Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan has, as the second son, been able to get out of many of the duties often expected of a well to do young master. He was never given more than a half-hearted scolding for spending more time reading and sleeping than hunting or politicking, and he’d managed to convince his father that not every halfway clever young master needs to become the greatest imperial scholar to have ever lived. He’s even been allowed a frankly astonishing amount of freedom with the way he treats his personal servants, though he suspects that has more to do with pity for his general friendless-ness than anything else.

Unfortunately, the only thing he cannot seem to escape is also arguably the most important one of all.

He must, in the end, take a wife.

Listen, it isn’t like he dislikes the idea of being married to a pretty young lady! Why would he? Every man wants a wife, and so Shen Yuan does as well! Because he’s totally and completely normal about the idea of marrying a woman! And kissing her! And - and doing - doing other, more serious - doing - 

Shen Yuan lets his head fall to his desk, groaning at the dull jolt of pain. That’s what he gets, for having this crisis in front of a hard, unforgiving desk surface instead of his perfectly wonderful bed. Stupid.

“...Yuan-ge?” 

Shen Yuan snaps his head back up, resuming a respectable sitting position. It isn’t unusual for him to forget when one of his personal servants is sitting quietly in the room with him, but it is rare that it happens to be Luo Binghe he forgets about. Luo Binghe has been more of a friend to him than a servant since he joined their estate years ago, and Shen Yuan prefers to think of himself as the sort of irritating rich young master who, at the very least, doesn’t forget when a friend is in the room.

He coughs awkwardly, glancing at Luo Binghe before quickly looking back down at the papers on his desk. The papers he’d just had his head bashed into a moment prior. Those papers.

He winces inwardly.

“Did you need something, Binghe?”

“Yuan-ge…” Luo Binghe trails off, but even without looking back at him Shen Yuan knows his expression must be twisted in concern. “Yuan-ge isn’t happy about the wedding announcement either, then?”

“No! No no, of course I’m happy! Totally -” Shen Yuan’s voice cracks embarrassingly, “- totally happy!”

There’s a moment of awkward silence, giving Shen Yuan just enough time to process the other part of what Luo Binghe had said. He twists back in his desk chair to face Luo Binghe.

“Wait, you said ‘either’ just now? Who else -”

“You don’t sound happy, Yuan-ge,” Luo Binghe interrupts, and Shen Yuan winces again. “Yuan-ge doesn’t have to pretend for me. If you’re unhappy, it’s your Binghe’s job to fix it.”

Shen Yuan sighs, though he admits there’s a note of fondness to it. Ah, Binghe, this sort of thing is not at all in your job description, but your silly master appreciates it nonetheless! 

He reaches out to pat at Luo Binghe’s head, part of his own bad mood forgotten in favor of soothing his silly sheep. “What’s there to be unhappy about, hm? Shouldn’t I be proud? For the Shen family to be able to announce something as ludicrous as this - as a ‘call for a wife,’ as if they’d be lining up at our front door - my name must really be impressive!”

It’s true, too - Shen Yuan is not oblivious to the privilege their family has. Minor favor from the current mortal dynasty, influence over much of the trade and commerce in their area - Shen Yuan knows well enough that without these things, it’s unlikely this sort of advertisement ever would have turned up any pretty young ladies interested in the Second Young Master Shen.

Luo Binghe, if anything, only looks more sour. “Yuan-ge’s wife should want to marry him because Yuan-ge himself is good, not because his name is.”

“Ah, well -” Shen Yuan laughs awkwardly, “That… I mean, with these sorts of requirements -”

Shen Yuan breaks off, waving a hand at the papers on his desk. ‘Second Young Master Shen will take a wife,’ they read, ‘who presents themselves as a good fit for being a Lady Shen.” There is no mention of being a good fit for Shen Yuan specifically. 

“Yuan-ge’s wife should want to marry Yuan-ge,” Luo Binghe repeats stubbornly, and Shen Yuan pats at hair again consolingly. 

“Ah, Binghe… it’ll turn out alright. It isn’t as if my mother won’t allow me any say in the process, so surely I’ll be able to choose a candidate that won’t be too bad.”

Luo Binghe’s eyes narrow slightly. It makes Shen Yuan want to pull at his cheek - it isn’t quite the same expression of mischief that Luo Binghe used to wear sometimes when he was younger, but it somehow makes Shen Yuan want to tease him a bit all the same. 

“And what,” Luo Binghe asks carefully, “does Yuan-ge consider to be a good candidate?”

Shen Yuan gives in to the urge to pull at Luo Binghe’s cheek. It’s far more satisfying than it should be, considering Luo Bingher is in fact a young adult and not a small child. 

“Don’t you go asking those sorts of pointed questions, ah! Last time I mentioned to you I didn’t like squash, no one in this whole household could find a squash for a month! What will I do if you disappear all the young ladies who you think don’t match my criteria, hm?”

Luo Binghe’s eyes glisten with unshed, innocent maiden tears. “Yuan-ge, I would never!”

Shen Yuan squints at him. 

Luo Binghe’s tearful expression wobbles purposefully. 

“Oh, you -!” Shen Yuan lets go of Luo Binghe’s cheek, huffing irritably and turning away. Honestly!

…He shoots a casual glance back at Luo Binghe. His cheek is pink from where Shen Yuan had been pulling at it, and Luo Binghe brings a hand up to rub at it, staring back at Shen Yuan woefully.

This does not affect Shen Yuan at all, obviously. If he reaches back out to pat soothingly at Luo Binghe’s cheek, it’s completely unrelated!!

“...Still,” Luo Binghe says, after Shen Yuan has fussed over him an appropriate amount, “This Binghe wants to know what Yuan-ge wants in a wife. I won’t - I won’t do anything. I just -”

Luo Binghe breaks off, glancing down at his own hands.

“I just want to know if Yuan-ge thinks it’s so important that all of Lady Shen’s criteria are met, is all.”

Shen Yuan frowns. That isn’t all that specific of a question - his mother has a whole list of criteria, though it obviously isn’t all spelled out in the official statement the Shen Family released. Well trained in fine arts, a good connection for the Shens financially, a strong family background to support her -

Ah. Shen Yuan suddenly feels a bit embarrassed, for not realizing sooner. Of course his Binghe - a boy with no family to speak of, the official standing of a (spoiled) servant, and with training only in how to wash and cook and clean - would worry about this sort of thing!

“Binghe doesn’t have to worry about that,” Shen Yuan says firmly. “Those sorts of qualifications aren’t the most important thing about a wife. Of course, the most important thing is that you get along.”

“Yuan-ge!” Luo Binghe cries, reaching out to clutch at Shen Yuan’s sleeve. “Then - you - I -!”

“So, Binghe doesn’t have to worry about these criteria when looking for his own wife.” Shen Yuan finishes, patting at Luo Binghe’s hand reassuringly. “You’ll find someone good for you soon, I’m sure.”

Luo Binghe stares at him a bit despairingly. 

“Ah, what’s that look for, hm?” Shen Yuan mutters, patting once more at Luo Binghe. “There’s no need to look so discouraged - Binghe’s a very handsome man, he’ll find someone with no problem at all!” 

Luo Binghe’s expression improves somewhat. “Yuan-ge thinks I’m handsome?”

“Of course you are,” Shen Yuan snorts, “Don’t pretend like you don’t know what you look like!”

“Hm!” Luo Binghe hums happily, preening a bit, and Shen Yuan rolls his eyes. Luo Binghe has always been like this, so quick to change moods for seemingly no reason at all. “Then, Yuan-ge doesn’t have to think anymore about the bride selection. This Binghe will figure it out.”

Shen Yuan makes a threatening pinching motion in the direction of Luo Binghe’s cheeks. “You will do no such thing,” he scolds, “And anyway, I said to begin with that I’m not worried at all and am perfectly happy about it all! No interfering!”

“Hm,” Luo Binghe hums again, this time less agreeably.

Shen Yuan scowls, turning back to his desk and shuffling the papers away to pull out new, far more interesting ones. Well, whatever! Not his problem if Luo Binghe wants to worry about something that doesn’t need worrying! Shen Yuan has other, cooler things to be doing with this time, like investigating the recent surge in reports of demonic activity in the area. Shen Yuan is, as he’s recognized before, quite spoiled for a second young master, so anything monsters and demons and fascinating gets put on his desk for careful consideration. 

Luckily for an area quite out of the way from the larger cultivation sects, their town has always been relatively safe - or at least, it has been, ever since some five or six years ago. Shen Yuan’s personal theory is that something powerful either moved in or woke up at that point, making this place essentially claimed territory in the eyes of less powerful smallfry demons. Shen Yuan’s public opinion is of course much less alarming and is a bunch of carefully worded statements about the village area’s natural qi levels and the work of the smaller cultivation sects that live closer to them than the larger sects.

In any case, the point is that their town has been safe for long enough that even small reports of demon activity are enough to cause a fuss these days, so Shen Yuan has all the excuses in the world to focus on these small problems with all the attention that his mother would certainly prefer he focus on his imminent engagement instead.

Not that he needs a distraction or anything, of course. 

(…But if he did, this would make a damn good one.)

---

There aren’t an overwhelming number of candidates that present themselves to be the future wife of Shen Yuan, of course. Their Shen family is well connected and well funded, but Shen Yuan isn’t the first son nor does he have any strong merits to his name besides his name. Still, a good handful of well to do young women make themselves known to Lady Shen over the next week or so, and Shen Yuan has to sit in on every single introduction.

Which he totally enjoys! He loves it, in fact! So many - ah, so many lovely young ladies, all vying for the chance to be his bride! He could probably come away with this with both a wife and a concubine, if he wanted! Haha! 

…Shen Yuan gets especially good at hiding from his mother. Luo Binghe helps, sweet boy that he is - he always has some sort of wonderfully thought up excuse for Shen Yuan to give, or becomes suddenly so clumsy that he causes a major distraction, or otherwise just quietly stuffs some business related paperwork into Shen Yuan’s hands so he can look busy. 

Shen Yuan himself protests this, of course - he doesn’t need distractions from this very happy and wonderful time in his life that he has no conflicted feelings about whatsoever! He just… maybe doesn’t protest all that hard, out of respect for Luo Binghe’s efforts! That’s all! And so it was perfectly reasonable for him to start to get used to it, and to maybe-sort-of expect Luo Binghe to always magically appear with a perfect excuse whenever a servant sends word that Shen Yuan is to meet Lady So-and-So for a chaperoned date, or whatnot. 

Unfortunately he must have gotten a bit too used to this pattern, because even when he logically knows that Luo Binghe isn’t around at the moment - that morning he’d given Shen Yuan a vague excuse about being busy today, when Shen Yuan had raised an eyebrow at the way Luo Binghe had allowed a second personal servant into the room during breakfast - Shen Yuan still looks for him when it’s announced that another bride candidate has appeared for Shen Yuan to greet.

Damn, Shen Yuan thinks as he’s forced to tidy himself up and make his way to the appropriate tea room, before very quickly erasing that thought and replacing it with a cheerful, oh good, I love meeting my potential brides!! So happy! Haha!

The whole estate seems to be buzzing with energy as Shen Yuan is led to the meeting place, and his throat starts to feel thick with anxiety the more he notices this. None of the previous bride candidates have caused nearly this much fuss when they arrived, which means that whoever has presented themselves as a bride, they’re worth substantially more gossip than the previous bridal candidates. Nothing that could cause such a thing would be good. Either the young miss who has shown up is nothing short of the Empress’ daughter, and Shen Yuan will lose any choice he may have otherwise been granted in his engagement simply because this one woman will stand so clearly above the others, or - 

Or it’s quite the opposite, and someone without a single of my mother’s qualifications has presented themselves as a bride candidate, Shen Yuan thinks as he enters the room, quickly followed by, Fuck, Binghe, what are you doing?!!

Luo Binghe is sitting across from Lady Shen, his back perfectly straight and his mouth set in a firm, determined line. He manages a small smile when he notices Shen Yuan’s arrival, but otherwise he looks very much like he’s just marched himself straight onto a battlefield without a single weapon.

