the cultivation world didn’t know Su Xiyan was pregnant? Well, Shang Qinghua is a slimy, sneaky spy, who would of course guess that a female cultivator might suddenly disappear like that for months-on-end due to a secret pregnancy! And given that Su Xiyan’s reputation had been linked to a passionately self-destructive Tianlang-Jun… Okay, he can feel the anti-fan rage at that mildly sexist line of thinking, but it stands! It stands!
Now, Shang Qinghua just has to… actually decide… whether or not he wants to take the point loss, in order to save the life of his protagonist son’s adoptive mother, Luo Jiahui.
Shang Qinghua, my darling fool of an Author God, your System is listening to the things you say and think.
I have been WORKING here to foreshadow where I’m going with this story. I’m pretty sure that every single endgame plot point has shown up and is now in play in PINTWILF. Shang Qinghua, due to situational awareness, is dealing with too much in-world shit to narrow things down easily, but it’s all there! It will hopefully not seem as though I’m pulling things out of nowhere in the next and final part (Part 4) of this fic.
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“This makes me look crazy, bro,” Shang Qinghua complains to the System. “It really does. I already have to be careful about talking to the secret, world-controlling system that lives in my head and this? This is not making me look any more stable! Where did this come from? Where the fuck did I even get it?! ”
Oh, things are coming together in Shang Qinghua’s head and he doesn’t know if he really likes the picture. On one hand, it’s always nice to actually have someone or something to blame for things beyond the fucking System. On the other hand, he really doesn’t know how the fuck he’s supposed to sleep at night with a full-length, polished silver mirror with an ornate golden frame under his house.
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AN: Shang Qinghua, have you noticed that you’ve stopped losing points for continuity errors and plot holes? Shang Qinghua, you know that the people in your life have noticed that you know too much. They’ve just decided not to question you about it because you always look like you’re going to faint when they do, then you laugh and change the subject.
But now Shen Qingqiu is on to you and he’s not so easy to shake.
(Plus Shen Yuan! They’re terriers, SQH!)
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He turns away from the mirror, only for a second System window to pop up in front of him. Only… the design of this one is different. Familiar, though! It takes Shang Qinghua a second to place it as Peerless Cucumber- as Shen Yuan’s Transmigration System.
【 Users cannot be injured, killed, or trapped inside the looking-glass! The user will not be able to touch or be touched by anything inside the looking-glass! The user will be returned from the looking-glass within thirty minutes, unharmed! A substantial point reward is attached to this bonus mission. 】
“Right,” Shang Qinghua says.
This second pop-up window then shifts colors and is ruthlessly closed before his eyes. Ah, wow, Shang Qinghua kind of feels like he just saw someone get murdered here.
“...How many points?” he asks finally, reluctantly curious.
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AN: Having the Systems fight is so much fun. My setup here in PINTWILF has it so that there’s a main Worldbuilding System that does its best to maintain the world, then each transmigrator has their own personal Transmigration System managing their case.
This is so the Worldbuilding System can maintain the world without the presence of transmigrators, and so the personal Systems can potentially follow their transmigrators into another world. All the Systems interact with each other in order to try to manage things and there are... issues.
Look, the thing about simulated (or managed) realities for me is... someone coded the thing (or did some equivalent of coding the thing), and whether or not this thing in question is the world or just the System, if there are multiple entities trying to manage things, there’s going to be fuck-ups. You can’t have two cooks in the kitchen without points where the two cooks get in each other’s way at least a little bit. If there are multiple Systems, then you’re going to have friction, and that friction can be funny.
Inspired by me trying to run two heavy art programs on my computer at once and being like, “Oh, boy, please don’t burst into flames while duking it out in there. Oh, man, you two were NOT made to operate together, huh?”
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He knows he’s right when he walks away from some kind of important-looking procession, stepping into the next room at the same time as someone else, who looks directly at him and doesn’t look away. Shang Qinghua freezes in the doorway and doesn’t let himself stare so much as he can’t stop himself.
“Oh, no,” Shang Qinghua thinks.
There’s a man standing in front of him, tall and broad-shouldered, with an ageless youth, but a sharp gaze and no youthful roundness to his features. His curly black hair has been cursorily held back from his face by a golden ornament, but is otherwise loose, and he wears his ornate red and black robes well and correctly, but like a man with a hundred more.
The man flicks a strong hand at the doors behind Shang Qinghua, which slam shut with a bang, like he’s done this a thousand times before.
He smiles unkindly. “Shang-Shishu,” he says, like he’s tasting the title, considering tearing it apart with his teeth. “So it's true. How curious.”
There’s no way for Shang Qinghua to count how many times he’s seen this face before, but he’s never seen it like this. The man looks like an emperor. He looks like a god. The red mark of the Heavenly Demons burns like a crown in the middle of his forehead.
Shang Qinghua takes an unwilling step back.
“What are you afraid of?” the original Luo Binghe says, still smiling. “We’re only talking.”
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AN: I tried to make this meeting mirror Shang Qinghua and Luo Binghe’s first scene in Part 3 of the fic, in which we finally meet the Luo Binghe (Shang Qinghua’s nephew) who is going to interact with the PIDW plot.
Excerpt from Chapter 18: “The Inevitable Plot”:
The restaurant is closed when Shang Qinghua lets himself in. The tables in the dining room are still packed up, lit by dim light through shuttered windows, and the only sign of another person are the chopping sounds coming from the brightness of the kitchen. Shang Qinghua stops in the doorway and lets himself stare.
There’s a young teenage boy standing at the counter, thirteen going on fourteen, still not yet near his adult height (taller than Shang Qinghua, a fact he's still not prepared to face), still carrying a youthful roundness to his features. Shang Qinghua has seen him like this a hundred times before: curly black hair tied back, a kerchief covering his head to keep it out of his eyes, a slightly yellowed matching apron neatly tied just the way his mother taught him, and intent on the work in front of him. His hands are quick, the knife sharp and sure, and the movements of food preparation work slide right into each other like he’s done this a thousand times before.
When did the boy get so big? It didn’t happen all at once; it snuck up on them, hiding dastardly in plain sight! Shang Qinghua remembers when his nephew barely came up to his waist. Fuck, Shang Qinghua remembers when his nephew couldn’t walk. What is this? Who allowed time to pass like this?
Luo Binghe scrapes the chopped vegetables off the board and into the basket beside him, before putting down the knife and turning around. He smiles.
There’s no way for Shang Qinghua to count how many times he’s seen that before.
“Uncle,” the protagonist says fondly. “You’re here.”
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“Let’s talk,” Luo Binghe calls out, cajoling now. “Stop running and speak to me and perhaps old hurts can be forgiven. All that condonation and betrayal is so far in the past now. This lord can be merciful, Shang Qinghua. Just speak: how many things have you been hiding...?”
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AN: This is PIDW Luo Binghe, by the way.
Once I realized I was going to have a room full of fortune-telling devices, I was like... “Ooh! Bing-Ge scene! I should have a Bing-Ge scene!” Because, like, that’s the curse of SVSSS transmigrator protagonists who trip into caring about Luo Binghe, baby!
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Shang Qinghua takes some deep breaths to calm his poor, weak heart, and nearly falls to the floor anyway! But he catches himself!
And then a large, cold hand wraps around his arm to steady him. It’s the cold that keeps him from lashing out and probably breaking his own hand. Instead, he looks up, heart still pounding in his ears, into the frowning face of Mobei-Jun.
“Oh, you have the worst timing,” Shang Qinghua breathes.
Mobei-Jun’s expression twitches and he lets go.
“No!” Shang Qinghua chases the hand with his own, catching it before the man can get too far. “My king, I’m so glad to see you! Thank you for finally coming! I have so much to say,” he says quickly. “I-”
Before he realizes that he’s essentially holding Mobei-Jun’s hand for no reason now - ah, now that’s something he never would have dared to do like twenty years ago - and carefully drops it. He takes a deep breath, trying to calm the panic still racing through his veins. And then promptly realizes that Mobei-Jun is here. The demon lord is here in this secret basement.
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AN: Moshang in this fic is... hmmm... a little weird sometimes, because a lot of it has been happening in the background. A lot of it has been unspoken until Shang Qinghua’s breakdown and until now.
Shang Qinghua isn’t actually as scared of Mobei-Jun in this fic as he is in SVSSS, and I hope that comes across. When he had his breakdown, part of it was fear, but a large part of it was also actually anger. Shang Qinghua was afraid of how the System had changed his life, but he was also angry about this loss of control. Yes, he was terrified of Mobei-Jun because he didn’t know if it was still his Mobei-Jun, which brought lots of old memories and old anger to the surface, in which Shang Qinghua was kind of like, “How dare you think you get to freely touch me after the things you did and never apologized for?”
BUT the status quo in this world, before the World Update, is one in which Mobei-Jun touches Shang Qinghua’s hip without SQH flinching. It’s one in which SQH and MBJ drink and relax together. It’s one in which SQH isn’t afraid to reach out and grab MBJ’s hand, because he misses MBJ.
They’re so close, they just need to actually talk it out.
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Shang Qinghua glances at the ladder and the open hole in the floor. “Ah, my king, did you… climb down here looking for me?”
“Yes,” Mobei-Jun answers, looking around with sharp eyes. He doesn’t seem to be very impressed with what he’s seeing. “...What is this place?”
“My, ah, my basement,” Shang Qinghua answers, leaving out the part where he didn’t even know he had one until about an hour ago. The System is determined to make him look like a bit of a madman, huh? “It’s just… just some artifacts and tools. I don’t… I don’t really come down here a lot…”
Mobei-Jun finishes studying the room, then stares at him again, his gaze more piercing than ever.
“The future concerns you this much?” he says.
Shang Qinghua is totally prepared to deny everything, but the phrasing of that cuts off every story he might try to tell. He glances around the room, full of these broken, desperate, stolen things. It’s… reflecting.
“...Yes,” he admits, hoarsely. Then coughs. “I… my king, we should… talk.”
“Yes,” Mobei-Jun agrees.
“But, ah, not here? I don’t… like it here.”
“Yes.”
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AN: Mobei-Jun is one of the people who has noticed that Shang Qinghua knows more than he should. And now, thanks to this secret basement, Mobei-Jun has an explanation for why Shang Qinghua knows more than he should!
If you don’t know about the System element, then this basement is actually pretty in-character for the new Shang Qinghua of PINTWILF.
He is so scared of the future. He’s invested in the story now.
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Shang Qinghua isn’t surprised at all when the special item speaks again as soon as it’s back in his hand.
Why would it shut up now, after all?
“He has no name but the position he has been promised to, which he may not live to see,” the Weeper’s Eye says, which pulls Shang Qinghua’s gaze back to the demon lord waiting for him. “His father uses him as a tool. His mother is long departed. His uncle wants him dead. He has long known that these broken promises cannot be undone… but he knows new promises may yet be made.”
Mobei-Jun is frowning at the crystal eye in Shang Qinghua’s hand, looking between it and Shang Qinghua’s own eyes.
He’s not dressed-up the same way he was the last time Shang Qinghua saw him - no especially fancy robes or ornaments or jewelry. He looks like himself this time.
“If these ones are not kept, there will be nothing for the nameless man who will be king.”
Shang Qinghua doesn’t move.
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AN: I mentioned exploring Mobei-Jun not having a name in the commentary on the previous chapter. I guess that’s my take on PIDW Mobei-Jun... that the man doesn’t really have anything outside of his position. He’s a king, in service to a tyrant, and he’s never going to let anyone in. He’s just... cold... the whole way through. PIDW Mobei-Jun has an icy throne and nothing else.
PINTWILF (and SVSSS) Mobei-Jun has the Airplane version of Shang Qinghua. When Airplane saved MBJ’s life, the System wasn’t making him do it, he made that choice for himself. The System was willing to let MBJ die (and, in my headcanon, be replaced by some ice demon cousin or LGJ). So, MBJ turns around and chooses Shang Qinghua for himself.
Shang Qinghua was like, “No! This character can’t be replaced! You can’t just dress someone else up as Mobei-Jun! You can’t just let the character die! It has to be this man in that role! No one else!”
When Mobei-Jun is coming to talk to Shang Qinghua in this fic, in this moment, he is making this choice for himself, the nameless man who has been promised a position he might not live to see. That’s what the Weeper’s Eye is getting at. If Shang Qinghua doesn’t want to hear the promises Mobei-Jun is will to make him, there might as well not be anything in Mobei-Jun’s future to make him an individual, more than a cold figure acting out a part.
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“...Shang Qinghua,” Mobei-Jun says finally. “I will not hurt you.”
Shang Qinghua’s gaze snaps from the crystal eye in his hand, back to the demon lord standing by the exit to this secret basement.
“We will speak,” Mobei-Jun says solemnly, slowly, like someone repeating the lines of a script. “I wish to be understood by you. I have not known how. Yet I must try now… in my own words… and you must listen.”
Shang Qinghua swallows.
The anger - the frustration - breaking through at the end there sounds more like the man he knows. He’s pretty sure that’s meant to be a request, but it sounds like an order.
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AN: After their last conversation, Mobei-Jun had a lot of soul-searching to do, and one of the conclusions he came to is that he can’t take anything for granted. He has to made explicitly clear, using words, which is apparently what matters with humans and with this human in particular, everything he feels. He can’t take the risk of continuing to hurt Shang Qinghua by letting the man think that he doesn’t regret hurting him or may hurt him again someday.
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He puts the Weeper’s Eye down.
He’s really sick of this thing. He doesn't want to carry it around all the time.
It only tells him things he knows, anyway.
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AN: We’ll get into the Weeper’s Eye in future chapters, but it’s... it’s not really a mind-reading device. It kind of is. It is a little bit. But part of the reason it’s so informative here is that Shang Qinghua is holding it and Shang Qinghua actually knows a lot about his characters and the people in his life.
Even the original characters, like Fanli, he knows well. She’s his family. He’s privy to Fanli’s problems through Jiahui and Liu Qingge if nothing else.
With Shen Yuan, he doesn’t know the kid well yet, but his fellow transmigrator isn’t that difficult to read and he’s been where Shen Yuan is.
Shang Qinghua putting the Weeper’s Eye down here is a show of trust of sorts. It’s a way of telling himself to get out of his own head, away from character roles and exaggerated panic, and put himself in the moment with someone he knows and... well... trusts and wants to trust even more.
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Shang Qinghua follows Mobei-Jun out of the basement, removing the spiritual seal from the wall, which makes the creepy basement entrance disappear, then replacing the flower that covered it. He hesitantly follows the demon lord back to the main room of his Leisure House. He has no idea how to stand, suddenly, or where to stand.
Mobei-Jun looks very determined.
“So, ah, should we… sit?”
“No,” Mobei-Jun replies, then abruptly says, “Shang Qinghua, you do not have to fear me. I do not wish to cause you any pain. Now or in the future.”
Shang Qinghua stares, wide-eyed.
That’s not… something he ever expected to hear explicitly.
Good! It's good, though! Very good.
It's great, really.
“...Thank you,” he says, stunned. “I don’t want to cause you pain either?”
“You have shown as much. Many times.”
This is probably not the time for an “Yes, I did tell you so” in any form!
Instead, trying to remember all the speeches he prepared while waiting, Shang Qinghua says, “You have too! In your own way! I just… my king, last time you visited was a… it was a very bad day for me. I apologize for my behavior! I was speaking from a place of-”
“Fear,” Mobei-Jun interrupts darkly. “Well-deserved.”
“Ah, well…”
“You believed that I would hurt you, in your state,” Mobei-Jun says.
“I was… it was very a bad and confused state, my king.”
“...You do not trust me.”
Shang Qinghua’s voice dries up on him. He wouldn’t put it that way, exactly! That sounds pretty terrible when said in such a blunt way. They’ve moved past that, haven’t they? It’s more that he trusts different people with different things! He trusts Luo Jiahui to be Luo Jiahui, and Liu Qingge to be Liu Qingge, and Mobei-Jun… to be Mobei-Jun.
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AN: Shang Qinghua and Mobei-Jun got really far without explicitly talking about things, but at some point that stopped cutting it.
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“I have hurt you before,” Mobei-Jun says, looking at him directly. “From a place of fear… of anger… of… misunderstanding. I am… sorry for this. I will not do so again. I was wrong to treat you in such a way.”
Shang Qinghua takes in a deep breath… and out again.
Fuck, it feels like his eyes are burning.
“You have my respect,” Mobei-Jun says quietly, urgently, not letting up on getting all of these words out into the open. “You have my regard. You have my trust. Yet I have not shown this in a way that you have understood, so you could not share this. I have demanded your loyalty without being deserving of it.”
“My king,” Shang Qinghua protests, taking a step forward. “I was- I should have said-”
“You did. Many times. In many ways. I did not understand.”
“I wasn’t very clear either-”
“It was my responsibility to be clear. I must be clear now.”
“You’re being very clear now,” Shang Qinghua agrees quickly. If things get any clearer here, if any more of the things they’ve left unspoken get said, his heart won’t be able to take it. “Thank you, my king. It means- thank you."
Mobei-Jun nods. He looks relieved.
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AN: I wanted to write a version of Moshang that felt... a little more mature? Shang Qinghua has developed a lot in this fic. He has grown as a person. And Mobei-Jun has seen this growth over the years.
Mobei-Jun has also been able to see into this Shang Qinghua in a way that wasn’t available in SVSSS canon. I think that SVSSS Shang Qinghua was locked the fuck down. I think he was almost completely inaccessible and offered very, very few openings for connection.
But in this universe, Mobei-Jun actually knows a lot more about Shang Qinghua. He knows what motivates Shang Qinghua. He knows that Shang Qinghua is a doting uncle and a doting older brother. He knows that Shang Qinghua has come to care for his sect. He knows that Shang Qinghua is intelligent and resourceful and funny. They drink together and talk politics! Mobei-Jun knows that Shang Qinghua is loyal and tired and trustworthy.
So... there was an opening here that didn’t exist in SVSSS canon.
And Mobei-Jun took it.
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Shang Qinghua knows that cultural differences are a hell of a thing here, but everything being understandable in hindsight didn't make it not fucking hurt. It still hurts, even finally having the apology he never thought he'd get.
"...We’ve been pretty bad at understanding each other, huh?”
“It has often seemed as though we were not meant to meet,” the demon lord says softly.
Shang Qinghua, who can't imagine getting through his transmigration experience without meeting this man, thinks over all the unknowing irony in that statement.
"...Maybe."
“The differences are… significant.”
Shang Qinghua laughs, almost disbelieving. “That’s a word for it!”
"But not impassable."
"Ah… I… hope not."
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AN: I’ll probably make a separate post for this, but I love Moshang transmigrator reveals. Bingqiu transmigrator reveals are mostly about the Abyss, which is great, because that needs clearing up. MOSHANG transmigrator reveals are like, “My weak human husband is a god???”
Also love it when MBJ is like, “Yes, this makes sense.”
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“I have never known what you have wanted from me,” Mobei-Jun says next, like a confession. “Your life, you have said, time and time again. Though I am only alive by your grace. You demand none of what you deserve of me.”
“...I don’t think ‘deserve’ is a good word for this,” Shang Qinghua says, which probably isn’t the right thing to say, but he’s really too stunned to come up with anything better. He really didn’t prepare for the right conversation here. “Aha, sorry, my king. It’s just… I don’t think I like to think about it in terms of ‘owing’ anymore. Between us. At least… not like some sort of strict balance? I do something nice for you, you owe me. You do something bad to me, I get to hurt you. Not… not like that.”
