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Chapter Text

There’s a little abandoned shrine a few blocks from Shen Yuan’s apartment, one that people have been avoiding for as long as he can remember. Something that, in his opinion, makes it the perfect place to go to get away from people for a while.

It’s quiet, calming, there’s absolutely zero chance of ever running into anyone—and the best part is, the only people who would actually go out of their way to find him don’t even know where this is!

He’s so happy he managed to find it all those years ago when he was just a small child, at the ripe age of six or seven, when he got separated from his parents while chasing after a stray dog. He was lost and alone, somehow managing to make his way through the bushes that were taller than he was and stumble into a small shrine surrounded by nothing but wilderness. At the point of tears then, he climbed onto the first few steps of the shrine and absolutely bawled his eyes out, ignoring the dirt and leaves staining his face as he tried to wipe his tears away with his hands dirty from climbing up large rocks surrounding the area.

And once he was out of tears, he had a chance to calm down and actually take in the area around him, finally realizing how beautiful—and secluded—this place truly was.

Eventually, he did have to go find his parents again (he didn’t want to worry them anymore) and did his very best to retrace his steps, constantly looking back to make sure he remembers his way to it and to make sure he wasn’t just imagining it and that it truly does exist. Even after he finally found his parents who were searching for him (and hugged him so tightly he felt like he was going to burst), he never forgot his way there and whenever he needed an escape from his life, he’d go there to unwind and calm down.

At some point, though he can’t remember exactly when, he started bringing offerings to the shrine too. He doesn’t know who the shrine belongs to or why it’s so unattached to the rest of the world but he thought that with how much he keeps going back there, the least he can do is burn some incense or bring some offerings for the mysterious God.

And this continued throughout his childhood, through his angsty teen years, and even in the present, as an adult, he still always goes to visit, always bringing something along with him. Whether it be a piece of candy, some snacks from the convenience store or an incense stick—just anything that he could offer to show his appreciation for the shrine, even if it has been abandoned by the rest of the world. He’s doing good for the wildlife around it too, as the food he brings always disappears by his next visit so clearly something is eating it, and if his offerings aren’t going to waste after all? Well, that’s just great.

*||*

Today isn’t the kind of day Shen Yuan would call particularly tiring, but it also isn’t the kind of day he enjoys.. There wasn’t much out of the ordinary, but he’s meeting his family today. His entire family. With both his brothers, his sister, his parents, his aunts, his uncles, his grandparents, everyone is there, asking him how his health is (“don’t worry about me, I’ve improved a lot since I was a child, I barely have to go to the hospital nowadays!”), if he’s met anyone special these days (“haha… I’m too busy for that right now. Yes, yes, I know it’s important…”), and how his studies are going (“the courses aren’t too bad this semester.”).

Now, he knows they mean well, he really does, but they can be a bit much sometimes and for him, who isn’t used to interacting with so many people at the same time, it got very overwhelming very fast. Thankfully, his gege caught onto this and easily steered him out of the conversation like the social butterfly he is, ‘coincidentally’ mentioning how he needed to pick something up from the store and how he’d be oh so grateful if his beloved A-Yuan could get it for him—but he needn’t pressure himself, the errand would take him at least an hour to do, before winking at him and moving the attention from all the uncles and aunties onto him, something Shen Yuan will forever be grateful for.

So, taking his chance to escape, he slipped out of the house as quietly as he could and jogged all the way to the store and got the very important items for his gege (snacks. They were all Shen Yuan’s favorite snacks. His important errand was getting his didi his favorite food), sidetracking jusssst a bit.

He has at least an hour away from his house and he was going to make use of it, so with the snacks still in hand, he got a little something extra and made his way through a path he’s taken thousands of times to the shrine. Placing the tanghulu in front of it, Shen Yuan sat on his knees, closed his eyes and prayed.

I still don’t know what deity you are but please keep my brother safe and happy. He’s the greatest older brother in the world and he deserves it.

He sat like that for a few minutes then peaked one of his eyes open, noticing the tanghulu gone already (it also seems like the favorite for whatever takes it), and smiled to himself, standing up and dusting himself off, preparing to head back into a battlefield.

With dread sinking into him, he scrunched his face up and stopped, checking his phone. It’s only been forty minutes, so he still has time. Convincing himself of this, he dropped the bag of goodies and plopped himself down right beside them, sitting crossed legged with his back against the shrine. Shen Yuan stared into the distance, letting his thoughts consume him as he admired the scenery he’s seen many times, barely noticing his eyes beginning to grow heavier and his head beginning to sag.

Taking a little nap should be fine…

*||*

Shen Yuan awoke to being licked by a scratchy tongue, which immediately alerted him that something was very much wrong, because why was he suddenly being licked? He doesn’t own any pets and he lives alone so why is there someone in his house licking him?!

With a startle, his eyes shot open, looking around to try and assess the abnormality when the memories of before his nap came back to him.

Right, he took a nap by the shrine. Tension leaving his shoulders, he sagged back against the base of the shrine, much more relaxed while looking for what just licked him. Hmm? He thought, feeling something nuzzle up against his side this time. What is this? Looking down, he noticed a pure white cat rubbing its head on him and a grey one licking his hand. But before he could coo at it and take a million photos, a black cat jumped onto his lap, making itself comfortable inside his crossed legs.

Three cats? Since when are there cats here, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before.

Furrowing his brows, his confused face slowly melted as he started to melt into a pile of mush due to the cuteness of everything around him when yet another cat appeared, this one a tuxedo cat. Similarly to the others, this one pushed his arm up to rest it on its back while it plopped its head onto his thigh at the same time an orange cat pounced on him, gripping onto (and possibly tearing) his shirt in an attempt to keep its grip.

“Am I still dreaming? I must still be dreaming. Otherwise there’s no way for me to ever get this lucky in life—unless, I’m dead now, aren’t I? This is heaven, isn’t it? I don’t even care anymore, I just want to live forever in this bliss.” Shen Yuan closed his eyes, taking in every sensation of all of these cats purring, licking, and nuzzling against him, something that has never happened before.

Typically, animals don’t really like him much, they never have and he doubted they ever will but with this kind of bliss surrounding him, he doesn’t care why they like him so much. “You’re so cute,” he cooed to the black cat still nuzzling against him. As if understanding him, it stared at him with its piercing gold eyes for a second before something that Shen Yuan swears is a smile (but cats can’t smile, can they? Is that even possible?) crossed its face before it let out what he can only describe as an elegant meow before aggressively licking his hand. In awe of the cat, he used both hands to pick it up to his face to pepper kisses onto it, not caring about whether he should be touching cats that could potentially be carrying diseases.

Then, in a fit of the most adorable jealousy he’s ever seen, the white cat pounced on the black cat once it stopped receiving pets from Shen Yuan and the two tumbled down the narrow path leading to the shrine, swatting each other and knocking over his plastic bag in the process.

And oh shit— he completely forgot about getting back to his family. Gods, he hopes he didn’t sleep for too long.

With his now freed hands due to the two cats occupying them… occupying themselves, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and cringed.

Yeah, he definitely took a long nap. He should’ve set an alarm or something because his free hour turned into three hours and it’d take him at least another thirty minutes to get back to his parents house from here and he knows he’s going to have to deal with his grandparents nagging about why he took so long and his sister is going to laugh at him behind her hand like the sick fuck she is who enjoys taking pleasure from her amazing brother being scolded (he’s done the same thing to her multiple times) and his break will have been for nothing because he’s going to be forced to socialize again after his social battery was already drained because of the nagging and then his wonderful, amazing, one of a kind, spectacular gege is going to send him out on another errand and then he’s going to get lectured from his dad because he didn’t interact enough with the family who came all the way here to talk with him (they didn’t, its just the annual family gathering his aunt has been threatening convincing everyone to attend for the last fifteen years) and—

“Mrew?” Came a confused meow from the tuxedo cat.

Blinking a few times to get out of his spiral, Shen Yuan looked back down at all five cats sitting in front of him, all with their full attention on him and looking at him weirdly. Well, animals can, like, sense your emotions or something, right? So they could probably tell he was freaking out and got started freaking out themselves, and now he should apologize to the poor cats he probably scared the shit out of.

“I’m sorry,” he said to them for two reasons, “but I need to get back to my family. I wish I could stay here with you longer but I’m already late.” With the deepest frown he’s ever frowned, he sadly stood up and picked up his bag, eyes never leaving the cats, even as he started his retreat, giving them one last small, sad wave before pushing the overgrown moss that covers the entrance out of the way.

Shen Yuan closed his eyes, taking in a few deep breaths to mentally and emotionally prepare himself for the outside when he heard the faint chiming of a bell. Thinking it was just the cats (were any of them wearing collars? He can’t seem to recall), he ignored it, taking a step out of the trees, expecting to see the worn out sidewalk beside the convenience store he typically gets his offerings from but when he looked up, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere near there, actually. Rather, he was right in front of his parents’ house again.

Chapter Text

Now, Shen Yuan would spend at least a solid thirty minutes freaking out and coming up with bizarre explanations of what just happened, but before he could process anything, his meimei spotted him standing in front of the house from one of the large windows and ran out the door and at him at her full speed, which is pretty fast compared to him. She swiftly grabbed his hand, glared at him then rushed back into the house, throwing him to the piranhas (all the aunties) who viciously attacked him and tore him limb from limb (kept pinching his cheeks and pulling him into bone crushing hugs).

I will get you back for this, he vowed silently in his head, fencing off one overager aunty after the next.

“Excuse me ladies,” he suddenly said after being able to regain his balance and successfully protect his cheeks from the next aunty looking to pinch them, “I think my brother is expecting me.” He waved the little plastic bag in his hands to show proof and regrettably (for them), they let him go, immediately moving on to one of his younger cousins who was peacefully enjoying eating a bag of chips.

Frantically, Shen Yuan scanned the area, looking for the familiar face of his (wonderful, amazing, spectacular, nothing like his meimei) gege. “Gege!” He called out, weaving his way through the crowd of his family to get to him. 

“There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you.” His brother said, sipping his still piping hot cup of tea and looking very much like he wasn’t spending the last few hours searching for his poor little brother. 

“Yes, yes,” Shen Yuan said, obviously not believing him. “Here, I got the super important groceries you need.” He mocked the way he first told him to get them.

“Ah! My savior. How could I ever repay you for this?” His brother basically swooned. 

“I can think of one way.” Shen Yuan looked expectantly at the bag. His gege, noticing this, shook it innocently. “Oh whatever could you mean?” He fake gasped, “you couldn’t possibly be talking about taking some of my life altering errands could you? Don’t you know how important they are to me.” He turned his head away from Shen Yuan, full on fake crying now.

Shen Yuan looked at him blankly, giving him the most deadpan look he could muster.

His brother clicked his tongue. “Fine,” he said, tossing him a cup of instant ramen (it's his favorite brand, okay!) before fleeing away to the kitchen to dump the rest of the goodies in there in the pantry for Shen Yuan to eat the next time he’s back home—and speaking of being back home, he checked his watch, the gathering was almost over!

As much as he loves his family, he cannot stand to be around all of them for such a long amount of time and much prefers the bi-yearly cousins meet up he has with them, where they can all properly interact with each other without worrying about keeping their cheeks safe.

After that, time passed by slowly, with the occasional small talk between him and uncle number seven or grandma number thirty eight, which actually gave him enough time to think about how he somehow appeared back home. His current—and most likely—theory is that he hallucinated the whole thing and there were no cats, he simply fell asleep and dreamt of them while sleep walking back to his house, seeing as he knows for a fact he can get there based purely on muscle memory. And the cats not being real is definitely a huge bummer but it does help save Shen Yuan’s mental state.

And frankly, between him going insane trying to figure out how else that happened and the cats simply not existing, he knows which choice he would pick.

*||*

Back at the Cang Qiong campus, the first thing Shen Yuan did was lock himself into his room and spend the next several hours binging web novels and hate reading and critiquing Proud Immortal Demon Way , ignoring how his room is covered head to toe in merchandise from it.

Does he hate the novel with every fiber of his being? Yes.

Does he think the author should be sentenced to the electric chair for his god awful writing? Also yes.

Is he still madly in love with the stallion protagonist and unwilling best friends with said author? Again: yes.

“Shang Qinghua!” He yelled, barging into the dorm room across the hall from his. “What the fuck was that new chapter, huh? Why did you make wife two thousand and thirty one betray Binghe?! He was finally about to be happy and you ruined it. You goddamn shitty, dumb fucking author!” In a fit of rage, he picked up the pillow closest to him and threw it at said shitty author, who was still trying to make himself look decent with a bright red face.

“So you can be all lovey-dovey but he can’t?! Is that what you’re saying here?” Shen Yuan screeched, throwing every pillow in sight and the man still trying to put his shirt on, the embodiment of an ice cube sitting beside him letting him get hit, already used to this routine happening every time a new chapter came out.

