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Chapter Text

Shen Yuan crouched in the bushes, Qi suppressed as low as it would go. He’d been trying to breathe as quietly as possible and avoided any dry leaves. The creature he was hunting didn’t seem to have spotted him yet, absorbed as it was in its kill. Saber-tooth Spotted Tiger, so named for self-evident reasons, was a demonic beast that had been terrorizing the nearby town for months now, but this far west there were precious few cultivators that could do anything about it, and most of them were rather unwilling to take something this powerful head-on. A small group of Daoist monks on a pilgrimage had warded the town perimeters, so it had so far claimed only one human life, but it continued terrorizing the outer settlements and eating their horses. But most of the people here were nomads or poor farmers, they couldn’t afford the price monster hunters were asking for, particularly after their livestock had been decimated. 

Luckily for them, Shen Yuan was no two-bit Wuxia wannabe. He was a proper mid-core formation Immortal Cultivator. Granted, most of that was Shen Qingqiu’s work, but Shen Yuan hadn’t been a slouch in the past six, almost seven years, he’d been transmigrated into this trashfire of a world. 

Okay, the beginning hadn’t gone as well as it could have. He’d woken up with a splitting headache and a broken System, so he felt he couldn’t be blamed for not immediately realizing which trashfire novel he’d transmigrated into. He read a lot more of those than he cared to admit, and not all of them had fanart that translated well to real faces! The peerlessly beautiful man calling him Shen-shidi hadn’t been an immediate tip-off since his family name was also Shen! For all he knew he could have transmigrated into a perfectly normal NPC! How was he supposed to know he’d landed straight into the Scum Villain?

But the Scum Villain he was, and upon failing to recognize Yue Qingyuan’s face, Zhangmen-shixiong had immediately sicced the doctor on his ass. And considering Mu Qingfang hadn’t been mentioned for the last two thousand or so chapters, Shen Yuan hadn’t cottoned on who ‘Mu-shidi’ was sufficiently quickly either.

It wasn’t until one of them mentioned the Immortal Alliance Conference that a lightbulb had finally gone off in his head, but the damage had been done. He’d been interrogated within an inch of his life, and also tested for possession no less than three times, but seeing as Shen Qingqiu had just suffered a pretty bad Qi Deviation (as a result of, apparently, losing a disciple when the Conference had been invaded by demons, which made it pretty clear when he’d ended up) he’d gotten away with just claiming partial memory loss. Seeing as the System was of no damn help, Shen Yuan had cautiously admitted that his memories were a lot blurrier than they were supposed to be. Like he’d read about it, but hadn’t lived through it himself. Hence all the possession testing. 

But he’d passed, and everyone stopped panicking so much when he’d lost his temper and snapped at them to leave him the fuck alone, which… Okay yeah, was pretty IC for Shen Fucking Qingqiu. He’d been given a laundry list of medicinal teas he needed to take and left in the Bamboo house. 

Then he’d promptly had a fucking panic attack.

He’d transmigrated as Shen Qingqiu after five years of abusing the protagonist and booting him into the Endless Abyss! He wanted a refund! What was he supposed to do here!? Just sit on his ass and wait for Luo Binghe to come and turn him into a human shish-kebob!? System! A little help here???

But the System was apparently in hibernation mode, because its power source, the Protagonist, was, oh yeah, in the Endless Abyss! Where Shen Qingqiu put him! He was going to come out blacker than the night and thirsting for revenge! And there was nothing Shen Yuan could do to stop him! He couldn’t beat the Protagonist! Even Yue Qingyuan couldn’t! Luo Binghe might have needed to resort to trickery to take him out, but he’d still beaten him! Liu Qingge, the only other cultivator who might have stood a chance was dead! Which Shen Qingqiu was also on the hook for! What the hell were his options here!? Other than, you know, dying in the worst way possible?

Panicking as he was, it took Shen Yuan two weeks to realize what his only option was. 

Luo Binghe would come out in five years thirsting for Shen Qingqiu’s blood. So the only option for survival was to stop being Shen Qingqiu. Who was going to stop him from running away, after all? The System? Hahahahahaha!

He’d taken his sword, informed the Sect Leader he would be taking extended time off to cultivate in the Ling Xi caves to try and sort out his memory, and promptly absconded with it.

Okay, he did spend a year in the caves to get a sense of what he was working with and how to improve it, but when he was done he went out and… Just kept going. He still had four years to get to the other side of the world. The Protagonist first had to go through his training arc, then conquering the Demon Realm and Huan Hua, he’d be busy. By the time the Jianghu realized Shen Qingqiu was no longer in the Ling Xi caves, Shen Yuan would be halfway to America. Knowing Airplane’s shitty writing choices, they probably already spoke English there. He’d be fine. 

Shen Qingqiu had apparently had at least some plans to do the same, because he’d stashed a very nice nest egg in his house, which Shen Yuan happily appropriated. He’d traded the white and green silks for nondescript grey-black cotton robes and his elaborate guan for a simple braid at the nape of his neck. He could never get the damn topknot to stay up with just ribbons but he could braid like a pro (thanks Meimei!). It made people think he was of Manchurian descent, which worked in his favor. As if the stuck-up Shen Qingqiu would ever be caught dead looking like anything but a pureblooded Han anytime before the Qing Dynasty! 

The only problem was Xiu Ya, which was a rather distinct sword. But Shen Yuan had desecrated it with a heavy heart and a heavier layer of black lacquer. With the patterns on the pommel and the beautiful woodwork on the sheath covered up, it could pass for any other spirit sword, unless people who were already familiar with it took a good close look. It also made some people think he was a Demonic cultivator, but Shen Yuan could be charming when he wanted to be. And to be frank, when people were desperate, any cultivator would do, even a demonic one. 

It had worked out pretty well. Even when he’d still been passing through the mainlands, and even encountered cultivators from other sects, nobody had figured out that Shen Yuan, a wandering cultivator with a pleasant demeanor and a Manchu braid, was the same person as Shen Qingqiu, the infamously cold Peak Lord of Qing Jing Peak. He was, after all, still in seclusion, safely ensconced on Cang Qiong.

Knowing the time frame he was working with, and not daring to risk discovery once Luo Binghe was back, Shen Yuan spent the first four years of his new life exploring the world of PIDW while he still could. He’d visited the Borderlands, which hadn’t made sense considering Airplane had written that the only way into the Demon Realm was through the Endless Abyss multiple times. How could the border with the Demon Realm be a physical location then? 

It turned out the Borderlands were actually a barren stretch of land where the portals to the Endless Abyss were known to occur in a semi-predictable manner on both sides. There were places only marked with two great monolith pillars and a lot of scorched earth around them, where the portals were known to form and the passage through the Endless Abyss was relatively short. Still suicidally dangerous for anyone who wasn’t a demon or a cultivator, but if one was powerful and determined enough, or at least had a large enough army backing them up, it was possible to cross into the Demon Realm through them, and for demons to go raid the Human Realm for art and treasure.

Shen Yuan had been endlessly fascinated by the way this world had managed to make something that made sense out of Airplane’s garbage. He’d even met a demon going through and managed something that passed for an amicable trade with them. Six Balls had been thrilled to trade some Purple Vine’s Delirium for Shen Yuan’s sword tassel and some meat buns, and Shen Yuan got some natural antidepressants (only if they were properly prepared, of course) he could sell to some nobles in the throes of a midlife crisis.

He’d gone from town to city to village, selling priceless flowers and monster parts to people in need of help or with an excess of money and lack of sense. And after he’d counted four snowfalls, he’d legged it Northwest until he started seeing people who looked like Persian traders, which meant everyone still spoke Chinese but with a weird accent. They took him through the Gobi and Talkamakan desert to the other side of Mongolia, and told him to wait until a bigger trade caravan came through to take him to the other end of the Silk Road. As far as he knew, Luo Binghe had gone on some pilgrimage or other a few times to India, but he hadn’t gotten that far until wife 235, and by the time she rolled around, Shen Yuan would be wearing a toga and watching gladiator fights. Did the Roman Empire exist in PIDW? Knowing Airplane, probably. If not, there were always the Egyptian Pyramids. Those ought to be ubiquitous. He wondered what the godly drama looked like over there.

Either way, Shen Yuan was going to find out. Eventually.

But for now, he was crouching in the bushes in the ass-end of the border in Yuezhi territory, up in the Tian Shan mountain range, and cautiously inching his hand closer to Xiu Ya. The trick to killing the Saber-tooth Spotted Tiger, a beast many times bigger than himself, was to ambush it from behind, straddle its neck and stab a sword into the star-shaped spot marking the vertebrae that connected its spine to its skull. While the armored plates covered the rest of its spine and the skull was covered with thin fur-like spines that could burrow under your skin and destroy your veins from the inside, that one point was bare of almost any protection, since the beast needed to move its head around without stabbing or pinching itself. 

It was yet another bit of worldbuilding that enraged Shen Yuan to no end. Airplane was able to come up with something as logical as this, proving he could design monsters well and with care, but instead chose to make things like Black Moon Rhinoceros Python. Hack! No, worse, sellout!

Bah, he could curse Airplane’s shitty life choices later. Something made the Saber-tooth Spotted Tiger’s ears swivel around and then made it look up at something in the treeline. It started growling.

After a moment, Shen Yuan could hear it too, but it was a moment too late. The Sabertooth Spotted Tiger was already leaping up and after the footsteps coming from the forest. Shen Yuan cursed and ran after it. He could see a flash of yellow, shortly followed by a clang of sword on tooth.

“Keep it distracted!” he shouted at the unfortunate swordsman, then drew Xiu Ya and climbed up the tree. The new swordsman evidently got the hint, because they danced around the Tiger’s attacks in a circle, slowly leading it to Shen Yuan’s tree. Just as the big cat realized this new opponent would not be so easy to beat and it probably needed to pause and retreat, it had ended up right in Shen Yuan’s range. He drew his sword, and jumped.

The great thing about big predators like that was that they never looked up. By the time the Tiger realized its hunter was coming from above, Shen Yuan had already straddled its neck and was driving Xiu Ya into the star shaped mark. There was only one slight hitch with that.

He’d missed. Barely, the blade driving into the leftmost point, close enough to go through but not enough to kill the beast instantly. 

The Tiger roared in pain and rage and started twisting around like an eel. Shen Yuan held on like he was on a rodeo bull, the strength of his legs and his grip on Xiu Ya the only points of security. If he let go, he and the newcomer would both be dead. The beast would die, but not before taking them out in its death throes. 

No other choice then.

“Take cover, now!” He yelled at the swordsman. This was not going to be pretty. 

At least they listened. They leapt back and to the side, closer to the trees. Not far enough to be out of the blast radius, but hopefully far enough they wouldn’t get hurt. 

Xiu Ya still stabbed in the Tiger’s neck, Shen Yuan channeled one great burst of Qi into a sword glare. And then wrenched it sideways. 

Blood. Everywhere. Ew. 

Shen Yuan blindly jumped off the Tiger’s body before it realized it was really, actually dead and collapsed along with him. He stumbled as he landed, half-blind from the blood on his face, but luckily, someone caught his arm and steadied him.

“Are you alright?” the stranger asked.

“I’m fine,” Shen Yuan said, trying to wipe the blood away with his sleeve. It would have worked better if his sleeve wasn’t also soaked in blood. “I should be asking you that, you were the one it was actually hunting.”

“I managed,” the stranger said, “Here, hold out your hands, I’ll pour out some water for you.”

“Thank you,” Shen Yuan did as instructed, washed his hands as best he could in the small trickle of the waterskin, then splashed the rest on his face to at least wash out his eyes. 

“There is a stream not far from here,” the swordsman said, “I can show you the way.”

“Thank you,” Shen Yuan repeated, then cautiously blinked his eyes open to look at his savior. 

Then nearly choked.

System! What the hell!? Where did this god of beauty spawn from? And what the hell was he doing this far out of China??? And why did Shen Yuan have to meet him when he hadn’t bathed in a week and was covered in blood and gore!? System!!!

Oh, yeah, he’d muted that stupid thing since the only thing it could say “Please connect to the Power Source” on endless repeat. It got old very quickly, and Shen Yuan hadn’t gotten to the point he was so lonely and desperate for conversation that even that was better than nothing. So he’d told it to keep quiet unless he gave an outright order to unmute, no matter how much he cussed it out in his head.

“Ah, um, where are my manners?” Shen Yuan smiled awkwardly and attempted to hide his dirty face from view with one of his wide sleeves, even though it wasn’t much better, “This humble cultivator is Shen Yuan.”

The handsome stranger looked at him with confused suspicion. “Shen… Yuan?”

“Yes,” he inclined his head in greeting, “And Gongzi’s name?”

The handsome stranger continued looking at him like he was a very confusing bug. “You… Do not recognize me?”

Shen Yuan’s hackles rose. Fuck, was this someone the Original Goods had met? Fuck! Outside of his sect, there were very few people Shen Qingqiu had interacted with, and most of them had not been good! Didn’t he used to run with Demonic cultivators? 

Shen Yuan took a look at what the stranger was wearing. Yellow robes, which was unusual, but there was a very big clue embroidered right on his chest. It was partially obscured by blood splatters, but that was very much a golden chrysanthemum flower underneath. 

What would a Huan Hua disciple be doing so far West? Especially now that Luo Binghe had conquered it? At this point in the narrative they would be busy reorganizing themselves under Luo Binghe’s rule, after he’d taken-

Oh. Oh, yes, that made sense. After all, there was one Huan Hua disciple who had needed to be removed in the course of Luo Binghe’s rise to power, who had been banished far, far away where he would never grace the eyes of Luo Binghe or the woman he’d once loved, and found in bed with his worst enemy. And there was, indeed, a chance he had met Shen Qingqiu enough times to recognise his face.

Hopefully, hopefully, enough time had passed that he would believe he had attached a wrong name to that face.

“Ah,” Shen Yuan grimaced a little behind his sleeve, “Of course. May Gongyi Xiao forgive this one, for his forgetfulness.”

Gongyi Xiao’s eyebrows went nearly up to his hairline. “You really did not recognise me?”

Now Shen Yuan glared at him a little. “It has been a while, begging young Gongyi Xiao to spare this old man some face. But this old man does recall he has mentioned a stream?”

Gongyi Xiao continued looking at him like he still didn’t know what to make of him. His eyes flitted up and down Shen Yuan’s figure, lingering on his sword, making him horribly self-conscious, but eventually settled back on his face, once again confused.

Shen Yuan raised an expectant eyebrow. The blood was starting to dry and become crusty.

“Of course,” Gongyi Xiao inclined his head, “Please, follow me, Shen-xiansheng.”

He turned around and started marching away. Shen Yuan vaguely noted that the hair in his long ponytail was slightly curly rather than pin-straight like most. Very fluff, much shiny. If Shen Yuan’s hands weren’t covered in monster blood he would have been sorely tempted to touch it.

Fuck your mother, Airplane! This was Gongyi Xiao!? This young god of beauty!? Gongyi Xiao was meant to be a sort of foil for Luo Binghe, a reflection of what the Protagonist could have been if the Heavens had been kinder to him, an earnest and kind young man where Luo Binghe had blackened beyond recognition. But he was, in the end, not a Protagonist, so he could only ever look like a shallow imitation compared to the real thing. 

But if the shallow imitation looked like this, then what the hell did Luo Binghe look like??? Did he literally sink fish, fell the birds, shame the flowers and eclipse the moon? No wonder he collected sisters like literal flowers! Shen Yuan was mildly amazed all of those wives didn’t just faint at his feet the second they laid eyes on him! Did he borrow Liu Mingyan’s veil when he went out? Well maybe he ought to!

“Master Shen truly does not recall where he met this one?” Gongyi Xiao asked without turning around.

“I meet a lot of people in my line of work,” Shen Yuan said, “Gongyi Xiao must forgive me for not recognizing every other cultivator I meet on a night hunt. I try to stay away from Sect cultivators. They do not tend to take it well when a Rogue like me shows up on their territory.”

“Hmm,” his companion hummed non-commitaly, “This one- I suppose that’s fair.”

Oh good, they’d dropped the lofty formal talk. Shen Yuan had no problem with it, of course, but it was most certainly the way Shen Qingqiu spoke, and he was already on thin ice with Gongyi Xiao recognising him. The more degrees of separation Shen Yuan could put between himself and the Original Goods, the better. 

“If I may ask, where is Master Shen from?” Gongyi Xiao asked, “It was a surprise to meet another cultivator this far west.”

“I could ask Gongyi Xiao the same thing. I did not know that Huan Hua sent its disciples this far.”

“They usually don’t,” Gongyi Xiao readily admitted, “I’m on a… rather peculiar mission.”

What a polite way to say ‘I was banished and had nowhere else to go’. Still, Shen Yuan wasn’t going to call him out on it.

“I wish you the best with your mission, then,” he just said, “Is it far to the stream?”

“Not far anymore,” his companion said, “I notice Master Shen has not answered my question.”

Persistent brat. “I’m from everywhere and nowhere, really. I’ve spent most of my time wandering from one place to another. Now that I’ve gotten older, I thought I would expand my horizons. The world is vast and interesting, and I can only hope to live long enough to see it.”

“Only hope?” Gongyi Xiao turned around to look at him out of the corner of his eye, “Is there a reason Master Shen thinks he won’t make it?”

“As you can see, I’m in a rather dangerous profession,” Shen Yuan swept a bloodied sleeve at himself to illustrate his point, “A cultivator must get lucky every time. A monster must only get lucky once.”

“Yes… He does,” Gongyi Xiao muttered under his breath. Shen Yuan wondered if that was a reference to Luo Binghe. Had he already revealed himself to be a half-demon? In canon he’d only done that after Huan Hua was firmly under his control, well after the trial of Shen Qingqiu. But since Shen Yuan had disappeared with Shen Qingqiu’s body, there wasn’t really anybody to put on trial. He wondered what Cang Qiong had told the Jianghu about his disappearance. Probably that he’d died in closed cultivation. It wasn’t unheard of, after all, and Shen Qingqiu had been prone to Qi deviations. It would certainly bring less shame to the sect than the rumors that one of their Peak Lords had eloped or something.

With no Shen Qingqiu to chase and put on trial, and Cang Qiong to topple, Luo Binghe had probably sped up his takeover plans. It might not have given him the narrative closure of destroying the man who had done half his blackening for him, but it did give him a lot of free time.

Hopefully, he would leave Cang Qiong alone now. Liu Mingyan might still take them to task over her brother’s death, but her beef had also been with Shen Qingqiu. She wouldn’t exactly get closure either, but without Shen Qingqiu to protect, Yue Qingyuan might be more open about what happened to her brother. 

Hopefully. It wasn’t like Shen Yuan could go back and check on them. 

“We’re here,” Gongyi Xiao called out, snapping Shen Yuan out of his musings. He leaned around the younger cultivator to see the promised stream. 

It really was just a stream. Proper rivers were hard to come by in between two pretty big deserts, after all, but as Shen Yuan came over he determined it was deep enough to wade up to his knees.

“Are we far enough downstream that we can wash properly here?”

“We should be,” Gongyi Xiao said, “This is downstream from the horse ranches, so it’s not good for drinking. It’s probably not very good for washing, either, but-”

“It’s better than being covered in monster blood,” Shen Yuan finished, already taking off his outer robe. It wasn’t a fancy robe by any means, and it certainly didn’t have qiankun sleeves, so he just dunked it straight under the water and waited until the water flow washed away the fleshy bits and any blood that hadn’t soaked in.

“You know you’re not going to get it clean like that,” Gonygi Xiao commented from the side, sounding vaguely amused.

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes. “Unlike the young master of Huan Hua, I know how to wash my own clothes.” The less said about his first attempts at it, the better, but he did learn.

Once his robe was properly soaked he laid it out on the side, then took off his boots and trousers. Unfortunately his undershirt had also not been spared, as the white sleeves were now thoroughly red. He took that off too. This far north, and with autumn approaching, it wasn’t exactly comfortable being wet and half naked, but he was a cultivator. Qi cycling was a wonderful thing.

Clothes soaked, he went digging into his Qiankun pouch for one of his greatest treasures: Soapberries.

“What’s that?” Gongyi Xiao asked. He was still crouched by the side of the bank, trying to look at Shen Yuan only out of the corner of his eye.

“Soapberries,” he held them out to his companion, “They naturally produce soap compounds, so they’re perfect for cleaning. I’ve tried making proper soap a few times, but it’s always turned out slimy. These are much more convenient.” Not to mention ten times more effective than their real-world counterparts. Airplane’s bullshit worldbuilding came in handy sometimes!

Gongyi Xiao was still having trouble looking at him. Shen Yuan rolled his eyes at him. “It’s fine if you don’t know how to use them. I can show you. You need to wash your robes as well.”

Gongyi Xiao finally turned his head to look at him, looked down at himself, and then cautiously started taking his overrobe off.

“First you take one berry, these have already been peeled, and rub them hard on the blood stain,” Shen Yuan demonstrated, “Cold water and soap works best for blood stains. If the stains have already dried you may need a stiff brush to get them out, which won’t work for ordinary silk, so you better hurry. Once you have a thick foam going, you rub the affected areas against each other. A washboard would be better, but I don’t have one with me.”

“...Master Shen seems… Surprisingly knowledgeable about this,” Gongyi Xiao said, but he accepted a pair of soapberries and did exactly as Shen Yuan said. Quick learner, that one!

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes again. “Young master Gongyi might have grown up in a sect with a whole army of washerwomen to keep your uniforms pristine, but this humble rogue has had to take care of his own clothes. Even if you wear all black and gray, you don’t want your clothes to stink, so you have to know how to wash them.”

Gongyi Xiao frowned. He was really going to town on that poor blood stain! “And where did Master Shen acquire this knowledge?”

“From a washerwoman, of course,” Shen Yuan said, “Generally, when seeking new knowledge, you must consult with a master.”

Gongyi Xiao snorted derisively. “You mean you found a washerwoman and threw your robes at her with an order to take care of them.”

“What?!” Shen Yuan startled so badly his coat was nearly lost lost it in the stream, “No! Who do you take me for!? I asked her!”

Gongyi Xiao shot him a look full of skepticism.

Wasn’t Gongyi Xiao supposed to be of a mild and pleasant temperament? Banishment really did a number on his social skills, then! 

“Okay, fine, I technically didn’t,” Shen Yuan huffed, but before Gongyi Xiao could look vindicated, he continued, “When I first started out, I thought I could wash my own clothes. ‘How hard could it be’, I said. Harder than I thought, it turned out. I got lucky that I went to wash in a river close to some rich estate. One of the washerwomen there spotted me acting like a fool and took pity on me, so she showed me how to wash my clothes properly, and what worked on which stains. Took me two days before she was willing to let me go out into the wider world with my own handiwork, but she did give me a passing grade in the end.” 

Shen Yuan huffed in amusement at the memory of that poor woman confronted with all the robes Shen Yuan had thoroughly dirtied with all kinds of mud and gore, “Honestly, she deserved to be accepted as a Bodhisattva, considering how patient she was and how much of her own work she had to do. She even let me stay with her and her kids until my clothes dried. She barely let me leave her a couple of pheasants I caught and some money as thanks. But you don’t see such kindness everyday, so I insisted.” 

Shen Yuan had also started getting a sneaking suspicion it was shaping up to be some kind of a wife plot, considering she was very obviously an unwed mother who’d faced the full repercussions of such a stigma. But Shen Yuan was a wanted man, and while she was very sweet and pleasant he couldn’t drag her and her kids to the other side of the world just to avoid making her a widow. 

Gongyi Xiao had gotten quiet while Shen Yuan talked, so he turned around to see how he was fairing with his own robe. It seemed he’d kind of given up on cleaning his robes and was just letting the water wash over them with a faraway look on his face.

Shen Yuan almost asked if he was alright, but bit his lip. If he had to guess, not everyone had been so nice to him since his banishment. Rumors spread fast, and nobody wanted to risk helping a banished cultivator and bring the new Palace Master’s wrath on their heads when they had their own problems to deal with. Shen Yuan had been turned away plenty of times himself from reputable inns, and he was just a no-name rogue cultivator. Gongyi Xiao had probably had it a lot rougher than he’d ever had to deal with before. 

Okay, yeah, he deserved to be a little ornery after all that. Shen Yuan had dealth with Er-ge’s temper for most of his life, he could handle it.

“How much did you give her?” Gongyi Xiao suddenly asked, still not looking at him.

“Hm?” Shen Yuan blinked, having almost forgotten what they’d been talking about, “Oh, three gold coins. I figured that would be enough to-”

“Three?” Gongyi Xiao cut him off, now looking at him like he’d grown three heads, “Gold coins?”

“Well, yeah,” Shen Yuan said, “Monster hunting can be pretty profitable if you know where to sell your spoils.”

Gogyi Xiao’s expression did not abate. “You paid a washerwoman three gold coins for… Teaching you how to do your own laundry?”

Okay, Shen Yuan didn’t like the tone of his voice. “What? She deserved it. You know that adage, ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’? She provided me a lifetime of clean laundry. That’s certainly worth three gold coins.”

That, and Shen Yuan had maybe had a rather shaky grasp how money in pseudo-Ancient China worked. Three gold coins from Shen Qingqiu’s stash seemed like a drop in the bucket at the time, but the poor woman had nearly fainted when he put the coins in her hand. She certainly needed it more than he did, living in a dirt-floor house with two kids. Even after Shen Yuan figured out how much a single gold coin was worth, he stood by his decision, though he did regret not breaking it down into silver coins at least. One gold coin would have been enough to start a new life for all three of them, if one knew how, but it also made it a lot easier to swindle the poor woman. 

But she had evidently been smarter than him, because the next time he saw her in the town market she had been wearing much better clothes and seemed much happier. They’d sat down in a teahouse to catch up, and it turned out she’d found her children tradesman apprenticeships and she herself was in talks with a matchmaker. Shen Yuan had scrounged up a small red bag and stuffed a few more gold coins in it, under the excuse that he probably wouldn’t be able to attend a wedding, so he better hand over his red envelope now. 

She was even nice enough not to cry on him for it! So Shen Yuan had walked away a happy man, comforted that he’d managed to put at least some minor good into this trash fire of a world. And who knew? Luo Binghe’s mother had been a washerwoman. Maybe one of her kids would grow up to be someone important one day. Circular narratives and all that.

A little lost in thought, Shen Yuan almost forgot he still had other clothes to wash. He rinsed out and wrung out his robe, shook it out, and let it dry on the rock. His undershirt only had blood on the sleeves, so it ought to go faster than the robe. 

Next to him, Gongyi Xiao had done the same, but instead of letting it dry in the sun, he used his Qi to imbue the fabric, then shook it out in one big swoop. Tiny drops of water flew everywhere, almost like a steam, and what he was left with was a perfectly dry robe.

Shen Yuan couldn’t help but gape. “Can you teach me to do that?”

Gongyi Xiao laughed a little. “Do I get three gold coins for that?”

Fair enough. “If you want. I’m not sure if the exchange rate is the same here as it was in Shiyan, but Persian traders will still take it. You have to be careful not to let them swindle you, though.”

Gongyi Xiao was looking at him weird again. “You’re serious.”

“Yes?” Shen Yuan still didn’t get why that was so weird, “Kindness should be repaid a hundred times over, don’t you know? That way, there will be more kindness in the world every day. And quite frankly, this world could certainly use it, considering what it’s like.”

Gongyi Xiao didn’t seem to know what to say to that. He stayed quiet for a long moment as he put his robe back on, then held out a hand. “I can teach you if you want, but it would be better to start on scraps of fabric rather than your only set of clothes. I can dry them for you.”

“Thank you,” Shen Yuan gratefully handed over his robe, then set to work on his pants, “You should also get half of the spoils. The armor plate of the Saber-tooth Spotted Tiger is very valuable in these parts, and the fangs can also go for a high price. The claws can be turned into knives, if I recall correctly. The needles in the fur make it kind of useless, and it’s a bitch to get it off, anyway. If we can manage to get it, the gallbladder can also be sold. There’s also use for the small intestine, but I really don’t feel like hauling that back to town. Do you want to take your share and try your luck, or split the money after we sell it?”

Gongyi Xiao was looking at him weird again. Shen Yuan was starting to wonder if his face was going to get stuck that way.

“I don’t speak the local language, so I suppose it will be better if I stick with you,” he finally decided. 

“Really?” Shen Yuan asked, “Their accent isn’t that bad.”

It had surprised him that people here still spoke Mandarin, even if a very pidgin version of it. Shen Yuan often missed about one word in ten, but it was still more than enough to get by. Or maybe he meant that he didn’t know how to barter, or who to go to for trade. 

No matter. Shen Yuan had been there long enough to know the lay of the land. He could help Gongyi Xiao.

Clothes mostly dry (and even warm! Like they came straight from the dryer!), they headed back to harvest the parts from the felled Saber-tooth Spotted Tiger. It probably would have been better to do before they’d washed up, since quartering was generally a messy business, but. No. There were limits to how much blood Shen Yuan was willing to tolerate on his person.

But with another pair of helping hands the work went much faster. Gongyi Xiao was clearly not squeamish, following Shen Yuan’s instructions to shove his sword in the gap between armor plates and skin to cut the tendrons attaching their prize to the Tiger’s musculature perfectly. Shen Yuan sort of prattled on about the Saber-tooth Spotted Tigers, an unfortunate habit he’d picked up from being on the road by himself for too long, but Gongyi Xiao didn’t seem to mind. He’d even asked questions about the monster, which Shen Yuan was only too happy to answer.

One question caught him off guard, though.

“You left out the other half of the saying.”

“Huh?” Shen Yuan startled out of his commentary about keratin layering in monster claws, “What do you mean?”

“You said kindness should be paid back a hundredfold,” Gongyi Xiao clarified, “You forgot to mention that, in the same adage, insult and injury should be repaid the same way.”

Ah, yes. That was Luo Binghe’s modus operandi he’d been quoting, which in itself was the exaggerated philosophy of the real world China, a revenge fantasy reflecting the frustrations of its readers. He’d largely agreed with it, as a spoiled fuerdai reading the novel. But actually living here, with his feet on the ground and no stable roof over his head, in the world where such mentality was the law of the land for almost seven years, he’d rather revised his opinion. The possibility of being on the other end of that adage certainly helped. 

“Maybe that’s the way the saying goes,” Shen Yuan cautiously chose his words, “But I’ve found I don’t really like living that way.”

“Oh?” Gongyi Xiao sounded very faux-casual as he said it, “Why not?”

“I just find it too bleak for my taste,” Shen Yuan said, then thought to elaborate, “Say someone kills someone dear to you. And you swear revenge and kill all of their family. It won’t bring back what you’ve lost, and other people will lose people they care about, and maybe they’ll swear revenge against you and all your other loved ones. The number of death and suffering just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Where does it end? Another saying goes ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’. And I quite like my eyes where they are.”

“So you would just let them go free?” Gongyi Xiao asked, sounding… rather insistent. Like it was personal.

Shen Yuan remembered a little too late that it was. 

“Of course not,” he protested, “But it’s not so simple.”

“Explain it then, since you’re so wise,” Gongyi Xiao practically spat. Fuck, Shen Yuan was kind of hoping he didn’t just send him on a revenge path against Luo Binghe out of some twisted sense of justice. That would just end up in his dying. Gruesomely. Luo Binghe wasn’t known for being merciful when people were making trouble for him.