Or, perhaps with one weapon: belatedly, Shen Yuan notices that Luo Binghe has an ornate box on the table in front of him. It’s the same sort of box that the other bridal candidates have been using to present their paintings or poems or other such markings of a well educated young lady, though Luo Binghe’s is substantially larger than the others Shen Yuan has seen. It isn’t the sort of thing a servant could afford easily, but Shen Yuan knows Luo Binghe has rarely seen the need to spend his own meager salary with the way Shen Yuan had spoiled him. 

He’d certainly had some vague, half-formed thought about allowing Luo Binghe to save up enough money to make his own life, or maybe to afford a bride price when he was a bit older.

He had never imagined once that Luo Binghe would spend that money to - to try out as Shen Yuan’s bride, what the fuck!!

“Young Master Shen,” Luo Binghe greets, and the oddity of hearing Luo Binghe call him so formally only puts Shen Yuan more on edge. “This humble one asks for the chance to present himself as your future wife.”

“Hh,” Shen Yuan says intelligently, and only barely manages to clumsily seat himself at the table by his mother. 

She doesn’t look nearly as baffled as Shen Yuan feels, but neither does she look at all happy about the current situation.

“Servant Luo,” Lady Shen addresses, making it very clear that she won’t be letting Luo Binghe’s standing in the household be forgotten in this conversation, “You’ve been with our house for nearly eight years, now.”

“Yes, Lady Shen,” Luo Binghe demures. “This Luo Binghe has been lucky to have been cared for all this time.”

Lady Shen snorts, dismissing the sugared words. “No need for this. Eight years has been long enough for this whole estate to become aware of Servant Luo’s sharp mind. It’s what has served you best as Yuan-er’s personal servant, only beaten by your… enthusiastic loyalty.”

Shen Yuan feels his cheeks heat. It isn’t the first time his mother has used that particular tone of voice when talking about Luo Binghe, but it is - it’s very different to wonder what it means and to then hear it in the context of Luo Binghe submitting himself to be Shen Yuan’s wife.

 “With that sort of wit,” Lady Shen continues, “Servant Luo would not have made such a stupid move as this without something to back him up.”

Shen Yuan’s mother doesn’t explain why this would be stupid, but she doesn’t have to. If Luo Binghe has really presented himself like this with nothing but his servant’s title to his name, it could be taken as an insult to the Shen name. There’d be no way to cover it up, either - with the way the servants had been gossiping, the whole town would know by evening. They’d have to fire Luo Binghe in order to save face, and the very thought of it makes Shen Yuan’s stomach twist.

But Luo Binghe only nods solemnly, and silently reaches for the box in front of him. His expression doesn’t waver, but Shen Yuan catches the way his hands shake just slightly. 

Ah, Binghe…

Shen Yuan’s heart beats jack-rabbit fast in his throat. He still hasn’t managed to process that Luo Binghe - his Binghe - has tried to submit himself to be a bridal candidate, still hasn’t managed to neatly box up all the messy feelings that make him feel flushed and a bit overwhelmed at the thought of it all. Knowing that Luo Binghe is nervous on top of it all only makes Shen Yuan feel - it makes him - 

Well, it makes him just feel more, of whatever it is he had already been feeling that had twisted him up so badly from the moment he’d caught Luo Binghe’s eye here. 

“This Luo Binghe does not have the education of a proper lady,” Luo Binghe begins, fingers smoothing over the lid of the box. “Nor do I have a fortune to guarantee the Shen Family’s success with this marriage. I can only offer my love for Young Master Shen -”

Shen Yuan jerks in his seat, his knee banging painfully against the table. 

“- and my skills as a cultivator,” Luo Binghe finishes, and finally opens the box.

Inside, carefully nestled in rich red silk, are two horns cut so recently that their bases still glisten and smell of blood. They’re large and wicked enough to belong to an adult ram, but instead of a dull black they glint almost red in the light, and the air around them is thick with black energy. 

They’re the horns of a demon. A powerful one, one that surely could not have had its horns taken from it without first having been killed. 

Shen Yuan gasps softly, but it’s barely registered in the murmur of similar shock in the room, even with as few attendants there as there are. Beside him, his mother does not react, but the careful way she holds herself is enough to betray that it is a very close thing.

“Servant Luo,” She begins, voice low. “Think carefully before you answer my next question.”

Luo Binghe nods. Lady Shen’s voice drops further.

“Can you, without a shadow of a doubt, swear to me - swear to Shen Yuan - that it was your own hand and skill that killed this demon?”

The room falls back to silence, the attendants that had been whispering eagerly quieting down to hear Luo Binghe’s reply. It is not a trivial question; Luo Binghe had been very clear in what he had intended by presenting this trophy. It is not just meant to be a display of strength to show that he can protect the household, or a simple gift of the horns themselves as a no doubt powerful medicinal item. 

When he had presented them, he had called himself a cultivator.

Cultivators are the one group of people who can rise from any social status, from any economic or family background, and become respected and praised. Of course, with that sort of prize at the end goal, everyone not born into wealth - and still a great many of those who are - wish to pursue cultivation, but only a few manage to succeed. Forget the great sects further away from their town; even the smaller sects closer by only accept a small number of disciples each year, and of those, even fewer manage to cultivate a golden core and become the sort of person who is respected wherever they go.

The sort of person who, Shen Yuan realizes a bit belatedly, would no doubt be qualified to be the wife of any young lord of good standing.

But Luo Binghe has not trained as a disciple under any cultivation sect Shen Yuan is aware of. He’d arrived at their household right about at the age many children try their luck at the sect tryouts, and he hasn’t left since. The closest thing to a cultivation training Luo Binghe has ever had - at least to Shen Yuan’s knowledge - is reading over Shen Yuan’s shoulder as he’s looked curiously through outdated cultivation manuals. There is no way he should be able to call himself a cultivator - no way he should have been able to have kill any sort of demon, let alone one so powerful that its energy still lingers on the trophy of its horns.

Still, Luo Binghe’s expression does not waver. 

“I swear on my honor as Young Master Shen’s most trusted person,” he says, and Shen Yuan’s breath hitches, “that it was my own hand that cut these horns.”

“You do not have a spiritual sword,” Lady Shen observes cooly, eyeing the clean cut at the base of the horns.

“No,” Luo Binghe admits. “But my cultivation path does not need one. Forgive this Luo Binghe’s insolence; I used a kitchen knife.”

There’s another buzz of reaction from the attendants in this room, but Lady Shen only narrows her eyes at Luo Binghe and says nothing. Luo Binghe matches her gaze evenly. After a long moment, Shen Yuan’s mother relaxes, just slightly.

“Alright, then, Cultivator Luo,” she says, mouth ticked up in an approximation of a smile. “Your suit as a bridal candidate for Yuan-er is accepted.”

---

Shen Yuan finds Luo Binghe after the meeting, slipping into the rooms he’d been given as a visiting prospective wife. They’re much nicer than the rooms Shen Yuan knows he has as a servant. They are also much, much further away from Shen Yuan’s own rooms.

“Binghe,” Shen Yuan calls urgently as soon as the door has shut behind him, and Luo Binghe lights up at the sight of him.

“Yuan-ge,” he calls in kind, his expression quickly growing mischievous. “Could it be that Yuan-ge is finally seeing a bit of excitement for his marriage, now that your Binghe has become a candidate?”

“What? I - no, Binghe, listen, you -”

“Oh? But isn’t Yuan-ge here in my rooms, without even a chaperone to watch us?”

Shen Yuan flushes red at the implication. “Well, that’s - you’re Binghe, what would I need a chaperone for??”

“Yuan-ge is so forward,” Luo Binghe says, leaning close into Shen Yuan’s space. “For him to think our marriage is so obviously decided that a chaperone isn’t needed, that it wouldn’t even be an issue if he were to spoil my chastity for anyone else.”

“No!” Shen Yuan cries, feeling more than a little overwhelmed, “I wouldn’t - to Binghe, I could never -”

“Ah, so Yuan-ge wants the wedding night to be special, after all,” Luo Binghe says, leaning in even closer. His grin has gone a bit tight, though, clearly unhappy with something Shen Yuan had said, but - 

But Shen Yuan has truly been a bit out of his mind ever since Luo Binghe first started telling Lady Shen what a good bride he’d make for Young Master Shen, and he really does not have the capacity to figure out what is going on in that very lovely but admittedly sometimes baffling brain of Luo Binghe’s!!

Shen Yuan gracelessly shoves Luo Binghe away from himself, twisting his head away so he can’t meet his eyes either.

“You!! Are not a bride candidate!! You can’t be!” He cries, and then immediately wants to shove his fist in his mouth for even saying the word ‘bride’ aloud in the context of Luo Binghe. “It’s just - you - you cant!”

Luo Binghe does not respond immediately. Shen Yuan is left listening only to his own breathing, a bit too loud and uneven. Eventually, he chances a glance back at Luo Binghe, but the pleased, mischievous look has left Luo Binghe entirely. Instead, he looks almost frustrated, if not for the way his ears have turned pink to belay Luo Binghe’s own embarrassment with the situation. Shen Yuan almost feels relieved to know that he isn’t alone in how awkward he feels in this situation, but something about Luo Binghe’s expression makes his stomach only twist further.

“...Is it really so impossible?” Luo Binghe asks eventually, quieter than he’d been speaking earlier. Then his expression twists, and he reaches up to clutch at Shen Yuan’s hands where they still rest on his chest to keep him away from Shen Yuan. “You said the qualifications didn’t matter - that the most important thing was that we got along!”

“That - I meant -”

“Who gets along better with you than I do?” Luo Binghe cries, pushing forward into Shen Yuan’s space again, and Shen Yuan doesn’t have the mental capacity to remember to keep him pushed away. “Who is more qualified, when it comes to this most important thing? How can you say I can’t be your wife as if it’s so completely impossible, when I’ve already found a way to get Lady Shen’s approval?”

The mention of his mother’s approval only reminds Shen Yuan of what his original goal had been in seeking Luo Binghe out, though, and he finally manages to refocus. “Binghe, you aren’t a cultivator!”

“I could be!” Luo Binghe argues, defiant, and Shen Yuan wants to shake him until he regains his senses.

“But you aren’t, Binghe, I know you’ve never had the time to, and this - this is serious, Binghe, listen to me!” Shen Yuan finds himself grasping at Luo Binghe’s hands in return, urgency finally shaking him from the embarrassment of everything else. “Lying about being a cultivator - not even someone of my own status could come away from that unscathed, and I can’t - I can’t actually protect you to that extent!”

“I didn’t lie,” Luo Binghe bites back, every bit as serious. “I wouldn’t - I swore on you, on my relationship with you, that I had not lied about how I got those horns.”

“But you called yourself a cultivator!” Shen Yuan cries, feeling a bit desperate at this point. “Killing a single demon is very different from doing it for a living!!”

“It wasn’t just one,” Luo Binghe swears. “It’s - Yuan-ge, I -” Luo Binghe breaks off, struggling with his words. Eventually, he asks, “Do you still think there’s another reason why the demonic and monster sightings in this town have been so low these past five years?”

Shen Yuan blinks. Slowly, he nods. “Yes… I’d wondered if maybe something more powerful but generally benign had moved in, and in making this town its territory had scared everything else off.”

“That’s me, Yuan-ge. I’m the more powerful thing.”

Shen Yuan frowns. “You didn’t just suddenly form a golden core at age sixteen, Binghe, I would have noticed something like that. We all would have noticed, the sort of storms that gather when someone forms a core are known to be very hard to misidentify as anything but otherworldly!”

“No,” Luo Binghe admits, “But Yuan-ge also knows there’s more than one way to cultivate, and not all of them result in golden cores.”

Shen Yuan feels his stomach drop. He untangles his hands from Luo Binghe’s to reach urgently for his face, turning it this way and that as that would give him insight on Luo Binghe’s spiritual well being. “Binghe, please don’t tell me you’ve been using demonic cultivation practices all these years, oh my fucking god, I’m going to skin you alive -!”

