Work Text:
Shen Jiu stood above the little beast, his newest disciple, teacup in hand.
Luo Binghe was everything he could have been - a bright young thing with exceptional talent, a loving family, now also part of the best cultivation sect in the world at the best age to begin cultivating. Everything Shen Jiu could have been but wasn’t and didn’t that just make his stomach turn?
Sure, the boy’s clothes were torn and filthy, marking him as a street rat, so his family’s situation was probably not as rosy, not anymore. But what did that matter? Soon enough he’d become a wildly popular disciple with a meteoric rise within the sect. With his looks, charming personality and most importantly, marvelous and intact spiritual veins? There was no way he would remain in obscurity.
It all made Shen Jiu so angry .
’That could have been me ,’ his spirit cried. ’I could have been the charming young disciple, ready to take on the world, if not for Wu Yanzi. If not for Qiu Jianluo. If not for all the shitty men in my life.’
His grip on the teacup tightened. All he wanted, in that moment, was to wipe that look of tentative hope off the boy’s face.
The boy, who was so much like a young Shen Jiu, just brought into the Qiu estate after being bought from the slavers, hoping for a better life. The same hopeful eyes, the same kneeling position.
Shen Jiu’s hand started to tip when a sudden thought flashed through his mind.
If the boy was the mirror image of his younger self… what did that make the current Shen Jiu? Qiu Jianluo, Wu Yanzi, or both?
He shuddered.
Even his Qi shuddered. It shuddered so hard that little Ming Fan glanced at him in concern, wary of a sudden qi deviation that Shen Jiu was so infamous for.
Shen Jiu quickly straightened up and his mask slammed into place.
No. He refused. He refused to have a single fucking thing in common with either of those miserable bastards! Nothing in this world could force him to have anything in common with those rotten corpses of his past. Not even his own jealousy.
He gathered all his hatred, all his spite… and smoothly turned his current position into one that would fit the situation.
He kneeled, right in front of the little boy. Mirroring him, making them almost equal, though his adult height still put him above the boy.
The child looked up at him through his ridiculously long lashes and blinked. His eyes widened as Shen Jiu, his new Shizun, took a sip of the tea the boy prepared, then set the cup down.
That fragile look of hope stabilized and turned into soft wonder.
‘That’s right,’ Shen Jiu thought. ‘I am a better person than those bastards. A thousand times better. Stronger, more respected and respectable, richer, smarter, more beautiful. A Peak Lord of the strongest sect in the world with contacts and prospects they never could have dreamed of. And now… now I have the chance to have my greatest, final revenge - destroy every last bit of Qiu Jianluo and Wu Yanzi’s legacy.’
Good riddance. May they rot in Hell and nothing of them remain. He would make damn sure of it.
Starting with giving Luo Binghe everything those monsters denied to Shen Jiu.
Luo Binghe was one lucky boy. He was about to become the Qing Jing Peak Lord’s beloved protegé, with all the resources of Cang Qiong Mountian Sect at his disposal. Personal training, various cultivation manuals, professional healing for any injury or sickness, no matter how small, the protection of a powerful Peak Lord... Physical, mental and even emotional support, as much as Shen Jiu could provide. Even affection, if that was something he desired. He shall receive everything that Shen Jiu should have received himself. Everything that had been denied to him, this child shall have, and more.
Luo Binghe would get anything he wanted, if that’s the last thing Shen Jiu ever did.
And in so doing, Shen Jiu shall destroy the last shreds of Qiu Jianluo and Wu Yanzi that still remained in this world.
He gave his young disciple a smile. His face stretched uncomfortably, unused to such an expression - it probably looked eerily unnatural, to be honest, but his eyes blazed with his new conviction. The boy didn’t mind - their eyes met and for a brief moment, two hurt children perfectly understood each other.
Shen Jiu, now Shen Qingqiu, raised his hand and gently patted the child’s fluffy head.
“Welcome home, Luo Binghe.”