Mobei-Jun thinks about it.
“Sorry, I don’t really know what I’m saying-”
“You are deserving of better than what I have given you,” Mobei-Jun insists, determinedly. “I do not understand you. I have never understood you.”
Shang Qinghua feels the same way.
“But I would like to,” Mobei-Jun says next. “I would if you would allow it.”
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AN: Mobei-Jun is only alive because Shang Qinghua saved him and he knows it! And Shang Qinghua has never made the demands he should have made, having that kind of leverage over Mobei-Jun!
I’ve always wondered if this is deeply romantic by demon standards. Like, not inherently romantic. But I would bet that Mobei-Jun really likes the idea of a relationship where no one is keeping score... no one is granting favors to use like a leash of obligation... no one owes the other things they don’t want to give. I would bet that Mobei-Jun really, really likes the idea of a relationship where affection is freely given because the people in it want to give it.
He does feel as though he owes Shang Qinghua, but I think Mobei-Jun likes the idea that his favor is his to give just because he wants to give it.
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Mobei-Jun lifts a hand, slowly, and holds it out.
Shang Qinghua thinks about it.
He thinks about it again.
He reaches back and puts his hand in Mobei-Jun’s own, which is as cool to the touch as always, and moves over his skin carefully. His hold is so light that Shang Qinghua could break it without any issue at all.
They stay there, like that, looking at each other.
Looking at their hands, holding without hurting, after everything. It's such a small gesture.
It feels kind of like a miracle.
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AN: I am... a huge fucking sucker for Mobei-Jun holding Shang Qinghua waaaaay too lightly because he won’t risk hurting Shang Qinghua again. Like, this man is going to take it from the top. No more assumptions.
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“What do you want, Shang Qinghua?” Mobei-Jun says, voice turning up at the end, in the closest thing that the man might ever come to helplessness. “What do you want from this?”
“I…” Shang Qinghua wipes at his burning eyes with his free hand. This is kind of pitiful. “Fuck.”
Mobei-Jun lifts his free hand and uses his own sleeve to wipe at Shang Qinghua’s tears, like his robes aren’t important to him at all. “Ask,” the man says, in the tone of a promise. “You do not have to fear the future. Anything I have to give is yours.”
Shang Qinghua gives up on trying to speak and just moves forward to bury his face in Mobei-Jun’s chest. Fuck it. The demon lord who was supposed to kill his character lets him do it. Mobei-Jun holds on to him, arms heavy but still so careful, the man’s chest moving in a sigh that sounds like relief.
This really was too many unspoken things to finally say aloud all at once.
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AN: So, yeah! That’s what I’m been building up to with the Jiahui/Qingge marriage and the Qijiu fights and makeup, getting Shang Qinghua to think about what he wants from his relationship with Mobei-Jun. Luo Jiahui and Shen Qingqiu have basically been throwing the question at him repeatedly: “What do you want from this life, Shang Qinghua?”
Because it can’t all be plot! You’ve taken your family for yourself, but you can have more than that! You’ve made so many choices already... you can take this last step and make this choice too. Let Mobei-Jun in.
A lot of Moshang plots end up being “Shang Qinghua’s inability to communicate versus Mobei-Jun’s inability to communicate”. Which is great! That’s Moshang! And some external issue (a rival demon lord, Linguang-Jun, etc.) will end up being the secondary plot which acts as a scenario pusher for the primary plot of the Moshang relationship. Again, great stuff!
But since the romance isn’t the focus of this fic, I decided it would be fun to have a more “Shang Qinghua and Mobei-Jun versus the problem” take. (Which also shows up in lots of Moshang fics! Definitely not exclusive to this fic at all!) I’m looking forward to having Shang Qinghua and Mobei-Jun actually try and tackle problems together, as a couple, inside the main “Family of Choice” plot.
Which isn’t to say that Moshang have totally worked out their relationship here. They have only just gotten together. Mobei-Jun still has issues. Shang Qinghua still has many issues. They’ve got a lot to work out together. They’ve never been in a relationship like this before and there’s a lot of people out there who would object to their relationship! Their relationship is going to continue to grow as the fic continues. They’re going to have a few bumps in the road.
But I really like the idea of Mobei-Jun being Shang Qinghua’s rock in this fic. This man has been so stressed. He needs a hug from his ice demon boyfriend who can soothe headaches with a hand.
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When Shang Qinghua feels like he has himself more under control, he draws back just far enough to say, “My king, will you kiss me?”
Mobei-Jun’s expression is already soft, at least by his standards. His gaze turns hooded before he leans down as Shang Qinghua leans up. Shang Qinghua takes the man’s face between his hands to kiss him. It feels nice, if uncertain, with the hunger of something a long time coming at the end of it. There's years worth of wanting in this.
It has been so fucking long since Shang Qinghua kissed anyone.
He breaks the kiss and has to stifle laughter, clinging to the front of Mobei-Jun’s robes, which the man never closes properly, so now Shang Qinghua is never going to be able to not thinking about touching it. It’s a very nice chest to touch. He knew it would be.
Mobei-Jun’s brow furrows slightly, his hands staying on Shang Qinghua’s hips.
“What?”
Ah, sorry! Sorry, my king! It’s just- this is such a ridiculous detail to get stuck on, but your lips are kind of cold? I’ve, ah, I’ve always kind of wondered,” Shang Qinghua confesses quietly, without really meaning to actually say it. Holy shit, he’s going to blame saying something like this after that on the fact that he’s had a very long and very weird day. “Sorry. I'm really tired. It's fine. It's good.”
Mobei-Jun snorts and kisses him again, as if to say, “Deal with it.”
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AN: Cute! Mobei-Jun likes it when Shang Qinghua laughs. I stand by this.
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Finally started a writing blog! Hopefully this give me some incentive to update a bit more frequently... 😅
Fandom: Scum Villain
Ship: Bingqiu, background Moshang
Summary: When it was all said and done, Shen Qingqiu comforted himself that the end of the plot meant that, surely, all major events were out of the way. They were firmly in HEA territory and he could relax a little. Right? Right.
A year and a half into his marriage to the protagonist, he cursed himself for a fool when he woke next to a Luo Binghe from ten years in the past.
Meanwhile, a recently transmigrated Shen Yuan struggled to retain what little face he had when confronted with an overgrown, disturbingly gorgeous demon lord claiming to be his husband. Which is impossible, because he’s straight, the most hetero heterosexual to exist. System? A little help here??
Status: 6/7 Chapters Posted
Sequels: Yes! They will be mutually exclusive timelines (all with LBH and SQQ ending up together, but different ships) branching out from this story.
Excerpt below the break (from chapter 2).
He was kissing the protagonist.
Oh, what the fuck.
Before Shen Qingqiu could gather himself to pull away (because holy shit, what the fuck, what the fuck was he doing!), a loud noise made him jerk back abruptly with a gasp.
Luo Binghe seemed unconcerned with the commotion, eyes not leaving his face and fingers lightly stroking his cheek with such care that it made Shen Qingqiu almost want to believe the wild assertion that they were married. “So beautiful.”
“How–“ are you here was what he intended to say when his bedroom door was knocked off its hinges. He turned and saw Liu Qingge standing in the threshold, breaths heavy and eyes flicking between him and Luo Binghe.
He then realized what this looked like.
Shameless, he was so shameless! Shen Qingqiu groped at his dressing table blindly for a fan. To his surprise, Luo Binghe placed one gently in his hand. He shot him a grateful look in response only to immediately regret it.
Binghe! Why do you look so smug!
Oh, what the fuck.
“Liu-shishu,” Luo Binghe all but purred at his martial uncle. “Interesting that you’re here first. My money was on the Sect Leader.”
What?
“Get away from him,” Liu Qingge demanded, drawing Cheng Luan to Shen Qingqiu’s great alarm.
If there was one thing that could snap Shen Qingqiu back into a situation, it was a threat to the inner sanctum he had created in this insane world. “No, no! I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Liu-shidi, but you will not be fighting in my home!”
“I am removing an intruder.”
All formalities forgotten, Shen Qingqiu snapped. “It's my bedroom! You would think I would know better who is an intruder here than you!”
Both Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge blushed at his words. Even Luo Binge looked at him in pleased surprise before somehow radiating even more smugness towards the other Peak Lord.
He couldn’t take this anymore. He was at his limit. “Both of you! Get out! I need to think and I want to eat my breakfast in peace.”
“…”
“What’s that look?” Shen Qingqiu demanded.
“…You were going to eat that?”
Luo Binghe winced.
“What. Did you do. To my food.”
Liu Qingge looked at him like he had a few screws loose. “You really would have eaten food from this man?”
“It’s Binghe! I eat his food every day!”
“Did you miss the fact that he’s clearly not your teenage disciple or did he enchant you to forget?”
Luo Binghe scoffed. “First, you’re underestimating Shizun’s ability if you think he could be bespelled so easily. Second, I don’t need magic to distract my husband when a touch would do.”
“…”
Shen Qingqiu kicked them both out with all the dignity he could muster, which wasn’t much after Luo Binghe’s pronouncement. He was doing his best to pretend nothing was said because otherwise he felt his face would melt off, but that didn’t stop even Shen Qingqiu’s elegant body from going beet red. The shamelessness really was too much!!
Once his house was otherwise empty, Shen Qingqiu at his table (sans breakfast, damn you, Liu-shidi!) and buried his face in his hands. System? What the hell is happening?
[Thank you for contacting the System! Host is participating in the Special Event, “Back to the Future,” triggered by an alternate version of Host for his success in the mission “Marital Bliss!” Please enjoy your limited time with the alternate version of the Protagonist while you can!]
…
ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT I’M ACTUALLY MARRIED TO LUO BINGHE?!?
[Yes, the Host that triggered this Event has been married to the Protagonist for one year, five months, and eighteen days, and remains the Protagonist’s only intended spouse.]
O-oooh my god. Oh, My God! What the fuck, what the fuck. But I don’t like men!
[This System would like to convey the human emotion, “doubt.”]
#Scum Villain#svsss fic#svsss#bingqiu#luo binghe#shen qingqiu#bingyuan#scumbag system#mxtx#oh geez i'm really in it now huh
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Shang Qinghua & Parallel Characters Analysis
[Mild Spoilers for SVSSS, MDZS, and TGCF]
So I’ve been thinking a lot about Scum Villain recently, particularly the other characters aside from Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu. And of those characters, Liu Qingge and Shang Qinghua have taken up a majority of those thoughts.
But I’m just going to give some thoughts on our Airplane Bro today.
Honestly, I don’t think he’s given enough credit as an author, a transmigrator, or a Peak Lord/demon lord’s assistant. I mean, no matter how shitty his writing is, props to him for pumping out 10k words a day! That’s an impressive feat on its own, and he definitely deserves credit for that. If you wanted quality work, you shouldn’t come looking for a novel with daily updates that take an hour to read, Cucumber Bro.
Also, he died and then ended up in the body of a baby with full consciousness of himself, his past life, and what his future likely holds. He had to struggle through childhood again despite being an adult, bullied and beaten by his martial siblings, and later by his dream guy who really had no idea SQH was getting the wrong idea the whole time, but whatever. Though I do wonder what tasks his System assigned to him while he was a baby.
[New Mission: Potty train yourself by the end of this week. Reward: 10 points]
Jokes aside, SQH deserves a round of applause. The poor dude, underestimated by literally everyone in his lifetime, managed to work his way up to the position of Peak Lord and right-hand man of a demon lord. He was taken advantage of so much that it makes my heart hurt, but he just keeps going. Shang Qinghua, even if no one else is proud of you, I’m proud of you.
So upon these realizations, I also found some parallel characters from MXTX’s other works: Nie Huaisang from MDZS and Ling Wen from TGCF. They’re not perfect parallels, but let me explain.
First of all, both NHS and SQH are looked down upon and sorely underestimated all their lives. They’re seen as the weak, untalented, pretty much good-for-nothing characters. Half of the time, they serve as a doormat for others and are kind of the butt of many jokes. They themselves are also pretty aware of their uselessness compared to the “more talented” characters.
But both NHS and SQH are masterminds in their own rights. People overlook them, so they learned to blend into the background, pulling all the strings from behind the scenes. Everyone thinks they don’t know anything, but they literally know everything. They both have this helpless, abused puppy act that they put on to lower other people’s expectations of them in some sort of twisted manipulation that works really well. They also have a main character best friend who goes through a crazy love trial, and it’s somewhat due to their meddling. Not to mention, they’re overshadowed by powerful men who only know how to show tough love, but really just want the best for them.
Though I must admit that I wasn’t too fond of NHS from the beginning, I did sympathize with him a bit. But SQH, my precious boy, I’m glad he got a happy ending with his build-it-yourself demon boyfriend (husband?? I hope they got married).
Moving on, SQH and Ling Wen. Their similarities start and end with the fact that they have similar duties. SQH makes sure Cang Qiong Sect is running smoothly in terms of all the paperwork being in order, and all the funds are being used properly and whatnot. Basically, he does all the boring desk work while the other Peak Lords travel around and go monster hunting with their disciples.
LW is literally the only capable civil god in the Upper Heavens, and when she disappeared for a bit, the entirety of the Heavens were running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Paperwork piled up and got pushed around because no one wanted the responsibility of taking on such a task. Basically, nothing got done when she was gone.
So SQH and LW are both extremely underappreciated when it comes to their work. While their personalities differ quite a bit, they are both perpetually buried in piles of paperwork, nothing can get done without them, and they hold much more power than they will ever be given credit for.
Anyway, why did I bother picking him apart? It’s really just because I’ve got a lot of feelings right now, and Shang Qinghua is so fucking pathetic, I love him. I just want to angrily squish his cheeks and tell him I appreciate him, but also vent my frustration by screaming in his face. Did I mention he’s pathetic?
#shang qinghua#character analysis#nie huaisang#ling wen#svsss#mdzs#tgcf#meta#mxtx#Might go write an angsty moshang fic now just to make him hurt.#But also to give him the credit and happiness he deserves#But yeah. I might do Liu Qingge later. I’ve got feelings about him too.#writing stuff
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More SVSSS stuff because I just watched ep 5. I’m not in a position at the moment to pay for the VIP pass and plus it’s like one show that I’d be paying for, so eh. I think I can wait.
The highlight for me is definitely always just looking at Shen Qingqiu’s face. I really like how he looks. Like when they show grown Luo Binghe he looks nice too, but it’s not that often. When Liu Qingge comes out of the cave I’ll probably enjoy the eye candy for every episode thereafter. I’m not normally really like this, so I think the aesthetics of this show just touch on something very comfortable deep in the recesses of my memory of some kung fu movie I watched with my Dad as a young child that imprinted on me so I have a very specific weakness for men with that kind of a look.
I also have a very specific weakness for villain characters that have a kind of redemption or a complicated past with some inklings of maybe they could be redeemed even if overall they were kind of a dick for at least a portion of their lives. This is my Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho weakness that almost universally applies to almost all my interests in life. I think the idea that Shen Jiu set his owner’s house on fire and killed them all except for his friend relates rather strongly to that because that is the thing that Hiei ulitimately decided not to do, but was the thing the Koorime in Hyouka no Kuni feared. Except Shen Jiu acted on it.
But like Shen Jiu supposedly could have been saved if the original’s author was a better writer and wasn’t writing a bullshit stallion novel. Like the fact that he saved Haitang is a compelling example of how his heart wasn’t completely cold. Of course she was his fiancee and people kind of are iffy about if they really were, but like they probably were between each other. Even if he was a slave, she lived in his house and she was his friend and they talk to each other. Naturally if you get along with each other really well, maybe as kids you just say, “When I grow up, I want to marry you.” Then because they’re friends and they like each other, they agree and they plan it that way. Just between them. Nothing to do with her family or the reality of the situation. Just two cute kids making a promise innocently. But like with that backdrop, it’s kind of understandable that he would save her from his slaughter and the fire that he set to destroy her family house. The interesting thing is that he never once in his entire time living there or even in the aftermath tried to tell her what her family was really like and what they did to him. He left her to hate him for what he did and assume that her family was innocent and the attack was unprovoked. He didn’t do anything to destroy her image of her loved ones.
It’s really sad how strong his mistrust for other men is, but that’s trauma too. We’re not really given specifics of how exactly he lived as a slave. We know that he was the 9th one bought, but he likely slept in close quarters with other slaves because it’s not like a noble family would give a whole lot to their slaves and amenities were probably sparse. For very different reasons, the disciple quarters even on Qing Jing Peak are probably similar. Sparse to focus on training and cultivation and close because of the number of disciples and just the overall situation. Even if the quarters had relatively more space than his slave quarters, that does sound too similar for it to be a huge trauma trigger for him on top of being surrounded by mostly other males. Self-isolation as a result of the trauma and hyper focusing on just his cultivation as a means to survive and get by day by day and create the foundation for his entire identity and basically it’s definitely the set up for disaster and all of Shen Jiu’s problems socially that lead him to being the main villain for the original story. It’s very sad. If only Yue Qingyuan tried to actually talk with him more instead of apologizing. I know he probably figured ultimately his excuse doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t, but Shen Jiu really needed help and to feel like his whole world wasn’t cold. Just knowing that he was in his friend’s thoughts and he tried to come back maybe could have eased his suffering even a little and start to build up a new level of trust again for him in particular but even for men in general. It’s sad as well that no mentors in his time there as a disciple ever like kind of noticed and tried to like just talk to him. I know he keeps his cards close and probably didn’t show outwardly he was struggling, but like how come no one asked how come he was spending so much time at the Warm Red Pavilion with women? That’s strange right? No one was concerned? I mean, like even if ultimately you say, it’s up to you if you want to keep going and that’s your business, still maybe ask and be like, “Hey, so I notice you’re not sleeping along with the other disciples and spend every night with the ladies over there? Uh, what’s up?” I think like for his teachers that might have been an important thing they should have done, but no one did? That seems like a big plothole to me that he was allowed to just continue like that with no one asking even once or showing concern that the top disciple of Qing Jing Peak was not socializing with the other disciples or sleeping in the same quarters as them. I’m surprised even not one of the ladies in the Pavilion even asked why he was there every night. I mean, I’m sure they wouldn’t want to shoo a way a client, but like no one asked even like one time? I understand from the meta point of view that plothole is probably there on purpose to show how the original’s author was a dumpster fire to create a horrible world of super toxic masculinity as an ouroboros eating itself, but jfc I really feel bad for Shen Jiu that he was made to feel such suffering as a result of absolutely shit writing just to make him an enemy for Demon Binghe.
Oh and he just had a shit first cultivation master too. What the hell with the horrible luck. This poor kid is just trying to survive and he just gets a raw deal.
But I suppose that’s also like a masterful backstory on MXTX’s part to make us root for Shen Yuan’s rewrite and create a happy life for “Qingqiu” that he wasn’t able to make himself. He did it initially for his own self-interest, but the Qingqiu everyone knows in the end is much more well-adjusted. I’m still sad though that it feels like that means original Shen Jiu still left that world with Shen Yuan replacing him only knowing sadness.