“Duuude, have you never heard of knocking?! What if I was completely naked right now, huh?”

Shen Yuan scoffed. “Like that’s something I’ve never seen before.”

Shang Qinghua choked on his spit.

“Don’t try to deny it,” Shen Yuan looked at him with scrutiny, “we both know what happened in high school gym class.”

Shang Qinghua shut his mouth, having nothing to refute that. “Anyway, the drama, bro!” He got back on topic. “Think of the drama! I give the people what they want and what they want is some steamy betrayal sex!”

“As if you know how to write any kind of sex scene!”

“Uncalled for man, uncalled for.” Shang Qinghua hid behind his boyfriend.

Again, Shen Yuan scoffed. “Well, my anger has been successfully vented so go back to smooching or fucking or whatever the hell you guys were just doing.”

Shen Yuan ignored Shang Qinghua’s sputtering and the distinct sound of him moaning right after he started closing the door.

He rubbed his temple with his fingers, cursing him out a few more times while walking back to his dorm room. 

“I swear I’m going to kill— OW!” He exclaimed, stubbing his toe against a box that most certainly was not there before he went to see Shang Qinghua. “What is this?” He looked around to see who could have left it here but didn’t see anyone around. Bending down, he looked around the box for any kind of name or note, but once again saw nothing. Taking his chances, he took a deep breath and opened the box, hoping that whatever was in there would help him identify its owners.

Except— “mrew?” a confused meow he had heard a mere day ago said, effectively freezing him.

There’s no way the cats are here because they’re not real. But they’re also right in front of him. But if they are real, then what the fuck happened at the shrine—how did he get home so quickly? Nothing was making sense but before he could have a panic attack, the black cat placed a paw onto his hand, its little toe beans immediately softening him.

At the very least, he’s able to see all five kittens— hold on.

The black cat (one), the white cat (two), and the gray cat (three) were there but the orange (supposed to be four) and the tuxedo (where is five?) cats weren't.

Did… did somebody only take three of the five in and leave the others to rot in the wild? How could someone be so cruel! Shen Yuan prepared himself to seek vengeance against the evil doer who separated the adorable kitties when he realized that if someone found these cats, that must mean they know where his shrine his (not his shrine, it's not dedicated to him or anything but its his safe spot and has been for years. He’s never even seen this mysterious nefarious fool who showed up one day and separated a family), and means that that’s not as safe anymore.

Sighing dejectedly, he picked the cardboard box up, unable to resist their wide eyes, and decided, if someone had the gall to leave them here, they’re his cats now, not theirs. The dorms allow pets (he thinks) so he should be fine.

Balancing the box in one hand and fishing through his pocket with the other, he didn’t notice the elevator door ding nor someone walking out of it, looking equal parts disheveled and shocked, staring at the box he was holding.

“Are you kidnapping my cats?! Are you catnapping them?!”

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan snapped his head towards the screeching voice, ready to face the scoundrel who separated the poor cats. 

“You.” He said, full of spite, kittens still in hand. 

“Me.” The bastard said, glaring at him then towards the box. “Give me back my kittens.”

“No!”

“The hell do you mean, ‘no’?! Those are my cats you’re taking—this is a robbery!”

“No it’s not because they’re my cats now, not yours! Someone who separates a poor family of cats from each other, only taking in a few and then leaving them in a sad cardboard box on my doorstep doesn’t deserve them!”

“What?! No! I didn’t separate any cats from their family, I took all of them in. And they’re in a cardboard box because I’m moving in. Everything is in boxes and I just picked them up yesterday so I haven’t had time to get them things yet!”

…Yesterday? That’s when Shen Yuan was there though and he never saw anyone else there. But… that explanation makes far too much sense for him to call it a lie. However— “then why are the cats outside of my room then, not yours?”

The little rascal let out a long and heavy sigh, “I’m moving in beside you.” To prove his point he gestured to the box in his arms and the usually locked door right beside his wide open, two more boxes inside. 

“Fine. Say I believe you.” He said scornfully, still refusing to accept it. “But then where did you find these kittens, huh?” 

Please, please, please don’t be by the shrine. 

“Oh them? They found me actually. I was loading my things from my apartment off campus into my car when they came up to me all pitiful looking—” the cats all collectively hissed at him, “—so I had to take them all in.”

Shen Yuan nodded along with him, agreeing to his reasoning. He too was fully prepared to take them when he first saw them, if only he hadn't had a set amount of time he was able to stay there with them. 

Regrettably, Shen Yuan put the box back down onto the ground. The cats meowed sadly at the loss of contact and it took every fiber in his being to not cave and cuddle them. 

“Alright, you win. You can have your cats back.” He said while pouting.

The not-bastard sighed in relief. “Thanks, I was worried you were actually going to take them for a second.”

“Oh don’t worry, if you do anything to hurt them I will take them from you without you ever knowing.” He doesn’t need to know that Shen Yuan doesn’t know how to do that, all he needs to believe is the threat.

The man pursed his lips at that but decided to ignore the comment for now, making his way fully into the hallway and stopping right in front of his room.

“Anyways,” he gave Shen Yuan a kind smile, “my name is Yue Qingyuan and it’s nice to meet you.”

*||*

After their initial… disagreements, Yue Qingyuan turned out to be an incredibly chill guy. He gave off protective older brother vibes and actually seemed to genuinely care for the cats, Shen Yuan noticed after he volunteered to help him move his things in to apologize. 

The cats seemed to like him too—specifically the black one was constantly seen rubbing up against him or hanging off of him like he was a tree, only letting him move the bare minimum he needed to for him to actually move.

It was really cute and made Shen Yuan feel really bad about everything he thought about him earlier and strived to treat him like a good friend who similarly shares his love for the three (he still doesn’t know what happened to the other two) cats.

*||*

Shen Yuan could hear muffled talking coming from outside his door.

In the middle of the night, this is the last thing Shen Yuan expects, everybody on his floor typically knowing when to shut the fuck up since no one on the floor really goes out and parties anywhere expect their own rooms (which are thankfully somewhat soundproofed).

With a groan, he sat up in bed, barely stopping himself from tripping over the covers and he made his way out, looking to see who decided it was a good idea to be this loud when they all have an unspoken agreement to try to stay quiet after three.

“Xiao Jiu, please…” he heard the distinct sound of Yue Qingyuan talking to someone he didn’t recognize through a small crack between his door and the frame.

“Don’t xiao Jiu me,” the man he was talking to hissed, swatting his hand away. “How much—“ ‘xiao Jiu’ snapped his head towards Shen Yuan’s door, narrowing his eyes at the slightly opened door. “You didn’t set up a silencing array?” If possible, the man looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel.

Barely moving his head, Yue Qingyuan’s eyes trailed over to where Shen Yuan was, the aforementioned man feeling increasingly guiltier at having witnessed what he can only assume is a private conversation.

Now hiding behind the door instead of peaking through it, Shen Yuan heard the other man sigh. “I’ll do it, you fool.” He said.

What is he going to do? The man seems like the kind of person who wouldn’t think twice about blackmailing or beating someone into submission and Shen Yuan’s weak body and mind would definitely not be able to handle that.

I’m just going to go back to sleep. Yep. Sleep. That’s all I’ve been doing. Snooping around? No way. I’ve been in bed resting all night long.

(In his state of panic, he didn’t hear the quiet ringing of a bell, nor did he realize the next morning that what happened was anything more than just a strange dream.)

*||*

“Shang Qinghua!” Shen Yuan barged into his room again, the poor hinges barely holding on after years of abuse.

“Dude, stop doing that. One of these days you’re actually going to give me a heart attack.”

“Irrelevant,” he brushed off, “I’m here because of something much more important.”

Shang Qinghua dragged his hand down his face, expecting what was sure to come.

“Alright, tell me. What about Proud Immortal Demon Way do you not like now?”

Shen Yuan huffed. “I’ll get to that later, for now I have something even more important to discuss with you.”

Shang Qinghua waited for him to continue.

“Cats.”

(Somehow, Shang Qinghua looked more nervous than usual.)

*||*

“Shen Yuan, come in, come in!”

“Sorry to drop by so unexpectedly, I just missed the cats so much…”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it, I think they miss you a lot too.”

“Really?” He exclaimed, not expecting the cats to like him that much.

“Yeah, so come on in.”

Taking a step into the apartment, Shen Yuan couldn’t help but look around. Though it’s only been a day, most of the boxes had already been unpacked and the apartment was already very neat and furnished. 

Wow, Shen Yuan thought, sitting on Yue Qingyuan’s couch, amazed at how much the other man had done all by himself in just a few short hours. The only thing he wasn’t quite sure about was the black cat no longer sitting on his shoulders.

Actually, he couldn’t see the black cat anywhere near the other man. The two other cats were behaving as usual (or as usual Shen Yuan thought them to be after knowing them for two whole days) but the black cat was no longer hanging off Yue Qingyuan every chance it got.

“Mrw~” said black cat hopped up right beside him on the couch, making itself comfortable on his lap. Shen Yuan petted it hesitantly, only getting more comfortable when it began to preen at him, snuggling more into his shirt… and away from Yue Qingyuan.

Not stopping his petting, he looked up to Yue Qingyuan, about to ask him what happened before pausing at the pained look on his face. “Did… something happen between you and the black cat?” He asked, genuinely curious and hoping it didn’t offend him at all.

At first, instead of a response, his face scrunched up even more and he looked on the brink of tears now. “No, it’s nothing,” he said, very clearly holding in a sob, “don’t worry about it.”

Shen Yuan froze, very clearly worried about it. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

Yue Qingyuan’s lip quivered. “It’s nothing, he’s just mad at me right now because I messed up. He’ll get over it soon,” at the end he quietly mumbled an, “I hope.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Shen Yuan tried to reassure. “I think he loves you,” now finally knowing the gender of one of the cats, he can finally stop calling it an ‘it’ in his mind, “and I think that no matter what you did, it couldn’t have been that bad. He’ll forgive you, just give him some time.”

Now, even more so than before, his lip was shaking like crazy, his fists clenched in an attempt to keep his tears at bay.

“Thank you,” he said, and with a deep and reluctant huff, the black cat jumped from Shen Yuan’s lap and onto Yue Qingyuan’s shirt, climbing up him before resting on his shoulder. He let out an annoyed “meow,” hit him on the head a few times with his paws then licked his face.

Yue Qingyuan turned to Shen Yuan, looking as if he had just cured cancer or something, “he forgives me…” he muttered, no longer looking like he’s on the brink of tears.

Shen Yuan laughed awkwardly, not quite sure how to respond to that, when he suddenly remembered his secondary purpose for coming here which also acts as a way to steer the conversation in a different way. “Oh, Yue Qingyuan, do you mind if I invite one of my friends over? He also loves cats and it’ll be nice for you to meet more people on this floor.”

He didn’t even have to consider it before agreeing.

“Great! I’ll call him over now.” He ignored how easily he said yes to him even though he knew next to nothing about him and pulled his phone out and spammed Shang Qinghua until the little shitling finally responded with an angry WHAT DO YOU WANT, to which Shen Yuan replied with room 246, go there. 

After a few seconds of watching the little dots, Shang Qinghua responded with an am I your dog?? I’m not just going to go somewhere because you tell me to. Shen Yuan huffed in exasperation, you say as if you’re not basically Mobei Jun’s lap dog. Just get your ass over here and introduce yourself to our new neighbour.

Shen Yuan received a lot of cursing in response to that, but eventually he agreed, leaving Shen Yuan feeling incredibly smug. “He’s on his way,” he told Yue Qingyuan who looked at him curiously. All the sadness and quivering was gone now, his face once again with a kind smile on it that if you made him mad, his face would show the vibe of, “I’m not mad, just disappointed,” which would actually break Shen Yuan if directed at him.

Barely a minute later, someone knocked on the door.

“Oh, he’s here. That was fast.” 

Yue Qingyuan stood up, saying he’ll get the door and walking carefully so as to not bother the cat still perched on him.

When the door opened, Shang Qinghua openly gawked at the other man, sputtering and shifting around out of nervousness. “A-h, Yue Qingyuan, what a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting you to be our new neighbour.”

Yue Qingyuan smiled kindly at him, but this time, his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Shang Qinghua, so you are the friend Shen Yuan was mentioning, hmm?”

Chapter Text

“Oh? You two already know each other?” Shen Yuan thought he knew everyone Shang Qinghua knew (all three of his friends), so this was a bit of a surprise, especially considering he’s known him since high school and has never once heard him even mention Yue Qingyuan.

Unless… did that bastard try to hide his (basically) perfect friend from him so he could keep him all to himself?!

Through the open doorway, Shen Yuan sent him a glare that Shang Qinghua responded to by looking offended, as if he didn't know what he did wrong.

