Chapter Text
The streets were always the same no matter what city they ended up in.
The market stalls with farmers or artisans selling their goods to any potential customer that might be passing by. The customers ranged from regular citizens that barely scraped by with their jobs and the passing noble who threw money at the most exquisite hairpins or accessories that caught their interest. The brothel women and the men who wandered under those red lights to seek their honeyed coated words and forced embrace.
The artificial path that did nothing to hide the grisly alleyways hiding just behind those rickety stalls.
In those alleys, they waited.
Children that were taken by the slave traders who were forced to beg for any morsel of money to pay the traders and food to keep living in the endless hell.
It was there that he laid in wait with the only brother he had come to know in this life. Jiu.
He says that because he is one of the unlucky few, or lucky depending on who asks, that remembers their past life. And his two lives could never be more different from each other.
In his past life, he was a spoiled, sick child.
He had a family with two parents and three siblings. Two older brothers who were destined to take control or be a part of their family’s company. And a younger sister that aspired to be a fashion designer. And he was the odd one out.
He used to be in and out of hospital fairly often with a weak immune system. He had never really reached out for higher education past the literature degree he was studying online for.
He didn’t remember every moment from his past life except the one thing that held the most significant part of his death.
Proud Immortal Demon Way.
The most cliche male stallion web novel that was one of the most popular ones on the website with over 6,666 chapters. An infuriating, alpha male fantasy with a half demon taking his revenge, becoming an emperor, and taking over 300 wives.
It was frustrating how he remembered almost everything about it and the fact that the story caused his death. He still remembered the twisted feeling in his throat from that expired food, choking him until his last breath with the computer screen illuminating his demise
The next thing he knew was darkness.
He remembers being saved by another slave boy who took him and his twin brother in. They were both named ‘Jiu’ since the traders had the idea that one of them would die eventually either by their hand or the rough environment they were forced to live in.
Jokes on them, he was living in spite.
He remembers when he was first called a different name by none other than Yue who decided to name him ‘Yuán’ secretly after seeing him as a toddler run into too many of the alley walls. His name didn’t matter to the other slaves though. The only ones who called him Yuán were Yue and Jiu.
And he knows that this life is more or less set in a fictional cultivation fantasy setting with all of the talk of cultivators between the bouts of begging for scraps.
Yue was the older child who tried to watch out for the other younger slaves. And Jiu was his twin brother.
And Jiu... was not as kind as Yue... at least to others. Jiu loved both him and Yue. He was like a dragon, guarding from any other slave kid who got close to either of them.
The best way to describe his brother is the type of person you have to get to know to understand better.
His brother was selfish and did not share the food or money he had scrounged up that day. That is because he goes out of his way to earn enough for both of their shares so they could avoid being beaten at night.
Jiu was quite rude or mean to the other slaves, but Yuán could hear them start the verbal fight in the first place! Although Yue-ge never quite believed Jiu or him when he tried to come to his brother’s defense.
Then, Jiu would get all pouty and sullen when Yue-he would act like that. But he would be right back up to deliver the nastiest threats that Yuán had ever heard before in both of his lives. He had a silent counter in his head on the number of intense, violent threats he heard from his big brother. Right now, Jiu is up to 58.
He was able to understand his brother, Jiu better than Yue-ge. Yue-ge was weird. He was so kind that it became a fatal flaw yet his actions can read so strangely that Yuán doesn’t know what to do with him. And he was so frustrated when he would give away his share to the younger ones that are... not worth it.
‘Cannon fodder,’ his mind supplies the word.
Many of the other slaves around them would not last that long with or without Yue-ge’s help. Their loving jie-jies were either sold to a noble house or thrown to the brothel as the next prostitute. The slave boys were too cocky or too weak. They ended up dying left and right.
Children. They were starving children.
‘Meaningless background characters,’ his mind covers up, mentally scratching out their voidless dead eyes that never seemed to close.