So then I was poking around the tags on here and saw someone had a theory that original Shen Jiu got punted from his timeline and turning into Shen Yuan who knows the whole story and then dies and gets put into his old body. I actually buy this, but my version of the timeline is different. Like I was thinking Shen Jiu-Qingqiu died as a human stick under all the torture and everything and then became reborn as Shen Yuan reading through his whole life and mistakes through a horribly written story and then dying via food poisoning and brought into his own old life with a chance to redeem himself. I really like this idea except that Shen Jiu seems really, really straight and Shen Yuan may be a bit more fluid.
But all this to say, that I have an itch in a confluence of all of my weaknesses to want to really comfort Shen Jiu. ;o; There’s a small part of me that while enjoying Shen Yuan’s rewrites, also really wished Shen Jiu could have been happier so he didn’t turn into such a dick because literally no one else around him seemed to do anything except let him fuck himself over including the people who supposedly cared about him. So very sad. T_T
And then maybe this should be in a different post that’s a different topic. I kind of touched on a bit how the image of the situation probably doesn’t look great, but it looks like some people are like bashing on the Bingqiu ship? It’s the canon ship for one, so just stop there.
But if you really want to go into it, as another person pointed out, the actual teacher-student relationship was between original Qingqiu and Binghe. We’re reading a different situation because it’s Shen Yuan who was a Binghe fanboy who has the relationship with Binghe. The imaging isn’t great because he’s in and controlling Qingqiu’s body, and the rest of the characters in the world don’t know this, but the meta reading of this is that it’s okay because it’s a different person actually. In world, the other characters do probably find it a little odd and the issue with Qingge in the succubus cave as I mentioned before, he’s probably panicking when the succubus mentions that Qingqiiu’s love interest is a junior because he can only think of himself as that role and didn’t think to include a disciple into that description. It doesn’t seem like it’s completely unheard of or taboo though because there seems to be some implications that maybe Shen Jiu originally had some kind of designs on Ning Yingying because he’s also a bit jealous of Binghe for getting her attention too? A large part of his jealousy comes from his insecurity with his cultivation and other people having more advantage or potential to surpass him despite his hard work, because again trauma and hyper focusing on building his entire identity around one thing and no one helping him, but like also seems in this world there’s some leeway between teacher-student relations turning into something else. This is not really a normal kind of situation where they go into a modern school or anything. A lot of the disciples were probably at one point also juniors to their master before they graduated to become a lord, and when they grow enough to end their disciple term and can become more independent cultivators they’re not really obligated to stick by such a standard because they’re adults. Like maybe they hang around the sect still and work as like someone they happen to send out on demon slaying missions if they choose to stay instead of going off somewhere and it functions a bit more like an army in that regard where they’re not really learning anything new or getting any new instruction, but they’re still kind of a disciple. It’s not a perfect 1:1 relation to teacher-student relationships because of the structure of cultivation sects. It’s not great in the army to have a relationship with your CO either, but the point in the story when their relationship develops is more like that. But like Mingfan probably eventually would go back to his family and just live out a noble life because he is a noble, so it’s not like all the disciples would stay and perpetually be students forever. There’s some very important distinctions at play here in the story that the people who object to this aren’t understanding.
Like this isn’t like an actual school like in Harry Potter or something where the kids all go off to Hogwarts and there are actual students and teachers and every Peak is like a Hogwarts House. They’re learning and the peak lord gives them some level of instruction, but there’s also a great deal of independent study because cultivation is very personal and bound by natural talent and how much you put into it. The fact that everyone has their own manual should tell you a lot about the structure and how it’s okay for Qingqiu to leave for 3 years to go meditate in a cave. The masters in these situations are more like more well studied seniors who just have more experience and have been appointed to help you get unstuck or something because they have more experience to troubleshoot. There’s some authority carried with that as well, but it’s a very different experience from like a boarding school, so such a relationship is not entirely taboo. It’s not perfect because if you’re still trying to play the old roles at the same as your new role as a partnership that can get kind of weird, but it can work out if there’s communication involved as with generally all things.
So yeah, Bingqiu is actually okay, and rather than harping on something that’s not an issue, I think the more interesting discussion is how obligated a person is to be faithful to a different person’s life if they end up in their body. Like for body swap movies where the change is temporary they’re always like “Hey, don’t f up my life!” But like this is a permanent change where Shen Yuan was inserted into Qingqiu’s life after he was already established. What is the philosophical theory to how much he should keep up Qingqiu’s responsibilities and how much freedom should he exert for his own desires? That’s the real question. I think the balance he struck became ultimately more happy for everyone in the sect, so eh.
I realize a lot of this is not related to the episode, but the episode is just a continuation of the sparring match and nothing much else to say about it. The most interesting thing is getting to see a flashback of the original Qingqiu and getting a better idea of who he was like instead of the Shen Yuan version we know.
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LiuShen Week 2019 | Day 4 | In which they share kisses in different situations.
Written for LiuShen Week 2019
@liushenweek
Day 4: Loved (Free Day)
Title: And the Reason is You
Fandom: Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System
Characters/Ships: LiuShen
Rating: Slightly NSFW
Summary: Three times Shen Qingqiu kissed Liu Qingge, and that one time Liu Qingge initiated the kiss.
A/N: Holy shit. Am I writing again? I know, I’m shocked at myself too.
-
i.
“Liu-shidi, I—”
There was a hint of strain in his usually calm, assured tone, as if he was using his last ounce of strength to hold himself back from reaching out to the man sitting so close to him.
His shivering fingers lightly wrapped around the back of the other man’s neck, and he pulled his head down, their breaths mingling for just a brief moment, hearts thundering and drowning out everything else.
Even when he was slightly under the influence of the venom, Shen Qingqiu still somehow managed to kiss him with such careful precision and control. The mesmerizing taste of his osmanthus-scented breath — a clear sign of him being poisoned — was overwhelmingly saccharine when he touched his lips gently against Liu Qingge’s, who could only widen his eyes at the unexpected turn of events.
Two hours ago, they had dragged their exhausted bodies back to the inn after exterminating a group of high-level flower demonesses who had enchanted and kidnapped the town’s young men in order to suck their vitality in aid of their cultivation.
It wasn’t a particularly difficult encounter they had in terms of an extermination mission, but the leader of those demonesses had been cunning, enough that Shen Qingqiu – who, at least according to a scoffing Liu Qingge, had been too easy on them as the lord of Qing Jing Peak had initially planned to extract the kidnapped victims in a more polished means without causing too much of a mess – had fallen into the demoness’s trap.
Neither of them was seriously injured in the end, but Shen Qingqiu inhaled some of the dangerous sweet pollen, which as he soon found out to be a very potent aphrodisiac, and no long cold soak in the bathtub was able to completely erase the devastating effects of such venom. Tendrils of tantalizing heat and sparks of prickling sensation snaked up from within the depth of his body and spread to the surface of his skin, making him slightly flushed and breathless, almost as if he had a fever.
Shen Qingqiu had been absolutely vigilant of any physical contact since they came back, but it was all over the moment Liu Qingge’s fingers brushed against the back of his hand — swelteringly warm and over-sensitive – when he was handing him a cup of warm tea in an attempt to sooth the twitching, pulsing desire within him.
It took Liu Qingge much longer than he was willing to admit to react to the kiss, for the initially chaste touch of their lips quickly turned into something much more intense, something that threatened to rip Liu Qingge’s breath and last strand of logic away.
Then the acute, unnaturally sweet floral taste of Shen Qingqiu’s tongue shattered the illusion when he tried to deepened the kiss, and Liu Qingge quickly staggered back, shoving away the slightly shorter man, who was putting up quite a fight for someone who was supposedly poisoned and weakened.
“Shen. Qing. Qiu.”
With each syllable of the man’s name, Liu Qingge’s voice dripped with icy impassivity and quiet fury: a warning, or a subtle sign of fear.
“Damn it, Shen Qingqiu! Wake up!”
Shen Qingqiu’s eyes were clouded with raw lust stirred up by an artificial source, but the kiss had been real, the little noise of discontent rolling from the back of his throat when Liu Qingge pushed him back had been real, the desperate grasp of his sleeves when he attempted to come closer once more, and the eager way with which Shen Qingqiu called for him had also been real.
But…
You are not yourself, Liu Qingge thought.
He wondered why his heart was hurting so much when he finally lost the will to fight and simply allowed Shen Qingqiu to embrace him as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
And I am not the one you truly want.
-
ii.
“Liu-shidi, stay exactly where you are and don’t move!”
As soon as the Sha Lu Er flopped lifelessly onto the ground with a thundering thud, its gaping jaws twitching a few seconds more as human blood dripped from its yellowing fangs before it laid completely still, Shen Qingqiu returned Xiu Ya sword back into its sheath and ran towards his companion, his furrowing brows and hastened pace the only signs of his unease.
“Are you all right? Dear god, your arm…”
“I am fine,” Liu Qingge would roll his eyes at his shixiong’s melodramatic antics were he the type to do so; instead, he just acted how he usually would – avoided eye contact at all costs and pretending everything was fine, like the flesh and bones of his left arm weren’t crushed into a bloody, mangled mass by that damn fifteen-feet-long shark-deer monster that had been wreaking havoc and endangering the villagers in nearby towns. “Shen-shixiong has no need to be overly concerned for me.”
A pause, and then something hard hit the back of his head.
Liu Qingge uttered a pained groan and glared at the other man through the messy fringes of his forelocks, his iron-grey irises blazing in irritation despite his pale complexion due to blood loss from his injury.
Shen Qingqiu’s grasp on the handle of his fan tightened until his knuckles turned white, his lips pressed into a firm line as he maintained their eye contact.
“What the hell was that for?”
“What do you mean — that I don’t need to be concerned for you?! Liu Qingge, I thought we’ve gone over this already! What you did just now, throwing yourself so carelessly into the fight, I—” Shen Qingqiu exhaled harshly, turning his head away as uncomfortable warmth crept up from his neck to his cheeks when Liu Qingge continued to stare at him with a hint of curiosity laced within the initial frustration. “That was for making me worried sick!”
Liu Qingge blinked once, twice, finally comprehending what Shen Qingqiu was insinuating, and he stumbled the two steps forward to close the distance between them, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
“Shen Qingqiu…” he murmured, eyes lowered in a silent apology.
Shen Qingqiu lifted his arm and gently gathered a strand of Liu Qingge’s ink-black hair in between his blood-stained fingertips. He kissed his locks with a warm, tender light in his eyes that Liu Qingge had never seen before.
He didn’t dare imagine; he didn’t dare hope; he didn’t want to be disappointed.
“I cannot bear the thought of losing you, so please, Qingge, I beg you, don’t put me through that again.”
-
iii.
Shen Qingqiu kissed the back of the other man’s hand reverently, lips lingering on the skin marred with battle scars and tongue gliding over callouses hardened by swordsmanship training over the years. He traced his lips over the elegant structure of his fingers until he reached the tip of Liu Qingge’s middle finger, which he then took into the wet cavern of his mouth in its entirety, until the fingertip grazed the back of his throat, and he swallowed hungrily around it.
It was shameful: the wet sounds of Shen Qingqiu sucking on his skin like he couldn’t get enough of his taste reverberating in his ears, those mesmerizing red, swollen lips wrapping around his fingers, the trembling eyelashes surrounding the darkened irises that looked like Shen Qingqiu wanted nothing more than to consume him whole.
It was shameful, and Liu Qingge wanted to turn away from this unbecoming sight, but he couldn’t stop noticing how Shen Qingqiu’s chest was rising and falling deeply with each breath, or how his long hair, freed from the length of his hair tie, flowed like rivers of ink over the pale canvas of his shoulders.
“Mnn… Shen Qingqiu, stop playing around and get to it…” he’d meant to sound menacing, but the breathless way with which he uttered the threat betrayed the swelling desire barely contained within his shivering body.
At long last, as if finally satisfied by the teasing he’d instigated against his beloved shidi, Shen Qingqiu pulled his head away with a knowing smirk, a thin string of saliva still connected from his lower lip to the tip Liu Qingge’s finger.
On the battlefield, Liu Qingge incited fear in his enemies and admiration in his allies simply by his presence and the powerful arcs and sweeps of his Cheng Luan sword; in the privacy of their shared bed while lying underneath Shen Qingqiu, Liu Qingge somehow lost the prideful and confident air that made him one of the strongest combatants in the cultivation realm. Instead, he would relinquish all his control to Shen Qingqiu, who would then patiently guide him between the valleys and peaks of pleasure through agonizingly gentle touches and ferocious, carnal ecstasy.
“Qingge, is this how you ask your shixiong for something? Where are your manners, hmm?”
Shen Qingqiu had a light grip of Liu Qingge’s chin so that the other man couldn’t turn away as Shen Qingqiu had suspected he would.
With bloodshot eyes and lips that’d been bitten raw, Liu Qingge muttered a fairly impressive, “fuck you.”
“I thought that was the plan, was it not?” Shen Qingqiu laughed, amused by Liu Qingge’s lackluster insult as he placed a soft kiss on the other man’s forehead. “Or are you having second thoughts?”
“Never.”
-
+i.
Shen Qingqiu was not good at cooking. He wasn’t awful at it per se, as he had the skills of making instant noodles with various toppings back in the good, old days without burning down his tiny apartment, but he’d choose to go exterminate a bunch of evil demonic beings over doing this any day.
But for his cultivating partner — the light and love of his life, his newly-wedded husband — he would cook him a proper meal even if it killed him.
Perhaps he was being a little over-dramatic in this matter.
Shen Qingqiu chopped the tofu half-heartedly, trying to recall the specific way Luo Binghe had taught him, but all his effort only resulted in uneven chunks of the silky white curds, one-fourth of the portion he was certain he’d turned into useless mush that couldn’t be pan-fried in the wok.
On second thoughts, maybe he should have taken actual notes when Luo Binghe had been teaching him how to make a few homely dishes just a few days ago.
He was about to get another cube of tofu sitting in the wooden tub of cold water when Liu Qingge’s voice could be heard from the kitchen’s entryway.
“Shen Qingqiu, there you are,” the lord of Bai Zhan Peak had a slight, confused frown to his brows when he stepped into the kitchen and gradually made his way towards his partner. “I have been looking all over for you… what in the world are you doing?”
He raised one of his brows in puzzlement. “What is this? Are you… are you making dinner?”
“Trying,” Shen Qingqiu emphasized the keyword in this matter. “And failing miserably, as you can see.”
He stepped away from the counter to let Liu Qingge observe his progress — or lack thereof, rather.
Shen Qingqiu sighed, placing the knife down on the cutting board.
“Binghe spent almost four hours the other day teaching me how to make this dish, too. Now I feel terrible for wasting his time. It seems that I have learned nothing from our culinary lessons.”
Liu Qingge’s eyes flashed dangerously at the mention of Luo Binghe.
“Wait, you were with that brat? On your own? When was that? How many times have I told you to stay away—”
“Oh, calm down,” Shen Qingqiu chuckled, swiftly going over to his partner and wrapping his arms around the taller man’s shoulder, pulling him closer as he continued, “he’s just a mere child, Qingge. Why must you two always act so childish and hostile to each other every time you meet? It’s understandable for him to act this way since he’s still a teenager, but Liu Qingge, you are the renowned, respectable Bai Zhan Peak Lord. You don’t have to stoop down to a child’s level like that. I know you are better than that.”
“Hmph. I do not understand why you are so protective of that brat, but he is your disciple after all. Just… promise me to be careful of his intentions when you are around him by yourself.”
“Duly noted,” Shen Qingqiu noticed the genuine worry in his partner’s eyes, and he nodded solemnly in response. With the ill-chosen topic out of the way, Shen Qingqiu once again glanced over at the atrocity he’d created in the short span of twenty minutes of meal preparation. “Now then, I suppose I should clean up this mess and let the kitchen staff reclaim their space.”
“Wait,” Liu Qingge placed a hand over Shen Qingqiu’s as the Qing Jing Peak Lord was about to reach for the knife.
“Hmm?” Shen Qingqiu turned to look at his partner, his head tilted to the side slightly in question. “Qingge, what is it?”
“I…” Liu Qingge bit his lower lip as he struggled to put his thought into words, his cheeks gradually turning pink. “I would like to try your cooking, i-if you do not mind, that is.”
Almost as an afterthought, Liu Qingge lowered his head and pressed a firm but gentle kiss against Shen Qingqiu’s lips before he stood up straight once more, the tips of his ears burning such a bright red that it was impossible for either man to ignore.
“Um,” Shen Qingqiu lost the ability to process for a good five seconds before he said with a bright smile that made his entire being glow with pure happiness, “sure.”
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TCGF Liveblog Chs 32-49
So I’m SO into this.
Like I don’t know what it says about me that with Luo Binghe I was all “he’s too dark and evil and demon-y and I can’t get into him as a romantic hero” and with Hua Cheng I’m all “Yes, Demon King, I’m love him” but hey, that’s the facts.
So I read through the Ghost City part, and that was fun and weird. I have to say I really love this big scary Demon Lord who is just SOFT AS FUCK for Xie Lian. Like, damn, that’s good shit, you know? And Xie Lian is just like...yeah okay this might as well happen, being a god is already so fucking weird.
So we also got that story about Xie Lian being the teacher of the other Crown Prince guy (apologies but there are a lot of similar names) and murdering his whole family? Umm, there’s clearly Some Story there? But I’ll just have to wait for it, I guess. This whole book is pretty fascinating because you keep getting hints of lots and lots of stuff under the surface, but not getting explanations. Like what is up with him and Jun Wu? Clearly something.
So yeah, Xie Lian is under house arrest and Hua Cheng liberates/kidnaps him and...okay I’m on board for whatever the hell is going on. Also do not think I did not notice HC being disappointed when XL mentioned his abstinence. I kinda knew that was a thing as a reason for there not to be smut scenes in this one, due to censorship but...well I hope we at least skirt the line there a little eventually. Look, I’m just clearly a horny person, have you seen my fic?
Oh also, I forgot to mention, for the record I’m suspicious as fuck about the boy with the human face plague. Like, he’s...someone important and is going to somehow fuck everything up at some point. I’m watching you, MXTX and this guy has “will emotionally destroy you” written all over him.
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CYS AU: Don’t Make Me-
Yo; so here we are, the first thing I end up writing for the Choose Your Shizun (CYS) AU....and it be Angst :D (Warning: canon typical violence and yeah, this is Scum Villain..)
CYS Brothers (Read this for more info about the au)
Many things could be said about Shen Qingjia: that he was one of the best fighters of the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, the rumored third strongest of the Peak Lord, with only the Sect Leader and Liu-shidi more powerful. That while he was no beauty, he still made one striking figure on the battle field, wielding his cunning in turn with his sword, his ability for strategy just as cutting as any blade could hope to be. How many, so many, wished for but a glance from him, for a word to be spoken, for the much desired position of being one of the chosen few under his teachings and wisdom for battle; both the one of the battlegrounds and the meeting rooms.
Yes, many things could be said of Shen Qingjia; but for Shen Jiao, the youngest of the Shen Triplets, very few words ever really mattered to him and even fewer opinions ever reached his thoughts. But as with most things in life, both of those things had to deal with his brothers.
And he would never admit to anyone, never even speak the words least he risk them, but those same brothers have always been his biggest weaknesses. From his quiet, prickly broth A-Jiu, to his softer, calmer brother A-Yuan, their thoughts, words, and even opinions on him have always been the most effective for his state of mind. A smile of pride from them could make his day brighter just knowing it was there, to a frown of disappointment making him work himself to the bone just to correct the mistake.
