Chapter Text
Shen Jiu stood in front of the other, standing straight except for his head that tilted downwards, refusing to meet the other’s gaze. He feared that if the other saw the emotions that flickered on his face, something far worse would be waiting for him.
"What is your name?"
Shen Jiu bit his lip hearing the slight, but still there, hesitance in the question. He wonders belatedly if something was wrong with his appearance. Were his looks turned worse under the layers of makeup? Was one of his garments missing a piece? Were his robes too extravagant? What was wrong?
"This lowly one's name is Shen Jiu, Junshang." Shen Jiu once again heard the slight hitch in breathing, was he doing something wrong? Could have someone have been that petty to fuck him over even now?
"... Shen Jiu is a male."
It wasn't a question, a mere statement.
Perhaps, that was what was wrong with him? Perhaps, the other expected a beautiful damsel in distress as an offering. Instead he had got Shen Jiu, a boy with a pretty face that had been thrown out as the sacrificial lamb dressed in ornate clothing.
"This one apologizes if Junshang is displeased with this one’s gender." Shen Jiu bowed his head lower. Pride was never worth one’s life and if apologizing for something that was beyond his control would let him live, so be it. "The village had simply picked the most 'beautiful' person to offer to Junshang, regardless of the person's gender." He explained his voice going quieter to the end. After all, between them, only Shen Jiu knew he was lying.
They simply wanted to get rid of a pest with a pretty face and please a higher authority. That was the only way to survive in the new world now.
"...Acknowledged." Was the response Shen Jiu received, he doesn’t mention that he wasn’t exactly forgiven. There's a pause as if the other was contemplating what to do. "Raise your head."
A simple command that Shen Jiu struggled to follow for a half a second. He forced his face blank, denying the emotions rushing in him to show; he forced his painted lips into a neutral line, his face relaxing letting his fear and panic fester internally instead. He looked up to meet the other’s eyes. He was never the tallest in height, even as an adult Shen Jiu was still a bit shorter than the average. Junshang though, was tall.
In effect, it made it so much harder to look at crimson eyes gazing down at him. Because it felt familiar despite Shen Jiu never encountering a red-eyed person till now. Perhaps they just reminded him too much of his prior master. It's made worse when those eyes narrowed, as if they knew everything about him.
Shen Jiu can feel himself breathe sharply, his heart beating against his chest as those vermillion eyes shrunk slightly, a sign of perhaps, realization, of what? He didn't necessarily want to know.
A part of him is screaming that he was in danger. That he should be running in the opposite direction as far as he can in these heavy clothes. He should be running to get away from the—
“Is Shen Jiu ready to go?”
The other turned away as he asked that and Shen Jiu let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Right. He had no reason to run like an idiot, not yet.
“Of course Junshang. This lowly one is yours to command and use.” Shen Jiu replied, his head once again tilted downwards. In both respect and to hide the possible sour expression on his face. “Junshang, may—“
“Stop.”
Shen Jiu bit down on his tongue to stop himself from continuing. Did he do something wrong? Safe option was to apologize, right? “Apologizing again to Junshang for what this lowly one—“
“That. Stop that.” The other hissed. Crimson eyes glancing back at him, firmly freezing Shen Jiu to where he was standing. The frustration in the other’s face was barely hidden.
Shen Jiu bit harder on his tongue, confusion drifting his thoughts. What exactly was he doing incorrectly?
“Just, refer to me as Luo Binghe or… Forget it. Refer to this one as Luo Binghe or Binghe.”
“As you wish, Jun… Luo Binghe.” Shen Jiu bowed lower, afraid of what may happen next. He barely knew the other, so it was best course to play as a submissive slave at the other’s whims.
“Stand up.”
Shen Jiu straightened his figure at the command, his eyes still downcasted. Playing it right had always led to better situations, not good, but better than what was supposed to happen.
A hand reached towards him. Stay still. Stay still. Stay still. Was a mantra that blared in his head as the hand held his face lightly. His legs so close to giving in to his weight under the layers of robes. He knew what was meant to happen to him when the village had sent him out, but knowing never made it better.
It was not the first time someone had held Shen Jiu soft & lightly, yet always ended with far too much pain that he wondered why he had trusted the same sweet lie again.
"Don't do that." A thumb swipes at his bottom lip and chin as Luo Binghe warned, before letting go of his face.