Their decomposing bodies slumped up against the wall and pushed further back to hide them from potential donations. They were never properly buried either thrown to the forest for the animals to eat or thrown into the garbage where the rotting food gathered.
Someone would think that they would end up just like them with one wrong move in this setting.
Part of him had that fear but the other half of him knew that they would survive. Something in him told him so. A gut feeling that they were characters of a cultivation fantasy that would grow from these rags to future riches as long as they pushed through.
Sometimes his positivity would drive his brother insane. Jiu would squish his cheeks into a point where all his words came out mumbled so he won’t have to listen to him speak anymore.
It would help if he knew where the world was going. Maybe if he had a system that told him where he would be. That way he could navigate the world better. Hopefully one he read before no matter how similar all of them were to each other.
Hah. Could anyone imagine if he ended up in the Proud Immortal Demon Way story? That would be hell. Not only would he have to worry about starving, he would have to worry about where to run when the main protagonist combined the realms in order to not die.
Well, as far as he could tell, it didn’t feel like that shitty web novel. He hasn’t come across any familiar sounding sect yet. But maybe that was because he only focused on the gossip of the town to see what people could be coerced into giving them food or money depending on the situation.
The ones he got the most money from were the men going to the brothels who do not need a child butting into their business. And the women who paid for him to spy if their husbands ended up near the establishment at all.
Sometimes he would be able to read enough from a nearby barrel or sack label to determine whether they could steal the food or not.
Yuán would be able to do so much more if he was stronger like his brother who could use his Qi at such a young age!
Yeah, you heard him right! His brother, Jiu, was the best. Some cultivation fantasies that he had read had their young main character able to use Qi from a young age. This could only mean great things for them!
Jiu would be able to become an amazing cultivator as long as his abilities are only seen by a sect instead of any rogue cultivators or criminals who would use his powers by force. Or worse, make him into a cauldron and drain him of his strength.
No, no! That wouldn’t happen on his watch. They would survive. He knew it! They were all going to make it out of this alleyway and become cultivators!
But alas, Yue-ge and him didn’t have the same amount of strength that Jiu had. And more than just his name carried over from his last life.
“How is Yuán feeling today?” Yue-ge asked, kneeling down to be closer to him. Yuán was leaning against the alleyway, fighting the urge to fight the sun, causing the constant ache in his head to become worse every time he opened his eyes.
“I’m okay, Yue-ge. I can work.” Yuán croaked. He held a hand up to his throat that still aches with the sickness that wouldn’t go away. He weakly smiled up at his worried, eldest brother figure. “Plus, they will take more pity on a sick child,”
“Or they will ignore you further because they might think you’ll die soon, so what would be the point of wasting food?”
Jiu-ge’s annoyed voice interrupted the two of them with a harsh whisper. Yuán looked up to see an edgier version of his own face looking at him. Those icy green eyes never strayed from his form as his brother got closer with two roughly formed meat bun clutched in his hand.
“Xiao-Jiu!” Yue-ge greeted warmly with a smile that stretched up to his eyes.
“Jiu-ge, so mean,” Yuán pouted, replying to his brother's jab. His brother rolled his eyes before chucking the meat bun in his face with the warm juice leaking down his neck. The bun fell into his lap as his hand automatically went up to his face to wipe off any excess that got on his face. “Bah!”
“Eat up, Yuán-di.” Jiu replied. His eyes traveled over to Yue that was watching the two of them fondly without reaching for the bun that fell onto the crevice of his legs. “You too, Yue-ge.”
“Have you eaten, Jiu-ge?”
“I’m fine.” ‘No you aren’t,’ Yuán thought to himself as he gazed at the sullen cheeks of his brother. His fingers still wiping at his rounded cheeks to get rid of the juice that landed on him. Jiu’s voice remained as strict as ever despite the rasp that scratched at his tone. “Just eat up and don’t die on me. I will kill you if you do.”
Stupid, Jiu-ge.
I would never leave you.