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A-Yu was lost. A-Niang had said he could go out and play in the trees, but then he turned around and A-Niang wasn't there! He tried to walk back home but all the trees looked the same and he didn't know which way to go.
A-Yu eventually found the edge of the trees, but when he looked around he still couldn't see his house! There were lots of houses all in a group nearby, but none of them were his house. A-Yu didn't live close to anyone; everyone important lived in his house with him.
A-Yu carefully approached the houses. A-Die always said not to talk to strangers, but he also never told A-Yu what to do when his house vanished. Maybe one of the people who lived in these houses knew where A-Yu lived?
The houses were full of people. But also not, because no one was actually in the houses; they were all walking around between them. A-Yu wandered between the houses too, trying to look and see if A-Die or A-Niang or any of the misses or misters are around.
"Excuse me mister?" A-Yu tugged at the robes of the nearest person. A-Die would forgive him for talking to strangers as long as he gets home…
"What the—? Let go, you little rat, I don't have anything for you." The man looked at A-Yu with a weird expression on his face that A-Yu had never seen before, wrenching his robes back and walking away too quickly for A-Yu to follow. A-Yu watched him go, surprised and upset. The misters in his house had never been so mean to him! All the misters and misses always did their best to help him!
A-Yu was very confused, and suddenly felt very, very alone. Is this why A-Die said not to talk to strangers? Because they were all meanies? Were the only nice people in A-Yu's house? But then how was A-Yu supposed to get home?
A-Yu felt like crying, but he did his best not to. He was a big boy! He wasn't gonna cry just because someone was mean to him!
He would just have to find his house himself.
A-Yu kept wandering between the houses, trying to find one that looked like his. All the people around him kept giving him the same weird look the first mister did, so he didn't wanna ask any of them for help. His legs started to feel tired, but he really, really wanted to be home, so he kept walking.
It started to get dark, so A-Yu decided to take a break. A-Niang always came and found him in the trees when it started to get dark, so maybe she'd be able to find him here? He found a house with lots and lots of lights, and lots of people going in and out too, and sat outside of it. The ground was dirty, but he was already dirty from playing in the trees, so A-Niang probably wouldn't mind that much.
A-Yu sat outside the bright house for a really long time, but A-Niang never came. It got darker and darker, and A-Yu started to get a little scared, but the house was bright enough that as long as he stayed close and didn't look into the dark, it wasn't really that scary. Lots of misters were coming out of the bright house now, all stumbling like A-Die sometimes did after a celebration.
A-Yu stayed where he was, not sure if he wanted the misters to see him or not. If they were like the first mister, he definitely didn't want them to, but maybe one of them knew where A-Yu's house was… He decided he should probably stay where he was. He didn't want to talk to any more meanies today. After misters stopped coming out of the bright house, a miss came out instead. She looked around, then was turning to go back inside when she saw him and her mouth fell open.
"…what are you doing out here, kid?" The miss said, a weird crease-thing appearing between her eyes.
"A-Yu is waiting for A-Niang!" A-Yu answered, happy to find a nice miss. A strange expression crossed the miss' face.
"Where does A-Yu live?" The miss asked gently.
"In A-Yu's house. A-Yu doesn't know where it went, though; A-Yu was playing in the trees and then it vanished and A-Yu was here instead!" The miss closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again and smiled at him.
"Why don't you come wait inside, A-Yu? We'll make sure to keep an eye out for your A-Niang, but you could get hurt or sick if you wait outside." The miss offered a hand to A-Yu, and he took it, scrambling up. His butt kinda hurt from sitting on the ground for so long, but it wasn't that bad so he ignored it.
The miss led him inside the bright house, holding onto his hand tightly. The bright house didn't really look like a house on the inside; it was super different from A-Yu's house. There were lots and lots of tables and chairs, and part of the floor was higher than the other parts. The miss led him through all of it, towards a door tucked away in the back that A-Yu hadn't noticed.
They went up some stairs and another door, and then there were lots of misses around. They all looked up when the miss holding A-Yu's hand opened the door, and A-Yu felt a little nervous with all the eyes watching him. He ducked behind the legs of the miss holding his hand, peaking out at all the other misses.