“Take this beast as an example,” Shen Yuan laid a hand on the Tiger’s head, now missing its teeth, “It killed at least one person. Probably more, and at least a dozen horses. It’s caused a lot of suffering, not out of cruelty, but just because it’s a beast and it was hungry. By that hundredfold logic, we ought to have killed it slowly and gone on to eradicate all of its kind, but what would be the point? It’s not like it could understand the damage it did, it was just acting according to its nature. These beasts keep the barking deer and mountain hares in check, nothing good would come out of killing them all. The best thing we could do is what we did: killed it quickly, so it couldn’t hurt anyone else, but without causing needless suffering either. So we lessen the amount of harm in the world, without putting any new suffering back in. Doesn’t that sound better than endless violence?”

Gongyi Xiao said nothing, but he had a rather dark look in his eyes, one Shen Yuan didn’t like. He cautiously got up and wiped his hands on a rag, then set a hand on Gongyi Xiao’s shoulder. The young man looked startled at that, but he didn’t pull away.

“Look, I literally just met you, so I don’t know what’s going on in your life, or how you ended up so far away from home,” not entirely true, but it would have been without Shen Yuan’s metaknowledge, so close enough, “But you’re a young man, and an accomplished cultivator. There’s a lot in this life to live for, other than revenge. And there’s another saying that says ‘the best revenge is a life well lived’. Nothing pisses your enemies off more than you living a happier life than they are.”

Gongyi Xiao said nothing, just sort of stared at Shen Yuan’s hand like he couldn’t believe it was there. Feeling a bit awkward, Shen Yuan just patted him a couple of times, and turned back to severing the claws off the Tiger’s paws. 

“You’re…” Gongyi Xiao made a weird face again, “A surprisingly good teacher.”

“Ah, why surprisingly?” Shen Yuan asked, a little offended, “You don’t need a formal education to be learned, you know.”

“I suppose not,” Gongyi Xiao grudgingly admitted, “I’ve certainly met my share of proper scholars who couldn’t even teach a dog how to bark.”

Shen Yuan laughed at that, startling him again. “Aish, are Huan Hua instructors that bad? I suppose it’s true that no amount of money can buy you good sense.”

“Or decency,” Gongyi Xiao added.

“Or decency,” Shen Yuan concurred, “A sad state of affairs, truly. It’s one of the reasons I’m going West, you know. I’ve heard that the scholars there are less concerned with cultivation and endlessly analyzing the Analects and more about learning the natural laws that govern this world. It’s like Daojiao , except they call it Alchemy, and if the rumors are true, they make our efforts look like a bunch of children making mud potions.”

Granted, maybe those rumors were base entirely off of Shen Yuan’s brief fixation on historical alchemy, which sprung from his not-so-brief obsession with Fullmetal Alchemist. It was entirely possible that, had this been the real world, Arabic alchemy was roughly on par with their own, or even less developed, because progress wasn’t the same across different times and areas. 

But that was in the real world. This world was a malformed lovechild of Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky’s kinks and bank account, anachronistic to the point Shen Yuan honestly wasn’t sure what Dynasty he was even living in, with Han values, Ming bureaucracy, Tang expansion and Song fashion, so it stood to reason the rest of the world was equally out of wack. Luo Binghe may have never made it to Persia in the actual book, but that didn’t mean that a potential area of conquest could be left uninteresting. Ergo, by that logic, there ought to be at least something interesting the further out he went. 

“I suppose that’s a worthy pursuit,” Gongyi Xiao said, “Master Shen… Are you really going alone on such a long journey?”

“Ah, that would be a little too dangerous, even for a cultivator,” Shen Yuan said, “I’m waiting for a trading caravan to pass through. I traveled with one until now, but they were going South to India. There’s another caravan set to pass through here, and they’re going farther West, hopefully at least to Persia, maybe even to the Roman Empire. I’m going to wait for them and offer my services as a guard. They were eager to take me on when I showed them I can fly.”

“Then…” Gongyi Xiao looked hesitant, “Would they accept another cultivator?”

Shen Yuan looked up from his work. “You want to come with me?”

“If Master Shen finds my company acceptable.”

Well. Why not? It wasn’t like Huan Hua was expecting Gongyi Xiao to report back to them at any point. He’d been assigned a guard post at the Borderlands in the novel, but everyone knew that was just an excuse to get him out of the way. In a thousand chapters or so, he had returned leading a group of rebels, all the cultivators that had survived the eradication of their sects and had banded together to take revenge on Luo Binghe. It was an interesting callback to read about, but it had ended… Predictably. No one could defeat Luo Binghe, especially at the height of his power. 

Shen Yuan couldn’t save them all. But maybe, he could save Gongyi Xiao.

“Of course!” Shen Yuan smiled widely, “I would be happy to travel with you.”

And then something incredible happened. Gongyi Xiao looked astonished for a moment, and then he smiled. A small but genuine smile stretched his lips, and for a moment it looked like the clouds had finally parted to reveal the sun.

Shen Yuan may or may not have dropped everything he’d painstakingly been collecting, along with his composure.

Their bounty collected and stored away (and Shen Yuan’s face back to a more reasonable shade of pink) they made their way back to town. 

“I’ve been staying at an inn here,” Shen Yuan gestured for Gongyi Xiao to follow him, “I don’t know if they’ll have any more free rooms, though. A lot of the merchants are staying here, waiting for the caravan. If you want we can ask the innkeeper for an extra pallet, or if you don’t want to sleep on the floor we can look for another one.”

“I’m fine sleeping on the floor,” Gongyi Xiao assured him, then smirked, “Unless Shen Yuan is not opposed to sharing.”

Shen Yuan blushed. Just slightly. “It’s a single bed, I doubt it would be comfortable sleeping like pickled sardines.”

“It would be no hardship,” Gongyi Xiao said with a small smirk, “And the mountain air makes the night rather cold. It might be more comfortable to cuddle close.”

“If you want the bed so badly, I can sleep on the floor,” Shen Yuan rolled his eyes. Honestly. “I’m guessing you’ve been camping up until now, a few nights in a real bed would do you good.”

“I would never kick an ‘old man’ out of his bed,” Gongyi Xiao continued to tease, “I’ve been told I’m an excellent bed partner. I run very hot, you see, and I’ve had no complaints about my bed etiquette.”

Shen Yuan blushed bright red. Was he-? He couldn’t be! Hadn’t he been engaged to the Little Palace Mistress??? What was he doing flirting with a man!? He couldn’t be that touch starved, could he?

Gongyi Xiao took one look at his face and started laughing outright.

Or he was just teasing Shen Yuan because he thought it was funny. “Shameless!” Shen Yuan smacked his arm. Hard. Unfortunately he was solid enough that Shen Yuan might as well have been a kitten batting at a tree. “You’ve really been in the wilderness for too long! Have you no respect for your elders?”

Gongyi Xiao was still laughing at him. Shen Yuan decided to just ignore him and continue on to the inn. Right now it was full of Indian merchants waiting to sell their wares and buy the goods from the upcoming caravan, then embark on the journey to the next stop point to do the same thing. Horses, merchants and guards would all change, until everyone was at their desired destination, and the cycle repeated endlessly with new merchants and new goods. Part of the life on the Silk Road.

Except that, in the PIDW universe, they were more likely to be besieged by sand worms ripped straight out of Dune than bandits, or gigantic mountain eagles hoping to grab a horse but not turning their nose up at human flesh either. Flying cultivators were a very, very rare sight this far out of China, so there was good money to be made by playing guard. 

And occasionally very good money by selling said monster parts. Shen Yuan had met one merchant who was in that exact trade, buying and selling parts of exotic monsters. Shen Yuan had traded with him and his sons before, and while negotiating the price always took upwards of two hours (you couldn’t survive as an Indian merchant if you didn’t know how to bargain, after all), Shen Yuan was always invited to lunch afterwards. His wife and second son were amazing cooks, possibly even on par with Luo Binghe. He was sure Gonygi Xiao would appreciate a good, hot meal after his journey as well. 

Shen Yuan came into the inn, then immediately made for the front desk. The inn owner’s wife was doing the accounts there, and she perked up when she saw Shen Yuan. 

“Madame Leila,” Shen Yuan greeted her, “Is Arun Hari Singh here?”

“Master of Walls and Waters,” she greeted back with a jocular smile. She’d taken to calling him that after Shen Yuan had explained the meaning of his name, and she had not stopped making feng shui jokes since. “If you’re looking for Mister Singh, I take it the hunt went well?”

“Indeed, and I’m hoping to trade,” Shen Yuan said, then waved a hand in Gongyi Xiao’s direction, “I confess I’ve had help, so the hunt went very well. He will be joining me on the journey, and he’s come a long way. Would you mind setting another pallet in my room for him, and charge it to my tab.”

“Oh, another dashing youth with a sword!” Madame Leila grinned widely the moment she spotted Gongyi Xiao, “Master Shen, and you say you’re taking him with you? How cruel of you, taking yourself away and not even leaving us one beauty to look at!”

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes. “Madame Leila, I really must concur with your husband: your eyesight is clearly going if you are calling me a beauty or a youth.”

The inn owner threw her head back with an uproarious laugh. “Ah, you Chinese really have a strange sense of humor.”

“Evidently it can’t be that bad, seeing as Madame Leila can barely draw breath from laughing,” Shen Yuan deadpanned, “Might she tell me where Mr. Singh is, so I can make him laugh too?”

“Ahhh, you know I only tease,” Madame Leila waved her hand, “Mr. Singh would be at the Traders Market, likely at his usual spot, the shark. If you have goods for him, you should hurry. This is the best time to get your money’s worth, with the fresh new blood arriving today.”

“Thanking Madame Leila,” Shen Yuan bowed in thanks, then turned to Gongyi Xiao, “Come on, the Trader’s Market is this way.”

The Trader’s Market was exactly what it said: a gathering of merchants exchanging goods to sell further down the journey. The first time Shen Yuan had gone, he had been reminded of nothing so much as the American stock exchange: loud chaos and bloodthirsty sharks snapping at each with their chests puffed up. He’d also made the mistake of showing his wares in plain sight, which had almost gotten him robbed. It also did get him mobbed, and the sight of dozens of merchants piling up and barking in a hundred languages at him, while he hovered above them on Xiu Ya like a terrified cat scared into a tree, was not something anyone involved would easily forget.

Gongyi Xiao seemed a lot more familiar with the sight, automatically keeping to the periphery and seamlessly sliding along the edges in the direction Shen Yuan indicated. He supposed the sight of a hundred bloodthirsty merchants wasn’t an unusual sight in a sect like Huan Hua. They didn’t make enough money to literally paint their walls in gold by being shoddy businessmen, after all. 

With any luck, they’d manage to reach Mr. Singh before any other merchants caught-

“Wizard-man!”

Shen Yuan didn’t even look behind him. He wildly reached for Gongyi Xiao’s sleeve, hopefully snagged the gold cloth, and just jumped straight onto the roof and started running.

“I’m guessing that merchant was calling for you?” Gongyi Xiao asked somewhat cattily, but he was running in step with Shen Yuan so he at least wasn’t dumb. 

“Mr. Singh should be this way!” Shen Yuan yelled back and finally stopped almost on the other side of the market. He took a quick look back and below to make sure they did outrun the guy. He didn’t feel like hovering in the sky on his sword until the fervor died down again. Once was more than enough. 

“You seem to be very popular around these parts,” Gongyi Xiao remarked pointedly.

“Cultivators aren’t very common around here,” Shen Yuan told him as he was peeking around the corner of a building that… Yep, that was a brothel. Oh well. “And the rumors of what we’re capable of can get really exaggerated. Like,” he grimaced, “Let’s just say that the people who work in the exotic trade aren’t unfamiliar with human body parts.”

Granted, the people back home weren’t unfamiliar with them either. Relic Hunters existed for the same reason: if someone was willing to pay money for it, there would always be someone willing to kill for it.

Gongyi Xiao’s eyebrows shot up. “And you work with them?”

“Well, not with them,” Shen Yuan hissed back, “The whole reason I left China was because I wanted to keep my limbs! It’s why I only sell to Mr. Singh. He, at least, only deals in monster parts.”

Once he’d ascertained that the coast was clear, he gestured for Gongyi Xiao to follow him. The prostitutes that had been observing their antics so far waved at them flirtily as they passed by. 

“What did you mean by that?” Gongyi Xiao asked as they walked past them.

“Hm?” Shen Yuan asked, still keeping an eye on the people around them. Mr. Singh usually set up somewhere close to the communal ovens, since his wife and second son were also cooks. With so many hungry men with deep pockets around, it was an easy way to fund the trip and keep all the actual sales profits. 

“Why you left China,” Gongyi Xiao repeated, his brows furrowed in an odd expression, “Is someone after you?”

Shen Yuan froze, cursing his loose tongue. Right, right, the only person who had reason to fear for his limbs was Shen Qingqiu. Who Shen Yuan technically was. And Gongyi Xiao still wasn’t entirely convinced by his whole ‘I just have one of those faces’ deal. And he would probably be very aware of Luo Binghe’s grudge against his former Shizun.

Abort mission, abort mission! Shen Yuan pasted on a mild smile while frantically looking for something, anything, as a-

“There you are!” a giant hand clapped down on his shoulder, something Shen Yuan would ordinarily be annoyed about, but right then, he could have hugged the man.

“Mr. Singh!” he turned around with a grin that- probably didn’t look too manic. “I have a monster for you!”

Mr. Singh’s eyebrows nearly disappeared into his turban. “Oh, I can see that! Excellent!”

“Yes!” Shen Yuan exclaimed, then hurriedly went to grab his qiankun pouch, “We, uh, that is, my colleague and I, we caught the Saber-tooth Spotted Tiger, and since it was a bit big to haul back we just cut it up on site. His name is Gongyi Xiao.”

Mr. Singh looked at Shen Yuan’s desperate flailing, then looked behind him at, presumably, Gongyi Xiao. And suddenly those salt-and-pepper brows reappeared in a look of bafflement. 

“You helped our Shen Yuan kill this beast?” he asked dubiously, like he couldn’t believe Gongyi Xiao could have done it. Which, rude! He might be a young-faced pretty boy, but his skill and cultivation was nothing to sneeze at! He’d come second in the last Immortal Alliance Conference, and only because the protagonist was there too! 

“Yes!” Shen Yuan reached behind himself, blindly grabbed Gongyi Xiao’s sleeve, and tugged him forward, “He was the head disciple of the second most powerful sect in China! He’s come here on a journey to prove himself, and I ran into him when I was hunting the Sabre-tooth Spotted Tiger. His help was invaluable.”

Mr. Singh turned his sceptical look in Shen Yuan’s direction. “So the Sabre-tooth Spotted Tiger is the monster you have brought to sell me?”

“Obviously,” Shen Yuan deadpanned.

“...The only one?”

Now he was bristling. What kind of new bargaining tactic was this? “If Mr. Singh is not satisfied by the measly 20 foot long, nearly three ton heavy monster, this one will simply have to find another merchant who will be more happy with his wares.”

“Aish, aish, no,” Mr. Singh waved his hand like he was swatting away flies, “Really, you Chinese… Brings a monster right here and doesn’t even…”

Shen Yuan raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Singh, I believe you were the one who scoffed at the monster I brought you. Do you want to actually see it or not?”

For some reason, Mr. Singh’s jaw dropped. He stared at Shen Yuan for a second and then threw his head back in uproarious laughter. 

“Master Shen, will you never cease to surprise me?” he laughed, finally gathering his wits. He shot another sceptical look at Gongyi Xiao, and then shrugged like he’d decided to give up on something. “Well then, whatever monster you are selling, I know it will be a good one. Come, come, you are just in time for lunch.”

Mr. Singh gestured for them to follow. Shen Yuan turned to Gongyi Xiao behind him who… Had a very strained smile on his face.

“Come on,” he tugged on the young man’s sleeve, still in his hand, “His wife is an excellent cook, and you look like you could use a warm meal.”

“Ah,” Gongyi Xiao’s smile got even weirder, “And… Shen Yuan has eaten with them before?”

“Oh, yes,” Shen Yuan smiled, “Their cuisine is rather different than what we’re used to back home, but everything is delicious.”

Gongyi Xiao looked at him like Shen Yuan had started speaking in code and he was trying to decipher it. “Different how?”

“I promise it’s all edible,” Shen Yuan rolled his eyes, “Come on, a young man like you ought to be more open-minded. How are you supposed to expand your horizons if you never try new things?”

That said, Shen Yuan didn’t wait for an answer, just pulled Gongyi Xiao along. There was lunch to be had and he was hungry!

They made it to the tent Mr. Singh’s family had set up, the floor covered in rugs with patterns from all over the world but with incense that Mr. Singh said reminded him of home. A small but crucial bit of familiarity while roaming on the strange roads with strange people and strange languages. 

“You must always remember where you come from,” Mr. Singh’s wife had told him, her accent thick but voice clear, “It is more easy, if you have something to remind you.”

She had laid a hand on his arm in comfort. Even though she looked nothing like his own mother, Shen Yuan had been reminded of her anyway. 

He never refused an invitation to lunch.

“Yuan!” Mr. Singh’s wife, Juhi, and her second son, Manish, greeted them, “You bring a Rakshasa friend?”

“Yes,” Shen Yuan grinned and tugged Gongyi Xiao closer, “This is Gongyi Xiao.”

“Xiao?” Juhi laughed, “Such a big boy and you call him ‘little’? Very good, very funny!”

“Ah, no, ‘Xiao’ like-”

“Little boy!” Madame Juhi grinned, not letting Shen Yuan’s protests stop him, “Husband said you belong to Yuan, true?”

Shen Yuan choked a little. Mr. Singh, what the hell were you telling your wife in the single minute they’d lagged behind? What was this?

Gongyi Xiao, to his credit, just smiled and bowed. “I am in Master Shen’s care for the moment.”

“Good, then you come with,” Madame Juhi waved him over cheerfully, “You cook?”

“I am very good at following orders,” was what Gongyi Xiao said, which was either the best or the worst thing he could have said, because Madame Juhi grabbed him and immediately folded him into the commotion of her children and put him to work.

“No worry, I take care of him and bring him back, no parts missing,” Madame Juhi assured him when Shen Yuan tried to rescue the poor cultivator. “Manish will teach him, he need practice Chinese anyway. You go and make husband pay you proper. Go.”

Manish, for his part, patted Gongyi Xiao on the shoulder sympathetically. Gongyi Xiao, still looking a little lost and a bit more bewildered, nevertheless smiled and mouthed ‘I’ll be fine’ at Shen Yuan before he got dragged in the direction of the communal kitchens.

Well. He survived an actual demon invasion, Shen Yuan guessed Gongyi Xiao could survive washing dishes.

So Shen Yuan found himself in the little partitioned corner of the tent at a tea table with Mr. Singh, holding a cup of exquisite tea and engaged in a fight far more vicious than the Sabre-tooth Spotted Tiger could ever hope to provide.

“Do I look like I am made of money?” Mr. Singh scoffed, gesturing at the monster parts laid out on a leather mat, “20 gold and 6 silver, not a copper more.”

“You and I both know you’ll sell it to that overblown collector for at least a hundred gold,” Shen Yuan returned in kind, “120 if you also sell him the story that it took two cultivators to take it down. 50.”

“If you wanted 50 you should have brought me the head!” Mr. Singh waved a hand dramatically, “That I could have sold him for 120, but you only bothered to bring back useful bits, not trophies. Useful things always sell, but the trophies are where the real money is. 20 and 10.”

“That paltry sum wouldn’t even get me to Damascus, let alone me and Gongyi Xiao to Constantinople! 40, or I take my chances with the other sharks.”

“The other sharks will only pay you that if they would grab both you and your boy while you are sleeping,” Mr. Singh scoffed, and unfortunately, Shen Yuan knew he wasn’t wrong. “20 and 15, and both you and your boy will not become merchandise.”

“I believe I’ve already proven I can take care of myself, and it’s easier to keep watch with two of us,” Shen Yuan said sarcastically, “So I believe I like my odds. I’m not going below-”

“Baba!” a tiny voice interrupted them, and the something even tinier crashed into Shen Yuan’s back, “Yuan!”

It was little Rohan, Mr. Singh’s eldest grandchild. By Shen Yuan’s best guess, he was around three or four, cute as a button and had no trouble using it to his advantage. He’d seen Shen Yuan come in flying on Xiu Ya once and had not stopped begging to go flying with him. Unfortunately, his parents had expressly forbidden it. Amit and Aisha, Mr. Singh’s eldest son and daughter-in-law, had taken one look at Shen Yuan balancing on the flat side of his sword with nothing but his Qi holding him up and very nearly told Shen Yuan to his face that he was no longer welcome anywhere near their son.

Mr. Singh had talked some sense into them, but Shen Yuan was still not allowed to take Rohan flying. That didn’t stop Rohan, though.

“Rohan,” Mr. Singh tried to sound gruff and failed utterly, “Baba is working! You know not to interrupt.”

“When is Yuan gonna take me with him?” Rohan asked, propping his chin on Shen Yuan’s shoulder and looking at him with his best puppy eyes. “Please?”

Shen Yuan had a brilliant idea. He twisted around to grab Rohan around the waist and tumble him into his lap. “Oh, is that the offer we’re going for now? I accept.”

“Eh?” Mr. Singh blinked at him.

“20 gold and 15 silver and your firstborn grandchild,” Shen Yuan grinned, tickling Rohan’s tummy until the boy squealed with laughter, “A very acceptable price. You have a deal.”

“Now wait a second!” Mr. Singh puffed up in outrage, “My grandson is worth more than some monster parts! He’s worth a whole monster, at least!”

“He offered.”

“He does not get to negotiate!”

“Do you want to come with me?” Shen Yuan offered the boy with a grin, “We’re going to fly on swords over the desert. Have you ever touched the clouds? Do you know they’re actually wet?”

“Really?!” Rohan’s eyes got even bigger in absolute wonder. He scrambled out of Shen Yuan’s lap so he could stand up and throw his arms around his neck, “I wanna go! I wanna touch the clouds! Baba! I’m going with Yuan!”

“Absolutely not!” Mr. Singh thundered with a fearsome frown. Everyone in the tent froze, including Shen Yuan, who feared he might have taken it too far after all.

“Ah, Mr. Singh, I didn’t mean to-” Mr. Singh held up a hand to stop him, though he didn’t look happy.

“My own bloody fault, teaching you how to negotiate properly,” he grumbled like a rudely awoken grizzly bear, “Bah, maybe I ought to trade him for that boy you brought with you, that one’s at least not spoiled rotten.”

Shen Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. He patted Rohan on the back consolingly. “Ah, you heard your Baba, he can’t bear to give you up. I’m sorry.”

“He didn’t say that!” Rohan protested, “He said I can go if Little Big stays!”

‘Little Big’ was probably Gongyi Xiao, who would most certainly not appreciate being traded like an exotic pet. “But your Baba would be very said if you went with me, and Gongyi Xiao has to go home too.”

Rohan might have been young, but he had already demonstrated he inherited his grandfather’s sense of business. Correctly identifying who was the weakest link, he turned to Mr. Singh with tears in his eyes and a shaking lower lip. “Baba… I want to go flying… Just once. Please?”

Mr. Singh heaved a sigh of defeat, conceding victory.

“I surrender,” he said, “What are your terms?”

“40 and I take Rohan flying, every day until he’s satisfied,” Shen Yuan said with a grin, “Not high, and I don’t have to stand on my sword to make it fly. I can hold his hand and walk beside him as he goes.”

“And I wanna touch clouds,” Rohan added in.

“First there must be some clouds in the sky,” Shen Yuan told him, “And for that, you need to negotiate with your mama and papa. If they say yes, then I can take you. Free of charge.”

“‘Free of charge’ he says, right after robbing me blind,” Mr. Singh rubbed his forehead, “I’d be proud if I didn’t have a headache.”

“Look at it this way,” Shen Yuan grinned, standing up and setting Rohan on his hip as he went, “Out of the three of us, he is the one who negotiated free sword flying lessons. He will carry your legacy well.”

Mr. Singh straightened up his back a bit, since he couldn’t puff up his chest with pride too obviously. And then he deflated. “Aiya, now I have to explain it to Aisha. Right evil you are, Master Shen, to negotiate like Ganesha whispered in your ear. Now that I know you speak our language, it’s possible!”

Shen Yuan’s grasp of Hindu gods was rather shaky, but he’s seen enough elephant-headed figurines in makeshift shrines to know he was some kind of patron god of businesses. That was probably Mr. Singh’s only slightly bitter acknowledgement that Shen Yuan finally learned how to barter like a proper bloodthirsty merchant. To be fair, that was probably one of the highest compliments Mr. Singh could give him.

Shen Yuan held Rohan a little tighter so he didn’t tip over, and bowed. “Coming from Mr. Singh, that is indeed high praise. This one is deeply flattered.”

“Ach, there he goes again!” Mr. Singh waved a hand at him, this time in better humor, “Speaking like one of them mountain scholars that boast the four winds do not move them, just as soon as he gets what he wants! Many faces you have, Master Shen, many!”

Shen Yuan was a bit less sure if that was a compliment or not, so he just smiled and turned around, leaving the little partition with baby Rohan.

It turned they were done just in time. Juhi, Manish and Gongyi Xiao were just setting the table as Shen Yuan came out. Taking a look at his new charge, Gongyi Xiao at least didn’t look too traumatized. He did have a troubled look on his face that didn’t ease up when he saw Shen Yuan come out.

“Yuan!” Juhi crowed in delight as she saw him, “You made husband pay you well?”

“Very well, Madame,” Shen Yuan nodded, “So well I would have thought you would object.”

“Bah!” Juhi scoffed as if the very idea was ridiculous, “You think I marry Arun because he pretty? Only stupid girls do that. I marry Arun because he rich, smart enough to make more and generous with money. Man like that always take care and has people to take care of him! You just prove I marry very well!”

Shen Yuan couldn’t help but laugh. “Madame, you should know better than to sell yourself short. Mr. Singh got very lucky indeed on the day you chose him.”

Juhi laughed along with him, with her hands on her hips, that full-bellied laugh only old and satisfied people who’ve already impressed everyone they needed to impress could belt out. “Flattery, mere flattery! But Yuan is right, right he is. Little Boy,” she smacked the back of her palm on Gongyi Xiao’s arm, “You look out for your master, he kind like husband, but not a lick of husband’s sense! Some stupid girl will think she can play with him, you better eat her before she eat him up!”

“Madame Juhi, I don’t think that turn of phrase translates well into Mandarin,” Shen Yuan’s smile went a little wobbly and his cheeks a little red. Bad enough that the word she was using for ‘master’ made Shen Yuan sound like Gongyi Xiao’s employer rather than elder, but whatever saying Madame Juhi was trying to express… Well there was no way to take it that wasn’t scandalous or worrying.

Or maybe it translated just fine, because Manish was trying and failing to cover up his laughter. Gongyi Xiao had a much better poker face than Shen Yuan, and even his eyebrows were going rather high.

“I say what I say,” Juhi said with a decisive nod, “But now we eat lunch. Go wash. Shoo! And take Rohan with, he yours until Amit buy him back.”

“Well, you heard the Madame,” Shen Yuan hefted Rohan a little higher on his hip and nodded to Gongyi Xiao, “The washroom is over here.”

‘Washroom’, in this context, was just a high table with a bowl and pitcher of water with a soapcake next to it. Shen Yuan pulled out a little stool for Rohan to stand on and made sure the little boy was washing his hands properly.

“And now rinse,” Shen Yuan poured a bit of clean water over his hands and patted them dry with a towel, “Let me see. Good, now stay here while I wash.”

“Little Big didn’t wash!”

“He’s going to wash his hands now, thank you for showing him how to do it,” Shen Yuan patted Rohan’s fluffy curls. He might be a bit guilty of doing that more often than would be strictly polite with the child of his hosts, but nobody had complained so far, and Rohan’s hair was so soft! Like a little black sheep! Listen, a man had needs, and not petting something so cute required more self control than Shen Yuan possessed. 

More importantly, Rohan liked it, so Shen Yuan was allowed to keep doing it. Win-win!

But anyway. “Has Gongyi Xiao used soap before?”

“Not like this,” the boy confessed, looking at the soapcake with a strange expression.

“It’s just like soapberries. Here, I’ll show you,” Shen Yuan lathered up his own hands and, still holding the soapcake, took Gongyi Xiao’s hands into his to do the same, “Once you get a good lather going, you need to rub it into every crevice. It’s really important before meals, because Indians eat with their hands, not chopsticks. Madame Juhi probably told you already, but you hold your plate with your left hand and eat with your right only. And you only touch your own food, if you want more you tell Juhi or Manish and they scoop more food on your plate. It’s very hygienic as long as you remember: right hand touches your food, left hand everything else, and if you do mix them up you just run to wash your hands again and come back.”

“I think I’ll manage to remember that much,” Gongyi Xiao said a bit sarcastically, his cheeks pink in embarrassment at being talked to like a child, “I have eaten food without chopsticks before.”

“But you haven’t eaten as a guest in an Indian household, have you?” Shen Yuan raised an eyebrow, “It’s always best to know the etiquette beforehand rather than embarrass yourself.”

“Fair enough,” Gongyi Xiao smiled, “I must thank Master Shen for educating me.”

“That is generally the elders’ duty,” Shen Yuan retorted, then rinsed out his hands with the pitcher, “Here, hold out your hands, the towel is here.”

Gongyi Xiao did as he was told. Shen Yuan took another moment to go out, throw out the water in the basin and refill the pitcher from the barrel outside, dry his hands and wipe down the handle. He had probably taken too long to do that, because he had just been returning with the basin and the pitcher when Rohan shot face-first into his legs, whining that he was hungry and to hurry up.

Shen Yuan petted his hair again and took his hand as he walked to the washroom. “Now, now, you really think your grandma will let you go hungry?”

“I want to sit with you,” Rohan pouted up at him, “I want to go flying before papa says no.”

“You can sit with me,” Shen Yuan assured him, “But leave the bargaining to your baba.”

Rohan nodded earnestly. Shen Yuan laughed and petted his head some more, because he really was the cutest thing in the world. He vaguely wondered if this was how Luo Binghe had looked like when he was that age, all big dark eyes and black fleece on his head. Though, considering how he grew up, Shen Yuan had a feeling Luo Binghe hadn’t had the fortune to be as plump as Rohan. Trying to imagine Rohan skinny and overworked as Luo Binghe had been made his stomach twist unpleasantly, so he averted that train of thought.

And thinking of his future murderer as a cute baby was probably illegal, so Shen Yuan stopped doing that too. 

Gongyi Xiao was waiting for them right where Shen Yuan left him, arms crossed and looking deep in thought. 

“Something on your mind?” Shen Yuan asked as he set the handwashing dishes on the table.

“Thinking about my mission,” Gongyi Xiao confessed.

“The ‘peculiar’ one?” Shen Yuan asked.

“Mmn,” the young man nodded, eyes darting between Rohan and Shen Yuan, “I thought… I thought I was in the right place, but I don’t think I am anymore. I should get going.”

Shen Yuan frowned. “Before lunch?”

“I have a long way to go,” Gongyi Xiao uncrossed his arms and bowed a little lower than Shen Yuan’s status merited, unless he was apologizing. 

Unfortunately, it seemed he was. “Thank you for everything, Master Shen. Please make my excuses to our hosts.”

“What- Wait!” Shen Yuan grabbed Gongyi Xiao’s sleeve before he could dart out past him, “Do you know how far it is to China? You can’t make that journey in a day, you know! And certainly not on an empty stomach! Why are you in such a hurry?”