But of these two brothers, he would have to admit, Shen Yuan was always the one to inspire more protective feelings. And this was something both the youngest and eldest of the triplets could admit to, what with how soft and kind their brother remained able to be, still able to see such wonder and good in the world, even after all they had been to. How many times they had been beaten and abused, with how many lies and broken promises they have been fed, their beloved middle still looked to the good in the world and remained happy to be alive.
Something, Shen Jiao would admit, made him feel jealousy even as he cursed his brother’s soft heart.
It is his brother’s soft heart, that he first thinks about, when he sees his brother’s disciple be revealed as a demon, one of the Heavenly fucking Blood at that, right before his eyes.
He does npt think, before he has his blade pointed at the boy, whose red eyes grow wide at the sight.
“I-”
“Do not speak, Luo Binghe; it is for the best that you leave here, go with the other demons before I change my mind.”
The boy makes to argue, scowling as he does, even going so far to talk about his beloved Shizun-
“Do you not understand just how much you are endangering that person the longer you stay?!” Shen Jiao finally yells, furious as he glares the boy into submission, who finally backs down, eyes wide in horror at the words.
“I-I’m putting Shizun in danger?” is mumbles
“You are of demon blood; who has been taking care of you, who has been training you, aiding you, letting a demon sleep under their very own nose, even cooking their meals? Maybe, if brother is lucky enough, and that Sect Leader able, he could be thought a fool, tricked by a Heavenly Demon and just forced into Isolated Cultivation to reflect on his sins for aiding and abetting one of the Cultivation world’s nightmares.” the youngest Shen asks his unanswerable question, the only reason he is not killing the youth before him right now, right here is for two reasons.
One; if he were to kill this boy, Shen Yuan might just never forgive him for it, what with how he treasured this youth. (Oh, his brother may never find out, maybe not even suspect, but him knowing and causing him the pain he would surely go through because of it would be unforgivable to himself.)
Two; he knew that look the boy was wearing on his face right now; the utter and complete anguish, fear, and self-hatred of knowing you were a burden. (It might have been years since he wore it, but it was a look one could never forget, seen clearly in the room with a mirror as he was forced to watch as either of his brothers ended up whipped.)
Staring at this boy and taking in that look, Shen Qingjia puts away his sword, before he starts riffling though his bag; he won’t need to use it now, not with how the young man looks close to jumping off the edge himself. He only hesitates for a second, before a thought on his older brother steels him, he walks to the boy and hands him a few items.
“Wha-”
“For some damn reason, you have actually managed to worm your way into my brother’s heart like the little parasite you are, Luo Binghe.” is said rather flatly, no warmth able to be found there, “If for nothing else, do your damn fucking best to live for him, to control this new power, and maybe, and this is quite the maybe, come back to him when you are ready. Any sooner, any question of my brother’s safety comes into play, and I will slaughter you with an ease even most demons would envy.” is the only warning Shen Jiao gives the boy, before he rather simply, but purposely, pushes him into the edge of the Abyss.
He does not watch as the boy falls, nor how he clutches in his hands the two bags of holding filled with extra supplies for a month or two. (A habit that Shen Jiao still finds he can’t break, already feeling uneasy with them out of his possession.)
Instead, he can’t help but think.
Don’t make this any harder then it already is.
Don’t make me regret this.
Don’t make me the one who killed my brother’s beloved disciple.
Don’t make me be the one who broke my brother’s heart.
“Fall demon... but make damn sure you rise again, Luo Binghe.”
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I forgot to post this here, so here you go.
Shen Qingqiu doesn’t visit Mobei-Jun.
It would have been incredibly awkward anyway. Mobei-Jun came with Shang Qinghua. They must be sharing a bed? What if Shen Qingqiu showed up only to interrupt them? There has been enough walking on people without him adding on it. No, better to remain by himself. Plus, it’s not like he was the one who demanded company. That was all Luo Binghe’s idea. He can definitely wait for his husband’s return.
Without Shen Qingqiu to interrupt them, Mobei-Jun will realise he’s got more than he can handle with Shang Qinghua and not miss Shen Qingqiu one bit. He’ll find out he doesn’t need anyone else. With some luck, he will have an epiphany and propose to Shang Qinghua on the spot.
…So maybe that outcome is somewhat unlikely, but it’s a start. Shen Qingqiu will plan something better later. There’s no way he can’t outwit the writer of Proud Immortal Demon Way and his favorite creation.
____________
Having Mobei-Jun sent away sight unseen when he comes calling is a bit harder than just not meeting him, but he stands strong. It’s for his own good.
He still feels like a jerk.
____________
He finds out he should have left his servants similar instructions regarding Shang Qinghua if the way he’s angrily pacing in his room is any indication. “Bro! What are you thinking! You’re being an ass, taking it out on Mobei-Jun!”
Shen Qingqiu blinks. “I’m not taking anything on anyone.”
“Maybe that’s your problem then. Maybe you should be taking something, if you get my meaning.”
Shen Qingqiu throws his fan at Shang Qinghua’s head.
He didn’t like that one much anyway.
Shang Qinghua rubs his head, outraged. “Hey!”
“What did you expect, saying something this dumb? I’m only trying to help you out! The least you could do is being appreciative of my efforts.”
“If that’s what you’re doing, you’re going at it all wrong. Mobei-Jun has no idea why he’s in the doghouse when you’re the one that pushed him toward me, which I am still pissed at you for by the way. We’re bros! You could have gotten me in the loop! But nooo, Shen Qingqiu only gets involved when someone tells him not to. Bastard.”
“I’m not punishing him!” Not being with Shen Qingqiu is not punishment! Only Luo Binghe would think that. “I’m giving you two time to be together. How can that be construed as punishment?” He’s being thoughtful! Seriously, the nerve of some people, accusing him of dirty deeds he never intended!
Shang Qinghua sighs. “Fine. Tell him that. Maybe he’ll accept it coming from you, because all my attempts at soothing him didn’t help. He really thinks he offended you in some way, and he’s been taking it out on his people. It hasn’t been fun.”
Shen Qingqiu winces. Shang Qinghua had told him all about how Mobei-Jun could get when he was in a mood. “Sorry.” Since that’s his fault, he’s going to have to do something about it, won’t he? “I’ll go see him later today.” He needs some time to prepare himself.
Shang Qinghua glares. “Promise.”
Shen Qingqiu can’t believe him. “Seriously?”
“Yes. No worming out of this one. Mobei-Jun needs you.”
“No he doesn’t, but okay, fine, I promise I’ll go see him and have a nice little chat. I’ll bring cookies. Happy now?”
Shang Qinghua relents. “Fine.” He looks around. “Are there cookies? Cookies Bing-ge made? Can I have some?”
“No and no.”
Shang Qinghua withers. “Aww. Get me some, would you? It’s not fair you’re the only one who gets to eat my son’s food.”
Shen Qingqiu is not going to tell him he had shared a meal Luo Binghe made with Mobei-Jun a few times.
____________
It takes him less than a minute to realise that Shang Qinghua was right.
Damn it.
Because Mobei-Jun talks so little, getting to know him means getting better at reading his body language. From the way he doesn’t reach for Shen Qingqiu, from the careful distance he’s keeping between them, from the faintest line of tension going through his frame, Shen Qingqiu can tell Mobei-Jun is feeling uneasy with his presence. He doesn’t know how to react.
Shen Qingqiu sighs inwardly. This should be Shang Qinghua’s job, not his, but since his fellow transmigrator is still too skittish to dare tell his future husband the truth, Shen Qingqiu is going to have to do it for him. “I believe I should apologise. By my absence, I did not intent to make you feel like you had done something wrong.”
Mobei-Jun straightens by a fraction.
Shen Qingqiu forges on. “Mobei-Jun must understand that he and I are from very different worlds.” More than he knows, but he’s not going there. “The average human only has one spouse, with whom they will share their whole life.”
Shen Qingqiu is not the type of person that likes to have heart-to-heart, but the thing with Mobei-Jun is that, unlike Luo Binghe or Shang Qinghua, if Shen Qingqiu tells him something sappy, he’ll never hear about it again. In some ways, it’s easier to share secrets with him than anyone else. “If I were the one having to handle someone else sharing Binghe’s life, if he were to tell me he was going to marry someone else, I would be…. devastated. I would wonder what I did wrong, that I couldn’t be enough for him. Am I not attractive enough? Was I too strict with him, have I been more Shizun than Husband? Did he tire of my prudishness and pick a more adventurous lover who won’t mind him collecting a harem of beauties, one who will give the children I never will?” Wait, break, enough of that. “What I mean is I could never stand it. The idea that Shang Qinghua, who was raised in a very similar way to me, might feel the same, especially if he were to see me as his competitor, is… disagreeable. We don’t always get along, but I do not want to hurt him because of something,” he gestures between himself and Mobei-Jun, “this frivolous. Hence my recent coldness. Please do not take it personally.”
There. Shen Qingqiu has said more about how he feels tonight than he has in the last year. Shang Qinghua better be grateful.
Shen Qingqiu sits down on a nearby chair and prepares himself to wait patiently. He does not expect Mobei-Jun to respond quickly. The man will need time to assimilate all the information and decide how to react. He can be as deliberate as Shang Qinghua is reactive. In this, maybe they balance each other out.
“Shang Qinghua never said anything about that.” The tension is back. If Shen Qingqiu is reading him right, poor Mobei-Jun is wondering how he missed something this crucial about his peak lord.
“Of course he didn’t. He, more than me, knew that his expectations were different from yours, and was willing to discard them for your sake. This is not a position I agree with. At the very least, I think this is something you should be made aware of so that you make an informed decision about your future. Until it has been discussed, I would rather keep our interactions platonic.” There. That should be good enough. In fact, no one should ever talk that much. His mouth is dry.
Mobei-Jun stands up. “I will talk to him.”
Shen Qingqiu grabs the back of his fleeting robe. “Maybe think about you will say for a little longer? I suspect the topic will come as a shock to him.”
“…What should I tell him?”
Nope. Shen Qingqiu did more than his part here. He is all burned out of romantic advice. “The truth. Just don’t be too frank. He’ll spook.”
Mobei-Jun nods slowly.
Shen Qingqiu decides to give himself a point.
____________
Shen Qingqiu wishes Luo Binghe would return earlier. Shang Qinghua has been throwing him doubtful glances, which means he knows something is up but he doesn’t know what. Shen Qingqiu would feel safer knowing his husband is by his side when whatever mess he unleashed reveals itself.
Sadly, he isn’t back when Shang Qinghua storms his room. “When Luo Binghe returns, I’m going to tell him you’re terrified of him finding out he really wants his original harem and that’s why you’re going along with his weird kinks. You’ll see how fun that is.”
Shen Qingqiu freezes on the spot.
“…Okay, no I won’t do it, you don’t have to look that scared. I get that you had good intentions when you did what you did, but you’re still an asshole for making decisions for me. And you of all people shouldn’t meddle with others’ communication issues, for fuck’s sake.”
Shen Qingqiu starts breathing again. “Since you’re not strangling me, I take it things worked out?” Please let things have worked out. Shen Qingqiu would never forgive himself if the romance he had tenderly nurtured from the shadows had dissipated because of his involvement.
“Yeah. He’s willing to give monogamy a shot. Bro, I think he might really care if I’m happy?”
Shen Qingqiu resists the urge to wipe the astonishment off Shang Qinghua’s face via violence. It’s not his fault his chosen partner is not very demonstrative when it comes to gestures of affection. “Congratulations for finding yourself a lover who cares about your well-being. That very low bar has been cleared. Anyway, I could have told you that a long time ago.”
Shang Qinghua snorts. “Yeah, right.”
“I’m serious! Why do you think he even agree to Luo Binghe’s offer to share my bed in the first place?”
“Are you looking for me to tell you how hot you are? Because that’s not happening.”
Shen Qingqiu rolls his eyes. “No. I know what I look like. I’m aware I’m not playing in the same field as our inhumanly attractive demons. That’s not why he said yes. He said yes because he wanted to know how to bed a human male properly. I wonder who that was for?”
“…No way.”
“Yes way.”
“…Seriously?”
“Seriously. You don’t have anything to fear from me. He only had eyes for you from the beginning.” There. That should give Shang Qinghua some self-confidence. He needs it.
“Huh. Never saw that coming. Well, that’s… good to know.” He shakes his head. “Should I… Nah, it doesn’t change anything. Since you’re the one who brought it up, me and Mobei-Jun talked about you, and we decided you should keep seeing him.”
Wait, what? “Doesn’t that go against the whole monogamy thing? Is that really a good idea?”
Shang Qinghua shrugs. “It’s not the same thing, and you know it. When I said I didn’t mind you being with him, I was honest about it. There’s no way the two of you are going to elope or something equally ridiculous. In fact, I think you’re good for each other.”
Shen Qingqiu cannot even. “I know I told you we’re not in a relationship. It’s just sex. Unless you’re really bad at it, he doesn’t need me for anything.”
“Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. Look, just like Bing-ge will always be your disciple, Mobei-Jun will always be my king. Just because we’re more now won’t make this imbalance disappear. Having people in your life not trapped within those systems is not a bad thing. Anyway, you can deny it all you want, but I’m telling you you guys are friends, at least. You get him the way only two emotionally constipated people can.”
Shen Qingqiu will probably never understand how Shang Qinghua’s brain works. “Even if I were to accept your starting premise, which I do not, why couldn’t we remain platonic? Surely the sex is an optional part of the “friendship”? Why not focus on your romantic relationship and cut off everyone else from that aspect?”
Shang Qinghua sighs.
Shen Qingqiu is annoyed. If anyone should be sighing, it’s him. He’s the one having to deal with nonsensical logic.
“Just trust me on this, okay? If it fizzles out, it fizzles out, but for now, you’re both into it so I’m giving you the okay.”
Shen Qingqiu glares. “That doesn’t explain anything.”
“Some things don’t need to be explained. Look, it makes Mobei-Jun happy, so I’m for it. Let’s go with that.”
This is something he can understand, at least. Shen Qingqiu is known to have done some nonsensical things just because it made Luo Binghe happy. “You’re sure you’re fine with it? Because I will back down if you’re not, no other question asked.”
Shang Qinghua waves him off. “Yes. 100% sure. Go see him and work out all that anxiety you created in all of us. He’ll feel better if you show him that you’re not pissed at him anymore.”
“I’ve never been!”
“Tell him that!”
Shen Qingqiu had never signed up for any of this mess. “If you’re certain, I will.” He’s right in that it will be nice to put this whole drama behind them.
Still, as he exits the room, he can’t help thinking that leaving Shang Qinghua behind to be with his partner doesn’t feel right.
He has a flash, there and gone, of Mobei-Jun’s reaction at Luo Binghe’s implications. At this moment, it would be so easy for Shen Qingqiu to ask Shang Qinghua to just… come along.
He banishes the thought as soon as it crosses his mind. Binghe said no. It’s no.
He doesn’t look back.
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Chapter 29: “The Ringing Bells” of “pride is not the word I’m looking for” quotes and commentary. Not a full list of favorite quotes or full commentary.
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It’s just been him, Yue Qingyuan, and the not-so-modest Qiong Ding entourage befitting Cang Qiong Mountain Sect’s leader. Shang Qinghua and Yue Qingyuan still haven’t talked about anything personal (Shang Qinghua kind of hopes they never will!), but putting up a united front and then putting up with other sects seems to have brought them closer together again.
If Shang Qinghua had given in to his idea of bringing a flask of emergency wine in his sleeve, they could have made a drinking game or something every time someone managed to “casually” mention that Zhao Hua Temple Sect’s barrier techniques were the best in the world. With that face Yue Qingyuan made after the third, ear-gouging hour of listening to a long line of Zhao Hua experts condescend to them about security measures that will surely stop invading demons in their tracks, Shang Qinghua would have bet the man could have been talked into it. Big Bro would have been down, he’s sure.
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AN: There is something immensely amusing to me that Yue Qingyuan and Shang Qinghua of all people run this sect (like, sure, SQQ and WQW and the other peak lords do stuff too, but YQY and SQH seem to be the ones who actually deal with worldly affairs and interact with people). To me, they both have such “I don’t want to be here” energy. YQY would rather be thinking about his slow reconciliation with Shen Qingqiu, and SQH would rather be daydreaming about the sexy ice demon he’s been betraying the sect for for 20 years.
But nooo, they have to be responsible.
Yue Qingyuan nearly dying at the end of SVSSS to me had such... vibes of relief? This man is carrying SO MUCH stress over his position and his responsibilities and appearances, that his reaction to dying seems to be at least a little bit: “Oh, time to put everything down. I can give up. I don’t have to be the invincible sect leader above it all anymore. Thank goodness.” You can fit so much trauma and unhealthy ideation in this man!
Which is, I think, why this connection between SQH and YQY was a little inevitable in this story. They’re both carrying so much stress and trauma, and doing their best to not let anyone see it, so they really relate to each other but... in a way that’s kind of one-sided on both parts? Because SQH isn’t supposed to know shit about YQY’s past or pressures. And YQY doesn’t have the full picture of what SQH is dealing with at all. After their fight after SQQ died and SQH coming forward about their invasion, SQH and YQY are finally getting to have some more direct connection, but neither of them are willing to put their masks down yet. It goes against their natures and their perceived duties (as sect leader and a transmigrator/traitor) to honestly confide in each other.
YQY and SQH both kind of have a “I know better than you” thing going on here. Yue Qingyuan because he’s the sect leader and he’s been taught that he has to manage himself and everyone else. Shang Qinghua because he’s a transmigrator and also... the fallen creator god of this world?
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Yue Qingyuan is apparently just as eager to make it home as Shang Qinghua is. Their travel pace puts them a full day ahead of schedule, and Yue Qingyuan courteously sends his youngest personal assistant ahead via flying sword to warn the sect.
“Shen-Shixiong and Wei-Shixiong will need time to hide the mess from all the parties they’ve been throwing in our absence,” Shang Qinghua jokes.
Yue Qingyuan looks at him with polite but concerned bemusement.
“Aha, never mind, I’ll just… go check the last report my head disciples sent me again.”
None of them are expecting the assistant, who flew off with all the energy and eagerness of youth, to return only a little over an hour later. The assistant is red in the face and panting for breath. He collapses in front of Yue Qingyuan.
“Shizun, I-! I turned back as soon as I saw- in the distance-! The sect was on fire! Qiong Ding Peak was on fire!”
Yue Qingyuan and Shang Qinghua exchange a look of shock. When Shang Qinghua joked at the beginning of their journey that the sect would probably set itself on fire without them there to do damage control, he really was only joking! He’s had way too much of the shit he says coming true on him!
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AN: I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but Yue Qingyuan’s youngest assistant is the kid that Shen Qingqiu shoved on him from the House of Rejuvenation mess. Qi Qingqi and Liu Qingge picked up Luo Fanli from that, Shen Qingqiu picked up Fu Qiang from that, and Yue Qingyuan got this kid.
He doesn’t have a name yet, but he’ll probably get one at some point. Probably in Part 4 when Shen Yuan and Fu Qiang’s story comes to the forefront.
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“Shishu!”