Shen Jiu blinked, that was it? He wasn't ungrateful, just, surprised. Belatedly he saw the small crimson mark on the other’s thumb. Shen Jiu bit too hard on his lip or tongue it seemed.
"Apologizing to Luo Binghe for making a mess." Shen Jiu muttered as he brought his hand to his face to rub off whatever excess blood remained.
Luo Binghe stared at him for a second longer before turning away and drawing his sword.
“Let’s go then.”
A voice was screaming in his head, that he was once again picking the worst option, he ignored it. There was no choice nor were there options.
Luo Binghe couldn’t help but stare, how could he not? An alive and breathing person that looked so eerily similar to his shizun. A reincarnation perhaps? A possible explanation, it had been almost two decades since the man had taken his last breath. Did Shen Qingqiu truly deserved to be reincarnated? As a human no less? Besides, the similarity was striking to say the least. Of course, there were differences, they were few but they also stood out.
Dark abyss eyes were now replaced with bright verdant ones that stared straight ahead as Luo Binghe walked both of them through his palace. Yet they also had the same shape, sharp phoenix eyes.
Shen Qingqiu, when he had his limbs, stood around a few inches taller than his shoulders while Shen Jiu stood just barely above his shoulders, which was made obvious as they walked side by side. Yet the two also held the bordering unhealthy skinniness.
Hair that appeared like spilled ink once reached his shizun’s butt, but Shen Jiu’s hair was colored a dark taupe brown and it barely reached the middle of his back even with less bright lighting. Yet they both had similar hair, straight and silky
“Shen Jiu will be staying here for now.” Luo Binghe stated, temporarily stopping his search for similarities, he gestured to the room the two had entered. It was a room right beside Luo Binghe’s chambers. Usually it was reserved for his new wives to stay in for a while as they adjusted and as their own chambers were built but Shen Jiu was a special case. Besides, it was better if Shen Jiu stayed close for now, the uncanny similarity could arouse far too many problems. Luo Binghe, himself also had far too many questions.
Luo Binghe took a glance at Shen Jiu, silently wondering what the other thought of the room. The furniture and decoration were rather simple but at the same time designed to fit an emperor’s palace. His shizun used to have all types of priceless accessories or items that laid haphazardly in his old bamboo house, most were gifts from Sect Leader Yue; it made even less sense why such items were left around like trash. If anything it made shizun seem like some spoiled brat, so forgive Luo Binghe for being curious on how his shizun’s reincarnation would react to the room.
“It’s…” Despite Shen Jiu only being able to barely mutter a word, Luo Binghe can see the other’s shock and a spark of… Fear? What was there to fear? If anything, the other should be happy with such a room even if it was only temporary for now. His thoughts were cut off as Shen Jiu stared back at him, mouth opening hesitantly. “Junshang… Luo Binghe?”
Luo Binghe hummed in response to the almost question-like call for his name. He dragged his gaze away from his shizun’s reincarnation, silently wondering if something in the room looked threatening, or something else that was causing the other’s fear.
“What is this lowly one to Junshang?”
There’s a tone in that question that said that ‘Junshang’ was completely intentional. While he had asked Shen Jiu to call him Luo Binghe due to his title only sounding like mockery from his shizun’s face despite the tone being completely respectful; he would let it slide for now. Luo Binghe caught on to the meaning.
Who was Shen Jiu, not to Luo Binghe, since it was quite obvious of his personal interest, but to the Emperor of the Three Realms?
Luo Binghe hummed for a moment, truly Shen Jiu had no real connection to him in terms of roles. Shen Jiu was simply a gift, a sacrifice, to the Emperor of the Three Realms from Fan Mang City.
Shen Jiu was someone who had the face of the man Luo Binghe obsessed over and perhaps this was a chance to give himself the kind shizun he had always envied.
“For now, Shen Jiu is nothing but someone who belongs to this Emperor.” Was the answer Luo Binghe settled on. It was the truth after all, he had no reason to lie to the other about this if the other wanted to know his position in Luo Binghe’s palace.
“Then what are these lowly one’s responsibilities? Is he to act as a servant for Junshang?” Shen Jiu questioned, and it made sense to ask such a question, after all Luo Binghe had literally told the other he was quite nothing to the emperor, it was both a bit impressive and slightly unnerving how the other didn’t seem to care that he had been labeled as practically a dross.