“It’s - it’s more complicated than that, Yuan-ge, but I promise I’m not in danger -”

“Demonic cultivation eats a person from the inside out!” Shen Yuan interrupts, frantic. “It’ll erode your mind! And if it doesn’t kill you, then a righteous cultivator will as soon as you’re found out!”

“I’m not - not really using that sort of cultivation,” Luo Binghe says, and Shen Yuan throws his hands up in the air.

“Then you’ll get outed as lying about being a cultivator anyway!” Shen Yuan cries, then winces at how loud that came out.

Luo Binghe, seemingly deciding that he’s also had quite enough of the direction this conversation is going, suddenly gathers Shen Yuan up in a hug, pressing Shen Yuan’s face into the crook of his neck. “It’s okay,” he says, voice very carefully steady, and his hands come up to soothe up and down the small of Shen Yuan’s back. 

“I really, really cannot see how this is okay,” Shen Yuan argues, but it sounds a bit pathetic mumbled into Luo Binghe’s robes like this. Luo Binghe squeezes him tighter in response.

“It is,” Luo Binghe insists, “I didn’t lie about the horns, and no one asked what sort of cultivator I am. Something like demonic cultivation can only be called cultivation because in the end the result is the same: acquiring power in order to banish and control demons. By that logic, so long as what I am - what I can do - can banish and control demons, then I could be a cultivator.”

“I don’t think righteous cultivators or furious mothers are going to be swayed by your technicalities,” Shen Yuan sighs, but he doesn’t lift his head from Luo Binghe’s shoulder, and Luo Binghe laughs softly.

“It really will be alright, Yuan-ge. Nothing will happen to me,” he insists. Then, after a pause, he adds: “Well, one thing will happen: I’m going to become Yuan-ge’s bride.”

“You -!” Shen Yuan squirms out of Luo Binghe’s grasp, glaring up at him. “Binghe, why did you even do this?! You can’t really have put in all this risk - and the money, Binghe, I saw that box! - just to - to -!”

Shen Yuan cannot possibly say the words ‘become my wife’ aloud. He’d probably die on the spot. 

Unfortunately, Luo Binghe has no such reservations. 

“To become your wife,” he says, and Shen Yuan groans.

“Binghe, please -”

“Yuan-ge,” Luo Binghe interrupts, voice just this side of pleading. “You - you never answered, before: is it really so impossible to imagine marrying me?”

“Of course it is!!” Shen Yuan says, and then wants to slap himself for it when Luo Binghe’s expression crumples. “That - it’s - it’s not about the qualifications, or - or how much I like you, Binghe. I just don’t understand why you’d want to marry me!”

Luo Binghe looks at him for a long moment, his teary expression giving way to confusion. “Yuan-ge… that’s what you don’t understand about this?”

“Obviously?! You know I spoil you Binghe, if you wanted - I don’t know, better rooms? Or something?? You just had to ask! You didn’t have to stake your whole life on this - on me!”

“Ah,” Luo Binghe says, looking as if he’s finally understood something. He sighs, though it isn’t with any real irritation, and says, “Yuan-ge, I love you.”

Shen Yuan’s whole body jerks again, the same way it had when Luo Binghe had something similar to Lady Shen earlier. Those words coming from Luo Binghe make his whole body feel as if it’s been electrocuted, all nerves standing on end and his brain positively steaming without a single coherent thought to show for it. 

He laughs awkwardly. “Ah, I - that is, Binghe is my best friend too.”

“Hm,” Luo Binghe says. Shen Yuan really doesn’t know what to make of his expression. “Good. But Yuan-ge, don’t you think there might be other meanings of ‘love,’ when it’s a potential bride of yours saying it?”

Up until that moment, Shen Yuan had absolutely not allowed himself to think as such. This - this is Luo Binghe, and he isn’t one of the perfectly prepared young ladies that have shown up to be Shen Yuan’s bride, the ones Shen Yuan has been avoiding all week despite telling himself he’s so thrilled to see. 

Except - except as of half an hour ago, Luo Binghe is one of the ‘perfectly prepared young ladies’ that Shen Yuan is allowed to have those sorts of thoughts about.

“You’re - you’re really in the running to be my wife,” Shen Yuan manages to get out, feeling a bit breathless.

“I am,” Luo Binghe agrees, looking ridiculously smug about it. 

Unfortunately for him, Shen Yuan’s mind has already decided there is a new emergency.

“Shut up!” Shen Yuan hisses, swatting at Luo Binghe half heartedly. “You’re officially a bridal candidate, which means you have to be an official bridal candidate now!”

“Yes, that is generally what that means,” Luo Binghe says, sounding amused, and Shen Yuan swats at him again.

“No, you -! You have to do all the stupid bridal candidate stuff now, which includes greeting guests!!”

“I’ve watched Yuan-ge greet guests enough to know how it’s done,” Luo Binghe says absently, then adds: “Yuan-ge, this really doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the big heartfelt revelation I was trying to get you to acknowledge, here.”

“I’ve already summoned cultivators!” Shen Yuan cries, all but shaking Luo Binghe. “The reports of demonic activity were increasing, and people were worried, so I summoned cultivators, but now you’re trying to be my wife and you were accepted as a candidate on the grounds of being a cultivator, but you aren’t - you aren’t a traditional cultivator, or whatever it is you were trying to explain without actually explaining anything to me - and the official bridal candidates have to greet guests, and the actual real cultivators are going to be guests!!”

Luo Binghe blinks, taking a moment to parse through Shen Yuan’s panicked rambling. Then, without far less frantic energy than Shen Yuan feels the situation calls for, says: “Oh. That… is not going to be good.”

---

To Shen Yuan’s great relief, everything does not actually fall apart immediately after Luo Binghe becomes an official wife candidate. There are even some things that have been greatly improved - it becomes far more bearable to attend any of the awkward social gatherings that Shen Yuan’s mother puts together now that Luo Binghe is a guest as well, and there’s something about seeing Luo Binghe in nice clothes instead of his personal servant uniform that makes Shen Yuan feel warm from the inside out. 

This does not stop Shen Yuan from feeling like everything is going to fall apart immediately.

With Luo Binghe an official bridal candidate now, Shen Yuan isn’t able to spend much time alone with him - that conversation alone in Luo Binghe’s new rooms had gotten Shen Yuan the scolding of a lifetime when his mother had found out the next day, and since then the staff has had the time to reorganize around the Binghe-shaped hole in their schedule to ensure Shen Yuan has a chaperone again. 

And with no time alone with Luo Binghe, there aren’t any good ways to include him in Shen Yuan’s frantic plans for what the fuck to do when the cultivators arrive, and therefore also no way for Luo Binghe to be there to talk Shen Yuan down when he starts to settle on an especially stupid plan.

Forcing Shen Yuan to be his own voice of reason is incredibly unfair, in his opinion, so he simply won’t do it. And what do you mean, voice of reason, anyway?! All of his plans are in fact very reasonable and measured and never as overdramatic as people seem to imply!! In fact, isn’t it that Luo Binghe is also quite dramatic? Maybe Shen Yuan’s plans will actually become more reasonable if he thinks them up on his own, instead of letting that cunning little servant of his do it for him!!

…Shen Yuan forces himself to cross ‘fake our deaths and run away’ off his list of ideas, anyway. His mother would probably actually kill him, if he went with that one. 

It isn’t just his solo attempts at planning around Luo Binghe’s new “cultivator” status that has Shen Yuan feeling like the world’s end is imminent, though. It’s waking up to something that isn’t Luo Binghe’s careful coaxing him out of bed, and eating meals that weren’t made by Luo Binghe’s hand, and feeling irritation bubble up inside him when he sleepily slumps down at his vanity and Luo Binghe isn’t there to brush out his hair for him. It’s realizing quite suddenly that a lot of his daily life revolves around Luo Binghe, and being miserably bitter about how he can’t even complain to Luo Binghe about how spoiled he’s made him without that complaint being logged as some sort of point against Luo Binghe as a ‘wife’ - how unfair is that, ah?? At least let the chaperone leave the room long enough to let this young master air his complaints, this isn’t any of your business!

It just - it’s more upsetting than Shen Yuan would like to admit, to have his life turned upside down and be struck by seven different panicked realizations - half of which are about his feelings, gross - and then not even have Luo Binghe around to fuss over to take his mind off of it, because Luo Binghe is the cause of all these stupid boss-level crises in the first place. 

Shen Yuan hadn’t even had a clue, either! It eats at him whenever he’s allowed a moment too long with his own thoughts - he really hadn’t had a clue that Luo Binghe had been cultivating in secret, demonically or not. He should have noticed Luo Binghe suddenly taking several hours a day to meditate, right? He should have - he should have just heard it straight from Luo Binghe, really, because that’s Luo Binghe and it makes no sense that he would have kept this kind of thing a secret from Shen Yuan for five years -

Shen Yuan tries not to follow that thought process very far. He doesn’t like the idea that perhaps his relationship with Luo Binghe is not nearly as close as he’d thought it had been, if he hadn’t even been told this. Maybe Shen Yuan isn’t Luo Binghe’s best friend, despite the reverse being true. Which is fine! Shen Yuan feels perfectly fine about that!

It’s just… best not to think about it, when there are other, more important things to focus on! The fact that Luo Binghe is a cultivator at all is obviously way more important than when Shen Yuan found out about it!

…Ah, Shen Yuan is really having a hard time convincing himself of that one.

Of course, because Shen Yuan’s life is a series of tragic comedies funny only to his older brother, the cultivators he sent for arrive long before Shen Yuan manages to shove all these concerns in neat little boxes to repress for later. Head still a mess of thoughts like ‘ oh fuck, Luo Binghe might really get himself in real trouble here,’ and ‘oh fuck, Luo Binghe wants to be my wife, but he also might not really trust me,’ and ‘oh fuck, I might, for Luo Binghe -’

Ahem. Well. Head still a mess, Shen Yuan greets the visiting cultivators with an intelligent, “Oh, fu- ff. Fantastic that your sect could spare such talented young cultivators on such short notice. Thanks.”

The two cultivators - an older woman and a younger boy, clearly tagging along to watch his shijie work - exchange a glance. Shen Yuan reconsiders his ‘fake our deaths and run away’ plan. 

Behind him, his mother sighs. She also sounds like she might be considering a plan involving Shen Yuan’s death, although hers would certainly be much less fake.

“We’re grateful you could make it all the way out to our small town,” she says, pushing Shen Yuan out of the way to take charge of the conversation. “Apologies for my son’s brusqueness; he is simply relieved that we will be receiving help.”

Shen Yuan winces. That was not the most flattering thing for Luo Binghe - for all the wife candidates, not just Luo Binghe, Shen Yuan does not only care about Luo Binghe’s opinion of him here he swears - for his potential brides to be witnessing. His Shen name must truly be appealing, for them to still be sticking around after the past week, but this might really be the last straw. 

“Of course,” the older cultivator replies coolly. “This one is Mei Lixue, senior cultivator of Zhao Hua Temple. The junior with me is Mo Guang. We are happy to help, though any further details that you might share with us before we begin our own investigations would be appreciated.”

“There’s been an uncharacteristic uptick of reports of demonic activity in the area,” Shen Yuan replies carefully, trying to recover a bit of face. “This area usually sees extremely little of anything dangerous, so the people here have become a bit unsettled.”

“Understandably so,” says Mei Lixue, clearly still unimpressed with Shen Yuan. “The whole area is drenched in demonic energy. It’s just as likely that the people here have been noticing the wrongness of that, rather than seeing any specific sorts of occurrences.”

Shen Yuan forces his smile not to falter. He knew Luo Binghe was lying about not using demonic cultivation, how else do you cultivate if it doesn’t result in a golden core -!

“Ah, we are especially lucky that respected cultivators have come to visit us, then, since there must be a great many monsters nearby to so completely spread demonic energy,” Shen Yuan says, totally not nervous at all as he starts to brainstorm ways to get a great many monsters to appear nearby to make such a claim believable. 

“It’s probably just one thing,” the younger cultivator pipes up, only for Mei Lixue to smack him over the head before he can continue talking.