"Lan-mei, who's this?" One of the other misses asked, eyes locked on A-Yu's.
The miss holding his hand—Lan-jie?—sighed. "This is A-Yu. He's gotten lost, and doesn't know where he lives."
A-Yu definitely did not pout at that. But he might've come close. Maybe. "A-Yu knows where he lives!! A-Yu lives in A-Yu's house!!"
The miss who asked Lan-jie the question looked at him and then laughed. "Of course A-Yu lives in A-Yu's house. This Ai-jie is sorry for doubting him."
Another one of the misses spoke up. "Lan-jie, what are you going to tell the madam? You know we don't have room for dead weight. He's going to have to help out somehow."
One of the misses near the last one answered her. "He can help with cleaning. He can also learn how the kitchen works, so that when he's a little older he can help in there too. He should also be able to serve dishes by then, and if we get to teaching him now he could probably become quite proficient in an instrument or weiqi if he actually listens to us and learns."
All the misses in the room blinked at her, and A-Yu did too. He would have to work? But houses weren't for working… A-Niang always got mad at A-Die when he tried to take his work out of his special room.
Lan-jie sighed. "I suppose that's the best he's going to get, until his A-Niang shows up." She turned to look down at him. "Is that alright, A-Yu? We'll give you a place to stay until your A-Niang finds you, but you'll have to help us out a bit too."
A-Yu frowned at her, trying not to cry. Why did he have to work just for a place to stay? That doesn't sound right. Everyone should get a house to stay in, whether they work or not. But he also really, really didn't want to go back and wait on the streets. It was already super dark, and none of the misters were nice like the misses here were. A-Yu looked down at the floor. "…alright."
Lan-jie sighed again, but there was a different sound to it this time. A-Yu wasn't sure what it was. "Alright. Let's go talk to the madam, then, shall we?" She smiled at A-Yu when he looked up.
"I'm coming too," Ai-jie said, getting up from the couch she had been sitting on and walking over to take A-Yu's other hand. "Two is better than one, right?"
It took some convincing, but eventually A-Yu was allowed to stay in the bright house—which he learned was called a 'brothel'. All the jiejies lived upstairs, and all the customers stayed downstairs. He would room with Lan-jie for now, and they would try to make room to get him his own room when he got older.
The years seemed to go by really quickly. A-Yu always hoped his A-Niang would find him, but the older he got, the more he understood that probably wouldn't happen. He had gotten himself well and truly lost, but he had managed to find a nice second home for himself anyways.
Lan-jie and Ai-jie were always his favorite jiejies, not that he'd ever tell any of the jiejies that, but all of the jiejies were nice to him. Jing-jie taught him to play the pipa and the qin, Hui-jie taught him weiqi, and Yun-jie taught him how to dance. Fang-jie taught him how to mix scents to set the mood, Lian-jie and Tian-jie taught him how to fake attraction, and everyone worked together to teach him all the dirty parts of what they did.
A-Yu started with just selling his skills, as everyone else did; he was especially great at the qin, as a lot of his memories of his A-Niang involved her playing the stringed instrument. He didn't know what tunes she was playing, but he liked to create pieces he thought sounded similar to what he remembered, which ended up with lots of people praising his composition abilities. Hui-jie also liked to call him scarily good at weiqi; apparently he was super good at the strategy part. A-Yu wasn't quite sure what that meant, as he just went with his gut reaction, but it earned the brothel money so he wasn't gonna complain.
Despite A-Yu bringing in money without even having a debt to pay off, instead choosing to give nearly all of his earnings to the brothel as a way of thanking the madam and the jiejies for taking him in, the brothel was still on a downhill road. Not many people came through this village anymore; in fact, lots of people were moving away. Apparently, while the village used to be under the protection of the Liu family, they had begun to retreat into themselves over the recent years, for reasons unknown. Monsters and demons were no longer dealt with as fast as before, if at all.
All of that culminated in his jiejies slowly being transferred out to other brothels.
Ai-jie was the first to go, when he was about ten; she had always been among the older jiejies, and it had been seven years since A-Yu had become a member of the brothel family. No one in the village was really interested anymore, but she still had some of her debt to pay off, so the madam transferred her to a brothel in a larger city in the hopes she might be able to find customers there.