“For now, somewhat and perhaps a bit of entertainment. How old is Shen Jiu?” Luo Binghe answered before asking back as he gestured for both of them to enter the room. It was mostly out of curiosity, clearly the other was, at least looked like, an adult which brought up the fact that the gap between Shen Qingqiu’s death and Shen Jiu’s birth was more than likely very small. It may also answer just how long this shizun look alike had been living in Luo Binghe’s territory, which brought up even more questions.
“This lowly one isn’t exactly sure… but this one had been told he was likely in his late twenties or so.” Shen Jiu muttered, head tilted to the side likely as a thinking motion. “Apologies, this lowly one has not the most keen memory.” Shen Jiu bowed a bit before raising his head again, immediately meeting the other’s gaze now that Luo Binghe was sitting on the bed.
The demon lord bit at his lip slightly as he dragged his gaze away, disregarding the fact Shen Jiu looked a bit younger than that, it made no sense then if this was shizun’s reincarnation. Shen Qingqiu died no more than eighteen years ago, there was an overlap of at least eight years between Shen Jiu’s and shizun’s lives. Then perhaps it was just pure coincidence?
Yet the similarities were too much.
Besides that, ‘not the most keen memory’? Does Shen Jiu have memory issues? That would explain the other’s answer which had been a range of ages. Then did that mean Shen Jiu had no family or even friends to tell him his exact age? Which also brought up the fact, just how did Shen Jiu stay under his knowledge for this long? Fan Mang City was small but it was in the middle of many crossroads. Perhaps—
“—Junshang?”
Luo Binghe blinked, missing everything except for his title being called out. He looked at Shen Jiu, jade eyes narrowing at him, red lips inwardly pursed as if to hide whatever his true expression would be when he asked the question that Luo Binghe failed to catch.
“Luo Binghe.” The demon lord corrected in response to the unheard question, the sooner Shen Jiu stopped calling him Junshang the better. The ghost-like mockery Shen Qingqiu used every time he had called him Junshang, kept overlapping with Shen Jiu’s words and Luo Binghe doesn’t want to know what he’d do that he’d surely regret later on, the only sin the other had so far was having the face of a man that deserved to burn in the lowest levels of hell.
Shen Jiu blinked before repeating his question, fixing what he had called the other. “Is this lowly one to serve even in the bedroom, Luo Binghe?” Once again his lips are pursed tight, refusing to reveal whatever real expression he had when he said that.
Luo Binghe stared for a moment, it was easy to tell from the tone and body language Shen Jiu, in simpler terms, meant sex. Which Luo BInghe could understand, he had asked the other’s age after saying the other could be used for entertainment.
Another thing was that… Shen Jiu was uncomfortable with sex. His body language was, oh so very similar to some of his wives who had been sexually assaulted by other men before when it came to talking or even having sex.
Perhaps if this was his shizun, he had received his karma for grooming Ning Yingying and being leacher.
“Is Shen Jiu offering himself to this one?” Luo Binghe questioned back, a small playful smirk on his face as one of his eyebrows raised. “Yet Shen Jiu doesn’t seem too keen on joining this one in bed.”
There’s a pause and Luo Binghe wonders if his joke went too far. There was no confirmation that Shen Jiu was Shen Qingqiu after all, and if he wasn’t then wasn’t Luo Binghe just poking at some boy’s trauma? About to retract his statement, Shen Jiu replied.
“Shen Jiu belongs to Luo Binghe, his opinion should not matter to Luo Binghe.” Shen Jiu stated back in response. While his words came out clear and his face blank, as if he had repeated the line many times before. His tone, for a lack of a better word, felt desensitized. That being nothing more than a servant- or even a bed warmer- was normal. “This lowly one is simply a sacrifice offered to the benevolent Emperor of the Three Realms, he will simply follow what the Emperor commands.”
Something in that response ticked Luo Binghe off, perhaps it was because he had always associated Shen Jiu as Shen Qingqiu, a proud, wretched, waste of a cultivator. Yet the person in front of him was none of those. Shen Jiu was submissive, scared of everything that it was obvious despite his attempts to hide it, and more than likely traumatized.
Besides that, Shen Jiu was someone who was sacrificed, gifted to Luo Binghe with similarities to his old shizun. Nothing more, nothing less. The only thing special about Shen Jiu was that he could give Luo Binghe mostly everything he wanted with the face of Shen Qingqiu: kindness, obedience and love.
Yet everything felt wrong at that moment.