“No presenting unproven conclusions to those we are protecting,” she scolds, turning to offer a shallow bow to Shen Yuan and his mother. “Apologies, he is still learning of the uncertainties that a night hunt brings.”

Shen Yuan shoots a longsuffering, sympathetic glance towards Mo Guang. At least he isn’t alone in the ‘getting openly scolded for subpar manners in front of others’ thing, then. 

“Is it likely to only be a single thing?” Lady Shen asks, an odd tone to her voice. Shen Yuan stiffens, already tracking her thought process, but before he can think of a diversion his mother continues: “Our household has recently taken in the trophy of a single, powerful demon, you see.”

Ah, there it is, Shen Yuan thinks idly. I knew the end of the world was coming after all.

“If Madam Shen does not mind us looking, examining the trophy might help our own investigations, then.” Mei Lixue says, and Shen Yuan’s mother nods.

“Of course,” she says, gesturing to a servant nearby. “I had thought to present them to the respected cultivators to begin with, to ask them to identify the demon they came from.”

To Shen Yuan’s horror, the servant his mother had gestured to steps forward holding the same box Luo Binghe had presented the horns in. 

“Hey, I -!” Shen Yuan swallows back his instinctual, damning protest, but his mother has already turned to raise one carefully groomed eyebrow at him, and he forces himself to mumble out a reasonable sounding excuse. “That was Binghe’s gift to me,” he says, mortified by how sulky he sounds, “I don’t remember giving permission for others to remove it from my room.”

“Oh, my apologies,” his mother says, sounding not at all apologetic, “It is only that Yuan-er has shown so little interest in his own courtships, I didn’t think he’d mind.”

“I - that -!”

“Your favor for Cultivator Luo has been noted, though,” his mother finishes, sounding unduly smug, and Shen Yuan’s mouth snaps shut with a click. Blood rushes to his face quickly enough he has a vague concern that perhaps he should see a doctor.

“There’s a cultivator in the house?” Mei Lixue asks, eyeing the box the servant has come up to her with, and Luo Binghe takes that as his cue to step forward from behind Shen Yuan and his mother.

“Greetings to master cultivator Mei Lixue,” Luo Binghe greets, dropping into the picture perfect bow of an educated young lady. “This one is Luo Binghe, a current contestor for Young Master Shen’s hand in marriage. It was this one that cut and presented the trophy Lady Shen wishes you inspect.”

“Ah,” Mei Lixue says, “I hadn’t realized we would be arriving at such an exciting time for the Young Master.”

“Yeah,” Shen Yuan says weakly, ignoring his mother’s withering glare. “Very exciting.”

“We appreciate your willingness to show us the courting gift,” Mei Lixue continues, and reaching out to open the box - 

- only to slam it back shut in the next moment.

“...Respected Cultivator Mei?” Lady Shen asks, but Mei Lixue keeps her eyes on the now closed box in front of her, brows furrowed.

“Apologies, Madam Shen,” she says, “I was not expecting for the trophy to have such a powerful energy associated with it.”

She looks up sharply, finally giving a proper assessing look to Luo Binghe. Shen Yuan tries not to be obvious about shuffling a bit closer to Luo Binghe, as if that would do any good to hide him from the cultivator’s prying eyes.

“Cultivator Luo, was it?” Mei Lixue asks, and Luo Binghe nods. “You are not far in your cultivation, or you are otherwise so far advanced that you have learned to suppress your energy better than most senior disciples of my sect.”

“I am indeed still learning,” Luo Binghe says, and Mei Lixue narrows her eyes.

“I see,” she says, and then turns back to Shen Yuan’s mother. “Thank you for allowing us to inspect your family’s trophy. It is indeed a powerful one; I would advise your son to hold onto it until he can get it to a master alchemist. This sort of ingredient could create a miracle panacea, if used correctly.”

“Thanking Respected Cultivator Mei for her guidance,” Shen Yuan speaks up, his hands closed into sweaty fists at his sides. “Is it possible that, with that demon dead, the demonic energy in this area will disperse now? If so, we must only apologize for sending for respected cultivators unnecessarily.”

“No need for concern,” Mei Lixue dismisses, “We will still stay in the area and conduct a proper investigation. It is as I said earlier; conclusions must not be presented without evidence, however compelling the theories we have may be.”

Shen Yuan nods, but his stomach feels leaden. With the sort of interest Mei Lixue is paying to Luo Binghe, and to the horns that Luo Binghe presented, it is not reassuring at all that they plan on staying for a ‘proper investigation.’ Shen Yuan has a feeling that the longer they are here, the closer they will get to Luo Binghe’s - whatever his cultivation is being discovered. It’s already a miracle that Mei Lixue hasn’t asked to inspect Luo Binghe’s meridians, given her interest in him. 

He needs to get Luo Binghe out of here, or get a real danger in here, or find some sort of distraction for Mei Lixue -

Shen Yuan pauses his own panicked spiral, watching as his mother finally gestures for Mei Lixue to enter the estate proper, and as the few other bride candidates take their chance to dutifully introduce themselves. One of them in particular - Lady Jia Li - is watching the cultivators a bit closer than the rest.

A distraction… okay. Okay, Shen Yuan can do this. This is totally and completely doable.

As everyone begins filing out of the entrance hall, Shen Yuan catches Luo Binghe’s arm, leaning in to whisper to him. Some of the servants titter watching them, likely thinking of Shen Yuan’s earlier embarrassing outburst in defense of Luo Binghe’s gift to him, but he ignores it. Fine, fine, so what if it’s embarrassing - he finally has a plan, and he needs to let Luo Binghe in on it!

“We are going to fake our deaths and run away,” he whispers to Luo Binghe, ignoring the way Luo Binghe’s expression grows quietly amused, “And we’ll set up one of my bridal candidates with Mei Lixue’s shidi as a distraction in the meantime.”

Luo Binghe lets out a startled laugh, and Lady Shen pauses from where she’s leading Mei Lixue deeper into the estate to glance back at them.

“Stop flirting, Yuan-er,” she scolds, and Shen Yuan flushes red. 

Luo Binghe only laughs more, giggling like a flattered school girl. Damn that pretty maybe-fiance of his -!

“I thought the whole point of this was for me to flirt with the candidates,” Shen Yuan grumbles, speeding up to catch up to his mother and leave Luo Binghe behind, who’s still laughing. 

Fine! Shen Yuan will just fake his own death and run away without Luo Binghe, then! See how he likes laughing at him then!

Chapter Text

Despite recent events pointing towards Luo Binghe’s cleverness perhaps having not been at its usual MAX LVL stats - really, Binghe, demonic cultivation and bridal aspirations?? - Luo Binghe does still eventually clue Shen Yuan in on what their plan will be without Shen Yuan needing to find a way to sneak away from his chaperones.

Luo Binghe sends it to him as a courting gift - another delicately gilded box, though not nearly as large as the one he’d presented the horns in - with a hair pin inside that Shen Yuan recognizes as one of Luo Binghe’s own. Presumptuous! To give a gift meant to signify engagement, when they’re still - look, nothing’s settled yet, okay?! Shen Yuan could still very well decide he does like one of those vaguely pretty women that showed up before Luo Binghe, you know! He could!

…It takes Shen Yuan an embarrassingly long time to see past his own embarrassment in order to notice the note tucked carefully under the cushion for the pin. Ah. Right. Yes, of course, Luo Binghe just wanted to send a note without getting caught, Shen Yuan knew that!

Written on the note are three main points. The first is a comment that Luo Binghe has instructed Shen Yuan’s staff to alert him if they catch Shen Yuan packing his bags or pulling out anything that looks even vaguely like a rucksack, and that if he tries to fake his death Luo Binghe will weep like a properly sad widow, and so Shen Yuan had better not even think of it or else he’ll have to see Luo Binghe sad and crying over his (fake) dead body. 

Shen Yuan promptly tears that part of the note off, crumples it up, and - after a brief moment of hesitation where he considers eating it for extra drama - tosses it away. He does reluctantly admit to himself that it would be best to save faking his death for an absolute last resort, though, if Luo Binghe is going to cry about it.

The second is a note clarifying that while Luo Binghe finds scheming with Shen Yuan to be naturally quite romantic, he thinks it prudent to point out that he could have found any other number of ways to get a note to Shen Yuan covertly. Therefore, Shen Yuan should take the gifting of his hairpin at face value as a courting gift and not, in fact, as part of their scheming or anything else that might otherwise be misconstrued as platonic. 

Shen Yuan tears that part of the note off too, but embarrassingly can’t find it in himself to do much else with it outside of carefully folding it up and tucking it in his sleeve. 

Finally, the last part of the note actually gets to business. It had not, Luo Binghe assures, been the demonic aura of the horns or the demon they came from that was causing people to be on edge and report more demonic sightings - there really is a legitimate cause for concern in the town outside of the demon Luo Binghe took the horns from. Apparently Luo Binghe himself had covertly been trying to track down the problem before any of this began, but hadn’t gotten too far before he’d become preoccupied with other tasks.

Luo Binghe does not use the words ‘other tasks.’ Unfortunately for him, Shen Yuan is still peeved enough about the presumptuousness of sending Shen Yuan his hairpin for Shen Yuan to recognize the actual words of ‘winning his Yuan-ge as a husband.’ 

So! If there truly is something demonic in the town that isn’t related to Luo Binghe’s dubious cultivation methods, all they have to do is lead the visiting cultivators to that and let them believe that’s all there is. Luo Binghe himself can’t do much about this; the less time he spends around the cultivators, the better, and bringing up his own observations or suggesting any sort of plan would imply his involvement in the hunt itself. Having Luo Binghe publically join the hunt would be perhaps the worst possible outcome, as it would allow the visiting cultivators to observe Luo Binghe’s own cultivation methods.

Shen Yuan really will scold this so-called cultivator of his, when this is all said and done. Admitting to Shen Yuan that he can’t allow a righteous cultivator to see his own cultivation methods, but still daring to tell Shen Yuan that he isn’t a demonic or otherwise unsafe cultivator, ah? This young master is not that naive!

Until then, though - Shen Yuan has a plan beyond simply running away, so he may as well act on it. He catches Mei Lixue and Mo Guang as they’re leaving the Shen Estate the next morning to conduct their investigation.

“Respected Cultivator Mei,” Shen Yuan starts, and Mei Lixue stops to greet him in return. “Pardon the interruption, but I - ah, well, I have an interest in night hunting, even if I don’t have the skills to be a cultivator. I’ve heard that cultivators can use lures to bring out monsters - is that true?”

This, here, is the key part of the plan: if Luo Binghe had been unable to flush the trouble out himself while he was being delicate about it, the best way to guarantee Mei Lixue and her shidi see only the demonic activity Shen Yuan wants them to see is to straightforwardly and forcefully draw it out. Shen Yuan feels a bit proud; Luo Binghe may have outlined the key details of the plan, but Shen Yuan thought of planting the idea of lures with the visiting cultivators himself! 

Mei Lixue hums. “That’s true, though it isn’t a technique we use often. It bears the risk of drawing out more than we can handle at once.”

“So would it not be right to use it now, then?” Shen Yuan pauses, trying to pick his words carefully. He’s always been much better at the ‘deflect and distract’ parts of these plans; the ‘manipulate and provoke’ parts have always been Luo Binghe’s territory! “Cultivator Mei should be aware from our reports that the activity we’ve been alerted to has been fairly spread out through the city, so wouldn’t something that could centralize the issue be best?”

“Young Master Shen is indeed quite interested in our job,” Mei Lixue comments, clearly amused, and Shen Yuan feels himself flush a bit red. “For this case, it might not be too bad an idea. The demonic energy that trophy of yours still hangs on to is likely acting as a strong deterrent to the weaker sorts of demons that come in large numbers, so it stands to reason that if there is something else causing trouble in the area, it’s only one or two things. However, it would still be best for us to conduct a normal investigation first.”