Shang Qinghua turns and gets an armful of nephew. Binghe’s arms wrap around him with no care for the bandage around one of them and Binghe’s warm face is buried into his neck - he’s so tall now - to share his dirt stains.
Shang Qinghua has no idea what to do. He wants to hug his very huggable nephew, of course, but in front of so many people?! He can’t just shove Binghe away either! Luckily, Binghe seems to realize his mistake about two seconds after contact and launches away from Shang Qinghua, bowing deeply enough to hide his face completely.
“Apologies for tripping, Shishu!”
Shang Qinghua nearly laughs. “Ah, ah, it’s fine. It’s fine.”
This is probably one of the worst kept secrets in the sect, anyway.
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AN: This is absolutely a reference to Binghe pulling this trick in SVSSS canon, only unlike SY, Shang Qinghua recognizes the excuse.
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Luo Binghe clears his throat and intervenes before his friend can accidentally kill Shang Qinghua with kindness or something. “The demon saintess Sha Hualing and her followers attacked.”
“Oh,” Shang Qinghua says, relaxing a little.
“Is that all?” he thinks. “Phew! Earlier than I was expecting, but okay!”
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AN: It’s very funny to me to have CQMS going, “Demon attack! Demon attack! Totally unexpected demon attack!” And Shang Qinghua going, “Shit, I think I put that down on my calendar wrong. Did I put that down on my calendar...?”
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This apparently prompted Liu Mingyan and Luo Fanli to volunteer at the same time.
“They looked like they were going to argue over it, at first, or even fight over it,” Luo Binghe says. “Qi-Shigu and Liu-Shishu didn’t seem to want to let them fight, but they just ignored them and almost started a quick hand-game over who would get to fight. And then the demoness said… she said… she...”
“What?” Shang Qinghua asks.
Ning Yingying lifts her nose to the sky and declares, “She said: ‘If I get a say in this, I want to fight the pretty one in the veil, and not the old lady!’ So rude!”
“...Ah,” Shang Qinghua says again.
That explains the awkward grimace Binghe is making right now.
“Liu-Shijie and Luo-Shijie froze, then Luo-Shijie just looked at Shizun and Qi-Shigu and Liu-Shishu,” Ning Yingying continues. “ Snap! And then it was really quiet. And then Shizun said, ‘I’ll allow it.’ And Qi-Shigu and Liu-Shishu and even Liu-Shijie didn’t say anything.”
“Of course not! Shizun outranks them,” Ming Fan says.
As though that has ever honestly mattered to Liu Qingge or Qi Qingqi.
“So she got to fight the demoness,” Luo Binghe says, like it was a foregone conclusion that his stubborn auntie would get what she wanted. Who’s surprised about this? Not this long-suffering nephew!
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AN: So, Sha Hualing made the “old lady” joke in front of 1) Qi Qingqi, Luo Fanli’s teacher who knows about her student’s past with the House of Rejuvenation, 2) Liu Mingyan, Luo Fanli’s friend who either knows about it or recognizes that LFL is touchy about her age, 3) Liu Qingge, LFL’s brother-in-law who also knows, and 4) Shen Qingqiu, who was THERE and that’s how they met.
So, there’s sort of a collective, “If we don’t let Luo Fanli try to beat the shit out of this demon girl, we will never hear the fucking end of it,” here.
Also, as soon as I made Luo Fanli into Liu Qingge’s apprentice of sorts, there was no way that she was NOT going to want to fight Sha Hualing, and it seemed a good way to shake things up from canon while also doing some stuff with the Fanli & Binghe relationship. I’m really trying to breathe new life into all the scenes that I’m redoing from SVSSS.
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“She kicked that demoness’ ass!” Ning Yingying squeals.
“Ning Yingying!” Ming Fan hisses.
Shang Qinghua snorts. “Oh? Really?”
“It was rough,” Luo Binghe says, while Ning Yingying and Ming Fan both turn bright red realizing what she just said in front of a Peak Lord. Binghe, however, has totally heard Shang Qinghua say way worse than that. “The demoness was really good and really mean, and she kept getting up even after she got slammed into the ground, but eventually she got pinned and had to forfeit to keep her head. Fanli is still mostly in one piece. She’s over there right now with Mu-Shishu and Liu-Shishu.”
Shang Qinghua follows his nephew’s finger, then winces. His little sister-in-law looks pretty roughed up, her face is beginning to swell and she’s got a lot of claw marks, but she’s grinning up at Liu Qingge. Liu Qingge looks totally fine, besides some flecks of blood that must belong to other people, and is smiling down at her.
Mu Qingfang looks less than enthusiastic about all this as he treats Luo Fanli’s injuries of victory.
Aha, yeah, Liu Qingge is definitely the one explaining this to Luo Jiahui later.
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AN: I really like building and having built up all these relationships. I like giving Binghe friends, even if they’re friends that he kind of runs rings around given his manipulative tendencies (NYY and MF rely on just grabbing him at this point and relying on sheer force of obliviousness/authority). I like giving Liu Qingge more connections in the form of Luo Fanli and Mu Qingfang too.
This cast is... so big at this point. I didn’t really expect this when I started.
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Inside the cell is… a bloody demon girl who looks about fifteen-ish (sixteen-ish, maybe?), with dark hair in many braids, a sharp face and a sharper stare, and clothing that looks like it was made out of not nearly enough silk ribbons. Ah, wow, that’s way more skin than Shang Qinghua ever wanted to see of Sha Hualing. No jewelry at all, though, not even a belt. Not even boots or even slippers. Just lots of blood splatter.
Both Sha Hualing’s arms and legs have been restrained. She’s also been muzzled, though that doesn’t stop her from showing off her teeth in the least happy-looking smile anyone has ever smiled. There’s blood in Sha Hualing’s teeth! That’s blood there smeared around her mouth!
Qi Qingqi is in the cell too, utterly unimpressed, making sure that Sha Hualing is properly restrained and even treating an injury on the girl’s thigh. Demons are pretty tough, Sha Hualing would probably be fine, but Shang Qinghua supposes they can at least be a little kind toward the poor disciple who’ll have to mop the floors here later.
“So good of you to finally join us,” Shen Qingqiu says to Shang Qinghua. His voice is dry, as usual, but it might be missing its worst sharp edges? The man seems pleased at having caught himself a demon.
“Ah, I didn’t want to show up the sect leader with my speed,” Shang Qinghua replies.
That gets an amused look from Yue Qingyuan. “Let us speak elsewhere,” he says, politely admonishing everyone to shut up in front of their guest. “Qi-Shimei?”
“A moment,” Qi Qingqi says.
“Oh, don’t leave me all alooone,” Sha Hualing says, only slightly muffled by the muzzle, her eyes going wide and scared. “I’ll behave! This is really too much! These restraints are hurting me. Please… it’s making it hard for me to breathe, please…”
Qi Qingqi ignores her and finishes up her work.
Yue Qingyuan lets the Xian Shu Peak Lord out and then seals the cell behind her. Shang Qinghua is familiar with those seals and yeah, there’s very little chance Sha Hualing is getting out of there on her own. The demoness complains loudly about being left behind in a cold and lonely cell. Shang Qinghua can still hear her wailing as Yue Qingyuan instructs the guards on, mainly, not letting anyone in and not taking any of Sha Hualing’s bait no matter what lies she tells.
If anyone gets “seduced” by that teenage girl - a trick pulled many times by the wily Sha Hualing in Proud Immortal Demon Way - Shang Qinghua is going to be so disappointed. Surprised? Not really! But still… depressingly disappointed!
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AN: It was... hm... important to me that none of the characters here actually sexualize Sha Hualing or disregard the fact that she’s very young to them. In his narration, Shang Qinghua mentions her skimpy clothes and the possibility of her seducing a guard, but it’s with the casual detachment of someone who was writing a stallion novel and knows the tropes.
I wanted to focus more on the fact that Sha Hualing is not just a “wife character”, but an extremely dangerous non-human individual and already a minor political player, if currently trying to play outside her league. She’s an enemy. Also, just because she is currently playing outside her league doesn’t mean that she’s not dangerous and shouldn’t be taken seriously.
All she needs is someone to get close and she will inflict life-long injuries.
I also wanted to use her here for some Mobei-Jun stuff, which I’ll talk about later when I get to the Mobei-Jun part.
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“Shang-Shidi, do you recognize any of these materials?” Shen Qingqiu asks next, like he’s reading Shang Qinghua’s mind now! He looks so unimpressed by Shang Qinghua’s startle. “You are, after all, one of our experts on tracking down the source of such strange things.”
“Aha, off the top of my head? I couldn’t say! But… I would suspect part of this weapon came from the far north of the Demon Realm...”
Wei Qingwei finally looks up. “I would make the same guess,” he says, like a real bro. “If only this weapon hadn’t broken, we could have tested its limits of disruption! But our plans have been disrupted there… I’d like to see how something like this would go up against the different types of barriers out there.”
“Zhao Hua Temple’s barriers, perhaps?” Shen Qingqiu suggests.
Yue Qingyuan audibly sighs.
“Of course, they won’t wish to see proof that there are demon lords preparing to invade,” Shen Qingqiu says icily. “How remiss of me to forget that fact. What does it matter if a demon lord’s daughter was swinging around a previously unseen weapon like a child’s favorite new toy?”
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AN: So, when I say that I want to breathe new life into the canon scenes that I’m redoing and reinterpreting, my goal for this one was to really... build up the upcoming Immortal Alliance Conference and actually connect Sha Hualing’s invasion to... well... anything.
In SVSSS, Sha Hualing’s invasion happening is just following PIDW events apparently, and SVSSS in my opinion isn’t... really too interested in PIDW worldbuilding or Sha Hualing’s character from the standpoint that this really is a real world now. It’s all about Shen Yuan reliving the PIDW plot.
So, if I’ve put 200,000+ words at this point into actually trying to establish that this is a real world, these are real people, there are real long-lasting politics and sect relations, that world elements aren’t just spawning into existence when the plot needs them and exist now, even if I’ve been doing so kind of as a joke because I think it’s funny to make Shang Qinghua deal with that, I wanted to actually try to place and connect Sha Hualing’s invasion to other story elements and place Sha Hualing’s character in relation to the others.
Here, Sha Hualing’s invasion is a spoiled and violent child looking to make herself look good and cause trouble, as it is in SVSSS, but here it’s emphasized that Sha Hualing really is 1) a child, 2) a demon lord’s child, and 3) a future demon lord herself. And Sha Hualing is showing off her family’s inventions in preparation for the Immortal Alliance Conference. This is a move that has consequences for her and for Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, and will continue to have consequences for her (partially indebted to MBJ’s clan) and for Cang Qing Mountain Sect (it makes them look bad in front of the other Great Sects).
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“Shang-Shidi, do you recognize any of these materials?” Shen Qingqiu asks next, like he’s reading Shang Qinghua’s mind now! He looks so unimpressed by Shang Qinghua’s startle. “You are, after all, one of our experts on tracking down the source of such strange things.”
“Aha, off the top of my head? I couldn’t say! But… I would suspect part of this weapon came from the far north of the Demon Realm...”
Wei Qingwei finally looks up. “I would make the same guess,” he says, like a real bro. “If only this weapon hadn’t broken, we could have tested its limits of disruption! But our plans have been disrupted there… I’d like to see how something like this would go up against the different types of barriers out there.”
“Zhao Hua Temple’s barriers, perhaps?” Shen Qingqiu suggests.
Yue Qingyuan audibly sighs.
“Of course, they won’t wish to see proof that there are demon lords preparing to invade,” Shen Qingqiu says icily. “How remiss of me to forget that fact. What does it matter if a demon lord’s daughter was swinging around a previously unseen weapon like a child’s favorite new toy?”
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AN: Me to myself: “...Is there canonical evidence that Mobei-Jun can read and write???” Because, like, the impression I get from this guy is that he basically raised himself and barely survived, so the System could interpret that to make an AU in which MBJ never learned to read or write.
Mobei-Jun can read and write in “pride is not the word I’m looking for”, Shang Qinghua is just exaggerating here because he’s a little miffed.
But it’s kind of tempting to write an AU now in which SQH realizes early-on in knowing MBJ that... his king can’t really read or write... his upbringing was so shitty and his father was so careless that MBJ never learned more than a few words that he picked up from context. That’s fucking horrifying. MBJ’s poor socialization and communication levels reach new heights!
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“It’s just that something like that happened before, remember, Uncle?” Binghe presses. “With the skinner demon? That same light and that same warm, almost burning feeling! It was different this time - that weapon wasn’t going to hit me, I was blocking it; I know that I was blocking it the right way - but it’s too similar, isn’t it?”
“It’s… very similar,” Shang Qinghua agrees slowly.
“System?! Bro?! This is your fault!” he thinks. “Why the fuck are you leaving these explanations to me?! If you take points off me for any of this, you piece of shit, I’m going to find a way to strangle you, I swear! Preemptively: fuck off!”
Shang Qinghua lets himself visibly think about, trying to figure out what the fuck to say here. Binghe looks up at him like he’s trying to see into Shang Qinghua’s head to watch his thoughts come together. It’s a lot of pressure to put on a man all of a sudden! Binghe is too clever to be easily fooled by weak bullshit! How is a man supposed to come up with a decent lie under these circumstances?
“Well, ah, it’s happened when you’ve come into contact with demons who are trying to kill you, so it seems like it’s… some kind of unique reaction between that demonic energy and your spiritual energy,” Shang Qinghua says finally, because it’s better than explaining that there’s some shitty, no-good god-like being invested in a predestined plot. “Strange things happen sometimes in life-or-death situations, you know. Cultivators can accidentally pull off great feats sometimes when they’re desperate or panicked, without knowing how they did it.”
Binghe doesn’t look very reassured. Which makes sense, because a long-winded way of saying “I don’t know, it sounds like a freak accident to me” isn’t really reassuring.
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AN: This, plus Sha Hualing’s invasion, is about Shang Qinghua’s coming up against the consequences of his choices. He can’t really have everything at once! He’s managed to have a lot all at once so far, but the time for Binghe’s demon reveal is coming closer, and Shang Qinghua is going to have to make some tough decisions and live with them. He’s going to have to deal with the people in his life having opinions on his tough decisions.
Shang Qinghua is trying to keep the System happy, with his eyes on the end goal of keeping Binghe out of the Abyss, which makes him unwilling to take certain risks deviating from the plot. But, if you’re looking at it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know about the System or the plot, Shang Qinghua’s decision-making seems completely illogical.
Binghe is too clever not to at least notice that there’s some bullshit happening here. He doesn’t know what his uncle isn’t telling him, but Shang Qinghua isn’t the greatest bold-faced liar, so he knows there’s something.
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At the end of the day, Shang Qinghua leaves his fellow Peak Lords (Shen Qingqiu, Qi Qingqi, Liu Qingge, and Tang Qingling) arguing in circles over cold trails (Yue Qingyuan is stuck refereeing, poor bastard). He returns to his Leisure House and finds a familiar ice demon lounging in his sitting room, eating some of his snacks.
“My king, did you help Sha Hualing escape?!” Shang Qinghua demands.
“She did not contribute,” Mobei-Jun answers.
Mobei-Jun looks good, like breaking in and out of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect last night was no trouble for him. Why would it be any trouble for him? He’s been doing it for years and years without getting caught, after all!
“How did you bypass the cell’s seals so cleanly?” Shang Qinghua wonders, as he puts some papers aside and kicks off his boots.
The cell doors hadn’t been ripped off its hinges, just… taken off like they were never attached… which combined with the ice-related injuries on the guards, plus the fact that the intruder slipped in like a shadow and left the same way, kind of gave the whole thing away.
Mobei-Jun raises his eyebrows. “You have shown me many such protections.”
“Ah… yeah… I guess I did do that.”
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AN: Presenting Sha Hualing as I did: a dangerous and political figure even though she’s only a teenager, was also meant to reflect on Shang Qinghua’s relationship with Mobei-Jun. Mobei-Jun is the enemy. Mobei-Jun may be on Shang Qinghua’s side and his own side, but he is not on Cang Qiong Mountain Sect’s side and he has loyalties to people in direct opposition to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect.
Sha Hualing is, in many ways, Mobei-Jun’s people. He’s completely unfazed by her violence. To him, Sha Hualing’s behavior is normal and expected, if the foolishness and arrogance of someone trying to act grown-up. He is not human. He is from a completely different world to Shang Qinghua.
And their separate worlds are now colliding.
Shang Qinghua really can’t have everything he wants here. He’s a traitor and, realistically, he can’t expect that not to come out sooner or later. He’s making decisions for the sect (releasing SHL to prevent another demon invasion (and also to keep the plot on track)) that Yue Qingyuan might have agreed with if he knew the full picture of SQH’s spying (all he knows at the moment is that SQH has informants), but that YQY doesn’t know about and so can’t agree with, so SQH is acting beyond his authority letting MBJ break SHL out.
It’s a mess! It’s not sustainable! Shang Qinghua’s old character role and his new character role can’t continue to coexist like this.
-
Thinking of worrying unnecessarily, desperate to change the subject away from the looming plot, Shang Qinghua brings up the very important subject of Mobei-Jun possibly, maybe, if he has the time, letting him know when to expect him, when he’s going somewhere, and when he’ll be back. He’s brought this up before, though mostly in a “my king, this humble servant would really appreciate it if you at least learned to knock, but if that’s too much to ask, it’s fine, it’s really fine, never mind, forget I brought it up” kind of way.
He only realizes just how daring it sounds after he says it! He’s always kind of figured that the proud Mobei-Jun would take offense to the concept of being at Shang Qinghua’s beck and call in any way. Why would Mobei-Jun need to explain himself?
“Why?” Mobei-Jun even says.
“...Why?” Shang Qinghua repeats, kind of hoping that he wouldn't have to explain the things he asks for. Mobei-Jun said he could ask for things, but he has to explain himself too? That's really too much. “I didn’t get to see you at all while I was gone! I got back and I didn’t know when I’d get to see you again, my king.”
This gets him another random pinch to the cheek, but it also gets him another surprising kiss. Mobei-Jun is apparently not even a little bit offended by this request. So it’s fine! This one thing, at least, is really fine.
-
AN: But Mobei-Jun is also becoming one of SQH’s rocks in many ways! This relationship is new and exciting and comforting! Giving up or betraying Mobei-Jun is completely out of the question for Shang Qinghua.
I’m kind of fucking loving these secret forbidden romance vibes.
If Shang Qinghua asked, Mobei-Jun would whisk him away from everything right now, but he understands that Shang Qinghua needs to be here for his nephew, his sister-in-laws, and his students. With his father as king, Mobei-Jun doesn’t have the position or authority yet to make any kind of peace with CQMS. MBJ’s relationship with SQH could get him in deep shit with his father, with his uncle, and with other demon lords.
Shang Qinghua is a filthy traitor and he’s dragging MBJ down with him.
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SV ch.62
it’s already here. wow. *sweats profusely* IF LBH DOESN’T WAKE UP HERE-
Zhuzhi-Lang said, “Master Shen, please pardon me.”
Don’t! A thousand times don’t! I got into this miserable state when you wanted to thank me, now that you’re apologizing, can I even hope to live!?