“Like I said, I’m in the wrong place,” Gongyi Xiao tried to politely extract his sleeve from Shen Yuan’s grip, but Shen Yuan was not a middle child for nothing. Gongyi Xiao was getting nowhere. “I have no reason to stay.”

“You have plenty!” Shen Yuan protested, “I didn’t even give you your share of the money for catching the tiger!”

Gongyi Xiao smiled. It was not a happy smile. “My three gold coins, huh?”

“It’s twenty, actually,” Shen Yuan corrected him, “I negotiated for 40, and you get half. The three coins were for teaching me how to dry my clothes. And you haven’t even done that.”

Gongyi Xiao still looked conflicted, but at least he’d stopped trying to get out of Shen Yuan’s grip. That didn’t mean Shen Yuan was stupid enough to let him go.

“Look, sometimes, the right place just seems wrong because you didn’t give it enough time,” Shen Yuan said, trying to project an aura of wisdom, “Or simply because you’re looking at it on an empty stomach. If you are so insistent on going, at least do it on a full belly and a good night’s sleep. Think of it as journey prep, if you will. But stay.”

Don’t go rushing into your death, Shen Yuan wanted to say, The only way to survive the narrative is to not let it find you.

Gongyi Xiao finally looked at him, searching Shen Yuan’s face for something, but in the end a corner of his mouth twitched. “Very well, if Master Shen insists.”

“I do,” Shen Yuan nodded, then started dragging Gongyi Xiao in the direction of the lunch table.

“Finally,” Rohan muttered. Shen Yuan patted his head consolingly.

Rohan holding his hand and Gongyi Xiao being dragged along in his other, Shen Yuan got them both into the dining room. By then, most of the Singh family had gathered, Mr. Singh at the head, his eldest son and his wife to his left, then Manish, Mansur, their only sister Mahira and their youngest son, only a few years older than his nephew Rohan, Hassan.

As guests and business partners, Shen Yuan and Gongyi Xiao sat to Mr. Singh’s other side. Shen Yuan sat on the cushion and just plopped Rohan on his lap. That way the boy would be happy he was eating with his current favorite person and Gongyi Xiao would have enough elbow space. 

Judging by the baleful but resigned looks Amit and Aisha were giving him, Mr. Singh had already told them about their deal while he’d been gone. 

“Mama! Papa!” Rohan bounced in Shen Yuan’s arms, “I’m gonna go flying!!!”

“Only about this high off the ground,” Shen Yuan held up his flat palm to about Gongyi Xiao’s shoulder height, “I know you worry, but this Master knows what he’s doing. I promise he won’t get hurt.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Aisha sighed, “I know you wouldn’t let him fall. But you won’t be here forever, and this isn’t something he will ever forget. It’s not the sword that’s the problem, Master Shen, it’s the ideas you give him. He will never be a cultivator, and wanting it will just leave him disappointed.”

Shen Yuan blinked at her. “I hadn’t thought of that. But if that’s something he wants, there are Sects that take in foundlings, like Cang Qiong. It’s too early to tell his potential but-”

“But would your Chinese sect take in an Indian boy?” Mr. Singh asked, then nodded in Gongyi Xiao’s direction, “You, at least, be honest. If Rohan went to your sect and wanted to be a flying hero, would they take him?”

Gongyi Xiao had been looking at them in confusion, but upon being asked his face dawned in understanding. “To be honest, if you are willing to pay for it, Huan Hua taken in everyone regardless of potential. Some sects take in foundlings, or recruit those with potential regardless of background. It would be possible.”

“But?” Mr. Singh raised an eyebrow.

Gongyi Xiao smiled derisively. “Cultivators may boast that they are above petty things like prejudice, but they are, in my experience, the pettiest small-minded creatures in existence.”

“Gongyi Xiao!” Shen Yuan hissed at him.

“Am I wrong, Master Shen?” the young man raised an eyebrow at him, “I do not know what your experience has been like, but I reckon you wouldn’t be running to the other end of the world if it had all been positive.”

Shen Yuan couldn’t refute that. At least, not without revealing that he was, technically, the literal embodiment of everything wrong with the Jianghu. 

“And worse,” Gongyi Xiao continued, “Before they become Cultivators, they’re children. And children can be even more cruel than Demons. They attack everything they see is different from them, anything they are jealous of,” his expression turned slightly bitter, “Anyone they deem an outsider. It doesn’t matter how talented Rohan might turn out to be. They will do their best to eat him alive.”

A shiver went down Shen Yuan’s spine at the way he talked. What in the world had happened to him? 

Come to think of it… Gongyi Xiao’s backstory was never revealed. There was that one throwaway line from the Old Palace Master’s monologue, that he and Luo Binghe were cousins through their mothers, and that the Old Palace Master had taken him in personally. Not because of any potential or wealth he possessed, but simply because he was, at the time, the closest living relative of Su Xiyan. And once a better option had come along, Gongyi Xiao had been quietly discarded. The legacy he had worked so hard to live up to, taken away on the same whim it was given.

In the book, he had never been described as bitter about it. But maybe that was just because Luo Binghe had never bothered to look.

Shen Yuan petted Rohan’s curls, once again feeling melancholy about the future that seemed so determined to revive the past. 

“Why did you become a cultivator, boy?” Mr. Singh asked, “You could have chosen your other path.”

“I didn’t know it was an option at the time,” Gongyi Xiao’s hand twitched over his chest, “And my mother… My mother had wanted it for me.”

“Would she want it if she knew what you became?” 

Gongyi Xiao smiled viciously, fingers nearly ripping into his robe where he clenched his fist. “Mr. Singh, if she were still alive, I never would have even considered it. If I’d had to leave her to become a cultivator, I never would have.”

For one terrifying moment, Shen Yuan wondered if he had a choice. He was familiar with the Old Palace Master’s techniques, from one of the last chapters Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had put any thought into. The part where the Old Palace Master revealed how he’d been pulling the strings for so long, he had basically been running the show and Luo Binghe was his lion jumping through hoops. His manipulations were usually more subtle, subtle enough that even Luo Binghe had very nearly fallen for them. He would have, if the Little Palace Mistress hadn’t had a crisis of conscience at the last second, and even then it was almost too late. 

Of course, once he died, there was zero followup. Not a single paragraph exploring how the betrayal of one of the few elders Luo Binghe thought he could trust impacted him. There was just placating the Little Palace Mistress with more papapapa. Shen Yuan had needed a new monitor by the time he’d finished reading that, his rage had been so incandescent.

But he’d had a point. The point being, that if the Old palace Master was willing to go to such lengths to manipulate the protagonist, he would have absolutely been willing to kill Gongyi Xiao’s mother to scoop up her son for himself. 

And Gongyi Xiao had no idea. He would never find out, either, because by the time the Old palace Master had been revealed as the secret mastermind, he was already long dead. 

Yet another reason to stop him from going back at all costs.

“So in the end, I think it’s your choice to make,” Gongyi Xiao continued, “Cultivation will make him powerful. Surviving the hardships of a sect will make him strong. But none of it will make him happy. So you decide what do you want him to be: strong or happy. Because he cannot have both.”

And with that bleak proclamation, Gongyi Xiao quietly excused himself from the table.

Shen Yuan petted Rohan’s hair. The boy was looking up at him curiously, like he hadn’t understood a word the adults had said but was used to it. He probably was used to it, being a toddler. 

“I’ll be right back,” Shen Yuan assured him, then handed him over to Mr. Singh and darted out after Gongyi Xiao.

Luckily, the young man didn’t go far. Shen Yuan caught him right at the entrance, standing there with his fists clenched and lips twisted in a silent snarl that looked almost demonic.

He turned away when Shen Yuan approached. “Apologies for ruining lunch.”

“You said what you thought they needed to hear, and you were honest,” Shen Yuan said, “Sometimes, that’s the right thing to do, even if nobody will thank you for it.”

“I let my bitterness get the better of me,” Gongyi Xiao corrected, dragging his hand over his face, “I thought I had it under control. I had a plan I was going to follow, and I was going to make the man that made my life a living hell pay, so why should I be bitter when revenge was going to be so sweet?” He chuckled darkly. “I guess I underestimated him once again. Even after so many years, he still keeps ruining everything good in my life just by existing. I fucking hate it. I hate him. And I can’t even wring his neck because the bastard is-”

He cut himself off almost violently, almost shaking in his rage. His Qi, suppressed to the point of being inconspicuous, started flaring in a way that was honestly worrying.

Shen Yuan bit his lip, wondering how to approach this. “Look… I don’t know the details of your situation exactly, but I didn’t leave China that long ago. And… Rumors spread fast.”

“Which ones?” Gongyi Xiao asked, nearly spitting the words.

“The ones that…” Shen Yuan hestated, not sure if saying Luo Binghe’s name was a good idea at the moment, “A certain someone came to your sect and… Well, caught the Old Palace Master’s eye.”

“If you’re talking about that beast,” Gongyi Xiao spat that word in a way that raised the hair on Shen Yuan’s arms, “that crawled out of hell and made it his mission to take everything from me, you’re right. I hate him. But I think you’ll agree I have a good reason to.”

“And I think you agree that hatred isn’t worth your life,” Shen Yuan finally approached and gently nudged Gongyi Xiao to look at him, “Remember when I said ‘the best revenge is a life well lived’? I know going back there and dying in a blaze of righteousness and glory might seem like a good idea now, when you’ve just lost everything, but you have so much to live for. Don’t throw that away.”

Gongyi Xiao frowned. “Why are you so certain I’d lose?”

Because you aren’t a protagonist! Shen Yuan couldn’t say. Instead, he prevaricated. “Ah, I have heard other things too, about… The new Head Disciple of Huan Hua. After the Immortal Alliance conference-”

“Ah,” Gongyi Xiao scoffed, “You mean the fact that he’s a demon?”

“You know!?” Shen Yuan balked. That wasn’t supposed to be known until much later!

“I’m surprised you know,” Gongyi Xiao raised an eyebrow, “I only found out when I caught him in bed with Xiao Gongzhu, and was then sworn to secrecy by the Old Palace Master. As far as I know he’s done an excellent job quashing rumors.”

Fuck. Bullshit time! “I spent some time in the Borderlands, trading with demons. They’re a lot chattier than you might think, and have very sharp hearing. A lot of them spoke about how a new Heavenly Demon came out of the Abyss and started conquering territories like child’s play. And they talked about him moving onto the Human realm at the same time as the rumors of the winner of the Immortal Alliance conference turning up at Huan Hua started circulating. I connected the dots.”

He really did! Granted, he knew what to look out for and was keeping an eye on the hints as to when he ought to get the hell out fo dodge, but 90% of that was the truth!

“Look, the point is that you would need a miracle or godly intervention to win against Luo Binghe,” Shen Yuan hurried on before Gongyi Xiao could question him further, “And he’s only going to grow more powerful. It would be a suicide mission to go against him. But you got out! You’re free now! You said it yourself, you get to choose if you want to be strong or to be happy! Revenge is sweet in theory, but it can sour very fast if it doesn’t pan out. And,” Shen Yuan could feel his cheeks growing hot, but he needed to get the words out. It was for a good cause! “And I really don’t want you to die.”

Gongyi Xiao’s eyes widened in shock, then melted into a smile. “I’m flattered by your faith in me.”

“I’m being realistic,” Shen Yuan retorted, “You’re from Huan Hua, didn’t your elders tell you what it took to subdue the last Heavenly Demon? And this time one of the major Sects has rallied behind him. If anything, we’re lucky we got out of China when we did.”

“Mmm,” Gongyi Xiao nodded, conceding easily, “Yes, I suppose there is wisdom in getting out of the warpath of such a vicious beast.”

Shen Yuan sighed and smacked his arm lightly. “Don’t call him a beast.”

“Isn’t that what he is?”

“No,” Shen Yuan said decisively, “He’s a demon. That’s a very big difference. I know your opinion of demons isn’t so great, after everything, but that’s one prejudice you really need to let go of if we’re going to be travelling together. We’re going to meet people from all races and walks of life, and you need to keep in mind they’re just that: people. Even if they’re not humans.”

Gongyi Xiao looked at him like he’d sprouted three heads again. “Master Shen, we’re talking about demons. All demons are evil. That’s just their nature.”

Shen Yuan gave him a quelling look. “Do you think all humans are good?”

“Of course not, but-”

“So why would you think all demons are bad? Yes, you have a good reason to hate one demon in particular, but bear in mind he doesn’t represent the demon race any more than you or I represent the human race. There’s good and bad humans, and there’s good and bad demons too. But fundamentally, both humans and demons are just people. We all have the capacity for great evil in us. Some are just lucky they never had to discover it. You can only judge people for what they did do, not for what you are afraid they’re capable of. The sooner you learn that, the better off you’ll be.”

Gongyi Xiao was still looking at him like Shen Yuan had hit his head at some point, but now he had a deeply thoughtful look on his face. Then he smiled in such a soft and wistful way it made Shen Yuan’s knees feel funny. “Ah, Master Shen, had my Shizun been half the man you are, my life would have gone a lot differently.”

Shen Yuan scoffed, reminding his knees to do their job properly. “A lot of lives would have gone differently if the Old Palace Master was interested in anything but his own agendas,” he hesitated, but in the end decided fuck it. He was the elder comforting a distraught youth, he was allowed just this once!

He reached up and gently petted Gongyi Xiao’s head. It really was as soft as it looked.

Yeah. Gongyi Xiao looked like he couldn’t believe his audacity either.

“But you’re not his disciple anymore. You are your own person now. And you have all the time in the world to figure out who you want to be when you grow up.”

With those hopefully encouraging words, Shen Yuan lowered his arm and, while Gongyi Xiao was still baffled, grabbed his hand. “Come on, the food will get cold.”

The Singh family had waited for them before starting to eat, though that might have something to do with the fact that Rohan was now sobbing in his mother’s arms.

“What happened?” Shen Yuan hurried closer. 

Upon hearing him approach, Rohan looked up, and ran over to hug Shen Yuan’s knees.

“I’m sorry!” he cried, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just wanted to go flying I didn’t want to chase you and Little Big away I’m sorry!”

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Shen Yuan knelt down and hugged Rohan, hoping to comfort him. He looked to Mr. Singh for an explanation.

“He’ll be fine,” Mr. Singh nodded, “My silly daughter-in-law worried so much about nothing, a problem sprung up from her worries alone. The boy just wanted to go flying, not become one of your immortal heroes. He was convinced his parents had chased you away and started crying.”

Shen Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. “Rohan, come now, come now, no need to cry, I’m still here and I’m not leaving so soon. You’ll put too much salt on your food like that. Let’s go eat so we can go flying later.”

Rohan nodded and loudly snuffled his snot back into his nostrils, which prompted Shen Yuan to hurriedly pull out his handkerchief and try to clean him up a bit. Aisha shot up from her seat, babbling something about letting her do that, no need to bother, but trying to get Rohan to let go of Shen Yuan did not go well.

“Please don’t take it to heart,” Shen Yuan tried to comfort the young mother, who looked like she was going to start crying herself when her son turned away from her, “He’s very young and all he knows is that my time here is limited, he’s just scared I’ll leave before I fulfill my promise.”

“He’s right,” Madame Juhi patted Aisha on the shoulder comfortingly, “Boys are like that, they chase after things they think they might lose and turn back on things they’re confident are theirs. You’re his mama, he thinks he’ll have you forever too. He’ll take a few years to learn to appreciate it.”

Aisha nodded, still oscillating between guilty and miserable, but Madame Juhi shuffled her back into her seat and nodded at Shen Yuan to take Rohan with him.

“Is everything alright?” Gongyi Xiao asked when Shen Yuan sat next to him.

“Ah, Aisha’s just worried about Rohan,” Shen Yuan patted the boy’s back. He’d thankfully stopped crying but was still clinging to Shen Yuan like he might run off again if he didn’t. “He’s a bit too young to understand the details of our… previous discussion, and thought we left for good when we ran out, and Aisha felt guilty for making him cry. It’s fine, he’ll calm down in a minute.”

Gongyi Xiao looked down at Rohan, lips twisting with guilt too. Shen Yuan smacked a hand on his arm lightly before he could open his mouth. “Not you too, there’s been enough of that! Really, this was supposed to be a happy event, let’s get back on that!”

“Yuan is right. Manish!” Madame Juhi snapped her fingers in the direction of the entrance, “You can finally bring food! Aisha, you go help him. ”

Aisha nodded and went to help carry the plates. Her and Manish together brought two plates stacked high with naan, many, many pots of stews and sauces and a long platter of very short, chubby version of a familiar fruit.

“Bananas?” Shen Yuan turned to Mr. Singh, “How in the world did you get these?”

“What kind of merchant do you think I am, ah?” Mr. Singh laughed at him, “While you were out hunting, I was not idle. That caravan you were waiting for, they came here and brought these from the south today,” Mr. Singh clicked his tongue, “I thought to surprise you, but of course, you have already seen them. You have seen everything!”

“I’ve travelled a lot,” Shen Yuan said, “But I didn’t know these grew in India.” 

“I’ve never seen them before,” Gongyi Xiao admitted, looking at the bushel of bananas with a frown. 

“You will but later! Those are desert!” Madame Juhi wagged her finger at him, “Now give plate, you must try my best work first!”

Madame Juhi took Gongyi Xiao’s plate and first poured all of the sauces into little bronze cups and arranged them on the outer rim, then stacked some doughy balls, fried crackers, and dried berries on the side, the plate nearly overflowing by the time she was done and handed it back to him.

Gongyi Xiao, remembering Shen Yuan’s instructions, dutifully accepted the plate with his left hand, but he looked at it with some mild bafflement.

Shen Yuan quickly sussed out the problem and hurried to whisper in Gongyi Xiao’s ear. “You’re supposed to eat it with bread,” he gestured at the stack of naan, “It’s like mantou, but baked instead of steamed. Rice is actually more common, and naan bread is served to impress the guests since it’s harder to make. You just take one from the top of the pile, don’t touch those underneath, fold it up and scoop the sauces with it.”

Gongyi Xiao nodded and did just that. He got a thoughtful look on his face as he tried one of the curry sauces and inquired about it. Manish smiled and launched into details about the recipe and how he was experimenting. To Shen Yuan’s surprise, he and Gongyi Xiao launched into a very in-depth discussion of spices and cooking methods, with Madame Juhi chiming in with her own comments and to help Manish with his pronunciation, since his Mandrin wasn’t as fluent.

Shen Yuan left them to it, and focused on Rohan. Although the boy was old enough to have his own plate, he was adamantly not moving from Shen Yuan’s lap, so Shen Yuan just told Madame Juhi he was fine with the boy using his plate. Madame Juhi raised an eyebrow, but she was too polite to outright say ‘Your funeral’ and just gave him extra big portions.

Shen Yuan had gathered that naan was generally not meant to be shared, since it wasn’t very hygienic, but he was a cultivator, he was hardly going to catch something from a mortal kid. Still, he tore little bits of his own bread and dipped them before handing them to Rohan. But Rohan, who very correctly sussed out Shen Yuan was a sucker for cute kids, very quickly didn’t even bother taking those bits in his own hands, just tilted his head back and opened his mouth.

“What are you, a baby bird?” Shen Yuan asked, trying to sound scolding but very aware he wasn’t fooling anyone, not even himself.

“Yes,” Rohan said with zero shame.

“Don’t talk with your mouth open,” Shen Yuan poked his cheek and continued giving Rohan more food every time he heard a little ‘aaah’.

“You’re very good with children,” Gongyi Xiao remarked in amusement at some point.

“Well it’s not like it’s hard,” Shen Yuan petted Rohan’s curls with his clean hand, “Especially at this age, they’re easy to amuse.” To demonstrate his point, he waved a bit of bread in circles in front of Rohan’s face, which made the boy laugh and chase the bite, finally snapping his teeth on it like a tiger pouncing on his prey.

Shen Yuan made a show of being terrified he’d lost a finger in Rohan’s jaws, which also amused the boy greatly. The next time he opened his mouth for a bite, it was with his gums pulled back to show off his milk teeth and what was supposed to be a menacing smile. 

That little play continued to the end of the main course, when dessert was brought out. Little colorful balls were laid out on platters, along with cups of white pudding. Which reminded him.

“Have you ever tried animal milk?” he whispered in Gongyi Xiao’s ear.

“...a few times,” Gongyi Xiao whispered back a little suspiciously, “Why?”

“Indian desserts are often made with cow milk, which is harder to digest than soy milk,” Shen Yuan told him, “Some people can’t tolerate it at all, but you don’t know until you actually try it.”

Gongyi Xiao nodded in understanding. “I’ve had no problems before, but I wasn’t a fan of the taste. I haven’t tried cow’s milk though.”

“Give it a try, but don’t force yourself.”

It turned out that it wasn’t the milk that was the problem. Gongyi Xiao bit into one of the pera balls and for a moment looked like he was going to spit it back out. He managed to swallow it, but he didn’t arrange his face into neutrality before their hosts noticed.

“Is it no good?” Madame Juhi asked.

“It’s fine, it’s just,” Gongyi Xiao grimaced slightly, “Very, very sweet. I’m not used to it.”

“Ah, true,” Shen Yuan nodded, “Our cuisine doesn’t use a lot of sugar, and these are mostly condensed milk and pure sugar.”

“More for Yuan then, he has no problem,” Madame Juhi grinned and poured Gongyi Xiao some water, “Here, wash the taste. I bring you some chikki, they are just nuts and śarkarā, you shall like it. ”

Madame Juhi went off before Gongyi Xiao could stop her. Shen Yuan smiled and leaned to whisper in his ear again. “You can sneak your sweets to me if you don’t like them, I promise they won’t go to waste.”

Gongyi Xiao turned to him and smiled mischievously. “Does Master Shen have a sweet tooth?”

Kinda, yeah. Shen Yuan grew up in the modern world where there was a milk tea shop on every corner and gummy bears in every convenience store. Even as a sickly shut-in with a hyperactive immune system, the amount of sugar he could put away was almost impressive.

“So what if I do?” he turned away in mock offense, “No man is perfect.”

Gongyi Xiao laughed and offered his plate in apology. Mollified, Shen Yuan wasted no time in transferring them all to his own plate. Between him and Rohan, most of the colorful sweet balls were gone by the time Madame Juhi returned with a little plate of nuts and caramel. 

“Oh, these are like tanghulu!” Shen Yuan said when he spotted them.

“It’s similar, yes,” Gonygi Xiao said as he bit into one and discreetly transferred the others to Shen Yuan.

Judging by Madame Juhi’s expression, he was not discreet enough. Oh well.

Finally, the bananas made an appearance. Madame Juhi offered some to Gongyi Xiao first, who predictably had no idea how to eat it and no one was demonstrating. No doubt on purpose, to have a laugh at his expense, but Shen Yuan took pity on him and stopped him before Gongyi Xiao went to bite it straight at the middle.

“You’re supposed to peel it,” he told him, gently rescuing the fruit from his hands, “See, you pinch here, pull back and it basically peels itself. You hold it by the stem at the bottom, and take a bite from the top. Here, try it.”

He handed Gongyi Xiao the banana back, who took it with a, uh… Suggestive look on his face. He looked at Shen Yuan with half-lidded eyes for a moment and wrapped his mouth around the poor fruit in a way that was… Technically appropriate but you were still left feeling like you witnessed something not meant for you.

Sometimes, Shen Yuan managed to forget he was living in a porn novel. Other times, he was rather unpleasantly reminded. Fuck your mother Airplane, was nobody spared your perversions??? Were bananas truly so cursed that not even a perfectly straight guy could eat one normally?

“It’s good,” Gongyi Xiao nodded, “Sweet, but not too much.”

“Have more!” Madame Juhi urged him with a smile. Then, for some unfathomable reason, she winked in Shen Yuan’s direction.

“Mami!” Mansur hissed under his breath at her, “There are children here!”

“So? They’ll be sleeping by the time Yuan even notices, and Rakshasa will need all the help he can get,” Madame Juhi whispered back, evidently unaware of how good a Cultivator’s hearing was. 

Suddenly, a realization slammed into Shen Yuan like a pile of bricks.

She thought- That they were- He’d just been comforting Gongyi Xiao! They were both straight! There was nothing to it but-

Oh god Gongyi Xiao had recently had his heart broken, he was doubtlessly all kinds of emotionally vulnerable, had Shen Yuan accidentally taken advantage of him??? Fuck you and your mother Airplane! What was Shen Yuan supposed to do now???

Luckily, Rohan came to his rescue. Now that he’d eaten his fill, he’d settled more comfortably in Shen Yuan’s lap and let out a big, jaw-cracking yawn.

“Ah, it’s time for his nap,” Aisha got up from the table, “Here, I’ll take him.”

“I don’t want to nap,” Rohan protested, but his head was lolling, “I want to go flying.”

“We can go after you’re well rested,” Shen Yuan smiled, gathered the boy in his arms and got up as well, “I can carry him.”

Thankfully, Aisha didn’t protest, just led Shen Yuan away from the table and into the part of the tent where the kids slept. Shen Yuan laid Rohan down on the blankets and pillows, and the boy was out before Shen Yuan even let him go.

“Thank you,” Aisha told him, picking at her nails nervously, “I apologise for being rude to you before. I was wrong. You’re really nothing like I thought you were.”

“What did you think I would be like?” Shen Yuan asked, tilting his head. He’d gotten the impression the young mother hadn’t liked him, yes, but he’d thought it was because she was afraid her son would start trying to jump off the roof on a toy sword or something.

“Like the other Chinese men,” she shrugged one shoulder, “Father-in-law said before he doesn’t like dealing with them.”

Shen Yuan probably ought to be offended at the implied insult, but honestly? He’d run into plenty low-IQ bullies that had delusions of proper villainy, and when money was on the line, they got even worse. If those penny-ante goons were the only example of Chinese men they encountered, Shen Yuan didn’t blame them one bit for their bad opinions.

“I believe I’ve met the type of men you are thinking of,” Shen Yuan smiled ruefully, “We would not even have a good opinion of ourselves if they are the only example we knew.”

Aisha’s lips twitched in a smile, relieved. “You are strange, Master Shen. But I think you would have been proper Kshatriya, had you been born among us. And we would have been lucky to have you. I hope- I wish your Rakshasa and you the best of luck.”

Her cheeks darkened slightly, and with those words she hurried back to the dining room. Shen Yuan was left in the children’s room, feeling like he had misunderstood her words at some point. 

And he kept hearing that one word, especially when they were talking about Gongyi Xiao. What in the world was a Rakshasa?

Well, he wouldn’t get his answer by standing there, so he meandered to the washroom to wash his hands, then went back to the table, where Gongyi Xiao had once again been roped into helping clean. When she noticed Shen Yuan, Madame Juhi shooed him off outside where Mr. Singh was smoking a pipe. 

“Ah, Master Shen,” Mr. Singh nodded, “I believe I owe you money.”

He set a pouch of coins on the small table. Shen Yuan sat next to him and collected his payment, though he didn’t open it to count them. It was considered rude to count the money you were given by someone you considered trustworthy.

“Might want to spend it at the market today,” Mr. Singh said around his pipe, “The offer is the best today, and you can finally barter. I do not need to worry you will be robbed blind, now I can sit back and relax as you rob them blind.”

Shen Yuan laughed. “I doubt me making doe eyes at them will work as well as when Rohan does it.”

“Hah, if anything it will work even better,” Mr. Singh laughed, “But you might be chased even more than you already are, if you go around seducing everyone who sells you a pretty trinket.”

Shen Yuan choked. “Mr. Singh, don’t even joke like that!”

“Who jokes?” Mr. Singh raised an eyebrow, “Master Shen, I know you are not blind, and I certainly know they have mirrors where you come from. You must know what you are doing when you smile at men.”

Shen Yuan’s mouth gaped like a slapped fish. Okay, yeah, Shen Qingqiu wasn’t exactly ugly. In fact, he was a written to be the very embodiment of scholarly elegance, to make a sharper contrast to his rotted evil insides. So when Shen Yuan took over and allowed his poor facial muscles to relax from their perpetual sneering position, well… Even by Xianxia standards, he was above average because of his cheekbones alone.

Generally, Shen Yuan did his best not to think of it, but this kind of was a porn novel he was living in. And after Luo Binghe had snatched up every woman worth looking at, it was logical that some men would eventually get desperate enough to, uh, explore the only options left. There had been a whole chapter about it, actually, an interlude of what happened at the palace when Luo Binghe wasn’t home. It was a very blatant framing device to write NTR lesbian porn, but there had been some interesting bits about the logistics of actually running the Xianxia version of the Forbidden City that Shen Yuan had really liked.

And… There had been that paragraph, where Qin Wanyue had been sighing about being lonely, and had asked a eunuch attendant if he ever mourned the fact that he would never get married. And the eunuch, apparently a former shidi of hers, joked that losing his balls was the best thing to ever happen to him because now he was being chased by so many men he had his pick of the litter. With all the women belonging to the Emperor that nobody dared to cuckold, the pretty eunuchs were the ones who had essentially taken on the duties of palace courtesans. In short, high class prostitutes.

Shen Yuan had spat blood at that, but honestly, what had he expected? A stallion novel to actually not fall into homophobic stereotypes of gay men? He wasn’t that stupid. But that bit had still stayed stuck in his memory. Qin Wanyue had sighed and simply said ‘Lucky you’ before she went back to sighing about Luo Binghe and, a few paragraphs later, had her sighs silenced between Little Palace Mistresses’ thighs.

Point was. Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had established that women being gay was fine, because lesbian porn sold. And even though it had been a joke, being gay was also allowed for men, if only to demonstrate how pathetic every other man was compared to the protagonist. And the System, struggling to grasp onto any bit of consistency the sellout author managed to produce, created a world where homophobia wasn’t really a thing. It didn’t even make sense for it to be, because while the Protagonist always had the luck to dive nose-first into a field of fuck-flowers with a beautiful woman, the fields of fuck-flowers were still there after he was gone, and the next passerby might not be so lucky.

Shen Yuan knew, because he had been the unlucky passerby at one point, and the other rogue cultivator he’d been travelling with had less than subtly tried to trip them both into a patch of very obvious sex pollen flowers. Shen Yuan had decked him and got out of dodge, of course, because even if he had been gay he objected to date rape drugs. 

So yes. Shen Yuan actually was aware that PIDW was full of men who, even if they might prefer a woman, had no problem being situationally gay, especially when all the straight guys kept getting killed for even looking at one of Luo Binghe’s women. As one bawdy tavern-goer had joked, ‘A chrysanthemum was still a flower’. Then he very blatantly groped Shen Yuan’s ass.

Yet another reason he was fleeing China. Qin Wanyue’s shidi might have been thrilled to have his pick of the litter, but Shen Yuan had had his fill of being groped and propositioned to by ugly cannon fodder. He had no interest in seeing how much worse it would get after Luo Binghe really ramped up his wife collecting hobby.

But for Mr. Singh to imply that Shen Yuan was intentionally seducing them?!

“Are you calling me a- A-” he spluttered, not even sure what the gay equivalent of a slut was.

Mr. Singh threw his head back and laughed uproariously. “Ah, I did not say there is anything wrong with that. We all use what we have to make it in the world. I have not always been married, you know, and I was a handsome youth. Before I was skilled with words, I still made good deals because I had a skilled tongue.”

Then he winked at Shen Yuan. Winked. 

Shen Yuan shot up from his seat before his face could actually combust. “You’re right, I should go to the market, wouldn’t want to miss anything! Bye!”