Shen Jiu stood up, and his razor-sharp mind started considering the possibilities and plan improvements to his Peak. There would need to be changes, if he didn’t want to have the boy bullied for his lack of pedigree. Or the blatant favoritism he planned to show him from now on.
The boy probably hadn’t ever received any lessons on scholarly pursuits, he wouldn’t have an education. …Which is something a lot of his students struggled with, now that he thought about it. So how about some generalized lessons for newest disciples of any Peak?
And while at it, wouldn’t it make sense to have Mu Qingfang offer some lessons on the basics of field medicine, so the young cultivators could protect themselves? Qi Qingqi could be convinced to give some lessons on etiquette too, he’d bet. Maybe he could unleash the Bai Zhan Brute on the kids too, so they can learn some basics of combat, or at least how to recognize opponents that are much stronger than themselves and plan accordingly. All in the name of inter-peak cooperation, of course. Not at all because he wanted an excuse to give Luo Binghe a well-rounded education, so that Shen Jiu can later build upon that foundation without appearing to favor the boy too much. No sense provoking jealousy in his fellow disciples, Luo Binghe shall become the beloved child of the entire Peak, damn it!
‘Ugh, Yue Qi is going to be insufferable with his simpering, teary-eyed “approval”, I just know it…’ he thought to himself but then realized that he really didn’t mind. Not anymore.
He turned away, to place the teacup back on the table, and completely missed the way Luo Binghe’s eyes watched his every graceful move with new-born obsession.
15 years later
‘I may have miscalculated,’ Shen Jiu stared at the wall as his beautiful young husband gently gnawed on the teeth marks he left on Shen Jiu’s shoulder. ‘I didn't know “anything he wants” would include my old ass!’
He sighed, gently patted the Demonic Emperor’s fluffy curls and let him squeeze him to his heart’s content.
‘Well. At least he’s happy,’ he thought and pretended he didn’t notice how his own mouth stretched into a smile.
Headcanons that didn’t fit into the story:
“If you want to support someone else, first you must learn to support yourself.” Shen Jiu bites the bullet, lets Mu Qingfang offer some treatments for his qi deviations and get some pills that can temporarily suppress the effects of a deviation, because what would he do if Binghe needed him and he couldn’t help? Leave his boy hanging? Unacceptable! End result: Shen Jiu stuffs his own anti-qi-deviation pill down Liu Qingge’s throat in the Lingxi caves, then hauls his ass to Mu Qingfang. Liu Qingge somehow starts liking him after this? Shen Jiu is confused…
Demon invasion: Both Shen Jiu and Liu Qingge descend upon the demons with the fury of all hells. There is no ’duel exchange’, the demons can consider themselves lucky to escape with their lives. Luo Binghe instead makes a name for himself for leading his fellow students and holding his ground against the invading army until the Peak Lords arrived. Not that anyone could have missed who he is - everyone and their grandmother knows the ’horny boy’ that follows the Qing Jing Peak Lord wherever he goes. Everyone noticed… except for Shen Jiu.
Immortal Alliance Conference: Binghe’s demonic heritage is revealed, everyone is incensed and wants to kill him, Shen Jiu gives Yue Qingyuan puppy eyes, Yue Qingyuan folds like a lawn chair and allows Binghe to remain a disciple despite the other cultivators’ angry squawking. Shen Jiu does his research, realizes Huan Hua Palace’s story about Tianlang-Jun has more holes than Wu Yanzi’s always empty pockets, then gleefully tears into them and destroys OPM’s reputation with the other sects. TLJ is freed and fucks off into the sunset with his nephew because he does not want to rule, so Binghe (in a desperate effort to impress his Shizun) takes up the position of the Emperor to ’stabilise the demonic realm’ (and score sexiness points because isn’t he just so strong, Shizun? Wink wink nudge nudge?).
Abyss: Skipped. Xin Mo has never been found, no one knows, no one cares.
The End >:3