“Ah…” Shen Yuan shuffles his feet a little, trying to think of a way to turn this conversation in his favor. Luo Binghe hadn’t actually addressed Shen Yuan’s idea of pushing a pretty girl at Mo Guang so as to make trouble and a distraction for Mei Lixue as Mo Guang’s chaperone, so that - either he thought it was a joke or it’s a good idea, right? It must be a good idea! Maybe if he -

“Young Master Shen doesn’t have to look so distraught,” Mei Lixue says, eyes crescented with laughter. “I’ll be sure to let you know if we end up using a lure, so you can watch from a safe distance.”

Shen Yuan, mortified by this point and face too thin to keep insisting like a spoiled young master, thanks Mei Lixue and quickly makes his exit. 

---

Shen Yuan’s confidence in Luo Binghe is not misplaced. Just as he’d thought, what Luo Binghe had not been able to discover while living here as some sort of secret protector of the city, the hired cultivators are not able to discover in only a couple days. And finally, on the third day, Mei Lixue asks to meet with Lady Shen to receive permission to use lures. 

Shen Yuan is invited as well, though he gets the feeling it’s more to indulge the curiosity in them he led Mei Lixue to believe he has, rather than to actually get any sort of permission from him. Shen Yuan is, unfortunately, legitimately curious enough that he probably would have shown up despite the embarrassment even if he wasn’t personally invested in what these cultivators were doing in his home.

“The lures our sect uses are purposefully short range,” Mei Lixue explains, her shidi sitting diligently beside her looking bored. “In most cases, this helps to limit the risk of luring in more than we can handle.”

“And the range of your lure is not enough to cover our city, then?” Lady Shen asks, and Mei Lixue hums. 

“Indeed. We’ve failed to discover any actual demon yet, but myself and Mo Guang have both discovered demonically influenced beasts throughout the entire city. It is difficult to ascertain where, exactly, their owner is staying, so we have been unable to narrow down the range to anything better than the West half of the city.”

“Beasts?” Shen Yuan asks, interested despite himself.

“Snakes,” Mei Lixue clarifies. “Small ones; likely being used as reconnaissance, of some sort. We’ve been killing them as we find them, in case their owner decides to start using them for something more malicious, considering they’ve all been venomous to some degree.”

Ah. That is… both cool as hell and incredibly unnerving. 

“So you wish to use your lures, despite the range not being great enough?” Lady Shen asks.

“Indeed. Usually, in the case that the field is larger than our lure’s range, we would slowly work through each section of the area night by night, using a lure in each area and staking it out until it’s been decided to be clean. However, that won’t work if those snakes have truly been acting as spies for their master. If we don’t get the right area on the first try, the demon behind the scenes will be able to take the time to consider how to avoid the effects of the lure.”

“If it’s that intelligent, would a lure even work?” Shen Yuan asks, and Mei Lixue smiles with no small amount of satisfaction.

“One lure, likely not,” she admits. “But if we were to activate many of them at once, their area of effect would not increase but would instead create a more saturated call within their range. Even if the demon here does not blindly seek the lure out to shut it up, they will have to either allow themselves to become prone until the lure wears off, or will have to shield themselves with their own demonic energy, which we can track.”

“So it’s gotta be lots of lures, all at once, fast enough they can’t just scram outta here before we get to them,” Mo Guang pipes up. 

“We would like to request permission to complete a fast flyover of the West side of the city while holding a large quantity of activated demonic lures,” Mei Lixue clarifies, looking once more at Lady Shen. “If nothing immediately responds, we’ll fly out further in the surrounding areas.”

“Will the lures have any effect on humans?” 

“No. You might be able to feel some energy in the air, the way you can before a great thunderstorm, but that should be it.”

Lady Shen waves one hand dismissively. “Then that’s fine. We’re grateful for your protection.”

Mei Lixue bows shortly in acknowledgement, and leaves with Mo Guang to prepare. There’s a beat of silence, and then Shen Yuan’s mother speaks up again:

“Seems like they’re finishing up here. You won’t be able to use the visiting cultivators as an excuse to avoid your suitors much longer, Yuan-er.”

Shen Yuan groans, reaching up to drag his hands over his face. “I’ll find more excuses,” he grumbles, and his mother only barely hides her grin behind her sleeve before Shen Yuan can see it.

“You know I’m trying to do right by you, Yuan-er,” she says. “Several of the girls have already written letters back to their homes asking for permission to drop out of consideration as your bride, you know - you really cannot keep ignoring them like this if you want to be married at the end of this.”

Unbidden, Shen Yuan feels a wave of relief wash over him at the idea of some of his bridal candidates no longer being interested. He silently scolds himself for it right after - he’s supposed to want them as brides, so of course he’s sad they want to leave! - but it must show on his face enough for his mother to pick it up.

“Yuan-er…” she says, then sighs heavily enough Shen Yuan almost winces. “Well, I suppose it’s fine. All that is left are two girls I found as beards for you, and your Luo Binghe. Either of those will be better options than the other girls anyway, in the end.”

Shen Yuan blinks. “Beards? Wait, that’s - you didn’t have to - I mean, I - I like girls!”

Lady Shen stares at Shen Yuan unblinkingly. Shen Yuan squirms a bit under her scrutiny. Then, suddenly, he snaps up to attention.

“Wait, is Lady Jia Li one of the - that is, is she a cutsleeve?!”

“Mm. Yuan-er has grown a lot, to finally be able to recognize that sort of thing,” his mother agrees with no small amount of teasing in her voice.

Shen Yuan scowls. “No wonder Binghe laughed at me!”

“People laugh at you all the time, Yuan-er,” Lady Shen dismisses, expression amused. “What was this time for?”

“I - I suggested we set Lady Jia Li up with the cultivator boy,” Shen Yuan groans, feeling monumentally stupid. His mother laughs, startled and amused, just the same way Luo Binghe had when he’d said as much to him. Ah, Binghe, aren’t you supposed to want to be my wife?? Isn’t it your job to clue me in on this sort of thing so I don’t make a fool of myself, ah?!

“Foolish boy,” his mother finally says, once she’s gotten the laughter out of her system. “Look at you, admitting to trying to chase your bridal candidates away.” She sighs, looking fond, then shakes her head. “I should have just sent them all away when your Luo Binghe qualified himself.”

“Mother -!” Shen Yuan all but squawks, finally getting up in a huff to make his retreat. “Fine! I’ll - I’ll ‘stop ignoring my suitors!’ I will!!”

“You’re just going to go see Cultivator Luo!” His mother calls after him, and Shen Yuan does not stomp his feet as he makes a very graceful and dignified exit. 

(He does just go to see Luo Binghe, but that doesn’t mean anything his mother could actually prove.)

Luo Binghe is out in one of the estate’s back courtyards when Shen Yuan (and his chaperone, damn it) find him, sitting with some of the other estate servants that Shen Yuan recognizes as Luo Binghe’s pre-cultivator gang. He perks up when he sees Shen Yuan, putting down the fabric he’d been working with before Shen Yuan had arrived.

“Binghe,” Shen Yuan calls as he approaches, exasperated, “Why are you mending the holes in my robes, ah? Haven’t I told you that someone else could do this, even before you became ‘Cultivator Luo’?”

“Yuan-ge told me as much when he thought I was doing too much,” Luo Binghe argues, “I’ve done almost nothing as ‘Cultivator Luo,’ these past few days. They won’t even let me in the kitchen, Yuan-ge!”

Shen Yuan sighs, rolling his eyes as he sits beside Luo Binghe. He does his best to ignore the way the other servants grin as they cast mischievous glances their way, as if Shen Yuan hasn’t come to sit with Luo Binghe in this very same back courtyard a hundred times before. No need to gossip about it just because Luo Binghe’s position here has changed a bit, thank you! 

“Poor, neglected Cultivator Luo, not allowed to cook and clean for his greedy young master, and now even scolded for trying to mend his clothes,” Shen Yuan laments mockingly, reaching out to ruffle Luo Binghe’s hair playfully.

Luo Binghe pushes up into Shen Yuan’s touch eagerly. “Not allowed to cook and clean for my potential husband,” he corrects, and Shen Yuan snatches his hand away, scowling at Luo Binghe as if that would hide his flush.

“Haven’t I told you to stop talking like that, ah!” He scolds, lightly whacking Luo Binghe’s shoulder in reprimand. Luo Binghe only looks at him fondly, his eyes glancing up at Shen Yuan’s hair to wordlessly point out the way that Shen Yuan is wearing the hairpin he’d gifted him.

Which! Also doesn’t mean anything anyone can prove, thank you very much!!

“Apologies to Yuan-ge, it seems this forgetful Binghe has no memory of you telling me not to point out our flourishing courtship,” Luo Binghe replies easily, and Shen Yuan whacks him again.

“Well! Whatever!” Shen Yuan forces himself to settle back into a proper sitting position, reminding himself what he came here for. “Anyway. The cultivators are going to fly around with a shit ton of demonic lures, apparently. They have to use more than usual since they think the demon causing problems is intelligent, and using so many lures at once is supposed to either make the demon in the area go nuts and attack them, or otherwise just make them really not happy. Do you think it works like a really intense dog whistle?”

“This Binghe knows for a fact that Yuan-ge wouldn’t suggest such a thing unless he already had half a thesis in his head explaining why it would work like a really intense dog whistle, so probably,” Luo Binghe says, but there’s an odd tone to his voice that Shen Yuan can’t really decipher. “When are they activating all those lures, Yuan-ge?”

Shen Yuan shoots him a glance, suddenly suspicious. “As soon as they get set up, I think. Will that, ah -” Shen Yuan pauses, lowering his voice and leaning in, “Binghe’s cultivation will be fine during this, right? They said it doesn’t affect humans…”

Luo Binghe grimaces. Shen Yuan is immediately at attention, standing up and pulling at Luo Binghe to stand as well. He goes easily, stopping only to hand off the robes he’d been mending to another servant before walking with Shen Yuan back to the direction of his guest rooms. 

Before they get too far, though, Shen Yuan remembers the chaperone still dogging his steps, and turns to them pleadingly. 

“Just one afternoon? I’ve spent more time alone with Binghe than anyone else in my whole life! One more afternoon won’t hurt!” 

The chaperone - Shen Yuan recognizes her as one of his mother’s personal servants - glances at Luo Binghe, who smiles pleasantly at her. It is the sort of smile Shen Yuan has come to recognize as meaning that Luo Binghe has dirt on whoever this is, and is asking very politely for a favor in exchange for whatever that dirt is. 

The chaperone rolls her eyes and walks off in the direction of Lady Shen’s rooms. “Don’t do anything that will get me fired, Luo Binghe!” She calls, and Luo Binghe turns to Shen Yuan and winks. 

Shen Yuan starts walking away very quickly. 

When Luo Binghe catches up to him, Shen Yuan pitches his voice low to ask, “What’s going to happen to your cultivation when the lure is activated? Will you be okay just hiding out in your rooms?”

“I - Yuan-ge, she just said it will upset demons to the point of provocation, right?”

“Sort of? The more intelligent ones that can understand attacking blindly is unwise can use their demonic energy to protect themselves from the lure’s energy, it sounded like, but then the cultivators can pick up on that energy to track them down…” Shen Yuan stops, turning on Luo Binghe, reaching out to tug at Luo Binghe’s sleeves. “Luo Binghe, answer me honestly,” he says, heart in his throat. “Are you going to be okay? They’re going to be watching for any sort of demonic energy that flares up during this, you can’t - what will a lure do to you anyway, Binghe? You’re human,” he despairs. 

“Yuan-ge doesn’t have to worry about that,” Luo Binghe says, and Shen Yuan feels his guts twist.

“It really seems like the only thing to be worried about right now,” Shen Yuan argues, still trying to keep his voice low. 

“It’ll be fine,” Luo Binghe assures him, gently nudging him in the direction of his rooms. “I just need to get to my rooms, out of the way of others.”

Shen Yuan resumes following Luo Binghe to his rooms, chewing on his lip as he goes. He feels a bit awful, for having been so excited about the lure plan just a bit ago, when it clearly will affect Luo Binghe’s stupid demonic cultivation negatively. But also -! Shen Yuan had been working with what he had, you know! He hadn’t known - he still doesn’t know anything about Luo Binghe’s cultivation outside of that it’s probably demonic in nature and that righteous cultivators really, really cannot find out about it, but - 

“Yuan-ge, it’s going to be fine,” Luo Binghe repeats, and Shen Yuan realizes that he still has a hand gripping at Luo Binghe’s sleeve tight enough that his knuckles are white. 