SHIZUN I ABSOLITELY LOVE PLS MARRY ME. GUYS HOW CAN I LAUGH THIS HARD WHILE BEING SO FREAKING WORRIED-
EDIT:
Luo Binghe was still sleeping in that coffin, so the blood wreaking havoc in his body could only belong to someone else. Tianlang-Jun said, “Peak Lord, this shouldn’t be the first time you’ve drank Heavenly Demon’s blood, how come you’re still not used to it?”
I KNEW IT
FUCK! AAAAAAH i’m so mad right now can these two please stop being assholes and let my babies the fuck GoOoO-
EDIT 2: okay wHAT
Tianlang-Jun sighed, “Even in this state you can walk so many steps, Peak Lord Shen is willful and resolute, truly an extraordinary person. I should say, you’re even willing to throw away your own life for my son?”
Suddenly, Zhuzhi-Lang said, “My lord, I… this subordinate can’t keep holding on.”
Before his words had fallen, Shen Qingqiu felt the pain suddenly dissolve, his whole body lightening. Right away, he broke into a frantic run. Seeing that he was suddenly able to run away, Tianlang-Jun said, astonished, “Isn’t your blood able to restrain him?”
Zhuzhi-Lang was also at a loss. “Before, I was able to restrain him. But this time I can’t, I don’t know the reason!”
one sec they are like muahahah we got you, i was even getting emotional for the fact that shizun is in fact risking his life also to keep lbh safe my heart MY HEART, and then zhuzuhzuz just pops out with i can’t hold on anymore and I WANNA KNOW WHY WHAT HELPED SHIZUN TELL MEEEEEEE
EDIT 3:
After carrying on for this long, he was already approaching his body’s limits, lingering on the fringe of collapse, his knees turning to jelly. However, he didn’t fall to his knees but was firmly supported by a hand, half carried and half held up.
His head dizzy and his eyes blurred, his gaze focused upwards.
In the murky darkness of the stone corridor, it was impossible to see the face, but a pair of eyes burning with fury and a shining scarlet demon mark shone clearly through the gloom.
PòWEKKG HE IS HERE
HELP
YESSSS
COUNT ON LBH TO ALWAYS ALWAYS MAKE THE BEST ENTRANCE A NOVEL WILL EVER SEE. GO BABY. KICK THEIR FREAKING ASSES AND GET YOUR HUSBAND OUT OF THERE
EDIT 4:
He said, blandly, “Are you alright?”
Luo Binghe’s tone was still somewhat uncharitable. “Alright? What alright?”
Seeing him full of vitality, he was most likely fine. This being the case, he’d, at last, managed to repay a little favor to Luo Binghe. Shen Qingqiu nodded. “Then that’s good.”
me internally, reading: i swear these two are impossible. they areobviously worried for each other, but they have two radically different ways of showing it. lbh just goes and yells at him and is full of rage and sparky reddish eyes and can’t keep his anxiety at bay, and in shizun’s eyes it looks like he is angry at him, which lbh maybe is, a bit, but not in that sense -he was just worried sick he’d lose him again and ready to kill whoever did that to him. on the other hand, shizun voices his worry and tries to reach for him a bit, but can’t seem to see past lbh’s anger for now? so he sulks and turns away and yea, that’s it, he actually likes when lbh was all affectionate, there you go shizun.
me, from the outside: this- they- WHY ARE YOU TWO- omg i can’t- LBH YOU FUCKER STOP YELLING AT HIM, DON’T YOU SEE HE WAS WORRIED, YOU ARE TWO, S A Y I T REPEAT AFTER ME “SHIZUN SORRY I WAS TERRIFIED THEY HAD DONE SOMETHING TO YOU I LOVE YOU” iT’s NoT tHaT hArD rIgHt-
EDIT 5:
To exit the Holy Mausoleum, the Xin Mo sword and Luo Binghe were both indispensable, without either one you could only randomly wander around the inside. But, he had risked his life to drag him this far and got a faceful of yelling as a result. It would be pointless to stay there and sulk.
He hadn’t walked a few steps when the energy-draining candles suddenly lit up. The faint candlelight illuminated his side profile. Luo Binghe suddenly reached out to pull on him. “Are you crying?”
*chokes*
hanji.exe has stopped working
EDIT 6: EXCUSE ME DID I SUDDENLY FORGOT HOW TO READ IS SHIZUN C R Y I N G SOIFJGEOIWRJGPOWERKGPOEWRKG NO OKAY WHO TOLD YU YOU COULD MAKE SHIZUN C R Y I CAN’T EVEN SAY THE WORD OUT LOUD IN THE SAME SENTENCE WITH SHIZUN HE IS CRYING???????
“IN LOVE BUT IN DENIAL” IS THAT YOU????????
EDIT 7: i love/hate how there is always a good excuse for shizun to react to lbh only for there to be another reason
yeah right WHAT A COINCIDENCE
The anger that had just been in Luo Binghe’s voice disappeared without a trace. He said tensely, “So to say, when I heard Shizun crying earlier, it wasn’t fake?”
Shen Qingqiu flew into a rage out of humiliation. “Crying, what crying, I don’t know!”
(SO HE HEARD SHIZUN CRY? DOES THAT MEAN HE FELT SHIZUN HUG HIM?
P L E A S E IT’S THE ONLY THING I NEED IN MY LIFE RN)
EDIT 8:
The more he looked, the more apprehensive his expression grew. Right now there wasn’t any place on Shen Qingqiu’s body that was safe to look at. He was nothing but a lump of wounds and blood, seriously a spectacle too horrible to endure. Luo Binghe remembered that before he lost consciousness, Shen Qingqiu was clearly in perfect condition. His voice shook. “This… was all for… me?”
Shen Qingqiu was going to start spitting blood. If not him, then who?
(OMG ARE THEY ACTUALLY MAKING PROGRESS? LOOK LOOOOOOOK MY BABIES ARE USING SPEECH TO COMMUNICATE!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO PROUD.)
He couldn’t say this sort of thing, and he always disliked making a big deal of bestowing affection and showing scars in the past, so he could only spit out four words: “Your hand, let go.”
Luo Binghe changed his face in the blink of an eye, softening. “I won’t let go. Shizun, don’t be mad, I was wrong.”
(*inhales* BABY. HE WON’T LET GO. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH FIDHGOIEJRGOIEJRIOEGJOIRJGERI)
Having been sent off, Luo Binghe once again latched on to him like sticky candy, you couldn’t even pry him off. “Shizun, why don’t you hit me. You can beat me up to vent your anger, how about that?”
Someone come help me, there’s an incurable M here, who can come lock him up–
(guys let’s keep it pg-13- or not. i am totally okay with going further than that *wink wink*
and anyway, lbh, you can’t solve everything like that-)
EDIT 9:
After wearing him down for quite a while, Shen Qingqiu said helplessly, “…You’ve always been like this, crying and admitting your faults but you’ll die before you change your ways. What use is it?”
At this point, Luo Binghe was almost sobbing. “Won’t it be enough if I change my ways? Shizun, don’t abandon me.”
Seeing him in this good-for-nothing state, if not for the fact that he was still worrying about the bumps he left earlier Shen Qingqiu really wanted to give him a few smacks on the head. Was there something wrong with his teaching methods? How did he raise a crybaby? Luo Binghe, the demon king incarnate, likes to hang on to his Shizun’s clothes and wail when there’s no one around – if he were to tell about this who would f***ing believe it!?
OKAY THIS IS THE USUAL PATTERN EXTRAS AND FF ARE SET ON, AREN’T THEY BEAUTIFUL LIKE THIS? SHIZUN DON’T ABANDON ME
MY HEARTTTTTTTTT
is shizun finally starting to come to terms with the fact that lbh is not the original one?
EDIT 10: MY BABY WAS WORRIED HE WAS BEING ABANDONED I CAN’T GUYS I CAN’T
I GIVE UP
I CAN’T
EDIT 11:
Luo Binghe continued, “Just now, I didn’t do it on purpose. I don’t know why,obviously I didn’t actually believe it, I didn’t want to say that sort of thing, but in front of Shizun, I never could control myself. I know I’m being embarrassing and losing face, but knowing that Shizun never threw me away but was protecting me all along, that I wasn’t just dreaming this whole time, I’m so happy…”
OKAY LBH CAN YOU SLOW DOWN OR DO YOU REALLY WISH FOR MY DEATH WHO DO YOU THINK I AM, AN ICE QUEEN?
*sobs*
EDIT 12:
He slowed down and said, “Then, you really are alright now?”
Luo Binghe promptly nodded. “I’m alright.”
Just then you were burned so severely, but now you’re completely fine? Shen Qingqiu was quite skeptical and pressed his hand to his forehead, turns out it really was cool and smooth. Shen Qingqiu wanted to retract his hand, but Luo Binghe covered his hand with his own, refusing to let him pull away. His eyes gleamed below their folded palms.
(OH MY GOD
I CAN’T BREATH. WE LIKE BOLD LBH SO MUCH-)
This expression was too familiar. This was precisely that look he saw on that perfect little sheep following him around and eating grass every day on Qing Jing Peak, the young ray of sunlight Luo Binghe.
(i’ll die i know this is how i die shizun is thinking back about little binghe and my life now has a meaning worth living for)
Shen Qingqiu’s face was going to turn red under his stare, but he couldn’t bear to tear his hand away by force. Doing such a thing when the other was so happy and colored in excitement would really be giving him a slap on the face.
IS SHIZUN TRYING NOT TO BLUSH? I CAN’TNSIOGWRIJGOIWRJG I AM IMPLODING RIGHT NOW OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG BLUSH AND KISS HIM NOW he is so protective of lbh omg my heart i can’t breath-
EDIT 13:
Outside of the Mausoleum, the scene was bathed in light. Without prompting, Luo Binghe reached out a hand to support Shen Qingqiu.
As a matter of fact, it really had been a long time since they had had this sort of normal interaction.
i feel so lucky to be alive and be able to read this
EDIT 14:
Luo Binghe suddenly said, “But, other than hearing Shizun cry…”
Shen Qingqiu smiled faintly. “En? Who was crying?”
Luo Binghe immediately changed his tune. “Other than hearing someone cry, there was also this strange feeling.”
(OMG PLS DON’T TELL ME HE FELT- *giggles*)
He said quietly, “What sort of feeling?”
Luo Binghe shook his head. “… I can’t say.”
“Does it hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt, it’s very…”
He hadn’t finished speaking, his face showing a bewildered expression, looking down at himself.
Shen Qingqiu: “…”
Sky pillar hello, sky pillar goodbye!
AHAHAHAHAHAHHAAH MY LUNGS- MY CHEST- HELPPPP- so you’re telling my he felt shizun palming him but he didn’t feel him hug him all the time?!?!?!?! PRIORITIES, I GUESS
LOOK HOW CUTE AND EMBARESSED THEY ARE AAAAAAAH
EDIT 15:
Earlier, Luo Binghe was not quite pleased when he was not able to shatter them into pieces, but now that they had delivered themselves on a silver platter he was quite satisfied. His knuckles cracking, he fixed a glare on Zhuzhi-Lang, growling, “You dare feed my Shizun your blood.”
*swoons* LUO BINGHE. LET THEM SEE.
EDIT 16: WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING TO MY SHIZUN OMG CAN YOU FREAKING LEAVE HIM ALONE I AM SO TIRED OF THIS
DO YOU THINK HE IS A HOSPITAL, WITH ALL THESE DIFFERENT KIND OF BLOOD IN HIS BODY!??!?!?!?!??!?!??!
Who else but him would be drinking Heavenly Demon’s blood like Red Bull? Who else but him would have drunk three different Heavenly Demons’ blood?
i love him.
EDIT 17: OF COURSE IT’S A CLIFFHANGER AGAIN
*throws her pc on the floor*
iF tHeY kEeP hUrTiNg ShIzUn I AM GOING TO UNLEASH DEMON LBH LEVEL 9023859032485092384923 AND THEN IT’S YOUR FREAKING BUSINESS-
#sv fangirling mode#sv novel#sv#svsss#the scum villain’s self saving system#scum villian#scum villain’s self saving system
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Chapter 28: “A Growing Family” of “pride is not the word I’m looking for” quotes and commentary. Not a full list of favorite quotes or full commentary.
-
The fact that Shen Qingqiu is waiting for them, just outside of Yue Qingyuan’s office, really doesn’t help the dread that Shang Qinghua is feeling here.
A stocky young woman is standing attentively beside the seated Peak Lord. This is that Fu Qiang character, one of Binghe’s favorite shijies on Qing Jing Peak, here to whisk Peerless Cucumber away for a one-to-one chat on the other transmigrator’s potential relationship to the House of Rejuvenation. Or maybe to give the kid a tutoring session on recovering memories from trauma or something! Shang Qinghua doesn’t know exactly, not having been invited to sit in.
“Shidi,” Shen Qingqiu greets coolly.
“Greetings, Shen-Shixiong,” Shang Qinghua returns, feeling sweaty already, but also weirdly giddy. He’s tempted to wink, but he’s pretty sure that would get him killed. “How are you? You look very well! Aha, how did those ‘other engagements’ go the other day? Meet with anyone? Have a good time?”
Over the top of his elegant fan, Shen Qingqiu immediately gives him a look that could probably kill a lesser man - or maybe a greater one, like someone who has more dignity and shame and whatever than Shang Qinghua does. Shang Qinghua doesn’t flinch. He assumes that the meeting with Yue Qingyuan went well! Which is great! Super great! If it had gone badly, he’s pretty sure that Shen Qingqiu wouldn’t even be setting foot on Qiong Ding Peak now - or at least would have been projecting “I’ll kill to get out of here and I’m mentally picking all my victims” hard enough to send all the Qiong Ding Peak disciples and cultivators off like panicked chickens.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Shen Qingqiu says, downright frosty now. “Shang-Shidi must have been paying too much attention to nonsense gossip again.”
“Ah, of course! Of course! My mistake, Shen-Shixiong! Please forgive me!”
Shang Qinghua looks to his fellow transmigrator next, to reintroduce them, only to find Shen Yuan making a very strange expression. Shen Yuan is looking between Shang Qinghua and Shen Qingqiu kind of like he’s never seen them before. His mouth is even a little open and everything. It takes the kid a few seconds to realize that he has two Peak Lords staring at him and to swallow the strange expression.
-
AN: Shen Yuan knows that 1) SQQ came to meet SQH personally immediately after their mission was over, 2) SQH stayed in bed the following day for a LONG time, and 3) SQH had a hickey on his neck.
So when Shang Qinghua makes a reference to the meeting that SQQ had with Yue Qingyuan, almost flirtatiously asking if Shen Qingqiu “met with anyone” and “had a good time”, Shen Yuan is going to draw his own conclusions.
Namely, that Shang Qinghua and Shen Qingqiu might be sleeping together.
After all, Shen Yuan doesn’t know about the YQY and SQQ backstory! Shen Yuan only knows that Shang Qinghua is weirdly friendly with PIDW’s most famous scum villain and that Shen Qingqiu apparently likes SQH enough not to be an asshole to Luo Binghe. Shang Qinghua kind of talks like they’re friend, so what if they’re... more than friends?!
Meanwhile, Shang Qinghua cannot fathom anyone EVER considering that he and SHEN QINGQIU might be lovers. It’s not an idea that he is in a position to have because what the fuck?!
I was tickled pink when I realized that things were in position to have the disciples think that Shangjiu is a thing. I was already planning on having them notice Shang Qinghua’s brand-new-relationship good mood. Shen Yuan may not notice when people are in love with HIM, but he did still read a twenty-million-word stallion web-novel, so he’s totally prepared to assume that secret affairs are happening for OTHER PEOPLE.
-
His fellow transmigrator hastily performs the appropriate greeting. Shen Qingqiu doesn’t reply beyond inclining his head, instead sweeping his eyes over Shen Yuan, who stands hilariously still like he’s facing down a predator, except for how the kid squints back a little at the Lord of Qing Jing Peak. Ha! That’s pretty fearless coming from someone still so unnerved by the man who would have Proud Immortal Demon Way’s most famous scum villain.
“Fu Qiang,” Shen Qingqiu says finally. “I have instructed Assistant Ma to set aside a private room for your discussion. You may take Disciple Shen there now.”
“Yes, Shizun.”
The other disciple gestures for Shen Yuan to follow and the other transmigrator hastily takes her up on that. As the disciples disappear, Shen Qingqiu rises and, without a word, leads Shang Qinghua into Yue Qingyuan’s office.
-
AN: It’s tempting to try and make Shen Qingqiu and Shen Yuan actually develop more of a relationship than “passing acquaintance”, but the thing is that I can’t see either of them really going for it without being forced or without a very serious push. They’re both so prickly.
-
Yue Qingyuan greets him in a friendly manner, like he’s genuinely pleased to see Shang Qinghua and happy to help. Shang Qinghua greets the man in the same way. It’s nice! It also kind of feels like they’re both pretending the past few months of awkwardness, resentment, and avoidance never happened.
-
AN: It felt a little more true to life and to the characters to have Shang Qinghua and Yue Qingyuan just... move forward instead of getting into their issues with each other and what apologies may be due.
It’s kind of like a mutual: “What if we didn’t talk about it?”
And they’re both like, “Oh, thank fuck.”
I think that if they both brew on it a bit more, they may eventually decide to try to assuage their respective anger or guilt by saying something, but right now they’re feeling raw and/or embarrassed, and don’t want to accidentally get into it again. So they’ll talk about work! They always have work to talk about! Work is more important than personal matters, so they’re just going to pretend everything is fine!
-
It’s not just the System who won’t let the Immortal Alliance Conference not happen! But, ahhh, Shang Qinghua can still dream of them actually managing to convince Zhao Hua Temple Sect and everyone else to call the whole thing off. He can dream!
Yue Qingyuan has this pained expression that says, “You’re not wrong, but I wish you were.” This guy knows what Shang Qinghua is talking about!
Shen Qingqiu has this expression that says something like, “I can only critique the accuracy of your assessment on the grounds that you may be giving our fellow cultivators too much credit in terms of common sense and cooperation. This annoys me immensely.”
“You have put a great deal of thought into this,” Yue Qingyuan says finally. “You received this news… when exactly… again?”
“Ah, yesterday morning?” Shang Qinghua answers.
“While in bed with a demon lord,” he doesn’t elaborate. Nope! Not elaborating!
“I know it’s not- I’ll try to get more information, but everyone is still in the planning stages, and it’s not easy getting any information!” Shang Qinghua says defensively. “But, even with that, I thought, ‘Ah, my shixiongs will probably want to know right away!’ Someone will need to tell Zhao Hua to take precautions, at least?”
Yue Qingyuan visibly regathers himself and says, “It is better to know these things as soon as possible. Thank you, Qinghua, for this forewarning.”
“He’s very good at knowing these things,” Shen Qingqiu agrees, but the man’s gaze is like a very sharp pin and Shang Qinghua is but a lowly insect under it. “When might you be expected to know more about this?”
“Ah, I’ll have to get in contact with… ah, some people I know.”
-
AN: Of course YQY and SQQ want to know more about where SQH is getting this information, but for all they know he might just have gotten a tip-off from one of his merchant contacts or someone in the black market. This has been brewing for a while between these demon lords and the cultivation sects. It’s really bad news, but it’s also not really that surprising.