Then he turned tail and ran, Mr. Singh’s laughter echoing behind him like a mocking ghost.

He ended up hiding on the roof of the inn, face hidden in his knees and cursing everything. 

Yesterday, he had been just another rogue cultivator not worth a second remark. Now, he was a fucking seductress who took advantage of emotionally vulnerable young men and turned them situationally gay! Did he accidentally trip on a huli jing plotline instead of the intended character? Why was this happening to him of all people? 

Shen Yuan sighed, defeated. He could hazard a guess. So much about escaping the role of the Scum Villain. This was exactly what Shen Qingqiu had done, except with vulnerable young women! Shen Yuan had avoided that so far by mostly avoiding beautiful women and maintaining a professional distance when he crossed paths with one. Was the System so determined to screw him over that it just switched him over to men? To Gongyi Xiao of all people?

Though, as two men with targets on their back by the Protagonist, maybe they would be safer if they were gay? Gay men had no place in a Stallion Novel, except as a throwaway joke. Maybe that way, their last mention in the narrative would be Luo Binghe being told that his scum Shizun ran off with his former rival, and concluding that there was nothing Luo Binghe could do to him that would be worse than sharing Shen Qingqiu’s bed. It would be taken as a crass joke and forgotten.

Shen Yuan groaned, unfolding from his shrimp position and laying back against the roof. What the fuck was he thinking? He couldn’t do that to Gongyi Xiao, not even to save his life! And there was no guarantee it would work, either! He would just be taking advantage of him for nothing.

God, poor Gongyi Xiao. Forever doomed to have his emotions toyed with by the narrative itself! He was probably hoping for a rebound with the first person who had been kind to him after he left Huan Hua, and had the rotten luck to run into Shen Yuan! Why did the narrative hate him so much? Why did the System have to hate Shen Yuan???

He dug his fingers into his eyes, groaning some more. “I am the worst.”

“I can think of a few men worse than you.”

Shen Yuan yelped, nearly sliding off the roof as he was startled. Gongyi Xiao caught his hand before he could actually fall, and pulled him up with one hand. 

“I seem to have heard something about you going out to seduce merchants?” Gongyi Xiao asked with a teasing smile, which meant he’d heard everything and Shen Yuan could just throw his whole face out the window and himself along with it.

Unfortunately, doing the latter was a bit impossible to do with Gongyi Xiao having a death grip on his wrist. 

“Nobody is seducing anyone, and certainly not me!” Shen Yuan said waspishly, face boiling red, and still trying to wiggle out of Gongyi Xiao’s grip. Who allowed this kid to be so strong!? “Mr. Singh has just decided to be a sore loser with a bad sense of humor, that’s all! There is absolutely no seduction going on here!”

“Mmm,” Gongyi Xiao sounded like he didn’t believe him but it amused him to pretend, “Shame, that. I guess I will have to try harder from now on.”

Shen Yuan went red then pale and then god only knew what color. Times like these, he really regretted that he was not allowed to keep a fan like Shen Qingqiu. “You what?”

“I thought I was being obvious,” Gongyi Xiao said mildly. Without even batting an eyelash, he said- How was his face so thick???

“You have not been seducing me!” Shen Yuan whisper-shrieked, “You are just young and not over your fiance, and I’m the first countryman you’ve found far from home who was nice to you! That’s it!”

Gongyi Xiao looked like he believed him even less. “Is that what you think?”

“What else could it be!?” Shen Yuan asked, “You’ve known me for a half a day!”

“And yet, in that amount of time I learned more about you than the woman I’d been promised to in the last two years,” Gongyi Xiao refuted, “The amount of time doesn’t matter, but the quality does. Jade is only precious if someone values it. If not, it’s just a pretty rock. It only gains worth in the eyes of the one holding it. And you, Shen Yuan, are a very precious piece indeed.”

“Oh please,” Shen Yuan blushed even harder. Why was Gongyi Xiao suddenly spouting wife-seduction lines fit for the Protagonist? And why was he using them on Shen Yuan? Was that even allowed??? “There’s no jade to be found here. I’m Northern goods at best.”

Gongyi Xiao smiled even wider at that, for some reason. “Then one can only imagine the skill of the gods that made you, to make resin more precious than gemstones.”

And before Shen Yuan could pick his jaw off the floor, Gongyi Xiao tugged him closer, curled one arm around Shen Yuan’s waist and the other around the nape of his neck, and pressed his lips to Shen Yuan’s.

Shen Yuan was pretty sure there was a power outage going on in his brain. Probably the System finally deciding to give up the ghost and turn off for good, deciding there was no saving this. The lights went off, and there was nobody home anymore. 

That was the only possible reason for why Shen Yuan actually returned the kiss.

He would be the first to admit that he didn’t have much experience. Not counting family, he’d kissed a grand total of three people in his life: two almost-girlfriends, and one boy in high school on a dare. And all of those had been pecks, not- Not-

Not whatever was happening here. And there was certainly a lot happening. Shen Yuan’s brain was plugged out of its socket, so he didn’t really have the capacity to put a name to the situation at hand, but-

Whatever was happening was really, really good. Where the hell did a cannon fodder character learn to kiss like this???

That was about all he managed to compute before he felt Gongyi Xiao’s tongue sort of… Slide along his like it was coaxing it to come out and play.

If this continued, Shen Yuan feared his knees would give up the ghost as well.

It was only when Shen Yuan was in real, actual danger of passing out, that Gongyi Xiao released his lips. Dizzy, breathless, and pressed front to front with one of the most beautiful men in the world, Shen Yuan was certain he would have fallen straight off the roof if Gongyi Xiao hadn’t been holding him up.

He opened his eyes, not even sure when he’d closed them, to find that Gongyi Xiao had not gone far. His half-lidded eyes under his curled lashes were so dark, they were like the Obsidian Infinity Pools of the Endless Abyss, a black void with a faint red line around them.

Wait. Red? 

Shen Yuan blinked, feeling like he was trying to find the power socket in his brain in the complete darkness, and when he managed to force his eyes to actually focus again, Gongyi Xiao’s eyes were back to their chestnut color, and he was smirking like a cat who got the cream and the canary.

“Has Master Shen ever done this before?” he breathed into Shen Yuan’s heated red ear.

Immediately, that poor ear got even more heated and his shoulders rose up to try and protect it from this vicious assault. “Is it that obvious?” he whispered. Well, some passerby might say it was more of a whimper, but they were alone on the roof, so it was a very dignified whisper.

Gongyi Xiao chuckled darkly, which was absolutely not fair on Shen Yuan’s poor knees. 

“It seems there are some things a disciple can teach a master, after all,” he whispered in Shen Yuan’s ear, “This one will gladly take on those duties.”

Shen Yuan’s hands tightened on Gongyi Xiao’s shoulders, and when exactly did he put his hands there? When did that happen?? And how was Gongyi Xiao allowed to have such perfect shoulders? Broad and defined, not too bulky, perfect height for Shen Yuan to hang onto for dear life.

Speaking of… Maybe there really was some merit in avoiding the narrative by becoming situationally gay. Shen Yuan might have been straight, but if it came down to staying alive and being gay versus sticking to his principles and dying as a human stick, well. Shen Yuan would dare any straight guy to make a different choice! He liked being alive, thank you very much!

But, in the interest of actually staying alive… “We should probably get off the roof.”

Gongyi Xiao smirked. “Of course. There’s an actual bed in the inn, after all.”

That snapped the switch in Shen Yuan’s brain back on. “Bed!?”

“Mmm,” Gongyi Xiao nuzzled (nuzzled!!!) his cheek against Shen Yuan’s, “This one recalls someone mentioning an ‘Old Man’ having a proper bed to share?”

“To sleep!” Shen Yuan tried to wiggle out of Gongyi Xiao’s grip, with less than positive results, “And I said the bed was too small to share!”

“I do like a challenge,” Gongyi Xiao said with a smirk, then pressed another quick kiss to Shen Yuan’s lips.

“It’s the middle of the day!”

“That didn’t bother you a minute ago.”

How the hell did he manage to get himself in this position? This was moving way too fast! He’d just had his first proper kiss and Gongyi Xiao was already talking about- That!? Shen Yuan had decided he could stand to explore the other side of the fence a minute ago, give him time to get used to it!

Shen Yuan put some actual muscle into breaking free now, because if he didn’t he was just going to spontaneously combust. The whole point of this whole ‘Going Gay’ operation was to stay alive! Spontaneous combustion was not conductive to staying alive! 

Gongyi Xiao finally had mercy on him and let him go, only keeping a grip on Shen yuan’s hand. 

“But Shen Yuan has a point,” Gongyi Xiao said, “He does have a promise to keep.”

“I do?” Shen Yuan asked, half terrified, trying to rack his brain for what else he managed to blab before he figured out Gongyi Xiao’s intentions. There was a lot and he wasn’t operating on all cylinders, okay!?

Gongyi Xiao just looked at him in amusement. “I believe there is a little boy who was promised flying lessons.”

“Oh!” Shen Yuan jumped, “Rohan! Right, he’ll probably be waking up soon! We should get going!”

Having said that, Shen Yuan went to take a step off the roof, only to freeze mid step when he realized that, uh, there was a certain problem with- Certain parts of his anatomy. Right, he had been on the road for so long and no real privacy, he might have been a bit. Pent up. And there had been. A lot of physical stimulation going on. It was a natural reaction, okay!?

Turning bright red once more, Shen Yuan hastily tugged his robe down like he could pretend there was still a chance of hiding this.

Which was when he noticed that there was a gathering of people underneath the inn. And they were all looking up.

“Is the show over already?” Madame Leila shouted up at him.

Well. He now had 99 problems, but an erection was no longer one of them.

Shen Yuan’s face had still not returned to its normal color by the time he and Gongyi Xiao had made it back to the Singh’s family tent.

And Gongyi Xiao had still not stopped smirking, not one bit bothered by their former audience. Or the fact that he had been caught making out with a guy.

Fuck your mother, Airplane! Were you secretly in the closet? It would explain why every man in this shitty world had no trouble batting for the other team at the drop of a hat! Was Luo Binghe’s straightness the exception rather than the rule? What kind of Stallion Novel was this??? Or did this happen in every universe where the Protagonist had a habit of flower collecting? He absorbed all of the straightness of the world and to keep balance everyone else was at least bi? Why had Shen Yuan not been informed before he landed himself in this situation??? 

“Your face will get stuck like that,” Gongyi Xiao said in amusement. 

“And whose fault is that!?” Shen Yuan hissed at him, “Why didn’t you stop before we became accidental porn stars?”

“I’m afraid Master Shen’s charms were far too great for me to resist,” the ridiculous man smiled even wider.

“What charms!?” Shen Yuan spluttered, “I have no charms!”

“Mmmm-hmmm,” Gongyi Xiao hummed agreeably, “As Master Shen says. Who is this humble disciple to disagree with his elder?”

Shen Yuan stomped away faster. Unfortunately, Gongyi Xiao’s legs were longer than his, even if not by much, and he had no trouble keeping up, radiating smugness the entire time. 

Shen Yuan was going to find a Sandworm hole and bury himself in it, see if he won’t!

“Ah, Master Shen!” Mr. Singh greeted him, still sitting outside and smoking where Shen Yuan had left him, “I heard you and your boy have been busy!”

Shen Yuan spun on his heel 180° and walked away. Sandworm hole, here he comes!

Or at least he tried to. Gongyi Xiao, walking just a step behind him, expertly hooked an arm around his waist dragged him back, flailing and kicking, without so much as breaking his own stride. Showoff!

“He’s a little shy,” Gongyi Xiao had the absolute gall to say to Mr. Singh.

“I have noticed, yes.” You too Mr. Singh??? Was today some kind of ‘Rip Shen Yuan’s face to Shreds’ day and he was the only one who didn’t know? Could this have all been avoided if the stupid System actually worked? 

“Ah, alright Rakshasa, you can let him go now,” Mr. Singh waved his pipe at them as he got up from his chair, “Poor man looks like he will try and break out of his skin if you do not let him go. We will stop teasing. At least until after Rohan is done with him.”

“This one deferrs to Mr. Singh’s wisdom,” Gongyi Xiao said like a respectful disciple that he was most definitely not, and released Shen Yuan. He still pointedly kept an arm around his waist.

“Has Huan Hua not taught its disciples any decorum?” he furiously whispered in Gongyi Xiao’s direction once Mr. Singh had gone.

“I was banished from Huan Hua,” Gongyi Xiao chirped, “I no longer have to follow their teachings.”

Great, this was apparently Gongyi Xiao’s version of a rebellious phase. Run away and shack up with an old man his sect would have thrown out the door if he was ever stupid enough to darken them. He really, really hoped none of the traders that arrived today were going back to China, because if Huan Hua found out Gongyi Xiao was fooling around like this, in uniform no less, they would not be happy, former disciple or no.

“Were you not supposed to be a mission for them?” Shen Yuan asked waspishly, “Decided it was a farce after all?”

Shen Yuan regretted those words the second they escaped his stupid mouth. Gongyi Xiao froze for a moment, like he had completely forgotten. His fingers twitched around Shen Yuan’s waist, and a conflicted look crossed his face.

“I suppose I wasn’t given a time limit,” he admitted hesitantly, “And yes, I was told it would be an impossible mission. I thought I could do it nonetheless. But now that I ended up here…”

He looked at Shen Yuan with such intensity that he felt naked even though he was fully clothed. What’s with that intense gaze, Gongyi Xiao? What are you thinking?

“I suppose that might work,” Gongyi Xiao muttered to himself, “If he heard about someone like you…”

Shen Yuan was getting a bad feeling about this. “If who heard about me?”

Gongyi Xiao still looked conflicted, like he knew Shen Yuan wouldn’t take his next words well but thought it was still important enough to ask. Shen Yuan braced himself for some absolutely harebrained scheme he would have to talk Gongyi Xiao out of. He supposed that would be his job from now on, until Gongyi Xiao really gave up on returning to Huan Hua palace for good. Which might be a while.

Well. They were immortal. They had all the time in the world.

“Hey,” Shen Yuan laid a hand on Gongyi Xiao’s elbow, “Are you planning something stupid? If you are, get it out right now. The sooner I can tell you how stupid that plan is, the sooner you can give up.”

Gongyi Xiao huffed a little laugh. “What makes you think it’s so stupid?”

“Anything that involves going back to Huan Hua and bringing Luo Binghe’s attention to you is a bad idea,” Shen Yuan told him, “Or the Old Palace Master’s. Surely you’ve realized by now he’s not a good man.”

Gongyi Xiao’s smile disappeared. “Speaking from experience, are you?”

“Not my own,” Shen Yuan admitted, “But those who do not learn from the mistakes of others won’t live long enough to make them all themselves. Far too many people the Old Palace Master expressed,” he wrinkled his nose, “‘a special interest in’ met with horrible fates. Did you know the Little Palace Mistress isn’t his only child? She’s his twentieth,” he emphasised that little tidbit, “None of the others survived, ostensibly because of the infighting of his former harem. Not many people remember that sordid bit of history, simply because his modus operandi has been to shut people up by any means necessary and wait until he grew older than the rumors.”

Gongyi Xiao looked at him pensively. “I… Did not know that.”

Shen Yuan patted him sympathetically. “Not many people do. And I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but you were really, really lucky in that regard. Many of his former favorites had much more tragic fates than just being sent away.”

That had been a gut-churning chapter to read about, even if it had been short. Airplane had posted it as an extra, titled The Lao Gongzhu Files, and Shen Yuan had come precariously close to just clicking back and pretending such a thing did not exist because if the gratuitous porn was bad enough when it was Luo Binghe, he didn’t want to know what a greasy old man was doing behind the narrative curtains. But, after nearly a day his curiosity got the better of him, so he shelled out for it like he always did. To his pleasant surprise, it was one of the few chapters that contained actual plot relevant bits, rather than porn. To his un pleasant surprise, it was a dark cache of all the plot lines Airplane had dropped in favor of porn.

It had been short, pretty barebones. Excerpts from the documents, reports and diaries that detailed the Old Palace Master’s century-long obsession with finding the reincarnation of some prince from a long-forgotten kingdom. He was convinced the prince had ascended but been thrown out of the Heavens because of the Heavenly Emperor’s jealousy, and the Old Palace Master had been convinced that he had reincarnated as a mortal, forced to begin his journey to ascension all over again.

For generations, he had been obsessed with the Su family. But every protege he had taken in had proven lacking, yet he kept hope for the next generation. Sometimes going as far as to force them to, ah, intermingle his own blood into their children, whether by marrying his own children or… Doing it more directly. It was sickening. Luo Binghe’s birth mother, Su Xiyan, had very nearly been one of those, had she not fallen pregnant with Luo Binghe. And the answer to the question of why she had not been sedated and forced to abort had been equally disgusting: the Old Palace Master had feared such a procedure would leave her sterile, and then he would have no more use for her. 

Luo Binghe himself had, apparently, lasted the longest before he was deemed a disappointment. Too independent, too strong and smart to be controlled, so once again, the Old Palace Master once again turned to the next generation. But with Luo Binghe being a half-breed, infertility was also an issue. And yes, Doylistically, Airplane just didn’t want to keep track of a whole host of new characters but still needed to cater to his readers with pregnancy-related kinks. So Luo Binghe wasn’t entirely sterile, he could have children, provided the conception was aided by, you guessed it, bullshit papapapa plot devices. And then a wife had to carry a pregnancy to term, a dangerous endeavor in any harem but especially in Luo Binghe’s. So children were relatively few, considering the size of the harem, but in a palace of 600 wives and 3000 assorted concubines, that still amounted to dozens of children. 

And from the Watsonian perspective, what happened to them was a fucking nightmare. Airplane had gone into the bare minimum of details, obviously on a deadline for actual canon chapters, but it was enough that the Old Palace Master soon joined the ranks of Shen Qingqiu as the most hated character in PIDW.

If all that was what had happened to the Protagonist, well after he discovered his heritage and went on to become the most important person in the world, Shen Yuan could just imagine what would happen to Gongyi Xiao if he ever returned and was allowed to stay. 

Briefly, Shen Yuan wondered if Luo Binghe would believe him, if Gongyi Xiao tried to warn him about the Old Palace Master, but dismissed the idea. Coming from a former rival, it would only be seen as bitterness and attempts to divide the protagonist’s power base. Simply put, there was nobody Luo Binghe trusted enough that Shen Yuan could use to pass the message onto.

Gongyi Xiao cupped his cheek, startling him a bit. “Why does Master Shen look so sad?”

Shen Yuan sighed. “It’s nothing. Nothing I can do to help, anyway.”

“Tell me,” Gongyi Xiao insisted.

“You can’t save everyone, Gongyi Xiao,” Shen Yuan patted his shoulder again, “And Luo Binghe doesn’t exactly need anyone to save him.”

Gongyi Xiao’s fingers twitched near violently against Shen Yuan’s waist. His face was doing strange things, before it smoothed out again. “I suppose it goes in our favor, if the Old Palace Master turns on the Beast. Two of our biggest problems taking each other out, wouldn’t that be great? If anyone in the world deserves everything that’s going to happen to him it’s that de-”

Quicker than Shen Yuan’s brain could stop it, his hand shot out and grabbed Gongyi Xiao by the ear, then tugged. Hard.

The boy let out a very satisfying yelp as he was dragged down to Shen Yuan’s eye level, then froze when he saw the look on his face.

“Gongyi Xiao,” Shen Yuan said, tone even and measured, “I am only going to say this once, so listen carefully. There are some thing in this world that a decent man would never do. But there are also things he would never, for his own conscience at least, wish on anyone else. Things that might sound satisfying in your revenge fantasies, but no real life human - or demon - should have to suffer. Things that are horrifying no matter who they happen to.”

He looked Gongyi Xiao in the eye, making sure to convey how serious he was. “And this is one of them. I do not care how much you hate Luo Binghe, or how much you have a right to hate him. If this Master hears you speaking like that again, then he will know he had greatly misjudged you, and we will have to part ways.”

Gongyi Xiao’s mouth dropped open a bit. His brows scrunched up in angry confusion. “Didn’t you say there was no saving him? So why-”

“Just because a person can survive something, that doesn’t mean they deserved it,” Shen Yuan growled, twisting Gongyi Xiao’s ear a bit harder, “This Master has no means of stopping the Old Palace Master from enacting his atrocities, and no way of persuading anyone who could stop him, and neither does Gongyi Xiao. His words were meant to comfort him, not to spurr him into relishing in others’ suffering.”

“...But you would stop him, if you could?” Gongyi xiao asked quietly, “Even if it meant saving Luo Binghe?”

“Yes,” Shen Yuan didn’t hesitate, “Some things you should not wish even on your worst enemy. Because if you do, that is more of a reflection of your character than it is theirs. If Gongyi Xiao cannot understand where this Master is coming from, then we have no business being anything more than colleagues. Do you understand?”

Gongyi Xiao looked at him in silence for a long moment. Long enough that Shen Yuan felt his heart sink, and his hand let go of Gongyi Xiao’s ear. But before he could say his goodbyes, Gongyi Xiao caught his wrist, tugging him back.

“I understand,” he said, then let go of Shen Yuan so he could bow deeply in apology, “This one has let his anger and bitterness control his words for him. He swears to do better in the future, and shall never utter such words again.”

Shen Yuan breathed a sigh. He had not missed the fact that Gongyi Xiao had carefully said he would never speak like that, not that he would change his mind about it. But Shen Yuan couldn’t expect him to suddenly reach Nirvana and find it in himself to forgive the world that hurt him. He was the product of a world that was created solely as a revenge fantasy that turned into porn. He couldn’t really change his spots just because Shen Yuan had asked it of him. He had no right to be disappointed with Gongyi Xiao’s answers.

But nobody was perfect.

Still, Gongyi Xiao was young. And people could change, with the right influence. Shen Yuan had already decided he was in this for the long haul, what’s one more responsibility?

“Stand up,” he said, watching as Gongyi Xiao looked at him like a chastened child, one ear still red from being pinched. Shen Yuan cupped his face in one hand and let his Qi flow into the delicate shell of skin and cartilage to ease the pain. Gongyi Xiao twitched when he felt it, but soon relaxed into it with a hopeful look on his face.

“I’m not saying you should forgive him for what he did to you,” he told Gongyi Xiao, “I know that would be asking for the impossible. But you’re a good boy, Gongyi Xiao. I don’t want your desire for revenge to ruin that.”

“...what if it already has?” Gongyi Xiao asked quietly, his hand coming up to wrap around Shen Yuan’s, “What if everything good in me is already ruined?”

Oh, that poor boy. Shen Yuan gave him a soft smile and ran his thumb over his cheekbone. “It’s not. It’s still there. It might be a little tarnished and buried for a moment, but I can still see it. It might take you some time to dig it back up, but I have faith you’ll find it.”

Gongyi Xiao’s lips thinned, and then twisted. For a moment, Shen Yuan thought he was going to say something he would have to scold him for again. But it very quickly became clear that he was trying not to cry. 

Shen Yuan brought his other hand up to cup his face. “Gongyi Xiao…”

“Yuan!!!” 

Gongyi Xiao twisted away a moment before a tiny child knocked himself into the backs of Shen Yuan’s knees. 

“I’m awake!!! I’m up! We’re going flying!!!” Rohan bounced with sheer happiness, arms still around Shen Yuan’s knees. 

Gongyi Xiao gathered his face with the speed Shen Yuan almost envied. “Ah, I believe you have promises to keep, Master Shen.”

Shen Yuan hesitated, but it seemed the moment was well and truly over. Rohan was rather insistently making himself heard, and Gongyi Xiao was pulling away.

Well. Rohan wasn’t going to stay awake forever. When the sun started falling they could go back to the inn, and if there was still something Gongyi Xiao had to get off his chest, surely he’d still confide in Shen Yuan.

So he turned to Rohan with a smile. “You want to start now?”

“YES!!!” Rohan squealed in delight.

To put Aisha’s mind at ease, they retreated into the tent where there was a thick carpet covering the floor. Rohan had already put on his boots and was trying not to vibrate straight out of them with sheer excitement. Gongyi Xiao took a seat next to Mr. Singh and Aisha, and immediately had a cup of tea pushed into his hands. 

Unsure when this became a spectator sport, Shen Yuan nevertheless showed Rohan how to stand on a sword, based on the ‘Skateboarding for beginners’ videos he’d seen in his previous life. Honestly, he’d been using the same advice and he’d been flying fine, so even if it might not have been proper form, it was good enough for a toddler.

So, once Shen Yuan judged Rohan properly educated, he unsheathed his sword.

Behind him, somebody choked on their tea. Then Mr. Singh started laughing.

Shen Yuan decided he did not want to know.

One hand keeping a sword-seal and the other holding Rohan’s hand, Shen Yuan guided the little boy to stand on his blade, then slowly started leading him around the room. Once Rohan got the feel for the balance, he let go of Shen Yuan’s hand, and continued cruising ‘on his own’.

“Mama!!!” he yelled in pure childish joy, “I’m flying!!!”

“You’re doing very well!” Aisha clapped her hands, smiling. 

Next to her, Gongyi Xiao was looking at Rohan’s feet with the kind of intensity Shen Yuan reserved for treacherous cliffs and venomous snakes.

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes. “Don’t look so worried, I won’t let him fall.”

Gongyi Xiao turned that intense gaze on him. A painful-looking smile stretched across his lips. “Of course. You wouldn’t let a child fall to his doom, would you?”

“What doom?” Shen Yuan asked, baffled, “He’s a foot away from the floor.”

As if he’d invoked Murphy’s law, Rohan’s foot slipped on the sharp, sloped edge of Xiu Ya and suddenly, he was falling spine-first towards the blade.

Shen Yuan didn’t think, he flash-stepped. Thankfully, the room was small and Rohan hadn’t been far, so he fell into Shen Yuan’s arms before Xiu Ya even clattered to the floor.

“Rohan!” Shen Yuan scolded him as he set the boy on his feet, “Didn’t I say to keep all your attention on your feet when flying?”

“I was!” Rohan protested, “The wind blew!”

Shen Yuan sighed, then formed a sword seal to get Xiu Ya flying again. “Hold onto my hand for a bit longer, okay? If you want to go flying for real, then you need to have good balance first.”

“Okay.”

As he led Rohan around the room, this time with a firm grip on his hand, Gongyi Xiao’s eyes followed them like a hawk.

Rohan didn’t fall again.

He was walking through darkness.

There was no floor under his feet, and yet he was putting his feet on the sides of an imaginary centre line. He was going somewhere, he was sure.

Slowly, trees started forming, then grass, then dirt, then a path. Slowly, his hair grew and braided itself, his clothes became loose and dark. An equally black sword was at his hip.

And then there was a door in front of him.

Shen Yuan paused. The bamboo door seemed familiar, and not in a good way. He cautiously stepped around it, looking behind it, but it was just a door in the middle of the road, leading nowhere.

He shrugged, and continued on.

The door blew open and a mighty vacuum sucked him in.

Shen Yuan found himself sprawled on his back, his long hair suddenly loose and his robes heavier and longer, no vambraces keeping his sleeves in place. He opened his eyes with a groan, only to see the bamboo door close right in front of him.

Shen Yuan stared at the door, then at his clothes. 

They were pale green and white.

“Oh fuck no,” he scrambled to his feet and went for the door. They wouldn’t budge open. Panic rising, he turned around and pressed his back to it, looking around for another exit. Right, he’d been here before, he remembered there was a window in the bedroom.

Driven by the need to not be here he ran for the window. It was right there where he remembered it, between the bed and the vanity. He ran for it.

But the floor swallowed him whole.

He was in some kind of… Very big hall? Like the outer halls of traditional houses, but everything was big. 

Shen Yuan looked down at his hands. Oh. Or maybe he was just small.

He had a very bad feeling about this. 

“Xiaooo Jiuuu~” 

Terror usually only experienced by small prey animals suffused Shen Yuan’s entire body. He didn’t wait for the lilting voice to find him, he ran.

“Xiao Jiuuu!” the voice called again, “You know better than to run~ Little dogs don’t run from their masters!”

Shen Yuan ran faster. He turned a corner down the impossibly long corridor, into a hall swallowed up by flames, and saw something on the other side. 

He hesitated, looking into the fire and the smoke. There was an exit on the other side, but he had to go through fire to get to it! He would die!

“XIAO JIU!!!!”

Shen Yuan ran into the fire. It licked at his tattered sleeved and burned his bare feet, but he approached something he found familiar.

It was his family’s dining room! It was home! He had to get there, Mama was there, and Da-ge and Er-ge, they’d make everything okay!

But he ran into a glass wall. Right there in front of him was safety, but the glass was in the way. He couldn’t pass.

Panic gripping his heart and fire licking at his heels, Shen Yuan hit his fist on the faintly green-glowing glass. Suddenly, pinyin letters started flashing in red in the middle of it.

WARNING! UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS ATTEMPT! ACCESS DENIED!

“Let me out!” Shen Yuan screamed, “Let me out!”

WARNING! UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS IN PROGRESS! ACCESS DENIED!

“XIAO JIU!!!!”

“LET ME OUT!!!”

Shen Yuan shot up in his bed, lungs burning, sweat streaming down his face, hearing nothing but the frantic drum of his own heart.

It took a while for the black spots in front of his eyes to fade and his heart rate to slow down from its frantic gallop. Shen Yuan wiped his face with his sleeve, trying to remember-

Right. He was in Yuezhi, on the Silk Road stop. He was in Madame Leila’s inn, in the same bed he’d slept in for days now. He was fine. He was alone.

Something shifted to his left. 

Shen Yuan nearly jumped out of his skin, but the moonlight pouring through the window revealed a familiar visage. Just Gongyi Xiao, sleeping on the extra pallet in the room, because he’d declined to sleep in the same bed. Just Gongyi Xiao.

But… Why was he holding Xiu Ya?

“You know, I was ready to give up,” he said casually, like his words didn’t produce another bucket of swat on Shen Yuan’s back, “I was so sure I was wrong, and he really had disappeared. That I would have to go back empty handed. And then you stopped me.”

He unsheathed Xiu Ya fully, free of its black sheath. Moonlight shined on the silver blade, nearly blinding Shen Yuan. He flinched back, and when he opened his eyes again, Gongyi Xiao was looking at him.

Shen Yuan had never seen him so cold before.

“But I’m curious enough to just ask, at this point,” he said, “Why do you have this sword, Shen Yuan?”

The terror from the nightmare crept back.

In the reflection of the blade, Gongyi Xiao’s eyes looked like they glowed red.

“Or should I call you Shen Qingqiu?”

Chapter Text

It really had been stupidly optimistic of Shen Yuan, to think that the narrative wouldn’t find him if he just ran fast enough.

It didn’t exactly matter how fast he ran, if he took the narrative by the hand and invited it to join him on the journey.

Of course, Shen Yuan thought, still trying to get his breathing under control, get enough oxygen to his brain, The changes a transmigrator makes still count. They shape the narrative. Gongyi Xiao is here. He was supposed to be stationed on the borderlands, not halfway to Persia. Who was on a ‘peculiar mission’. A mission that was supposed to get him back in Huan Hua’s good graces. And by Huan Hua he meant-

“Luo Binghe sent you to find me, didn’t he?” Shen Yuan gasped out.

Gongyi Xiao looked at him askance. “You don’t deny it.”

“Neither are you,” Shen Yuan pointed out, trying to scramble off the bed and towards his clothes without making it look like he was doing just that.

Judging by the look on Gongyi Xiao’s face, he wasn’t very successful.