A-Yu had cried for a whole day after she left, before forcing himself to get back to work.
Jing-jie left a couple years later, and then Lian-jie and Yun-jie followed in quick succession. A-Yu started dancing for the customers after Yun-jie left; he cried the first few times, because it just reminded him of all the jiejies that had left.
Lan-jie was the next to go, when A-Yu was fifteen. A-Yu had begged her not to go. He knew it would be better for her, but he had already lost Ai-jie; he wasn't ready to lose her too. Lan-jie gave him her name, making him Ning Yu and officially family, but she still left.
Ning Yu stayed in his room for a week after she left. Fang-jie and Jing-jie had to force him out afterwards.
Ning Yu grew numb to his jiejies leaving after that. He hugged them goodbye and watched them leave, hoping wherever they went would treat them as well as they deserved.
When Ning Yu turned seventeen, the brothel madam informed him it was finally his turn. Almost everyone else had gone by then, and all the others would be leaving at the same time as him.
"You'll be going to the Warm Red Pavilion, near Cang Qiong Mountain. The madam there is strict but fair, and very open to kicking customers out if they behave inappropriately," the madam informed him, bustling around her office and grabbing papers. Once she had everything she was looking for, she turned back to Ning Yu. "You'll see some familiar faces there. A carriage will arrive for you at sunrise tomorrow. The trip will be a couple days length; here is all the pay you've earned this week, so that you can pay for food and inns." She gave him a relatively full pouch, and he tucked it into the pocket Tian-jie had sewed to the inside of his robes. "Do take care not to die on the way there. Your jiejies have been looking forward to seeing you again."
Ning Yu recognized the dismissal for what it was and left the room with a bow.
Ning Yu wasn't sure what he was expecting when he finally reached the Warm Red Pavilion. Yun-jie or Fang-jie, maybe? Someone grabbed him the second he stepped into the brothel, so he didn't really know who it was at the moment, but he was just happy there was going to be a familiar face.
When the jiejie drew back and he saw both Ai-jie and Lan-jie in front of him, he burst into tears.
Thankfully the brothel hadn't yet officially opened, so Ning Yu had plenty of time to catch up with his jiejies; they showed him around, introduced him to the jiejies of the Warm Red Pavilion, and got him registered with the madam as well. He wouldn't have to start working for a couple of days, so he could get used to the space and the people.
Ning Yu didn't mind. He had his jiejies by his side now; he could handle whatever else life threw at him.
Shen Jiu was going to kick the next fucking kid that tries to talk to him down the fucking mountain.
Why the fuck was everyone so insistent on being all up in his business?
He attempted to calm down, taking in slow breaths like he had to in order to start meditation, fingers stilling on the strings of the qin. If he continued to play in this mood he would wind up snapping a string, and then his shizun would be even more pissed at him than he already was.
He tucked the qin into his sleeves, pushing himself up from the ground. He ignored the black spots dancing in his vision and walked through the dizziness, leaving the open air pavilion in favor of the secluded woodshed tucked into the bamboo. With the amount of silencing talismans he's slapped onto the rotten boards, it had better be able to keep the sound of the qin to itself.
Shen Jiu wanted to sleep, but even with the isolation of the woodshed it felt far from safe. It had been almost two weeks since he had been down the mountain, but his shizun had been keeping him insanely busy since he got back. Shen Jiu didn't understand why he wouldn't just use his words to tell him to stop or even to ask why he continued to go down to the brothel, but pretty much every cultivator had proved that they loved to make assumptions and never correct them.
Regardless, there was no way he was getting anywhere until dark.
Despite Shen Jiu's best attempts, it took several more days before he was able to successfully make it down the mountain without catching anyone's attention. When he made it to the Warm Red Pavilion, it was clearly full to the brim of rowdy men. Wrinkling his nose, he avoided the front entrance, sweeping around to the back instead.
The kitchen was bustling, everyone moving around and weaving through to get to where they need to be. Those who noticed him greet him as he passed, but no one stopped to chat; they were far too busy for that.
