Work Text:
Shen Yuan opened Proud Immortal Demon Way like usual whenever there was an update.
He read it, cursed out Airplane for reusing the same scenes and lines and lamented the wasted potential.
At the end however was an author's note different to usual.
Hi guys (づᗒvᗕ)づ pidw will be going on hiatus until further notice └[-ᨓ-]┘I’m about to be homeless and can no longer write it. Every vip sub will go towards helping me continue to write pidw so if u can pls support, i rlly appreciate it :’)
He was shocked to say the least, in previous author notes Airplane had mentioned they were tight for money but he didn’t realise it was this bad. He winced in sympathy, despite being rich he knew that homelessness was obviously bad but especially in the country they lived in.
He checked the comments and so many people were dragging Airplane for “lying” to get more money.
These fake ass fans.
Nearly every 15 chapters had an author's note about being hungry, cold or having one meal per day. Obviously in the same joke like form but hello, inferring, media literacy, simple plain reading?
Did they not even read the other author notes?
Now, Shen Yuan knew that Proud Immortal Demon Way couldn’t discontinue no matter what. Even if ninety percent of it was shitty porn, the other ten percent was amazing. The right characters, worldbuilding, everything about it was perfect. Except for the shitty hack author who caved into pressure and made all of it explicit!
So he did what any reasonable person would do in his situation…
He privately messaged Airplane and offered for the author to live in his apartment.
Honestly it wasn’t one of his best ideas, knowing that the author was probably a perverted fifty year old man but Shen Yuan would take the chances.
Shen Yuan knew that Airplane lived in the same city as him due to a scandal a few years ago where the author posted a picture of the sunset and some creeps on 4chan tracked their location due to the clouds.
It was always better to ask than not to, however if the author rejected it then he might as well just crawl into a pit and die out of embarrassment.
Plus change his user ID], which would be quite sad as he was rather fond of PeerlessCucumber.
22:12
Peerless Cucumber: Hey, I saw your author's note and was wondering if you wanted to move in with me? I lowkey need a roommate and I know we live in the same city due to that incident.
22:45
Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky: omg \(TᗜT)/ my saviour. tyyyy for your offer ur saving me cucumber bro!!! can we meet up in person b4 tho cause i do not wanna move in with a rando :333
22:48
Peerless Cucumber: Of course. Is this weekend on Saturday okay? Is the Magnolia Cafe in the city centre okay to meet up at? If not, just name a place closer to you and we can go to that instead.
22:56
Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky: >_< this weekend and the magnolia cafe are perfectly fine :3333
22:57
Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky: could we meet at 11:30???? also we should decide on like a charm or something so we know its each other :000
23:01
Peerless Cucumber: Good thinking about the charm. I have a cucumber phone charm I can put on my phone. You should also have a charm in case you arrive earlier than I. Also 11:30 is fine to meet up.
23:02
Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky: yurrr okayy, ill have an airplane phone charm on my phone >‿< see you on saturday (づᗒᗜᗕ)づ
…
Shen Yuan was nervous. He would be meeting the hack author in about five minutes and potentially living with them soon.
He got ready today, washing his hair early in the morning and dressing himself casually in a sage green t-shirt and jeans. He made sure to attach the cucumber phone charm to his phone.
Shen Yuan was waiting in the cafe, he got there early and specifically requested a booth near the back for privacy. He had been watching every customer that came in carefully and scanning them for an airplane charm.
The bell jingles and a new customer walks in. This one was a small, thin man with short curly light brown hair. The man scans the room looking for something.
His eyes land on Shen Yuan’s phone charm and he walks over.
So this must be Airplane.
“Hi, you’re Peerless Cucumber, right?” The man asks softly.
He was completely different to what Shen Yuan thought he would have been. Way younger, and way more handsome than his original estimation.
“Yes, that is me. I presume you are Airplane?” Shen Yuan says, looking at the man.
Airplane nods before sitting down in the booth.
“You are way less creepier than I thought you would be by the way” Airplane laughs slightly relieved.
Shen Yuan smirks “I can also say the same to you I suppose.”
“Fair point honestly, I mean I am the one who writes porn for a living.” Airplane says, pouring a glass of water for himself.
Shen Yuan laughs. He surprisingly liked Airplane so far.
“First off, what's your name and age? I’m Shen Yuan, I’m twenty six, and yes before you ask from that Shen family.” He says smirking at Airplane's shocked face.
“Dude, I based so many characters off your family, what the hell. I literally based Shen QingQiu on your twin brother and Yue Qingyuan off your brother’s fiancé.” He says waving his hands about in the air shocked, his eyes widened.
“Oh my god…please tell me there isn’t a character based off me.” Shen Yuan says his eyes zeroing in with interest and shock.
“There may be one…but none of the readers know about it.” Airplane winced, “It’s more of a character that died to propel another character to be who they are today.”
“Interesting, you have to tell me more later.” Shen Yuan remarks with interest, smirking. Internally he’s screaming, there’s a character after him?! And holy shit, Jiu-ge would blacklist Airplane if he knew the scum villain was based off himself!
“I guess so. My name is Shang Qinghua and I’m twenty one.” Airplane says.
“You mean to tell me that one, you're younger than me and two, you named the generic canon fodder villain after yourself!” Shen Yuan exclaims. When the author walked in, he knew that Airplane was younger than he thought, but not this young!
And also who would have thought that he named a doomed villain after himself! Definitely not Shen Yuan!
“Haha, yes. I wanted a self insert but I felt bad giving one of the good characters my name so I gave it to the doomed generic villain instead. If people found out that I named like Luo Binghe after me, it would be embarrassing and I would be dragged for it.” Shang Qinghua says cringing slightly.
“Honestly yeah, everyone would drag you in the comments as well.” Shen Yuan says snorting. Dragging Shang Qinghua was an understatement on what would happen, everyone would absolutely bash him on all sites.
“So uhh, how much would you want for rent? I know you're like super rich and probably live in a mansion, and I might not be able to afford that..?” Shang Qinghua says nervously slightly wincing.
This was his literal only opportunity to not be homeless and if Shen Yuan said no, he probably would have to stop work on PIDW for like a year to get his life on track.
“Yeah no, you don’t have to pay me rent, just improve your novel and stop with the 24/7 erotica.” Shen Yuan says shrugging his shoulders blasély.
“Huh, for real?” Shang Qinghua asks in disbelief.
“Yes, I mean it. Go deeper into the lore, stop the 24/7 erotica and please do more features on the beasts and plants.” Shen Yuan says joyfully, his age-long wish finally coming true.
“Done. I can do that.” Shang Qinghua was not about to pass up on a free rich kids mansion. Didn’t matter if he got hate for including less porn, since he didn’t even need to rely on those depraved fuckers for necessities!
“When can I move in? Because my lease is expiring in a week…” Shang Qinghua says, exhaling.
“As soon as you're ready, I could even get movers to your place today if you really needed to?” Shen Yuan asks, cocking his head to the side.
Shang Qinghua sighs in relief, truly there were no bounds that a rich kid couldn’t cross! He was saved!