“You seem to be on top of the rumors circling around, Master Shen,” Gongyi Xiao sheathed Xiu Ya with a very audible schhk, “Are you aware of the ones about you?”

Shen Yuan was. Most of them were about how he had died in closed cultivation and Cang Qiong was covering it up, not in small part because he spread those himself. 

But there were others. It was clear which ones Gongyi Xiao was talking about.

“When I started the search, I went to Cang Qiong first,” Gongyi Xiao said, almost casually, “I’d heard Shen Qingqiu had been in secluded cultivation for years now, and wondered what had gone wrong to require such a long period of recuperation. I went to Qian Cao. You would be surprised how gleefully the disciples there shared everything about their Shibo.”

Fuck. Shen Yuan could tell where this was going.

“They said the same thing: Peak Lord Shen suffered a major Qi deviation after the Immortal Alliance conference,” Gongyi Xiao looked at him intensely, “So bad that Peak Lord Mu had feared he would lose his life. But survive he did, though not without consequence.”

“Are you going somewhere with this?” Shen Yuan barked, giving up on subtlety and just diving for his robes.

“You didn’t recognise me when you saw me,” Gongyi Xiao got up from his seat, still holding Xiu Ya, “Granted, we hadn’t had many conversations during your tenure, but we were acquainted enough that you should have been able to recognise me when I was right in front of you. And yet you had to look at my uniform to deduce who I might be.”

Yeah, that was exactly what Shen Yuan had feared. Shen Qingqiu had been a Peak Lord, and Gongyi Xiao had, before Luo Binghe, been the apple of the Old Palace Master’s eye. Diplomatic functions would have brought them to the same place, and remembering faces was indeed a very important skill for a young, aspiring Sect Leader to be. And it should have been a skill Shen Qingqiu, the scholar and tactician of the most powerful sect in this side of China, had mastered.

“So what?” Shen Yuan bared his teeth in his direction, “What does this change?”

“It changes everything,” Gongyi Xiao was suddenly right in his face.

Shen Yuan forcefully pushed him away. “It really does not. Everything I told you is true. This mission was just an excuse to send you away. Having you guard the Borderlands would have been equally effective. Bringing me back like a trophy will not return your home to you, Gongyi Xiao.”

The young man’s face twitched, but he didn’t try to invade Shen Yuan’s personal space again. “Perhaps Master Shen is right. But we won’t know until we try, won’t we?”

Shen Yuan summoned Xiu Ya to his hand. It flew from the sheath in Gongyi Xiao’s hand, and he pointed it straight at him.

Gongyi Xiao looked down at him from the length of Xiu Ya dispassionately. “Are you going to stab me, Shen Qingqiu?”

“Not if I don’t have to,” Shen Yuan said, “And don’t call me that.”

“Why not?” Gongyi Xiao tilted his head, “It’s your name.”

“No it’s not!” Shen Yuan roared, the tip of Xiu Ya brushing against the fabric of Gongyi Xiao’s shift, just barely stopping short of cutting his skin, “That name belongs to a dead Peak Lord, and that man should stay dead! There is nothing to be gained from trying to bring him back!”

Shen Yuan had escaped. He’d theorized that there was a certain distance at which the System could no longer connect to the nexus of it’s power, and he had made damn sure to put that distance between himself and Luo Binghe. Shen Qingqiu was dead, Shen Yuan was free, and the System couldn’t force him to go back.

And neither could Gongyi Xiao. Their previous… liaisons aside, Shen Yuan wanted to live. If he needed to- Lightly stab his almost-not-quite-situationship to get away, he would do it.

Gongyi Xiao took a step closer, nearly walking straight into Xiu Ya. Shen Yuan twitched backwards, his back hitting the wall. Gongyi Xiao took another step, forcing Shen Yuan to bend his arm to avoid stabbing him on accident. Then another.

Teeth gritted and heart pounding, Shen Yuan was forced to cede ground until he was sandwiched between the wall and Gongyi Xiao’s chest, Xiu Ya a flimsy protection held diagonally between them.

“Why did you run, Master Shen?” Gongyi Xiao asked, softly, “Even with your memories gone, you were a powerful Peak Lord, with the best medical services offered to you. Even if you couldn’t get them back, your cultivation was intact. You could have learned how to be a Peak Lord again, and continued your life in the lap of luxury and power. And yet here you are, the farthest you could be from Cang Qiong and running further away. Why?”

“You’re here and you ask me that?” Shen Yuan asked, teeth bared, “Why do you think?”

Gongyi Xiao’s eyes seemed to flash. “So you are running away from something. Retribution, perhaps? They said you still remembered names, and even events, with some prompting. How much do you remember, of the person you’re running away from?”

So Gongyi Xiao knew that Shen Qingqiu had thrown Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss. Perhaps that should not have been surprising. Luo Binghe had laid out that scene in detail at Shen Qingqiu’s trial, to the pain and horror of everyone listening. It had been the key scene that spelled Shen Qingqiu’s doom, and the one-way ticket to the Water Prison.

It had been an impassioned speech. Apparently, even the first draft was enough to work on turning Luo Binghe’s rival into his ally.

One had to applaud the protagonist’s skill, even if Shen Yuan was currently suffering from it.

“Enough, it seems,” Gongyi Xiao said with grim satisfaction, after the silence dragged on for a long moment, “Are you afraid of Luo Binghe?”

“Aren’t you?” Shen Yuan shot back, “I thought you realized by now there’s only one fate that awaits both of us if we return to China.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Gongyio Xiao smiled. It gave Shen Yuan chills. “Maybe I’ll change my mind if Master Shen tells me what he remembers. You knew Luo Binghe was a demon. Did you really figure it out from merely rumors or do you remember seeing it?”

“What does that matter?” Shen Yuan asked, frustrated with Gongyi Xiao’s obstinacy, “He’s a demon lord with a grudge against me, and a vested interest in keeping you out of his way. I thought not provoking the tiger on his own territory would be a foregone conclusion! Why are you so eager to see us both dead?”

There was nothing to be gained by going back and everything by running. Gongyi Xiao had to know that. So why wouldn’t he-?

Oh. Of course. This wasn’t about knowing. It didn’t matter how much knowledge someone had, and how obvious the writing on the wall was, if they simply didn’t want to know something. People were capable of all kinds of delusions to keep their worldview from shattering.

It seemed this was a classic case of Zuko on his Quest to Capture the Avatar. He knew the quest was impossible. He knew it was just banishment with a prettier name. But he had nothing else to cling to but the hope that he would be able to return home and all would be forgiven if he just Captured the Avatar. 

Unfortunately, Gongyi Xiao was not a modern man, and was thus unable to know how that had gone for Zuko. It meant Shen Yuan was going to have to do this the hard way.

“Indulge me,” Gongyi Xiao said, though it sounded like an order, “I find myself at a crossroads. Should I believe you, and listen to you, or take my chances with Huan Hua? It all depends on what you tell me now, Master Shen.”

“Mighty arrogant of a youngster, to think he could order a master around,” Shen Yuan said, raising Xiu Ya, “After all, there’s no point in returning anyway if you don’t defeat me first.”

Gongyi Xiao clearly hadn’t been expecting that. He only had time to look surprised before Shen Yuan sent a blast of Qi straight to his solar plexus and Gongyi Xiao to the opposite wall.

Shen Yuan was gone before he could get back up.

There was no way this was going to end without a fight, and Madame Leila would not appreciate that fight happening in her inn. There was plenty of perfectly barren desert right outside the pitstop town, and all the cattle and horses had been gathered and penned away. Better keep the casualties minimal if he wanted to still be accepted as a guard for the caravan.

So he flew on Xiu Ya over the houses and the tents, to the South where the desert of what would one day be Xinjiang would lay. The desert itself was a bit too far away, but the closer he got the less there would be to destroy. So the ideal spot would be somewhere there was still grass, but was sparse enough that Shen Yuan could be reasonably assured he wouldn’t kill even more animals than the Sabre-tooth Spotted Tiger did.

It took him a ke of full-speed flight to find such a spot. He slowed down sharply, and flew almost straight down.

Only ten seconds later, Gongyi Xiao did the same.

“This is a good spot,” Shen Yuan announced, “These people have lost enough to the Tiger’s attacks. No need to make it worse for a mere duel.”

Gongyi Xiao hesitated, looking supremely suspicious. He’d put on his overrobes and boots, but it was clear he’d just rolled out of bed and hadn’t been planning on having a duel tonight. 

Unlike Shen Yuan, he managed to look good like that. No wonder the poor guy had to die, he would have stolen far too much spotlight from the protagonist.

But Shen Yuan still had a chance to save him. As long as he could stop him from going back to Huan Hua, Gongyi Xiao would live. And he couldn’t return empty-handed. 

So long as Shen Yuan kept running, Gongyi Xiao would continue Chasing the Avatar, further and further away from the Fire Nation.

“Here’s the deal,” Shen Yuan said, “If I win this duel, you stop trying to capture me. You can still come with me, but you will give up on trying to make me return to Huan Hua.”

Gongyi Xiao looked at him in surprise, then contemplation. “And if I win, you will come back with me willingly?”

“Yes,” Shen Yuan lied, “Whoever draws first blood wins.”

“Must the blood be drawn with a sword?” Gongyi Xiao asked, “Or anything?”

“Anything goes,” Shen Yuan confirmed, “No fatal injuries though.”

Gongyi Xiao smirked. “No fatal injuries.”

Shen Yuan nodded, then settled into a stance. “Begin.”

Gongyi Xiao didn’t waste time. He came at Shen Yuan fast and strong, keeping him on the defensive. His style seemed to be an odd mishmash of things Shen Yuan had seen on the road, but extremely heavy on the offense. Not a bad strategy against a better trained opponent. By mixing up his styles, he would keep his opponent on his toes, unable to predict his moves, and a strong barrage of attacks would allow him to finish the fight quickly.

The downside was that was that it tired you out quickly. If Shen Yuan survived the first minute of the fight, Gongyi Xiao’s odds of winning began to drop exponentially. 

And, of course, he had an ace up his sleeve that was only technically not cheating. Still, he could draw this out to allow Gongyi Xiao to save some face. 

Sure enough, soon the brash young man became frustrated that he was getting nowhere with his attacks. But rather than losing his temper and doubling down, he disengaged and leapt back, sword at the ready.

Ah. Trying to force Shen Yuan on the offensive. Alright.

Shen Yuan leapt, feinted and shot straight for the spot Gongyi Xiao left open.

The thing about people who trained and therefore relied primarily on taking their opponents down quickly: their stamina was almost 99% of the time absolute shit. And in Shen Yuan’s experience, their defensive maneuvers weren’t much better, since their entire strategy relied on keeping their opponent on the defensive. Gongyi Xiao seemed to be one of those people, to Shen Yuan’s surprise, leaving openings left and right and barely managing to block even the most basic of blows. Of course, the agreement was ‘no lethal’ blows, so Gongyi Xiao could afford to be a little reckless with his openings, but still. Not the greatest strategy to take against an opponent with Shen Yuan’s shoddy reputation.

Shen Yuan tapped the flat of his sword against Gongyi Xiao’s left side and leapt back before Gongyi Xiao could use the proximity to deal his own blow.

“I know I said no lethal blows, but I certainly hope Young Master Gongyi doesn’t fight like this against proper opponents,” Shen Yuan quipped.

Gongyi Xiao put a hand on the side Shen Yuan had tapped. He checked it like he was expecting blood, but Shen Yuan had been careful enough to avoid nicking him. Even if he could have used that move to draw blood, it was far too risky for his taste. He could have actually hurt Gongyi Xiao!

Ah, but now Gongyi Xiao’s temper seemed to flare. “You’re playing with me.”

“Perish the thought,” Shen Yuan said mildly. 

Gongyi Xiao was back on the offensive, now putting much more of his considerable strength into his blows. Shen Yuan very quickly had to give up on fully blocking them, and instead started dodging and deflecting. Occasionally, when Gongyi Xiao left his sides open, he sent a little shock of Qi through two fingers into his exposed areas.

It was probably mean of Shen Yuan, but Gongyi Xiao’s face turning progressively more red was entertaining.

“Ah, you should not be so discouraged,” Shen Yuan chided, “Gongyi Xiao is a promising youth, but this one is indeed a master, and I have not spent the last six years idle. Whether you fight with the standard Huan Hua style or mix your martial arts, it won’t do you any good against an opponent who has seen it all.”

“So you started this duel because you knew I couldn’t defeat you in a straightforward swordfight,” Gongyi Xiao growled, “Is Master Shen not ashamed of his blatant cheating?”

“How is that cheating?” Shen Yuan raised an eyebrow, “I challenged you to a duel, and you accepted. The parameters were set, and I have kept to them. Where does Gongyi Xiao see dishonor in this Master?”

Gongyi Xiao bared his teeth in frustration. “Cheating by altering the rules… How very like Shen Qingqiu!”

He leapt at Shen Yuan, moving like he intended to slice him in half then and there. Even Shen Yuan had to scramble to dodge. Wow, he really was a sore loser!

One really had to appreciate the young man’s stamina, though. Shen Yuan had planned to conserve his energy while letting Gongyi Xiao tire himself out, but the vigor of youth was not to be underestimated! The fight was dragging on and on, and yet Gongyi Xiao wasn’t slowing down at all!

Truly remarkable! Had he come back with the rebels before Luo Binghe did that whole quest where he papapapa-d the Goddess Wujimu’s favorite handmaiden on top of Kunlun mountain, and therefore mastered Xin Mo, he might have actually managed to defeat the Protagonist! Really, he made it seem like it was pure plot contrivance that he never managed to best Luo Binghe! 

To be fair, that was probably the point. Airplane was a hack author, but if he had been completely devoid of skill and finesse, Shen Yuan wouldn’t have been eating his damn tofu, and he certainly wouldn’t have been paying a premium for it. Gongyi Xiao was written to be a narrative parallel to Luo Binghe, before Airplane sold out and he had to be nerfed to avoid outshining Luo Binghe. The worst sin a character could do in a Stallion Novel was, after all, make it unsatisfying to project onto the Protagonist. If Gongyi Xiao held up a mirror to Luo Binghe and showed him the blackness still clinging to his skin, it might make the readers actually think about their own shitty behavior and how it reflected on them. And that, of course, was not allowed.

So Gongyi Xiao returned too late to do anything but die in a way that affirmed Luo Binghe’s supremacy. Forever the second best, the forgotten one next to the Narrative’s favorite child.

How bleak. What a waste. 

But maybe that was why Shen Yuan was here. The System mentioned something in that primordial transmigration void, something about improving the narrative and patching up plot holes, making the ending more satisfying, before it actually assigned him to Shen Qingqiu and shut down. It had struck Shen Yuan as absolute idiocy to tell him to fix the narrative and then throw him at a point where it was broken beyond repair. He thought it was a glitch, a bug in the System’s coding. But now…

After all, the System never said he had to improve the Protagonist’s narrative. He managed just fine on his own, after all. It was everyone else who suffered and had to be dumbed down to allow Luo Binghe to thrive.

It might explain his situation, but Shen Yuan didn’t know if he liked it. It meant he was still beholden to the System’s grasp, and was still dancing to its tune. That running away was precisely what he was supposed to do, and not a real escape. 

He hadn’t heard anything from the System in years, since it just kept displaying the error message. Without the power source, it couldn’t actually maintain conversation. But clearly it was still running. What was it doing in the background, behind the screen it showed Shen Yuan?

Worrying. Very worrying. Still, he wasn’t stupid enough to unmute it and see if he really was far enough from the protagonist that pushing the power button wouldn’t wake it up, now that its power source was topside. The System was still down, and that was how he liked it. And as long as he stayed far away from the protagonist, it would hopefully stay that way.

Gongyi Xiao’s hand, fingers curled like claws and spiked with Qi, very narrowly missed Shen Yuan’s face.

“You aren’t even paying attention!” Gongyi Xiao snarled, “Why haven’t you ended this already!?”

“Well, why stop now?” Shen Yuan smiled, “Gongyi Xiao has already improved quite a bit since we started.”

Gongyi Xiao faltered half a step when he heard those words, mouth gaping open as he looked at Shen Yuan. 

“But you’re right, it’s getting late,” Shen Yuan focused his Qi to his fingers, “Let’s end this.”

Gongyi Xiao snapped back to position, expecting an attack.

He was not expecting the blades of grass to come alive and form a storm around him.

To his credit, he managed to make a Qi bubble around himself and repel most of the grass blades before they cut him. But that move required so much Qi and attention, even he didn’t have enough to simultaneously block Shen Yuan’s sword, aiming for his forearm.

Or, at least, Shen Yuan didn’t think he would. Gongyi Xiao just kept surprising him!

Still, Gongyi Xiao overestimated his own reach, and as he deflected Xiu Ya with his own sword, he knocked it clean out of Shen Yuan’s hand.

Xiu Ya flew in a spin, coming horrifyingly close to literally cutting Gongyi Xiao’s face in half. For a moment, Shen Yuan was terrified it really did.

But as Xiu Ya fell, imbedding itself in the dry ground, Gongyi Xiao was still whole. 

The only damage was a line of red bisecting his upper lip, just a centimeter to the left from literally cutting his nose off. A fat drop of blood flowed out, falling down his mouth and chin.

“Fuck,” Shen Yuan breathed out a giant gust of breath in sheer relief, “Holy shit, that was close! I thought you were at least going to lose an eye!”

Gongyi Xiao said nothing. He seemed to still be in shock, staring at Shen Yuan. The blood was still dripping down his chin.

Shen Yuan dug out a handkerchief and offered it to Gongyi Xiao. “Here.”

The young man did nothing, said nothing. Hesitating, Shen Yuan approached and slowly pressed the cotton to the blood.

That seemed to finally snap Gongyi Xiao out of his stupor. His hand shot up to grab Shen Yuan’s wrist, stopping him from dabbing at the blood.

“You won,” he said, voice flat.

“You’re bleeding,” Shen Yuan pointed out, then just took the handkerchief into his other hand and continued mopping up Gongyi Xiao’s blood, “Honestly, I’m surprised it’s not worse. That reckless move nearly cost you your head!”

Gongyi Xiao blinked, eyes darting between the handkerchief and Shen Yuan’s face. He didn’t seem to know what to do with his loss.

Shen Yuan sighed. “Don’t go all hopeless now, ah. You lost this duel. At no point had this Master forbidden you from starting another.”

“Another duel?” Gongyi Xiao asked.

“Mmn, that’s the great thing about life,” Shen Yuan nodded, “Most of the time, you get a do-over. You lost to this Master now, but if you get stronger, you can try again. Maybe one day you will even win.”

Gongyi Xiao blinked. “That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?”

Hardly, it was a stupid idea he concocted when his back was to the wall and he realized he had to give Gongyi Xiao some kind of emotional outlet and himself a decent stalling tactic. Thankfully, much like Zuko, Gongyi Xiao placed a lot of value on honor. To honor their deal, he would train hard and challenge Shen Yuan to see his progress, hoping that one day he would win.

Shen Yuan was counting on both of them touring the Mayan pyramids by the time that day came, as far away from Luo Binghe as they could get. And at that point, surely enough time would have passed for Gongyi Xiao realize he had built a whole new life and identity, separate from Huan Hua and its poison legacy, and the victory would merely be symbolic.

Perhaps not the best plan, but he thought it was a decent character arc for something he thought of on the fly. Classic Found Family trope, if he did say so himself! An arc satisfying enough that even Zhongdian readers would nod and go back to reading Luo Binghe’s sexual exploits with a minimum of complaining! Their filler episode fulfilled, he and Gongyi Xiao would walk off into the sunset holding hands, and be left in peace! 

Meanwhile, the Gongyi Xiao of the present closed his eyes and huffed a humorless laugh. “How do you only keep getting more confusing?”

“Well I need to keep the youngsters on their toes somehow,” Shen Yuan shrugged. He took the handkerchief away, to check the cut on Gongyi Xiao’s lip. It was still bleeding sluggishly, but at least it was no longer a river of blood pouring down. He pressed a clean corner to the wound again, transferring some gentle Qi to encourage healing.

“Come on, we should get back to the inn,” Shen Yuan said gently, “Chin up. There’s always tomorrow. And the day after that. Small steps add together to span a long journey. Hope is a difficult thing to lose for a reason: it always finds alternate options.”

Wisdom dispensed, Shen Yuan took a step back and his handkerchief away, only to be sized by the waist by insistent hands.

Gongyi Xiao’s nose brushed the tip of his own.

“Master Shen is so cruel, cutting my face,” Gongyi Xiao whispered, “Won’t he even kiss it better?”

Shen Yuan spluttered. Before he could tell Gongyi Xiao off, that this was neither the time nor the place, the switch in his brain was once again flipped off by Gongyi Xiao’s unfairly expert tongue.

Did that mean the Going Gay to Avoid the Narrative plan was back on track? Shen Yuan had kind of given up on it, already decided that the Found Family route was just as good, and that wasn’t just the lack of oxygen to his brain talking. But Found Family would require actually going through some kind of narrative, whereas Going Gay ensured the narrative would drop them like a hot coal, so it still had the advantage, despite the downfalls. 

Hey, it’s not a stupid plan if it works! A man had to make do with the braincells he had, as the Great Author Airplane knew very well, and his strategies were presumably the ones that would work best in the world he made. So, if Going Gay plan was back on the table, Shen Yuan would-

Wait, when did Shen Yuan end up on the ground? 

And where was Gongyi Xiao’s hand going????

Finally capturing one elusive braincell, Shen Yuan snapped his thighs closed, unfortunately trapping Gongyi Xiao’s hand there.

“What are you doing???” Shen Yuan squeaked.

“What do you think?” Gongyi Xiao breathed, “Nobody is watching now.”

“That’s not the problem!” Shen Yuan squeaked again, then tried to wiggle out from under Gongyi Xiao without actually touching him. Considering he was laid out on the ground and Gongyi Xiao was on all fours above him, hand between his legs, it was… Not going well.

“Then what is the problem?” Gongyi Xiao asked, eyes narrowed.

They were dirty, sweaty and in the middle of a field! Gongyi Xiao’s lip was still bleeding! Shen Yuan still hadn’t made peace with his Situational Gayness! Did either of them have any idea how to do this? With what lube??? Take your pick!

“How do you even have the energy?” he muttered incredulously, “Honestly, I’ve heard about the vigor of youth, but this is ridiculous! Can you not wait until we’re in an actual bed?”

Wait. No, that wasn’t what he was going to say. Bad braincell! Y u no work???

Gongyi Xiao looked startled, then threw his head back with a laugh. He laughed, laughed and laughed until Shen Yuan started getting worried. But with one final wheeze, he rolled off of Shen Yuan and collapsed next to him in the sand. 

Shen Yuan propped himself up on his elbows. “Are you alright?”

“No idea,” Gongyi Xiao wheezed, “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“Ah, I’m familiar with the feeling,” Shen Yuan said with great empathy. It sent Gongyi Xiao into another laughing fit.

After an even more worrying stretch of time, he finally ran out of breath, and just laid there on the floor, limbs akimbo and a strange look on his face. Really, Shen Yuan knew this was a time of great emotional upheaval for Gongyi Xiao, but the yo-yo of emotions was really swinging a bit fast!

Well. Whatever strange spell had possessed him seemed to have passed. Suddenly feeling horribly worn out, Shen Yuan just laid back down next to him.

The stars really were beautiful tonight.

“So the day I surpass you is the day you come back with me,” Gongyi Xiao giggled with the last of his breath, eyes on the stars, “And until that day, we travel together?”

“...That’s the plan, yes,” Shen Yuan sat up and looked at him suspiciously. He wouldn’t happen to be looking for loopholes to exploit, would he? Have mercy, Gongyi Xiao! Shen Yuan was still collecting his braincells off the ground where you threw them, can you not wait until Shen Yuan recuperated enough to counter your plots? Let him take a nap at least!

Gongyi Xiao’s lips stretched into a wide grin. He tilted his head a bit to the side to look at Shen Yuan. “So this really doesn’t change anything between us?”

Shen Yuan looked away, hugging his knees. “That’s up to you, isn’t it? If you still want to- Now that you know.”

He couldn’t see what face Gongyi Xiao was making, but he eventually heard him shuffling and turning in the sand. “Can I ask you something?”

“You just did,” Shen Yuan sighed, “But sure.”

“I understand you left China because of Luo Binghe,” Gongyi Xiao said, “But you left Cang Qiong even before you knew he survived the Abyss. Why?”

“Ah, isn’t that obvious as well?” Shen Yuan sighed again. He was doing that a lot lately. 

“Evidently not,” Gongyi Xiao said dryly, “You barely knew your own name, and yet you left behind everybody who would take care of you to be nothing and nobody. That’s the part I still don’t understand.”

“Ah, then you must simply imagine what is worse than being nothing and nobody,” Shen Yuan grimaced, “And the answer is even more obvious.”

Shen Yuan laid back down next to Gongyi Xiao, looking up at the stars. It never ceased to amaze him how vibrant the night sky was without the air pollution of the modern world. 

“Imagine you were in my shoes. You wake up one day, in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar people, calling you an unfamiliar name,” Shen Yuan paused, unsure how much he could reveal, but the System didn’t chime, no emergency overwrite in case Shen Yuan spilled the beans. Well, as long as he kept everything vague enough… “You know these people, but you don’t know them. They barely seem real, but they know you. They have a certain idea of who and what you are and should be. But then you realize that the person they know is absolute scum.”

Gongyi Xiao made a noise next to him. Shen Yuan didn’t turn his head to look.

“You wake up and realize you’re supposed to be the pettiest, cruelest sort of man, some two-bit villain who preyed on the young women out of lust and abused children he was responsible for because they dared to have a modicum of talent,” his hands tightened where they were fisted in his robes, over his abdomen, “And everybody around you thought that was normal, that being worse than the villainous caricature in a children’s story was just fine. Nobody fucking stopped to think that maybe you not wanting to be evil anymore was a good thing, they just started throwing possession detecting talismans at you.”

“Did any of them work?” Gongyi Xiao sounded mildly curious.

“Evidently not,” Shen Yuan said dryly, “I swear, Yue Qingyuan looked so disappointed. I think he’s secretly a huge masochist, honestly, no way he would have tolerated Shen Qingqiu and his- Everything, if he wasn’t secretly getting off on it.”

Gongyi Xiao choked on a quiet laugh. Shen Yuan’s mouth twitched, but evened out as he continued. 

“So you’re there. The worst man in the known world, and you really, really don’t want to be. And then you realize… There’s nothing stopping you from just- Not being that person anymore. Nothing is stopping you from just leaving, taking your shit and disappearing. They would be looking for you, eventually, but they would be looking for a Peak Lord, with a perpetual scowl and a fan, who looked down at everyone around him. Nobody would be looking for you, as you really were.”

Shen Yuan finally turned his head to look at Gongyi Xiao. He was on his side, turned towards Shen Yuan, head propped on his hand, looking down at Shen Yuan’s face.

“What would you have done?” Shen Yuan whispered.

Gongyi Xiao huffed a little self-deprecatingly. “Probably become angry at everyone around me first, then decided that if they wanted me to be a beast, then I would give them a beast. I would have become the worst person in the world, because I wouldn’t know how to be anything else.”

“And that’s why I left,” Shen Yuan turned his eyes back to the heavens, “I was afraid that if I stayed, I would be forced to be Shen Qingqiu, one way or another. I might not have known who I was, but I knew that was what I did not want to be.”

Shen Yuan had almost stayed. The System was offline, nothing was stopping him from playing up the amnesia angle and going full OOC. Gongyi Xiao was right, Qing Jing peak might have cowered before his mere presence, but with some patience and elbow grease, he could have turned people’s opinions around. He could have stayed, and conveniently gone on a sabbatical a year or so before Luo Binghe was set to come back, and this time around, people would be a lot more reluctant to point fingers and tell his murderer where to find him. 

But Yue Qingyuan kept coming back every day, asking him what he remembered today. If he had regained any more memories. At first he thought the Original Goods had had some serious blackmail on the Sect Leader, and Yue Qingyuan was trying to figure out if the new and improved version still remembered it. So he had… Tried to reassure the man.

Whatever grudges had existed between us, they have been laid to rest. Do you not think it best, if the past was forgotten and all the debts forgiven?

Yue Qingyuan had shattered the teacup in his hand. He’d looked like he was going to start breaking things or possibly burst into tears, whichever way the coin flipped. He’d excused himself and hastily retreated from the bamboo house. 

Shen Yuan realized it was not about blackmail. For whatever reason, Yue Qingyuan actually missed Shen Qingqiu. Truly and whole heartedly.

But that was the one thing Shen Yuan absolutely couldn't give him.

The next day, he gave Ming Fan a note for the Sect Leader, that he was going to the Ling Xi caves to try and sort himself out, and never looked back. Shen Qingqiu disappeared, and Shen Yuan appeared out of thin air, a year apart, and yet nobody thought for even a moment they were the same person.

Well. Almost nobody.

“How did you even find me?” Shen Yuan asked, “I thought I covered up any connection between me and Shen Qingqiu. How did you know to follow me here?”

“Ah,” Gongyi Xiao reached into his sleeve for something, “One upside to the current ruler of he Demon Realm infiltrating your sect: when other demons see my uniform and realize I haven’t attacked them on sight, they assume I’m a servant who’s in on the joke, and they’re willing to talk and even trade. It took me a while, but I got lucky. One demon had this.”

Out of his sleeve, he pulled out a sword tassel of pale green silk, a complicated knot holding a bead of pure jadite in place. 

The sword tassel Shen Yuan had taken off Xiu Ya and given to a small demon in the Borderlands.

“There was one demon with a ridiculous name who bragged about tricking an immortal master into giving him his sword tassel after he won a game of wits. I knew he was lying immediately, but I recognised the trophy he was waving around. And when I asked him to describe the cultivator he got this from, I realized why nobody had seen ‘Shen Qingqiu’ in so long.”

“And now you knew exactly whose trail to follow to find him,” Shen Yuan sighed. Damn, one careless move and Gongyi Xiao sniffed it out like a bloodhound! Of course, he was sent on a quest by the Protagonist, so it made sense that the Narrative threw him a bone, but still! One slip-up and he was on Shen Yuan’s tail! Zuko himself couldn’t have done it better!

Shen Yuan yawned, hastily covering his mouth with the back of his hand. The stars were getting blurrier, the Milky Way melting into a river. They should probably be getting back to the inn.

Mmm. In a minute. Just a bit longer to rest from his duel.

“I’m still not sure I found him,” Gongyi Xiao said quietly.

“Found who?” Shen Yuan asked, eyes half-closed, “How many people are you looking for?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” was Gongyi Xiao’s cryptic answer, “Shen Yuan?”

“Mmm?”

“What would you have done, if you stayed at Cang Qiong?”

“Died, obviously,” Shen Yuan muttered, “You don’t really live long if Luo Binghe wants you dead.”

“And if he didn’t?” Gongyi Xiao whispered, sounding like he was close. Shen Yuan didn’t bother opening his eyes to find out. “If he didn’t want you dead, what would you do?”

“Ah, that would require being anybody but Shen Qingqiu,” Shen Yuan sighed, “Or at least being Shen Qingqiu before Luo Binghe arrived. Could have changed things then. Too late now, though.”

“...If this happened to you before the Immortal Alliance conference, what would you have done?”

“Better,” Shen Yuan said, finally opening his eyes. Seems that was a conversation they were having now. “I would have tried to do better.”

