Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Shen Qingqiu normally wasn’t someone who was at the beck and call of others, but that night he found himself at the doors of the Warm Red Pavilion after receiving a letter from the Madam.

”A-Jiu,” one of the courtesans rushed over when they saw him pushing open the door. “You’ve arrived. I’ll send for—“

”There’s no need. I’ve heard of his arrival,” the Madam of the Red Pavilion came into view with a swift walk. “I don’t have much time to explain, and I don’t want to leave these unwanted visitors in the hands of my sisters for long. Come along,” she beckoned him into an unused room. “Lin-meimei, if you could fetch us some tea and check on the girls while I’m gone? And bring me the child. I don’t want him in that room listening to that nonsense any longer.”

The courtesan nodded and made haste further inside the brothel. The door shut behind the two, and Shen Qingqiu was directed to a table to sit. “I’m sorry to call you from your peak on such short notice. I’m afraid I knew of no one else who could help in a matter such as this.”

”What is the matter?” Shen Qingqiu questioned. He would be lying if he said it did not matter to be summoned in the middle of the night, but the warmth the ladies had offered him over the years superseded the initial annoyance.

”The reason I called you down is because it is a sensitive matter. But despite how sensitive it is, I can not allow things to continue the way things have been proceeding.” At the end of her sentence, a loud thud came from overhead which caused them both to look upwards. A man had raised his voice in anger, and Shen Qingqiu felt his hand reach for the hilt of his sword.

”As you can tell,” the Mistress spoke over the noise, “there was an incident today. A man we have never served before came in demanding service, but he was far more exuberant than others. He tried to take one of my girls by force, and one of the children here had tried to stop him. He injured the man in doing so, and now he demands punitive compensation from the boy instead.”

”And the boy is too young to perform them,” Shen Qingqiu guessed.

”That is one reason,” she agreed. “But the main reason I won’t allow it is because the boy cannot speak. It is already bad enough for a child to be subjected to a home such as this, but a mute boy who cannot speak to others about the injustices others may inflict onto them is too cruel. I tried to turn the customer away, but he demanded a reason for his uncompensation and there is only one explanation I can give where everyone walks away from this unscathed. Honestly, I’ve been meaning to introduce the two of you long before this incident, but I could never find a way to broach the topic.”

At that moment there was a knock on the door. “Madam, I’ve brought him.”

As the courtesan stepped inside with the boy at her hip, Shen Qingqiu finally understood why he was the one the Warm Red Pavilion called. The resemblance between himself and the child was uncanny. The vibrant green hue to his eyes, along with the jet black hair that was secured up with a red ribbon, reminded Shen Qingqiu of his own appearance. Although the boy was missing the sharp facial features hidden beneath stubborn baby fat, if the boy’s stare changed from one of curiosity to a harsher look, they could easily be mistaken as brothers. Or even worse—

“In order to ease the tension, I told the customer that Shen Yuan’s father was of most importance.”

Shen Qingqiu could laugh if he wasn’t simmering in irritation. They wanted him to claim a broken bastard child who wasn’t even his.

”We hoped that maybe you would bring him as a disciple onto your peak, but we can’t contain any gossip that may follow.”

She was right. It was already bad enough for the Peak Lord to bring a child onto his peak without having them undergo the usual initiation process to get in. But for him to do that to a child that looked exactly like him, bearing the same last name would get people talking. Especially if word got out about him claiming some random bastard son at the brothel tonight.

Before Shen Qingqiu could conjure up a response, there was a loud bang again from upstairs along with some more yelling that followed. “If you could excuse me for a minute, my absence has gone for too long, and there is a rowdy man whom I need to placate before he disturbs more guests. It’s bad for business,” the Madam excused herself. “I’ll leave Shen Yuan here for you two to talk. Lui-meimei, leave A-Yuan with some ink and paper so he can write.”

Lui reached into a drawer and Qingqiu a brush, along with paper and ink and set it in front of the boy. She gave the boy a squeeze on his shoulder and Shen Qingqiu a warm smile before trailing out behind the Madam.

As the door closed, Shen Qingqiu had a scowl fixed on the boy, but he did not receive a glance back as he kept his head lowered on the paper in front of him. “Shen Yuan,” he called to him just as sharply as the movement he made to open his fan to hide his face. “I’ve heard that you’ve caused trouble today, but I have yet to hear any details. You cannot speak but I pray you can write. If you draw me pictures and leave it to me to decipher them, I will walk out so I do not have to waste any more of my time here today.”

The boy nodded as he took the brush into his hands. As he pulled back his sleeves in order not to dirty them, Shen Qingqiu noticed the drying inky stains on his hands. He must’ve had to write plenty today.

A man attacked Jiejie after she told him no. I stabbed the hand he used to touch her.

“What did you stab him with?”

He had a knife sheathed on his hip.

Shen Qingqiu hid a hint of a smile beneath his fan. “You attacked a man with his own weapon? What dishonor he must feel to have his own blade turned against him. No wonder he’s seeking indemnification.”

He may be seeking it, but he doesn’t deserve it.

Shen Qingqiu scoffed at the boy’s naivety. “You attacked a wealthy man with his own blade despite you having no status or money yourself, yet you’re complaining? He has every right to demand justice for what he had to endure.”

The boy looked up and the glare he got caused him to freeze. No longer did the boy hold a soft look to him. The sharp look was one he was familiar with because it was the same look he saw in his own reflections. It was an uncanny sight to witness.

Are you leading me to believe that just because a man has more money and was born into a higher status, that automatically makes him above respecting others? The same respect he dares to demand from others unconditionally?

Shen Qingqiu hummed once he read the paper. “You can’t speak, yet your words are sharper than most children your age.” Shen Qingqiu hardly gave compliments, not even to his own disciples, but he wasn’t expecting much when he was brought a mute child. His calligraphy was mediocre at best but he was a smart kid for someone being raised in a brothel. “I may not believe those words but most men who share a similar status as mine do. And in the end that is what makes those words true.”

The only reason they believe it is so is that they were born into status. Those with power and money never had to know what it feels like for those who go without it to struggle and survive. That’s why they hoard their spot at the top. Because while they’ve never had to experience life at the bottom, they know how they treat those whom they deem as below them. How can a man who’s lived his life a wealthy cultivator with thick pockets and a fancy sect to back him ever bring himself to acknowledge those he deems below him?

“Watch your words, boy,” Shen Qingqiu closed his fan with a sneer. “It seems I’ve been entertaining you too much if you think it is acceptable to lecture me.”

Shen Yuan shrank at his words. He seemed to remember he was talking to a Peak Lord and not an average customer. His brush hovered over his paper, hesitating slightly, before writing again. Those with status only care about morality when it protects them. The customer asks us to indemnify him, but if he had never acted with ill intentions, there wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place. You should never act with the intention to cause harm because you believe you can get away with it. That’s why I stepped in. To make sure he remembers that actions have consequences.

In that moment Shen Qingqiu is brought back to a moment in time drenched in fire and blood as he watches the Qiu manor crumble to ash. He understood that sentiment better than anyone else.

I regret causing trouble for my jiejies, but if I had never stepped in, he would have done it again because he would have believed it was within his power to do it again. That’s why I can’t let him win.

Shen Qingqiu remembers how it felt to pull the sword from Qui Jianluo’s back. The satisfaction of watching the way the blood pooled from the wound, marking his back the same way the man marked his own. The boy was right. He couldn’t let them win.

“You want me to claim you as my own, but you can’t even serve me tea properly?”

That caused the boy to move. The boy almost seemed relieved to have been given a new task. Shen Qingqiu had plenty of children serve him tea, as it was a part of the initiation into Qing Jing Peak, but the boy’s movements reminded him of the children that came from wealthier backgrounds. He was practiced in this tradition, probably due to having to serve customers tea during his time at the Warm Pavilion.

Once his tea was placed in front of him, Shen Qingqiu took a sip. It wasn’t the worst cup of tea a child has served him, but it wasn’t anything that exceeded his expectations. The boy was now back to looking at the way his fingers wrung in his lap as he waited for criticism. “The tea needed to be brewed longer. You cannot rush a leaf into fusing with the water. Let that be the first lesson I teach you as your Shizun.”

The boy’s head shot up in surprise as he blinked in shock. His mouth hung open slightly as he was still reeling in surprise. “Don’t look so surprised. You just completed the tea ceremony. You’re now a disciple of Qing Jing. Your second lesson will be how to intimidate another. You cannot simply stab and run. That will only cause you more issues later on. That is why we are dealing with the aftermath right now. It’s best to nip matters like these early so they don’t drag out any longer than necessary. Close your mouth and come, boy," Shen Qingqiu rose to his feet with that.

The boy was still gaping in shock, but he quickly recovered by closing his mouth with an audible click and springing to his feet. “Show me where this customer is residing.”

The boy nodded and took the lead as he led him up a flight of stairs and towards a room in the front within proximity to where they were talking down below. It made sense for the ladies to want to isolate this argument in order not to disturb ordinary business. Shen Qingqiu could hear a man’s raised voice from inside the room, and deciding he had heard enough from this man for the night, he opened the door with a dramatic bang.

The Madam was inside with another courtesan, facing a man with gaudy jewelry and fine robes. Shen Qingqiu could see his gut peaking out despite the number of layers hiding it, and the expensive perfumed oils from his body that were saturating the room made his head throb. He had a white bandage wrapped around his hand which he held clutched close to his chest. “And who do you think you are?—“

The man began to question, but the Madam cut him off with a smile. ”Peak Lord Shen, it's a pleasure to see you.”

The man’s eyes widened at the introduction, obviously not expecting him to be a cultivator of high status. The man then looked to his side to find Shen Yuan being shielded behind him. He looked back and forth between the two as he took in the resemblance the two of them bore to each other. “And would that make Sh-Shen Yuan your son?”

”I had come down from my Peak due to a summons from the ladies of the Warm Pavilion due to a situation concerning Yuan that got out of hand,” Shen Qingqiu deflected. Nothing but the truth was stated, but he made sure to neither confirm nor deny any suspicions. “I have better things to do than to settle some squabble with a mere merchant.”

”I-I’m sure you do,” the customer was visibly sweating. “But Shen Yuan attacked me and I can’t leave without some form of compensation.”

”There will be no form of compensation given to you today,” Shen Qingqiu sneered. “Shen Yuan tells me you were disobedient in following the rules the Warm Pavilion set forth. He only resorted to violence because he said persuasion became an ineffable task.”

”That’s not true—“

”I have already received a report of what happened from the Madam here before I came up. Try not to accuse anyone here of being mendacious when the lying one is clearly you. You will leave now without a welcome to return. I will have the ladies send for me again if you do.”

Realizing he was outmatched, the man clutched his injured hand tighter as he grew red with silent rage. In a fit, he slammed the doors open and made a racket as he left the brothel in a fit.

The lady next to the Madam deflated in relief once the threat was finally gone for good. “Thank you for your help, A-Jiu,” the madam thanked as she massaged her temples. “I know it wasn’t an easy decision.”

Funny enough, the decision itself wasn’t too difficult. He remembered the conversation bringing up old feelings from his past that he had tried to squash away over the years. He’s a cultivator, a Peak Lord at that, but one little conversation had him feeling like he had nothing again. He made his decision to make sure he felt like he was back on top of the food chain. There was no other reason he had for coming up to the room to confront the customer other than that.

Now he was going to have to deal with the pieces. That man will definitely spread the news that Shen Qingqiu had a bastard he kept tucked away inside the Red Pavilion. Shen Qingqiu could leave the boy here, but it was far too dangerous to leave a mute boy with a sudden target on his back in this place. Especially if Shen Qingqiu had suddenly claimed him as his own.

He would have to take the boy with him up the mountain. There they would still have to endure gossip from Peak Lords and disciples who had nothing better to do than talk. Either way, it was a lose-lose situation. “I’ll have to bring the boy up the mountain with me,” Shen Qingqiu told the madam.

“Of course,” she said with a smile. “A-Yuan will make a fine disciple.”

Her words had Shen Qingqiu reaching for the boy’s wrist. In the chaos of everything, he had forgotten to even check if the boy had strong enough meridians to survive cultivation. The boy was too weak to even speak. How could Shen Qingqiu guarantee he was strong enough to cultivate? The boy tensed when he felt his arm being grabbed but relaxed once he realized the man’s intentions. “His meridians are strong enough to develop cultivation. If he can learn is entirely up to him. Pack your bags boy, we leave now.”

Shen Yuan nodded and practically ran out of the room, tripping on his own feet to leave. Once he was out of sight, the madam spoke up again. “Thank you for taking him. I know the situation was less than ideal, but A-Yuan deserved a life outside of what we could give him. You will have to give us updates as he progresses in cultivation,” she paused before asking. “Are you sure you have to leave now? You two should just spend the night and leave in the morning.”

Shen Qingqiu shook his head. “No, I’d rather leave under the guise of night. People would talk more if I were to bring him during the day. It would be an easier transition for the both of us.”

”I understand.”

Ten minutes later, Shen Qingqiu found himself at the entrance with Shen Yuan. He let the ladies get one last round of hugs in before he had to separate them. He unsheathed Xiu Ya and motioned for the boy to stand in front of him. The boy looked just as weary as he felt about letting him cling to him throughout the duration of the ride back. “Either get on or leave yourself here. Either way, it does not matter to me.”

The boy’s eyes widened as he made his decision to get onto the sword. Shen Qingqiu sped off, but he could hear the ladies still shouting their goodbyes to the boy as they flew away.

The boy shivered slightly from the cold air nipping his face and penetrating his clothes, but he made no sign that he was scared of heights. That was good. Shen Qingqiu couldn’t imagine having to comfort a sniveling kid throughout the flight.

Instead of touching down on Qing Jing first, Shen Qingqiu made the decision to stop at Qiong Ding first. Either way, he was going to need Yue Qingyuan’s approval to accept Shen Yuan into Qing Jing. He would much rather face him head-on and get it over with instead of letting the man use it as an excuse to linger on his mountain.

It was easy to slip inside with all of the Qiong Ding disciples tucked away in their dorms. Once he found Yue Qingyuan’s room, he knocked harshly on the door. Shen Yuan seemed to shrink back at the noise but that didn’t stop him from banging on the door another time.

Shen Qingqiu was ready to bang again when the door finally opened. Yue Qingyuan seemed to have haphazardly thrown on a pair of robes to cover his sleeping robes. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw Shen Qingqiu of all people at his door in the middle of the night. “Shidi, how can I help—“

Shen Qingqiu didn’t let the man finish his sentence before he grabbed Shen Yuan from beside him and put him in front. “This is Shen Yuan. He’s going to join Qing Jing as a disciple,” once Shen Qingqiu said all he wanted, he grabbed the boy by the sleeve and started to pull them both away.

”Shen Yuan,” Yue Qingyuan seemed to repeat in a trance-like state upon seeing the doppelganger of Shen Jiu as a child. He snapped out of it when he saw the two of them getting further away. “Xiao-Jiu, wait!”

At the name Shen Qingqiu seemed to pause. “What more is there left to say?”

”Is he yours?”

”No. Does it matter if he was?”

”Of course not,” Yue Qingyuan was quick to respond. “Why didn’t you enter him during the initiation season?”

”I didn’t know of him then. Not every child needs to be initiated that way in order to enter the sect. You should know that.”

Silence engulfed the two as there wasn’t much to say to that. “We’re leaving. Anything left to be discussed can wait until morning,” Shen Qingqiu said as he pulled on the boy’s clothes again, tugging him along.

Shen Yuan made one final peek over his shoulder and looked eyes with the Sect Leader. He couldn’t maintain eye contact for long when Shen Qingqiu hastily pulled him down a hallway, causing him to look forward again. Shen Yuan couldn’t help but remember the sad and distant look in the man’s eyes as he watched them go.

Chapter Text

Shen Qingqiu sent for Ming Fan in the middle of the night. He had a wayward, tired thought of just letting the boy sleep in the spare room for the night, but the brief thought of allowing a stranger to share his space made him uneasy.

Despite it being late, Ming Fan arrived a few minutes later. Qing Jing had no Head Disciple at the moment, but everyone on the Qing Jing Peak knew that Ming Fan was the first in line for it, Ming Fan included. That could be the reason why the boy was so enthusiastic whenever his master called for him.

The knock at the door jolted Shen Yuan from drifting off in his seat. Good, Shen Qingqiu thought with a smirk. The boy wasn’t about to get comfortable and fall asleep in the bamboo house.

Shen Qingqiu allowed the boy to enter and watched as he paused in seeing Shen Yuan kneeling on a pillow on the floor. “Ming Fan, this is your new shidi. Find a place for him in the dorms tonight. Anything nonessential can be relayed to An Ding in the morning.”