Shen Jiu made his way out of the kitchen and immediately ran into the brothel madam. "Madam Wen," he greeted, smiling at the older lady.
She gave him a warm smile back. "A-Jiu. It's been a while; I'm glad those cultivators finally let you have a moment of peace."
Ai-jie came bounding down the hall. "Madam! Some of the girls need you out front; a couple customers are getting leery at the young ones."
Shen Jiu stepped back, letting Madam Wen hurry out to the front. Ai-jie turns to him with a wide grin. "Jiu-di!! It's been far too long since you last came to see this old jiejie," she said, pulling him into a hug. He rolled his eyes into her shoulder, returning the hug.
"It's been two weeks. You're not so old you're going to keel over next week, Ai-jie," he said dryly.
Ai-jie pouted at him briefly, then stood straighter, as though coming to a realization. "Oh! Jiu-di, pretty much everyone is busy tonight, myself included. We do have a new prostitute that arrived only a couple of days ago, but…" She hesitated, then continued on. "Well, he's a male prostitute, and I know your whole thing is that you don't trust men. Which is plenty valid, obviously, but A-Yu is from my old brothel; I can vouch for his character plenty. Me and Lan-mei practically raised the kid, after all."
Shen Jiu hesitated, frowning. He really did need to get some actual rest tonight, which would be struggle with only a strange man available… but he trusted the judgment of both Ai-jie and Lan-jie, and Madam Wen wouldn't have allowed an untrustworthy man anywhere near her courtesans.
"…alright. I'll talk with him," he eventually settled on, and was rewarded with another blinding smile from Ai-jie.
"Great! If it really goes horribly, ask Madam Wen to get me or Lan-mei. Whoever we're with can handle not getting their way for once, it'll be fine." Ai-jie grabbed his hand and led him upstairs, talking about this A-Yu the entire time.
Ning Yu jolted at the knock on his door. All of the jiejies were busy or were going to be busy soon enough, thanks to an enormous caravan of men coming through their town, so he hadn't expected anyone to be upstairs for very long tonight. Opening the door, he found Ai-jie on the other side, holding hands with a black-haired boy not much older than he was. "Who's this?"
"This is Jiu-di! Well, Jiu-ge for you. He's from up on the mountain; he comes down to here to get a good night's rest. All the other ladies have met him, and the madam has given him permission to come back here whenever he visits, so don't freak if you come back after working one day and find him already back here, mkay?" Ning Yu could tell that Ai-jie was excited to finally introduce them to each other by how much and how fast she was talking.
"He's not really a fan of men but I've vouched for you so he's willing to give you a shot! Well, not a shot like you're thinking of; when I say he comes here for a good night's rest I mean that literally. He just likes to have a cuddle buddy." At this, the boy looked at Ai-jie with a scandalized expression on his face.
"Ai-jie." He hissed, a bright red blush spreading from his cheeks to his ears.
Ai-jie giggled and ignored him. "He's quite good at weiqi and the qin too, so maybe you guys could share pointers! But I have to be getting back downstairs, so I'll leave you boys to it now. Have fun!" She dropped a kiss on the other boy's—Jiu-ge's?—head and pulled Ning Yu in so she could do the same to him before vanishing down the hall.
Ning Yu and Jiu-ge stared at each other for a moment before Ning Yu moved out of the doorway, leaving the door open in a silent invitation. He grabbed the weiqi board Lan-jie had gifted him when they met again and began to set it up; Ai-jie said the other boy was good at it, so he was interested in seeing just how good he was.
"D'you need anything? Food, a drink?" He asked as he worked.
Jiu-ge stayed silent for a moment. "No," he eventually said. "Thank you."
Shen Jiu felt off-kilter. He wasn't sure what he expected out of A-Yu, but he didn't think this was it. The boy was quiet, clearly liked and respected Ai-jie, and was apparently good with the qin and weiqi. His long hair was gathered into a ponytail with a small braid decorating the side of his head, and there was a mole just below his stormy grey eyes that demanded attention.
To put it bluntly, he was stupidly pretty, and Shen Jiu didn't really appreciate the things it was making him feel.