“Oh yes,” Yue Qingyuan, the answerer of all questions, replied. “We’ve known each other for a long, long time, isn’t that right?” He gave Shang Qinghua one of his gentle smiles but Shen Yuan couldn’t help but notice that this one only seemed to make Shang Qinghua more nervous.

“Really?” Shen Yuan asked, somewhat hurt that he was never introduced to him by his best friend. “Because Shang Qinghua has never mentioned you before.”

A puddle was beginning to form underneath Shang Qinghua with the amount that he was sweating and through an unnecessary amount of stuttering, he managed to say, “we… haven’t been close in a while so I never thought to introduce you two since I thought it would be awkward—but I never thought that you guys would meet each other like this.” He gave Yue Qingyuan a pointed look and said, “what a coincidence this is.”

“What a coincidence indeed,” Yue Qingyuan completely ignored the telepathic message Shang Qinghua was trying to tell him and Shen Yuan found himself liking him all that much more.

“Well… since you’re old friends, I’m sure you guys would love to catch up, right?” Shen Yuan suggested, to which Shang Qinghua looked as though ‘catching up’ was the last thing he ever wanted to do. And just because of that, Shen Yuan helped guide the two of them into the living room, relishing in the look of betrayal he got from him.

*||*

“So, how did you guys meet?” Shen Yuan, feeling like someone living vicariously through another’s love life by getting all the information he possibly could about their every meeting, asked. He doesn’t care if he seems nosy right now, he is far too invested in this and he needs answers, dammit.

Yue Qingyuan pondered in thought, looking exactly like someone reminiscing over fond memories. Shang Qinghua, on the other hand, looked like he was about to pass out just thinking about these memories and Shen Yuan had to stifle a laugh.

“When we were younger, him and I all went to the same… school. It was very secluded and rested at the peak of a mountain so we couldn’t leave it very often and typically relied on each other to talk and spend time with.” Yue QIngyuan said with a fond sigh, gently petting the black cat who’s piercing yellow eyes bore directly into Shang Qinghua.

“So you’re childhood friends then?”

“I suppose you could say that.” He replied, the small smile on his face making Shen Yuan think that he was missing some kind of context.

“But enough about that,” Yue Qingyuan continued, “tell me how you guys met, I’m sure that is an interesting story.” Shang QInghua gulped and the black cat seemed to laugh at his misery, elegantly licking its paw as his ear twitched in attention to Shen Yuan’s recounting.

“Well, it was our first year of high school and—”

“Ah! Bro, let me tell the story, I wasn’t able to add anything to Yue Qingyuan’s after all.” Shang Qinghua’s head whipped up and down between cat and cat owner, seemingly seeking their permission to get permission from Shen Yuan.

Ignoring how weird Shang Qinghua was being because he was always weird, Shen Yuan agreed. They were both there when they first met so it shouldn’t really matter much who actually tells it. “Go ahead,” he said and Shang Qinghua seemed to deflate with relief.

“So,” he started, “we were both late to our first day of school and ran into each other because we apparently were in the same class—and that’s it! That’s how we met!” He quickly ended, letting out a nervous laugh, leaving Shen Yuan flabbergasted. How could Shang Qinghua leave so much of it out? What kind of shitty storytelling is that?! He’s supposed to be an author for fucks sake!

“This is why I call you such a shitty author, because what the hell was that? You left so much out!” Shen Yuan hissed.

Yue Qingyuan looked both intrigued and entertained by his response. “Oh really?” He asked, adjusting the cat's position on him to make him more comfortable, not even flinching as he was used as a scratching post for having the audacity to move him. “Please, do continue then.”

(Shang Qinghua flinched.)

“Well,” Shen Yuan gave Shang Qinghua a pointed look. “We were both late but he never said why, did he?” Yue Qingyuan shook his head. “That’s what I thought. I was late because I had just come from the hospital but I ran into him when I got lost while he was getting extremely intimate with his boyfriend in an unused classroom. I kind of walked in on the two of them, thinking that was my class and he was being a bit too loud and a teacher came in and got all of us in trouble. Then, I found out he was the author of the novel I hate, beat him up once, and then we became friends.” Shen Yuan summed up.

“Boyfriend?” Yue Qingyuan asked, surprise evident in his voice.

“Yeah, I’m surprised you don’t know about him since they were already well established before they even started high school.” Shen Yuan said with a shrug. “His name is Mobei Jun.”

Seemingly unprompted, Yue Qingyuan’s attention snapped back to Shang Qinghua at the mention of that name, his kind older brother smile frozen on his face. “Ah, I think I know who he is but it can’t possibly be who I’m thinking of, right?” At this point, the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes and he even made Shen Yuan nervous with how intimidating he suddenly became.

Shang Qinghua, now resigned to his fate, merely said, “no, it’s exactly who you are thinking—- AH!” But before he could finish what he was saying, the previously peaceful cat had jumped from his spot on Yue Qingyuan’s lap and attacked him.

“Xiao Jiu, no!” Yue Qingyuan yelled, jumping off of the couch to grab him.

Xiao Jiu? Shen Yuan thought, recognizing that name.

Yue Qingyuan grabbed the cat by the scruff of his neck, said cat trying to swipe at him with an angry hiss and Shang Qinghua looked just about ready to pass out, his soul practically leaving his body.

Shen Yuan placed a comforting hand on his shoulder but he couldn’t quite bring himself to fully comfort Shang Qinghua, mind still reeling from where he knows that name from. That’s the name Yue Qingyuan called the scary man from his dream, right? He did think that it was a bit weird that he dreamt of a man he just met, but as it was just a dream he simply thought of it as his subconscious trying to get over how mean he was to such a nice guy—but he’s also never heard of the name Xiao Jiu before, so he isn’t quite sure why he dreamt of it but hearing him call someone else that made him a just bit suspicious. It could very well just be a coincidence but it all just seemed like too much of a coincidence to him.

“Shen-shixiong, he’s changed now! I swear he’s not the same person he used to be!” Shang Qinghua, having calmed down a bit and no longer looking scared shitless, exclaimed to… the cat? Shen Yuan isn’t sure why he called him Shen-shixiong though, since he is the only Shen there—and why would he even call a cat that?

Surprisingly though, the cat—Xiao Jiu—seemed to understand him and meowed in response, swishing his tail like he was disappointed in him. “Shen-shixiong?” Shen Yuan asked, curiosity finally getting the better of him.

Shang Qinghua clammed up again, laughing awkwardly. “Ah, he just reminded me of someone I used to know and it was kind of… instinct to respond to him like that.” He nervously explained. Shen Yuan didn’t really believe him but then again, Shang Qinghua has always been a bit odd—which is why they became such good friends in the first place so Shen Yuan just chalked it up to being all of the weird things that have been happening finally getting to his head.

Xiao Jiu licked his paw, glaring at Shang Qinghua, as if saying, yeah, I just hurt you, what are you going to do about it? To which Shang Qinghua stayed silent about. And honestly, Shen Yuan can’t blame him for that. He seemed so sweet and cuddly when just with Shen Yuan or Yue Qingyuan (when they’re not having a fight) so this is the first time he’s actually seen him get pissed about something—and it was about Shang Qinghua’s boyfriend too! Who he’s never even met!

Yue Qingyuan placed a placating hand on Xiao Jiu’s head, gently scratching him until he started purring and reverting back to how Shen Yuan is used to seeing him.

“Sorry about that,” Yue Qingyuan apologized, sincerity dripping from his every word.

“It’s fine,” Shang Qinghua waved it away, muttering something Shen Yuan could only vaguely make out as, “he never changes,” which, again, weird.

“Well, where were we? Before the unfortunate incident, I believe we were talking about how you two became friends and you mentioned he authored the novel you hate, so just out of curiosity, what’s it called? I’d love to check it out.”

“Oh, for sure! It’s still ongoing, actually, with almost four thousand chapters out to date.” Shen Yuan replied, stopping himself from saying that there are actually three thousand, eight hundred and sixty-four chapters because that would seem weird to anyone and even he knows that.

“It’s called—”

“Would you look at the time!” Shang Qinghua cut in, pointing at the clock that read seven-thirty. “It’s gotten so late and I have other… stuff to do, so I’ll head out first. See ya!”

“But you live down the hall?” Shen Yuan questioned, his behavior even weirder than normal.

“A hallway is a very long way away, so anyways, bye!” And with that, he escaped out the door, leaving just Shen Yuan, Xiao Jiu, Yue Qingyuan, and two more sleeping cats in the dorm.

“Okay, that was weird, even for him.” He muttered, focusing back on Yue Qingyuan. “The novel is called Proud Immortal Demon Way and you can read it on Zhongdian, if you want.” Shen Yuan still didn’t take his eyes off of the door Shang Qinghua just fled through, even though he was still trying to maintain a proper conversation. “And I’m sorry but I think I’m going to have to head out as well. I just want to make sure that Shang Qinghua is okay.”

Yue Qingyuan, ever the saint, merely smiled kindly at him, thanking him for his time and the novel recommendation before bidding him a farewell with his regards sent to Shang Qinghua. Shen Yuan, though feeling bad about leaving so abruptly, turned on his heel and jogged towards Shang Qinghua’s room, genuinely concerned over what’s gotten him so freaked out.

Chapter Text

For what seemed to be the first time in forever, Shen Yuan actually knocked on Shang Qinghua’s door. “Shang Qinghua?” He asked, rapping at the door a few times. Not hearing any response, Shen Yuan tried to knock again. “Shang Qinghua?” He called out again, this time much louder. Still not getting any response, Shen Yuan tried just opening the door, surprised to find it locked for the first time ever.

Stepping away from the door, Shen Yuan looked around the hallway for something that looks out of place. He knows for a fact that Shang Qinghua has a key stashed somewhere in the hall. He was there when he hid it after getting so fed up with constantly forgetting it and having to crash in Shen Yuan’s room until he could get someone to unlock it. Shen Yuan was supposed to be there with him when he hid it so that if one of them ever forgot where it was, the other would be able to remind them of its location—and it has been working really well. It’s just that he… kind of forgot where it is now. 

In his defense, it’s been a while since Shang Qinghua lost his key and in that time his mind has become preoccupied with other, more important things. Like cats. And someone possibly knowing where the shrine is. But mostly cats.

Looking around the hall one more time to make sure no one was coming this way, and no one was, which is somewhat odd for it being a fully stocked dorm, Shen Yuan started properly searching. 

He flipped over everything he could, looked inside of every crack, checked the door frames of every door in the hall before finally, finally, finding it stashed behind the little sign indicating what room number Shang Qinghua’s room was.

With a newfound practiced ease, he was now able to unlock the door himself and step inside the room, scanning around it for any sign of his friend. 

At a first glance, it seemed like nothing was amiss with the dorm; it was nice and clean but looked well lived in and that was the first thing that made Shen Yuan realize something was very much so wrong. Shang Qinghua’s room never looked like this. There are always clothes thrown everywhere, weeks old (sometimes half full) containers of instant ramen strewn throughout the dorm and randomly placed items that Shen Yuan knows Shang Qinghua only put them wherever they are so that he could get something else before moving them and then forgetting about them completely until it’s accidental spot becomes its permanent placing. 

Shen Yuan also knows that he’s in the right room (he had to double check, just to be sure when he first entered), which means something is very, very off. 

He side eyed everything inside of the room, noticing how they were all things Shang Qinghua would normally have in his room but not in any of the places he would have it while walking through the dorm. He opened the door leading to the bedroom without any warning, not wanting to give Shang Qinghua a chance to escape by letting him know that he was here. 

Going through the familiar motions, Shen Yuan slammed the door open, rattling the hinges and Shang Qinghua screamed. 

“Oh my fucking god . What the hell are you doing here.” He screeched, jumping back a few steps. 

“Me?” Shen Yuan scoffed. “I should be asking you that. Why did you run away so suddenly—“ he eyes trailed down to Shang Qinghua’s bed where he saw a half packed suitcase, “—and why the fuck are you trying to pack your stuff?”

“Shit,” he heard Shang Qinghua mutter to himself, “why do you gotta be so persistent. Why couldn’t you just let my wards keep you away like it does for everybody else and let me run away before I get murdered by Shen-shoxiong, hah?”

Shen Yuan doesn’t know what he is talking about—he hasn’t for the past few hours, but even without understanding what he is saying, he can still tell what he is trying to do.

“You are not going to run away like a child.” He said, slamming his hands down onto the luggage. “You are a grown ass man and you are going to talk to your friend about what is going on so that I can help you before you flee like a fucking coward.”

Holding a pair of shorts that haven’t been in style in years, Shang Qinghua frowned. He still tried to continue though, ignoring Shen Yuan’s hands messing up his (somewhat) organized luggage by piling more clothes on top of them, to which Shen Yuan picked up and placed on the side. This went on for a few minutes of Shang Qinghua being the most determined he’s ever seen him but at some point, he just screamed in frustration.