According to the Airplane Extras, when MBJ and SQH meet, Airplane offhandedly mentions that Mobei-Jun’s clan and Huan Hua Palace Sect have a serious grudge from a conflict at a previous Immortal Alliance Conference. In PINTWILF, this conference is why the IACs got cancelled and had to be recently “revived”. The coming IAC is the 3rd since this revival.
Shang Qinghua has proven himself reliable enough by this point that YQY and SQQ will let him keep his informants close to his chest. Between SQH’s years of improved services (helped by actually getting his personal disciples to help him) and SQH’s interference in their personal issues, they do actually trust him.
So, yeah, they think he’s a squirmy little rat man.
But he’s THEIR squirmy little rat man who has come through in times of need. Also, SQQ, for all his glaring, might stab YQY if he started giving SQH a hard time about this. Sometimes a shidi just wants you to back the fuck off, YQY! Let him have his secrets! Even though SQQ absolutely wants to know SQH’s secrets and is on the verge of dying of curiosity.
I am VERY MUCH looking forward to them finding out that Shang Qinghua has a demon prince for a boyfriend. That’s going to be fun.
-
“I have also been… considering the advantages of lessons and between Peaks to encourage both cooperation and… survival skills,” Shen Qingqiu says next. “Rarely does one become a master of all disciplines - the Twelve Peaks allow for many of our sect to become specialists, masters of one art - but it seems unwise not to be learned in the basics of as many life-saving arts as one is able.”
“A diversity of learning can be very beneficial,” Yue Qingyuan agrees immediately.
“My disciple, Fu Qiang, has become a very adept medic over the years, though this was in the hopes of avoiding visiting Qian Cao Peak. The head disciples of An Ding, as I understand it, have sought to take special lessons from Qian Cao and Xian Shu to improve themselves."
“Ah, that explains how Hongpeng spied on Peerless Cucumber back when the little bro was still in Mu Qingfang’s clutches,” Shang Qinghua thinks. “And, ah, Shen Bro, I don’t know how to tell you this, but Wenjiao goes to Xian Shu Peak mostly to moon over pretty girls, especially my little sister-in-law.”
"There is also the example of Qi-Shimei’s most frustrating disciple, who must be routinely dragged away from Bai Zhan, but who has also apparently helped to improve her fellow Xian Shu disciples’ martial abilities.”
"Ah, that's one of putting Qi Qingqi letting Luo Fanli and Liu Mingyan fight each other in order to hopefully wear them both out," Shang Qinghua thinks.
“Even if demons should not attack, though only a limited number of our disciples will be attending the Immortal Alliance Conference, it would nevertheless be beneficial to ensure that all disciples across the sect are well-equipped to keep themselves alive until the specialists arrive,” Shen Qingqiu finishes. “Shang-Shidi, as one of the most well-connected leading members of our sect, the organization of such an initiative would be best left in your hands.”
-
AN: Okay, so I know that this is kind of a weird thing to be coming from Shen Qingqiu, but he’s grown a bit over the course of this fic! AND he’s totally coming at it from the perspective of: “I don’t have to cooperate or get along with anyone beyond what I’m doing now.”
So SQQ is like, “My disciples are stupid. We should have more field medics.”
And he’s like, “Some people’s disciples can’t fight for shit and we should make sure they know more self-defense.”
And he’s like, “Liu Qingge’s disciples are animals. Someone at least teach them how to protect other disciples and how to not bleed to death, because he won’t. That man doesn’t teach them anything.”
And he’s like, “Shang Qinghua, you do that. I don’t want to.”
-
Peerless Cucumber’s conversation with Shen Qingqiu’s disciple is long over, but apparently his fellow transmigrator didn’t just leave afterwards. Yue Qingyuan’s youngest assistant intercepts to politely point Shang Qinghua towards their waiting room. Shen Yuan is asleep in a chair, with one of his cultivation manuals open in his lap. Judging by his pose, Shang Qinghua is going to guess that the kid was trying some kind of meditation and ended up taking a nap by accident.
It happens to the best of them sometimes! Or at least to Shang Qinghua!
“Ah, I told you not to wait on me. Come on, bro, I don’t want to have to carry you back,” Shang Qinghua says, while jostling the kid awake. “You’re too big for that. My nephew is too big for that these days. Just because it would be nostalgic for me and just because I can doesn’t mean that I want to be carrying you around like a sack of vegetables.”
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AN: If Shang Qinghua can haul Mobei-Jun around, then he could pick up Shen Yuan no problem. Also, this is the bit where I was like, “Wow, I have very much made SQH into SY’s dad here.”
Even SVSSS SQH gives me Uncle Vibes, to be honest. The man wants to pop into Bingqiu’s life, ask some nosy questions, be treated to a free meal (who doesn’t), tell some bad jokes, offer some terrible advice, complain about his workload, and then flounce off again with his boyfriend. SVSSS SQH seems to like being useful and appreciated and part of the group, but in a way where he’s not directly attached to anyone, you know? Give SVSSS SQH the benefits, but none of the responsibilities!
-
Shang Qinghua is kind of sick of this roundabout conversation and decides to bring out the big guns: a move taught to him by his extremely powerful sister-in-law, who has effortlessly defeated their resident War God. He knows the effectiveness of this technique personally, because Luo Jiahui has used it to defeat him many times. He puts on the best concerned face he has.
“Yuan,” he says seriously, looking the kid directly in the eye. “I’m not making jokes here about not skipping out on cultivating. It’s not always going to be fun - a lot of the time, it’s going to be pretty embarrassing and a little painful. Bro, I was an adult stuck in a teenage body, regularly getting my ass handed to me by actual teenagers. That was awful. But I really need you to keep doing it, even if you don’t become the next War God ready to challenge the protagonist, because I don’t want you to die. This shitty world isn’t safe. And if you want to be involved in these missions, then I need you to be able to carry yourself, or we’re both going to get trampled by some OP monster wandering out of an advanced chapter early instead of fixing anything here.”
Shen Yuan is having difficulty meeting his eyes. He keeps trying to force himself to look at Shang Qinghua and then looking away again automatically.
Shang Qinghua employs another of his sister-in-law’s immensely powerful techniques: he reaches out and puts a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “I will tell you stuff when I have stuff to tell you and when I can tell it to you. You’ve been super helpful, I’m going to need your help in the future, but I need you to be a little patient right now too.”
Shen Yuan nods. “...Fine.”
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AN: Shang Qinghua: “I can’t believe that I’m tricking this person into thinking I’m a good person by being nice to them and looking after them and doing good things. I have learned this behavior for TRICKING PURPOSES only and have NOT accidentally adopted yet another kid.”
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Shang Qinghua can’t answer the question right now! Leave a message!
He’s too busy replaying all the times he’s seen his nephew and his fellow transmigrator interact. Binghe did ask after Shen Yuan every time that he and Shang Qinghua talked, while the other transmigrator was on Qian Cao and after he came to An Ding, but… Shang Qinghua just thought his nephew was being polite and curious? Peerless Cucumber stands out! Binghe didn’t act too weirdly about it!
Luo Binghe is supposed to be a stallion protagonist with 600 wives!
Although… Shang Qinghua’s nephew has never really shown any interest in that kind of thing. Which Shang Qinghua has been pretty glad about! He doesn’t want to have 600 nieces-in-law! He also doesn’t want that for his nephew!
The protagonist of Proud Immortal Demon Way ’s harem was basically a snake pit of drama and desperation and decaying fantasies. For everyone who could read between the lines of empty papapa to see Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky’s tragic story of resentment and revenge, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say the tyrannical, broken protagonist was like a black hole, dragging everyone else into orbit around this man who couldn’t really love anyone! You can take a blackened protagonist out of the Eternal Abyss, but you can’t take that abyss out of the blackened protagonist, right?
The original Luo Binghe didn’t take wives because he was in love. He took wives because he could! Because they were beautiful or powerful or useful! Because he pitied them! Because he liked being their savior! Because he didn't want anyone else to have them! Because he liked being an object of envy and desire and love! Because it was expected of him, as the man all the readers wanted to be, who was supposed to have everything a man could ever want!
“...Ah, there are… some implications there,” Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky realizes, remembering just how half-hearted most of that harem bullshit was. “Maybe a bent man wrote a kind of bent protagonist by accident? Who knows?”
“Da-Ge?” Fanli says. “Da-Ge, didn’t you know?”
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AN: I’ve said this before, but there’s a meta argument to be made in regards to Luo Binghe and obligatory heterosexuality.
Also, from what I remember, Airplane didn’t actually seem to care too much about Luo Binghe being interested in Shen Yuan. In the Airplane Extras, Airplane says that in the original version of PIDW that he never got to write, Luo Binghe actually ended up totally alone at the end of the story. He was apparently planning a pretty downer ending for Luo Binghe. But Luo Binghe ended up getting a huge harem instead because that’s what the readers wanted!
So, my impression is, that when SVSSS Airplane first realizes that LBH is into men (and into SQQ specifically), he does a little bit of self-reflection and also reflection on PIDW, then just goes, “Huh. That makes... sense.”
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“Though, aha, I can’t remember Shen-Shixiong ever really not being kind of angry at me and I’m not dead yet. I had to talk really fast sometimes, but I lived! Now go away.”
When Shang Qinghua looks up, all of his disciples are staring at him. They all look surprised, except for Shen Yuan, who looks embarrassed. Shang Qinghua would guess that someone cracked a dirty joke, but that doesn’t seem right.
"What?"
“...Shifu, how long have you known Shen-Shibo?” Chen Xuan asks.
“Since we were disciples? Ah, I think he hated me at first sight.”
“But you’re close now?” Lin Wenjiao blurts out.
“Closer, ” Shang Qinghua agrees warily. “Aha, don’t think that any of you can ask me for favors to do with Shen Qingqiu or Qing Jing Peak too! That’s not happening! Disciple Luo, Shen, get out of here before you give my disciples any more weird ideas.”
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AN: Okay, so what happened is that as soon as Luo Fanli and Shang Qinghua left the room, Shen Yuan was like, “...Shang Qinghua and Shen Qingqiu are... very close? Are they...?”
And SQH’s disciples are like, “Holy shit, are you asking if SQH and SQQ are romantically involved?!” And SQH’s disciples laugh in SY’s face because that’s RIDICULOUS. Which makes SY really embarrassed and defensive! SQH’s disciples ask why he would EVER think a thing like that.
SY provides the evidence. It’s a reasonable conclusion!
And then SQH’s disciples are like, “...Holy shit?!”
And then SY is like, “Wait, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that.”
But it’s too late. SQH’s disciples are already putting all the evidence together and there is SO MUCH EVIDENCE of something going on there.
I know I refer to this ship as “Shangjiu”, but that’s mostly just to specify which Shen Qingqiu and I doubt that anyone in Cang Qiong Mountain Sect dares to call SQQ “Jiu” besides YQY. They’d probably actually end up calling it something along the lines of “The Premise” like original Star Trek: The Original Series Kirk/Spock shippers. (See Fanlore or something for more info on that.)
Again, SQH cannot... CONCEIVE of them conceiving this idea.
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By the time that Mobei-Jun shows up at his Leisure House, Shang Qinghua is a little on the edge! Honestly, he’s kind of off the edge, dangling from a very thin branch just underneath the cliff’s edge, and that thin branch is making some very concerning noises! Sure, at least the demon lord isn’t late, but Shang Qinghua is suddenly reminded of just how intimidating Mobei-Jun looks! Also, he’s cleaned up his house and knows his sister-in-law knows he’s kind of a slob sometimes, but he’s so sure that she’s still going to judge his cleaning job! What if she blames Mobei-Jun for it? (She’d be right to blame him a little! The man can be kind of lazy and messy sometimes too!)
A cool hand at Shang Qinghua’s hip prevents him from walking around in circles, repositioning disobedient cushions and offending tables. Shang Qinghua looks up at Mobei-Jun, who moves his hand to where Shang Qinghua’s neck meets shoulder.
“Stop it,” Mobei-Jun says.
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AN: It’s really funny thinking about how all of Mobei-Jun’s gentle and affectionate behaviors towards SQH are totally learned. This does not come naturally to the man. If SQH was having a panic attack, Mobei-Jun’s first (panicked) instinct would be to bark at him to stop it.
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“It’s just… Jiahui is… it didn’t have to be this way for us? I would have just helped her get to safety and left her to live her life without me, but she didn’t let that happen, even though her family wasn’t any good either, so why would she want another one?” Shang Qinghua tries to explain. “She chose me? She looked out for me. She helped me understand a lot of things. Even though she probably could have picked anyone else. I don’t really know where I’d be right now if she didn’t? Ah, probably… not talking to or trusting anyone ever? You remember what things used to be like.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve never really liked any of the sisters I’ve had before very much,” Shang Qinghua admits. “Ah, but they didn’t like me either, so it worked. Anyway! It’s… important to me that things work out now because…”
“I don’t want to choose,” Shang Qinghua doesn’t say.
He clears his throat instead.
“Qinghua.”
Shang Qinghua forces himself to look up from his hands on Mobei-Jun’s collar.
“I am glad that you were not without someone to trust,” Mobei-Jun says, though it sounds like it takes effort. “Your sister has nothing to fear from me.”
Mobei-Jun has already made this promise, but it’s good to hear it again.
“Thank you, my king. I’ll, ah- I should go get her now.”
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AN: Mobei-Jun is jealous. He is very, VERY jealous.
BUT Mobei-Jun can also see some parallels here. Luo Jiahui is to Shang Qinghua in many ways what Shang Qinghua is to him. Mobei-Jun understands the importance of this relationship and of this person. He understands that Jiahui and SQH’s relationship is not romantic, of course, and understands her to be the “head of the family”, so he has to force himself not to act on his jealousy.
I think that a part of Mobei-Jun might see jealousy as something very negative? Thinking about what I said about Mobei-Jun’s hang-ups surrounding consent and possessiveness possibly originating with his father being a wife-stealer, Mobei-Jun can’t act on his jealousy for the same reasons that he needs Shang Qinghua to make the first explicit moves. He wants Shang Qinghua to choose him and to choose him of his own free will.
So, he’s jealous when he hears about how LJH chose SQH and SQH chose LJH, but he can’t act on it because 1) he loves SQH and 2) he’s (possibly unconsciously) terrified of becoming his father and creating resentment that will ripple out into his family potentially for generations.
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It’s so, so weird to see his human sister-in-law sitting across from a demon lord. Luo Jiahui is not a tall woman and her cultivation is very good these days, but she’s not a warrior. Seeing the height and width differences side-by-side make them really obvious! Mobei-Jun is at least twice Shang Qinghua’s sister-in-law’s size! He has to be easily twice her weight!
When Luo Jiahui puts food in front of Mobei-Jun, Shang Qinghua gets huge “I dare you to not eat my food” messages! It took a really long time before Mobei-Jun seemed to accept that Shang Qinghua really wouldn’t take every available opportunity to hand him poison. Thankfully, however, Mobei-Jun has eaten Luo Jiahui’s food before! Shang Qinghua has shared his sister-in-law's food with the demon lord! Shang Qinghua also communicated beforehand that Mobei-Jun has to eat the food. No matter what!
So, Mobei-Jun eats the food and Shang Qinghua breathes a sigh of relief. Mobei-Jun even goes so far as to tell Luo Jiahui that she’s a good cook (above and beyond social interaction! Also delivered kind of awkwardly!), which his sister-in-law accepts with thanks (and also maybe just a little bit as her rightful due).
Luo Jiahui already knows the basics of Mobei-Jun: that he’s an ice demon, the son of the Northern Demon King, and he’s going to be the next Northern Demon King. She already knows that he’s a warrior and that his time is mostly spent tending to his duties, usually on his father’s behalf. She even knows that demon families can be kind of violently competitive and that Mobei-Jun’s family is no exception.
So, when she finally decides to speak seriously, she says, “My brother is very important to me. I have told him that if he is happy, then I’m happy for him. He has told me that you are very important to him.”
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AN: Mobei-Jun is going to hold that revelation close to his chest for WEEKS. Shang Qinghua said that Mobei-Jun is very important to him!
Juggling the tension of this scene was weird.
Because, like, Mobei-Jun is not a kind or a gentle or a good person. He’s disdainful of humanity. It’s kind of a mindfuck for him to be having a meal with a strange human who is not of the things he has been raised to respect.
Meanwhile, Luo Jiahui is fucking terrified of Mobei-Jun, dislikes him, and doesn’t want to like him. He’s a stranger who could destroy her family. He looks kind of monstrous. He acts strangely.
But they HAVE TO BE CIVIL to each other for Shang Qinghua’s sake.
So they are.
Mobei-Jun tries not to make any scary moves around the soft human.
Luo Jiahui tries to act like MBJ is a normal person and to be polite.
They are both very out of their depth.
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“...Shang Qinghua saved my life,” Mobei-Jun says, which is the first time he’s spoken without someone else speaking to him first. “Many times, he has done this.”
Luo Jiahui sets down her teacup, listening expectantly.
“Even when I did not trust him, and he did not trust me, Qinghua has always provided shelter and safety,” Mobei-Jun says slowly, solemnly. “Medicine, when I have been injured. Direction, when I have been lost. Company and loyalty. This is rare.”
“Yes,” Luo Jiahui agrees.
“The trust I have put in him has never been betrayed.”
Shang Qinghua kind of feels like he’s overheating here - like maybe his heart is melting! Mobei-Jun as a character has always prized loyalty above all! “I had no fucking clue,” he thinks. “Honestly, how the FUCK did I have no fucking clue?! Hindsight is incredible!”
“I would not betray him,” Mobei-Jun says, looking to Shang Qinghua directly. “My life has been his since the day we met.”
Shang Qinghua tries not to melt even more. Mobei-Jun is supposed to be an ice demon! What the hell is this?! It’s unfair! It’s embarrassing! It’s too much!
“...Good,” Luo Jiahui says, determinedly. “I’m happy to hear that. My hard-working brother needs someone to appreciate and cherish him.”
“Yes.”
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AN: Mobei-Jun is like, “Humans use words. I need to use words. I need to be direct about this because humans are bad at understanding things.”
And Luo Jiahui is like, “Oh my, you are very intense. Okay.”
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Mobei-Jun nods. “I did not think a human would ever care for a demon child.”
Luo Jiahui frowns a little. “Oh?”
“I admire this,” Mobei-Jun amends, frowning back. “I do not know how humans are raised. It is good that your child has never had to doubt his safety here.”
“...Of course.”
“It is clear that your child is loved beyond his bloodline.”
“Of course,” Luo Jiahui insists, with an offended note in her voice. “When I found Binghe in that river, I didn’t know he was part demon, but I would have taken him in anyway! Whoever the parent is, whatever the parent has done, it’s never the baby’s fault. Even if a parent has done something wrong, then babies shouldn’t suffer for it. All children should be cherished.”
Luo Jiahui’s voice breaks a little, her eyes turning wet. Shang Qinghua fumbles for a handkerchief to offer his sister-in-law, which she accepts gratefully.
He wonders if she’s thinking about her stillborn baby. She doesn’t talk about her other baby very often, but she does sometimes. She told him once that she observes that day. It’s something that she insists on doing alone.
“...I was left in the human world as a young child,” Mobei-Jun says.
Shang Qinghua’s head snaps up. He knows that, but that’s because he wrote that. He has never, ever heard Mobei-Jun talk about it before.
“Oh, no,” Luo Jiahui says.
