Chapter Text
It was the fifth time this week Shen Yuan opened his door to find Luo Binghe waiting for him, and for the first time he wondered if maybe Shen Qingqiu wasn’t totally wrong for pushing him into the abyss. The stickiness of the protagonist was exhausting! When he first awoke inside the world of Proud Immortal Demon Way as some background NPC who didn’t even have a name in the original piece, he’d assumed life would be easy! That he’d barely even interact with Luo Binghe! He could coast along unnoticed! The protagonist wouldn’t bother to kill him if the depraved author of that papapa fest hadn’t bothered to name him or determine the purpose of the peak he presided over! Shen Yuan could squeak by and enjoy the setting of PIDW , which was of course the real reason he even read that trash to begin with, and live out his second life peacefully!
That was the first of many of Shen Yuan’s assumptions that proved to be untrue.
Not only had he transmigrated into the world that would someday be brought to ruin by the protagonist, but he was the scum villain’s little brother! Who even knew Shen Qingqiu had a little brother? Not Shen Yuan! And he’d forked over a lot of cash for VIP to read extras the idiot author didn’t feel had a place in the main story! (Those extras were always so much more interesting than wife-of-the-week ascending the mountain that was Luo Binghe’s Heavenly Pillar!) Shen Yuan, or Shen Qingguan, as he was called as a peak lord, was stuck in a role that was certainly doomed to be future cannon fodder! Surely Luo Binghe would find some inventive way to use his little brother against Shen Qingqiu after he blackened! And the task given to him by the System, ‘Prevent Pickling: Save Shen Qingqiu!’, was no small order for a small(ish) fry like Shen Yuan!
As Shen Qingguan, the master of Mu Chang Peak, he had his own disciples and duties. He was an advanced cultivator who'd reached Golden Core level and beyond! Mu Chang Peak might not be as important as some of the others, but being responsible for the collection and care of many of the strange beasts Airplane had made up as throw away plot elements excited him! Shen Yuan basically had a whole zoo of powerful (and not so powerful) exotic creatures! Why hadn’t that hack author spent more time talking about the curative venom of the yellow lotus soul snake? Or the fascinating mating practices of the consuming pyre cranes who burst into flame after laying their eggs as their young needed the heat of the fire to develop their qi and grow inside their protective shells?
That was far more exciting than Luo Binghe gaining another wife to disappear into the harem after that week’s bland, copy paste papapa session had snagged the author more rent money!
But to complete the mission—and not return to his original body and the death that awaited him there—Shen Yuan needed to do more than marvel at the fauna of PIDW . While he was a peak lord of the originally unnamed eleventh peak, Shen Yuan was nothing compared to the golden halo of the protagonist! Thankfully he’d arrived before Luo Binghe had blackened. Shen Yuan awoke in the time where the protagonist was the least liked member of Qing Jing peak and he was still the sweet white lotus that deserved more.
And if Shen Yuan gave him more in the way of attention and positive reinforcement—and deflected Shen Qingqiu’s wrath as much as possible—would Luo Binghe later spare his shizun for the sake of Shen-shishu? It was a gamble, but Shen Yuan was willing to risk it.
If only he knew what the outcome of that risk would be.
The protagonist gobbled up that kindness like the starving urchin he’d once been. Luo Binghe visited Mu Chang Peak more and more until he was there more often than he was on Qing Jing! At first Qingqiu-ge had scolded Shen Yuan, insisting that he put an immediate stop to it. But after a closed door conversation with Yue Qingyuan, his older brother was less irate about the situation. (Shen Yuan would pay to unlock that chapter a hundred times over to read what had gone down behind those doors without him!)
Luo Binghe was, after all, a beast by Shen Qingqiu’s measure. Shouldn’t a beast be kept among the peak that housed them? A-yuan was, as always, too kind to troublesome beasts. Shen Qingqiu lectured him for four incense sticks on how A-yuan was too nice and how hopeless he was without his Qingqiu-ge. But in the end his brother had rolled his eyes and sent Luo Binghe packing to Mu Chang Peak. Though not without a final lecture for the protagonist about how unworthy he was of Cang Qiong’s kindness and how Qing Jing was no place for little beasts like him. After interrupting the scolding, and ignoring his brother’s vinegar-tainted glare, Shen Yuan held Binghe’s hand the entire walk over the rainbow bridge to Mu Chang Peak. He assured him that Shen Qingqiu was wrong. Binghe wasn’t worthless and that any peak would be lucky to have him as a disciple! By the time they reached Mu Chang Peak the protagonist was all smiles and swinging their laced hands back and forth with an easy, infectious joy.
Shen-shishu became Shen-shizun and Shen-shizun became Shen-shibo and that was that.
But now Shen Yuan had to actually deal with the protagonist and his sticky habits! At first it was cute, charming even, to have white lotus Luo Binghe follow him around like a lost puppy. Shen Yuan hadn’t named a head disciple yet, preferring his peace outside of teaching hours, which left the second bedroom in his small personal home empty. But Luo Binghe moved his things there when Shen Yuan brought him back to Mu Chang Peak and told him he was honored to have him as one of his disciples now!