“ Fine, ” he plopped himself down on the floor, arms crossed in a way that he meant to convey his frustration but with the way he was acting, all it looked like to Shen Yuan is that he was throwing a temper tantrum.

“Took you long enough.” Shen Yuan sat himself down beside him. “Now, why are you packing a runaway bag?”

Shang Qinghua looked away and mumbled something.

“Could you repeat that?”

“I said: one of my seniors is going to find out about my boyfriend and he is going to finish the job the cat started. And , once Yue Qingyuan reads my novel, he’s going to tell all our old classmates about it and they are going to desecrate whatever remains of me.”

Shen Yuan blinked. Then he started to giggle. And then he stopped himself from giggling. And then he started giggling again.

“Shang Qinghua, I never thought you would be able to top your own levels of overthinking but it seems I have been proven wrong, for that is the largest load of bull crap I have ever heard. Who cares if people don’t approve of who you’re dating, or don’t like what you’ve written— I hate what you write but you don’t see me typically,” he said under his breath, “trying to actually murder you for it.”

Shang Qinghua glared at him and then promptly flopped onto his back. “It’s not the same. I may have accidentally, on purpose, kind of, sort of, used them, by name, in Proud Immortal Demon Way and may have sort of maybe killed all of them off in really gruesome ways?”

Shen Yuan stared at him again, this time in open disgust. “I never should have come and checked on you.” He slapped his shoulder, regretting all of the worrying he was doing when allof his issues were caused by his own dumb ideas. “You put them through immeasurable pain and pretended they were their real counterparts? That’s low, even for you.”

“It’s not like that!” He tried to defend himself.

“Yeah, sure.” Shen Yuan scoffed, joining Shang Qinghua on the floor.

“I mean it! I didn’t use their real names, I used different variations, like instead of Yue Qingyuan being the Peak Lord of Qiong Ding, Yue Qi was!” The other man whined, all his cries ignored by a Shen Yuan who was busy staring at a bottle slowly slipping off of the bed and waiting for it to fall on top of Shang Qinghua.

Serves him right , he thinks as the bottle falls onto his stomach, electing a pained ‘oomf’ out of Shang Qinghua and a pleased cackle out of Shen Yuan.

*||*

“Shen Yuan said it was called Proud Immortal Demon Way , right?” Yue Qingyuan asked the cat perched on his lap.

Said cat jumped off of his legs and meowed, bringing Yue Qingyuan's full attention to him. Looking at him with bated interest, he watched as his bones contorted, cracking unnaturally and growing before he came to be the size of a full grown man, albeit a hunched over one. His ebony black fur was gone, replaced by long, silky strands of ink black hair. Milky white skin peeked through the strands, long fingers brushing it gracefully out of his face and emerald green eyes staring right back at him.

“Yes, by Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky. ” The now human replied, his back cracking as he squared his shoulders, somehow managing to look cold and refined even while completely naked.

“Right, right,” the other man replied, forcibly tearing his eyes away from the unblemished skin in front of his face to search up the novel.

While he was doing this, Shen Qingqiu walked into Yue Qingyuan’s room and searched through his closet for something to wear, not exactly thrilled to be naked, and eventually deciding on a long pair of pants and a loose shirt.

“Ah, found it.” Yue Qingyuan said as Shen Qingqiu walked out of his bedroom and climbed onto his lap to get a better view of the screen.

Yue Qingyuan, unused to this, chuckled nervously, his arms hanging uselessly in the air as he was unsure where he should rest them.

“What?” Shen Qingqiu snarked at him. “So you’re fine with me as a cat but not as a human?”

“No! Of course not.” He immediately denied. “This was just a bit sudden—but it's fine! Stay here as long as you want.” He quickly added, his arms slowly lowering to get back to the laptops trackpad.

“I cannot take you two acting like this any longer,” another person walked out of Yue Qingyuan’s bedroom with a pair of jeans on. “Just start reading it.”

“Oh, shut up you brute. You’ve done nothing but eat and lounge around all this time while we have actually been doing things. You have no right to rush him, young master."  Shen Qingqiu snapped his head towards him.

The other man opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Yue Qingyuan saying, “oh my,” under his breath, effectively causing b oth mens’ attention to refocus back onto him as they waited for him to elaborate on what just shocked him so much.

“It's the story," he started, "I just clicked on a random chapter and it seems like he made the protagonist of is story Luo Binghe and centered the entire plot around him taking in wife after wife after wife, giving detailed intimate scenes between him and Ning Yingying and and him and Liu Mingyan and all three of them together—and that's just within the one random chapter I clicked on.”

The two men stayed in silence for a moment before a vein seemed to snap on Shen Qingqiu’s forehead. “If I wasn’t going to kill that bastard before, I sure as hell am going to now!”

Neither of the other two in the room with him even tried to protest about it.

Chapter Text

After spending the rest of the night making sure Shang Qinghua wasn’t still trying to run away, Shen Yuan (reluctantly) went back to his own room, dreading the early class he has the next day. If it were up to him, all of his classes would start no earlier than three in the afternoon, but nooo this one class that he has to take for his major is only offered at 8:00 a.m so he has to get his ass out of bed on four hours of sleep and try not to pass out in the middle of the lecture because he still needs to be able to somewhat manage to remember what was said in case it ever shows up on an examination.

Why , he thought to himself, why did I ever think it was a good idea to go into humanities. Why couldn’t I have gone into engineering like my parents wanted?! Sure, I’d want to kill myself constantly but at least that feeling would be a constant and as far as I know, none of the classes for electrical engineering start at 8:00 a.m!

Shen Yuan walked, shoulders hunched over and regretting all his choices leading up to this moment. Why does he always think it’s a good idea to go to sleep after he hears the birds start chirping in the morning? So drawn into his own self inflicted woes, he didn’t pay any attention to his surroundings, nearly bumping into two trees and almost tripping over three benches on his walk, somehow consistently managing to avoid seriously hurting himself due to a lack of awareness. However, though he was doing so well, his danger evading luck finally ran out after five near fatal injury incurring incidents when he ran face first into a stack of papers—and subsequently someone holding those papers—sending both himself and all those flimsy sheets flying.

Rubbing the spot on his head that he hit, he looked up from his place on the floor and saw the person he thinks he ran into frantically chasing after the papers.

“All of my research,” he muttered, grabbing at papers in every direction and stuffing them into his arms. He looked panicked, muttering about how many days it took him to find enough information, and overall looking as if he was one wrong move away from becoming an anime villain. He was still trying to grab every flying sheet he could see though, getting nowhere near all of them and with more than a few sheets flying carefree with the wind, getting further and further away from him with each sheet he snatched.

I should help him , Shen Yuan thinks as he watches the other man’s futile effort. It is partially his fault he’s searching for all those papers and he’s not just going to let him flounce around like that when he can do something to help.

Quickly forcing himself off of the ground, he ran over to the papers that were furthest apart from the man. Since he was so focused on trying to grab as many as possible, Shen Yuan doesn’t even think he noticed all of the ones that were behind him.

Though he did have to jump quite a few times, he was able to grab ahold of the vast majority of flying papers (he really hopes the few that he wasn’t able to get weren’t that important) and bring them to the other man with a: “I’m so sorry about this. I grabbed as many as I could and I can help you redo whatever it is you’re missing.”

The other man took the stack from him but waved it off. “It’s fine, I have most of it and unless you know a lot about Erythromelalgia, I doubt you could help much.”

To further prove his point, Shen Yuan blinked blankly at him, having no idea what that is but still wanting to do something to fix it.

“Okay, that’s fair. But still, let me make it up to you somehow—are you free this afternoon? I can at least take you out for some coffee.”

The other man laughed at his quick change of tactics but easily agreed. “I have a 1:30 class but I should be free afterwards.”

“Great!” Shen Yuan clapped his hands together. “I’ll meet you at the coffee shop near the engineering department,” out of all the cafes around the campus, that one always has the best coffee. His running theory is that because of how constantly sleep deprived and caffeine addicted everyone in that department always is, the owner of that store decided to capitalize on their suffering by making their coffee so good, it would feed into their addictions so much that they would keep crawling back to that store for more. Now he’s personally not an engineering student, but he can admit that they do make some damn good coffee and have most definitely got him hooked on it.

“I’ll meet you there—oh, and I haven’t even introduced myself yet,” he cut himself off, “my name is Mu Qingfang.”

“Right!” Introductions, Shen Yuan completely forgot about those. “I’m Shen Yuan, and again, I’m sorry about your papers.”

*||*

His 8:00 a.m class ended up being not as bad as it usually is, probably because he actually had something he was looking forward to afterwards distracting him from his tiredness, as he basically never meets new people. In fact, the lecture passed by so quickly, he almost didn’t realize it was over until he saw other people gathering their things to leave (which also made him realize that if he was so engaged this time, maybe it actually is an interesting class and he’s just always too tired to actually appreciate it, but he’s not going to think too hard about that). 

With a quick check of the time, he saw that he still has a few more hours to kill before he’s going to meet up with Mu Qingfang so even though his (maybe not actually that boring) lecture was over, he still needed to find something to do with his time. So, he came to the simple conclusion of heading to the library, not to put his time to good use by studying for his finals in a few weeks, but to reread Proud Immortal Demon Way again. For the six hundredth time. 

It’s not his fault he keeps rereading it though—it’s Shang Qinghua’s for making a story so bad he has to keep going back to it and criticize even more of the plot holes he keeps noticing and even more inconsistencies between how different characters are written. For being on the top charts for months, the story still is so unapologetically shitty.

Shen Yuan sighs and tries to control his anger, knowing all it would do is irritate the poor students around him who were actually trying to productively use their time and not just steal some of the library’s free wifi, this impossible objective when it comes to reading this novel managing to piss him off enough to distract him until it became time for him to start heading towards the cafe.

(And no, he did not scream into the void once he made sure no one else was around, just to vent his frustrations since the author of it wasn’t currently with him.)

From the library, it was only about a five minute walk and by the time he got there, he could see Mu Qingfang waiting by the door.

“There you are,” he smiled, “I almost thought I was at the wrong place.”

Dammit, he should’ve jogged over instead of walked. “I hope you weren’t waiting for too long.”

“Not at all, I only got here a few minutes ago.”

Shen Yuan let out a sigh of relief, glad he at least didn’t make him wait too long as he led him into the bustling cafe.

“This place seems popular.” Mu Qingfang commented as they found themselves a corner table by the floor length window.

Shen Yuan watched as swarms of people leave, only to be replaced by new swarms entering soon after. “It’s a major hot spot for engineering students and with finals coming up, they need all the caffeine they can get.” He gestured to the line of zombie looking students who had just entered.

“I take it you’re an engineering student then?”

“Never.” Shen Yuan quickly corrected. “My brother used to study chemical engineering here and would take me a lot during my first year. I, on the other hand, chose a somewhat less soul crushing major and am in the humanities but still come here a lot for its really good coffee.”

Mu Qingfang nodded along. “I’ve always personally felt intrigued by the humanities but medicine has always been my passion and becoming a doctor is something I’ve wanted to do for what feels like hundreds of years.”

A doctor? “You must be quite smart then.”

The other man just laughed, “I’m really not, I just have a bit more experience than some others in my field.”

He must come from a family of doctors if he says he has some more experience. Shen Yuan can already picture similar looking blobs to him also being doctors, all wearing white coats or scrubs, their intelligence hereditary and every one of them rich with that doctors pay—and speaking of pay, he almost forgot about the coffee.

“Oh, right,” he said while quickly standing up again, “what kind of coffee do you prefer?”

“Hm,” Mu Qingfang hummed, “just black will do.”

“Spoken like a true medical student.”

Mu Qingfang chuckled as Shen Yuan cracked a smile and left to go stand in line.

*||*

From his lounging about on a couch, Shang Qinghua heard a simple knock on his door, which couldn’t possibly be right. The only people who would ever come to his dorm either have a key or would never bother knocking as they know he rarely ever locks it.

They must be at the wrong room then, he easily decides, choosing to ignore it in favor of the light novel he was reading.

Whoever is at the door is persistent though, knocking again with a lot more force.

“Who is it?” He called out this time, not wanting to move from his comfortable position.

The person at the door didn’t appreciate that much, knocking again with more annoyance.

“Fine,” Shang Qinghua huffed, putting a bookmark in and making his way over to the door. “I think you have the wrong room,” he opened the door, “I don’t think I— fuck.” He knew should’ve run away when he still had the chance.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan is fairly certain he’s just made his new best friend. Sorry Airplane-bro but Mu Qingfang is just so much better than him in every way imaginable.

He’s funnier, he’s smarter, he’s nicer, and overall very much so superior to Shang Qinghua— and he wants to genuinely become friends with him too! It doesn’t get much better than that and Shen Yuan made sure to eagerly set up their next hangout, not wanting to stay out of touch with his new best friend for even a second. 