Ming Fan sent a few glances to the boy and back to his master, but he knew better than to say anything out loud. It was obvious he was drafting conclusions from the fantasies he was conjuring in his head. “Yes, Shizun,” he said with a bow before turning to Shen Yuan. “Hello, this shixiong’s name is Ming Fan.”

Shen Yuan rose to his feet and bowed. The silence as it passed turned thick, and Shen Qingqiu realized Ming Fan was waiting for Shen Yuan to introduce himself. Shen Yuan must’ve come to the same conclusion as he sent Shen Qingqiu a worried glance. “This is Shen Yuan. He cannot speak, but he can write. Give him a brush and some paper if you need him to talk,” Shen Qingqiu introduced. “Now take him and go to the dorms. It is late and I have been kept up for far too long over this matter.”

Ming Fan bowed in sign of departure and looked over to his side to still find his shidi upright. Taking one hand, he forced Shen Yuan to bow his head, and the boy immediately picked up on the message and brought his hands forward in respect as well. “Wishing Shizun a good night,” Ming Fan said before he walked out with Shen Yuan in tow.

Shen Qingqiu watched the door close behind him and raised his closed fan from his mouth to his forehead and rubbed it in frustration. He knew sleep would not come to him easily that night.

Ming Fan stopped by the storage shed to retrieve some items so Shen Yuan could sleep in the dorms tonight. Now that they had left Shizun’s sight, Ming Fan truly studied the boy. His green eyes were almost a similar shade to his Shizun’s, but instead of the refined jade green hue of his Shizun’s, Shen Yuan's eyes were a duller color, reminding him more of the green foliage found on the mountain. Their hair had a similar thickness and texture, but Shizun had more length. He did note that Shen Yuan’s hair did have a shine from care and expensive oils like his Shizun. That means someone has taken care of the boy until now.

His eyes wandered around his face and rested around his eyes. His Shizun had a mole on the bottom corner of his left outer eye. Ming Fan felt satisfaction when he noticed the mole’s absence, but that feeling was fleeting when his gaze found a mole at the corner of the boy’s mouth. It wasn’t in the same place, but the mole marking the otherwise flawless face reminded him too much of his Shizun.

Ming Fan reached for a pillow to give it to the boy, and his eyes wandered to the blankets in a shelf overhead. Shen Yuan wasn’t tall enough to notice them and it would’ve been a struggle for Ming Fan to reach as well, but it wasn’t impossible. Another look at Shen Yuan, and Ming Fan decided it wasn’t worth the struggle.

”We don’t have any more blankets. You’ll need to ask An Ding for some tomorrow.”

Shen Yuan pointed up to the shelf hiding them. It seems he could notice them. “Those aren’t used for sleeping,” he lied.

Ming Fan led them away from the storage and shed and back to the dorms. He led the boy to the baths first. “Wash up and change into the spare clothes I gave you.”

Ming Fan knew the boy looked well taken care of, but his family always emphasized that strays tended to bring fleas. Who knew what this cripple bastard, who was suddenly causing problems for his Shizun, was carrying? “You see that building?” He pointed to a building not too far away. Shen Yuan nodded. “That’s the disciple’s dorms. Join me there when you’re done.”

Shen Yuan nodded again before nervously handing him the pillow. “You want me to carry your things as your shixiong?” Ming Fan was flabbergasted. He had never met a shidi with such audacity.

Shen Yuan shook his head as he pointed to the pillow, then the bathhouse, then the dorms. It became clear to Ming Fan that Shen Yuan didn’t want to get his pillow wet in the bathhouse, and since Ming Fan was already heading back to the dorms, he wanted him to keep it dry for him.

Ming Fan decided to ignore it and pretend to act like he didn’t know what the boy was saying. “I gave you that pillow so now it belongs to you. You don’t ask people to take care of your belongings on this peak.”

Shen Yuan deflated when he realized his message wasn’t getting across and clutched the pillow tighter with a nod. “Good, now hurry up and bathe. I’d rather not be up all night.”

Shen Yuan turned to head into the baths and Ming Fan watched him go. He knew his Shizun infamously spent time going down the mountain to brothels, but he could never have imagined him having a son.

Regaining some awareness, he turned and ran toward the disciple dorms. All of the kids were still fast asleep, but that didn’t stop Ming Fan from rousing a few kids with a shake.

”Ming-shixiong, what are you doing?” One of them asked drowsily.

”Shizun has a bastard son,” he responded. At his words, the sleep seemed to disappear from the boys’ bodies.

”What?” One of the boys asked.

”I’ve seen it myself. His name is Shen Yuan and he looks just like him,” Ming Fan said in a rush. “And that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that he can’t even speak! He had Shizun introduce him on his behalf.”

”Shizun has a son?” A soft voice asked from another side of the room.

The boys looked startled as their eyes met a sleepy Ning Yingying.

”Ning-shimei! I didn’t know you were up,” Ming Fan lowered his voice.

”You were loud,” Ning Yingying said. “Where is Shizun’s son?”

”In the baths. I made him clean himself before coming to bed. He should be here shortly.”

Ning Yingying hummed. “Give him the bed next to me. I’ll take care of Shizun’s son.”

Ming Fan scoffed. “He isn’t his son. He’s his bastard. I don’t know what happened tonight, but he brought him back in the middle of the night. You shouldn’t get close to him. I can tell he’s bad news.”

”It’s Shizun’s son. I’m sure he’s a good shidi. Let’s just give him time to settle.”

At that, the doors to the dorm opened and everyone in the room held their breath. The boy at the entrance was startled when he realized more people were up than he had originally thought.

”Shen-shidi?” Ning Yingying called out. The boy’s head snapped over to track the unfamiliar voice. “This one is your Ning-shijie. Your bunk is going to be next to mine.”

Instead of looking reassured, Ming Fan watched the boy’s grip on his pillow tighten and he watched as Shen Yuan’s eyes flickered over to the group of boys up. Instead of letting one of the boys correct her, she called out again. “You have just a pillow? That’s okay, I asked Shizun for an extra blanket because I get cold easily at night. I’ll let you borrow one tonight until An Ding gives you one tomorrow.”

Shen Yuan gave one more glance over to the boys watching him warily before slowly making his way over to Ning Yingying. Ning Yingying gave the boy a warming pat on the head as she offered up the spare blanket. “You really do look like a mini Shizun! We’ll have to find you a mini fan so we can make you into our peak mascot!”

Shen Yuan shrank at the proposition and quickly shook his head in refusal. “That’s fine, I guess Shizun wouldn’t like that either,” Ning Yingying agreed.

The two of them settled on their mattress and lowered their heads to rest. The boys were still watching the interaction from afar. Ming Fan caught the look of one of the boys who held a bewildered expression.

Soon enough, they began to settle down as well with the unspoken promise to speak about what had transpired in the morning.

Shen Qingqiu called the boy back to the bamboo house in the morning. Seeing the boy dressed in the green Qing Jing uniform reminded Shen Qingqiu of what he used to look like in his disciple days.

His plan for the boy was to only tell him what he expected from him before sending him off, but an unexpected knock at the door surprised both of them. Yue Qingyuan entered and Shen Qingqiu felt his irritation rise.

He knew he was bound to come around after the theatrics of last night, but he wasn’t expecting to be cornered with Shen Yuan in the room. “What do you want?”

”I came to get more clarification on what happened last night now that it is morning,” Yue Qingyuan answered. “May I find a spot to sit as well?”

”No, you may not. You came as an inconvenience to me, so you may continue to stay upright to understand what being inconvenienced may feel like.”

Shen Yuan’s brows shot up at the utter disrespect Shen Qingqiu showed his Sect Leader, but Yue Qingyuan made no response to disagree as he remained standing in his spot. “And you must be Shen Yuan,” he turned his attention to the boy.

Shen Yuan nodded in agreement.

”He is quite shy,” Yue Qingyuan remarked.

”He is not shy. He is mute,” Shen Qingqiu disagreed, remembering the written banter from the night prior. “Give him a pen and paper and he’ll annoy you too.”

Yue Qingqiu’s eyebrows shot up. “He cannot speak? Is it medical?”

”The origin of his problem remains unknown,” Shen Qingqiu said before turning his gaze on the boy. “Boy, is it a medical issue?”

Shen Yuan hesitated before nodding. In the middle of a nod, his expression shifted and changed his mind to a no. He seemed to stay indecisive and eventually settled on a shrug.

”We will have to have Mu Qingfang examine him later,” Yue Qingyuan decided. “I’ll send him up later.”

”You don’t get to decide who gets to come and go on my peak,” Shen Qingqiu hissed. “I’ll send the boy to Qian Cao later.”

Yue Qingyuan nodded in agreement. He stood there awkwardly before eventually asking, “Xiao-Jiu, are you sure the boy isn’t yours?”

”You question me again? I already told you he isn’t mine. Whether you believe me or not is entirely up to you,” Shen Qingqiu said with a scowl. “Was that all, or do you plan to continue to question me like a criminal?”

”Xiao-Jiu,” Yue Qingyuan tried again.

”Shen Yuan, leave us.”

Shen Yuan didn’t have to be told twice. He quickly scurried to his feet and after a quick bow, took off in a dash.

Shen Qingqiu looked over to see Yue Qingyuan watching the boy with a hint of a smile, and that was enough to make him implode with fury. “Are you that desperate for him to be mine so you’ll be given the chance to start over again with a new replacement? Or is the fact that he looks just enough like me good enough for you?”

”Xiao-Jiu—“

”Don’t call me that!” Shen Qingqiu snapped again. “What happens on my peak is none of your business. That boy is none of your business. And I am certainly not any of your business! Now go scampering back to your own peak and take care of your own disciples. You are not welcome here!”

Yue Qingyuan tried to hide his hurt with a smile. “Yes, Shidi. Summon me if you need anything.”

”Do not expect one,” Shen Qingqiu snapped as he watched him leave through the door.

Yue Qingyuan let a sigh escape his lips as he left the bamboo house. The conversation went just as well as he could’ve expected it to go. His Xiao-Jiu is pretty intolerable when it comes to him. It was even worse when it came to talking about Shen Yuan.

Yue Qingyuan paused in his tracks when he noticed Shen Yuan from the corner of his eye. He seemed to be trying to get the attention of his shidis, but the boys looked like they were trying to go out of their way to actively ignore him by turning so they couldn’t see the boy coming.

Yue Qingyuan didn’t hesitate to change directions and make his way over to the boy. “Hello, Xiao-Yuan.”

The boy jumped high when he heard the Sect Leader call him by name. The boys around them seemed interested in the interaction, but weren’t brave enough to get closer to hear them converse. “Is there anything you need?”

Shen Yuan glanced over at the boys who had been ignoring him and back toward the Sect Leader. Making a decision, he squatted to the ground and drew a word in the dirt with his finger. An Ding.

“An Ding. Are you trying to get some supplies?” Yue Qingyuan asked.

Shen Yuan’s eyes brightened when he realized he had finally gotten his message across. He nodded his head rapidly.

Yue Qingyuan thought about ordering one of his fellow disciples to help Shen Yuan over, but watching the way they treated the boy earlier stopped him from doing so. “I have an errand I have to run over at An Ding. Would you like to accompany me there?” He asked.

Shen Yuan’s eyes glanced nervously at the boys still watching them. He made his decision again as he nodded at the Sect Leader. “Very good. If you could follow me,” he said as he beckoned the boy to follow him.

Shen Yuan didn’t bother to glance around this time as he hurried his steps to keep up with Yue Qingyuan.

”When did you and your Peak Lord first meet?

Yue Qingyuan paused in his step to allow Shen Yuan to scribble on the ground. Yesterday.

“I see. What happened yesterday?”

Shen Yuan looked nervous. He seemed to be rethinking his decision about joining Yue Qingyuan, but he couldn’t refuse a response. I caused trouble for Peak Lo for Shizun yesterday. He helped me clean up the mess.

Yue Qingyuan hummed in thought. He thought about asking what the trouble was, but seeing how uncomfortable the boy was, he dropped the thought.

“Are you happy to be a disciple at Cang Qiong?”

The boy nodded. I didn’t know the opportunity was available for someone like me.

“Cultivation does not require a person to talk. You have all the right foundations to learn.” Yue Qingyuan spoke with a smile. “Besides, a big part of meditation is being quiet. You’re already leaps and bounds ahead of your peers with that.”

Yue Qingyuan gave the boy a small glance. “Your voice, were you born like that?”

Shen Yuan hesitated before nodding.

”Perhaps cultivation can fix that. We would have to ask Mu Qingfang for his insight.”

Shen Yuan didn’t look too convinced, but he nodded anyway.

They spent the rest of their way in silence before they reached An Ding peak. Yue Qingyuan pulled them inside the Peak Lord’s office.

”Yue-zongzhu,” the scrawny man said as he glanced up from his paperwork. “I wasn’t expecting—“ The man nearly fell over his chair when he laid his eyes on Shen Yuan. “A-and who may this little one be?”

”This one is Shen Yuan. He was recently admitted into Qing Jing and requires some items from An Ding’s inventory.

”Shen?!” The man wheezed. “Shen-shixiong has a kid?!”

”He is not related to Peak Lord Shen.”

The man looked like he was waiting for a camera to pop out to tell him he was being pranked. “Yes, of course. Not related. Of course they aren’t related. They don’t look alike one bit,” he remarked with a nervous laugh.

”Xiao-Yuan, how about you tell Peak Lord Shang what you need?” Shen Yuan looked nervously at the brush in Shang Qinghua’s hand before pointing. Yue Qingyuan spoke up again, “Shen Yuan cannot speak and requires a brush and paper to express his needs.”

Shang Qinghua looked even more flabbergasted as he released his grip on his brush. “Of course, let me get some new paper.”

The men waited eagerly as the boy wrote out what he needed. I need a blanket and another uniform.

“I’ll have one of my disciples get you one. Just one sec—I mean, please give me some time to acquire some,” he said as he stumbled toward the door. Shen Yuan sent a glance at Yue Qingyuan, but from his expression he could tell this was a normal interaction.

Shang Qinghua came back with the fabrics in hand. “Is there anything else you need?”

Shen Yuan shook his head and looked at Yue Qingyuan expectedly. “That was it,” Yue Qingyuan told the man, “I just wanted to escort Xiao-Yuan here personally.”

Shen Yuan’s eyes widened at the revelation. Yue Qingyuan did tell him he had personal business to attend to here, so the truth came as a bit of a shock. Yue Qingyuan fought to hide a smile. “Have a good day, Peak Lord Shang.”

”Yeah—I mean yes Yue-zongzhu.”

Shen Yuan watched warily as he felt the Peak Lord’s gaze on him as they left. Yue Qingyuan could only hope that every Peak Lord didn’t act the same way every time they encountered Shen Yuan. He already felt bad that he had done the same the night prior.

“Let’s get Xiao-Yuan back to Qing Jing,” Yue Qingyuan began to escort the boy back home.

Chapter Text

Yue Qingyuan knew he was in trouble the minute he saw Shen Qingqiu waiting for him at the peak of Qing Jing. His face normally rested in a version of a sneer, but this look had his lips curved in what looked like a snarl.

”My disciples earlier gave me a recount on how the Sect Leader took their shidi off this peak without this Peak Lord’s permission,” Shen Qingqiu said as he remained rooted in his spot.

Noticing his master’s anger, Shen Yuan seemed to make himself smaller by hiding himself further behind Yue Qingyuan’s back. If Yue Qingyuan wasn’t currently facing Shen Qingqiu’s ire, he would’ve laughed at how honest the boy’s actions were.

”Xiao-Yuan seemed to have trouble getting his shixiongs’ attention earlier to retrieve necessities from An Ding, so this Sect Leader accompanied him there.”

Shen Qingqiu’s eyes found Shen Yuan’s at the mention of his name. “Shen Yuan, come here.”

Shen Yuan stiffened momentarily before taking the clothes and blankets that Yue Qingyuan carried for him and scurried to take his place next to Shen Qingqiu. Shen Yuan warily met Yue Qingyuan’s eyes and flashed him a small smile in thanks before using the blanket to cover half of his face. The movement felt so familiar to Yue Qingyuan to the point where he could almost imagine what the movement would’ve looked like if it were with a fan instead.

Shen Qingqiu must have not liked the look in his eye because his sneer only grew wider. “This boy isn’t your pet to parade around the sect. Stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

With that, Shen Qingqiu grabbed Shen Yuan by the scruff of his collar and directed them away. Yue Qingyuan watched them disappear with a heavy heart.

Mu Qingfang had heard some of the rumors that Shen Qingqiu had a son whom he suddenly claimed and brought up the mountain, but he never believed them until he came face-to-face with Shen Yuan.

Being a healer, Mu Qingfang had a moral obligation not to let gossip interfere with how he interacted with others as their physician. But when his head disciple came tripping over his feet to get to him, exclaiming Shen Qingqiu brought his own child for an examination, Mu Qingfang accidentally knocked the medicine he had been working on onto the floor.