He tilted his head to the side. Gongyi Xiao was indeed close, so close that the tip of his perfectly straight nose was almost brushing Shen Yuan’s cheek. Even in the light of the nearly full moon, Shen Yuan could see the patterns in his irises, the curl of his lashes. So close, he could even see the pores on his skin, faint as they were, and the slightest shadow of his peach fuzz around his chin, his cultivation stopping it from becoming a beard. His lip was still split, the wound made by a spiritual weapon slow to heal. 

Shen Yuan ran the tip of his finger over the skin of his cheekbone, over the faintest pores on his cheek, on his nose, trailing upwards to his sword-straight brows, lingering on the tiny baby hairs growing where they weren’t supposed to. Finally, he settled on the wound on Gongyi Xiao’s lip and sent a trickle of spiritual energy to promote healing. Despite all of that, the wound would likely scar.

Little, faint imperfections. Almost perfect, but not quite. Never the Protagonist, forever his shadow.

How unfair. What an injustice.

“In a better world,” Shen Yuan whispered, “I would have been there when he came. I would have been there even earlier. Those poor kids on Qing Jing, they all looked so scared of me. One of them, Ming Fan, he was Shen Qingqiu’s disciple. After the Qi deviation, he was so worried, always asking if I was okay, if I needed anything, but if I so much as moved too quickly, he flinched. Loyal like a dog, even when beaten. I wanted to assure him I wouldn’t hit him. I would never hit any of them ever again.”

His eyes dropped closed, recalling those two weeks he spent on Qing Ying peak. He’d gathered that Shen Qingqiu was always more volatile after his Qi deviations, and only Ming Fan was brave enough to approach, even if his knees were knocking together in fright. But Ning Yingying was too busy mourning her shidi’s death, so there was no one else but him who could hope to draw the Scum Villain’s attention and live to tell the tale.

Shen Yuan had pictured him as a boot-faced thug, yet another cannon fodder whose only purpose was to die. Instead, he saw a boy. A boy with a face he could have seen on the streets of Shanghai, like any teenager rushing to school and home after, unremarkable in his existence. Unnoticed among the sea of beauties, just… An ordinary boy.

A boy who was clearly expecting to be hit for existing in his presence. 

If Ming Fan, Shen Qingqiu’s head disciple, the one he tolerated the most, was so afraid of him, how horrible had he been to everyone else?

“If I was there, when this began,” Shen Yuan continued in a whisper, “I would have let them be kids. Tried to be a proper teacher to them. Even if I didn’t know anything, we could have learned together. The whole point of being someone’s Shifu is to protect them. To be a second father. I… I would have tried.”

“Even to a demon?” Gongyi Xiao whispered. When Shen Yuan opened his eyes, it was to see Gongyi Xiao’s own glistening.

“Ah, what is a demon?” Shen Yuan ran his thumb under Gongyi Xiao’s eyes, “People are what you make them to be. If you raise a demon as a human, then he will be culturally human. Luo Binghe was given a good reason to hate humans and embrace demons. But without that hatred…”

Luo Binghe who hadn’t suffered at the hands of a villain, who didn’t hate the world and had motivation to become strong enough to wring everything he had been denied out of it. What would he have been like?

“I think you two would have even been friends,” Shen Yuan said, wistfully, “Mn, senior disciples are encouraged to expand their horizons. Even the Old Palace Master couldn’t have denied you the trip, not without making the Jianghu think he was worried he would die in the time you were gone. You could have come to Qing Jing. You would be welcome, I would make sure of it. Maybe you could have even stayed.”

Gongyi Xiao’s eyes closed fully, and a perfect, crystalline tear ran down his nose, dropping into the sand. 

“Ah, why are you crying?” Shen Yuan asked, “Aren’t you too big to cry like this? Come here, there there, no need to cry.”

Gongyi Xiao, following Shen Yuan’s tugging, rolled over so he was face-down on Shen Yuan’s chest. His hands fisted in Shen Yuan’s robes, and his shoulders shook, but he didn’t make a sound.

Shen Yuan’s hands came up to pet his hair. His sleeping braid had come apart, leaving his wild mane of soft curls covering his back. Even sweaty and dirty, they were as soft as fleece. 

“Ah, my poor little sheep,” Shen Yuan muttered sleepily, “It’s alright. You can cry. I won’t look. I know you lost your flock, it’s alright to miss them. You can be a big, strong boy tomorrow. Tonight, you can cry.”

Finally, Gongyi Xiao let out a wheezing sob, his whole chest heaving. Soon, the front of Shen Yuan’s robes was wet with tears and snot. 

Keeping his word, Shen Yuan stared up at the heavens, his fingers running through soft fleece of a black lamb. Slowly combing out the tangles, occasionally gently scratching his scalp and neck, petting the shaking back every time the sobs started up again. 

Eventually, it became quiet. The little lamb quieted, and went still, still face-down on Shen Yuan’s chest. 

Eventually, Shen Yuan closed his eyes, hands going still in the lamb’s fleece. 

Eventually, he was asleep.

In his sleep, he thought he felt arms around him, lifting him up into the air and carrying him away. 

He had really strange dreams that night, but if asked, he couldn’t remember what they were about.

All he knew was that they hurt.

When Shen Yuan woke up, it was to a splitting headache. He felt like someone had cracked his bones open, scooped out the marrow, ran it through a dialysis machine, and then shot it back into his bones with a horse syringe. 

The sound of his heart monitor was still beeping in his ears. It was annoying. 

And to make everything worse, there was sunlight stabbing him in the eyes. Honestly, can a poor patient not catch a break in this hospital? Why were his parents paying exorbitant premium fees to the hospital if Shen Yuan didn’t even have curtains in his room?

Groaning, he pulled the blanket over his head. Ugh, even the sheets were scratchy, what kind of hospital was this?

He could hear the door opening and closing, one of the nurses coming in. Shen Yuan would have asked them to close the blinds, but his tongue felt like lead. 

“Shen Yuan?” the nurse whispered, “How are you feeling?”

“Mrglf,” Shen Yuan said eloquently. 

A hand covered his forehead. It was a pretty big hand. Was this the doctor? 

“Can you open your eyes?” the doctor asked, a little louder. Yep, it was a man’s voice, probably the doctor then. Or at least a resident. They sometimes drew the short straw and had to attend to Shen Yuan when the nurses were understaffed. 

“Shen Yuan?” the doctor asked. His hands was so nice and cool, and his headache was ebbing away by the second. Eventually, Shen Yuan felt like he could slightly uncurl from his frozen shrimp position without throwing his whole guts up.

“I’m so sorry,” the doctor whispered. He sounded surprisingly young. And… Familiar? “Can you open your eyes?”

Shen Yuan groaned. “No. Too bright.”

The hand on his forehead twitched, and then drew back. There was a sound like a thread being pulled, and then finally, finally, the curtains were drawn and the sunlight wasn’t stabbing Shen Yuan in the eyes so much.

With great effort, Shen Yuan opened his eyes just a bit. Without his glasses, his vision was blurry, but even then he could see… discrepancies. 

His sheets were wrong. The doctor sitting on his bedside was wearing yellow instead of white. The walls were a woodsy brown instead of hospital whites and neutrals. He rubbed his eyes to clear them from the gunk and blinked again, trying to clear them.

“Shen Yuan?” the doctor asked again. Then, with more hesitation, “Shen Qingqiu?”

“Bwuh?” Shen Yuan groaned. Shen Qingqiu? From Proud Immortal Demon Way? Was he a fan? Did Shen Yuan blab about it when he was coming off the anaesthesia and some doctor decided to look it up?

The doctor made a wounded noise, almost a whimper. That was generally not a sound you wanted doctors to make, so with great effort, Shen Yuan opened his eyes and forced them to focus. 

There was a young man sitting on his bedside, leaning over him, wearing golden embroidered robes. He was very pretty, but for some reason he was looking at Shen Yuan like he had almost died. His lip looked like it had been bitten bloody.

Wait a minute… He knew this young man. He’d seen him before. His name was-

“Gongyi Xiao?” Shen Yuan groaned, another wave of pain stabbing him right behind the eyes, “What happ- OOF!”

Shen Yuan’s arms were suddenly full of overenthusiastic youth babbling something that sounded like apologies. Fighting for breath, and the damn headache that returned tenfold because someone had removed his curtain, Shen Yuan did his best to wiggle out with at least a drop of dignity.

No dignity was to be found at the moment, unfortunately. 

Finally, the young man seemed to realize his patient was still in a substantial amount of pain, and scrambled off by himself. The sunlight was blocked and a nice cool hand was once again on his forehead radiating relief.

Oh wait, that was Qi, wasn’t it? Gongyi Xiao was a cultivator. Yes, from Proud Immortal Demon Way. A minor cannon fodder, but still. Shen Yuan remembered. What was he doing here?

“I’m so sorry,” Gongyi Xiao whispered, like he was afraid his voice would agitate Shen Yuan’s headache again, “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was careless. I thought- I’m sorry.”

“What happened?” Shen Yuan groaned. He cracked one eyes open, trying to make it focus. He didn’t actually need glasses anymore, right? He was decently certain that he had fallen out of the habit of pushing them up his nose because he didn’t need to wear them anymore. Ugh, but even with the yellow curtains blocking the light, and Gongyi Xiao’s hand passing him Qi, the whole room spun like they were on a boat. Best to keep his eyes closed.

“...You had a Qi deviation,” Gongyi Xiao said, remorsefully, “It was my fault. Aft- At the duel. I- Did something I shouldn't have. I didn’t think- It wasn’t supposed to have this effect!”

Ah. Yes. Duel. Those were words, and if Shen Yuan tried very hard, they might even make sense. There was a duel, to see who won and who would get their way over… Ah yes, Shen Yuan dying because he had the worst luck of any transmigrator in any world.

He was Shen Qingqiu. Luo Binghe had sent Gongyi Xiao on an Avatar quest to capture him and drag him back. He’d lost the duel, so Shen Yuan got to walk free another day, but it seemed that Gongyi Xiao’s frustration had overflowed and made him use some underhanded trick, maybe a shot of Qi to make his leg cramp or something, that had delayed effects. Shen Qingqiu’s cultivation base had been a hot mess when Shen Yuan took over, and even a year on the Ling Xi caves wasn’t enough to smooth all the frayed meridians he was left with. Really, it had been a matter of time until something like this happened.

Shen Yuan raised a hand and by feel alone found the top of Gongyi Xiao’s head. He patted it clumsily, hoping the gesture wouldn’t be taken the wrong way. “There there. It happens.”

“It happ-” Gongyi Xiao spluttered, “You nearly died! And it was my fault!”

“Not really,” Shen Yuan sighed. His hair was so soft! “My cultivation’s unstable as hell. Did my best to fix it in the caves, but it’s all patchwork. Would have happened sooner or later. Not your fault.”

Gongyi Xiao was quiet for a long moment. Eventually, Shen Yuan’s hand got too tired to hold it up like that, so he let it drop back to the bed. 

Gongyi Xiao’s hand left his forehead and took his hand. Well. He actually interlaced their fingers and held on like- Like-

Oh, right! They were Going Gay! He supposed it was allowed then.

Shen Yuan kept that in mind as Gongyi Xiao’s forehead lowered until it was pressed to his own, noses bumping. Curly hair, soft like fleece, fell to the side, between Shen Yuan’s eyes and the window, blocking the light further. 

Now that it was closer, Shen Yuan raised his other hand to pet it. “So soft. Like a little sheep.”

Gongyi Xiao twitched above him. “Aren’t I at least big enough to be a ram?” he asked, voice wobbly with worry and unshed tears, but still managing to sound amused.

“Rams are mean,” Shen Yuan said, with the conviction of someone who made the mistake of trying to pet one when he was going through the Mongolian steppe, “And they’re not that soft when they’re big. They tumble around and their fleece gets dirt on it and gets scratchy. You’re soft.”

There where little puffs of air brushing against Shen Yuan’s lips. He realized Gongyi Xiao was silently laughing. 

“But even the softest of lambs eventually grow up to be mean rams,” Gongyi Xiao remarked, “Is Master Shen not going to like me when I grow horns?”

“We’ll put pool noodles on them,” Shen Yuan said.

“You’ll put what on them?” 

“Pool noodles,” he cracked an eye open to see Gongyi Xiao’s bemused expression, “You know. Floaties. Made of foam. Squishy. They put them on goat horns so that they bounce when they headbutt something. We can find some we can put on ram horns too.”

“So I’ll bounce when I try to headbutt someone,” Gongyi Xiao said, the entire bed shaking with how hard he was trying to suppress his laughter. 

Okay maybe the metaphor had gotten away from him. So what? He just had a Qi deviation! People said all kinds of weird things after them! It was like having a stroke that made you go berserk and bleed out of every orifice in your body. Nobody expected people to be fully coherent immediately after!

“...Will Master Shen not punish me for doing this to him?” Gongyi Xiao eventually asked.

“What for?” Shen Yuan asked, mildly baffled, “You just said it was an accident.”

“My actions cased Master Shen great harm, regardless of my intentions. Retribution would only be justice. This one will accept whatever punishment Master Shen deems fit.”

Shen Yuan opened his eyes just so he could glare at Gongyi Xiao. Did he manage to forget that whole embarrassing conversation they had while laying in the dirt? Because Shen Yuan didn’t, even if he would like to! He distinctly remembered whining about how he didn’t want to hit his disciples, and how his guts squirmed when they flinched away from him. And now Gongyi Xiao was asking for punishment? Who were you punishing here?

Ah, this shitty world really did a number on its denizens! Shen Yuan’s philosophy that punishment should only be served for intentional harm was as alien as skyscrapers, fridges and the internet to these people. Causing harm, even on accident, meant either swift punishment or forever waiting for the other shoe to drop, which was a punishment in and of itself.

Fine. There was an easy way to resolve this.

“Hold still,” Shen Yuan ordered. Gongyi Xiao froze where he sat, very clearly bracing himself for pain.

It was almost funny how hard he jumped when Shen Yuan flicked his forehead.

“There, punishment meted out,” he sighed and closed his eyes again, “Now let me sleep.”

His headache had abated enough that he could finally relax and maybe even get some rest. Surely Gongyi Xiao could entertain himself for a while. 

As exhausted as he was, he never noticed that the hand holding his never left.

For the second time in his life, in the span of only a day, Luo Binghe’s entire life turned on its head into something he had no idea how to live in.

They say two wrongs don’t make a right, but it still felt like that was indeed what happened here. The day Luo Binghe fell into the Abyss, and started on his journey of suffering, was also the day his salvation came into existence. It was almost poetic.

Well, good news, Meng Mo shrugged in his head, Now we know for a fact that he’s not possessed anymore.

But that thing still has a hold of him, Luo Binghe retorted, Just because it’s not puppeting him anymore, doesn’t mean it couldn’t come back.

Come back from where? Meng Mo snorted inelegantly, I’m telling you, kid. The only thing that makes sense is that whatever was possessing your Shizun was drawn into the Abyss when it pushed you in. Those walls in his mind are hiding memories, but if there was anything conscious behind them, you would have found it in that little excursion.

Meng Mo was probably right, but it still didn’t sit well with Luo Binghe, leaving any trace of that monster in his Shizun’s mind. Even if it was just memories locked away in a dusty corner, hidden behind impenetrable green walls, warded with sigils Luo Binghe had never seen before. 

Beneath him, Shizun sighed, hand twitching where it was entwined with Luo Binghe’s own. He tilted his head to the side, and continued sleeping.

Careful to keep his sleeve blocking the sunlight from reaching Shizun’s face, Luo Binghe brushed his fingers along his hairline, over smooth skin that looked like mutton fat jade, but was as soft as silk.

And considering how he reacted when you tried to break them, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d put them there himself, Meng Mo continued contemplating, He decided to name himself after a ‘Wall’ for a reason. And neither of us can find them unless he’s literally touching them. The power to make them might have been borrowed, but at this point I would put money on him making them himself. Trying to tear them down again would probably destroy his mind for real.

Luo Binghe frowned, but in this case, Meng Mo was still more knowledgeable than him. Have you every seen anything like them before?

No, Meng Mo admitted, And I thought I‘ve seen everything. The only thing remotely similar I’ve encountered was that fragment of consciousness that your great-grandmother tore away from a primordial god and stuffed into a mortal body. That was a nasty piece of work. Damned thing nearly destroyed her Empire and sucked the soul out of everyone in it.

It did not make Luo Binghe feel better about leaving those walls in Shizun’s mind alone. Were he not a dream master himself, the image of those glassy green panels multiplying, flashing terrifying red symbols and shredding Shizun’s mind to pieces almost faster than Luo Binghe could hold it together would have given him nightmares.

But it looked nothing like those walls, even if the power tastes similar, Meng Mo shrugged, And even if it managed to hide in his mind, it couldn’t hide amongst his souls. And your Shizun has all ten of his Hunpo accounted for, no interlopers or parasites. It’s definitely gone.

Luo Binghe grit his teeth. Peeling back the layers of Shizun’s consciousness, his very being, to the raw marrow of his soul had come very close to killing him. And trying to tear down those walls had almost finished the job.

In the end, it was all for nothing. The walls were still there, and diving down into Shizun’s very being had only revealed his own mind and soul, finally free of the malicious spirit that had haunted him from childhood. It did bring Luo Binghe peace of mind, that the Shen Qingqiu of his disciplehood was well and truly gone, but they were no closer to an actual solution.

Meng Mo hadn’t managed to find when exactly had the spirit that would become Shen Qingqiu managed to possess Shizun back when he’d still been Shen Jiu, but they’d scoured his memories extensively, looking for it. The crotchety old demon had been of the opinion it had found its opening on the night Shen Jiu had met Wu Yanzi, and had slipped from the demonic cultivator onto the boy full of potential and just as many heart demons, and caused the Qi deviation that made him slaughter Qiu Haitang’s family.

To be fair, it was a very good theory. Seeing the memories of Qiu Jianluo had turned Luo Binghe’s stomach, and not just because some of those ‘punishments’ looked eerily similar to the ones Shen Qingqiu had inflicted on Luo Binghe. The malicious spirit might have finally pushed Shen Jiu over the edge, but Luo Binghe wouldn’t have blamed him even without its interference.

He wondered just how much his wife knew of what went on in her house. Even Yingying had known of the lashings and beatings, despite Shen Qingqiu’s attempts to be discreet. Surely Haitang had known at least some of it, if she had truly loved Shen Jiu as she professed, yet she had never mentioned any of it. Was it the naivete of youth, a rosy sheen on memories from long ago, or deliberate obfuscation? She made it clear she wanted Shen Qingqiu to pay, how far was she willing to go to see it done? 

But finding out the extent of his wife’s lies would have to wait. 

Luo Binghe had seen the memories as well, and he couldn’t help but disagree with Meng Mo’s theory. Shen Jiu, as Luo Binghe had seen him, dirty and starved street urchin beholden to slavers, had still had that mean streak to him, a temper and a desire to hurt the world back. It was only expected, for a child who had been shown little else but cruelty. Being hurt and hurting back was the law of the streets, as Luo Binghe vividly remembered.

But that malicious streak was so completely absent in Shen Yuan that Luo Binghe didn’t manage to find it no matter how finely he sifted through his memories, how many little test scenarios he set up. Shen Yuan killed rampaging monsters, shamed masters who beat their servants, and didn’t hesitate to break the wrists of slavers kidnapping children, but he derived no enjoyment from it. His idea of being mean was verbally tearing apart a poorly written book. Causing others pain didn’t bring him any satisfaction or enjoyment. It was merely a last resort, and a means to an end. 

How a man like that could exist, Luo Binghe was still trying to wrap his head around. It would probably take him a while. Possibly years. But exist he did, and at this point Luo Binghe really ought to accept that.

What he was struggling to accept was that Shen Yuan had existed at any point in Shen Jiu’s life before that Qi deviation, on the precipice of the Abyss. Despite every proof that his theory about them being twins, born in a poor family that couldn’t feed them both and sold one of them into slavery, was wrong, it still made more sense than trying to wrap his head around the theory that Shen Yuan and Shen Qingqiu were, at least at some point, the same person. 

Honestly, it would make far more sense if Shen Yuan was the spirit possessing Shen Qingqiu’s body. The missing memories, the change in personality, all of it would make more sense if Shen Yuan was some kind of entity that arrived just a little too late to save Luo Binghe.

But actually peeling back the layers of him revealed… Nothing. Shen Yuan’s souls fit into his body like they had always belonged there. He was no Skinner Demon, contorting his bones to fit into a stolen skin. For all intents and purposes, as far as both Luo Binghe and Meng Mo could tell, Shen Yuan was Shen Qingqiu as he was meant to be. 

Except for the strange walls in his mind, and the glaring absence of something in the chasm of his mind between collapsing in Jue Di gorge and waking up in his bed on Qing Jing peak. 

All of the memories were there, written in his mind. And yet, there were no memories Shen Yuan could access on his own, without Luo Binghe pushing them forward, of any point before his Qi deviation. There were still echoes of them in his mind, which was how he knew what his life had been like, but could never actually visualize where his knowledge came from.

It was as if he didn’t have any memories of before he was possessed. Like he had been carrying this malevolent spirit since before he could remember. 

He didn’t even remember Yue Qi, who would become Yue Qingyuan. Seeing the Sect Leader’s face on a child slave actually explained so much. Luo Binghe could just imagine the amount of guilt he was living with, if he left Shizun behind in the Qiu house as Shen Yuan and found him again as Shen Qingqiu. A childish promise made in a woodshed, made by a boy who had no idea how unrealistic his year-long promise was. Estimating how much time passed in real life while inside dreams was difficult, but there was a very good chance that by the time Yue Qi’s Shizun had finally allowed him off the mountain, the boy had only found burnt-down remains, and his friend gone.

Luo Binghe remembered the Sect Leader coming to Qing Jing like a beaten dog, begging for scraps and only getting the whip. In the beginning, Luo Binghe hadn’t even realized this man was perhaps the only person with the power to stop Shen Qingqiu’s abuse, thinking he was just another victim who had been in Luo Binghe’s position but was lucky enough to reach adulthood. 

He had resented the Sect Leader when he found out who he was. Now, he realized that his original assumption was far closer to the truth. And to this day, Yue Qingyuan had no idea what had really happened to his friend. Yet like a desperate dog, he couldn’t stop trying to find him underneath the demon’s cruelty.

Masochism indeed, though not for the reason Shen Yuan assumed. Whatever else his feelings about his former Sect Leader might be, Luo Binghe couldn’t help but feel pity for the man, left to drown in his failures alone.

It also made him hate Shen Qingqiu even more than he already did. Not only had the bastard made Luo Binghe’s life a living hell, possibly because he had sensed what Luo Binghe was and wanted to get rid of the competition, he had ruined more lives than Luo Binghe had even been aware of. And he’s done it all with the face and hands of the kindest, most generous man in existence. 

The man Luo Binghe should have been calling Shizun, and now likely never would.

‘Gongyi Xiao’ might wheedle that privilege out of Shen Yuan, but Luo Binghe had, in his ignorance, made himself a terrifying calamity in Shen Yuan’s mind, a far-reaching horror he could only try and flee from. 

Luo Binghe knew, because he’d crafted Shizun’s nightmare himself. He’d wanted to know what Shen Yuan was so afraid of, so he’d taken the idea of ‘Luo Binghe’ and the fear that idea carried, and told them to paint him a dream.

The result had been Shizun, all four limbs torn off, one eye gouged out, tongue missing, suspended naked from chains in Huan Hua’s Water Prison. Still alive. Unable to die until Luo Binghe felt he had suffered enough to pay for his sins. 

Luo Binghe had torn that nightmare down the moment he realized what he was looking at. Would have torn it to shreds, if there was a way to do it without harming Shizun. The very idea twisted his stomach so much he’d nearly torn himself out of the dream.

Human Stick. A demonic torture method even the demons reserved for the worst of their numbers. Based on the gruesome tale of Consort Qi of Han, except made real by the fact only demons would actually survive that level of mutilation.

Or a cultivator deliberately kept alive with Heavenly Demon’s blood parasites. 

It was, indeed, the kind of fate Shen Qingqiu would have deserved. Luo Binghe couldn’t bring himself to balk at the idea of doing it to him, even if he wore the same face as Shen Yuan. 

Some things you should not wish even on your worst enemy, if you were a good man. Luo Binghe was painfully aware that he was not.

Which was, of course, the reason Shizun lived in terror of ever actually being in the same realm as Luo Binghe. He didn’t exactly have a reason to believe Luo Binghe would allow him to explain himself, or believe that he had been Shen Qingqiu’s victim for far longer than Luo Binghe. Had he not seen it himself, in Shizun’s very soul, Luo Binghe would have thought it a paltry lie to try and escape rightful retribution.

He could have killed his Shizun, without ever knowing the monster of his childhood was gone, and the man he was torturing was the last person in the world who deserved it.

Shizun knew this. So he ran. Ran to the far ends of the earth, and when he met another person at risk of a similar fate, he’d begged ‘Gongyi Xiao’ to run away with him and never look back. 

If Luo Binghe were a better man, he would have left Shizun a letter that said ‘Gongyi Xiao’ decided to go to India and become a monk, to meditate and chant sutras until he scrubbed all desire for revenge from his heart, and let him go on his journey to see the world, free of Luo Binghe’s shadow. He would have returned home, and continued building his empire, only keeping an eye on him through his blood parasites, and perhaps one day, when Shizun felt brave enough to return and check on ‘Gongyi Xiao’, he would tell him the truth, that Luo Binghe did not blame him for the sins committed by a monster with his face, and invited him to stay. Shizun would see the face of the youth he had once cared for, and his heart would be moved to forgive Luo Binghe for the deception.

Giving Shen Yuan freedom and choice, the two things he had been denied his whole life, was exactly what Luo Binghe should do. 

But Shen Qingqiu had killed that better man Luo Binghe could have been, and then disappeared into the ether, leaving behind the very embodiment of everything Luo Binghe had ever wanted. How could Luo Binghe let him go, when he had him in his teeth and was just barely stopping himself from biting down? He felt like he was on the verge of a Qi deviation every time Shizun petted his hair, every time he smiled so softly at him, even when he pulled on his ear and flicked his forehead like he thought it was a punishment… 

Every time he hinted at what Luo Binghe’s life could have been like if only someone had thought to test him for possession before that Qi deviation, Luo Binghe felt like one more brick in the wall of his sanity was taken away. Like there was a beast inside his head, howling and clawing at the inside of his skull, trying to crawl out of his mouth and devour Shizun whole. 

Letting Shizun go was the right thing to do, and yet it was not an option.

He wished he could blame Xin Mo for the sheer, raving hunger he felt for Shen Yuan, but Xin Mo and his blatant demonic energy was sealed away and hidden in a warded Qiankun bag. This far away from proper cultivation partners and his wives, keeping a low profile would be impossible if the sword was allowed to dictate Luo Binghe’s desires.

But it had been sealed away for a week now. This slavering want that permeated his being from merely kissing Shizun was all Luo Binghe, only his own demonic appetite. It was through sheer willpower that he hadn’t yet thrown his poor Shizun on the nearest flat surface and torn his clothes off, silencing his cries with his tongue until the only noises he made were ones of pleasure. 

Willpower, and the gut churning horror he felt just imagining the way Shizun would look at him the next day. Shen Qingqiu calling him a beast had hurt. Thinking of Shen Yuan looking at him like he was a beast made Luo Binghe want to crawl back into the Abyss he came from.

So Luo Binghe had to be careful, and slow and courteous and gentle and everything Shizun deserved. He had to make it up to Shizun for not being ‘Gongyi Xiao’, and if he played the role well enough, maybe Shizun would forgive him some day.

But until then… There was only so much he could hold back, when temptation incarnate was right in front of him.

This Shizun was very obviously a virgin, regardless of what Shen Qingqiu had done with his body when he was in charge of it (or what had been done to him). He turned red as a ripe hawthorn berry at the very idea of sex that didn’t happen from the safety of paper and yellow book covers. He kissed like every slip of the tongue against his lips was an entirely new sensation. He balked at his own desires in shame, terrified of becoming like those disgusting men that had tried to take advantage of him when he was journeying alone.

(Luo Binghe had memorized their faces when he saw them in Shizun’s mind. Such unsightly creatures had no business existing in Luo Binghe’s empire. Might as well give his fretting minions at Huan Hua something to do while he was gone.)

Luo Binghe would have to be very careful not to let his desires rule him. There would be time for indulging his lusts the way he wanted to later, when sex lost its novelty in Shizun’s mind and he was willing to experiment . Shizun deserved every pomp and circumstance he desired for his first time. Luo Binghe would lay him down on a soft bed, kiss him senseless, lick and rub him into bonelessness, and only when Shizun was satisfied and willingly opened his legs, he would-

He should probably stop fantasizing about Shizun naked when he was looming over his defenceless, sleeping body. 

Shizun murmured something in his sleep, his hand flexing around Luo Binghe’s again. He turned his head, accidentally baring his neck. Feeling like something was possessing him too, Luo Binghe lowered his head to the long, pale column, and took a deep, slow breath. 

His fangs descended, eager to steal the taste of Shizun from his tongue. Since his demonic heritage came to fore, his sense of smell had sharpened to the point Luo Binghe felt like a beast Shen Qingqiu had accused him of being. And like a beast, his nose had far too much sway over his mind.

Shen Qingqiu had smelt like nothing but bamboo and tea in Luo Binghe’s memory. An immortal spirit that had sprung from a bamboo stalk only long enough to indulge in an expensive cup of tea. When his sleeves billowed with the swing of a whip, Luo Binghe could taste the astringent smell along with the iron tang of his blood.

To this day, he couldn’t stand the smell of bamboo, and would not stand to see it anywhere on his property, no matter how much Ning Yingying pleaded.

Shen Yuan smelled like sweat, sesame and spices. Indian spices from the lunches with the Singh family, sesame oil from his braid, because it was the cheapest oil that would still properly moisturize his hair, and pure, human sweat that even an immortal master couldn’t avoid under the desert sun. It was a combination Luo Binghe hadn’t known until now had the power to drive him insane.

If Luo Binghe thought he could get away with it, he would bite Shizun until the imprint of his teeth forever marked his skin. Right there, on his throat, where everyone could see it, like a brand of ownership. Or on the nape of his neck, hidden by his collar and his hair, where nobody could see it but Shizun would forever feel it there, and Luo Binghe could set his teeth in the scarred grooves that matched them perfectly while he fucked him.

No. He had to stop. This was not helping his errant pillar go down enough to actually allow him to walk.

But he had to, because Shizun had just had his mind turned inside out and put back together and hadn’t eaten for a full day when he was in no state to practice inedia, and Luo Binghe needed to get to the communal kitchens and make him something delicious, because he had no other way to apologise. 

He waited, waited until the angle of the sun changed and slipped away from Shizun’s face, until he could lower his sleeve and be assured Shizun wasn’t in pain. Shizun frowned and let out little noises of displeasure when Luo Binghe extracted his hand, but with patience and persistence, Luo Binghe was free. 

Feeling like a child sneaking out past curfew, Luo Binghe jogged to the place Madame Juhi was waiting for him. He had to hurry if he wanted to be back before Shizun woke up.

He still had a lot to do and even more to figure out. But for now, cooking for someone he cared about was a priority and a privilege Luo Binghe hadn’t had in a long time.

He knew better now than to waste it. After all, it would be a while yet before Luo Binghe could bring Shizun home like a proper bride, and feed him food from his own kitchen. 