“It could certainly stand to be more fine!” Shen Yuan scolds. “Or maybe it will be fine, but how am I supposed to know that when you still haven’t explained anything to me, ah? I thought -”

Shen Yuan breaks off. They’re back to standing around awkwardly in the hallway, and - fuck, fine! Fine! He’s already started saying it, may as well finish!

“I thought you wanted to be my - my wife,” he says, stumbling only slightly on the word. “Isn’t it the husband’s job to take care of his wife’s worries? I don’t even know what your worries are.”

His face burns with the embarrassment of it all, but he doesn’t rush to take it back, either. Up until a week ago, he’d thought the biggest worries Luo Binghe had were about making sure the produce he cooked with was fresh, and tricking Shen Yuan into coddling him a bit extra, and - and normal things. Before all of this, before marriage arrangements and wives, Luo Binghe was Shen Yuan’s best friend. He’d really tried - in his own awkward, stupid way - to make sure Luo Binghe knew that. 

And yet, Luo Binghe hadn’t told Shen Yuan he’d been cultivating in secret, likely using dangerous techniques, for over five years now. He’s been brushing the thought off, just focusing on how irritated he is with Luo Binghe, on how much he wants to scold him into obedience and safety, but really… It’s a bit hurtful, to not have been told this. 

“Yuan-ge…” Luo Binghe starts, voice quiet. He reaches out to return Shen Yuan’s grasp, soothing his thumb over the back of Shen Yuan’s hand. “My cultivation… it isn’t something I had a choice in. I didn’t want Yuan-ge to think badly of me, so I hid it. But it’s still me, Yuan-ge does know what I worry about - don’t I say all the time that I worry about you?”

Shen Yuan looks up at Luo Binghe in alarm. “You - wait, you were forced into demonic cultivation? Binghe, that’s - I would have helped, you know I would have!”

“I didn’t want Yuan-ge to worry over this,” Luo Binghe says softly, but the way he says it sounds more like ‘I didn’t think there was anything you could do about it,’ which somehow ticks Shen Yuan off more.

“Well, I want to worry about it!” He counters, then adds: “I’m already worried about it!”

“Mm, Yuan-ge is already a very good husband, and we haven’t even married yet,” Luo Binghe agrees, and Shen Yuan feels his face flush. 

“Oh - you shut up!” Shen Yuan admonishes, starting to turn away from Luo Binghe. “If you won’t take this seriously, then forget it.”

Luo Binghe catches Shen Yuan’s shoulder, preventing him from turning fully away. Some of the mirth has slipped off his face, simply watching Shen Yuan carefully. “I meant what I said before,” he says, “Yuan-ge still knows me. I’m still - I’m still your Binghe, okay?”

“Of course you are,” Shen Yuan agrees, trying to sound only slightly bitter and not like he’s up to his ears in frustration at being shut out. “My Binghe has indeed always been insistent that he doesn’t tell me anything when something important has happened to him.”

…Ah. That came out… actually very bitter indeed.

Luo Binghe’s expression crumples a bit. “Only the bad things,” he insists. “I only want to spare Yuan-ge from the bad things.”

That’s the problem, Shen Yuan thinks, but he bites his lip and doesn’t say it. He can be irritated and petty about it later, certainly, but for now he just needs to get Luo Binghe to his rooms.

“Yuan-ge…” Luo Binghe trails off, watching Shen Yuan’s expression. “Alright. I really didn’t mean to keep this from you forever, I swear, so if Yuan-ge wants to hear it now, I’ll say it now. Yuan-ge, it isn’t that I’m a cultivator at all. Rather, five years ago, I -”

And then, before Luo Binghe can finally tell Shen Yuan what kind of danger they’re actually working with after days of dancing around the issue, the visiting cultivators put up the lures.

He can tell immediately it’s happened - between one moment and the next, the air is charged with an energy that even Shen Yuan can feel. Mei Lixue must have decided to start at the Shen Estate and spiral out. 

Luo Binghe can clearly tell too. He reels backwards, his hands coming up to press over his ears, eyes screwed up tight as if he’s fighting a headache. Shen Yuan reaches out, unsure how to help but wanting to anyway, but all he can bring himself to do is hover uselessly next to Luo Binghe. There’s another spike of energy, running up Shen Yuan’s back and leaving goosebumps on the back of his neck, but this one feels like it’s coming from closer - from Luo Binghe.

“Binghe, don’t fight back or protect yourself from - this is so stupid what the fuck am I saying ‘don’t protect yourself,’ of course you should - that is, Binghe -”

“If he wants to keep his situation quiet, he had best not protect himself indeed.”

Shen Yuan startles, whirling around to face his mother, standing in the doorway of one of the nearby rooms in this hallway. Shen Yuan hadn’t even noticed her approach. Fuck. 

“Binghe is a perfectly fine righteous cultivator!” Shen Yuan says on impulse, and his mother sighs heavily.

Ignoring Shen Yuan’s outburst, she approaches Luo Binghe to stand on the side of him opposite Shen Yuan. “Luo Binghe, drop whatever demonic energy nonsense you have going on. Yuan-er and I will take you somewhere out of the way.”

Luo Binghe looks at her for a moment, hesitating, but after a moment the static in the air that had seemed to be coming from Luo Binghe’s direction disappears. In the very same moment, Luo Binghe stumbles, clearly in pain from whatever the lures are doing to him. 

“Yuan-er, panic later, help now,” Lady Shen says, breaking Shen Yuan out of his admittedly perhaps slightly panicked thoughts.

She wraps an arm around Luo Binghe, gesturing for Shen Yuan to do the same on his other side. Shen Yuan obeys, though with no small amount of confusion, and helps his mother bring Luo Binghe into the empty study that his mother had been standing by previously. They have him sit at the desk chair, Lady Shen rolling her eyes at the (perfectly reasonable!) way that Shen Yuan holds on to Luo Binghe for just slightly longer than what might have actually been necessary. Shen Yuan scowls at her, then at Luo Binghe, who’s looking up at him dazedly through - 

Ah? Have Luo Binghe’s eyes always been that red…?

“Binghe, your eyes -”

Luo Binghe brings a hand up to cover his eyes, but his movements are sluggish and uncoordinated, and he ends up just slapping himself in the face. “No, ‘s fine,” he slurs.

“What about this is fine, ah?” Shen Yuan asks, hands flitting around a bit uselessly in front of him as he tries to find something to do with them that isn’t ‘pet at Luo Binghe’ or ‘cradle Luo Binghe’s head’ or something else embarrassing. 

“The cultivators will move on soon enough,” his mother says, settling herself down in another chair by the wall. 

“But - Binghe still responded earlier, right? They’ll have noticed that, we have to -”

“We have to stay put right here, in this room, with those silly horns of his,” Shen Yuan’s mother interrupts, gesturing to the desk, and finally Shen Yuan takes in a detail of this room beyond Luo Binghe’s presence in it: sitting on top of the desk is indeed that very same box that Luo Binghe presented his cultivator’s trophy in.

Shen Yuan stares blankly at it. At that moment, all he can think is, why does she keep taking this from my room, ah?!

Luo Binghe laughs shortly, sounding a bit pained. “Lady Shen is always very astute.”

“It’s a mother’s job to pay attention to her son’s interests,” she replies nonchalantly. “And ‘Luo Binghe’ has been top of that list for years now, with only ‘demons’ coming even close.”

“Mother!” Shen Yuan cries, embarrassed, but she only shoots him a smug look. 

Shen Yuan turns back to Luo Binghe, still flustered and anxious. Everyone here is far too calm about this in his opinion, but he also knows well enough how to recognize when he’s the only one in a room who doesn’t understand something. Clearly, his mother thinks the severed horns are enough to mask Luo Binghe’s temporary energy spike, but that would only work if the energy Luo Binghe gave off was similar enough to the horns’ energy that he could pretend it all came from the horns. Perhaps Luo Binghe had used other parts of the demon’s carcass to improve his own dubious cultivation, thereby taking on some of its energy? No, but even then, Luo Binghe’s own energy signature would still feel different enough for experienced cultivators looking for such a thing to be able to see it. The only way Luo Binghe’s energy could truly be hidden by these horns would be if - 

Shen Yuan blinks. He looks at Luo Binghe, hand still slapped over the top half of his face. His mouth is just slightly parted as he breathes through what must be the world’s most miserable headache, and Shen Yuan thinks he might see teeth that look just a little too sharp to be what he’s used to seeing in Luo Binghe’s mouth.

Luo Binghe… hadn’t actually ever said he’d killed the demon these horns had come from, had he? He’d sworn to them both that it had been his own skill and hand that had cut them as a trophy, but - 

Shen Yuan has a moment of horrifying clarity.

“Luo Binghe,” Shen Yuan starts, voice low and absolutely furious. 

Luo Binghe peeks out from behind his hand, suddenly looking a bit nervous. “I was about to tell you,” he says, “I promise, as soon as you made it clear it was important for you to know - I was about to. And it’s - it’s a good thing, right? Yuan-ge -”

“Luo Binghe, don’t you dare try to tell me it’s a good thing that you cut your own horns off with a kitchen knife!” Shen Yuan cries, and Luo Binghe winces at the volume. Immediately guilty, Shen Yuan lowers his voice to whisper-shout, “A kitchen knife!!”

“...I cleaned the knife after,” Luo Binghe mumbles, and Shen Yuan would shake him if he didn’t think it would just make the pain worse for Luo Binghe. Then, hesitatingly, “Yuan-ge… wasn’t mad about finding out I was a demon, just now? You were just upset about the ‘cutting off my horns’ part?”

“You kept the fact that you’re a demon secret from me for five years, and you think I’m not mad now that I’ve found out?” Shen Yuan scolds, glowering at Luo Binghe. “Of course I’m mad; I’m as mad about that as I’d been at the original idea that you’d been cultivating in secret! I’m just - way, way more angry about the part where you decided it was a good idea to cut yourself up as a gift!”

Unfortunately, it seems Luo Binghe is very stuck on the ‘is a demon’ part, rather than the ‘self-mutilation with literally no justifiable reason’ part. 

“I didn’t like keeping it a secret, Yuan-ge. I just didn’t want to upset you,” Luo Binghe says, an echo of what he’d said in the hallway not ten minutes ago about why he’d kept quiet about his so-called ‘cultivation’ to begin with. “You were always so happy with how cute I was. I don’t look very cute, when I’m like that.”

“You don’t get to decide that, ah! Maybe I think demons are super cute!” Shen Yuan throws a hand out to gesture wildly in his mother’s direction. “You heard her earlier!”

Luo Binghe smiles faintly at him, looking weary but amused. Most of the pained tension in his shoulders seems to have eased by now, too; the cultivators must really have begun to move on in their fly over of the city.

Shen Yuan huffs, rocking back on his heels as he considers Luo Binghe. He still would very much like to go back to talking about the horns, but he clearly won’t get anywhere with Luo Binghe focusing on his own worries here. Best to kill two birds with one stone, then. 

“Can you show me that form without releasing more demonic energy? That is, can you continue to repress your own demonic energy while like that?”

Luo Binghe hesitates, but nods.

“Good,” Shen Yuan says. “In that case, I want to see the rest of my courting gift, please.”

Behind him, his mother snorts. Shen Yuan resolutely ignores her.

“Your courting gift…” Luo Binghe trails off.

“The demon I was given as a trophy, of course.” Shen Yuan replies, pretending at indifference. “Binghe gave me his horns - stupidly, by the way, that was stupid of you and I am going to be mad about it for the rest of our lives -  but I haven’t gotten to see the rest of that demon.”

Luo Binghe stares at him. His eyes really are quite red. They might even be glowing, now that Shen Yuan thinks about it.

“If you’re sure,” Luo Binghe eventually says, and then between one moment and the next there become many, many more things about Luo Binghe that seem demonic than just some glowing red eyes.