Mu Qingfang didn’t even seem to mind, either. He was completely alright with Shen Yuan’s over eagerness and even seemed relatively excited himself for another chance to meet up with him, both finding the next free day in their schedules and making plans as soon as they could, with Saturday being the closest day they could. As it’s Tuesday right now, it’s only a few days away, but with the kind of unhealthily, codependent bond he seemed to have formed with Mu Qingfang in the span of two hours, that sounds like forever. 

Alas, he will persevere and (albeit painfully) said his goodbyes to the best thing that’s happened to him, beginning his trek back to his (read: Shang Qinghua’s) dorm to break the news to his old best friend.

He wonders how Shang Qinghua would take the news, he muses to himself on his walk back. He'll most likely throw a fit, scream a bit, recreate a scene from the most recent c-drama they’ve watched and then tell him “ I never loved you anyways! Go, leave me like everyone always does,” and then cry dramatically before throwing things at him until he runs out of things within arms reach. It’s a pretty standard reaction to it and he wonders just how accurate his predictions are.

I wonder how long he’ll stay mad at me for—a week, maybe? Two at most. Shen Yuan sighed wistfully as he thinks of all the series he is going to have to put on hold until the two of them reconcile again and laments about how he wishes he could just commit one of the cardinal sins of their friendship: watching something they promised to watch together all by himself. 

But, he soon decides, if he can’t satiate his thirst for entertainment via his usual ways, he’ll just create his own entertainment.

With a metaphorical fist bump to himself, his smile grows just a bit wider as he mentally makes a bunch of bets with himself about everything that is going to happen until the two make up.

* ||*

“Honey, I’m home~” Shen Yuan swings the door open, half expecting to hear Shang Qinghua scream in surprise. 

When a few seconds passed and he still got absolutely no reaction, he peaked one of his eyes open to scan around for the little weasel. Having not seen him anywhere, Shen Yuan slumped out of his over exaggerated pose.

Of all times Shang Qinghua chose not to be around, he decided to make it when Shen Yuan actually had something meaningful to say to him?! Talk about a let down.

However, Shen Yuan wasn’t one to let such a minor thing set him back; the rat never leaves his room so he’s probably just scurried away in some corner like the urchin he is so like he did just the night before, he scouried around his dorm until he eventually stood in front of the door to the bedroom.

I swear, if he is trying to run away again, he thinks as he carefully cracks open the door, fully prepared to have to tackle him down to stop him from running.

Though, when he saw that there were other people also in the room with him, he hid instinctively, remembering what his eyes were forced to succumb to the last time he barged into Shang Qinghua’s room when he had a guest. It involved a lot of unsolicited nudity and the discovery that he was an absolute freak behind closed doors, so suffice it to say, he’s not very keen on repeating that awkward experience. Choosing to hide behind a wall, he crouched down with his body hidden by a side table that still gave him a clearish view of what was happening in the room without the people within it actually seeing him.

The door, slightly ajar, gave Shen Yuan a view of Shang Qinghua on his knees—and nope, he was not going to unwillingly be a part of yet another one of his weird sex things.

Except, there were two other people in the room with him, neither of whom were Mobei Jun, which made Shen Yuan reconsider his initial assumption.

Now that he’s taking a closer look at it, rather than doing… sexy stuff, he looked more like he was apologizing to the two men in front of him. But who are they? He can’t make out what they’re saying from here but he can see that they’re two young men—very well built and one of them just turned around—

And oh.

Just, oh.

The man who just turned around is attractive, very attractive. Enough to turn even the straightest man gay and the gayest woman straight. But he wasn’t attractive in the stereotypical way, no, he was handsome in an otherworldly kind way.

With eyes as cold and vibrant as jade and ink black hair cascading down his back, contrasting his milky white skin, he looked like some kind of heavenly, ethereal, and elegant beauty, and Shen Yuan couldn’t help himself from letting out a bit of a gasp. If he didn’t already know he liked men (something he quickly discovered in the sixth grade when some of his classmates were talking about how pretty one of their female upperclassmen was and all he could think of was that while she was objectively pretty, her brother was much more attractive), he was sure he would have had a full on sexuality crisis behind the side table.

“Shang Qinghua, you deplorable, disgusting, soon to be dismembered worm, how could you ever think that writing all those horrible things about my student , who's basically a baby still, with that foul little beast .” Scary and gorgeous fumed, growing more irritated with every word spoken. “My little Yingying, made to be nothing more than an accessory?! You better hope she never gets a chance to read that, because the second she lays her eyes on that filth, I will do more than just mildly maim you.” He promised, his glare growing more and more prominent the paler Shang Qinghua got.

Seeing him have nothing to say for himself, scary and gorgeous opened his mouth again, prepared to, what Shen Yuan can only assume was yell at him more, when the last person there finally said something.

“Pick up your sword.” He said, drawing— was that a dagger?! —a very pointy metal object at him. “I will not fight someone unarmed so grab your sword so I can dispose of you honorably.”

Shang Qinghua’s face turned whiter and Shen Yuan was beginning to actually get worried for his safety. He thought they were just joking before, but if they do actually try to hurt him, Shen Yuan is certain that he can bite them hard enough to buy Shang Qinghua enough time to call the police.

“Shen-shixiong, Liu-shidi, please have mercy on this old fool! I swear I’ll never do anything to your sister or your student ever again!” He prostrated himself further into the ground, his face almost becoming one with the floor. “I know I deserve death but please find room inside your gracious hearts to forgive me.”

“Forgive you? You should have thought of that before you wrote chapter seven-hundred and fifteen.” Scary and gorgeous—or, Shen-shixiong said.

(That name sounds familiar—isn’t that what he called Xiao Jiu the cat? To be honest, Shen Yuan can definitely see the resemblance between them but at the same time, he looks somewhat familiar. He shouldn’t; he’s never met either of these men before, even though they’re people Shang Qinghua clearly knows well, yet he looks like someone he once saw in a dream, but that can’t be right. He must be imagining things.)

Suddenly, as Shang QInghua was on the brink of being… mildly maimed? Shen Yuan heard the door to the dorm open. Thinking it was going to be Mobei Jun (as that’s the only other person he knows that would randomly come into his loft), Shen Yuan properly hid.

He rolled from behind a side table to in front of a chair to behind a couch that covers his entire body from view, as it is right beside a wall, all in the span of three seconds.

He’s not sure why he decided to hide—he hasn’t done anything wrong, but just being caught watching—or, witnessing, maybe, something he probably shouldn’t be even though he’s been allowed to come in whenever he wants ever since he moved into the dorm, made him feel guilty for some reason.

And when Mobei Jun did not walk in and Yue Qingyuan did instead with—holy shit, is that Mu Qingfang with him?! He didn’t know the two knew each other, he thinks he should have seen them interact with each other or at least mention them in conversation, but people aren’t typically as involved with each others lives as Shen Yuan and Shang Qinghua are, so he probably just hasn’t known them long enough for them to be introduced to each other.

Yue Qingyuan walked in with a frown, talking to Mu Qingfang about “how unsafe it is for Shang Qinghua to keep his door unlocked” and “anybody can just walk in whenever they want and he needs to think more about his personal security” and Mu Qingfang nodding along with him. Both of those are valid points, Shen Yuan amends, except for the fact that those two are the only two people to come waltzing into his dorm like this in the entire span of him living there.

Shen Yuan kept peaking at them, careful to keep himself still fully hidden… for some reason, and seeing them walk into Shang Qinghua’s bedroom, presumably to join in the other two strange people in there.

So, in an (un)impressive display of parkour, he rolled his way back to his original hiding place, this time a bit further back and a lot more cautious now that there are more people in the room.

Still though, Shang Qinghua was still bowing, the same pointy object from before sitting in front of him that he seems to be avoiding like the plague and a deep sigh coming from Mu Qingfang.

“Liu-shidi, put the sword down.” He said, rubbing his forehead.

‘Liu-shidi’—and seriously, what is up with all of these honorifics? They’re not in some kind of cultivation manhua!—tsked but put his sword (sword!) away… somewhere, Shang Qinghua looking at him as if he just hung the moon for doing this.

Mu Qingfang, in response, scowled at him, Liu-shidi turning around, seemingly disgusted at even having to look at him now that he couldn’t also fight(?) him.

And dear God, why is everyone so damn handsome?! If Shen-shixiong was gorgeous in an otherworldly, ethereal way, Liu-shidi was handsome in a pretty boy kind of way. Like the kind of boy who would have a fan club in high school and be a part of every sports team with his own personal cheerleaders.

And like—how is this even fair! Shen-shixiong is already so beautiful but now Liu-shidi is also tying with him as an ikemen type beauty. With both of them paired with Yue Qingyuan’s older brother next door persona and his already calming and pretty face, and Mu Qingfang’s rugged and tired look, Shen Yuan is basically a blobfish next to them. He has always thought he was, at the very least, decent in terms of his looks, but it would seem he is severely mistaken. Next to all of these men who look like they should have flowers blooming just by being in their presence, Shen Yuan has effectively been humbled.

“Liu-shidi,” Yue Qingyuan said, his voice as kind as ever, “that sword isn’t what I think it is, right?” 

Liu-shidi stiffened, keeping his back turned to him.

“You wouldn’t take out the sword we have been keeping hidden out just for this, hm?” He said, smile never waning.

“... It was the only one available on such short notice.” Liu-shidi mumbled, and for the first time ever, Shen Yuan saw Yue Qingyuan’s smile start to twitch.

“We’re all mad at him,” he said, his fists clenching ever so slightly, “but that’s no reason to ruin hundreds of years of work.”

Wordlessly, Liu-shidi slumped ever so slightly, turning back around and slowly picking the (actual sword!) back up again, head downturned as a sign of him being ashamed of not threatening murder, but for using this particular sword.

“Shixiong!” Shang Qinghua said, one eye slightly parted at seeing the sword about to mildly maim/kill him be taken away. “I owe you my life, you wonderful, amazing, extraordinary—”

“ Quiet ,” Shen-shixiong hissed at him, having grown annoyed at his ass-kissing flattery. Maybe not so surprisingly anymore, Shang Qinghua actually listened to him.

Now that he thinks of it, other than the threats of mild bodily harm, Shen Yuan can see himself actually becoming friends with this guy. It may not be willing on both sides, but he can definitely see this happening sometime in the future (read: wear him down enough to agree to the friendship). He’s already friends with three of the five people there, so befriending the other two shouldn’t be that hard, once, of course, they stop trying to hurt Shang Qinghua.

“I’m sorry!”

“Did you not just hear what I said?”

“I know, I’m sorry for saying I’m sorry!”

Shen-shixiong groaned.

“Come on now, I think he’s been scared enough for one day.” Yue Qingyuan, ever the platacter, chimed in.

“We both know this rat hasn’t actually repented, he’s just trying to save his own skin!” Shen-shixiong said, the atmosphere in the room suddenly growing thicker and thicker, until Shen Yuan could almost visibly see it. Which is, of course, impossible to do, but it is becoming so tense in there that Shen Yuan can almost swear he can.

“I’m sure he actually repented this time, right?”

Shang Qinghua nodded enthusiastically, to which Liu-shidi scoffed.

“You can’t seriously think that,” Shen-shixiong said, something like a fog slowly rising from the ground.

Which, again, should not be possible .

“Shidi,” Mu Qingfang said, grabbing onto Shen-shixiong’s shoulders, “look at what you are doing.”

This time, Liu-shidi came to his defence. “Look at what you are doing,” he said accusingly. “You are trying to let him get away with blatant defamation and absolute perverism on people he knows he should never even think about.”

“You two have too much of a personal connection to this, let us deal with him.” Yue Qingyuan added pleadingly, resulting in the pressure in the room to once again increase, this time becoming so strong, it was almost suffocating.

All the air in the dorm seemed to be scared away, leaving nothing behind but an intense pressure making Shen Yuan want to fall to his knees, his legs no longer wanting to support his weight. He took a deep breath, finding it harder for oxygen to enter his lungs no matter how hard he tried, his mind becoming lighter and lighter the more suffocating the pressure became, the higher the fog rose, until eventually, he could no longer help himself and fell onto the ground, still barely staying upright by supporting himself by using his hands.

The inevitable noise he made when falling alerted the others in the dorm of his presence, or at least he thinks it did. His eyes seem to not want to focus very well but he can see blurs—blobs of color, then a light, red and dark and so, so suffocating still, until his body could no longer handle the strain and gave out from under him.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan woke up in his own bed with all of his covers neatly placed on top of him, feeling like he just got hit by a truck—or just got really shit-faced, which is a bit of an issue, seeing as he doesn’t remember going out drinking. Though this has happened before, he could have sworn that he went to go tell Shang Qinghua something, not get him to go out for drinks, and he doesn’t even really remember if he managed to tell him what he wanted to or not.