He asked for his head disciple to clean up the mess in order to investigate the situation for himself.

Mu Qingfang cleared his throat and left down the hallway where his disciple said the two were waiting.

He hadn’t heard much of the situation personally, but Yue-zongzhu did tell him the Qing Jing peak did take on a disciple who could not speak and would visit him for a check-up soon.

When he opened the door, the first thing Mu Qingfang noticed was the resemblance the two of them bore to each other. He could certainly understand why people had been saying Shen Qingqiu brought his son. In fact, he wouldn’t be surprised if the man did end up confirming so.

”Hello Shen-shixiong,” Mu Qingfang greeted. The man’s gaze cut just as sharply as ever. “And this must be Shen Yuan,” he greeted the younger boy. Shen Yuan nodded with a smile. “I’ve heard that Shen Yuan has some trouble speaking.”

“And who has been going around speaking about things that don’t pertain to them?” Shen Qingqiu spoke with a scowl.

“The Sect Leader informed me that a visit from the two of you would happen soon.”

Shen Qingqiu scoffed at that.

Mu Qingfang decided the best course of action was to avoid any more small talk. “I’ll start by checking Shen Yuan’s meridians.”

Shen Yuan was obedient and held out his wrist for Mu Qingfang to take. The man was pleasantly surprised at how easy-going the child was in comparison to his Peak Lord. Mu Qingfang took Shen Yuan’s wrist and continued to inspect it.

”You have good foundations, but there does seem to be some blockage around your throat. Is it alright if I take a closer look?”

Shen Yuan nodded and tilted his head upwards so Mu Qingfang could lay his fingers on his throat. After a few seconds, Mu Qingfang asked Shen Yuan to open his throat so the physician could examine the inside of his mouth and Shen Yuan complied.

A few more seconds went by before Mu Qingfang asked, “When you were younger, did you experience any physical trauma around your throat?”

”You’re saying someone injured him?” Shen Qingqiu interjected.

”It’s a possibility. His condition is something I’ve never seen in a patient before,” Mu Qingfang admitted solemnly.

Well, boy? Has someone injured you in the past?” Shen Qingqiu asked.

Shen Qingqiu’s eyes darted between the two men before shaking his head in a no.

”Are you able to make any noise at all?” Mu Qingfang asked. Shen Yuan cocked his head in question. “I’m curious if you’re able to produce any noise at all. You don’t have to answer if the question feels uncomfortable.”

Shen Yuan’s eyes blinked in understanding when he opened his mouth to attempt to speak. Instead of words escaping, it sounded as if he was speaking with no air in his lungs. The noise sounded like a soft wheeze that warbled gravelly from the misuse.

The sound had the two Peak Lords freezing. It resembled a wild animal more than it resembled an actual human.

Clearing his throat, Mu Qingfang spoke, “While I can’t say for certain. For now, trying to make progress in your cultivation could help with clearing some of the blockages from your throat. I’ll let you leave with some medication to take in the mornings when you wake up and right before you go to bed. We can meet again later and see if we need to modify the dosage.”

Shen Yuan nodded as he rubbed his throat. Realizing he must’ve been sore from speaking, Mu Qingfang summoned a disciple to warm up a tea pot. “I’ll give you some medicine now to numb your throat. You can take some more in a few hours if your throat still bothers you.”

Shen Yuan nodded as he sipped on his tea. Mu Qingfang went to give the medicine to Shen Yuan, but Shen Qingqiu took it before he could pass it on to the boy. The Peak Lord examined the bag with a click of his tongue before placing it inside his sleeve.

”If that is all then we’re leaving,” Shen Qingqiu said as he beckoned the boy forward. Shen Yuan stood, and before he joined his Peak Lord’s side, he took one of Mu Qingfang’s hands and drew a character onto it. Thank you.

“You are quite welcome,” Mu Qingfang responded with a smile. “Please visit if you need anything else.”

Getting impatient, Shen Qingqiu called for the boy again. Shen Yuan left his side in a hurry and rushed over to join his Shizun’s.

”What a kind child,” Mu Qingfang remarked as he watched the two of them depart.

Ning Yingying loved spending time with Shen Yuan.

She didn’t get a lot of time to spend with him yet because he was still settling in, but she enjoyed their conversations. She wasn’t sure if it counted as a conversation, but she would talk and Shen-shixiong would listen.

A lot of her fellow disciples liked spending time with Ning Yingying, but they would all eventually grow tired, complaining that she was overzealous and would speak in a verbose manner.

Shen Yuan never complained though. She launched herself into a greeting as soon as she noticed him open his eyes in the morning. He was still blinking away the remnants of sleep as she chatted away about their schedule for the day, and how they had sword practice for the day, which she hated, but she hated losing to the boys even more, so she would have to do her best.

Shen Yuan didn’t act in the burly or stuck-up way the other disciples on the peak did. He was reserved and quiet, but she could see the unspoken intelligence that was shown in his eyes.

Shen Yuan had been whisked away early in the morning and Ning Yingying missed his presence dearly.

The other boys weren’t as attentive as Shen Yuan and they always grouped together and left her out. Now that lessons were done for the day, she was waiting patiently so Shen Yuan could meet her again.

The other disciples say Shen Yuan is completely different from their Shizun personality-wise, but not many got to see the caring Shizun underneath his pristine, and cautious persona. It made Ning Yingying want to spend time with Shen Yuan even more.

She perked up when she saw the boy walking by himself. “A-Shen!” She exclaimed as she made her way over to the boy with a bounce. The boy looked up and gave her a small wave. “Where did you go?” She asked once she was at his side. “You nor Shizun were at lessons today.”

Shen Yuan lowered himself into a squat and picked up a medium-sized branch from the ground. Qian Cao and A Ding. I can return your blanket now.

“Qian Cao? Are you sick? You don’t look hurt,” Ning Yingying pondered before concluding, “Is it because of your voice?”

Shen Yuan answered with a nod.

”I see. Were they able to fix it?”

Shen Yuan gave his head a shake to answer no. Peak Lord Mu did say cultivation could help.

“It’s a good thing Shizun brought you here to cultivate then,” Ning Yingying gave a relieved sigh. “Would you speak if you were able to?”

Shen Yuan didn’t hesitate when he began to nod rapidly. Such a determined response shocked Ning Yingying since she didn’t expect it from such a meek boy. “I think it would be nice to hear A-Yuan speak too. This means you need to work hard in your cultivation.”

The boy exhaled loudly from his nose, but she could see the small smile he tried to hide from her.

“Hey, is Shizun your dad?” She abruptly asked. The question almost slipped out of her involuntarily.

Shen Yuan brought his arms up and crossed them in front of him to form an X. Doubling down, he took his finger and drew in the dirt. No.

“You really aren’t? But you both look just alike? Is he a relative?”

Shen Yuan crossed his arms again. Not family. I don’t have family here.

“Oh. Me neither.”

There was an awkward silence before Shen Yuan pointed to a small building. She realized that if she hadn’t stopped him earlier, then he would’ve headed inside. “That’s the woodshed. Nothing special there but wood.”

Shen Yuan looked unconvinced as he stepped forward to peek inside. Realizing she was telling the truth, a relieved look overtook his face. “See? Now let's go so we can make it to dinner on time,” Ning Yingying grabbed his arm to tug him along.

They didn’t make it to the entrance before bumping into Ming Fan and Zi Chen. Zi Chen was a boy who had been here almost as long as Ning Yingying but had grown closer to Ming Fan since he was a boy as well. As friends, they liked to do their chores together when they weren’t explicitly assigned to do something that day. It had seemed that Ning Yingying and Shen Yuan caught them on their way to start chopping wood.

”If it isn’t Shizun’s bastard,” Zi Chen sneered when his eyes found the smaller boy next to Ning Yingying. “Looks like he’s ready to start pulling his own weight. Don’t you think so too, Ming-shixiong?”

Ming Fan looked surprised to be pulled into the conversation, but he recovered quickly and moved past them to grab an axe to shove into Shen Yuan’s hand. “You see the pile of wood over there?” Shen Yuan’s eyes followed his finger to find the pile of logs stacked into the air. “Cut those before getting dinner.”

”That’s not fair,” Ning Yingying exclaimed. “Dinner is supposed to be starting soon. He won’t finish in time!” There wasn’t enough wood to keep the boy out forever, but since he hadn’t started training in cultivation yet, he would be a lot slower than Ming Fan and Zi Chen. It was likely he would finish after dinner was served. “I’ll tell Shizun you’re bullying A-Yuan.”

Both boys seemed to stiffen at her words, but Ming Fan recovered quicker. “Shizun knows that everyone has chores to do here. He can’t get out of them just because he has Shizun’s blood in him.”

”They aren’t related! A-Yuan told me so himself!” Ning Yingying corrected them.

”Even more of a reason to put him to work,” Zi Chen scoffed. “He dares steal Shizun’s likeness and thinks he can get off easy because of it? He has to work just like the rest of us.”

The boys gave her no more time to argue before they were already turning around with big grins.

Ning Yingying sighed. “Shizun doesn’t really make me do any chores, but I’ll skip dinner to keep you company.”

Shen Yuan gave her a side-eye, and she could tell by the look that he would’ve been more appreciative if she had just helped him instead. Ning Yingying felt bad, but she didn’t particularly like doing chores. She had complained to Shizun once in passing about it and the responsibilities stopped the next day. She didn’t want to be spotted helping Shen Yuan on the off chance someone would see and start assigning her to help with chores again in the future. She would rather sit and keep him company instead.

”Let’s go,” she said and pulled him forward by his arm. “I’ll tell you what you missed today.”

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan believed he was in the middle of some sick, convoluted dream when he first woke up in the body of a small child. The dream grew worse when it became clear that the child’s body he came to possess had been the child of a sex worker who died during childbirth. At least that was what he could guess, seeing as he was a small child living in a brothel.

Unexpectedly, it wasn’t as bad as he had led himself to believe. The jiejies were kind to him. Some would oil and braid his hair on occasion. Other times they would give him candies that customers would sometimes leave as tips.

He didn’t know a child living in a brothel could be spoiled, but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

That didn’t mean he got to remain there freely. The Madam would put him to work by having him scrub floors or sometimes serve tea to customers. The customers he was given to serve were regulars who were trusted to keep their hands to themselves until one of the jiejies was ready to help them.

It was quite a jump to go from never truly being around sex in his previous life (except for the times when he would read or watch something explicit online) to living around it every day.

The jiejies tried their best to shield him, but it was impossible to hide their profession when living inside a brothel. Shen Yuan was not raised to judge a person by what they had to do to survive, especially when they were women living during a period where opportunities weren’t readily available to them in comparison to their male counterparts.

Living with the women only made him miss his little sister back home. He had only grown up with older brothers, so receiving the nurturing spirit from the women was something he grew to love.

It was a culture shock for him whenever new jiejies would come to the brothel looking for work. Some of the women he saw looked younger than he was when he died in his previous life at the age of 20.

When the younger girls came, Shen Yuan made sure to befriend them quickly. The biggest issue for Shen Yuan when he transmigrated into the body of a boy controlled by a System that refused for him to speak was that he had to look for other ways to communicate.

He could write, but only a handful of girls were ranked high enough to have the opportunity to learn. While that had discouraged him, he realized that because Shen Yuan interacted with them through writing, despite the language barrier, the girls soon were able to recognize some words at a glance.

His system hadn’t interacted with him at all since he had transmigrated, so he believed that while he was in a young body with not much to do, he could at least help the young girls who came in, teaching them how to read from forced interactions with him.

One of his jiejies was especially adamant in learning once she had figured out what Shen Yuan was trying to do. She was a pretty girl, which was the reason why she had gotten the job, but she looked young. Shen Yuan would guess her age to be 17 or even as young as 16.

Her name was Mei An, and she had told Shen Yuan that she was the oldest of seven children and her father had recently passed away. That left her and her eldest siblings scrambling to find any odd jobs that would hire them. That was what led Mei An to seek employment at the Warm Pavilion.

Shen Yuan no longer had the luxury of having his own room like he did in his past life, which made him share a room with some of the courtesans. Mei An had slept next to him at night, and during the colder months they had even shared a bed to conserve and share their body heat.

It was weird being mentally older than his current body because some days he felt like an older brother as he drew for her different words and would clap whenever she guessed the correct meaning. Other days, as he felt Mei An lightly oil and brush his hair while he drowsily fought to stay awake, he felt like a little boy being taken care of by his little sister.

It was an odd limbo of emotions that was especially hard to process because the ability to even remotely verbalize them was taken away.

He never even knew that he enjoyed the feeling of someone playing in his hair until Mei An did so. He had learned how to do his sister’s hair in his past life when she was younger, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she felt the same way when his hands were in her hair.

Or maybe he was only feeling these emotions because it was a feeling that was unique to this particular body, and his old body wouldn’t react the same way.

Either way, it was something Shen Yuan would never know. The only information his System supplied him was that he had been transmigrated into PIDW and that the character selection they had given him could not talk.

It was a terrible experience to die, but he would argue that it was an even worse experience to find out that he was a useless NPC. He was cannon fodder at the very least.

In some transmigration novels he read, the transmigrator sometimes would transmigrate into an OP character, or maybe their character had a certain OP trait that wasn’t explored in the original work, but because the transmigrator knew of certain plot points, they were able to discover it.

Not only was Shen Yuan’s character so far away from any setting in the novel, but he also received the biggest nerf possible. He still couldn’t forget the feeling of despair when he first learned about his character’s disability.

[Character traits include: Muteness. Words can be purchased with S-Points. Starting S-Points: 100. Starting B-Points: 100. B-Points can be collected to arbitrate plot lines and purchase items from System.]

‘What plot?’ Shen Yuan thought in the moment, flabbergasted. ‘If words can be bought with S-Points, how many can 100 buy?’

[3 words can be purchased with 3,000 S-Points. 5 words for 4,500. S-Points. 10 words can be purchased for 8,500 S-Points.]

‘What a hack System you are,’ Shen Yuan could only curse at the unfair subjugation he was currently being put through.

No matter how hard he tried to glean information from the System, it kept its AI mouth exceptionally shut. He had long given up on deciphering the System’s abstruse algorithm.

All he could do now is continue to live without the ability to speak. The ability to speak was something he never knew he took for granted until it started to interfere with small things he never had to struggle with in his previous life. Sometimes the simple task of just grabbing someone’s attention expends a lot more energy than before.

He was more than grateful not to have been placed in a hostile environment. He couldn’t imagine living like this without the support system that his jiejies provided. Sure, he had been unlucky initially when receiving his body when he transmigrated, but after living in it for almost a year, he came to terms with it.

If you think about it, there were worse bodies to transmigrate into in this universe. He could’ve gotten the short end of the stick and ended up in the body of one of Binghe’s enemies. Or even worse, he could’ve ended up in a villain’s body like Binghe's scum teacher. At least Shen Yuan could live to the end of his days without knowing the pain of having his limbs forcefully ripped from his body.

Days passed slowly and monotonously in this new world, but some nights his jiejies would send him away and make sure he was in bed before one guest would arrive. Shen Yuan was a bit curious about the reason, but this was a brothel, and he figured knowing the reason could possibly have him looking at his jiejies differently, so he never bothered to ask.

The mornings after those strange visits, his jiejies would grab at his face and pinch his cheeks while they talked covertly among themselves. Some days they would even fix his hair into a half-bun and adorn it with the pretty pieces they owned to hold it in place. It was a strange ritual, but it never bothered him to the point where he had to ask them to stop.

One night while Mei A was humming a tune while she brushed the hair oil through his hair with a comb, Shen Yuan wrote out, Why do the other jiejies do my hair a certain way?

Once he finished writing, he cupped his hair up into a half-bun like how the others normally styled it to show her what he meant.

Her eyes flashed in recognition, but her face softened soon after, and had Shen Yuan pull his hand away to recomb the hair he touched. “You remind them of one of our customers.”

Shen Yuan’s face twisted in disgust. That wasn’t the answer he was hoping to hear. Mei An caught onto his discomfort and ran her fingers down his scalp to calm him. The feeling had him melting into her hand. “Yes, he is a customer, but not a usual one. He doesn’t ask for pleasure, just a warm body to lie next to so he can rest.”

Shen Yuan thought back to all of those odd jobs he heard about back in his old world where people would pay through an app to have someone cuddle or hug them platonically, so he thought the request wasn’t too unreasonable. Not everyone needed lust to find pleasure; sometimes just the presence of another human was enough to calm an anxious heart.

Have you helped him? Shen Yuan wrote.

“No, I haven’t,” Mei An denied. “He’s particular about the ladies who serve him. He doesn’t seem to trust new people.”