The teeth that Shen Yuan had previously wondered at are now quite obviously inhuman; his canines don’t even quite fit in his mouth, sticking out like a beast’s. His ears are long and pointed, and a flame-like huadian now glows on his forehead with the same startling red of his eyes. And those eyes have only become more intense, the whites of them turning black. He’s larger, too, slightly taller and bulkier than before. Luo Binghe’s always been broad, but now… Shen Yuan swallows thickly. He forces himself to look down, taking in the rest of him - hands that end in claws, feet that clearly don’t quite fit in their shoes anymore, a tail that flicks anxiously behind Luo Binghe in a way that can’t be comfortable given that Luo Binghe’s sitting on it. 

Shen Yuan reaches out to take one of Luo Binghe’s hands in his, examining it. His claws are black, as if they’d been painted. It suits Luo Binghe quite well. 

Releasing his hand, Shen Yuan hums to himself. “As I thought,” he says smugly, “Binghe is especially cute in this form.”

Luo Binghe’s eyes go wide with what Shen Yuan hopes is a pleasant sort of shock. 

“Yuan-ge -!” 

“Unfortunately,” Shen Yuan interrupts, “I’m afraid I can’t do anything about how cute you are, like this. No head pats, indefinitely.”

Luo Binghe’s voice takes on a very different sort of whininess. “Yuan-ge -!”

“I won’t be petting an open wound,” Shen Yuan cuts in, with perhaps a bit more snappiness than is necessary. But really…

Really, the most eye-catching part of Luo Binghe’s whole transformation are the stumps on his head. Shen Yuan can picture easily how regal Luo Binghe would look with his horns proper; they’d fit him like a large, deadly crown. Shen Yuan can imagine himself indulgently buying Luo Binghe jewelry to drape over them, decorating them so they shine and jingle as he moves. Luo Binghe would be so smug about it, too, tilting his head this way and that to show off, only to come up with some sort of excuse about how cumbersome or bulky they are to get Shen Yuan to soothe and dote on him.

Instead, Luo Binghe has left his horns cut at their base, only a couple inches of growth remaining. It would look almost like a set of odd, bulky, juvenile horns, if it wasn’t for the way they’d been cut so cleanly. 

Admittedly, it isn’t fair to call them an ‘open wound.’ Though Luo Binghe’s horns are sleeker than anything Shen Yuan has seen on an animal, they seem to largely be the same sort of horns that a ram would grow, and Shen Yuan has seen the sheep belonging to Old Xie’s farm on the edge of town often enough to know that it isn’t unusual for a ram to have their horns trimmed. Clearly, it’s a normal enough thing to do.

But Shen Yuan has only ever seen horns trimmed, not cut off so close to the base. Cut like this, Shen Yuan can see clearly how much of Luo Binghe’s horns are made of live bone, a horrifying ring within the horn’s center that still looks tender even if it’s clearly on its way to healing. 

Shen Yuan reaches out to gently trace his fingers along the outer keratin of one of the stumps, where he knows it won’t hurt Luo Binghe to touch. Luo Binghe has gone remarkably silent, letting the mood fall somber as Shen Yuan looks.

“...Do they still hurt?” Shen Yuan asks quietly, and Luo Binghe’s expression instantly becomes more lighthearted, grinning up at Shen Yuan. With his teeth large and sharp now, his smile looks especially dangerous.

“Not at all!” Luo Binghe chirps, “Yuan-ge doesn’t have to worry, they -”

Shen Yuan makes a sudden move to take the fingers gently resting on the outer shell of one of Luo Binghe’s horns and jab them towards the open bone on top instead. He has no intention of actually touching it, stopping before his fingers can make contact, but Luo Binghe’s instinctual flinch gives him away.

Shen Yuan scowls. “Don’t lie,” he scolds, and if his stomach wasn’t in knots thinking about Luo Binghe in pain already he would have pulled meanly at his cheek in reprimand. 

The grin slides off Luo Binghe’s face once more. He looks especially sullen, as if Shen Yuan had been the one in the wrong to call his bluff like that. 

“Ah, Binghe…” Shen Yuan sighs, letting his hands fall to rest at his sides and stepping back away from Luo Binghe’s chair before he can be fooled into putting his hands back on Luo Binghe’s head. “Really, why would you ever do this to yourself?”

Luo Binghe looks up at Shen Yuan pleadingly. “I don’t have anything else to offer, Yuan-ge.”

“Who said you had to offer anything at all, ah?” Shen Yuan sighs again, frustrated. “Binghe, you could have just asked!”

Luo Binghe’s breath hitches, looking up at Shen Yuan with wide eyes. “Yuan-ge, that - I’m hardly in a position to just ask to marry you,” he says, and Shen Yuan scoffs.

“You’re Binghe,” he argues. “Who else could possibly compete? I -” Shen Yuan breaks off, some of the embarrassment of suggesting such a thing finally catching up to him, but in the end he manages to say: “If you’d asked, I wouldn’t have said no.”

Luo Binghe smiles up at him, looking a bit weepy. It should be disconcerting to watch a bulky, demonic man like Luo Binghe tear up, but Shen Yuan hadn’t lied earlier: like this, Luo Binghe really is especially cute, at least to him.

“I think Yuan-ge is overestimating how much better he’d be able to handle a direct confession compared to a formal engagement request,” Luo Binghe says wryly. “But even still, it isn’t just you that I have to win over.”

Shen Yuan blinks. Then, all at once, he remembers that his mother is, in fact, still in the room with them.

“Oh,” he wheezes, trying desperately to repress the realization that his mother just watched him give what was as good as a confession to Luo Binghe. 

Luo Binghe has the gall to look a bit amused at Shen Yuan’s embarrassment, glancing past Shen Yuan to where he assumes his mother is still sitting. “If it’s any consolation,” Luo Binghe says, “She’s taken out a book and is pretending to read it.”

“I am never going to live this down,” Shen Yuan hisses back, mortified beyond belief. 

“No you will not,” Lady Shen pipes up, confirming that she’s absolutely been listening intently this whole time. “If the contents of this conversation wouldn’t be a blow against the Shen household if they got out, this would in fact be my go-to story for Yuan-er’s wedding.”

Shen Yuan whips his head around to look at his mother. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Luo Binghe startle and lean forward as well. 

“There - there could still be a wedding?” Luo Binghe asks, sounding a bit breathless. 

Lady Shen looks up from her book to meet Luo Binghe’s gaze. “Of course there will be. I think what you mean to ask, Luo Binghe, is if the wedding might still include you,” she says. “Yuan-er will have a bride that is a merit both to himself and to this household. An honest merit, one that can get shown off properly.”

“I can fight well even with the demonic features hidden,” Luo Binghe insists.

“Among other cultivators?” Shen Yuan’s mother asks, one eyebrow raised. “At a public hunting event where you compete against righteous cultivators, or as a show of strength if a minor sect tries to bully our Shen family out of our position of influence in this city, could you honestly fight well enough to bring honors to this house without giving yourself away? We cannot always hide you like this, especially not if you are Yuan-er’s official wife.”

Luo Binghe hesitates, glancing at Shen Yuan. Lady Shen hums, taking that as answer enough.

“A shame,” she says, “I would have liked to plan that wedding. ‘Cultivator Luo’ really did have a nice ring to it, too.”

Luo Binghe sinks back down into his seat. He looks miserable for a long moment before he catches Shen Yuan watching him. Then, he takes a careful breath in, squares his shoulders, and turns back to Lady Shen.

“Then, this Servant Luo would like to beg Lady Shen for a loan.”

“A loan?” Shen Yuan’s mother asks, raising her book up slightly to hide her expression.

Luo Binghe nods, mouth set in a firm line. “Cultivator Mei made it clear that the horns I presented as a courting gift are valuable. They could, if used appropriately, likely be used to pay for an education befitting a noble lady.”

“If they’re all Cultivator Mei worked them up to be, they could likely be used to pay for an education befitting an Imperial Scholar,” Lady Shen acknowledges.

“Lady Shen has acknowledged herself that I’m clever. I could learn quickly, if given the chance for that sort of education.” Luo Binghe’s hands flex in his lap, and Shen Yuan cannot help but look at the way his claws glint in the light. “If I cannot bring strength in cultivation into the Shen Family, I will bring the traditional thing, instead.”

“The merit a noble lady brings is more than just her education,” Lady Shen counters, and Luo Binghe lifts his head just slightly, not quite a challenge but a clear push back against the line Shen Yuan’s mother is trying to draw in the sand.

“I was adopted,” Luo Binghe says. “I never knew my birth parents. They could be anyone, in the end.”

“At least one of them was a demon, clearly.”

“If a noble were to sire a bastard with a demon, of course they’d throw the child out,” Luo Binghe says, enough dismissiveness in his tone that Shen Yuan frowns. If he had a demon child, he’d throw out anyone who even suggested this sort of thing!

There’s a beat of silence as Luo Binghe and Lady Shen watch each other. Then, Lady Shen puts down her book, closing it neatly on her lap.

“Of course, if a servant of our household - one that we were sponsoring to go through education far above his station - was discovered to be artificially recreating a noble connection in his bloodline, we would have no choice but to disavow such a thing.”

“I won’t get caught,” Luo Binghe swears, more confident than pleading, and Lady Shen hums.

“No,” she says, “I don’t think you will.”

Luo Binghe brightens. Shen Yuan, despite himself, can’t quite fight his own grin, either.

However, Lady Shen only sighs. “It would work well enough, if we’d started it several years ago. It still works, if your career goal has shifted from ‘wife’ to ‘concubine,’” she says, still addressing Luo Binghe. “As it stands, though, we’ve made enough of a scene that it isn’t realistic to suddenly decide to hold off on Yuan-er’s engagement for long enough that you could gain such an education and background.”

“Hadn’t they all wanted to go home anyway?” Shen Yuan asks, feeling cheated. That’s twice now, after all, that Luo Binghe seems to have come so close to being ‘qualified’ to be Shen Yuan’s wife, and he finds he isn’t pleased that someone else gets to have the final say on this. 

“The cutsleeve girls have a very good reason to want to see this through,” Lady Shen says. “There aren’t many well respected families that have a cutsleeve of their own to offer for this kind of union.”

Shen Yuan swallows down his instinctual protests about being called as such. It does not, at the moment, seem like the sort of comment that would help things. All he can do is try his best to look like he isn’t sulking, even as he turns away from his mother. 

Not that he has anything to hide from her! He’s fine, he isn’t sulking or tearing up or anything else stupid, because it would be stupid to cry about something like this when there’s been so many other more important revelations today. Luo Binghe’s a demon that’s currently hiding for his life from cultivators that Shen Yuan himself brought here, and Luo Binghe chopped off his own horns as a gift, and - and whether or not Shen Yuan gets to have Luo Binghe as his wife after being all but promised such a thing doesn’t matter nearly as much as those other things, as Luo Binghe’s safety. Shen Yuan’s fine!

He still can’t bring himself to look back at his mother, right then. He traces the pattern of the wood grain of the floor, instead, taking carefully measured breaths as he does so. Look, that piece of wood looks like a misshapen version of Luo Binghe’s cool new demon mark, and that piece looks like a snake!

…No, wait. That’s just a snake. There’s a snake in the study with them.

“Doess the noble pedigree have to be human?” Asks the snake. “Or could Masster Ssshen take a demon wife, sso long as the bloodline iss good?”

Shen Yuan stares at the snake. Behind him, Luo Binghe is already on his feet, his claws extended and his tail lashing behind him. Shen Yuan’s mother subtly adjusts her grip on her book to be one optimal for swinging it at small things like snakes.

“It’s one of the spy snakes,” Shen Yuan says a bit distantly, still staring at it with some level of uncomprehension. “As in, the spy snakes that, as I understand it, should really have all been caught by now, after that lure.”

“The lure wass indeed unpleasssant,” the snake agrees. “Thiss one thankss the Sshens for allowing me to hide here throughout it.”

“Allowance cannot be given in cases when one party remains unaware,” Lady Shen replies, voice sharp. The snake blinks placidly at her, flicking its tongue out once, twice.

