Work Text:
Luo Binghe looks up at Shen Yuan with wide, searching eyes, all the while the System pops up one of its ‘helpful hint’ notifications, prompting Shen Yuan to pet her disciple.
It’s not that Shen Yuan opposes it really. Binghe as a white lotus is a ball of sunshine only the harshest villains could ever hope to resist — and not even them, as Shen Yuan found out not so long ago, despite her worst expectations — and her curls are soft and her face gets adorably flustered as she receives praise from her shizun.
What Shen Yuan is in moments like this, is utterly confused. She extends her hand to ruffle Binghe’s curls dutifully (with no small amount of enjoyment) and hides her expression behind a fan. If her own cheeks grow a little red at the happy noise Binghe lets out, well, it’s between Shen Yuan and the System, who, at this rate, might never leave her alone. It isn’t something she can, in good conscience, imagine Shen Qingqiu doing — not with the protagonist — and yet the System is just as insistent she gives the girl affection when asked as it is that Shen Yuan must be strict, borderline cruel with her.
It’s not the case so much anymore, even if the System keeps pushing its own idea of how Shen Qingqiu is supposed to act intrusively into Shen Yuan’s face, just short of actually forcing her
The original goods is more than callous enough to play with the feelings of a talented young boy in his care, sure, but he is also jealous enough to push aside his schemes carelessly when it comes to Binghe specifically. Or he was. He was also a man in the novel, which Shen Yuan is decidedly not. Not now, and not before getting stuck here, in any sense of the word.
She is left wondering if such a change is enough to spiral, or if this world is fundamentally different from what Shen Yuan knows in more ways than one. She is left wondering just how deep the differences run, how she can spot them. She is left wondering what parts of her thorough knowledge of the PIDW’s worldbuilding and plot is relevant and useful to her, and what parts just put her in danger faster.
Too bad there isn’t anyone she can ask. The System is, perhaps, the only one besides her that can tell, but is equal parts annoyingly helpful and frustratingly obtuse.
“Would you accompany this master for tea?” Shen Yuan asks, pretending that Binghe didn’t bring two cups and two pairs of chopsticks along with the teapot and the snacks; pretending that Binghe hasn’t stayed over every evening for the past few months soaking up all the attention Shen Yuan was willing and able to give her away from the prying eyes. Officially, Yingying was her favourite. Unofficially, everyone knew that Peak Lord Shen had a soft spot for the girl she’s barely gotten under her own wing; and that like with Zhangmen-shixiong, her cruel tongue hid fond expectation.
In Shen Yuan’s opinion this didn’t make the (borderline) abuse worth it, but it she knows well enough how much worse it could be, and it gives her an excuse to be genuinely nice to her disciple without raising too much questions, so it’s not really her place to complain (much); not that it’s ever stopped Shen Yuan before.
Binghe’s eyes sparkle at the invitation, as she lets herself extend it to permission to sit closer to Shen Yuan, almost leaning into her shizun. Protesting would only make her unnecessarily upset, and it is outrageously improper; just the regular kind. Shen Yuan has long given up on trying to teach the girl that — and she suspects that so has Shen Qingqiu — at this point, it has to be sheer obstinance. That’s one of many, many things Binghe has in spades. Gratefully accepting a cup of steaming tea, she only draws her disciple closer, letting herself enjoy the innocent delight of having someone she cares so close, and the less innocent tug of Binghe’s lip as she does.
Hiding behind something is natural, and the tea prepared by the protagonist is unerringly delicious. Binghe’s future wives will be so lucky in many regards, and this is one of them. But for now, it’s Shen Yuan that gets to selfishly enjoy this without any drawbacks attached. Her own comeuppance has a very distinct shape, and it’s got nothing to do with marriage to a Demon Lord.
A voice at the back of her head tells her it isn’t a certainty. It sounds suspiciously like the System, but Shen Yuan knows well enough that it’s just the way she processes unwanted thoughts like this. The original protagonist had a countable infinity of wives, but it isn’t a guarantee that so will Binghe. This world is similar, but distinct enough for different options to sound plausible. Maybe Binghe will conquer all the men in the world instead, starting with her shixiong and Liu Mingyuan’s older brother. Or maybe she’ll have just the one. Shen Yuan doesn’t know what wins in this particular case, Binghe’s status as a blatantly self-indulgent protagonist, or her status as a woman.
And then, her prince (one of?) will show her just how cruel her old master is, and just how to deal with such duplicitous women.
But that’s the future, and in the present, Binghe nuzzles into her shoulder and clings to Shen Yuan’s side as she tells her about her day with a little cake in her mouth, and Shen Yuan lets her, because it doesn’t require much thought.
Hours? Later, Binghe leaves her with a pout and a quick kiss right to the lips. She’s getting more and more brazen by the day, that girl; the worst part of it is that Shen Yuan’s entirely complicit in it.
She’s of two minds about Binghe’s affection. On the one hand, she ought to encourage her more towards the young sisters (brothers?) her own age, charting the course Binghe’s life will inevitably take. On the other, she is a deeply selfish creature, and even as a man, Shen Yuan almost wished… In the end, if Binghe’s fate is just the same as it is supposed to be, Shen Qingqiu’s own fate has to be vastly different. There’s but two women who haven’t fallen for Binghe’s charms, no matter how hard they resided, and Shen Yuan doesn’t share the one thing they’ve got in common.
It isn’t like a good number of Binghe’s wives haven’t done much worse by him, in the grand scheme of things, unbelievable as it might be.