Shen Yuan pondered in silence and couldn’t help but think that the man seemed to be a sensitive man.

“The girls like when he comes because it gives them a break,” Mei An said as she began to plait his hair for the night. “Also because he’s easy on the eyes. We don’t see a lot of handsome men because those with pretty faces normally don’t need to pay to receive the care we provide.”

Shen Yuan scrunched his face again in disgust at the joke while Mei An shook softly with laughter. “Anyhow, no matter how handsome he is, I think my Shen Yuan looks the best.” Shen Yuan preened at the compliment. “All done,” she said as she secured his hair with a ribbon. “Now go wash your face so you can go to bed.”

Everything came crashing down one night when an especially vociferous customer came in demanding service. He was a new customer whom Shen Yuan had never seen before.

His clothes and hairpieces were just as ostentatious as his voice. Nothing about the man was subtle, and those were the types of customers that left Shen Yuan on edge. Statistically, these were the men who tended to treat his jiejies as if they were nothing more than a piece of meat. The girls would try to hide it, but sometimes Shen Yuan would catch glimpses of the bruises they would leave behind, forcing the girls to have to wait until they healed to be able to serve again.

Shen Yuan could only watch as he poured tea for a customer as the man would reach over and touch any girls he was at arm’s length of. One loud slap resounded through the room as he slapped the bum of one jiejie who wasn’t paying attention, and the sound made him tighten his grip on the pot.

She had laughed the interaction nervously off before darting away to find a jiejie who was better equipped at dealing with customers such as this one.

The wealthy man’s eyes scanned the room until they landed on Shen Yuan, who was still serving tea. “Is this your youngest?” He asked as he began to make his way over.

Shen Yuan’s heart seized in his chest as he frantically shook his head no. Normally this was the moment where a jiejie would step in on his behalf and explain that he didn’t provide those types of services, but the only one who worked here currently in the room was himself.

Shen Yuan instinctively opened his mouth to turn the man down, but the only noise that escaped him was the terrified whimpers that his voice could muster. Shen Yuan wanted to bury his head in the ground once he heard the sound. The noise did nothing to ease the situation. Instead of being put off, the man laughed and put a hand around his wrist and squeezed hard.

”Don’t go sounding like that now; we haven’t even started yet,” the wealthy man laughed as his grip tightened. Shen Yuan could smell liquor on his breath, and suddenly breathing became a fast and manual process. He could feel air coming in and out of his lungs, but it circulated too quickly, so now he felt lightheaded and on the verge of collapsing. Collapsing was the worst thing that could happen right now because that means this man could do anything he wanted, all because Shen Yuan couldn’t say no—

“I’m sorry, but A-Yuan doesn’t provide the services you’re looking for.” Shen Yuan felt himself deflate in relief once he heard Mei An’s voice. He hadn’t realized how much tension he was holding in his muscles until he felt them relax slightly. ”Perhaps I can help you instead.”

Shen Yuan immediately felt himself despairing again because Mei An was offering herself to this man in order to save him. There were seasoned ladies who knew how to interact with customers like this, and Mei An was not one of them. Shen Yuan shook his head as he tried to get her to change her mind. He was sure if they gave themselves another moment, a jiejie who could help him would appear.

”Would you look at that? He’s saying no. I think he wants to spend time with me,” the man said as he watched Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan felt like his head was going to explode. That was not what he was trying to say at all. He’s seen his fair share of crazy customer interactions, but this was his first time living through one. Plus, he was a man; a man inside a little boy. What pleasure did this man think he could offer that his sisters couldn’t do better?

“A-Yuan cannot speak, which means he cannot express himself, so I will do so for him. Shen Yuan is not for sale. If you have a problem with that, then you can find somewhere else that can offer you what you need,” Mei An stated firmly. Shen Yuan nodded his head in agreement. He didn’t know Mei An could stand her ground like this, but he greatly respected her for it.

Shen Yuan then turned to look at the man and felt himself shiver. The glare he was giving Mei An sent warning signs through his head. It would’ve triggered his fight or flight response if Mei An wasn’t here with him. It was obvious he was sizing her up like a predator deciding if she was worth his time.

Mei An must’ve also felt unnerved from the look she was receiving and went to take Shen Yuan’s arm to pull him away.

The man jumped forward and attacked, releasing Shen Yuan’s arm in favor of wrapping both hands around Mei An’s throat. She yelped in surprise before having her airway restricted as she was pressed firmly into the wall. Shen Yuan shook himself out of his stupor and began to bang his fists as hard as he could against the man’s body.

The man in turn took his foot and kicked Shen Yuan in the stomach, sending him flying a few feet away. Shen Yuan gasped on his knees with a hand over his stomach as he tried to regain his breath. He wondered if he should run and try to find another jiejie to help, but Shen Yuan knew he couldn’t leave Mei An to fend this man off by herself.

One look around the room told him all of the customers were watching, but none of them made a move to get up and help. They must’ve decided that this was a problem they did not want to be a part of.

Getting ready to charge in again, he noticed a flash of gold and recognized it to be the hilt of a dagger resting against the man’s hip. Not sparing another second, he rushed forward and unsheathed it to slice it against the wrists that were holding Mei An’s neck.

The man roared in shock and released his grip on Mei An. She slid down against the wall and held her neck as she choked and coughed on air as she breathed rapidly now that she had unrestricted airflow again.

Shen Yuan launched himself in between the two, and he felt unsteady on his feet as his knees knocked together from the force of the tremors in his body. Noticing the man was getting ready to launch himself forward again, he took the knife and jabbed hard at the man’s outstretched hand, causing the knife to bury itself so deep inside that the blade was poking out from the backside of his hand.

The man screamed in pain, and the noise brought people rushing into the room to check what the matter was.

”What on earth and heaven is going on here?” the Madam asked as she rushed into the room. Her eyes flickered from the man on the floor clutching the dagger embedded into his skin to Shen Yuan, whose hands and clothes were splattered with blood, to Mei An, who was still clutching her neck as a bruise slowly began to make itself apparent.

”Payment! I demand indemnification!" The man roared from his spot on the floor where he nursed his injuries. “I need repayment for the egregious acts I suffered just now inside your establishment or I will take action!”

Shen Yuan slid to the floor next to Mei An as his brain was still trying to reel itself in from the shock of what had just transpired.

They tried to have Shen Yuan give his account of things first, but the blood kept getting in the way of his writing, so the Madam ordered him to take a quick bath and change his clothes.

It took the girls a minute to pry Shen Yuan away from Mei An’s side. Logically, Shen Yuan knew they were okay now, but his body was still shaking like a leaf. It took Mei An ignoring the blood staining his clothes and pulling him into her arms to give him a big bear hug for him to feel okay enough to finally step away.

Shen Yuan tried not to think about how the damp clothes stuck to his body as he removed them. He found a dry patch on his clothes and wiped away the blood that hadn’t yet dried on his hands and arms.

Finally he lowered himself into the water and watched as it turned a light pink hue the longer he sat.

He would’ve sat there in that tub in the overwhelming silence for longer if he didn’t hear a familiar chime he had almost forgotten about.

[Mission: No judge or jury? Become the executioner! Completed. Reward: + 50 B-Points and + 75 S-Points]

Despite the situation, Shen Yuan perked up. Since transmigration, this was the first time the system had rewarded him with any points. It made the traumatizing situation feel worth it in the end.

‘It’s no use to reward me with so few points after being absent for a year. There’s no way I’ll have more of these types of encounters to earn enough to have my voice back.’

[This System can only reward if something has been done to progress the plot.]

‘Are you saying what happened just now progressed the plot forward?’

[I am not authorized to share any details.]

‘I just rephrased what you told me,’ Shen Yuan thought bitterly. Shen Yuan began to think that perhaps the man was one of the many thorns in Luo Binghe’s side. It’s possible he had altered a plot point by injuring the man’s dominant hand, but it didn’t seem to be a plausible explanation. A man like that didn’t look like he could physically cause trouble. He seemed to be the type of villain to hire help to work on his behalf.

Shen Yuan dipped his hair into the water and scrubbed soap into the tresses as his thoughts wandered. He wasn’t allowed to think for long before a knock on the door came from outside. They wanted him to hurry up since Mei An and the man both gave their version of the story. It was Shen Yuan’s turn to confess what had transpired earlier.

He quickly toweled off and changed into the spare robes left for him and went looking for the Madam. She was waiting with a brush and paper in front of her, and he quickly recounted how the encounter with the man went down. The interaction was silent the entire time, and Shen Yuan twisted his fingers nervously. He had never acted out so violently before, so he was nervous about the consequences he could suffer during this time period.

Sure, the people who worked here were nice, but they couldn’t do a thing if the man asked for Shen Yuan to be punished physically. The man had wealth, which normally came with status. He couldn’t help but wonder if his best course of action was to just run away, but that would leave his jiejies to fend the man off by themselves. That action was the most cowardly thing he could do, and he wasn’t even mentally a real boy. He had to be a man and face this issue head-on.

”We have called someone who could potentially ease the hostility,” the Madam finally spoke. “There is no guarantee he will help, knowing A-Jiu, but even his presence could ease some tensions.”

Shen Yuan nodded, curious who this mysterious man could possibly be. Normally the ladies could handle rough customers, but this was the first time they caused issues and Shen Yuan was the victim.

They had Shen Yuan wait in a room by himself. There was a moment when Mei An entered, and the tears he didn’t know he was holding in began to leak from his eyes. Shen Yuan normally wasn’t an emotionally driven person, but in the time span of ten minutes he was almost raped, watched the jiejie who he had grown the closest to since coming here almost die, and now he waits to be punished for the crime of self-defense. He thinks that’s reason enough to allow himself to lean into a childlike persona and allow Mei An to hold him in her arms to quietly weep.

He hadn’t noticed that Mei An was crying either until he felt the clothes on his shoulder beginning to stick to him as they dampened. Shen Yuan stiffened. He was so focused on how he was wronged in the situation, he didn’t even think about how terrified Mei An was as well. The oversight had him hugging the girl even tighter.

Mei An may have been employed in a brothel during this time period, but she was considered a minor where he was from. She was struggling emotionally as well as mentally to wrap her head around a situation she shouldn’t be in in the first place.

Shen Yuan was aware of the patriarchal standard from PIDW because he was the main anti in the comments sections complaining about the mistreatment of women in the book. Now PIDW was no longer a novel but a very real place he was living. Shen Yuan’s heart pounded thinking about all of the women who were very much affected by this same problem.

His younger sister was around the age of Mei An when he left his world. Imagining it was her instead of Mei An who had to work in a brothel just to make ends meet made his mouth feel like it had cotton shoved inside.

Suddenly Shen Yuan believed he could bear any punishment that was thrown at him because at least he did the right thing. Screw this misogynistic book and that misogynistic author. His jiejies deserved to know how to read and write, and they deserved a future where they could live freely without having to lose a part of themselves. Shen Yuan wondered out of the thousands of wives Luo Binghe amassed over the years inside the novel, which one of those girls was illiterate and desperate and found refuge in living as a wife, where they could stay well-fed and live comfortably. All they needed to do in return was offer themselves up to Luo Binghe so they could satisfy Xin Mo’s hunger.

That wasn’t love; that was survival. What made Luo Binghe’s wives any different from his jiejies who served men for a living?

Shen Yuan hoped the author was living the worst life ever. Blind people had a good chance of typing a better novel.

Shen Yuan and Mei An stayed in their hold for a long time. Long after their tears had dried and the snot from their noses cleared so they could breathe without sniffling, they stayed, arms locked around the other.

When a jiejie called for him, telling him their guest had arrived, he finally found the strength to unhook his arms. He wiped his lashes, which were cold from his tears, and took a deep breath before looking back up at Mei An.

She looked just as wrecked as he felt. There were tear trails she had yet to wipe away from her face. Instead, she took a thumb to wipe away some of the remaining wetness around Shen Yuan’s cheeks that he didn’t reach, and Shen Yuan felt his eyes sting from the caring touch. He bit back the tears and straightened his spine.

He didn’t care who this stranger was, but he was going to stand his ground. He did the right thing in this situation, consequences be damned.

He followed his jiejie through the hallway and watched her push open the door, and all of the nerve he conjured up vanished the minute he peered inside.

The man who sat inside the room looked like a carbon copy of himself. From the look of surprise, the man seemed just as taken aback as he was. The look didn’t stay on his face for long, quickly reverting into a harsh scowl.

[System activation successful. Hibernation mode: suspended. Initiating Main Story: The Edification of Shen Jiu.]

[Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! Host has reached the Main Story. 500 S-Points awarded. 500 B-Points awarded. Keep up the good work!]

Shen Yuan stood there dumbfounded. He could hear the Madam introducing him, but it sounded like it was coming from underwater. He really did have a plot to fulfill in this story, and it wasn’t even centered around anyone who actually appeared in the novel. He racked his brain twice trying to remember a Shen Jiu, but he couldn’t remember anything.

Who is Shen Jiu??? And what did the System mean by edification? What possibly could a young boy teach a grown man? Judging him based on his appearances, he seemed to have already received some kind of fancy erudition based on his pricey green robes and his poise.

‘System? Is this my father or something? Why do we look so much alike?’

[System placed you in a body it believed would best optimize your mission. Any familial relation is unknown.]

Shen Yuan was snapped back to reality when he noticed the ladies leaving out the door, leaving him trapped alone with this unknown man.

“Shen Yuan,” the man spoke. He felt himself shiver at how cold his name came out of his mouth. It didn’t help his cold demeanor when he watched the man raise a fan to cover his face. “I’ve heard that you’ve caused trouble today, but I have yet to hear any details. You cannot speak, but I pray you can write. If you draw me pictures and leave it to me to decipher them, I will walk out so I do not have to waste any more of my time here today.”

The fire in his stomach that had extinguished roared to life immediately at his words. Ignoring the System, he came in here with a mission. It had given him hope when the System responded to the man. Maybe convincing the man to take his side wouldn’t be as hard as he once believed.

He wrote about the man attacking Mei An, telling him about stabbing him with the man’s knife.

The man scoffed once he wrote that the man deserved the punishment. “You attacked a wealthy man with his own blade despite you having no status or money yourself, yet you’re complaining? He has every right to demand justice for what he had to endure.”

The words had anger bubbling inside his stomach. What right did that man have to act that way? This man wasn’t there when Mei An needed someone to comfort her because she had been subjected to almost being killed for trying to say no.

He was thankful he was writing with a brush instead of a pencil because it reminded him not to put too much force in his strokes. Are you leading me to believe that just because a man has more money and was born into a higher status, that automatically makes him above respecting others? The same respect he dares to demand from others unconditionally?

Shen Yuan knew that his outlook on life was more progressive than those living here because he got to experience the modern world. No one from his timeline was whipped or hurt when they messed up under the judicial system. The reason such a miserable Luo Binghe was created post-Endless Abyss was because severe actions always led to even more severe consequences.

He couldn’t help but think that if some of the villains of Proud Immortal Demon Way thought the same way, everyone’s lives would change for the better.

Shen Yuan was shocked that this man seemed receptive to his words. After their conversation ended and Shen Yuan served the man some tea, the System gave a chime telling him his words had swayed the man.

[Reformation points + 100. S-Points + 100.]

‘I can’t believe talk-no-jutsu worked, and I can’t even talk!’ Shen Yuan thought smugly as he showed the man the room the brothel was holding the customer in. He wasn’t sure who Shen Jiu really was, but this reformation thing was bound to be a piece of cake.

That was what he thought until Madam called him by another name. Peak Lord Shen.

Shen Yuan almost fell to his knees in distress. Peak Lord Shen?? As in scum villain Shen Qingqiu?? As in the same man who was the origin of Binghe’s misery? And the System expected Shen Yuan of all people to fix him? A mute boy?

‘System, what happens if I don’t reform Shen Qingqiu?

[If Host does not obtain the sufficient amount of reform points, then your account will forcefully terminate, and you will be forced back into your original body.]

‘But my original body is dead,’ Shen Yuan cried internally. This was a complete death trap. ‘You ask for reformation, but you contemporaneously took away my ability to speak. How is this fair?!’

[Brevity is the soul of wit.]

Shen Yuan steeled himself with resolve. The System was asking for a lot, but Shen Yuan wasn’t a quitter. He wasn’t about to take his second life for granted.

Besides, wouldn’t fixing Shen Qingqiu fix Luo Binghe’s life for the better? No Endless Abyss meant no blackened protagonist. As much as it sucked knowing he was keeping the protagonist from a major power-up, Shen Yuan learned firsthand that these people weren’t imaginary characters from a novel but were real-life people.

If the scum villain deserved a happy ending, that meant the protagonist deserved one too. It would be Peerless Cucumber’s greatest honor to completely dismantle the entire plot of PIDW for the better.