Pulling his covers off, he hissed in pain, clutching at his newly pounding head and now even more curious about what happened to him before this, standing up on somewhat shaky legs and beginning to walk to the closed door, seeing a little bit of flickering lights from underneath it that could only mean that Shang Qinghua was still here.

“Dude, what happened?” He asked while opening the door, his eyes remaining closed but still able to see the brightness that he knows is going to blind him even through shut eyes. “Why do I feel like ass?”

“Well,” he heard Shang Qinghua say with a muffled voice, mouth full of food before pausing for a second to chew—and he is totally finishing all of the snacks Shen Yuan has hidden all around his dorm, he just knows it. “First of all: you are an ass, and secondly: you came to see me when I had other people around, tripped over a carpet, fell, and then passed out.”

“Right, you somehow have other friends, I forgot.” He muttered, cracking his eyes open to get them to start readjusting to the light. “Then how did I get back here? We both know you’re not strong enough to carry me.”

Shang Qinghua let out an affronted gasp, saying, “ rude , but I wasn’t the one to bring you back, my… friends were.” And as he said that, Shen Yuan’s eyes were able to finally stop attempting suicide due to the brightness and were finally able to see Shang Qinghua in the room. Along with four other people.

Four people who are staring at him in his Hatsune Miku x Hello Kitty collaboration pyjamas, the complete set.

“Um, hi?” He said to them, not sure what to do with the knowledge that two strangers and two people he’s basically just met had carried him back to his apartment and changed him into his (full set) of pyjamas while he was passed out. 

“Thank you for, you know…”

“It was no problem,” Yue Qingyuan, ever the best person around, said, his smile already rejuvenating Shen Yuan.

“Is there any way I could repay you for this? I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy to carry me all the way back here.”

Liu-shidi, sitting on his couch and fiddling with the loose ends of one of his pillows, scoffed. “Don’t flatter yourself, it was like carrying a sack of rice.”

Shen Yuan stared at him in astonishment because, was that supposed to be a… compliment ?

Having seemingly sensed his confusion, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Scary himself lightly whacked Liu-shidi with a very nice looking fan. “What he means to say,” he hissed, “is that it is no problem, right?”

Liu-shidi coughed lightly and then nodded his head.

“Even so, I still would like to repay you all somehow,” he looked at them, hoping they would give him a hint as to what they would like in return, but when he received the whole of zero suggestions, he tried to get creative, taking a few seconds to think before— “oh! You’re all the people Shang Qinghua based the characters in his novel after, right? The two of us were going to go to a convention for it; do you want to come with us—of course, with me covering all of the costs.”

Feeling like he was being too brief in his suggestion (and counting the fact that none of them look like the kind of people who would ever go to a convention, but Shen Yuan is desperate and it’s happening today! They certainly all look wealthy—which he would know, surrounded his entire life by wealthy people—and he doesn’t know any of them well enough to offer something else!), he added, “I mean, you could correct people’s assumptions about you guys because of how much Shang Qinghua ruined people’s perceptions of you all with his shoddy writing.” Seeing as they were still contemplating, he quickly followed up with, “ and you can trash talk Shang Qinghua and have hundreds of people agree with you.”

This seemed to be what finally helped them make their minds up, with Mu Qingfang, their supposed group spokesperson, saying (after making eye contact and having telepathic conversations with the rest of them), “we would love to go with you.”

(Shang Qinghua let out an offended squeak that was promptly ignored by everyone there.)

“Great! I’m going to go get ready—” and out of the embarrassing pajamas he was wearing “—and then we can head out.” Shen Yuan all but ran back into his room, tearing through his closet looking for something decent to wear that would make him look less like the spawn of an ostrich and hippopotamus.

He didn’t need to put in this much effort when deciding his outfit and he wasn’t originally planning to, but he still wants to look his very best for his bestie, Mu Qingfang, and his basically new older brother, Yue Qingyuan. Not to mention, he feels like he needs to look his very best to even attempt to befriend Shen-shixiong, but like, he is completely justified in this! He’s so cool!

He didn’t even have any cosplay decided on for this convention so he can dress as stylishly as he possibly can—which is admittedly a bit hard to do when most of his clothes consist of graphic tees.

But! He always has the section of his closet he leaves reserved for family functions that are a bit too fancy for him to wear everyday and though it most definitely will be overkill, he fears he has no choice if he wants to look even the slightest bit presentable.

So, picking out some of the finest clothes he currently has on him, he practically bolted out of his bedroom, not wanting to keep the others (excluding Shang Qinghua, he can wait forever for all he cares) waiting for too long.

When they saw that he was ready to go, he led them all to the door while giving them some more information, completely ignoring Shang Qinghua’s snide grin, knowing that he knew full well why he decided to put this much effort into his appearance.

“So, the convention center is about a twenty minute walk from the campus and by the time we get there, it will have already been well on its way so we won’t have to wait for anything to open up.” He told them while locking the door (something he got Yue Qingyuan’s nod of approval from), briefly checking his phone to confirm the directions. “I’m not sure if any of you guys have been to a con before, but this one is unfortunately,” he muttered under his breath, “ Proud Immortal Demon Way specific because even though the novel is absolute trash, it's still the most popular one on Zhongdian, so all the vendors, all the events, and all of the panels will be about it, which means they’ll all be about you guys.”

Through the side of his eye, he briefly saw all four of them turn their heads to collectively glare at Shang Qinghua, to which he barely managed to stifle a laugh. He deserves at least a teensy amount of contempt for writing a novel about real people and then making them all really suck or die, so sorry Airplane-bro, but Shen Yuan is firmly on team Novel-Peak-Lords.

Then, for the next few minutes, he continued to explain how the con worked (from his own past experiences of attending) and all of the opportunities they would have to shit on Shang Qinghua with him within listening range—since no one actually knows his identity—and change people’s beliefs about certain characters (he said this part specifically when looking at Shen-shixiong, knowing that Shang Qinghua fucked with him the most out of everyone gathered, which, how dare he do that to someone so unashamedly awesome!).

By the time he finished his little explanation, to which the others listened surprisingly attentively—and no, he did not get embarrassed with all the attention focused solely on him as he talked about his main interest without anybody calling him out on it, they still had quite a ways to go, which gave Shen Yuan ample time to think while they all conversed among each other.

And really, Shang Qinghua does not deserve such kind and attentive friends, especially not when he treats them the way he does in his novel! If Shen Yuan were the author of the novel, he would give them everything and make them live their entire fictional lives in blissful happiness, not in anguish and despair.

Shen Yuan would be a much better friend to them than he is—actually, he already is part of the way there for that. He and Mu Qingfang are besties, he and Yue Qingyuan became good friends over their love of cats, so he’s already halfway there. And he did already want to coerce convince Shen-shixiong to become his friend, so why shouldn’t he just go through with it and give them the friendship they deserve instead of a friendship with Shang Qinghua?

With this in mind, he slowed his step just enough to go from being in front of everyone to being in line with the super cool man.

“Hi,” he said, ever so eloquently.

Shen-shixiong looked at him through the side of his eye before nodding slightly in acknowledgment.

Don’t you dare chicken out now Shen Yuan!

“I meant to say this earlier, but you have a really nice fan.”

This finally seemed to catch his attention, as his eyes flitted down to the bamboo fan lying idle in his perfectly shapen hand.

“Really?” Shen-shixiong asked, and if Shen Yuan didn’t know any better, he would think he was actually curious.

“Yeah, you don’t usually see those colors on traditional bamboo fans but it still looks really well done. The designs clearly look like they were done by a professional and it's so well taken care of, it's obvious how much their owner cares for them.” He rambled, using his limited knowledge of fans his mother made him learn when he was young to say something other than “fan pretty, you pretty, be my friend please”.

“And you can tell all of that just by looking?”

“I mean, hand fans are always pretty to look at and you don’t really see that many people these days using them, so it's not hard to learn all of this stuff.” Shen Yuan rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Hm,” he eyed him, “are you also one to collect fans like this?”

Shen Yuan blinked, not expecting the other man to actually be curious about him, before quickly saying, “no, no, I don’t. I just find them cool, that’s all.” Which isn’t totally a lie, they are super pretty, but he’s never gone out of his way to look for them unless he had to.

Shen-shixiong hummed again, once more looking him up and down. “I see.” He said, flicking said fan open with as much elegance as he does literally everything else and raising it to be at Shen Yuan’s eye level.

“This one is one of my favorites, hand painted by myself,” he said before almost warily asking, “would you like to take a closer look?” 

By now, Shen Yuan practically has stars shooting out of his eyes. He is so not letting this opportunity pass.

“Absolutely!” He exclaimed, vibrating like a child as Shen-shixiong gently placed the fan in his hands to admire up close, completely missing the tiny amused smirk that graced the man's lips.

Shen Yuan admired the fan from every angle, knowing just enough about fans to know that this one is particularly exceptional, and not just because it belongs to Shen-shixiong. He then continued to examine every detail of it until they took one last right turn, having them almost be at the convention center and forcing Shen Yuan to pitifully give the fan back. “Thank you…” he ended up trailing off, realizing he wasn’t actually sure how to address him. Calling him Shen-shixiong seemed a bit weird, especially since they’re not in a cultivation world and he’s not sure the other man knows that he sort of knows what his name is.

Shen-shixiong, picking up on his hesitation, took the fan back and hummed, quickly looking over to make sure no one else was paying attention to their conversation, too wrapped up in their own. “Shen Jiu,” he said after a pause, “my name is Shen Jiu.”

Once more, Shen Yuan positively vibrated with excitement, skipping his way to the front doors of the center with a grin, “thank you for showing me your fan, Jiu-ge,” he said while keeping his back turned to him, not wanting to see his reaction in case he was being too forward. However, it seemed as though the heavens smiled upon him (and totally not because he already befriended Xiao Jiu the cat), as Shen Jiu didn’t even try to correct him or call him out for it, following along with him silently as he paid for everyone's tickets.

Shen Yuan tried his best to control his grin in front of the clerk in an attempt to not look weird, but all he ended up doing was look constipated, the clerk giving him an odd look but not commenting on it further, something he was eternally grateful for even though he can say for utmost certainty that this convention is the last thing on his mind right now, all thoughts consumed by the fact that he’s basically already become friends with Shen Jiu—or as he is now going to exclusively refer to him as: Jiu-ge.

(In a fit of uncontrollable excitement at the thought, Shen Yuan let out the tiniest of squeals.)

Chapter Text

Purchasing the tickets barely took any time at all with how familiar Shen Yuan already is with how things work and because most people had already bought their tickets online to avoid having to wait in the non–existent line to buy the tickets in person, his life was made a lot more convenient, which, suffice it to say, made them surrounded by people dressed like they should be in Ancient China within minutes of entering the convention center.

After seeing everything so elaborately set up to honor the (shitty) novel and having to keep himself from grinning too widely at the equal parts confused and intrigued faces of the handsome men he came in with… he then got himself very lost. But! It isn’t completely his fault, as everyone started migrating to areas that peaked their attention (the replica spiritual weapon shop for Liu-shidi, one of the panels dedicated to the (trashy) worldbuilding of Proud Immortal Demon Way that Shang Qinghua was trying to sneak off to in an attempt to feed his ego, and so forth) until Shen Yuan was the only one left walking with Jiu-ge—which yes, he still refuses to stop calling him that.

That is, until Shen Yuan had to go to the bathroom and came back to see no sign of his new gege anywhere except for the hushed conversations of someone talking about how they just found the perfect person to play the Scum Villain in the live action play they were performing later in the day since their original actor suddenly called in sick at the last moment. Once Shen Yuan heard them talk about how handsome and intimidating their new actor looked, he knew exactly who they were talking about and knew that there was no getting him back from those fans.

Which now leaves him alone. Not that he really minds much though, as he doesn’t think any of them would really care for where he is planning on going.

Since finding out PIDW is based on real people, that must also mean that Luo Binghe is a real person who none of them really get along with. But even still, that's his favorite character and the Luo Binghe cosplay meet-up has always been his favorite part of the convention.

He has Shang Qinghua’s number and since he is (somehow) childhood friends with the rest of them, he should be able to get in contact with them if he really needs to, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal if he also separates from—himself at this point to go see his favorite event.

Phones exist for a reason and since everyone should have one—because seriously, who doesn’t have a phone in this day and age?—it should all be fine.

With a happy hum, Shen Yuan began his journey to the cosplay meet-up area, checking the time to make sure he wasn’t going to be late and smiling when he realized he was going to get there exactly when it starts.

Barely needing to look at more than one or two directional signs (the con is always in the same building with the same events usually taking place in the same general area) before he was able to stand directly in front of a medium sized sign, perched up on a stand that read: Luo Binghe Cosplay Event, with tens of Binghe’s from all different chapters conversing amongst themselves on the large red carpet brought out specifically for them.

Or, as Shen Yuan would like to call it: heaven.