Shen Yuan woke up with his- everything still hurting, but also to a delicious smell wafting about the room.

His stomach, noticing he was awake, loudly made it known that he better get his ass in gear and actually feed it, or there would be consequences.

Shitty author, shitty novel! Who heard of cultivators having something as undignified as gurgling stomachs, ah? And after just one night with no dinner? Shen Yuan knew for a fact he could practice inedia, so why-

Oh. Right. Qi deviation. Ugh.

“Master Shen?” Gongyi Xiao laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, “Do you think you can sit up and eat something?”

Breakfast in bed? Been a while since he had one of those. After so long, the notion even seemed indulgent rather than leaving a pathetic taste of helplessness in his mouth. Usually, when Shen Yuan had breakfast in bed, it was because he was hooked up to too many IVs to actually leave the bed. 

He was still too sick to leave the bed, but at least there was a handsome youth bringing his meals instead of a surly nurse. And the food was-

His stomach growled again, even more insistently. Shen Yuan, trying to preserve what little face he had left, opened his eyes and started struggling upwards. 

Gongyi Xiao immediately rushed to help him up, get him vertical and sitting comfortably. He even fluffed his pillows, even though they were buckwheat and there wasn’t really much point. He still glared at them like he was mad they had the audacity to be anything but goose down. 

Shen Yuan tried to hide the fact he was laughing at him, but he didn’t think it helped. 

“This one made food for Master Shen,” Gongyi Xiao said softly, like he still didn’t dare to be too loud, “Won’t Master Shen try my craft?”

“You cooked?” Shen Yuan blinked in surprise. He’d sort of assumed Gongyi Xiao’s skill was roughly on par with his own: he could catch an animal, skin it, and put it on a few sticks over the coals, and the less said about his first attempts the better. Well, as long as the charred bits could be cut away-

Gongyi Xiao put a tray on his lap laden with many, many dishes filled with the most mouth-watering things he’d ever seen, and a huge bowl of fragrant jasmine rice in the center. 

“You made this?” he asked, baffled. 

“With Madame Juhi’s extensive instruction,” Gongyi Xiao admitted, “I had enlisted her help to find the ingredients necessary for the dishes I wanted to make, and after she heard that Master Shen was ill, she insisted on supervising.”

That very much did sound like Madame Juhi, and it also explained how Gongyi Xiao had managed to make all this without the Protagonist halo. Shen Yuan would have to thank her for teaching Gongyi Xiao how to cook, and not just because he was personally benefitting the most from it!

Shen Yuan took the black lacquered chopsticks and the bowl of rice, and grabbed a piece of meat covered in a creamy orange sauce. He put the piece on his rice, grabbed a bite-sized portion, and put it in his mouth.

Oh holy flavor gods, please don’t be mad at Shen Yuan for eating food that was clearly meant to be offered up to divinity!

His stomach, already baying for sustenance, temporarily took control over his body. Shen Yuan suddenly had an intimate understanding of what No-Face had felt in Yubaba’s bathhouse, faced with a neverending feast. Shen Yuan could not blame him one bit for losing control, if this was what the food had been like. No-Face had at least stopped at eating the plates. If Shen Yuan’s mouth had been that size, he wasn’t sure he would have managed that level of restraint.

He had mowed through at least half the tray at the speed only matched by swarms of locusts before conscious thought actually returned to his head, and he realized he had been eating like a complete pig right in front of Gongyi Xiao’s face the whole time.

The poor man had an embarrassed flush on his face, but he was smiling with smug satisfaction. “I take it the food is to your liking then?”

Shen Yuan swallowed the bite he’d been chewing, his own face turning red. “It’s delicious, thank you.”

“Eat as much as you like,” Gongyi Xiao grinned, “This one could feel no greater enjoyment than watching Master Shen enjoy himself.”

Oi, why do you have to make it sound so dirty, ah??? Shen Yuan had just been eating, not- Not-

He’d been moaning around a few bites there, hadn’t he? 

“Gongyi Xiao is really a natural talent, ah,” Shen Yuan said, in an attempt to at least pretend at civility, “Did he really make this himself?”

“Mmn,” Gongyi Xiao nodded, “Madame Juhi insisted on some of the dishes, as they supposedly have healing properties, and this one did not argue, but all of it was made by his own hand.”

“I didn’t know you could cook,” Shen Yuan admitted, “That doesn’t seem like something they teach young masters at Huan Hua.”

Gongyi Xiao’s lip twitched. “The Little palace Mistress is a very picky eater. It seemed… easier to learn how to cook to her standards than see the palace cooks lined up in the punishment courtyard every other week.”

Ah, yes, Shen Yuan remembered. It was how Luo Binghe had won her over initially. He’d come across that exact scene in the novel, chefs and kitchen maids all kneeling on stones as Little Palace Mistress whipped them personally. Luo Binghe described feeling like a stone had dropped down to his stomach, remembering his childhood with the washerwoman, back when she had still been strong enough to do her job by herself and Luo Binghe was allowed in the house as a kitchen aid. He had learned how to perfect his craft quickly, to the standards of the noble lady of the estate, so he could take the kitchen scraps to his mother. And when he had made a mistake, or been sabotaged…

He’d moved quickly to stop the Little Palace Mistress, and once he was told what the problem was, offered to cook for her. He’d told her that if she found a single thing unsatisfactory with his meal, he would kneel there and she could whip him a hundred times. 

The Little Palace Mistress agreed. Of course, she could find not a single grain of rice out of place on her dish, and ‘graciously’ allowed Luo Binghe to continue cooking for her, until he finally tumbled her into bed.

Honestly, she had been one of Shen Yuan’s least favorite wives. She wasn’t even tsundere, or had weird skewed notions of expressing love through violence, like the demons did. No, she was just an entitled sadist, pure and simple. Luo Binghe had only seduced her because he needed the title of Palace Master, not out of any genuine love. The whole thing had left a bad taste in Shen Yuan’s mouth.

He hadn’t known that, before Luo Binghe came on to the scene, Gongyi Xiao had tried to take up the mantle as well. He’d probably even done well, but he had far too many duties as the Head Disciple to cook all of her meals, which was why Luo Binghe had found the kitchen staff being punished. 

“I’m sorry,” Shen Yuan blurted out, “I know you miss her, and- I know you love her but-”

“I don’t,” Gongyi Xiao said blithely.

Shen Yuan’s mind screeched to a halt. “Huh?”

“Once, maybe,” Gongyi Xiao shrugged, “And it was more an infatuation of youth. But marrying her wasn’t my idea. The Old Palace Master made it clear that whoever inherited his position would do so by marrying his daughter. He even tried to make a stipulation that he wouldn’t fully step down until she had a son, but Little Palace Mistress had managed to talk him out of it. Our engagement had been for politics, first and foremost.”

Oh wow. How fucking bleak! It did make a lot more sense, because he had trouble seeing how such a sweet boy like Gongyi Xiao could be in love with such a horrible girl, but. He was supposed to marry her and he didn’t even have the rose-colored glasses of love to soften her jagged edges? Talk about drawing the short straw!

“In a way, I’m really lucky,” Gongyi Xiao smiled ruefully, “She’s Luo Binghe’s problem now. He took her off my hands, and sent me right into yours, Master Shen,” his smile turned sweet and syrupy, face leaning closer, “Between the two of us, I’d say I got far luckier than him.”

Luckier than the protagonist? Preposterous! Shen Yuan’s face was turning red in embarrassment at the depths of Gongyi Xiao’s delusions!

“You’re clearly delusional,” Shen Yuan told him, “Must be because of the hunger. Here,” he scooped a bite of rice and sauce and held it in front of Gongyi Xiao’s mouth before he could put it- Somewhere else. “You cooked, you should eat as well.”

Gongyi Xiao blinked down at the bite, his nefarious plans foiled. But it seemed Shen Yuan had shot himself in the foot here, because Gongyi Xiao smirked and wrapped his mouth around Shen Yuan’s chopsticks the same way he’d done to that poor banana.

“I didn’t bring my chopsticks,” Gongyi Xiao said, once he’d stopped doing indecent things to Shen Yuan’s utensils, “Won’t Master Shen feed me?”

“What are you, a baby bird?” Shen Yuan asked, cheeks flaming. This could not be good for his porcelain complexion! “You’re worse than Rohan! He at least has the excuse of being four!”

“But Master Shen offered,” Gongyi Xiao tilted his head and made his eyes big and sad, exactly the way Rohan did when he wanted something, “Please?”

This- This- What was this black bellied behavior??? Acting so sweet and innocent when he was so obviously scheming and manipulating Shen Yuan! Wasn’t he supposed to actually be sweet an innocent? 

Evidently not! If Shen Yuan ever met Airplane, he was going to strangle him with his own intestines for skipping over SO MANY things! 

Though, Shen Yuan didn’t really have anyone to blame for this but himself. Had he not demonstrated what behavior worked the best on him? He’d caved to Rohan’s pleading eyes and cute whining, so of course Gongyi Xiao was going to replicate the winning strategy to get what he wanted! That’s just smart! Shen Yuan had really dug his own grave here.

“Fine,” he bit out, admitting defeat, “Open up, baby bird.”

“I thought I was a lamb?” Gongyi Xiao smirked before Shen Yuan stuffed a piece of duck in his mouth.

“You’re a demon, is what you are,” Shen Yuan muttered, “Clearly of the Succubus type.”

Gongyi Xiao choked on the piece of meat. Shen Yuan hurried to pat him on the back, worried he was going to have to figure out the Heimlich maneuvre on the fly, but Gongyi Xiao managed to sort out which pipe the food should go down on his own. And as soon as he could breathe again, it became evident the whole thing happened because he couldn’t stop laughing.

“A demon, am I?” Gongyi Xiao said in between giggles.

“Don’t take it as an insult,” Shen Yuan hurried to say, patting him on the head, “I know Gongyi Xiao’s experiences haven’t been the best, but demons are really quite interesting. You’ll see, if we run into some friendly ones. You would be surprised how many Indian merchants have horns and tusks, but once you meet them, you really do realize they’re just people from a different culture.”

“Ah, Master Shen,” Gongyi Xiao sighed wistfully, “You are really something else.”

Shen Yuan glared at him and shoved more rice in his mouth. “You’ll see I’m right eventually. Now eat up, you should not let good food go to waste.”

Shen Yuan ended up being bedridden for another day, and when he finally felt stable enough to brave the daylight, it turned out that the Qi deviation had left him unconscious for far longer than he thought.

“It’s been two days???” Shen Yuan’s jaw dropped.

“Mmmn,” Mr. Singh nodded, “Worried us half to death, Master Shen. Us and your boy. Thought he was going to follow you into the next life, if you did not wake up.”

“Ah, I am so sorry for worrying you,” Shen Yuan bowed, still faintly horrified, “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“Hrmh, that happens when you do not take care of yourself,” Mr. Singh admonished him, “ Rakshasa told us it happens to you cultivators if you let your energies become unbalanced.”

Shen Yuan cringed. “Ah, mine are a bit unbalanced by default.”

“All the more reason to take more care,” Mr. Singh insisted, “Bah, why am I talking to you? I know it goes in one ear and out the other. I told Rakshasa to take better care of you already, and he at least listened. You take care of him as well, you hear?”

“Of course,” Shen Yuan nodded earnestly, “I will do my best.”

Mr. Singh nodded in satisfaction. “There, that is good. He listened to me, and now you listened to me too. Together, you will be fine.”

Shen Yuan’s cheeks flamed a bit, but ah, he couldn’t exactly say Mr. Singh was wrong. “Thanking Mr. Singh for his wisdom.”

“Good,” Mr. Singh nodded again, “Now come. We leave in two days, and for those two days, Rohan is yours. You bargained for him, so you are responsible for him. And you have been slacking.”

Behind him, Gongyi Xiao muffled a laugh. Shen Yuan blindly swung his elbow back into Gongyi Xiao’s ribs. 

“Ah, but just because you have been idle, I have not,” Mr. Singh continued, “I have met some Mazdayasna pilgrims going exactly where you are going, and they have agreed to take you. Good people, I have met their founder when he came around these parts. I told them you have a Rakshasa with you, but a good one, and they have no problem with it.”

Again with that word! At this point, he couldn’t even tell if Rakshasa was familiar because he’d heard it somewhere before or people have simply said it so much it was echoing in his mind. And still nobody was explaining what it was or why they were using it for Gongyi Xiao and not him. Was it some Hindi-specific word for a youth? Perhaps an unruly one if pilgrims had to be assured he was good. Madame Juhi called him ‘Little Boy’ affectionately, and used Rakshasa with the same tone. Maybe it was the same word, or maybe a pun nobody had bother to translate. 

Either way, it was kind of too late to ask without seeming rude! Shen Yuan was going to have to hunt down a dictionary at this point, or hope that someone else would ask.

“YUAAAAAN!!!” he had less than a second of warning before Rohan came barrelling towards Shen Yuan at maximum speed. 

Now, that sight might have seemed alarming to some. But Shen Yuan had nephews, once upon a time, and Da-ge’s wife had practically packed Shen Yuan up and moved him into their house herself when they reached the ‘terrible-twos’ stage. It was, according to Da-ge, so someone could keep an eye on him and drive him to the hospital in case something like The Yoghurt Incident happened again, but she told him point blank it was because the twins were getting rowdy and she was outnumbered. Faced with her pleading eyes, Shen Yuan folded like a wet paper towel.

Honestly, he thought she had been exaggerating, or they just seemed like it because she had relied on nannies for too long. His nephews were the sweetest things in the world! They did get pretty energetic at times, but that was just zoomies. Shen Yuan solved that pretty easily by telling them if the caught the glowing ladybug all of their wishes would come true, and then let them tire themselves out while he sat on the couch and played with the laser pointer. 

So he had this ‘favorite uncle’ thing down pat. 

Therefore, Shen Yuan didn’t even blink before he stepped out of the way, grabbed Rohan by the armpits, and swung him around in a circle before settling him on his hip.

“Hello, have you been good while I was gone?” he asked Rohan with a grin.

“YOU WERE GONE FOREVER!!!” Rohan cried right in his ear, making Shen Yuan wince.

“Ai yai yai, Rohan must be quiet, if my ears ring too loud I will be sick again,” Shen Yuan said. Predictably, Rohan slapped both hands over his mouth, suddenly quiet as a mouse.

“Now let’s try again,” Shen Yuan smiled, “Were you good while I was gone?”

Rohan nodded.

“Are you going to continue being good?” Rohan nodded even more earnestly.

“Well then, since I was sick for so long, I need to practice my flying again, so I don’t fall off,” Shen Yuan grinned, “Would you help me remember how to do it?”

They spent the rest of the afternoon alternately testing the damage to Shen Yuan’s meridians (surprisingly little, but Shen Yuan knew how to recognise a spiritual patch by now, and a lot of them were made with Gongyi Xiao’s Qi) and giving Rohan rides on Xiu Ya. Thankfully, he was a lot more stable now, and even though Shen Yuan still didn’t raise Xiu Ya higher than a foot off the ground, he had learned to follow the cues of Rohan’s twisting feet and steer Xiu Ya accordingly. To an outside observer, it would look like Rohan really was flying on his own and Shen Yuan was just sitting in the shade with his fingers in a weird position.

Eventually, Gongyi Xiao returned from wherever he’d been and sat next to him. “I went with Mr. Singh to negotiate with our new caravan. They’ve agreed to let us borrow a tent, and they would provide the food in exchange for borrowing one of my Qiankun pouches and some stasis talismans. The pay isn’t great but-”

“What pay?” Shen Yuan raised an eyebrow, “If they’re already feeding us and sheltering us, what more do we need?”

From inside the tent, he could hear Mr. Singh groan.

Gongyi Xiao just smiled. “One usually hopes to be paid well if they might have to fight giant monsters on the way.”

“We get to fight giant monsters and we’ll be paid for it?” Shen Yuan raised the other eyebrow, “Isn’t that just greedy?”

There were more groans of despair from the tent, followed by a woman’s laughter. 

“And besides, if we fight giant monsters we get the rights to sell the parts,” Shen Yuan shrugged, “There’s always good money in that. No need to actually demand pay for something we would do anyway, and I’m pretty sure fleecing pilgrims of any religion is bad for your karma.”

“Master Shen hardly needs to be concerned with his karma,” Gongyi Xiao said with great amusement, “I am certain Guanyin has already fought all the other Bodhisattvas for the right to take Master Shen for herself the moment he ascends.”

“Now you’re laying it just too thick,” Shen Yuan told him, “Did you forget I used to be Shen Qingqiu? I have a lot of bad karma to make up for.”

Gongyi Xiao blinked, then looked troubled. He had no right to look that adorable.

Shen Yuan poked the tip of his nose. “I’m joking. My karma is a concern for a far off future. I certainly have no plans to die anytime soon.”

“It’s still not right,” Gongyi Xiao insisted, “That you would be judged for Shen Qingqiu’s actions when you’re not- You don’t even remember any of it.”

“But those actions were still done with my own hands, even if I don’t remember them,” Shen Yuan said, “Intentions matter much less than actions, in the eyes of others. Gongyi Xiao did not give me a Qi deviation on purpose, and yet he still thought he deserved to be punished for it.”

Gongyi Xiao flinched almost violently. “That’s different.”

“Is it?” Shen Yuan chanced a look at him, “Luo Binghe would not see it that way, and neither would Guanyin. If they did, neither of us would be running right now.”

Gongyi Xiao looked like he couldn’t decide if he was miserable or angry about it. 

Shen Yuan sighed, then grabbed a lock of his curly hair and gently tugged him down. “Come here.”

Gongyi Xiao went, like an obedient little sheep that he was not. Shen Yuan guided him to lie down in his lap, so he could keep and eye on Rohan and pet Gongyi Xiao with his other hand.

What? They were Going Gay, it was allowed!

“Don’t worry so much about it,” Shen Yuan assured him, “If Luo Binghe sent just one man to find me, that means he’s not looking that hard. He probably has his hands full taking over the Jianghu, collecting wives and slapping everyone else’s faces. By the time he remembers either of us exist, we’ll be all the way over in Rome. Not even he would bother finding us there.”

Gongyi Xiao did not look any happier about it.

“And if you’re still worried about my karma, I’m sure we could find some other gods to swear my soul to. There’s plenty of religions out there. At least one of them ought to allow you start with a blank slate when you join.”

At least, he was pretty sure that was how Christianity worked. He saw the ritual in movies where a priest sprayed water on you from some kind of rattle toy that was actually a holy artefact or something, and all your sins were supposed to be washed away. Maybe that would bring Gongyi Xiao some peace of mind. 

Of course, it would all mean jackshit because the System had a pretty iron-tight claim on his soul, but Gongyi Xiao didn’t need to know that. 

“So you are really never planning to come back?” Gongyi Xiao asked, sounding almost sulky.

“Well,” Shen Yuan prevaricated, “‘Never’ is a strong word.”

“But you’re not planning on it,” Gongyi Xiao sighed. He seemed to turn to jelly on Shen Yuan’s lap, sulking so hard he literally melted.

“Ah, maybe in two hundred years or so,” Shen Yuan said, “Once things have settled and Luo Binghe has… Some other realm to conquer.”

Translation: when he died. PIDW timelines were all over the place, but Peerless Cucumber wasn’t called peerless for nothing. On his second re-read, he spent nearly a month noting down any mention of the passage of time and the changing od the seasons, and created a whole document with his best attempt at actually imposing some sense of linear time on the narrative that seemed determined to tie itself in a gordian knot. He stopped updating it at some point, but he’d covered most of it. He’d then deleted it when PIDW ended, in sheer raging protest, that Airplane didn’t even give Luo Binghe a proper ending, just some vague sense that he’d been killed by his own wives and then disappeared clear off the internet! Didn’t post so much as a Tweet afterwards! Bastard nearly killed Shen Yuan and didn’t even have the decency to make it satisfactory! 

(He couldn’t technically blame Airplane for his actual death, which happened three years after PIDW ended, but Shen Yuan still maintained that Airplane had helped him along.)

Anyway. By Shen Yuan’s estimate, the whole harem rising like an army and pouring all of their power and bitterness into killing their husband should happen about 200 years from now. Plenty of time to go sight-seeing!

“Does Luo Binghe really have to be dead for you to so much as step foot in China?” Gongyi Xiao asked grumpily. Damn, like he’d read Shen Yuan’s mind!

“Well if I dared to be alive in his vicinity I have no doubt he would rectify that mistake immediately, so it really would be best for my health if he wasn’t in China when I am,” Shen Yuan said with wry amusement, “Once he reaches his full power, I think death is really the only thing that could stop him. But even the Heavenly Demons didn’t reign forever. If China is still standing once he’s done with it, I suppose I could go back.”

“Is there really no reason you could think of that would make you want to return home?” Gongyi Xiao asked plaintively. Shen Yuan suddenly realized what the problem was.

“Ah, I didn’t really have a home, or leave anything when I set on this journey, not like Gongyi Xiao. I went sight-seeing for a few years, and I checked nearly everything on my list, but there wasn’t really anything for me back there. At least, nothing that wasn’t technically Shen Qingqiu’s, and I’m not touching any of it with a ten-foot pole. No other direction to go but forward, now,” he petted Gongyi Xiao a bit more, “I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but it really does get easier, leaving everything behind.”

Gongyi Xiao sighed again. He looked so miserably resigned that Shen Yuan’s heart couldn’t help but soften.

He changed his trajectory from merely petting to gently scratching Gongyi Xiao’s scalp and behind his ears. He seemed to have his some kind of pressure point in that area because Gongyi Xiao… Stretched? Sort of like a cat? He didn’t seem to be doing it to get away, so Shen Yuan tried again. 

“Mmmmm,” a deep rumble of satisfaction sounded from Gongyi Xiao’s throat, so he must be doing something right!

Topic finally dropped, and the atmosphere back to sunny and enjoyable, Shen Yuan continued absent-mindedly petting Gongyi Xiao’s mane while Rohan was still zooming about, only stopping to plead to go higher.

“Sorry, Rohan!” Shen Yuan did his best to sound contrite, “I’m still recovering. This is as high as I can make it go.”

“Awwwh,” Rohan pouted, “Tomorrow then?”

“We’ll see.”

“Okay. But make it faster?”

“A little.”

“Yaaaay!”

Shen Yuan sighed. “I’m going to miss the Singhs. They’re the kind of people who really keep your faith in the goodness of humanity afloat.”

“We can come and visit them sometime,” Gongyi Xiao pointed out, “India is not China.”

“Still a bit close,” Shen Yuan said, “We’ll see.”

“Mmmn,” Gongyi Xiao settled back down, “Shen Yuan?”

“Yes?”

“How many children do you want?”

Xiu Ya stopped and dropped so abruptly that Rohan was already tumbling in the dirt before he noticed he was falling.

“Well,” Mr. Singh sighed, “We say our goodbyes now.”

Shen Yuan and Gongyi Xiao bowed in tandem. “We can’t thank you enough for taking care of us.”

“You can thank me by telling merchants you meet my name,” Mr. Singh grinned around his pipe, “Bring good business and I shall pray to Ganesha to put some sense in your head.”

“That would be much appreciated,” Gongyi Xiao said, the little shit. 

Madame Juhi insisted on plying them with about a million packages of food, like she was worried there wouldn’t be any rice where they were going. Or even proper cookbooks. She had made Gongyi Xiao sit at Mr. Singh’s desk for nearly three evenings straight writing down her recipes as she narrated them, like they were going into hell and her bundle of recipes was their only salvation. 

Once she checked they were well supplied, she gave them both bear hugs and a strong pat on the back.

“You be good,” she told them sternly, “And be safe.”

“Of course, Madame Juhi,” Gongyi Xiao bowed again, “I’ll make sure not a hair on his head is harmed.”

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes. “Oi, who’s the elder here? I’m supposed to be taking care of you!”

“Take care of each other,” Madame Juhi ordered, then nodded in satisfaction. Finally she let them go.

There were more goodbyes, and the last one was Rohan, who demanded to be lifted up.

“I made this for you!” he thrust a piece of string in Shen Yuan’s face, “Hassan helped, but I made it most! You can have it!”

Shen Yuan leaned back and took the string into his hand. Then nearly choked.

“Rohan! You can’t give me this!”

“Why not?” Rohan asked, “It’s mine, and I want to give it to you.”

Shen Yuan did his best not to splutter. “Do you not have some traditions for this?”

“Oh, just take the damn thing, Master Shen,” Mr. Singh laughed, “A child doesn’t have many things to give, but they give with all their heart. You shouldn’t turn it down.”

Still feeling horribly guilty, Shen Yuan sighed and lowered Rohan to the ground so he could put the string over his head, and the little trophy tooth hung at his collar. “Like this?”

“Yeah!” Rohan grinned, proudly showing off the new gap in his upper teeth, “Now you can always remember me!”

Shen Yuan would certainly not forget the terror of Rohan falling off Xiu Ya and getting up with his entire mouth bloody and his tooth in his hand. Granted, it was a milk tooth, and Rohan was old enough that his incisors would have fallen out on their own in a year or so, but Shen Yuan swore that if he still had his old, faulty heart, it would have stopped beating then and there. 

At least his parents just sighed and didn’t get mad. They had, apparently, expected exactly that to happen. 

Shen Yuan still felt awful.

Ah, but it was still sweet of Rohan to give it to him. Shen Yuan smiled and knelt down, drawing him into another hug. “Be a good boy, you hear? Learn your Baba’s trade and become a good man like him.”

“Mmmn,” Rohan nodded obediently, promise made with a child’s easy grace.

Feeling terribly nostalgic, Shen Yuan cupped his cheeks and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I promise I’ll take good care of your gift.”

“And you will always remember me?” Rohan asked.

“I promise I’ll always remember you.”

When their new caravan got moving, every time Shen Yuan turned around, Rohan was still there, until distance itself blurred his visage and he was gone.

No matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise, Shen Yuan couldn’t shake the feeling that he would never see them again.

Their new employers weren’t as nice as the Indian merchant caravan had been, but they weren’t overtly rude, either. They didn’t seem to know what to make of them, mostly. Shen Yuan had heard a few of them express surprise that he and Gongyi Xiao were indeed men, despite their long hair and beardless faces. 

Shen Yuan thought that was mighty rich of them, considering they were the ones wearing makeup! Every man in their group was walking around with smoky metallic eyeshadow! And they thought they were the pinnacle of masculinity just because they had big bushy beards? Pah! That was just racism! 

Anyway, in true Airplane fashion, they too spoke Mandarin, just with a weird accent, even if they acted surprised that Shen Yuan could understand them. He was still missing one word in ten, but, hello! He had perfectly working ears! He could understand them just fine if they didn’t speak too fast. 

Not that they were ever in danger of that. It seemed that monks were really the same everywhere, because Shen Yuan had to put some real legwork in to find a chatty one. Darius was perhaps the youngest member of their group, his beard still mostly whiskers and fluff, but he was eager to answer Shen Yuan’s questions.

It turned out they were technically Assyrians, though Darius shyly admitted the Assyrian empire they hailed from had collapsed long ago, and now the Persians ruled. Still, his father and family thought it important to emphasise that they were still Assyrians, even if their empire was now reduced to a city-state.

Shen Yuan knew next to nothing about Middle-Eastern history, so this was all exciting to him! Airplane hadn’t written any of this, and yet here it was! There was a whole world beyond the borders of anything Luo Binghe had or would touch! Where did it come from? Did it naturally expand from the PIDW world, or was it copied over from the real world? Or from another novel entirely!?

Of course, poor Darius couldn’t answer any of the questions Shen Yuan actually wanted to ask, but he did his best. He described his homeland, the tenets of his religion, and the general path they were taking. They’d gone from Kothan to pick up some of their members and resupply, then along with Shen Yuan went to Kashgar and next to Samarkand, then Shen Yuan and Gongyi Xiao would continue on to Merv while they would go to-

“Kabul?” he asked around a bite of his bread, looking at Darius’ map, “I recognise that! That’s in Afghanistan, right?”

“Oh, is that what you call the region?” Darius asked, “We call it Bactria. The city is called Kabul because it shares the name with the river it sits on.”

“Mmm,” Shen Yuan nodded, “And it’s part of Persia?”

“No,” Darius made a face, “At least not yet. The way the Persians are acting, though, everything from Greece to India will be theirs soon enough. But no, that’s still part of the Median Empire. But my father says it’s the city of many religions, and if you want to be recognised as a proper sect, your holy texts must be studied in Kabul. That’s what we’re hoping to do! We have been gathering the Gathas, the texts of our founder Zarathushtra, from everywhere he has visited and preached, so we could put them all together and spread the word of his deeds!”

“Very noble of you,” Shen Yuan nodded, “I wish you the best on your quest.”

Darius grinned so hard his molars were almost showing. “And you? Father said you were going even further West, and that you came from a land even farther than India! Why are you making such a long journey?”

“Ah, I have wished to travel in my old age,” Shen Yuan told him, “I’ve seen everything there is to see in China, so I thought to expand my horizons. I’m hoping to make it to Constantinople, at least, or maybe Rome.”

“Um, I’m not familiar with those places?” Darius tilted his head, “Can you point them out to me?”

A whole lunch period later, and Shen Yuan was rather thoroughly disabused of the notion that this world had any kind of temporal continuity.

Not only was Constantinople not yet Istanbul, it wasn’t even Constantinople yet! It was called Byzantium, and Shen Yuan only managed to find it because he remembered it sat on the pass between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It was still Greek territory here! 

And Rome! Rome was a tiny city somewhere in Italy, hardly worthy of being marked on a map! They had to pull out a whole separate atlas to find it! They barely even spoke Latin there! And when they finally arrived in Samarkand, the oldest damn city in Asia, people were talking about it like it was brand new!

Shen Yuan felt cheated. He felt like he bought a very expensive ticket to a show and was told the show was ten years away.

“Is everything alright?” Gongyi Xiao asked him that night, when they’d settled in a Samarkand inn.

“Just fine,” said Shen Yuan, sulking. He wanted to see the gladiator fights and wear a toga! With that out, what else was there to even see in prehistoric Europe? System, I hope you didn’t have any backup plans as a travel agency AI, because you were doing a shoddy job! And- Wait a minute, if they were in prehistory, how did the Silk Road even exist??? It was established along with the Han dynasty, and he knew Rome already existed by then! They were already conquering even! Hannibal was crossing the Alps! Get your timelines straight Airplane! This was shoddy work!

Shen Yuan was practically fuming when Gongyi Xiao laid down next to him, tucking the blankets around them. The nights were getting colder, especially in the shadows of the mountain range, and while they had arrived in actual civilisation and finally had a proper roof over their heads, the nights were still uncomfortably chilly if you weren’t awake to circulate your Qi.

Unless, of course, you had your own personal space heater! 

Shen Yuan cuddled closer to his personal space heater, gleefully rubbing his cheek into one very bouncy pec. Mmm, world hard and cold, titty soft and warm. Luo Binghe had been onto something with his many big-breasted wives! Shen Yuan immediately felt better about his future!

The Roman Empire might still be a distant dream at this point, but Shen Yuan wasn’t immortal for nothing. Rome wasn’t built in a day, they said, and Shen Yuan had the prime opportunity to see if that was true. And surely there were other interesting things to see besides Rome. He’d seen both Damascus and Babylon listed on the maps. He didn’t know much about those, except that they made pretty steel and there was a song in English about it, respectively, but it was still something.