Protagonist! Shen Yuan hadn’t meant you needed to live here ! How would Luo Binghe plant the seeds of his garden and eventually pluck those beautiful blooms for his future harem if he was shacking up with his shizun?! The System was no help either! The stupid thing chimed away every time Binghe flashed one of his dazzling golden halo smiles his way! He was racking up protagonist satisfaction points by the dozens and the System happily informed him plot holes were being filled. Great! PIDW had been a minefield of plot holes that inspired some of Peerless Cucumber’s most embittered rants, but how was the protagonist washing his shizun’s socks filling them?!
He sighed as he stood holding the door to his bedroom open. Binghe waited with a tray and a smile and a bowl of his best smelling congee yet. Shen Yuan was confused–outraged on future Binghe’s behalf even!–but he was only a man and he was a hungry one at that. Inedia was for ethereal, elegant peak lords like his brother! He wanted congee and he wanted Luo Binghe’s! Few things in this world—or his old one—smelled as good as Luo Binghe’s cooking and nothing tasted as good!
“Good morning, shizun!” Binghe called in a gentle voice Shen Yuan knew would melt future wife's hearts. A knot twisted in his chest as he thought of a future where he wouldn’t be eating Binghe’s cooking—a future where he’d have to take up his brother’s example and learn to endure inedia. Cang Qiong’s kitchens, on any peak Shen Yuan had found, paled in comparison to Binghe’s cooking. But he’d endure a life doomed to bland food if it kept him—and Shen Qingqiu—off of Binghe’s to-do list of death.
“Good morning, Binghe,” he settled at the low table in his bedroom and smiled at his disciple. His fluffy hair looked fluffier today! Like a cute little lamb! Shen Yuan couldn’t help himself and indulged in a little pat of Binghe’s curls before indulging in his congee.
The sparkly-eyed gaze Binghe shot his way was better suited to Ning Yingying or some other sweet maiden Binghe would no doubt seduce in the future. The System chimed in the back of his head and Shen Yuan doggedly ignored it. The important messages played three times so, for now, he could disregard whatever fresh nonsense it wanted to spew at him! If he had to read another of the System’s stupid comments about Binghe’s curls or smile or cooking he’d self-detonate his Golden Core and leave his mission behind! Shen Yuan huffed out his annoyance at the stupid thing and took a second bite of breakfast.
One he nearly choked on as Binghe sat down and started on his own bowl. This wasn’t the routine! Binghe brought his breakfast and then departed to eat his own elsewhere. The kitchen of the small cottage, Shen Yuan assumed. Or maybe he’d finally noticed the way the soft-eyed disciple who helped maintain the flock of daffodil wool sheep kept batting her lashes at him and Binghe took his breakfast with her! It didn’t matter where Binghe ate! Just that he never ate here at Shen Yuan’s table with him before! System! This was OOC! Weren’t there measures to keep the protagonist on his path of gathering the interest of his future wives?
The System was suspiciously quiet and Shen Yuan pursed his lips. So it scolded him when he didn’t act in character for a character that received not even a single line, but Binghe could do whatever he wanted? It was as nonsensical as the pervert author who wrote PIDW at such a rate Shen Yuan often wondered if Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky was a program himself!
“Shizun, this disciple was confused by the cultivation manual you gave me yesterday,” Binghe pulled the book from his sleeve. “Could you help with this page?”
His little disciple flipped open to a section and presented it to Shen Yuan with a frown that bordered on a pout. Shen Yuan’s heart stopped its hammering beat. He let out a sigh as the flame comment he was mentally drafting simmered to a back burner annoyance in his mind. Binghe was a quick learner, as any protagonist was when equipped with a halo as golden as his, but there were things he still needed assistance with. It was one of the things Shen Yuan admired about Binghe and he’d often complimented him on how studious he was. His dear white lotus only wanted some private tutoring before their day began! Shen Yuan couldn’t fault him for that and forgot his worries immediately. The System was spared the wrath of Peerless Cucumber’s famously sharp tongue for another day!
“Of course, Binghe.” Shen Yuan smiled. It was hard not to when Binghe blasted that contagious happiness beam the protagonist was innately equipped with at him! The System dinged a few more times, but Shen Yuan once more ignored it. That’s what it gets for ignoring him! If offering Binghe private lessons brought the protagonist some satisfaction points, then good! He deserved a thousand of them after the life he’d been born into! And gaining them via such an admirable pursuit of knowledge?
Shen Yuan couldn’t help but be proud of him!
Binghe shifted himself and his breakfast to Shen Yuan’s side of the table and his shizun made room for him. It had to be annoying trying to read the manual upside down as Shen Yuan explained its contents! Shen Yuan felt another pang of affection for his disciple as he continued to prove how dedicated he was to learning! And, if in his excitement, Binghe grabbed Shen Yuan’s hand more than once to celebrate when he grasped a tricky point?
Shen Yuan couldn’t help but be proud of himself for being such an effective teacher!