Saying goodbyes to Mei An and the rest of the jiejies was the hardest part. You never know how attached you are to a person until you have to bid them farewell.

”I’m thinking about applying for a civil job soon since a certain someone has helped me learn to read,” Mei An confessed. “The only thing that was keeping me here after my contract ended was you.”

Shen Yuan was elated at the prospect. He imagined this feeling was the equivalent of watching a first-generation student head off to college as their teacher. He was glad his efforts didn’t go to waste.

”I’ll send a letter telling you where I work if I manage to switch jobs. Maybe I’ll move closer to home so I can live with my siblings again. I’ve told them all about you when I go home to visit, so they would love to meet you one day,” she said as she placed a braid in his hair. “I talk about you so much when I visit them that they must imagine that you’re their brother as well.”

Shen Yuan felt touched at the idea of gaining a new family after losing his old one. He wrote out that he would try and visit her once he was able to leave the mountain.

Once she finished his hair, she wrapped him in a big hug once more. “You’re going to be amazing, A-Yuan. I just know it.”

Shen Yuan nodded his head in her hold. He was going to be amazing. He was going to ameliorate the plot of PIDW and save Shen Qingqiu if it was the last he’ll do.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan wasn’t sure what to think about the time he spent on Qing Jing.

He had initially been excited. He had long given up the hope that he could cultivate in this world over the course of the year he spent in the Warm Pavilion. It didn’t stop him from imagining what it would be like owning a sword and cultivating qi.

It was unheard of where he originated from, so just the idea of cultivation was enough to make him excited. Every once in a while a rogue cultivator would stop by, and Shen Yuan’s eyes would fix themselves on the sword in their hands.

The swords in this universe chose the cultivator. He always imagined what it would be like to hear the call of an inanimate object.

The closest sect to the Warm Pavilion was the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. He had seen his fair share of Cang Qiong disciples stop by as well. They normally came by in groups, probably stopping by on their way back to the sect from a mission.

They had avoided coming by at night. Now Shen Yuan realizes they did that so they wouldn’t run into Shen Qingqiu when he came by to visit. It was well known in PIDW that Shen Qingqiu was a sex-driven man who frequented brothels.

Shen Yuan was probably the only person in the Cang Qiong Sect who knew the truth. That man wasn’t a whore who couldn’t go a week without a woman’s touch; he was just a man who probably had insomnia. It wasn’t his fault this world didn’t have melatonin gummies he could take before going to bed every night.

Shen Yuan thought that the time they shared in the Warm Pavilion would’ve made Shen Qingqiu more receptive to him, but he treated Shen Yuan just like any other disciple. He acted like he wasn’t there in lessons unless Shen Qingqiu found a mistake Shen Yuan made.

It didn’t help either the pernicious behavior some of the disciples were directing at Shen Yuan. In the beginning, their actions toward him were mildly inconvenient. Sometimes they would tell him they were out of paper or ink, causing him to conserve whatever materials were given out that day. Shen Yuan had taken the liberty of stealing a handful of brushes, charcoal, and paper and hiding them underneath Ning Yingying’s bed with her permission.

He hid them with his belongings at first, but when his male disciple uniforms got swapped for female uniforms, he decided it was safer to not keep them himself.

He learned that the best course of action was to act like it never bothered him. The disciples already didn’t expect an interaction from him because he couldn’t speak, so he would continue on with his day as if nothing had happened, ignoring the laughter that trailed behind.

He had never been bullied when he was younger. He was a sickly child growing up, so constantly being in and out of school, paired with never going out of his way to make friends, meant he never had a target on his back. On those dreaded moments when he was put into the spotlight by a student or teacher, he could tell that when they laughed, they were laughing with him, not at him.

He was thankful to have the grown-up emotional intelligence not to care. He had known that Qing Jing was prone to bullying by reading PIDW from Luo Binghe’s point of view, so the actions they were taking to mess with Shen Yuan felt weak compared to what they put Luo Binghe through.

The only times he was alone with Shen Qingqiu were in the mornings and evenings before bed when he had to drink the tea Mu Qingfang gave him. These were normally silent affairs, and Shen Qingqiu made him leave right after.

Shen Yuan wasn’t sure how much time he had before Luo Binghe arrived, so he thought he was moving too slowly. He used to receive S-Points from the System the first few times he drank the tea in Shen Qingqiu’s presence, but now the man must be used to him because he doesn’t get rewarded like before.

Shen Yuan was stumped. He needed to find a way to collect more reformation points before Binghe made it up the mountain, but he didn’t know how to do so without incurring Shen Qingqiu’s ire.

Shen Yuan found himself in the library one day after sword lessons. It would’ve been a good lesson if he wasn’t given a sword that was disproportionately big compared to his body. His shoulders were tense from supporting the sword, and he could tell that tomorrow he was going to wake up with delayed muscle pain from overworking them.

He was learning in real-time that hands were a pretty difficult subject to draw. Shen Yuan was never artistically inclined, but he was present in a lot of fandom spaces in his previous world. He used to like and interact with fan art, and one thing he consistently heard artists complain about was drawing characters’ hands and fingers. Shen Yuan never paid much attention to those complaints, but now he was starting to understand their frustration.

Shen Yuan knew the very basics of sign, like “thank you” and the alphabet, but he never dove deeper than that. His chosen foreign language course was English back when he was attending online college, and now he felt like the language was useless now that he couldn’t speak at all and was surrounded by people who only knew how to speak Chinese.

He also doubted sign language had even been invented yet, and if it had, there was no way of knowing if they had gotten around to covering Chinese sign language.

He read some books that had dedicated authors who invented a whole new language, but now that he was the one who had to do so, he had a whole new level of respect for them. He figured the first thing he should try to sign were objects he used every day. It was hard to ask for a brush and paper without having a brush and paper to ask for it.

He was in the middle of exploring his different possibilities of signing for different words when a voice startled him.

”What are you doing?” He heard Ning Yingying ask.

Shen Yuan dropped his hands into his lap when he realized just how weird he must have looked to her. No one here probably knew what sign language was except for him, so it probably looked like he was performing some strange interpretive dance with his hands.

His cheeks burned in embarrassment as he reached for his brush. I’m trying to make a faster way to communicate by talking with my hands.

Ning Yingying looked surprised at the response before her face brightened. “That’s amazing! I can’t believe you thought of something like that!”

Shen Yuan averted his gaze. He definitely did not think of this. Someone else from the future did, and he was capitalizing off of them.

”If you start talking with your hands, wouldn’t it be useless unless the people around you learned too?” Ning Yingying asked. Shen Yuan nodded.

There was truism in her words. He had already thought about that before he decided to start. But he already had experience teaching reading, so how much different was it to teach sign language? Even people just recognizing one or two words could make a huge difference.

“And these blobs are supposed to be hands?” Ning Yingying asked as she picked up a discarded paper. Shen Yuan knew she was normally straightforward because her bluntness got Luo Binghe in dicey situations, but it hurt to hear the criticism. Shen Yuan nodded, but he took the paper back from her hands while doing so.

”I can help. Shizun says I have a good memory, so that means I can remember what each gesture means. I also get to learn as you learn, so you won't need to write everything down all the time.”

Shen Yuan perked up at her words. That actually…works. Shen Yuan had a good memory as well, but it made things easier if she put it that way. Shen Yuan originally was going to memorize the different signs as he came up with them, and then write out the word on paper before showing it off. If Ning Yingying was willing to learn while he was actively learning, he would have someone who could speak to relay what he needed. That would drastically cut down the time it would take to teach someone else.

Do you really have a good memory? Shen Yuan wrote. He was going to use her regardless if she did, but PIDW didn’t say anything about that.

”Yeah. I have to look at it once or twice, but after that I can remember things like a painting. That’s why my written exam grades are so high.”

Shen Yuan raised his brows in surprise. Ning Yingying must have a photographic memory. He had one too; that was why he was able to remember different plots and devices Airplane forgot as he wrote the novel, but it came as a shock that Ning Yingying had one as well.

Ning Yingying was a character who was portrayed as someone who had terrible situational awareness. Shen Yuan thought that kind of ditziness extended to the rest of her character, but he found himself pleasantly surprised.

This was good. He was going to make progress quicker than he originally thought. Ning Yingying was quite useful when she wasn’t being used as a plot device to stir up trouble.

Shen Yuan wrote out the few words he came up with and wrote out their meaning. True to her word, Ning Yingying picked it up quickly. Shen Yuan quizzed her at the end and she got them all right.

Shen Yuan tsked mentally. ‘All this brainpower just to be reduced to First Wife?’

Ning Yingying was a part of the scholarly peak. He shouldn’t have expected less, but she was the favored disciple. Maybe a part of the reason she was favored wasn’t because she was a girl, but because she was academically stimulating to be around. Or maybe she was favored because she was a combination of both.

Shen Yuan was ready to continue when the sound of loud feet made him jump. “Shen-shidi is needed for laundry duty,” Ming Fan announced.

The good mood he had been feeling vanished as he thought about all of the clothes that would need to be washed and sorted.

”A-Yuan is busy right now,” Ning Yingying answered for him. “You should go find someone else to do it.”

”Everyone else is busy doing their own chores. It’s not fair for Shen-shidi to slack off while everyone else is hard at work.”

”Then make someone else do the laundry and give A-Yuan their task,” Ning Yingying reasoned. “You’re making A-Yuan go to the river all by himself knowing he can’t speak. What if something happens while he’s there?”

”Nothing’s going to happen,” Ming Fan scoffed. “We’re on Qing Jing. Nothing happens under Shizun’s surveillance."

”What if Bai Zhan Peak decided to raid? Who would watch after A-Yuan then?” Ning Yingying countered.

She was ready to continue when Shen Yuan nudged her and then signed to her a word they had gone over earlier. “Okay.”

He was trying to tell her that it was fine for him to do the laundry. He’d rather get it out of the way without a fight than let this argument drag on.

Ning Yingying looked shocked that he had signed to her in a real-life conversation. She caught on to what he was trying to say, and her anger deflated slightly. Ming Fan’s eyes wandered between the two of them before asking, “What did he do? What is he doing?”

”He’s saying he’ll do it even if it’s unfair,” Ning Yingying answered. Shen Yuan did not remember communicating that last part, but at least the core message was communicated. They could only crudely communicate, but it counted for something.

“He told you that?” Ming Fan looked unconvinced. “He’s just waving his hands.”

”He told me by waving his hands,” Ning Yingying answered. “He calls it sign language. He came up with it.”

Shen Yuan also did not come up with it. He’s not even using the right signs. He’s just making it up as he goes! He sent a quick apology to whoever invented sign language in the future. He’s a total fraud and is reaping the reward despite it.

“He’s making you waste your time, but it’s only beneficial for him when you do so,” Zi Chen sneered as he came from behind a bookshelf. He must’ve followed Ming Fan while he was tracking down Shen Yuan.

”That’s not fair,” Ning Yingying cried. “You know he can’t talk! He needs to work on his cultivation so he can finally speak. Peak Lord Mu said so himself!”

“Okay,” Shen Yuan signed again after nudging Ning Yingying to get her attention. This was exactly the type of trouble he was trying to avoid.

Ning Yingying was going to tell him something when Zi Chen came forward and pushed Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan lost his footing easily because he wasn’t expecting to get shoved out of nowhere. This was the first time someone had gotten physical with him, and he fell over hard on his already sore shoulder.

Zi Chen laughed at his tumble, and Ning Yingying cried again in outrage. “That’s it! I’m telling Shizun I’m bullying A-Yuan!”

Ming Fan looked worried. To be fair to the boy, while he always came up with some chore for Shen Yuan to do, he never went out of his way to bully Shen Yuan like some of the other disciples. Ming Fan was too close to becoming Head Disciple for him to be running into any trouble. It still didn’t excuse the permissive behavior, but Ming Fan worked hard to be so close to being promoted.

Shen Yuan rose from the floor and signed, “okay,” again. He really didn’t want this to escalate any further.

Zi Chen watched him sign and laughed, “What a freak. Go ahead and tell him. If Shizun wanted to help his bastard, then he wouldn’t have waited years to do so.”

With that, Zi Chen turned and left. Ming Fan stuck around looking like he wanted to say something, but decided against it and turned to leave as well.

Shen Yuan relaxed once it was just him and Ning Yingying again. “Let’s go,” she said, grabbing his hand and dragging him out of the library.

Shen Yuan let her tug him along until he realized they were getting closer and closer to Shen Qingqiu’s bamboo house. Shen Yuan dug his heels into the ground and stopped walking, making Ning Yingying pause too. Turning around, Ning Yingying watched him sign another basic sign from their practice earlier. “No.”

“Yes,” she replied instantly. “Shizun should know the other disciples are messing with you.”

“No.” Shen Yuan signed again. Shen Yuan read PIDW and Ning Yingying did not. He knows Shen Qingqiu probably didn’t care at all. It would be bad for the progress he had already made if they bothered him with something like this.

“A-Yuan, you can’t let them keep getting away with this. It’ll only make things worse,” Ning Yingying tried to coax.

Shen Yuan signed “okay,” again and Ning Yingying sighed.

“No, it’s not okay. That’s why we have to go to Shizun for help.”

”Help for what?”

The new voice made Shen Yuan jump in surprise before a sinking feeling flipped through his stomach. They were conversing away from the bamboo house, but Shen Qingqiu’s ears were primed by cultivation, and he must have heard them from inside.

”Shizun, A-Yuan is being bullied,” Ning Yingying seized the chance to snitch immediately. Shen Yuan reached over and discreetly pinched her side in betrayal. “Ouch!” She still cried loudly.

Shen Yuan used a new sign from practice earlier. “Stop.”

”Stop? Why would I stop? I’m telling the truth!” Ning Yingying said as she swatted his hand away.

”You understand him?” Shen Qingqiu asked as he watched the display. He looked surprised as Ning Yingying easily picked up on Shen Yuan’s motions.

”Yeah. A-Yuan calls it sign language. He came up with it,” Ning Yingying answered. Shen Yuan felt an oncoming headache as Ning Yingying told yet another person he invented sign language. “He makes signs with his hand like how you do for hand seals, but they have meanings attached to them so he can communicate without speaking. We were practicing earlier when Zi Chen pushed him down for no reason!”

Shen Yuan finally remembered the frustration he felt whenever she was involved in trouble in PIDW. ‘Why in the world would you name-drop him?’ Shen Yuan thought as he watched this train wreck of a conversation.

Shen Yuan looked up to find Shen Qingqiu’s sharp stare already on him, and he immediately felt smaller under the scrutinizing look. Shen Qingqiu studied him for a moment longer before saying, “If Shen Yuan is being bullied, that is because he is allowing them to do so. If he wants it to stop, then he will do so himself. Show this one you deserve to be here.”

Ning Yingying gasped as she heard her Shizun deny help. Ning Yingying looked ready to argue, but Shen Yuan tugged at her clothes and signed, “okay,” again. She looked troubled, but she remained silent.

Shen Qingqiu watched the interaction with a languid glint in his eyes. Shen Yuan didn’t want to be here any longer, so he got Ning Yingying’s attention and signed again.

”He says thank you,” she relayed to Shen Qingqiu, but the man kept his eyes locked on Shen Yuan’s hands. Deciding he had seen enough, Shen Qingqiu turned to head back inside the bamboo house.

Once he was out of their peripheral, Ning Yingying spoke, “I can’t believe Shizun won’t help you.”

Shen Yuan was strangely even more silent than usual, as if he was lost in his own thoughts.

Making a decision, Shen Yuan turned on his heels and left in haste. “A-Yuan?” Ning Yingying called after him, but he didn’t stop. He walked as if he were on a mission, not even sparing Ning Yingying a glance.

He made a stop at the practice field where the practice swords had yet to have been put away, and picked a smaller sword than the one he had used earlier that day. He gave it a good swing, but it resembled a baseball bat being swung more than a sword.

”A-Yuan?” Ning Yingying called out again, this time a bit more hesitantly. Shen Yuan ignored her and ran a finger down the sword’s edge to make sure it was dull. Seeming satisfied, Shen Yuan began walking away again with the sword in hand.

Ning Yingying kept a further distance from the boy and stopped trying to get his attention. She followed him from afar, keeping a broader space between them now that he was armed.

She didn’t realize she had followed him to the spot where the other disciples tended to hang out until she saw about five of them lying around. Ming Fan had told them earlier that all of the disciples were given their own chores, but here they were lazing about without a care in the world.

Ming Fan noticed them first and called out Ning Yingying’s name. Shen Yuan maneuvered the sword so it was behind his back. Ning Yingying was the only one with a clear view of the sword, watching it warily instead of responding to her name.

Zi Chen noticed Shen Yuan was with her and rose to his feet. “I know you can’t finish laundry that quickly,” he mocked as he moved closer to Shen Yuan.