… Okay, so heaven might be a bit of an overstatement, but it was still the closest thing he would ever get to meeting a real life Luo Binghe—unless, could he ask Shang Qinghua who he based his Binghe on? Would that be weird, considering how much all of them seem to dislike him? 

Actually, seeing what they were trying to do to Shang Qinghua, he sure as hell doesn't want to accidentally piss Liu-shidi off, no matter how much he wants to meet fake-real Binghe. And hey, maybe he actually does suck in real life and would sully the feeling he has for fictional Binghe if he ever met him. So yeah, he doesn't actually need to meet him. For no reason other than it might sully his memory. Of course not because he's low key kind of scared of his new friends.

But moving on from that, as much as he likes these kinds of events, he can't help but instinctively point out any inaccuracies the outfits may have. Like, the one right in front of him is a chapter five hundred and fifteen Binghe, but the coloring of his robes is slightly off, and the one he's talking to is a white lotus, chapter ninety-eight Binghe whose sword isn't Zheng Yang like it's supposed to be but Xin Mo instead. 

And yes, he is being nitpicky, but he's not trying to be! It's not his fault all of the outfits are wrong in some way.

This is why he's hiding against a wall right now, out of fear of saying something rude to these cosplayers who are amazing at what they do but are still, very slightly and only noticeably to him, off.

All of them except one.

In the far left, hidden away in a corner, is by far the most accurate Luo Binghe cosplay he's seen out of everyone here, and that's saying something with the amount of time and effort all of these people pour into their outfits. But this Binghe even managed to get the demon mark just right and just the right shade of red. The rest of his outfit is pretty good too, all things considered, but though everything is accurate, he's not dressed in an outfit from any particular chapter, but more like a bunch of them all smashed together, as if he made every one of Luo Binghe's outfits and at the last moment couldn't decide which one he wanted to wear so he decided on all of them.

However, out of all the years he's been coming here (since his second year of high school when the novel first starting consistently topping the charts), this one is the most accurate ever, and as the Binghe is coming closer to him, he can see that he even got all the creases right, in all of the right places, making it actually give off the feel of being well worn—

Wait.

Why is Binghe coming towards him?

Did he see him staring and now wants to tell him off for being a creep???

His face is painfully blank so Shen Yuan can't tell what he's thinking but the way he's walking up to him so menacingly is scary.

While running through all of the possibilities of why a Binghe cosplayer would want to approach him of all people, said cosplayer stopped less than two feet in front of him.

"Hi there," the cosplayer said with a grin, and oh did he sound exactly like what Shen Yuan had always imagined Luo Binghe to actually sound like.

"Hello," he said in return, giving him a little wave and then immediately regretting it upon realizing what he did.

"Are you a Luo Binghe admirer?" The cosplayer asked, as if it weren't obvious with how he was practically drooling over all the cosplayers.

Not trying to make himself seem like a creep and to at least pretend to be a somewhat normal fan who’s not madly in love with a fictional character, he simply replied, "you could say that.” He has some decency (unlike Shang Qinghua) and isn't just going to start blabbing about how much he loves and adores the man to someone dressed as him just because he asked him a simple question.

So a simple, dismissive answer would have to do so he doesn't start spewing out word vomit.

"Oh? From how intently you were looking at all of the... people... dressed up as him, it seemed like you were quite an admirer."

Shen Yuan held back the urge to giggle. 

Everyone here is a Luo Binghe fan. Or at least, the vast majority are and no one really hates him, just blaming all of his flaws on Airplane who is so very easy for him and other random strangers on the internet who've never met him before to bully.

"I mean, of course I am, but I'm more interested in the outfits rather than the people themselves." He shrugged, still making sure he doesn't sound too creepy or too rude to all of the cosplayers.

"Really? How so?" The cosplayer asked, his red demon mark looking even more realistic the closer look Shen Yuan was able to get at it.

"Well..." he scanned around the small floor sectioned off from the rest of the center. "That one over there is super accurate for a chapter three hundred and fifty freshly tossed into the abyss Luo Binghe, but that Binghe isn't supposed to have Xin Mo yet and should still be wielding Zheng Yang." 

The Luo Binghe in front of him looked intrigued. "And you can tell all of that just from a quick glance at him."

"Obviously," Shen Yuan scoffed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "One of the only good things about that shitty novel is Luo Binghe and the effort Sh—Airplane puts into designing all of outfits for him." Trust him, he would now. Many a day has he spent hunched over in front of a computer, searching through hundreds of tabs of different types of designs and watching videos on how different outfit combinations work with Shang Qinghua who, for some reason, only decided to put effort into whatever Luo Binghe wears and next to nothing else.

Not that he was complaining or anything. It just gives him a certain edge when it comes to discerning the accuracy of all of his different outfits.

"You must have looked at... Luo Binghe a lot to have this much experience with it."

Understatement of the century. "Not really, I just really enjoy this kind of thing."

"Then," the Binghe hummed, "is there anything inaccurate about the outfit I'm wearing?"

(Shen Yuan ignored the way Luo Binghe's eyes twinkled with amusement, instead trying to keep himself from thirsting too hard over a real person.)

This Binghe... actually wants him to criticize his outfit? Out of the (very) few times he's talked to a Luo Binghe cosplayer, he's never really gotten the vibes that they want him to tell them how inaccurate they are and how they need to get better at their hobby.

But, well, who knows, maybe it's because he wants to help himself improve or something like that rather than because he likes being told how wrong he is, and who is Shen Yuan to hinder his growth?

"Hmm," he started, scanning his outfit to decide on the safest thing to comment on first. "Your arm braces have the wrong designs on them." He eventually decided on, gently grabbing  Binghe's hand and tilting it so his palm was facing the roof. "This pattern here is supposed to be two phoenix's intertwined, not one phoenix on top of a flower."

"What makes you say that?" The Luo Binghe asked, which was his mistake, for Shen Yuan took that as his go ahead to lore dump on him.

But you can't even blame him specifically for this though! All the time he has spent helping Shang Qinghua come up with new outfit designs and binge walking hundreds of fashion videos when he could've been spending his time doing something else but Shang Qinghua just had to be adamant on all the specifics of the outfits for some fucking reason.

"But the protagonist has to look cool!" Shang Qinghua has whined to him every time he's vented his frustrations over how often he wants Luo Binghe to change outfits. To him, after papapa'ing a wife, he has to go through an outfit change, and considering how often he papapa's every single one of his wives, that's basically a new outfit (that he had to help design because they were friends or some other bullshit) every other chapter.

So yeah, Shen Yuan believes he has the right to word vomit just a little bit.

"Well, these are the arm braces Luo Binghe is gifted from wife four hundred and three after he rescued her from a horny tentacle plant, but she specifically gifted him arm braces with two intertwined phoenix's because in her clan, that's a symbol of marriage, whereas a single phoenix dancing on top of a flower is seen as a sign of thanks instead." That in particular was something that Shang Qinghua came up with then refused to ever budge on, no matter how many times Shen Yuan kept telling him how dumb it was.

"And," he continued because he has no filter and no one to stop him, "you shouldn't even be wearing arm braces right now. You're dressed as freshly post-abyss Luo Binghe—though not from any specific chapter—while he doesn't even get his first pair of arm braces until chapter one hundred and five as a gift of goodwill from one of the first demon clans he brings under his control and doesn't even start wearing them consistently until chapter two hundred when he has to wear a pair of magical arm braces while... papapa'ing to save his next soon to be wife."

Shen Yuan finished his mini rant in one breath, trying hard not to make how hard he was breathing obvious to the cosplayer and ignoring the Luo Binghe almost laughing when he realized what he meant by “papapa’ing”.

"Wow, you must pay a lot of attention to Luo Binghe's life to remember so much about him." The Luo Binghe praised it with a somewhat fake surprise.

"It's hard not to when he's the protagonist of Proud Immortal Demon Way. The whole world literally revolves around him." 

"Right, yes, he's the protagonist of this novel," the Luo Binghe muttered to himself, "but even still, a lot of people don't automatically like someone just because they're the main character." He finished, and oh what another mistake he has just made.

Goodbye oxygen supply, Shen Yuan bid farewell, for he is not going to be taking another breath of air until he word vomits all of his love and care about the fictional character onto this stranger.

"Not in Proud Immortal Demon Way! The only good things about this novel are the clothes and Luo Binghe. Airplane sure as hell got something right when he was creating such a strong and complex character. From his childhood of being a beggar on the street to suddenly being given the opportunity of a lifetime that was constantly stained by the mistreatment of his peers and his teacher—how, no matter what happened in his sad life, he kept persevering through it! Even in the Endless Abyss, he stayed strong and didn't let himself perish, making his way through it with Xin Mo, who has killed all of its previous owners except him! And now, as an adult, he is the perfect contradiction to his younger self, being the exact opposite of him in every way yet still sticking to his same ideals which helped him to take his place as the Heavenly Emperor and unify the three realms! If only he wasn't papapa'ing every other chapter, I'm sure that he would only ever become better and better." He finished, also not taking a single breath throughout that entire essay he just blurted, the Luo Binghe cosplayer being a bit rightfully freaked out.

"I've never heard of someone being so passionate about him before." He said, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side.

"Of course I'm passionate, he’s amazing! He's been through so much but he always has the strength to keep going, even after everyone turns against him and he's left all alone, which is truly spectacular." Without realizing it, Shen Yuan had clutched the hand he was still somehow holding closer to his chest and leaning into the Luo Binghe to emphasize his point.

"And you really think all of that is true—that he really is like that?" Shen Yuan nodded vigorously, letting the hand go but ready to spew out another speech if he kept being doubted.

"Oh," the Binghe said softly, "well that's something new."

"I can't believe some people don't like him—they're all insane I tell you! You must share in my love for him, right? Seeing as you decided to cosplay him after all."

The Luo Binghe blinked in surprise. "I—Yes, I find myself to feel quite close to Luo Binghe and eagerly look forward to all of his future exploits." 

Shen Yuan nodded in approval, glad to have met such a like minded person. 

“Great! I’m so glad I managed to meet someone else who shares in my love for Luo Binghe—shockingly, not that many people like him to the degree that we do.” He said as his phone started to vibrate in his pocket. “Oh, give me a second,” Shen Yuan interrupted his own thoughts as he took the phone out to see who was texting him, barely holding back from scowling once he realized that it was Shang Qinghua asking him where he was as if he didn’t know that he always goes to the Luo Binghe cosplay event every time they come to this convention, and then immediately brightening up when he read that Yue Qingyuan and Jiu-ge were also looking for him.

The Luo Binghe waited patiently for him to finish texting, his small smile never faltering until Shen Yuan started to apologize profusely to him because he had to go since his friends are looking for him now but he loves his cosplay and is looking forward to seeing him at the next convention before saying a hasty goodbye, turning around, and then immediately getting into an angry conversation on the phone before the cosplayer was able to say more than five words.

“Of course I was at the cosplay event—where the hell else would I be?” Shen Yuan yelled angrily, annoyed at Shang Qinghua’s constant spam calling while he was trying to say goodbye to the Binghe. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there soon,” he muttered, sighing as he ended the call while Shang Qinghua was in the middle of saying something, because seriously, how could he have managed to ruin his meeting with the most realistic Luo Binghe ever. That is infinitely ruder than him simply hanging up on him mid conversation!

Chapter Text

The last thing Luo Binghe saw the last time he opened his eyes were the lush, green Peaks of Cang Qiong Mountain as he made his way up the thousands of stairs, fully prepared to burn it to the ground.

He's unsure of what really happened after he landed on Qing Jing Peak—the first place he’s planning on getting revenge on, and the most satisfying one no doubt—only that one moment he was readying Xin Mo and the next, he was shrouded in darkness.

At first, he was confused and angry, knowing that Shen Qingqiu, the slimy bastard, planned an ambush on him of some kind, using his dirty tricks to... take away his sight? No, take away all his senses, for he can't feel, hear, smell, or see anything around him. Worse than when he was ruthlessly tossed into the Endless Abyss, because at least then, he still had all of his senses with him and enemies he knew he had to slay and places he knew he needed to get to. Here though, without any way to tell where he is or what the bastard even did to him so he could find a way to undo it, he was stuck.

Luo Binghe spent his time wandering around in the beginning, testing to see if he could find any other inhabitants or really anything other than the darkness he's currently shrouded in. But, as he soon found out, the darkness crept into every crevice of where he was and it certainly isn't anywhere in the real world, else he would have run into something by now.

He never got hungry, never got tired, and eventually stopped being able to tell the passage of time after a certain point. There was no day and no night and with nothing in his body telling him it's time to eat or sleep, he spent days? weeks? months? trapped inside that place until so much time passed, he became indifferent to it.

He still had Meng Mo with him, but something about this place constricted his movements even more, and though he used to be able to at least converse and  travel into dreamscapes to see him, his connection with the dream demon was holding on by a thread and he knew that even the slightest misstep would get rid of him forever.