Gongyi Xiao’s arm encircled his back, passing him Qi. The peerless young man had practically endless reserves of it, and he didn’t mind sharing, still feeling guilty over Shen Yuan’s Qi deviation, no matter how many times he was forgiven. In the end, Shen Yuan gave up. It made Gongyi Xiao feel better and it really did feel very nice.

Shen Yuan felt himself just melting into the mattress, the first proper one he’d slept on in literal months. He was suddenly so glad Gongyi Xiao had insisted on a more expensive inn! He had no idea where exactly he’d gotten the money for it, but he’d disappeared for about a day back in Kashgar and returned with a fair sum of money. Shen Yuan had almost been afraid to ask, but Gongyi Xiao insisted he’d simply helped a rich family get rid of a persistent ghost, and had charged handsomely for his services. Truly, never let it be said Huan Hua didn’t instill a good sense for business opportunities in their disciples!

So now they could afford a very nice inn with a proper bed and several layers of stuffed mattresses, even if only for a few nights before they had to keep going. Worth it!

“A’Yuan?” Gongyi Xiao murmured into his hair.

“Mmm?” 

Gongyi Xiao’s hand snaked a little lower and, when Shen Yuan didn’t swat him away, cupped one of his buttocks. “We’re in a proper bed now.”

Shen Yuan was suddenly wide awake. 

The whole Going Gay plan had been… going. Gongyi Xiao didn’t seem to have a problem with it, but Shen Yuan had perhaps taken too long to wrap his head around it, because by the time he actually did, Gongyi Xiao had decided their pace had to be positively glacial the whole time. 

They had kissed plenty, and there had been more than one incident of leg humping and soiled breeches, but Gongyi Xiao had taken Shen Yuan’s stipulation of a proper bed extremely seriously. He hadn’t so much as taken off a sock the whole time they were travelling and sleeping in tents, even when they spent every night pressed together from head to toe. 

Shen Yuan had almost resigned himself that was all it would ever be. And he’d been fine with it! They were both normally straight, only situationally gay, nothing they were doing had to go beyond brojobs and kisses. That still counted enough for the narrative!

Except that Shen Yuan had gotten a bit… Pent up. There was only so many times a guy can vigorously rub up against one of the pinnacles of masculinity without snapping!

Well. Shen Yuan snapped. And then pounced. 

Gongyi Xiao didn’t seem to mind. In fact, Shen Yuan almost thought he was more pent up than him! He descended on Shen Yuan like he was a feast at the end of a long journey, kissing him breathless and then immediately moving on to his neck. 

Meanwhile, Gongyi Xiao’s other sword was rising for battle.

Now, Shen Yuan wasn’t stupid. They were operating on a completely different set of rules than the Stallion Novels he was used to, but he was not a complete stranger to the Danmei genre. And the iron-clad rule of Danmei genre was thus: whoever had the bigger pillar was the gong. And uh, Shen Qingqiu wasn’t exactly small, he was actually bigger than Shen Yuan had been, but Gongyi Xiao had humped his leg enough to know that he was outmatched in that department by a frankly embarrassing margin.

Which now left Shen Yuan with a problem. Namely, that Gongyi Xiao had a peerless cucumber and Shen Yuan had a very regular chrysanthemum. Enthusiasm was all well and good but but Shen Yuan wanted to be able to walk the next day!

“Have you ever done this before?” he asked as Gongyi Xiao’s hand was sneaking into his pants.

“Mmmn, I know what I’m doing,” Gongyi Xiao smirked against his collarbone, “A’Yuan can be assured of my skill.”

That wasn’t an answer, but Shen Yuan decided he didn’t want to imagine what Gongyi Xiao had done with the Little Palace Mistress before Luo Binghe came on the scene. He already knew way too much about that girl’s sex life. 

“But, I mean… With a man?” he asked, because it was kind of pertinent!

“...Once,” Gongyi Xiao admitted, a bit more reluctantly, “I was curious, and one of my shidis offered. He said I had earned ‘a passing grade’ in pleasing a male partner.”

Shen Yuan choked on a laugh. Alright, so someone had gone through the trouble of training at least one of them, which Shen Yuan chose to consider a good thing, because he didn’t really know how this worked and he’d heard… Mixed reviews about first times. So that spike of jealousy was completely unwarranted and Gongyi Xiao’s shidi had really done him a favor-

Wait a fucking minute.

“You slept with Shi Rong?” Shen Yuan blurted out, because he suddenly remembered the name of Qin Wanyue’s shidi, the one who gloated about eunuchs making off like thieves when it came to gay patrons. She and Gongyi Xiao were of age, so if he was her shidi then he was also-

Gongyi Xiao froze like a deer in headlights, so that was a yes. “Shen Yuan… Knows him?”

“He has a reputation,” Shen Yuan said, turning red and hiding behind his hands, “I mean- Yeah, I always said that if you want to learn a new skill you need to first find a master, and really! Couldn’t have found a better guy for it! It’s a really good thing cultivators don’t get STDs, though, because I’d be worried for both of us here! But it’s fine!”

Gongyi Xiao said nothing, so Shen Yuan dared to peek between his fingers. 

The young man was looking down at him way too contemplatively. “Is A’Yuan worried?”

“Who’s worried???” Shen Yuan freed one leg so he could kick him in the stomach, “Why would I be worried? I just said we can’t get diseases!”

“A’Yuan need not be jealous,” Gongyi Xiao gripped his hips and coxed his legs open again, “He is superior to Shi Rong in every single way.”

“Except in skill,” Shen Yuan muttered, then tried to smother himself with a pillow. He wasn’t supposed to say that out loud! What was wrong with him!?

Gongyi Xiao gently pried his hands off his face. Shen Yuan peeked up at him.

“Was it not A’Yuan who said any skill can be mastered with enough practice?” he asked, gentle yet heated, “And is not the journey to learning the most enjoyable part?”

Shen Yuna’s face probably resembled a overripe tomato at this point. “Ah, why is Gongyi Xiao using those lines on this old man? Have I not already been seduced?”

“May the Heavens strike me down if I ever grow complacent and fail to treasure A’Yuan as he deserves,” was Gongyi Xiao’s answer, which was not helping!!!

Really, Gongyi Xiao, weren’t you worried the gods would strike you down for stealing the Protagonist’s lines? Well, actually, they were even better than any line that hack author ever managed to write! But they should have been lines reserved for the protagonist!

Except Luo Binghe had never said such a thing. He had, around wife 30, even started repeating his own lines. Of course, that was just Airplane being lazy, but in-universe it really made it hard to believe the wife of the week was anything but just that. Another face in the crowd, just another narrative device to facilitate tropey plots and increasingly weird porn.

Shen Yuan still read it, only skipping to the end when the clothes started coming off. So he knew, with utmost certainty, that Luo Binghe had never uttered anything like the promises Gongyi Xiao was making. To any wife ever, including the four imperial consorts. And if these were the lines worthy of a gay situationship, then… 

Had Luo Binghe ever really loved any of them?

And Gongyi Xiao, the cloudy golden mirror of the Protagonist… What did it mean, that he was saying such lines to the Scum Villain who quit his job?

Shen Yuan had no idea how to process that, so he didn’t. He just wrapped his arms around Gongyi Xiao’s neck and pulled him down, shutting him up with his own lips.

He was soon unable to process much of anything, other than sheer admiration for every wife out there who managed to actually walk after her wedding night. Because Shen Yuan was certainly not going to manage that!

Fuck your mother Airplane, why did that part have to be on par with the Protagonist as wel!? How was Shen Yuan supposed to take that up his- His-

Later, when the sun was already rising and Shen Yuan felt like his very soul had been yanked out through his ass and shoved back in all they way to his throat, Gongyi Xiao asked him something.

“Buh?” Shen Yuan asked in return. He’d been face-down on the bed, unable to move, as Gongyi Xiao massaged his sore waist. His brain was still so utterly fried that he didn’t even have the energy to curse Airplane and the last ten generations of his family for daring to produce him, much less comprehend actual human words.

Above him, Gongyi Xiao laughed. “I asked what had A’Yuan so discontent earlier, when he returned. Have the monks crossed a line they shouldn’t have?”

Oh, right. Shen Yuan had returned to the inn in full fuming fury upon finding out his tourist destination hadn’t even been built yet. Of course Gongyi Xiao, attentive boyfriend extraordinaire, noticed.

“No,” Shen Yuan sighed, “It just turns out that the place I wanted to see was wildly blown out of proportion. Rome, as it exists today, is barely a small town. Hardly the center of an Empire I had been hoping to see. I think they don’t even have Gladiators yet.” Shen Yuan sighed again, which turned into a drawn-out moan as Gongyi Xiao’s clever fingers hit a particularly sore muscle in his back. 

He really had skilled fingers! At this rate, Shen Yuan would be back to cursing Airplane’s mother in no time!

“Ah, not every rumor is to be believed,” Gongyi Xiao agreed amiably, “By the time a single piece of truth passes through ten people, it becomes nine parts lies.”

“Mm, something like that,” Shen Yuan muttered into the pillow, “Still, there’s other things to see, I’m sure. And technically, Egypt’s actually closer. Darius said he’d make a copy of the map we need.”

“Oh?” Gongyi Xiao paused, “We’re changing courses?”

“Just a little. Constantinople also doesn’t live up to its reputation, apparently. Darius said that if you want a city of wonders, the center of an empire, that sits on two rivers, we should go to Babylon. Most of they journey is the same, except when we reach Sur-marrati we follow the river south until we reach, and I quote, ‘The largest city in the world’. They say it’s the cradle of Western civilisation. I suppose we’ll see how it compares to the Northern Capital.”

“Ah,” for some reason, Gongyi Xiao sounded almost disappointed, “And after that?”

“Mmm,” Shen Yuan closed his eyes and relaxed his shoulders a bit more, as Gongyi Xiao reached the top of his spine, “Well, if the Rome didn’t pan out, I was thinking of going to see the Egyptian pyramids. I think those are impossible to oversell. At least, they should be,” he grumbled, “If we come all the way to Egypt and they’re still setting down stones for the pyramid of Giza, I’m going to find out what it takes to kill a god just to beat Airplane over the head with his own keyboard.”

Above him, Gongyi Xiao tried and failed to muffle his laughter. He sometimes made strange faces when Shen Yuan cursed out Airplane under his breath, but he made the wise decision not to ask. As far as he knew, Shen Yuan simply had a weirdly antagonistic relationship with a minor heavenly official so weak they hadn’t even smited him for his impudence yet. There were weirder vices for a man to have.

“Tell me more,” he asked instead, and Shen Yuan was happy to share his rather limited knowledge of historical sites of Europe and Middle East, bits and pieces remembered from documentaries and Er-ge’s business trips, secure in the knowledge that if he blabbed anything wildly inaccurate, he could just blame it on unreliable fifth-hand accounts.

Gongyi Xiao continued prompting him, up until Shen Yuan could barely keep his eyes open and he rolled them both over so Shen Yuan was sprawled face-down on his chest instead. Gongyi Xiao’s pecs were very attentive listeners.

“Mmm, and you know what the best part about all of it is?” Shen Yuan asked, when the sun had already come out and he was dropping off, babbling about the Mayan pyramids.

“What?” Gongyi Xiao asked.

“I’m pretty sure it’s literally on the other side of the globe from China,” he snickered into Gongyi Xiao’s breastbone, “No matter how hard he looks for us, Luo Binghe will never be able to find us there,” he sighed, melting into a puddle of utter contentment, “We’ll be free, and we’ll be safe. And together. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

The fingers idly running up and down his spine paused, then resumed. 

“Yeah,” Gongyi Xiao sighed, Shen Yuan rising and falling with his chest, “I suppose it would.”

Happy and hopeful with his life as he’d never been before, Shen Yuan went to sleep.

If he had seen his partner’s face in that moment, peace would have been the furthest thing from his mind.

In the end, Shen Yuan and Gongyi Xiao spent so much time in that inn that Darius, the poor dear, got worried one of them was sick. Then he made the mistake of coming to knock on their door to check if they needed anything.

That was a fun conversation to have, especially when he was wearing nothing but a sheet and Gongyi Xiao was wearing nothing at all. And made no effort to hide anything. And, in fact, seemed to be committed to traumatizing poor Darius.

Shen Yuan smacked him over the head after the poor young man went running, face only slightly less red than Shen Yuan’s. “What was that for!?”

“I was only making it clear to him A’Yuan is mine,” Gongyi Xiao had the galls to pout, hugging Shen Yuan from behind and clinging like a limpet, “The little mouse wasn’t as subtle as he thought he was.”

“Who- Darius???” Shen Yuan spluttered, “Honestly, you’re as bad as Mr. Singh! Not every man we meet is flirting with me! Most aren’t even!”

“I’d certainly like to meet those men instead,” Gongyi Xiao pouted harder, the little shit, “Alas, even the strongest men from any corner of the world are weak to A’Yuan’s smile.”

“It’s called being friendly!” Shen Yuan tried to fight his stupid clingy himbo of a boyfriend off, but Gongyi Xiao might as well have been glued to his back, “I was being friendly! And so was Darius! There was absolutely nothing more to it than that!”

“If A’Yuan says so,” Gongyi Xiao said agreeably, pressing a peck to Shen Yuan’s heated cheek. Then his neck. Then- Shen Yuan got a bit distracted. 

So distracted that they almost missed their employers leaving for Kabul, but Gongyi Xiao did, at least, want to get paid, so he paused his relentless assault on Shen Yuan’s sanity long enough for them to put on some clothes and go out into polite society.

Poor Darius still couldn’t look either of them in the eye. To be fair, Shen Yuan wasn’t doing so well on that front either.

The judgemental eye of Darius’ father, Cyrus, didn’t help.

“You have delivered on Arun Hari Singh’s promise,” he said to Shen Yuan, “You and your… Yazata,” he said the words with some hesitance and a pointed look at Gongyi Xiao, “You have delivered us to Samarkand whole and fair. I find no fault in our deal, and hope our goodbyes are pleasant.”

And with that, he deposited a pouch of money into Shen Yuan’s hand. When Shen Yuan took it, he put a hand over his chest and solemnly inclined his head. 

At that point, Shen Yuan had cottoned on to the fact that was their version of a polite bow, so he copied the gesture. That seemed to be the right thing to do, and they parted ways amicably.

“I really need to get a dictionary,” Shen Yuan sighed as he and Gongyi Xiao watched them leave.

“What for?” his boyfriend asked, “You seem to be conversing with them just fine.”

“Mmm, they are still using some words in their dialect that I don’t understand,” Shen Yuan turned to Gongyi Xiao, “Especially when referring to you. I don’t suppose you know what a ‘Yazata’ or a ‘Rakshasa’ are?”

Gongyi Xiao shrugged innocently. “I don’t really understand them at all, so I haven’t gotten the opportunity to ask.”

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes. “Really now, what do they teach the youngsters at Huan Hua? Surely they let you talk to normal people occasionally. Their accent really isn’t that hard to parse.”

“Persian isn’t really on the curriculum, I’m afraid,” Gongyi Xiao shrugged again, “And A’Yuan calls me plenty of things I do not understand, so I’m used to it.”

Shen Yuan’s face turned red. “I do not! I use perfectly normal words!”

“Oh?” Gongyi Xiao’s grin turned sharp, “What does ‘himbo’ mean then?”

“NOTHING!!!” Shen Yuan shrieked and ran. Gongyi Xiao was laughing so hard he barely managed to catch him before Shen Yuan jumped over Samarkand’s walls.

The continuation of their journey depended on them finding some new employers. Thankfully, Samarkand was a central hub for travellers and therefore caravans, and Shen Yuan and Gongyi Xiao had earned a good reputation on their journey, so it was just a matter of waiting to find someone going to Babylon and asking if they needed some guards. 

Of course, no plan actually survived contact with reality. 

They had just been coming back from the wet market when Shen Yuan spotted someone who looked distinctly out of place. 

Someone had tried to make him a bit less conspicuous by dressing him in Persian clothes, but there was really no way to make a blond man with glasses inconspicuous in Bronze age Persia.

Shen Yuan was aware he had stopped in the middle of the street to stare, but to be fair, he wasn’t the only one. Despite the young man next to him frowning like he was ready to fistfight the next person who said something and a woman with a heavy headdress looking supremely uncomfortable clutching his elbow, everybody who passed them by had to stop and stare at the first white guy this place had likely ever seen.

Now, the odds of another transmigrator around here were low, but never zero!

So Shen Yuan went over to introduce himself.

“Hello!” he greeted in English. If he was a transmigrator, he ought to know at least a little! It was a dead giveaway! “May I ask where you’re going?”

He got three blank stares in return. The young man frowned harder. “Whatever you’re selling, we’re not interested. Scram!”

Ah. So much about that. Oh well. “We’re not selling anything. This one merely inquired about the destination to your journey, and tried to greet you in the language I assumed would be understood.”

The young man still looked wary, but he ran his eyes up and down Shen Yuan’s figure, and then over Gongyi Xiao next to him. “Wait. Are you the guards from the East those monks mentioned?”

“Ah, you’ve heard of us!” Shen Yuan smiled wider, “Yes, we are. We’re looking for a caravan going to Babylon, if you have anyone to recommend us to.”

“To Babylon?” The young man blinked, then looked at the white guy, “You really do have more luck than skill.”

“We were just looking for someone to escort us to Babylon too!” the white guy said enthusiastically, also speaking Mandarin but with a strangely posh British accent, “We can pay, of course. Um, do you take Drachma? We’re, uh, kind of short on any other currency.”

“Of course,” Shen Yuan smiled. Thank god he’d looked up that word when he saw it in Fullmetal Alchemist! “We might as well. The exchange rate here is abysmal.”

The white guy laughed while the young man next to him scoffed. “Ah, yes, so I’ve been told. Ah, I’m Heimrich,” he said, offering a hand, “This is my guide, Ali, and my, um, wife to be, Talin.” 

Shen Yuan, well versed in Western customs thanks to his modern education, shook his hand, though there was a bit of a fumble when he realized Heminrich meant to grip his wrist and not his hand. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Shen Yuan, and this is my partner, Gongyi Xiao.”

“Ah, Shan-Yen?” Heimrich grimaced as he tried to pronounce it. To be fair, Shen Yuan had heard worse from Americans. “You’re Chinese?”

“Yes,” Shen Yuan raised an eyebrow, “I’m surprised you realized.”

“I would be a poor merchant’s son if I didn’t know where silk came from,” Heimrich noted with a self-deprecating laugh, “Granted, I’m not very good anyway, but I know at least that much.”

“Fair enough,” Shen Yuan nodded, then turned to Gongyi Xiao, “They’re going to Babylon too, and are asking how much to hire us. I told them Drachma is fine.”

Gongyi Xiao didn’t look overly happy, but he nodded. “Tell them we can meet up here tomorrow. I’d like to look up how much this ‘Drachma’ is worth before negotiation.”

Shen Yuan told them the first part, and they agreed to find them tomorrow. The moment they said their goodbyes Gongyi Xiao dragged Shen Yuan away.

“Slow down!” he admonished his boyfriend as he dragged them down the tiny streets between houses, “The food isn’t going to spoil that fast! Really, I know you were eager to cook with rice again, but-”

Shen Yuan never got to finish his sentence. He found himself, in short order, pinned against the wall and a very insistent tongue shoved into his mouth.

Now, normally, Shen Yuan wouldn’t mind that, but they were out in broad daylight! Some old lady hanging out laundry was going to need to scrub out her eyes afterwards!

“Gongyi Xiao!” Shen Yuan hissed, “What’s with you!?”

“You were so friendly with that foreigner,” Gongyi Xiao practically growled, “One might think Shen Yuan is finally realizing his charms.”

“What?” Shen Yuan frowned, baffled, “Wait, is this because of the handshake? That’s just how they greet each other! You know, you feel up someone’s wrist to make sure they don’t have any weapons hidden up their sleeves!”

“Perhaps, but Shen Yuan knows better,” Gongyi Xiao’s eyes seemed to be boring into his skull, “Any yet he has not hesitated to indulge their barbaric ways. Tell me, was the foreigner really so interesting in Shen Yuan’s eyes?”

Now Shen Yuan was straight up gaping at his boyfriend. “Wait, you’re jealous? Over a handshake?”

Shen Yuan’s astonishment seemed to have finally registered with Gongyi Xiao, because he seemed to visibly collect himself. He also, notably, didn’t deny it.

Shen Yuan softened. Right, he kept getting lost in the rules of propriety between two men, but this really ought to have been universal. You didn’t want your girlfriend being touchy-feely with other men, so why would it be different with a boyfriend? So rather than keep pushing Gongyi Xiao away, he cozied up closer into a hug, setting his palms on his shoulderblades. “Ah, Gongyi Xiao really does not need to worry. I am not nearly as fickle as a spoiled little mistress.”

Gongyi Xiao twitched, then cautiously returned the hug. It seemed Shen Yuan had hit the nail on the head.

“I know A’Xiao has had bad experiences in the past,” Shen Yuan continued, petting him on the back a little, “But there is really no man alive or dead that would turn my head away from Gongyi Xiao,” he laughed a little, “I’m not even a cutsleeve, normally, so Gongyi Xiao can be assured there is no man in the world who could steal me away from him.”

“I’d kill any man who tried,” Gongyi Xiao growled into Shen Yuan’s hair, but the tension in his back seemed to abate. “And women? A’Yuan has said he is not a cutsleeve before…”

“Pah, there is nothing good that can come out of associating with women. Especially beautiful ones,” Shen Yuan scoffed. He came all this way to avoid Luo Binghe ripping him to pieces! He wasn’t about to do something stupid like tempt fate! “You don’t need to worry about them, either. I’m all yours, I promise.”

Gongyi Xiao’s hands abruptly tightened so hard around Shen Yuan that his grip actually hurt. Then, faster than his brain could process, Shen Yuan found himself thrown over one very muscular shoulder.

“Gongyi Xiao!?” he squeaked in alarm.

“Since A’Yuan still seems so opposed to sex in public, I thought it would be best to return to the inn posthaste,” was all Gongyi Xiao said before they were suddenly airborne and he was running full-speed back to their room.

To Gongyi Xiao’s credit, Shen Yuan was only limping a little the next day when they rendezvous’d with their employers. There really wasn’t an easy way around the impracticalities of a partner of his size, other than patience and a lot of oil, so considering how enthusiastic his boyfriend had been, he had shown quite a bit of restraint.

It might have helped that he dropped to his knees the second the doors to their room were closed and did his best to suck the integrity of Shen Yuan’s bones through his dick. He’d like to see any man retain any kind of muscle tension after two rounds of that!

Anyway. Shen Yuan was mostly walking straight the next day when they and their employers set out through Samarkand’s Eastern gate. Their next destination was Bukhara, which Shen Yuan was told was home to many other Chinese immigrants! It also explained how so many people around here knew Mandarin. There was supposedly even a Buddhist temple there! Like a little slice of home in a faraway land.

Their employers were kind people too. Heimrich explained he’d gone on a tour of the known world before he had to go home and take over his parents’ business. He’d met Talin among the nomadic tribes that roamed the area North of the Caspian sea, when she had been engaged to a violent but rich man and was desperate to get out of it. He’d been reluctant to take her, but since she had no better options, and even her mother had begged him, he had taken her and her only horse along.

He’d met Ali in a Greek port, working as a day laborer. Ali was a Kazakh boy who wished to travel the world, and saw a prime opportunity to do just that on a foreigner’s dime. He made himself sound very self-serving, but Heimrich praised him for being very loyal and hardworking, not hesitating to find extra jobs when they stayed in the same place to earn a little extra money for their trips, and stubbornly staying with Heimrich even when raiders were shooting arrows down on their heads. 

Heimrich himself was, much like Shen Yuan, a rich second gen, whose skills fell mostly in the category of ‘useless on a camping trip’. But he was literate in three different languages, so he earned his own keep a bit as a scribe and working accounts and arithmetic for people who couldn’t do it themselves. Talin was skilled at embroidery, and her works went for a pretty penny when she had the materials to make them. With all of their money pooled together, they had made it all the way to India, and were taking the Silk Road back to the Mediterranean.

“Fascinating!” Shen Yuan nodded, “You’ve really had a lot of adventures!”

“I suppose we have, yeah,” Heimrich laughed, “And what about you two?”

“Ah, nothing as interesting,” Shen Yuan waved a hand nonchalantly, “I had the misfortune to run afoul of a powerful warlord, so I had to run. Gongyi Xiao was actually sent to hunt me down and drag me back, but by the time he did, he realized we would both be executed if we went back, so he decided to run away with me,” he shrugged, “So we’re just going along to see the world together.”

For some reason, their employers were looking at him with wide eyes and gaping mouths. “What?”

“That’s what you call ‘not interesting'?" Ali made a dubious expression, “I’m afraid to hear what you would call bizarre. Tell us more.”

Okay, yeah, actually putting their journey so far into words, Shen Yuan could tell how it seemed kinda… Impressive. Almost worthy of being written down as a proper tale.

He remarked as much to Gongyi Xiao when they settled down in their tent that night.

“It would be an interesting story,” his boyfriend remarked, “A man on a quest he believed noble, seduced by the very man he sought to capture, enthralled into abandoning everything he had back home to follow him into the unknown.”

Shen Yuan elbowed him. “You’re making it sound so lurid. There was nothing so dramatic happening.”

Even in the dark, he could tell Gongyi Xiao was shooting him a dubious look. “A’Yuan really thinks so? And here I thought he was a great connoisseur of literature. Is our story not worthy of being romanticised on page?”

“Pah, maybe if we totally change the genre to fluff and romance. If we were characters in a proper novel, with an actual plot, we certainly wouldn’t be the main ones,” Shen Yuan scoffed, “We made far too sensible decisions to be protagonists. Protagonists would do something stupid just to make the narrative more dramatic. Who ever heard of their leads opting out of the whole revenge setup we had going on and running off on a sightseeing trip?” Shen Yuan scoffed again, because the System allowing such a thing to happen while it was still functional was downright absurd.

Gongyi Xiao laughed gently, shaking Shen Yuan where he was laying on his chest. “And who would be the protagonist of Shen Yuan’s story then, if not himself?”

“Luo Binghe, obviously,” Shen Yuan muttered. Gongyi Xiao seemed to freeze underneath him, but Shen Yuan continued. “It’s a classic. Poor orphan boy suffering a childhood of hardship only to discover he had great powers and coming back to take revenge on anyone who ever wronged him, then forcibly taking everything fate has ever denied him. Rags-to-riches, revenge fantasy, stallion novel. You don’t get more cliche than that.”

“Ah,” Gongyi Xiao’s voice sounded odd, “Shen Yuan doesn’t sound like he thinks much of that story.”

“Well, if it was written by a good author it would have potential,” he raised his head to look at Gongyi Xiao, “That fact that there’s no happy ending for Shen Qingqiu aside, it would have been interesting to read about. But Luo Binghe returned and immediately took up the hobbies of any two-bit Stallion novel protagonist: face slapping and wife collecting. It gets boring to read about after a while.”

“Mm-hmm,” Gongyi Xiao inclined his head in tentative agreement, “It would get repetitive after a while.”

“Right?” Shen Yuan propped his chin on his hands over Gongyi Xiao’s breastbone, “I never really understood the whole wife collecting trope. How do you find the time to romance any of them properly if there’s another thirty of them in the shadows, fuming and planning how to move up the que? What's even the point?”

“If I had to guess,” Gongyi Xiao’s lips twisted in a wry smile, “Luo Binghe had that demonic sword with him when he arrived. From what I’ve observed, the more he used it, the more unbalanced his Qi became. Dual cultivation with many cultivators would be a good way to mitigate the effects without causing permanent damage to any one partner.”

“Bah, a poor narrative excuse to give your protagonist unlimited power while also making him find a new girl to push down every week,” Shen Yuan rolled his eyes, “Really, if the author knew what they were doing and were committed to writing a good story, that could only be a setup for a tragedy.”

“A tragedy, huh?” Gongyi Xiao asked.

“Mmm. That many powerful women, all cooped up like chickens with a husband who’s never home and a vested interest in seizing power? It’s only a matter of time before they decide they’ve had enough and realize they outnumber him.”

“Two hundred years, was it?” Gongyi Xiao remarked, then smiled when Shen Yuan shot him a startled look, “You mentioned it, before. That you might go back to China in 200 years, after Luo Binghe died.”

Oh, right. He did. “Well, my estimate might be off. He could make it to 300.”

“But not much more,” Gongyi Xiao sighed. He seemed to find the roof of their tent very fascinating. Shen Yuan couldn’t see much more than the bottom of his chin, and the unhappy twist to his scarred mouth.

Shen Yuan patted one well-rounded pec. “Probably less, even. You don’t need to look so glum, A’Xiao. Like I said, even the Heavenly Demons that came before him eventually fell. Cultivators can live up to 500 years with no problem. We’ll go back home someday, don’t worry.”

Gongyi Xiao’s hands tightened on his back slightly, then relaxed. “What would you do?”

“Huh?”

“If you were writing Luo Binghe’s story?” Gongyi Xiao raised his head to look at him, “Would you give him a happy ending?”

Shen Yuan blinked. “Well, if I was the author, yes. Like, isn’t that the point of stories? You put your characters through the wringer, you push them until they’re looking the end of the world in the eye… But in the end, they pull through, they save the world, and they look to the future with hope. That’s the whole point of stories: to give the readers hope.”

Gongyi Xiao smiled with such gentleness, and ran his fingers through Shen Yuan’s hair. “So how would that happy end look like, if Shen Yuan were writing it?”

“Hmmm,” Shen Yuan tilted his head into Gongyi Xiao’s palm, eyes falling shut, thinking, “Two ways, I suppose. One would be to find an Empress who was powerful enough to be his equal, who could help him balance Xin Mo’s destructive power. There’s a couple of candidates I can think of, but probably Lady Heihai of the Kunlun mountain. She’s an ascended immortal, tending to the peaches of immortality. Her power would be enough to master even something like Xin Mo, though I don’t know if she has the character to actually be an Empress.”

“And the other way?” Gongyi Xiao asked quietly.

“Ah, the way that could never happen in a story,” Shen Yuan shrugged, “To hang up his sword and his quest for revenge and power, and just figure out what makes him happy. Whether that is actually becoming a scholar-cultivator, like he was supposed to become on Qing Jing, or being, I don’t know, a demonic horse rancher in the Demon Realm. But that would never happen, even in the real world.”

“Why not?” 

“Whether it’s the force of the narrative or of fate, it all comes to the same conclusion,” Shen Yuan shrugged, “Luo Binghe was always destined for greatness, not happiness.”

Gongyi Xiao’s ministrations paused, and didn’t resume even when Shen Yuan prodded him.

It occurred to Shen Yuan that talking about your boyfriend’s sworn enemy while you were cuddled half-naked together might be seen as a bit gauche.

“Ah, but why are we talking about Luo Binghe?” he raised his head to look at Gongyi Xiao’s face, “Whatever fate has planned for him, we’re too far away to reach us. He can live his revenge fantasy novel, and we can live in a mushy travel romance. It might not sell as many copies as Luo Binghe’s story, but I think we can agree our story is far better to be living in.”

Gongyi Xiao sighed, then rolled over so he could fully hug Shen Yuan to his chest, “Because we get to be happy, right?”

“Mmn,” Shen Yuan nodded into Gongyi Xiao’s breastbone, “Greatness is well and good on paper and in histories. But I think I would rather be happy than be great.”

“Yes,” Gongyi Xiao agreed, sounding strangely melancholy, “Me too.