Chapter Text
The name Wu Yanzi didn't ring a bell to him outside of his position on the Wanted board posted in Qiong Ding's missions office. It was only after he died that Shen Yuan recalled a throwaway line from Shen Qingqiu's trial.
He was the scum villain's mentor.
Well, that is... well. Good riddance?
Shen Jiu hadn't shown his face on Qing Jing yet, so it's possible the two hadn't met yet. Shen Yuan didn't have a perfect timeline for this pre-canon era, so he chose to hope that was the case.
Either way, if your spiritual bear murders someone else's teacher, it's on you to take responsibility for the disciple.
Wu Yanzi was a deplorable criminal, but his disciple was young enough to change their ways. Shen Yuan would help. Shizun allowed him to scout talents for Qing Jing and make introductions at his discretion. Upon spotting the child huddled behind a girthy trunk, making no move to jump to their master's aid, Shen Yuan came to the conclusion there was no love lost between them.
The child likely had little choice to become Wu Yanzi's apprentice.
Resources were better spent giving them a second chance than punishing them for crimes they were pulled into. If they had no talent for art, music, or strategy, Shen Yuan would find what they did have talent for and nudge the head disciple of another Peak to take them in. He had a lot of people who owed him favors.
"Would you like to learn orthodox cultivation?"
This question kept the small teen from running off when Shen Yuan moved closer. They nodded after a moment's hesitation. "This one will be taught by the senior?"
"This senior's master," Shen Yuan corrected. "This senior will be your shixiong."
"Is it this or getting fed to your bear?"
Shen Yuan coughed. What a question. "No. A-Bing wouldn't eat you. He only attacks threats on my person."
"You won't arrest me?"
"No."
"...aren't I too old?"
"How old are you?"
"Fifteen."
"That's not too old. A promising talent from Qiong Ding entered the sect at fifteen, and he is one of the strongest cultivators of the younger generation." His shibo took much pride in that Yue Qi, constantly talking him up. As he should, seeing as the Xuan Su sword he carried with him implied he would later be Yue Qingyuan, the sect leader himself. "He won top spots in the last two tournaments he entered."
The teenager looked unconvinced, so Shen Yuan added:
"Qing Jing does not require disciples to excel at cultivation. Their minds are their greatest assets. If you possess a good head on your shoulders, you will fit right in. This senior will stake his word on it."
The child watched and waited while Shen Yuan cleaned A-Bing's dappled fur.
Then they inched closer.
"This one is called Jiu."
Was it the Jiu he was thinking of or a different Jiu? Should he expect to get stabbed in the back over his position? "This senior is Shen Yuan, courtesy name Qingze, head disciple of Qing Jing. Do you have a family name, Jiu?"
"This one has no family."
"There are many Shens on Qing Jing." Their master was one too, no relation to Shen Yuan. Any orphans that were dropped into Qing Jing tended to get called Shen if they didn't have a family name of their own. Half a dozen Shens running around. What's one more?
The suggestion went ignored. The child (boy?) offered him a cupped palm salute, recognizing him as their senior. "This one greets Senior Shen."
"There is a question this senior must ask first."
"Yes?"
"Are you a boy or a girl?"
The teenager stared at him with an expressionless face. Their eyes gave away their anger, steely and hard. "This one does not understand the question. Would the noble cultivator explain?"
Shen Yuan understood this courtesy caused offense in others, particularly if they were of the androgynous sort in appearance and bearing, but it was politer to ask first than to fumble through conversing and assign them the wrong gender.
There was nothing more awkward than getting halfway through a pleasant chat with a junior only to discover you had been addressing them with the wrong set of pronouns and titles the entire time. He would prefer to have it implied he couldn't tell from a glance than go through that again.
There were just too many pretty boy archetypes running around, and at a young age, girls didn't show too much in the curve department. Some girls never would, growing up slim instead of busty, or, as he was surprised to realize among the demon soldiers he came across, so tall and muscular they could crack your skull open with their biceps. The body types for women around the world had a greater variety than he was led to believe with The Wives as an example.
Shen Yuan approved.
It did make his life much harder though, dealing with these muscle mommies and irrationally beautiful men that didn't catch a five o'clock shadow no matter how long they were wandering the wilderness, bereft of shaving supplies.
Hence, The Question.
What are your pronouns?
This was a beautiful person, and it could go either way.
Shen Yuan presumed boy, from how much of a beanpole this child was and the name, but you know what they say about assumptions.
"Are you a jiejie, meimei, daughter, granddaughter, biaomei, biaojie, tangmei, or tangjie? Or are you a gege, didi, son, grandson, biaodi, biaoge, tangdi, or tangge? Which set of terms would leave you feeling most at ease if this senior were to address you? Shidi or shimei? Boy or girl?"
"At ease?" Jiu repeated the words as if they were foreign.
"If you come with me to Qing Jing and meet with my master, you would be my shidi or my shimei. Which are you... if you do not mind my asking."
After staying silent for a while, the child answered, "Shimei. This Jiu is a girl."
A girl.
Not the Jiu he was thinking of.
Okay, cool. A shimei.
"Shen Jiu is a girl," the girl amended after a tinier pause, and Shen Yuan smiled encouragingly.
"Thank you for clarifying, Shen-mei. This senior will see to it you have the chance to study as his shimei."
There was a quiet happiness about the girl, lingering on her even as she side-eyed him warily on the walk into town. A chance to cultivate under a true immortal would do that to a person.
"Is Shen-mei hungry?"
The girl nodded silently, still lost in thought. Shen Yuan walked ahead of her to purchase some noodle bowls from a shop, leaving her with A-Bing. When he came back, steaming bowl in each hand, Shen Jiu was stiffly petting over A-Bing's fur.
When she noticed his stare, she retracted her hand, getting angry to cover up her embarrassment.
"Senior Shen took his time."
"Forgive this senior." Shen Yuan kept his amusement inside his head. "There was a line."