Ning Yingying watched with bated breath as Shen Yuan’s steps didn’t falter as he pushed himself closer to Zi Chen. Time seemed to slow for her once Shen Yuan unveiled the sword and took no time in swinging it into the boy’s gut.

The dull blade forcefully pushed the air out of Zi Chen’s lungs, and he doubled over with a groan. Shen Yuan took that opportunity to raise the dummy sword over his head and used the momentum in his body to slam the sword into Zi Chen’s back.

Already being off-center, the boy crumbled to the ground, and Shen Yuan discarded the sword in favor of delivering punches to his head and chest.

Shaking themselves from their stupor, the other four boys rushed to their feet to pry Shen Yuan off, but once his arms were restricted, he began to use his legs to kick instead.

Ming Fan reached out to pick Shen Yuan up, but Shen Yuan intercepted him with his mouth and bit him on his forearm with a strong bite. Ming Fan screamed in pain and tried to wiggle his arm from Shen Yuan’s jaws, but the movement only jostled his head, shaking it left to right.

The scene reminded Ning Yingying of stray dogs on the street using their teeth to shake and tear into scraps of tough meat.

He must’ve broken skin because blood pooled around Shen Yuan’s mouth and began to dribble on the ground, but the iron taste didn’t make Shen Yuan back down. The blood bubbled around his mouth from his breathing and Shen Yuan figured he must’ve looked rabid. His neck was hurting from the whiplash, but he still kicked and punched, trying to connect his hits with something solid.

Ning Yingying left the fight in favor of racing back to their Shizun to help her break it up.

Shen Yuan watched her go, and the distraction caused a fist to collide with his face. The force of it made Shen Yuan bite Ming Fan harder, causing him to cry out in pain again.

”Get him off! Get him off!” Ming Fan cried as he watched his blood slide down his arm and fall in droplets once it reached the edge of his fingers.

Shen Yuan felt a punch go to his gut, and the blow was painful enough for him to release the arm and instinctively gasp in pain. He swallowed the copper taste in his mouth and dropped his body to the ground to avoid another punch and throw himself at the discarded sword.

He picked it back up and swung it without technique, but that only caused the three unhurt boys to box him in a circle. They stood far back enough so they wouldn’t get hit, but none of them were daring enough to get close after watching what had happened to the other two boys.

Shen Yuan felt the adrenaline beginning to leave him, but before the boys were able to use that to their advantage a new voice came from overhead. “Stop this instant!” Shen Qingqiu demanded.

Everyone froze, and a quick glance upwards showed them that Shen Qingqiu had arrived on his sword. He took in the state of disarray, looking at Zi Chen on the ground with a bloody face, to Ming Fan clutching a bloody arm, to Shen Yuan with a face covered in blood.

Shen Yuan imagined he must’ve looked like a xianxia-themed vampire. He resisted the urge to spit out the taste of blood from his mouth as he returned the look he was receiving from Shen Qingqiu.

He looked away when he received a chime from his system.

[S-Points +1,000. B-Points +100. Reformation points - 50.]

He supposed the tradeoff he received in S-Points was worth the hit he endured in reformation points.

”Shizun,” he heard Ming Fan whimper. Turning his head to look, he noticed that once he looked past all of the blood, there was a small canine poking itself out from the wound.

Shen Yuan had his tongue run itself over his teeth and massage the gap in his teeth on the top right row. ‘Huh,’ he thought to himself. He didn’t feel it come out during the fight. He sincerely hoped this body still had most of its baby teeth.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan received a black eye once in his past life. When he was younger, he was standing underneath his teacher while she was holding a hardcover book and it slipped from her hands and onto his face.

Shen Yuan’s under-eye was a light shade of purple for a few days, and he thought the bruise made him look cool. He was disappointed when the purple faded to yellow and then disappeared completely. While he would’ve never willingly harmed himself to achieve the look again, Shen Yuan missed the edge it gave his appearance.

Now that he is experiencing swelling and vision loss around his right eye because of it, Shen Yuan now understands just how stupid it was to miss a black eye. The veins around his eye pulsed uncomfortably, and Shen Yuan suspected it was the onset of a migraine.

Shen Qingqiu had someone drop the two injured boys at Qian Cao for treatment. He would deal with their punishment later. Now it was just Shen Yuan and the three uninjured disciples in front of him.

The three disciples looked uncomfortable, sending nervous glances at each other. Shen Yuan, on the other hand, looked unrepentant. His posture was straight, and his gaze met Shen Qingqiu’s. Shen Qingqiu would’ve set the boy straight if he weren’t busy untangling the disaster Shen Yuan had created.

”Someone speak up about what happened,” She Qingqiu demanded.

The three disciples nervously glanced over at Shen Yuan before one of them said, “Shen-shidi came up to us and attacked Zi-shixiong out of nowhere.”

”Shen Yuan, do you agree with that?” Shen Qingqiu asked the boy. He didn’t bother denying, just nodding along in agreement.

”Punishment must be served for attacking someone in cold blood,” Shen Qingqiu told him. Shen Yuan finally seemed to have the gall to look sheepish once punitive punishment was mentioned. “Before we decide that, Ning Yingying had told me earlier today you had been bullied. Is that true?”

Shen Yuan nodded firmly. The other disciples stiffened when they heard those words. They must’ve thought Shen Qingqiu didn’t already know. “Were these boys a part of it?”

Shen Yuan sent a glance over his shoulder to study them, and they seemed to shy away from his gaze. Shen Yuan turned back around to face Shen Qingqiu before nodding his head. The anxious glances the boys sent to each other seemed to intensify.

“Shen Yuan. When you and I first met, you told me you believed people shouldn’t harm someone first because they believed retaliation would not follow. Do you still agree with that?”

Shen Yuan was surprised that Shen Qingqiu still remembered his words. Shen Yuan agreed with another nod.

”It seems you truly do live by your words. Let this be a lesson to everyone to act more responsibly in the future,” Shen Qingqiu concluded.

A chime from the system drew Shen Yuan’s attention away.

[+ 100 reformation points. + 25 S-Points. + 25 B-Points.]

Shen Yuan tried his best not to let his smile show. He gained back even more reformation points than he initially lost. He walked away from this fight as a winner in every possible sense.

”As for punishments, all of you will run 50 laps. I also want a handwritten report of your reflections of this situation,” Shen Qingqiu decided.

‘That’s not bad at all,’ Shen Yuan thought in surprise. ’I was expecting to be whipped.’

Whipping was a normal punishment Luo Binghe endured during his time at Qing Jing. Shen Yuan resolved to be whipped a few times in order to please Shen Qingqiu and to put an end to his bullying situation. He couldn’t believe he was pretty much getting off with a slap on the wrist.

The boys rose to begin their punishment, but Shen Qingqiu called out for Shen Yuan, making him pause. The man’s eyes studied Shen Yuan over the top of his fan. “I’m the future; please refrain from biting your fellow disciples. It makes you look undignified.”

Shen Yuan nodded before rushing to join his shixiongs in their punishment.

Shen Yuan believed that although the fan was hiding Shen Qingqiu’s lower face, there had been a hint of a smile that had creased the structure of his eyes. Shen Yuan will never know for sure.

Shen Qingqiu hated sect meetings. Most matters presented could have been resolved by letter. It was an excuse to gather the leaders every month to sit around and do nothing.

Shen Qingqiu never participated unless asked, but today he was receiving far more attention than he normally would.

“A birdie told me a rumor that Shen-shidi’s son, who looks just like his father, has joined his peak,” Qi Qingqi purred with a smile. “One of my disciples told me that he even sent two of your own disciples to Qian Cao for treatment.”

The other peak leaders were trying not to look interested as they listened.

“I do not have a son. And Shen Yuan had acted in retaliation against the treatment he said he received first. His actions have nothing to do with me,” Shen Qingqiu told her with a roll of his eyes.

“There has been talk below the mountain saying Shen-shidi retrieved him from a brothel you usually frequent,” Qi Qingqi added. “A little mute boy, to be exact.”

“I didn’t realize the Xian Shu Peak Lady’s position allows you with enough free time to listen to gossip,” Shen Qingqiu taunted. “We Lords from busier peaks have more important things to do during our day than to be swayed by small distractions.”

“A son of a Peak Lord is not a small distraction,” Qi Qingqi scoffed in irritation.

“I already said he is not my son.”

“He certainly acts like it. Immediately causing trouble the minute he arrives,” Qi Qingqi remarked.

“That’s enough,” Yue Qingyuan cut Qi Qingqi off. “We should not pass judgment onto children so quickly.”

He looked back at Shen Qingqiu and asked, “How is Xiao-Yuan faring? Is he getting along better with his peers?”

Shen Qingqiu was ready to drop this subject. “He is fine. He is communicating with other disciples through a method called sign language, where he uses his hands to speak instead of his voice.”

There was a clatter from the far side of the table, and Shen Qingqiu looked over to see Shang Qinghua’s knee had hit the bottom of the table, causing everything in his area to be knocked over. Noticing the attention was on him now, Shang Qinghua laughed nervously as he placed everything that was knocked over upright again. “Haha, oops,” he chuckled as he scratched his temple. “My bad.”

Shen Qingqiu elected to ignore the disruption. “Can we move on, or will we spend our entire time here talking about frivolous matters?”

Yue Qingyuan helped by launching into talking about the mission he sent Liu Qingge on and that being the reason for his absence. Shen Qingqiu was trying to make it seem like he was paying attention, but he felt eyes on him while Yue Qingyuan was talking. He opened his fan and raised it to partially cover his face as he scanned the Peak Lords’ faces. His eyes finally landed on Shang Qinghua, who looked lost in thought as he stared in Shen Qingqiu’s direction.

Shang Qinghua’s eyes met Shen Qingqiu’s over his fan, and the man immediately averted his gaze down to the paper in front of him. Shen Qingqiu would’ve looked away, but he didn’t like the look he was initially sending his way.

Shen Qingqiu spent the rest of the meeting staring daggers into Shang Qinghua’s face, particularly enjoying the way the man shriveled under his scrutinizing gaze.

Shen Yuan noticed that most of the disciples tended to keep a wider distance from him now. That was fine with him; they must’ve started looking at him in a different light now that they knew he could bite. Both metaphorically and physically.

The bullying came to a halt. Shen Yuan wasn’t sure if he should label what he went through as bullying since it was just a watered-down version of what Luo Binghe endured in the novel. He had only been physically assaulted once, and that was just a weak shove.

His punishment was especially light as well, seeing as he started the fight, but he guessed that being the victim of their bullying helped lessen the sentence.

He had started that fight on a whim. When they had gone to Shen Qingqiu for help, he hadn’t been expecting much. And while he didn’t receive much help, he had the inside knowledge of knowing Shen Qingqiu was a villain. Villains don’t always choose the path society deems conventional. When Shen Qingqiu told Shen Yuan to stand up for himself, he figured he was hinting that the matter didn’t need to be solved peacefully.

In a way, he was right. If Shen Qingqiu had stepped in on Shen Yuan’s behalf, the bullying could’ve gotten worse. Because Shen Yuan had taken matters into his own hands, those who messed with him before showed a newfound hesitancy around him, wondering if they were next on his list.

Shen Yuan would much rather be avoided than picked on. It gave him the time to finally feel safe enough to settle in as a Qing Jing disciple.

The only person he felt any remorse toward was Ning Yingying. She still hung out with him, but it was obvious her interactions had some dubiety mixed in now.

It was fair for her to feel anxious around him now. It must’ve been a whiplash to watch the meek little shidi she took under her wing lash out like a rabid beast. Normally he had a lot more class than that, but extenuating circumstances pushed him to react.

There was a kitten his family fostered when he was a child in his previous world. It was a cute kitten with an unusual amount of patience for a cat that young. His sister loved to play with it, and it was small enough for her to pick up and place it on its back.

It was obvious the cat hated being put in that position. The black ears would lie flattened on its face, and it would look up with dilated pupils, but it remained still until his sister had her fill of tummy time and would place the cat back on its paws.

There was one week left in the fostering program, and his younger sister was especially solemn that the cat she had grown attached to was eventually leaving. She cried and whined to their parents to keep it, but no one budged. One day she was especially zealous when she picked the cat up, and thinking it was about to be flipped on its back, the kitten extended its sharp claws and left a long scratch down her arm.

His sister left the room to cry to their parents about what the kitten had done, but Shen Yuan just remembered thinking at the time that the kitten should’ve reacted sooner.

Now Shen Yuan was that kitten who had to make amends because he didn’t make boundaries sooner.

He had tried seeking her out and giving her snacks, but nothing helped with the change in attitude. Shen Yuan was stumped as to what to do now. He had successfully ended the bullying, but he may have distanced himself from the only friend he had on the peak.

Shen Yuan stood before her with a comb in hand. Shen Yuan wasn’t a mischievous child during his time in the brothel, but when he had made mistakes, he normally let his jiejies comb his hair while letting them scold him to their hearts’ content.

He shifted his weight from foot to foot while his fingers played with the comb.

”Are you going to comb your hair?” Ning Yingying asked, snapping Shen Yuan from his thoughts. Shen Yuan twisted the comb in his palm before pointing to Ning Yingying. “You want to brush my hair?”

That wasn’t his intention, but that could work too. Shen Yuan nodded in agreement and sat on the edge of her bed while Ning Yingying made herself comfortable on the floor.

He parted her hair into sections, slowly working his way from the ends to her roots. It was a silent affair for a few minutes before Ning Yingying spoke, “You know, I wasn’t expecting you to fight like that the other day. You scared me.”

Shen Yuan tapped her shoulder so she could turn around so he could sign a simple sign, “sorry”. While they were making progress in creating new signs, they still were limited to the basics.

“You don’t need to feel sorry for me. You didn’t hurt me, and I didn’t hurt you.” Ning Yingying shook her head. “I am sorry that the boys bullied you. They shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place. I know it’s been hard being here when you look like Shizun. They shouldn’t have teased you because of that. Despite that, you shouldn’t beat people up because they’re mean to you. It’s not right.”

Shen Yuan would’ve agreed normally, but he had points riding on that fight. He would do it again if the System rewarded him. Despite his thoughts, he nodded along to her words. It was better to agree and fix the issue at hand.

”Next time someone says something, tell them Ning Yingying will find them. I’ll make sure to talk them out of it.”

Shen Yuan’s fingers paused in her hair. While Ning Yingying was Luo Binghe’s friend, she never made an attempt to help Binghe stop the bullying. Shen Yuan wondered why it took him coming along for her to feel the need to step in. What he went through was only a fraction of what Binghe had to endure. Why couldn’t she have helped Binghe out when he needed her?

Shen Yuan secured her hair into a braid and tapped her. “Finished?” She asked. He responded with a nod. “Do you want me to do your hair?”

His spirits lifted at the offer. It’s been forever since he had someone play with his hair, and he missed the feeling of it. He nodded fervently at the offer, and Ning Yingying laughed. “Alright, alright, I get it. Let’s trade seats then.”

Shen Yuan lowered himself to the floor and sat himself down between her legs. Ning Yingying loosened the ponytail his hair was in. “Why do you keep your hair in a ponytail? I think you would look better with a half-bun.”

Shen Yuan shook his head. It was a nostalgic style, a hairstyle his jiejies would put him in during his time at the Red Pavilion. But now he knows that Shen Qingqiu is the reason behind that and he doesn’t know how to feel about it.

”If I do your hair tomorrow, would you let me do it?” She asked.

Shen Yuan thought about it. He wasn’t sure what everyone would have to say about it, but he was starved for the feeling of having his hair played with. It was always a calming experience that made him feel sleepy and relaxed. With some hesitation, Shen Yuan nodded.

He could hear the excitement in her voice when she spoke again, “I don’t have any hairpieces, so we’ll have to secure it with a ribbon tomorrow.” That made him feel better.

She finished off his hair, and Shen Yuan exhaled loudly in irritation when her hands left his scalp. “Time for bed,” she said as she helped him to his feet.

Shang Qinghua would never even dare to look at Qing Jing if he didn’t have to. Shen Qingqiu already wasn’t his favorite character he had ever written. Knowing the man had borderline violent tendencies because he wrote to him to be that way didn’t help his nerves at all.

He sent the man a letter to explain he was making a visit related to supplying necessities to Qing Jing. It sucked that he became an author in order to escape the corporate scene in his previous life only to end up as Cang Qing’s head of supply chain management in this world.

It was less of the flying sword magic and more determining which items used FIFO or specific identification for receiving and tracking inventory on An Ding.

Anyway, Shang Qinghua would be miles away from this peak if he weren’t on a mission. It was already strange when some random OC wearing Shen Qingqiu’s face suddenly popped up, but when he overheard he was communicating with sign language, he had a sneaking suspicion he wasn’t alone in this world.