He watched A-Yu finish setting up the weiqi board and take a seat behind the black pieces. He followed suit, sitting behind the white pieces. Hopefully Ai-jie had been telling the truth when she called A-Yu good at weiqi; an actually difficult game would take his mind off of these stupid feelings.
By the time the two finished the game, it was well past midnight. Shen Jiu was pleasantly surprised to see that A-Yu was even better than he had been expecting; whoever had taught him at his old brothel clearly knew what they were doing.
Even so, the air between the two was stiff and awkward as they regarded the bed. Eventually, A-Yu sighed. "Jiu-ge should take the bed. He needs the sleep. I can take the floor; even if I don't get much sleep, one night is not going to affect me that much."
Shen Jiu frowned reflexively. "This is your room. I shouldn't be forcing you to the floor just because I need sleep."
A-Yu scowled at him. "Either you take the bed, or we share the bed. It's up to you."
"We share, then. I can't just kick you out of your own bed," Shen Jiu said, shaking his head. A-Yu regarded him for a moment, then nodded.
"Fine. I'll grab some extra pillows and blankets." He was out the door before Shen Jiu had a chance to say anything.
When Ning Yu returned, arms full of extra bedding, Jiu-ge had already begun getting ready for bed. His outer layers had been shed and folded neatly by the door, where his shoes were already sitting, and he was in the process of removing the small guan holding his hair up.
Ning Yu dumped his armload on the bed and turned to the other boy, who looked to be struggling a bit with the hair crown. "Would Jiu-ge like some help with that?"
The boy startled, then gave him a considering look before sighing. "If A-Yu is willing… this one would appreciate the assistance." He sounded like the request was being dragged from mouth with poisonous claws, and he had reverted back to more formal language. Uncomfortable, maybe? Embarrassed?
Ning Yu decided not to mention it, and just went over to where Jiu-ge was sitting in front of his small desk. The hair crown looked uncomfortably tangled into his long hair; Ning Yu wasn't sure what had happened, but it had to feel awful. As carefully as he could, he pulled locks of the hair out of the crown until it was freed from its confines.
"There," he said, handing Jiu-ge his hair crown back. "I would talk to Mei-jie in the morning, if you've not already; she has all sorts of tips and tricks for keeping things in your hair without knotting it in there."
"Thanks," the boy said quietly, eyes locked on the ground. Ning Yu watched him, amused.
"Of course. Come to bed when you're ready." Ning Yu had been prepared for bed since before Ai-jie showed up with Jiu-ge, so he simply fixed the blankets up a little and put the pillows into better positions before crawling under the covers. He could feel Jiu-ge's eyes on him, but decided whatever was going on in the other boy's head wasn't worth staying up about.
Ning Lan smiled at the sight before her. When Ai-jie said she'd convinced A-Jiu to give A-Yu a chance, she hadn't expected much to come of it. She certainly didn't expect to open the door to A-Yu's room and find the two boys wrapped around each other in their sleep. She stayed there for a few more moments before gently closing the door again; they both needed all the sleep they could get.
Ning Yu paced nervously outside the door. He couldn't hear what was going on inside, due to the silencing talismans Shen Jiu had gifted Lan-jie when he learned she was pregnant, but that only increased his anxiety. How was he to know if something was going wrong? They'd managed to get a doctor, yes, but he'd said he wasn't sure if Lan-jie would make it, though he would do his best to make it happen.
He'd already lost Lan-jie once. He didn't want to go through it again, this time forever.
Shen Jiu hadn't yet come, thought Ning Yu knew he would be here as soon as he could; the Qiong generation would be ascending soon, so he had even more work to deal with than normal, not to mention how many people were watching him like a hawk, just waiting for him to make a mistake.
He whirled around at the sound of a door opening, worries crowding his mind. Shen Jiu was hurrying down the hall, and Ning Yu could feel half of his anxieties ease at the sight of his lover. He managed a smile, but Shen Jiu could clearly see the worry on his face because he found himself with an armful of cultivator as soon as Shen Jiu was close enough to grab him.
Ning Yu clutched Shen Jiu tightly, burying his face in the slightly taller man's neck.
"Any news so far?" Shen Jiu asked quietly, rubbing circles on Ning Yu's back. He shook his head wordlessly.