“Apologiess,” it says. “I could not find a good time to introduce myself. Thisss one iss called Zhuzhi Lang.”

---

As it turned out, just the same way that the decrease in demonic activity the last five years could be attributed to Luo Binghe, so too could the recent uptick in it. Apparently, when a demon powerful enough to establish a territory does so - and Luo Binghe had very clearly marked this city as his, in all the instinctual ways a demon does so - other powerful demons will eventually take notice. And for an instance where the established territory is within the human realm…

Well, there exists one particular powerful demon with a unique interest in the human realm. 

Zhuzhi Lang had been sent to simply scout it out. Figure out how the demon was controlling the territory, if possible - if it was a matter of blending in as a human, or if there was some level of known cross-species settlement happening in this city. Unfortunately, ‘simply scout it out,’ became much more complicated when Zhuzhi Lang was able to finally get a look at the demon in question and recognize him to be the spitting image of his Uncle’s beloved wife, Empress of the Demonic Realm and former Head Disciple of Huan Hua Palace, Su Xiyan. 

Su Xiyan, who had apparently gone through a near-death experience near the time of her son’s birth that had resulted in her parting with her newborn in a bid for his safety. By the time her husband had figured out the treachery behind it all and managed to save her, her son was far enough away that they couldn’t find him again, or at least they couldn’t without revealing their own position and weakness, or perhaps alerting their enemies to the baby’s existence and putting a target on Luo Binghe’s head too.

That was years ago, though. Luo Binghe’s birth father - Tianlang Jun, current emperor of the demonic realm - has since used his own power to make it very clear what happens to those who threaten his family. Though belated, discovering Luo Binghe can finally be celebrated… in theory, that is.

“Apologiess to Cousin Luo,” Zhuzhi Lang says, dipping his head respectfully. He’d shifted into a mostly human looking form after introducing himself, though the reptilian hiss in his voice had remained. “But there issn’t actually a place for a prince in Junshang’s realm.”

“Ah? What is that supposed to mean?” Shen Yuan pipes up, offended on Luo Binghe’s behalf. “You spent the past few weeks lurking around the city, spying on us and causing enough trouble that we hired cultivators to try and chase you out, but in the end all you have to say to the long lost son of your empire is that there isn’t a place for him?? He’s - he’s working as my servant right now, you know!! Your prince! As a servant!!”

Zhuzhi Lang tilts his head, looking at Shen Yuan with large, unblinking eyes. “Junshang’s concern wass if Coussin Luo would prove a threat to hisss family, which is why -”

“Luo Binghe is his family?!” Shen Yuan interrupts, furious, but Zhuzhi Lang only shrugs.

“Cousin Luo has misssed many years with uss,” he replies easily, and Shen Yuan scowls at him. “Demon culture doess not care for the ‘long lost child’ narrative. To us, a child with no hissstory within our family iss one without loyalty to it.”

“Binghe is the most loyal person I know,” Shen Yuan bites back, but Luo Binghe makes a noise in the back of his throat that sounds very much like a disagreement.

“Your Binghe is only so loyal to you, Yuan-ge,” he clarifies, and Shen Yuan scowls to hide his embarrassment. Whatever! Fine! Luo Binghe, loyal only to Shen Yuan - that’s something he can feel perfectly normal about!

“Coussin Luo’s loyalty to the Sshen Family is why Junshang hass not already called me back,” Zhuzhi Lang says. “Empresss Su was happy enough to know that Coussin Luo is alive and well taken care of here. She understandss demon custom enough to know there issn’t a real place for him in the demon realm that would be better than thisss. It iss instead Junshang’ss interest that keepss me here.”

“Your Junshang is interested in brokering an official relationship with non-cultivator humans, then?” Lady Shen clarifies, eyes narrowed. 

“Junshang is interested in the romance between a non-cultivator human and his ssecret demon ssservant,” Zhuzhi Lang corrects. Shen Yuan makes a vaguely insulted sounding noise. “If all that standss between their marriage is pedigree, then Junshang iss generous enough to provide Coussin Luo with a royal one.”

Shen Yuan stares at Zhuzhi Lang for a long moment. He can feel Luo Binghe’s eyes on him, watching for his reaction, but Shen Yuan really, really does not know what sort of reaction he’s supposed to be having, here. 

Luckily, Shen Yuan’s mother has her own set of concerns, and has no problem voicing them if Shen Yuan himself has nothing to say. 

“Publically tying our household to the demonic throne brings its own set of problems,” she points out. “And this would go very differently from when your Tianlang Jun took Su Xiyan from Huan Hua to be his Empress. Cultivators could only look away back then, because the alternative would be to start a war, or at the very least dedicate a significant amount of resources to venturing into the demonic realm to fetch her back. Now, you want to announce that there’s a seemingly unfavored princling of the demon realm, and have that boy marry into a non cultivator household with non-negligible imperial influence? Righteous cultivators wouldn’t hesitate to kill him, and non cultivators would want us ousted for treason.”

“Sso long as Cousin Luo accepts Junshang’ss offer, Empress Ssu can handle the rest. It iss true that the firsst Young Master Sshen heads a trade company, yesss?”

Lady Shen nods. “It isn’t the largest in the human empire, but it may as well be, this side of the major cultivation sects.”

“Empress Su hass long wished to establish trade between the two realmss,” Zhuzhi Lang explains. “Sshe will likely wish to revise the details with you hersself, but this one’ss understanding was that such a deal could imply Coussin Luo is not unimportant to Junshang.”

“And it would keep the demonic empire invested in what happens to the Shen Estate, else the trade contract fails with the family,” Lady Shen adds, nodding to herself. “What is the benefit to the human realm, though? Little is known about what sort of goods we could be benefiting from in return.”

“We are sstronger than you,” Zhuzhi Lang says simply. “Even compared to cultivators, demonss are better ssuited to many of the locationss where ingredients preciouss to cultivators are harvested.”

Shen Yuan makes a quiet noise of understanding. “We’d be legitimizing the black market for spirit plants,” he says, unable to help himself from getting a bit excited at the thought. 

“And besidess,” Zhuzhi Lang speaks up again, turning to look at Luo Binghe. “Coussin Luo is of the Heavenly Demon clan. If ssomething threatenss his home, he should have no problemss removing the threat.”

“He couldn’t remove you,” Lady Shen points out, skeptical, and Zhuzhi Lang shrugs.

“I am of the ssame blood clan, though diluted, and Coussin Luo wass moving covertly when searching for me. He would no longer need to do as such, if he iss officially claimed by Junshang.”

Lady Shen hums, considering. Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe both watch her carefully. Shen Yuan feels oddly caught between anxiety and indifference waiting for her decision; the past half hour has been so far out of left field that he’s running low on the energy to process anything else, much less worry about it. First Luo Binghe was in danger, and then he was a demon, and then he had a snake cousin and was also demon royalty lost at birth, and - 

And ah, it isn’t like Shen Yuan’s mother hasn’t heard him embarrass himself already today, so what’s once more?

“Mother,” he starts, and then has to stop and recollect himself when he feels the weight of the room’s attention turn to him. He swallows thickly, glancing at Luo Binghe - at his teeth and claws and the stumps on his head where a Heavenly Demon’s horns used to sit - and then back at his mother. “It would be - good. For the Shen Estate. And for Ge’s trading company. And, that is - it would just be good.”

“Oh Yuan-er,” his mother sighs. “If that is how you know to say you want someone, Luo Binghe has many patient nights ahead of him indeed.”

Shen Yuan all but squawks, but his mother ignores him, turning back to Zhuzhi Lang.

“Alright then,” she says. “Pending discussions with Empress Su about the specifics, our Shen Family is happy to offer genuine efforts for trade across realm borders as part of the newly discovered Prince Luo’s bride price.”

Zhuzhi Lang bows shallowly in recognition. “Thanking Lady Sshen for her understanding. Junsshang will be happy to hear it.”

Shen Yuan lets out a breath, looking back at Luo Binghe. Luo Binghe meets his gaze with wide, excited eyes, a flush warming his cheeks and his grin victorious. Shen Yuan has to look away at the sight, too bright and happy for him to stare at directly. Ah, too pretty, really too pretty, Shen Yuan should really have guessed this Binghe of his would end up a wife in the end no matter what, with a face like that!

Still, there remained one problem.

“Cultivator Mei will need an explanation,” Shen Yuan says, clearing his throat. “Assuming that it isn’t possible to explain things honestly until Binghe’s confirmed as a demonic royalty, and that she doesn’t find anything else out there…”

He trails off, looking between Luo Binghe and Zhuzhi Lang, who both shrug. 

“There’s always some small things in the area,” Luo Binghe says. 

“Not currently,” Zhuzhi Lang corrects. “I ate what Coussin Luo had left.”

“Ah,” Shen Yuan says, trying not to think too hard about that. “Right, then. So nothing for Cultivator Mei to focus in on outside of the small amount of energy from within the Shen Estate, which got muddied with the lingering energy on Binghe’s horns.”

Which - Shen Yuan pauses, suddenly realizing why Luo Binghe’s horns had retained so much demonic energy to begin with: the demon they’d come from was still alive. Ahh, Shen Yuan really feels slow for taking so long to put it together!

He shakes the thought off, refocusing. “I’d say we’d have to convince her that all the problems were caused by the demon Luo Binghe ‘killed’ to get his horns from, but both her and Cultivator Mo had already recognized that Zhuzhi Lang was in the area, or at least that there was someone controlling a bunch of snakes via demonic means.”

“Apologiess,” Zhuzhi Lang says, dipping his head slightly. “I could allow her to chasse me off, if that would help?”

Shen Yuan frowns. “That wouldn’t put you in any real danger, would it?”

“Coussin Sshen is kind,” Zhuzhi Lang says, smiling slightly. “This one must leave anyway, and iss quite used to moving quickly away from cultivatorss. I will lose her far enough away that sshe will not think to sstay here.”

“In that case, thanking Zhuzhi Lang for leaving swiftly,” Luo Binghe speaks up, and Shen Yuan has to fight the urge to roll his eyes fondly. Luo Binghe has always been best at dismissing unwanted visitors as quick as social niceties allow, and Zhuzhi Lang, while helpful in the end, has certainly not endeared himself to them by sneaking about their city and estate until this point.

“I’d be concerned if any proper cultivator lets this trick work so easily,” Lady Shen snorts. “For our sake, I can only hope Cultivator Mei is not so great, or that this supposed Heavenly Demon heritage is as good as advertised.”

“We could always prepare a distraction as a backup,” Luo Binghe says, expression sly. “What was it that Yuan-ge had suggested? Something about a scandal between his cutsleeve suitor and -”

“And Cultivator Mei,” Shen Yuan interrupts. “Of course. Obviously. I’m very aware that Lady Jia Li likes women, so of course I would suggest setting her up with another woman. Not a man. Clearly.”

Luo Binghe laughs. “Ah, my husband is so smart -!”

Shen Yuan all but squawks, flailing around only a little before he whacks Luo Binghe several times on his shoulder. “What husband! What wedding has happened yet!! My mother is still in the room -!”

“Your Binghe is only trying to acknowledge how clever your plans are, of course!” Luo Binghe says, still grinning smugly at Shen Yuan.

“Ah, what pretty words for someone so clearly making fun of me!” Shen Yuan pauses, squinting at Luo Binghe. “Or, wait, no - you probably really mean it when you suggest using that stupid plan, don’t you? What are you trying to do, getting rid of your competitors this late in the game! Haven’t you already won?!”

Luo Binghe’s smile only gets brighter and more smug, his cute, evil demon teeth gleaming in the light of the room.

“Mm,” he agrees, his eyes squinting into pleased crescents as he looks at Shen Yuan. “I’ve won the best sort of prize.”

Shen Yuan lets out an exaggerated, long suffering sigh. Luo Binghe is so smug about this, so overly proud of it despite it being so embarrassing!! Shen Yuan is really not ever going to catch a break, not between now and the wedding, and probably not for a single day as a married man, either! Embarrassing, embarrassing!!

(…He’s really, really happy that this smug, embarrassing Luo Binghe is going to be his wife. The best sort of prize, indeed.)