Shan Qinghua didn’t know when sign language was created, but seeing the scholarly Peak Lord talk about it like it was foreign made him curious.

If Shang Qinghua could find a way to speak to him once to confirm if his suspicions were correct, then today would be a productive day. He wasn’t sure how to broach the subject, but he knew it shouldn’t be hard keeping a mute boy silent if things suddenly went sideways.

He had been lost in his thoughts when he felt a pull on his sleeve. A young girl had taken him by surprise, and he definitely did not let out a yelp. “Excuse me, but my friend wants to know what you’re up to.”

Shang Qinghua followed her finger to find the OC boy looking at him with distrustful eyes—or eye. The kid looked like he had been through a WWE match. While he didn’t have that much swelling, probably because it had been a few days, it was hard to see his eye when it hid behind a ring of blue and purple. Shen Yuan’s hair was done in a ponytail when he had first met him with Yue Qingyuan, but only some of it was pulled back this time into a half-bun. The hairdo, along with the glare, sent shivers down his spine. This kid really was a Shen Qingqiu 2.0.

”Just who I’m looking for! I haven’t met you yet, but I’m the Peak Lord of An Ding. We had some issues settling your friend in, so I came to ask him something personally,” Shang Qinghua lied through his teeth. “I actually have a meeting with your Shizun later about it.”

The girl didn’t seem to believe him, but she couldn’t deny a Peak Lord’s request. “Okay,” she responded before giving her friend a look over, as if she was hesitant to leave him alone with an unknown man.

Eventually she turned to leave, and Shang Qinghua let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, kid, we don’t have long, but I really need to speak to you,” Shang Qinghua said as he looked around to see if anyone was in earshot. When he confirmed it was safe, he turned around to see the boy giving him a funny look. “Right, you can’t speak. You don’t have to. You just need to let me know if what I’m about to say makes any sense. All you need to do is give me a sign that only you and I will know. I can’t tell you what it is, but if my hunch is correct, you should understand what I mean. A dance works too. Have you heard of the whip? Or does the nae nae sound familiar? Or maybe even the dab? If you’re too young to understand, then a Fortnite dance works too.”

The kid’s head tilted before lifting his middle finger.

”Hey! You don’t have to flip me off; that’s rude! I swear, kids—wait! You flipped me off!”

A mutual look of understanding flashed in the kid’s eyes and he took him by the arm and led them into the treeline to provide them with some privacy. “I can’t believe it! You’re a transmigrator too,” Shang Qinghua said as he let the boy guide him. “I thought it was strange when you popped up out of nowhere, but someone mentioned you were communicating with sign language and I knew something was up! Sure, someone could’ve invented sign language, but the odds of calling it sign language as well were too slim—”

A chime from his system shut him up.

[Peerless Cucumber: Do me a favor and shut up for a minute.]

Shang Qinghua felt his mouth drop. “I’ve never seen this before. Is this a chat option? Wait a minute, are you Peerless Cucumber?”

[Peerless Cucumber: I got a notification from my system saying that it's a chat feature to allow me to communicate with another transmigrator through our systems. It looks like it’s a one-way communication.]

Shang Qinghua watched as Shen Yuan’s fingers moved as if he were typing on a keyboard. “Sucks I don’t get one. But at least this makes talking easier,” Shen Qinghua sighed. “Although texting is cool. I don’t think I would trade talking for it.”

[Peerless Cucumber: I can tell.]

”Hey! You’re just as rude in person as you are online, you know that? Assuming you are Peerless Cucumber. Your ID was Peerless Cucumber, right?”

Shen Yuan nodded. “Cool, I always looked forward to reading your comments. You were always my biggest fan.”

Shen Yuan’s face shifted.

[Peerless Cucumber: What do you mean “biggest fan?”]

Shang Qinghua bit his lip in regret. He didn’t mean to let that slip. Curse his big mouth. “Surprise! Are you excited to meet your favorite author in person?” He said as he threw his arms out to make jazz hands. “Ow, ow! Stop hitting me!” He said as he curled himself inwards to avoid the slaps being thrown his way. “I’m stuck here too! I wouldn’t have written this if I knew I was going to end up here too.”

That seemed to calm the boy slightly. He pulled his arms back to type on his imaginary keyboard.

[Peerless Cucumber: Do you have a mission?]

”Yeah, my system makes me help Mobei-jun. What’s your mission?”

[Peerless Cucumber: Shen Qingqiu]

Shang Qinghua hissed through his teeth. “Yikes, that’s pretty bad too. Mine made me become the Cang Qing traitor. What’s your objective?”

[Peerless Cucumber: Mine is tied to Shen Qingqiu’s morality. I have to make him nicer.]

Shang Qinghua winced. “Yeah, that’s gonna be rough. My condolences. Any progress?”

[Peerless Cucumber: Not a lot. But as I make progress, I collect points to speak. I’m hoping to speed up the process by then.]

”And I thought I had it rough. I just get beat up a lot. At least I still have my voice so I can beg my king for mercy.”

Shen Yuan looked unimpressed. “You can act like that, but you don’t understand how it feels when—“ Shang Qinghua cut himself off when Shen Yuan’s gaze worriedly turned to something else. He followed the movement to come face-to-face with Shen Quingqiu.

Shang Qinghua wasn’t sure if he yelped, but no one commented on it if he did. “Shen-shixiong, what a surprise!”

”It shouldn’t be a surprise, considering this is my peak. However, it is a surprise to see you conversing with one of my disciples privately,” Shen Qingqiu quipped harshly. “Shen Yuan, come here.”

Shen Yuan didn’t dare to resist, hurrying over to his side. “Now, what were you discussing on my peak?”

Shang Qinghua felt the sweat drip from his forehead. Normally he was good at finding random words to string together, but right now forming a coherent sentence was fruitless under that icy glare.

”I…no, we were…” he trailed off, trying to think of something.

[Peerless Cucumber: Tell him I was asking about my own supply of ink since I go through so much.]

Shang Qinghua perked up at the assist. What a bro! Shen Yuan looked ready to type again but lowered his hands when he saw Shen Qingqiu looking between the two of them. “You understand him?” He questioned the other peak lord.

Shang Qinghua chuckled nervously. “Yeah. It wasn’t too difficult to pick up,” he lied with a nervous laugh.

Shen Qingqiu didn’t find it as funny as he did, and Shang Qingqiu felt the side of his mouth twitch in pain from nervously holding it in a smile for too long. “Shen Yuan wanted to ask for more supplies because he felt like he required more than his peers and depleted their supply quicker than your peak is used to.”

Shen Qingqiu turned his gaze on Shen Yuan to check the validity of his statement. “If Shen Yuan had an issue, he should’ve come to his master instead of sneaking around to contact another peak lord.”

Shen Yuan moved his hands at his side, probably an unconscious movement. Shang Qinghua was rusty, but he had learned the sign language alphabet in his previous life. He used his knowledge to help bridge the missing gaps of the unknown letters. “Sorry!” he exclaimed. Shen Qingqiu whipped his head back to Shang Qinghua at the odd cry. “Sorry, not me; but he’s saying sorry.”

Shen Yuan looked stunned to see him get it correct. He nodded at his Peak Lord to show him that Shang Qinghua was right.

Shen Qingqiu’s gaze shuffled between the two of them again with narrowed eyes. Eventually, he tugged Shen Yuan forward with his arm. “Shang-shidi, I’m canceling our meeting for today. It can be completed via mail correspondence.”

Shang Qinghua was more than happy to accept the offer of an escape and bid the two a swift goodbye.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan tried not to look nervous that night when it was time for him to head to the bamboo house to drink his medicine.

Getting caught with Shang Qinghua earlier today had his nerves on edge. He knew that he probably looked like an unfilial disciple from Shen Qingqiu’s point of view, but the feeling of knowing he wasn’t alone in this world softened the weight in his chest. He just didn’t know how to feel about Shang Qinghua being the same man he would rip apart verbally in PIDW comment sections and forums each chapter drop.

Shen Yuan had gotten over the temporary indigestion he used to get when he first started drinking tea in Shen Qingqiu’s presence. Downing tea in complete silence with the scum villain of the novel was something Shen Yuan had to get familiarized with.

At first, Shen Qingqiu would watch him until he drank all of the tea and then silently sent him on his way. Now sometimes Shen Qingqiu would read a book or grade papers. On rare occasions he would play the guqin to fill the silence of the bamboo house. Shen Yuan preferred those visits the best.

That’s why when he opened the door to find a brush, ink, and paper on the table in front of the spot he normally sat, he immediately knew something was wrong.

He sat and poured the tea into his own cup. Shen Qingqiu normally made his medicine for him, which confused him the most. As a cultivation master, he should not have lowered himself to serve a disciple. But the first time Shen Yuan tried to make the medicine by himself, Shen Qingqiu complained that he made the batch too weak and shooed him off so he wouldn’t mess it up again.

”You have a habit of brewing weak tea,” Shen Qingqiu told the boy, reminding him of their impromptu tea ceremony in the Red Pavilion. “If you cannot be trusted to make good tea, then you shouldn’t be trusted to make your own medicine.”

Shen Yuan didn’t dare argue after that.

Shen Qingqiu watched him from the other side of the room as Shen Yuan brought the cup to his mouth. Once he was satisfied that Shen Yuan took a few good sips, he moved closer and sat at the other end of the table. Shen Yuan felt his back straighten instinctively.

”Your…’sign language’—are you still developing it with Ning Yingying?” Shen Qingqiu began to interrogate.

Shen Yuan nodded rigidly.

”Every morning after you finish your tea, you will show me some of these ‘signs’ and their meanings before your morning lessons,” Shen Qingqiu ordered. “We will begin tonight.”

Shen Yuan looked up in shock. That was the least expected route he thought this conversation would take. He thought back to earlier today and how nonplussed he seemed when Shang Qinghua had figured out what Shen Yuan had been signing.

Shen Yuan assumed Shen Qingqiu did not want to lose grace in letting someone from the An Ding peak learn a new language before the head of the scholarly peak. Unable to think of another possible reason for the new interest in sign language, Shen Yuan nodded and wrote, What do you want to know first?

“Whatever signs you use the most would be an acceptable starting point,” Shen Qingqiu decided.

Shen Yuan wrote again, We can start with the alphabet. I spell the words with my fingers if someone doesn’t know the sign. Like how I did with Shishu today.

”Very well. You may begin,” Shen Qingqiu instructed him as he opened his fan with a snap.

Shen Yuan started out slowly, but he began to pick up speed when he realized Shen Qingqiu could absorb information even quicker than Ning Yingying. It made sense, knowing he was a strategist, and it was refreshing being able to string words together and be understood.

Ning Yingying could pick up individual words, but she started struggling when he started using multiple signs at the same time to form a sentence. Shen Qingqiu seemed to piece the information together flawlessly in his head and responded correctly.

Throughout the process, Shen Yuan had forgotten that he was in the presence of the scum villain. It was nice to be heard and understood in this world. In his year here, he had almost forgotten what a conversation felt like without paper being involved.

He hadn’t realized he had been smiling until he felt air cool the part of his gums that was missing a tooth. Shen Yuan closed his mouth and rubbed his tongue between the gap to moisturize it again.

”That is all for tonight,” Shen Qingqiu decided once the sun had long since set. “Return to the dorms.”

Shen Yuan nodded and rose to his feet. He hesitated before he signed with uncertainty, ”Thank you”.

Shen Qingqiu gave him a look that told Shen Yuan he wasn’t expecting him to sign outside of practice, but he ended up responding anyway. “You’re welcome.”

Shen Yuan went to leave, but the bags under Shen Qingqiu’s normally flawless face stopped him. He reached down for a scrap of paper he had only slightly used to ask, Have you seen my jiejies yet?

”I haven’t been off this mountain since I brought you here,” Shen Qingqiu denied.

Shen Yuan hesitated before finally gathering the courage to write. Can I take your headpiece out?

Shen Qingqiu looked taken aback by the request. His fan had fallen to his chest throughout their time tonight, but he quickly raised it back up to shield his face to act as a barrier between them. “Why would you request something like that?”

Shen Yuan wrote, My jiejies would do my hair at night to make me tired. It feels…

Shen Yuan lowered the brush and used his hands to sign instead, ”good”.

Shen Qingqiu studied him from over the fan, and Shen Yuan felt like one wrong noise could break the delicate atmosphere between them. Shen Yuan felt his eyes study the half-bun Ning Yingying put into his own hair earlier that morning. The silence thickened and grew, but Shen Qingqiu finally cut through it. “Fine,” he agreed, snapping his fan shut.

Shen Yuan went to pick up the brush but decided against it as he asked with his hands slowly, ”Comb?”

Shen Qingqiu rose and opened up a drawer to retrieve an expensive green comb and a ceramic bottle of hair oil. The comb was jade, and there were lotus flowers engraved and painted along the backbone of the brush’s spine.

Shen Yuan cupped it gently in fear he may damage it. He eventually sat it gently on the table once Shen Qingqiu sat in front of him to reach up and take the pin out of his hairpiece. The straight hair was easy to work with, and he was able to remove the metal in his hair without a fight.

The bun keeping the hair in place unraveled and fell to join the rest of his hair along the man’s back. Shen Yuan gathered a small bit of oil and rubbed it into his palms before running it softly through his hair.

Shen Yuan noticed the man tense under his initial touch but eased into it the longer he massaged the oil into his tresses. Shen Yuan couldn’t see the man’s face, but he could tell that he was beginning to relax under the caresses.

Shen Yuan began to use the comb, and despite only having half of his hair up all day, he was able to run through most of his hair without the comb catching onto any unexpected snags or tangles.

Not wanting to be done so soon, Shen Yuan experimentally ran his nails through Shen Qingqiu’s scalp. The man shivered under the touch, but a few more passes had the man melting under his hand.

Shen Yuan let himself smile at the victory because the man’s back was turned. It grew even wider when he heard the familiar sound of his system rewarding him.

[+ 60 S-Points. + 50 B-Points + 50 reformation points]

Not wanting to push his luck, Shen Yuan began to tie the hair up into a braid for the man to sleep in that night. Once he was done, he softly flipped the braid over Shen Qingqiu’s shoulder to show the man he was done.

”Return to your dorms,” Shen Qingqiu said softly with his back still turned, sleep lacing the tone of his voice.

Shen Yuan didn’t need to be told again, giving his master a farewell bow before darting off with the biggest grin he had worn in a while.

A few days passed with the delicate routine of Shen Qingqiu learning sign language in the morning and Shen Yuan braiding his master’s hair at night. The dark circles around Shen Qingqiu’s eyes had become less prominent, and the system kept rewarding Shen Yuan with reformation points.

He knew why he was getting S-Points, but Shen Yuan wasn’t entirely sure why he had been getting rewarded with reformation points as well. The only reasonable answer he could think of was that Shen Qingqiu was enduring him the same way a cat shows its stomach around new people it decided to extend its good will to.

It was an act of trust for Shen Qingqiu to sit there with his back turned to Shen Yuan. It must have been even more nerve-wracking for the man to loosen up to allow the fatigue to encompass his body with Shen Yuan next to him.

Shen Qingqiu was a lonely man. That was something that was clear from the novel. Although Shen Qingqiu valued Ming Fan as his head disciple, he had kept a clear boundary between himself and Ming Fan. The only person he had seemed to open up to on his peak was Ning Yingying, and even she had turned her back on him at the request of Luo Binghe.

Shen Yuan would’ve found it tragic if the man hadn’t gone out of his way for years to belittle and humiliate the protagonist. Despite that, Shen Yuan had come to enjoy these silent moments he had with his shizun.

He wasn’t sure why the man had agreed to his request to brush his hair, but now that the initial fear of crossing an unknown line has dissipated, Shen Yuan thinks of it as grooming a moody cat.

Shen Qingqiu acts all high and mighty, distancing himself from others with his fan or a curl of his lip, but he crumbles under the delicate care Shen Yuan provides for his hair. Shen Yuan wonders if anyone else has been blessed to unwrap Shen Qingqiu’s harsh facade to find such a tranquil man underneath it all. A part of him wishes they hadn’t. That was an ephemeral vision of Shen Qingqiu that was made to be viewed with his eyes only.

He wonders if this was why the jiejies at the Warm Pavilion were so adamant about brushing Shen Yuan’s hair. Was it so they could unlock a pacified version of himself that not even Shen Yuan was aware of?

Shen Qingqiu’s favorite part was when Shen Yuan would take his nails and run them through his scalp. He was sure it was unintentional, but Shen Qingqiu would slightly lean into the touch much like a pet would when it was brushed. A long exhale would release from his body, allowing his muscles to relax in sync with the air leaving his body. Shen Yuan imagined that if the man were a cat, he would be purring at the touch.