They continued to stand there like that, each soaking in the presence of the other. Both of their heads snapped up when another door opened.
Ai-jie came out of the birthing room, a bundle in her arms. Ning Yu stiffened.
"Is that—"
"Ning Yingying," Ai-jie cut in, smiling at them both. The smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "Lan-mei… isn't doing too well. The doctor is doing what he can, but he's not sure she'll make it."
Ning Yu closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again and stepped forward to be in front of Ai-jie. Shen Jiu let him go silently. "I'll take her," Ning Yu said firmly. "You go stay with Lan-mei. Give her my love, yeah?" Ai-jie nodded, handing him the infant in her arms before going back into the room.
Shen Jiu pulled Ning Yu close again, this time making sure there was room enough between them for Ning Yingying to rest comfortably. Ning Yu rested his head on Shen Jiu's chest, not ready to face a world without Lan-jie just yet.
"Move onto the peak with me."
Ning Yu blinked at his lover, mind still hazy from sleep. Yingying stirred between them, the five-month old baby bapping him in the face as she stretched sleepily. "Come again?" He managed, voice raspy from sleep.
Shen Jiu sighed, fondness evident in every bit of his exasperation. "Move onto the peak with me. It would be better for everyone to get you up there now, rather than try and do it while dealing with all of the new responsibilities that will come with being an official peak lord. Plus, Yingying will be living there eventually, and it's better that we move now instead of wait until she's already gotten attached to here as a home. Of course we can and will still come down and visit, and rather often at that, but despite your upbringing a brothel really isn't a place to raise a child when you have other options available. As another point, having you and Yingying up there will make it so that Qian Cao will actually give me the plants we need in order to feed Yingying ourselves instead of me having to go off and find them myself, causing me to spend up to months away from you two."
Ning Yu just blinked at him again. It was far too early for that many words. "…marry me first," he settled on.
Shen Jiu froze, staring at him with wide eyes. Ning Yu raised an eyebrow and he softened. "Yes. Right. Marriage. We can do that." Shen Jiu said, clearly still a little dazed and a lot red. Ning Yu smiled at him and went back to sleep.
Apparently everyone in the Warm Red Pavilion had been preparing for them to get married since they first met. The second Ning Yu told Ai-jie, she squealed and darted off, and suddenly the brothel was shut down for the day and red robes were being brought out. Madam Wen had taken Yingying, Shen Jiu was whisked away to his old room by Er-jie and San-jie, and Ning Yu was taken to Lan-jie's old room by Ai-jie and Rong-jie.
That was the first time he cried that day.
The second time was when Ai-jie took out her hairstick and tucked into the impressive updo Mei-jie had done. "That way you have a little something to remember your favorite jiejie by up on that mountain!" She had said. Rong-jie had remarked she was happy she had waited to do his makeup now, as it would've been messed up by how much he was crying.
He did his best not to cry after that, not wanting to mess up Rong-jie's work. Seeing Shen Jiu at the other side of the room took his breath away; his lover was always beautiful, but seeing him in red robes was something else entirely. He had to put a conscious effort into not running down the makeshift aisle to hug and kiss the other man.
His resolve to not cry again immediately shattered when he saw a tablet had been set up for Lan-jie where his family would've been; Ai-jie was there as well, with Ning Yingying in her lap. Er-jie and San-jie were standing in for Shen Jiu's family.
The ceremony seemed to pass in a blur; Madam Wen told them what to do and when to do it, and he and Shen Jiu served each other's families tea and did their bows. He almost cried for a fourth time when he saw the "nuptial" chamber his jiejies had set up for them in their room. "We know you're not actually gonna use it," Zhen-jie said, "but we figured we might as well make your room pretty anyways."
Ai-jie had Yingying for the night, so Ning Yu and Shen Jiu simply got ready for bed. Ning Yu carefully undid Shen Jiu's intricate hair, remembering the first time he did this for his husband and marveling at the fact that they were husbands now. They'd come far from the boys they once were.