So, here Luo Binghe is, trapped inside a realm he has no knowledge of, with no way of knowing how time passes, his rage swelling with each passing moment.

How dare they trap him here for... this long, however long it has been. Even if it's only been a few hours, Luo Binghe swears that the second he gets out—and he will get out somehow, the revenge he had planned before would seem like child's play.

...

But that day never came.

(Has it even been a day? It has to have been. Even lacking a proper way to tell time, there's no way he's been trapped in here for less than a day.)

Instead, he spent his time meditating, doing anything he could to keep himself sane and sharp, hand always on Xin Mo, ready to attack the second he's free.

Time never stopped passing though (or so he thinks), and soon, he grew tired of constantly waiting and waiting and waiting for something that hasn't come to pass in what feels like hundreds of years and eventually, he had to find something else to do to pass the time.

After a certain point, constant training and meditation became boring and he yearned for a different way to pass the time, which led to his next forced hobby: talking to himself. Though it may seem like he was taking the first step towards insanity, he found that it was an efficient way to ground himself, to keep reminding himself that he still exists and that he can't possibly be alone when he has his thoughts with him.

Starting off with a simple verbalization of his thoughts, Luo Binghe eventually divulged into reminiscing about his past and about everything that led him to where (and when) he is now.

At first, all he could feel was anger. Anger towards the scoundrel who he used to call his Shizun, anger towards his parents for abandoning him in the Luo River, having his adopted mother find him and the extra work she had to put in to support both of them being the reason for her failing health and then her eventual death, anger at the universe for dealing him a hand so horrible he had to rewrite it himself, and then anger at himself, for allowing him to act the way he did, treat people the way he treated them, and live his life so focused on other people and not on himself.

From when he was a child and spending his time trying not to impose too harshly on his adopted mother to when he was still a disciple and trying to prove to all the other disciples and Shen Qingqiu that he is worth the trouble and he's more than a little beast, to even now, where his sole purpose has been to get revenge on all those who wronged him, to prove to them that he is so much better than they are.

But where did that leave him? Alone and trapped in a realm separated from reality for who knows how long. And even still, he's spent most of his time still focused on other people rather than himself.

* ||*

After coming to this self realization, Luo Binghe spent most of his time reflecting upon himself. He still trained and he still meditated, but instead of solely rotating between the two like clockwork, he took breaks in between to reflect , and after an even more uncertain amount of time passed... he felt at peace.

Obviously, he is still irrefutably angry at Shen Qingqiu and the rest of Cang Qiong Mountain as a whole, but it is no longer his only purpose in life anymore and it no longer consumes his every waking thought.

He's even begun to think that if he ever gets out of here, he might not immediately restart his revenge and might instead go explore the vast world, eager to see what exists outside his void of emptiness.

And then, one day (or maybe this entire thing has happened in the span of a day—or maybe a few hours?) something remarkable happened.

Having been so long since Luo Binghe has seen anything other than the nothingness surrounding him and his own hands, seeing the slightest change meant everything to him.

While training as he usually does, he noticed a small speck of white in the distance, its brilliant and clear shine easily identifiable in the bleakness of the rest of the realm, and instantly, Luo Binghe abandoned his training to go rushing straight at it.

The blinding orb seemed to be calling to him, and with a delicate, almost hesitant touch, he pressed a finger against it, watching as it grew bigger and bigger until it became almost the size of his palm from being the size of the tip of his finger.

And then it multiplied.

All around him, more white specks began to appear, and with each one, Luo Binghe would touch it and marvel at how it would grow, all of them ending up the same size as the first one.

They continued to grow in numbers, with every one he would touch, five more would appear around him, eventually getting to a point where all he could see was a blinding white light.

Excited at the new addition to the realm for the first time ever, Luo Binghe continued to run, tracking down every last speck until they stopped multiplying and he was losing his ability to see clearly through the blinding lights.

Once done multiplying, the specks—now much larger—began to move, slowly at first, almost curiously towards him, circling around him while speeding up until they were all moving so quickly he couldn't differentiate one from another.

It was like he was in the centre of a clear white tornado, the specks always drawing closer into him but never touching.

Eventually growing impatient with their continuous circling, he reached out to touch it, wanting to see what would happen, and as soon as he did, the blinding white turned a bloody red and all of the specks stopped at once. 

But Luo Binghe was left with no time to speculate about what had just happened, for as soon as they stopped moving, they began to shine ever brighter than they did when they were white and once again grew in size, this time not stopping until they engulfed the entire realm—Luo Binghe included, and with their light being too much to bear, he closed his eyes, only blinking them open again once he stopped being able to see light shine through his closed eyelids.

And when he opened them, he was faced with not nothingness. He was in a room. Who's? He did not know, but what he did know is that this means he is no longer trapped inside that realm and was now somewhere completely different.

Ecstatic, he quickly glanced around, immediately thinking that this isn't the same world he was once in but then came face to face with—

—four angry looking Peak Lords, washing away his previous theory and confirming that this still is the same world, most likely just far into the future—which of course the Cang Qiong Peak Lords would still be alive in.

They noticed him, of course, it would be hard not to, with the room being extremely small and he can only assume they had seen the same bright light that brought him here, which most definitely explains why they were all (especially Shen Qingqiu, the scoundrel) ready for a fight against him.

But Luo Binghe didn't care.

Very soon, he is most definitely going to come back to take his revenge, but he's been trapped for so long, he can't bear to be forced inside anywhere any longer—but, he also can't have the Peak Lords think he's done with them just yet, so he sent them a bloodthirsty smirk he practiced thousands of times, unsheathed Xin Mo, and tore a portal into the wall, not caring where it led to as long as it was away from there, and jumped into it, leaving the Peak Lords to come to their own conclusions about why he left.

Having closed the portal behind him, Luo Binghe looked around to see where he teleported to and looked curiously at the private(?) meadow he was in. It was full of flowers he'd never seen before, most of which were not even demonic or flowers useful to cultivators, as he would expect from such a well kept meadow, but were only boring, normal flowers one could easily pick off the side of the road.

He then spent a while exploring around the meadow, taking in all the sights and smells and touches he was deprived of for such a long time, and as the sun began to set and his thirst for something different was finally quenched, he made his way back to the most densely populated area he could sense—which was also where the Peak Lords currently were.

But, as he began walking down the streets of the city, he could not recognize anything around him, and could clearly tell he was severely out of place wherever he was, if the odd looks he was getting were anything to go by. So, his next decision was to start looking for something that would help him blend in with the local population (he has no ideas to stop his exploration of his newfound freedom anytime soon and doesn't want to have him looking out of place hinder that), eventually coming across some kind of village inside a village, with houses all packed together, and pulled a few odd clothes off of clotheslines to help him look like he belonged there, ensuring that no one would notice him taking the clothes and making a plan to throw them out somewhere as soon as he got all the use he needed out of them, making sure to hide his robes well, just to be sure that no one would steal them.

After solving this issue, he moved on to his next problem: where he is going to reside. 

While he is a cultivator, heavenly emperor, and half heavenly demon, he will still eventually need sleep, and from what he has seen through his journeys through this civilization, it will not be easy for him to get his own place without money or any kind of identification.

Not one to give up though, he resumed his prowling of the streets, this time paying more attention to the people around him than to the actual places, and sure enough, he was still turning heads and left people a blushing mess this far into the future, which gave him an idea.

Finding a woman, looking to be in her late twenties or early thirties, and most importantly: not married or in a relationship (he made sure of this), Luo Binghe did what he does best and flirted with her. Gently coaxing her into offering to take both of them back to her home, promises of everything he could do for her that night and his handsome face and well built body easily easing her defenses down, and before she knew it, she was taking a complete stranger home for a night.

Of course, Luo Binghe made her effort worth it, leaving her the next morning with a night she would be hard pressed to forget and down a handful of bills, before going back to exploring. Except this time, he came across something different than he did before, an exhibition centre with the words of Proud Immortal Demon Way Convention written on a large board nailed into the front of the building and by far the largest portrait he's ever seen underneath it.

A portrait… of him.

Obviously, this intrigued him, as this was the first time he's ever seen anything even mention him and changed directions to make his way there, noting how more and more people were dressed as cultivators the closer he got to it and realizing that he wouldn't  have the wear the ill fitting, uncomfortable clothes he was wearing now and quickly changing back into his normal attire, dumping the stolen clothes into a dumpster and placing the bills in one of the folds of his robes.

The closer he got to the centre, the less odd stares he got for his attire and the more appreciative stares he got instead, people finally able to tell how well made all of his clothes really were. 

Seeing as it also required money to enter this place, he picked out one of the many bills and gave them to the ticket salesman who was not at all subtle with the look up and down he gave Binghe. Nonetheless, he entered without a hitch and was easily able to blend in with the crowd, quickly learning that his life had been collected and retold by someone by the name of Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky , the two thoughts running through his head when he discover this being: what’s an Airplane? and why do they know so much about me?

Soon enough though, his thoughts were answered, as he discovered that while all the general information was correct, some bits were wrong—like him having three thousand wives or Liu Qingge dying in the Ling Xi caves. 

The plot seemed to be heavily romanticized but was still generally accurate and most definitely written by one of the Cang Qiong Peak Lords, his bet being on the rat, as he’s the only one who would have this much knowledge on all parts of his life. 

But still, it was interesting to get different people's opinions on his life and he felt somewhat validated when he saw how much people hated Shen Qingqiu and couldn't help but feel just a little less resentment towards Shang Qinghua.

The convention centre is very large though, so Luo Binghe continued to make his way along it, eager to see everything it has to offer, stopping once again only when someone said, "oh! Another Luo Binghe!" Which easily got his attention.

Another?

He turned back to look at the two young women who called out to him and looked expectantly at them.

When he first focused his attention on them, they blushed (rightfully so) and then one of the two elbowed the other one—the one who called out to him—snapping him out of her trance. "The Luo Binghe event is happening that way," she pointed left, "you're the third Binghe so far to be heading in the wrong direction and we just wanted to make sure there are no stragglers."

A Luo Binghe event? Color him intrigued. "Thank you," he said with another one of his carefully crafted smiles.

The woman let out a strangled "no problem," but by that point, he had stopped paying attention to them.

He changed his course from going to the right to going to the left and in no time at all, he was able to find yet another large sign that read: Luo Binghe Cosplay Event with tens of... well, himself standing on a red carpet, easily conversing with one another.

Interested in what this event could possibly be for, he joined the rest of the fakes, finding a nice spot by the corner where he would be able to survey the entire area, just in case, and he watched, amused as a few passerby's came to gawk at the 'cosplayers' or ask to take pictures with them when the Original himself was standing right behind them.

No one really stayed around for more than a minute or two, getting their picture then leaving. Except for one. He was unnoticeable at first, acting just like the rest of the forgettable passersby, though he stuck around for noticeably longer, keeping himself to the wall to avoid being noticed.

And Luo Binghe was fine abiding by his thoughts when his face started scrunching up while looking at some of the other cosplayers and he couldn't help but notice his resemblance to Shen Qingqiu. No, not just a resemblance, other than having a bit softer features, when his face was scrunched up like that, the resemblance was uncanny.

But he already saw the real Shen Qingqiu so who the hell is this man?

Wanting answers, Luo Binghe left his spot in the corner and walked towards him with a purpose, revealing only a little bit when the fake Shen Qingqiu's face paled in fear seeing him approach.

"Hi there," he said, polite and not in any way threatening. 

Half expecting him to be just like Shen Qingqiu in mannerisms as well as appearance, he was pleasantly surprised when the young man was the exact opposite of the crude older man.

Where Shen Qingqiu was snarky and confident in his words, he was soft and uncertain, everything about him showing to be so different from what he had come to expect, the only similarities in their personalities being their keen eye for detail, but at least with him, he was still polite about it (save for his extreme lack of boundaries and having the audacity to claim Luo Binghe’s hand as his own for a while and knowing more than he should about the traditions of different demonic clans), until the topic of Luo Binghe came up and the man's eyes began to positively shine. 

Without hesitation, the Shen Qingqiu look alike started spewing his love for Luo Binghe to Luo Binghe and he almost couldn’t hide his amusement. He didn’t look like he noticed Binghe’s failure to control his expression and that made a small, unpracticed grin appear on his face.

"Of course I'm passionate, he’s amazing! He's been through so much but he always has the strength to keep going, even after everyone turns against him and he's left all alone, which is truly spectacular." He said, and Binghe, well, Binghe felt his heart ache. Never before has he heard someone talk about him like this. Yes, he’s had many people marvel at his strength or at his beauty, but none have ever liked him for him , just what he could offer them.

And then, much to Luo Binghe’s dismay, he had to excuse himself to go meet up with his friends (and saw a much more aggressive side to him on that phone call that he’s slowly realizing he might be into), leaving Binghe frowning as he realized he never got the man’s name but nonetheless eager to see him again somehow.