“I was nearly killed by humans,” Mobei-Jun informs them.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Luo Jiahui says.
“It was my uncle’s doing. He wishes to see me dead.” Mobei-Jun says this like it’s just another fact of life, not even an upsetting one, which kind of makes it one of the saddest fucking things that Shang Qinghua has ever heard the man say.
“That’s terrible,” Luo Jiahui says vehemently. “How rotten.”
Mobei-Jun blinks at her. His expression is still solemn, but the pause seems surprised.
Shang Qinghua almost wants to shrug. Yep, his sister-in-law is just like this!
“I have promised Qinghua that I will protect your son,” Mobei-Jun says to her. “I make you the same promise now.”
“...Thank you.”
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AN: Mobei-Jun is like, “I understand you to be one of the rare humans who is not a piece of shit and who would have saved me as a child. I respect this. I don’t fucking understand it, but I understand you should be protected and that your child should be protected. I am doing this for Shang Qinghua and not because I have any personal issues surrounding the endangerment of demon children.”
Luo Jiahui is like, “Oh, he’s soft inside! He’ll protect my Binghe. Okay, I like him now. I didn’t want to, but anyone who basically professes to be willing to die for my child and my brother has my reluctant approval.”
-
Shang Qinghua can’t help it. The energy in here is so weird! He laughs.
“My king, have you had that all this time?”
Mobei-Jun doesn’t say anything, he just frowns.
“Clearly he was waiting to return it in person, Houhua,” Luo Jiahui admonishes. “It’s not his fault that you took so long introducing us or surely he would have returned it sooner. Don’t make it out to be impolite.”
Mobei-Jun gives Shang Qinghua’s sister-in-law an approving look.
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AN: Mobei-Jun is like, “Oh, she’s smarter than Qinghua. Good. (Not that my Shang Qinghua isn’t very clever, but he’s an idiot.)”
-
And sometimes it’s just nice to take a minute to sit back, relax, and see his disciples daring their shidi, his fellow transmigrator, to chug the spiciest soup on the menu.
“Ah, kids,” Shang Qinghua says to Luo Jiahui.
Luo Jiahui is making a very concerned expression as her sisters, Shang Qinghua’s head disciples, and even Liu Mingyan chant: “Chug! Chug! Chug!” Yeah, he should probably stop them! But why would he? If anyone throws up from this, he’ll just appear out of nowhere to scare the shit out of all of them and then make them clean it up. It’s fine. He says as much to Luo Jiahui.
“They’re old enough to know better,” she says, but she looks fond now. “Their shifu should have taught them better manners, hm?”
“Hey! Only… four of those are mine.”
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AN: Friends for Shen Yuan! Friends for Shen Yuan!
Also SQH being like, “Oh, fuck, I really have too many kids.”
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Luo Jiahui sighs wistfully. “It is nice having children in here again, even big ones who are supposed to be adults now. I’m so proud of how Binghe has grown, but I miss when he was little. I miss when I could pick him up and carry him around. Uncle Han’s daughter brought her new baby in yesterday. He was so cute!”
“Aha, don’t steal a baby to fill the empty nest, please!”
Luo Jiahui swats him. “I wouldn’t do something like that!” she insists, cheeks flushing pink.
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AN: Baby?! Baby for Luo Jiahui and Liu Qingge?! Maybe!
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Chapter 27: “The First Day” of “pride is not the word I’m looking for” quotes and commentary. Not a full list of favorite quotes or full commentary.
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Right now, deep into the safety of darkness, Shang Qinghua thinks about how he never actually expected to be lying in his bed with Mobei-Jun. No, there’s a reason his sofa is comfortable enough to sleep on! That was by design too! Sure, Shang Qinghua had lots and lots of bed-related fantasies, but he had no expectations of those fantasies ever coming true. He didn’t dare to have expectations.
It’s kind of weird, lying in bed with Mobei-Jun. It’s definitely weird lying in his bed partially on top of Mobei-Jun. With the way things were headed, Shang Qinghua was admittedly fostering some hopes about those bed-related fantasies, but he still didn’t think to mentally prepare himself for the practical details. He really wasn’t mentally prepared for the softness of Mobei-Jun’s hair, for the thickness and the weight of the man’s arms, or for the coolness of his skin against the warmth of the blankets.
Fuck, now there is no way that Shang Qinghua is going to be able to see Mobei-Jun with a plunging neckline without thinking about touching the man’s bare chest. It’s a nice chest! It feels great underneath Shang Qinghua’s hands now.
He can feel a steady heartbeat beneath his fingers.
He can feel the gentle rise and fall of it with the man’s slow breaths, as the man’s eyes have fallen comfortably closed.
Shang Qinghua has never seen Mobei-Jun this relaxed.
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AN: Moshang in bed together is very good. I loved writing Moshang cuddles. I think it’s really nice when they’re allowed to be soft and relaxed, and everything is understood between them. Mobei-Jun at this point has learned to treat Shang Qinghua like a particularly anxious cat sometimes - if he just stays still and relaxed, eventually Shang Qinghua will calm down and chill with him.
Shout out to Mobei-Jun and all those years he spent trying to get some hint as to how human social everything worked, only to get nearly no help from Shang Qinghua. In this fic, part of the idea is that Shang Qinghua has been a slightly better communicator. Mobei-Jun can be a good listener when he doesn’t feel hideously embarrassed over his fuck-ups.
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“I had made plans to speak with you at some point about… this,” Mobei-Jun agrees. “But that was not why I had come to see you that day.”
“Ah, what… what was it, then?”
Mobei-Jun sighs. “I had come from a gathering of demon lords, hosted by my father at their request. They have loosely agreed to each contribute to an attack on the next conference of human cultivators,” he explains, apparently annoyed at just having to recollect this event. “My uncle encourages my father to force my involvement. He must have trouble planned… or see an opportunity for it.”
Shang Qinghua processes this, then sits bolt upright in bed. “What?!”
Mobei-Jun frowns up at him.
“There’s a demonic alliance to attack the next Immortal Alliance Conference?!” Shang Qinghua demands, leaning over the demon lord beside him.
“Yes.”
“And you waited to tell me this?!”
“There are years left before this event,” Mobei-Jun points out.
Shang Qinghua stares at him.
Sure! But he feels like he should start planning now! He already knew that there was going to be a demon attack of some kind - the seal on Luo Binghe’s powers has to be broken - but demon lords getting involved is bad news! Multiple demon lords who are important enough to be socializing with Mobei-Jun’s father is worse news! Demon lords potentially including Mobei-Jun’s shitty father and shitty uncle is the worst news of all!
“You should warn your people,” Mobei-Jun says, dryly.
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AN: Mobei-Jun doesn’t care about the sects, but he cares that Shang Qinghua cares. Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua really are villainous in SVSSS. Shang Qinghua just so happens to sometimes be on the protagonist’s (Shen Yuan’s) side and Shen Yuan has romanced a budding tyrant who has MBJ as a loyal minion. But, oof, I didn’t want to go that route with this fic.
I mean, I considered it! I considered having Shang Qinghua be forced to bring a demon invasion down on the sect he’s come to care about and his own nephew, but that felt a little too angsty for me. It totally could have been good, I was just like, “I can’t handle that.” Plus, with the world update, it felt fitting to jazz things up a little bit - to up the ante by inviting more demon lords and also have a little role reversal by letting Mobei-Jun be the spy. This way, I think, it really feels like Mobei-Jun is on Shang Qinghua’s side.
Shang Qinghua isn’t on the demons’ side. Mobei-Jun isn’t really on the humans’ side. But they are on each other’s side. They’re a team!
Again, what’s more romantic than your demon boyfriend actually doing the work of growth on his own? Moshang can be a little rough and with a lot of sharp edges (on both sides, they’re both kind of mean people) sometimes, so it’s sometimes nice to remember that they can support each other too.
Also, I’ve always been kind of curious about what Mobei-Jun’s family thinks of his relationship with a human. Mobei-Jun’s father is still alive throughout SVSSS, so it’s fun to think about ice demon politics, power and influence and loyalty in that court, and whether that factored at all into Mobei-Jun’s extremely slow-moving courting timeline of a human.
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The person at the door knocks a third time, and Shang Qinghua feels the person beside him stir. He can feel a not insignificant amount of weight shifting, a low and unhappy grumble, and cool skin brushing against his own as that person makes to get up. Possibly to handle the person at the door? Shang Qinghua here abruptly remembers many important details about his current situation that make the sect potentially being on fire seem like a not-so-bad emergency.
“Demon invasion,” Shang Qinghua finds himself thinking. “Mobei-Jun. Fuck.”
“No, no, no! Don’t get up! I’ll get it!” Shang Qinghua cries, throwing off tangled blankets and flying out of bed. “I’ll handle it, my king! Sorry! Ahhh, sorry! I’ll take care of it, you can just stay where you are-”
Shang Qinghua, now on his feet, pushes firmly down against Mobei-Jun’s chest. He’s not expecting the man - a very, very strong and very, very stubborn demon lord - to go back down under his hand without any resistance at all. This easy obedience, this willingly being pushed down, leads to a surprised Shang Qinghua overbalancing and catching himself hard on Mobei-Jun’s chest and shoulders.
As though Shang Qinghua is actually pinning the man down.
Mobei-Jun stares up at him, eyes low-lidded, and raises his eyebrows.
Ah.
Wow.
Shang Qinghua is going to… well, he’s going to think about this for the rest of his life, probably.
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AN: Mobei-Jun is so self-conscious in SVSSS that it’s kind of hilarious. So it’s fun to let him be a little more confident (rather than arrogant and lashing out defensively). Mobei-Jun probably thought to himself here, “You know what’ll be funny here? If I just go down now.” I feel it in my heart that Mobei-Jun is a teaser, especially when he’s relaxed and happy.
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Shang Qinghua takes the time to fix up his appearance a little more - to get rid of the “I slept with a demon” smell - because if the asshole at his door has kept it up this long, they can wait a little longer. It turns out that he didn’t really need to bother, because it’s his fellow transmigrator and most dogged critic, Peerless Cucumber.
“Bro,” Shang Qinghua says seriously. “Do you have a deathwish?”
Peerless Cucumber - Shen Yuan, Shang Qinghua has to remember to call the kid by his real name - lowers his hand with a scowl. “...One of your disciples told me to knock on your door and keep knocking until you answered,” the other transmigrator says defensively. “After I said you said to meet you in the morning.”
“...Which one?”
“Wen Shufen, I think?”
“Ah, just for that prank, Sticky Fingers is going to be hauling fertilizer for Long Sheng Peak for a month,” Shang Qinghua says tiredly. “Bro, do not believe half the things your martial siblings here tell you. They’re pretty much all liars, cheats, and thieves.”
“Then why keep them around?”
“Ah, well, sometimes you need someone to lie, cheat, or steal.”
“...It’s nearly not morning anymore, you know.”
“Eh, I guess you get a pass this time, since I did tell you we’d have a nice long talk about things tomorrow morning. Come on in.”
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AN: I don’t know if this vibe is coming across, but Shen Yuan feels a little ignored and neglected. They just got back from a mission and Shen Yuan has already been shooed off like twice. Shang Qinghua is so busy. Shang Qinghua is so experienced and so established here. Shen Yuan has latched onto SQH as his lifeline, though he’s trying very, very hard to be independent, and yet Shang Qinghua kind of has SY on the back burner most of the time.
Not only is Shang Qinghua the author of this world, but he’s also an important figure in this world. Shang Qinghua really lives here and if the plot wasn’t looming over them, SQH would be very happy here. This place feels 100% like Shang Qinghua’s | Airplane’s world and brand new transmigrator Shen Yuan feels like an unwanted intruder. SY is still lonely and scared.
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“...Are you going to try to activate it now?” Shen Yuan asks.
“Hmmm… no, not right now,” Shang Qinghua decides, standing up off the dusty stool he was sitting on. “Cucumber, bro, I’m just not awake enough for tackling anything serious right now. Let me get a few texts and tools together first to test this thing properly, alright? Some safety equipment! Aprons and face shields! Thick, fireproof gloves! I’m still trying to figure out how to safely ask Duan Tianyu what he knows about this map the System apparently made him send me, when he might not even know what the fuck I’m talking about! Maybe he can give us some hints.”
“Who?”
“One of my Huan Hua not-disciples,” Shang Qinghua answers. “I picked up some extras a few deadly missions back. They’re good kids. All grown up now! Less naïve than they used to be! Duan Tianyu is teaching back at Huan Hua Palace now, so maybe I’ll have to be the one to wander over there on some pretense.”
Shen Yuan agrees that getting as much information as possible is probably the better course of action. Shang Qinghua ushers the kid out of his secret basement and his fellow transmigrator goes easily enough. Shang Qinghua complains about his shitty, no-good System on the way up for forcing them to do all the work by themselves.
“It must think everything is more ‘authentic’ if I don’t know what the fuck is going on,” Shang Qinghua suggests, removing his spiritual seal and causing the door to the secret basement to vanish. “Ah, I’ll admit that’s kind of cool to watch.”
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AN: Throughout this conversation, SY is kind of reaching out, giving himself or Airplane excuses to let him stay. It’s not that he doesn’t want to cultivate, but SQH represents a sort of safety and familiarity SY doesn’t have right now.
In SVSSS, Airplane was always pretty direct with Shen Yuan, from what I remember, but he wasn’t necessarily open. He was direct about some potentially vulnerable or personal topics, like Luo Binghe’s insanity or his own general fear of his character’s planned death, but that’s not the same as actually being vulnerable. They snap at each other, they’re pretty direct about their personal goals, but they don’t actually get vulnerable with each other by confessing their personal fears and new relationship developments.
So I’ve tried to adopt that here, while making Shang Qinghua a little kinder and slightly more vulnerable, thanks to the efforts of Luo Jiahui. But Shang Qinghua still isn’t necessarily open here and neither is Shen Yuan. He’s just like, “Hey, it’s shit and I don’t like it either, but what can you do?” He’s not actually seriously talking about his breakdown or just how scared he is of his own plot.
For some people, there’s a certain kind of openness in confessing things to a stranger, so it’s kind of like that too. Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan have fallen into kind of familiar dynamics, because there’s nothing else to really do, and they are kind of acquaintances, but they’re still not friends yet.
I think I want to have SY and SQH actually address this soon. SY feels that SQH has been kind of dropping the ball when it comes to honestly helping his fellow transmigrator, though SY, being SY, can’t quite put his finger on the lack of emotional intimacy and affection that he’s starved for right now.
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The day-in-day-out of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect can’t get him down today! He feels kind of like he’s walking on air! Sure, the work never stops and there are some fucking terrifying things ahead, but he just had a very successful mission overall! He just had a really, really successful conversation with Mobei-Jun! He and Mobei-Jun are romantically entwined and Mobei-Jun was very explicit about the fact that he expects them to be romantically entwined… pretty much indefinitely!
“There is no one else,” Mobei-Jun had said. “There will be no one else.”
Shang Qinghua fostered a lot of hopes over the years! More hopes than he felt that he should have reasonably fostered! And to have those hopes unexpectedly fulfilled like this is… really something! It’s really, really something! Mobei-Jun really isn’t the type of character to say that - to say any of the things he said, and wow, he said a lot of things back there - without meaning it completely.
Shang Qinghua doesn’t really know what to do with that.
Forever is a long time.
He understands, of course, that some things really do last an impossibly long time. He used to be pretty certain that all love matches faded eventually - that people were genuinely wildly in love… that people were sincerely in love with each other, sure… up until they inevitably weren’t anymore - but now he can’t really imagine Liu Qingge or Luo Jiahui ever getting tired of each other. Liu Qingge keeps bringing Luo Jiahui new recipes to try and rare ingredients to interest her, so she can make dishes for the two of them or her family as a whole, and Shang Qinghua can easily imagine the two of them doing that pretty much indefinitely.
Shang Qinghua can’t think about this for long, before he has to focus on greeting his disciples (it’s just Peng Hongpeng and Chen Xuan in here at the moment) and getting to work. “Good things last while they last!” he decides for now, because thinking about things not lasting kind of makes him feel like he’s dying.
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AN: Shang Qinghua can’t quite bring himself to believe in a relationship lasting forever right now. Part of it is his commitment issues, but another part of it is his persisting inability to see past the looming plot. He’s still worried about Luo Binghe and the Eternal Abyss, so he’s having difficulty seeing past that hurdle, even though things like Luo Jiahui’s marriage and his new relationship with Mobei-Jun are forcing him to confront the fact that there’s still a life outside of and beyond the plot.
For Shang Qinghua, it’s kind of a “I’ll think about that later if we all survive” thing when it comes to him and Mobei-Jun.
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“He made a mistake with good intentions and got a small injury for it,” Shang Qinghua says, as reassuringly as he can. “He’s fine! He’s in trouble with his shizun for it, though, but I’ll see what I can do about bringing you up to meet him or bringing him down here as soon as possible. I’ll do my best to make it happen!”
Luo Jiahui leans into Shang Qinghua’s side and admits, “I miss him.”
“He misses you.”
“I miss you too,” Luo Jiahui adds.
“...Ah, sorry.”
“It’s okay,” his sister-in-law says warmly. “I’d miss you even if you visited every day.”
Shang Qinghua is holding her hands, but it feels like she’s got an extra one wrapped around his heart. “Where’s that husband of yours? Doesn’t he come down the mountain every day? Should I be telling him off? Sorry I ran off with him for a little bit!”
“What does Qingge have to do with you and me?” Luo Jiahui demands. “It doesn’t matter how often I see everyone else, I still miss you and Binghe the most.”
“Hm, that’s a point! That’s a point.”
What else can Shang Qinghua do but admit that he misses her the most too?
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AN: It was fun to follow up Shang Qinghua’s romantic developments with a return to his most important and longest relationship: the one he has with his “fake” sister. Luo Jiahui is and always will be important to Shang Qinghua and who he’s become. They have such a lovely relaxed feeling that’s nice to revisit. I’ve missed Luo Jiahui these past few chapters, as things get twisted up more and more in sect business.
It would feel dishonest to the rest of the fic if Shang Qinghua’s other relationships disappeared in favor of his new romantic relationship. They all have their own importance. Mobei-Jun and Liu Qingge don’t make Shang Qinghua and Luo Jiahui any less important to each other.
I am looking forward to making Mobei-Jun and Luo Jiahui meet again, and tackling some of Mobei-Jun’s thoughts on Shang Qinghua’s relationship with his family. Mobei-Jun has a really shitty family, so it’s interesting thinking about what family means to him and how loyalty/love plays into it.
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While he's busy plotting around the plot, there’s a hum of power behind him, the cool whoosh and crackle of a portal opening, the faint hair-rising warning of demonic energy. Shang Qinghua finishes tapping at his own face in thought, looks up at the looming shadow standing behind him, and smiles. He kind of feels like he should run away, but it's too late for that now. He held on long enough that he made it too late for himself.
“Hello,” he says.
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AN: I took this almost exactly from the first chapter of Part 3 of this fic. I can’t remember the chapter number, but it was the one titled “The Inevitable Plot”.
Parts 3 and 4 of this fic blend together a little. Part 3 of this fic kind of ends here, but I have a couple more chapters that I want to tackle before I feel that I can say we’re for sure in Part 4? I have some things I want to accomplish before we go into a slight time skip towards the Immortal Alliance Conference.
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