Once Ning Yu was finished, he dropped a kiss on Shen Jiu's temple and they traded positions, Ning Yu nearly falling asleep in his seat at the soothing feeling of Shen Jiu's fingers scratching his scalp. He was barely more than a blissed-out puddle by the time Shen Jiu had finished, and was gently bullied into standing up so that Shen Jiu could take off his outer robes and corral him into bed. Once they were both settled comfortably, Ning Yu's face pressed against Shen Jiu's chest, Ning Yu spoke up again, voice muffled by his positioning.
"Good night, husband."
Shen Jiu's voice sounded unbearably soft and smitten. "Good night, husband."
Shen Jiu was nothing more than a bundle of nerves at this point. He was finally moving Ning Yu and Ning Yingying into his small house on the peak; he would have a larger one soon enough, when his shizun finally ascended and he got the Bamboo House. He wasn't sure what, exactly, he was nervous about, considering he hated all his martial siblings and didn't give a shit what they thought, and he knew Ning Yu wouldn't care about the size of a house as long as it had all three of them in it, but here he was.
He led Ning Yu through the peak, taking the back ways so that they wouldn't have to deal with anyone before Ning Yu was ready. He was all of a sudden even more glad he had taught Ning Yu enough of the basics of cultivation that he could reach a golden core stage as well. If worst comes to worst, he can just take on Ning Yu has an official disciple of Jing; no one would be able to tell him to leave then.
They approached the quarters of the head disciple, and Shen Jiu stopped in his tracks as the door came into view. Of fucking course he's here right now.
Ning Yu raised an eyebrow at him, clearly wondering who the hell this is that has Shen Jiu visibly pissed. Shen Jiu stepped forward, making sure both Ning Yu and Ning Yingying were mostly hidden behind him before speaking up.
"Yue-shixiong." He said flatly, knowing his annoyance was more than audible in his voice. He could hear the sharp intake of break from behind him; he'd complained of both Yue Qingyuan and Qi-ge to Ning Yu before, so he knew full well who this was now.
The man in question jolted, clearly not hearing their approach, and whirled around, a guilty expression already settling on his face. "Ah, Xiao-Jiu—"
Ning Yu immediately started forward, an absolutely livid expression on his face. Only Shen Jiu's hand on his wrist kept him where he was. Yue Qingyuan looked at him in confusion, likely not used to seeing Shen Jiu with other people, plus Ning Yu wasn't wearing the colors of any peak. Luckily Ning Yingying was still mostly hidden behind Shen Jiu; he wasn't interested in answering Yue Qingyuan's questions today.
"If Yue-shixiong could vacate this one's residence, this one would much appreciate it."
Predictably, the man wilted. "But, Xiao-Jiu—"
"Please leave this one's home, Yue-shixiong."
After a few more moments of silent standoff, Yue Qingyuan nodded, looking miserable as he did so. He turned and left, and Shen Jiu and Ning Yu stood there for a couple more moments before all the fight drained out of Shen Jiu.
He was so fucking tired of dealing with Yue Qingyuan.
"Let's go inside," Ning Yu murmured, shifting Ning Yingying to his other hip so that he could grab Shen Jiu's elbow and gently lead him into his own home.
Somehow, no one had realized Ning Yu and Ning Yingying had shown up on the peaks by the time the Qiong generation finally ascended. Yingying was almost three at that point, and was thankfully capable of being quiet for a couple of hours so that they could attend the ascension.
Ning Yu watched as Shen Jiu received a hair crown from his shizun, as the generation bowed to their shizuns, and as lightning struck and the Qiong generation ascended.
After a few words from the new sect leader that Ning Yu barely listened to, the newly appointed Qing generation finally swept into the crowd to mingle. Ning Yu stayed where he was, knowing Shen Jiu would find them soon.
Sure enough, within the first few minutes Shen Jiu showed up by his side, causing Yingying to gasp with delight.
"A-Die!! You're here!!" She said, immediately making grabby hands at him. Ning Yu watched as his immortal cultivator persona positively melted away at the sight of his daughter. Shen Jiu carefully lifted her out of his arms, tucking her onto his own hip like she belonged there.
Ning Yu smiled at the both of them. "Congratulations, A-Jiu."
Shen Jiu looked up at him, the softness in his eyes only growing deeper. "Thank you, A-Yu."