It made him thankful that Shen Qingqiu had to be facing away from him so he didn’t have to hide the grin he was always wearing during these sessions. Instead of braiding his hair into a normal braid as usual, he experimentally began further up his head with a small section, grabbing more strands as he moved further down.

It was a skill he picked up from watching and helping his jiejies when they were getting ready. It was a normal hairstyle for girls to wear in his previous life as well. He believed that his younger sister had once called it a French braid. It looked regal in his shizun’s long inky strands.

He made sure it was loose enough for Shen Qingqiu to comfortably wear throughout the night without tension pulling on his scalp and tied it up with a ribbon. Shen Yuan placed the finished braid over the man’s shoulder as usual to inform him that he had finished.

Shen Qingqiu touched the ends of his hair, which was a normal occurrence, but he must’ve been intrigued by the new styling because his hands traveled up to touch the part of his hair that was braided into the back of his head.

Shen Qingqui had turned his head slightly at the movement, and Shen Yuan caught his eyes by accident when the man looked over his shoulder. ”You like?” he asked in sign. His signing felt crude due to his vocabulary lacking as he still scrambled to come up with more signs with Ning Yingying. Despite the rudimentary development, Shen Yuan was almost always able to get a point across when he was talking to his shizun.

”It’s acceptable,” Shen Qingqiu remarked as he finally let his hand fall from his hair.

Shen Yuan hesitated before adding, ”Looks good.”

He was honest. Not many villains are graced with refined good looks. Shen Qingqiu was one of the few, which confused Shen Yuan when he had first met him. Normally villains are driven by envy, and looks can play a factor into why they dislike the protagonist of the story.

Shen Qingqiu was born with a face some men could only dream of. He had a long face, paired with long, sharp features. His cheekbones sat high on his face, giving them the volume some girls in his previous life would pay expensive money to have. His lips were a natural shade of pink, which helped dramatize the color in his green eyes, along with his thick and long dark eyelashes that held a slight curl to them. His nose was long and slim with a saddle bridge. A small mole was visible on the corner of one of his eyes that was easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention.

He was the picture definition of scholarly beauty, and Shen Yuan hopes that he too could have the chance to look like that once this body loses its childlike appearance.

Spotting a bronze mirror across the room, Shen Yuan rose to his feet to collect it. He scanned the room for another but was unsuccessful. He pointed at the mirror and asked, ”More?”

Shen Qingqiu paused before reaching for his sword. Shen Yuan had a chaotic and intrusive thought that the man would unsheathe it inside his home, but he only raised it a few centimeters from inside its scabbard. “Use this.”

Shen Qingqui held his sword as Shen Yuan angled the mirror behind the man’s head so it would reflect the braid’s image into the sword. It took a few seconds for Shen Yuan to align the reflections, but he was successful in finding the best angle in the end. Shen Qingqiu stared at it for a moment before fully sheathing the sword. “It’s late. Head back to the dorms.”

Shen Yuan placed the mirror back where he found it and gave his master a bow goodbye before leaving for the night.

Shen Yuan hated sword lessons.

Most disciples already chose not to interact with him before he started that fight, but they wouldn’t avoid him if they had the misfortune of being teamed up in class. Now the disciples made it clear that they were steering clear of him.

Ning Yingying always volunteered to practice with him, but Shen Yuan was raised to never point a weapon at a girl. To be fair, he was raised to never wield a weapon at all, but that was because he was from the modern era.

Shen Yuan was tired of being paired with the same person over and over again to perform sword forms.

That being said, he would’ve paired with Ning Yingying in a heartbeat if he knew Ming Fan would volunteer to be his sparring partner. The boy was a few years older than he was, and he looked like he never once had to struggle for a meal a day in his life. Physically, he could overpower Shen Yuan easily.

To be fair, Ning Yingying could as well, but Shen Yuan let himself believe that was because she had been on the mountain practicing way longer than he had.

Shen Yuan felt his fellow disciples sparing them glances as they found a spot to practice. He had ended up catching the eye of Zi Chen, and he flashed him a smile with his missing tooth on display. It made the boy look away and usher his sparring partner further away from him.

Ming Fan cleared his throat. “Before we begin today, I just wanted to say…” he trailed off, trying to find the right words. “I wanted to say I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have treated you that way.”

Shen Yuan’s eyes widened. Out of all the things he was expecting, an apology was the least likely. Ming Fan’s bullying was ruthless to the protagonist, and he was unrepentant even as he was subjected to torture of ants in the original novel.

”I thought that your presence was a stain on Shizun’s reputation, and I wanted to punish you for it. I didn’t realize Shizun really does care about you.”

Shen Yuan resisted the need to scoff. He wasn’t sure where he got that idea from, but Shen Yuan couldn’t imagine Shen Qingqiu caring for anything except for himself. That’s what made him the scum villain after all.

Sure, Shen Yuan taught the man his version of sign language and combed his hair at night, but it was all mainly for Shen Qingqiu’s benefit. Shen Qingqiu had only asked to learn sign language because Shang Qinghua was more knowledgeable than him at the time, and it probably interfered with his pride. And the man only let Shen Yuan braid his hair because he needed to sleep at night. And the whole reason those two matters even became a thing was because he didn’t trust Shen Yuan to correctly fix his own medicine. Shen Yuan wasn’t sure where care fit into the equation.

Ming Fan reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag and handed it to him. Shen Yuan opened it curiously and found a small canine inside. His tongue unconsciously massaged the gap in his teeth. “I thought I should give this back to you since it’s yours. By the way, you have one hell of a bite.”

Shen Yuan exhaled a small laugh through his nose and stuffed it into his sleeve. ”Thank you,” he signed.

Ming Fan furrowed his brow as he said, “I don’t know what that means yet.”

Shen Yuan dropped his arms back to his side and exhaled audibly. He was so used to interacting with Ning Yingying and Shen Qingqiu that he had forgotten no one else knew what he was saying. He grabbed Ming Fan’s free hand and wrote it on his palm.

”Thank…you,” Ming Fan read as he wrote. “Uh, yeah, no problem. We’re cool now, right?”

Shen Yuan nodded. If Ming Fan meant his apology, then he was more than ready to move on too.

Chapter Text

Two years came and left, leaving frigid winds to inflict bites of cold air.

The disciple’s uniform donned more layers, but more clothes could only do so much when they were so high up in the mountainous terrain.

Shen Yuan’s fingers swelled red and turned stiff every time he was outside for too long, and he was especially frustrated when his hands turned rough and itchy after every sword practice.

Apparently those who had formed cores did not have to worry about the change in weather. Shen Yuan had confirmed it when Shen Qingqiu made no sign of changing his signature green robes for something heavier. Some disciples of Qing Jing who had been able to develop their qi to a certain stage also weren’t as bothered with the winter compared to the younger disciples.

The disciple clothes had heating talismans sewn into their robes to keep them from freezing in the high altitude. That was the only thing keeping Shen Yuan sane during the drastic change in weather. He had to deal with the cold during the previous winter last year, but knowing what the cold would feel like was never enough preparation.

Shen Yuan had never really handled fire before, but now that he was left in a world without electrical heating, he was starting to realize he was a bit of a pyromaniac. He had never had the chance to go camping in his previous life, so this was the first time someone had handed him a random branch as a poker and told him to watch the open flame. Last year he was considered too young to handle an open flame.

Sometimes to warm themselves, the disciples would light an open campfire in the middle of the practice field so they could keep themselves warm while they were on break for sword practice. Shen Yuan hadn’t been in charge of flames before in the past weeks due to people being hesitant to not accidentally trigger his sporadic violent tendencies. He hadn’t been physically violent since that one time, but it was enough to have disciples watching him warily forever.

Shen Yuan was left with a branch and a small pile of wood from some older disciple who hadn’t been paying attention to go fetch more logs from the woodshed.

The fire pit was cleared of fallen snow a few hours earlier, so it stayed burning brightly. Ning Yingying had silently volunteered herself to throw more wood in the open flames, and Shen Yuan let her throw as much as she wanted because he loved watching the flame rise higher and higher. The disciple who had left would probably be upset when they returned to such a big fire, but they were already on their way to collect more firewood, so Shen Yuan thought it shouldn’t matter in the end.

That logic still didn’t stop him from jumping when he heard, “That’s quite the flame you have there.”

The voice didn’t sound like a disciple. It sounded like an adult. Shen Yuan turned his head nervously to see which adult had come to reprimand them.

Yue Qingyuan was the last person he had expected to see. That big smile he always wore when interacting with others was plastered firmly on his face. Thankfully when the man was interacting with Shen Yuan, his smile was natural. When he was interacting with a peak lord like Shen Qingqiu or even Shang Qinghua, his smile had a habit of turning into a rictus of strain. Shen Yuan thought it must be a lot of effort to hide your true feelings behind pleasantries.

Despite the smile the man had, Shen Yuan used his stick to stop Ning Yingying from adding another log. “I was on the way to visit your Peak Lord when the sight of smoke stopped me,” Yue Qingyuan explained. “There was a lot of smoke, so I wanted to make sure nothing unexpected was in flames.”

Shen Yuan nodded before signing something to Ning Yingying. “He says he’s sorry,” she said, repeating Shen Yuan’s words.

Yue Qingyuan’s eyebrows rose, but he didn’t look too surprised at the exchange. Shen Yuan learned some peak lords knew about his development of sign language through Shang Qinghua, so it wasn’t too surprising to guess Yuan Qingyuan had been told as well.

”I see,” he said, his smile growing slightly. “You have nothing to apologize for right now. You were doing your job of tending the flames, and nothing was amiss when I checked. Just let these logs burn a bit longer before throwing anything else in for now.”

Shen Yuan nodded his head, nudging Ning Yingying to also acknowledge Yue Qingyuan’s words.

Yue Qingyuan didn’t take any disrespect from the small exchange between the kids before asking Ning Yingying, “Do you help Xiao-Yuan with communicating with your fellow disciples?”

”Sometimes,” Ning Yingying answered. “Shizun helps him too. He learns at night when he’s giving A-Yuan his medicine.”

”Shen-shidi does?” Yue Qingyuan asked in shock.

”Yeah,” Ning Yingying confirmed. “I was there for a few sessions to help simulate what a conversation looked like. I wasn’t allowed to drink A-Yuan’s tea since it was his medicine, so Shizun gave me a plate of cookies instead. I enjoyed it more than normal lessons. A-Yuan agrees, don’t you?”

Shen Yuan hesitated before nodding. While he did agree with her words, it was still improper for her to be talking to the Sect Leader as if he were their babysitter rather than the head of their sect. He knew that they were in the body of children, but if someone else from their sect overheard them talking to the Sect Leader so casually, they would be punished for sure.

Shen Yuan nudged Ning Yingying and signed to her something else.

”A-Yuan asked me to ask you why you’ve decided to visit Qing Jing,” Ning Yingying translated for him.

”I’m here to see your shizun,” Yue Qingyuan answered with a smile. “Would you two like to accompany me on an odyssey to the bamboo house? The disciples who have left you to tend the flames seem to have returned.” Shen Yuan turned around to see three boys hauling armfuls of new logs.

“Okay,” Ning Yingying responds, leaving Shen Yuan to end up having to agree with her. When the disciples approached closer, they put the wood they carried on the ground to properly greet their sect leader.

”I am taking these two disciples with me to accompany me on a walk to meet with your shizun; I hope that is okay,” Yue Qingyuan told the boys. None of them were ranked high enough to refuse the man even if they wanted to, so Shen Yuan and Ning Yingying followed the man up the path to the bamboo house.

The snow that had previously fallen had been brushed off the path, allowing them to traverse the terrain easier. Despite the easy walk, Shen Yuan kept himself hunched over with his hands in his armpits to keep his fingers warm.

”Did Xiao-Yuan forget his gloves today?” Yue Qingyuan asked as he noticed the boy keeping his arms crossed.

Shen Yuan shook his head as he signed something to Ning Yingying. “He says it’s hard to sign when it’s cold,” Ning Yingying spoke for him. “It’s true. The gloves given normally come with a place to put your thumb, but it hides all four fingers in the same slot. It’s difficult to understand what he’s saying when he has them on, so he just doesn’t wear gloves. He did it last winter too.”

Yue Qingyuan frowned at the explanation. “Have you mentioned this to your Shizun?”

Ning Yingying answered for him without Shen Yuan having to say anything. “I tried to get him to say something, but A-Yuan says the only time he’s outside is when we have sword practice, and because we’re working out the cold isn’t too bad.”

Yue Qingyuan’s frown deepened. He didn’t say anything else on the matter, but Shen Yuan could tell that the response had troubled him.

Once they had arrived at the bamboo house, Ning Yingying knocked on the door. Shen Qingqiu didn’t keep them waiting for long and opened the door shortly after he heard the knock. His eyes narrowed when he took in Yue Qingyuan alongside Shen Yuan and Ning Yingying.

”What are you doing with my disciples?” Shen Qingqiu snapped at Yue Qingyuan.

”I found them on the way up to see you and asked for some company.”

”Are you so lonely that you require companionship on a short walk?” Shen Qingqiu snarked back. “Ning Yingying, Shen Yuan, return to your lessons.”

”Before they leave,” Yue Qingyuan interrupted. “Shen Yuan said he can’t use his sign language with his gloves. Perhaps a message should be sent to An Ding to supply him with gloves that will fit around each individual finger?”

Shen Yuan stared up in shock. Who knew the sect leader was such a rat? He had been dodging this very conversation for two years and Yue Qingyuan came through like a bulldozer. He formed a gesture, knowing the man wouldn’t understand what was being said. Shen Qingqiu made a weak attempt at hiding a smug smile with his fan. “I agree, ‘snitch’ is the most fitting description.”

Shen Yuan changed his betrayed stare from Yue Qingyuan to Shen Qingqiu. Shen Qingqiu never went out of his way to translate for him unless he needed to, which was why he was so shocked he had ratted on him too. Not only did he tattle, but he also used a much harsher meaning. Normally the word just meant traitor. Shen Yuan didn’t know what to think about allegedly calling the Sect Leader a rat. Shen Yuan would hide his face behind his hands if he didn’t need them.

’Whatever old man feud you two have going on, I want to be left out of it,’ Shen Yuan thought to himself exhaustedly.

Instead of looking miffed, Yue Qingyuan laughed heartily at the antics. “I apologize for snitching, as you phrased it. I was only trying to look out for your well-being during your time here on Qing Jing.

”I can look after my own disciples without interference,” Shen Qingqiu snapped, a fan hovering over his lower face. Shen Yuan nodded in agreement, not because he agreed entirely with the statement (there was a whole novel dedicated to the sentiment that he could not look after his own disciples), but because he did not think other peak lords needed to give their opinion on what Shen Yuan needed or didn’t need. “Shen Yuan, Ning Yingying, find something to do while we speak,” their shizun dismissed them.

The two disciples bowed before the two men before Ning Yingying grabbed the younger boy’s hand and sprinted away before anything else could be said.

They only made it a few paces away from the cottage before a new voice interrupted them. “Was that Sect Leader Yue-zongzhu?” Ming Fan asked as he approached.

”Yeah,” Ning Yingying answered. “He’s a snitch.”

Shen Yuan looked at her with an indignified look. ”I said T.R.A.I.T.O.R,” Shen Yuan clarified, spelling the word out individually with his fingers.

“Shizun called him a snitch, so he’s a snitch,” Ning Yingying responded stubbornly.

Shen Yuan rubbed his fingers on his temples. He could mark this as one of the many times he had been misinterpreted since he had begun signing. If the benefits of signing didn’t outweigh writing his thoughts, he would’ve switched back immediately. At least then he didn’t have to worry about the possibility of his messages being misinterpreted.

”Should we be talking about Yue-zongzhu like that?” Ming Fan asked hesitantly.

Since his time here, Shen Yuan has been able to get a better read on Ming Fan. No longer did he think he was a character with a low IQ. Shen Yuan now saw the boy as an easily impressionable kid who would be influenced by others rather than thinking for himself.

It made so much sense now that Shen Yuan had an inside perspective of the situation. Ming Fan never raised a hand on anyone in PIDW except for Luo Binghe. He had probably been seeking the approval of his master since he was a young boy. It was sad that it had only led to his demise.

Because Shen Yuan wasn’t at odds with Peak Leader Shen Qingqiu and Ming Fan respected his master far above the opinion of his peers, Shen Yuan didn’t have to worry if Ming Fan would attempt to bully him again. Ming Fan only ever acted to improve the opinion others held of him, especially Shen Qingqiu. Harming the boy who was personally given tea from his master twice a day would’ve done Ming Fan more harm than good. That was why Shen Yuan was so sure Ming Fan never approached him with the idea of revenge.

It made him feel bad for the original Ming Fan. The original Ming Fan had just been following Shen Qingqiu’s example. While that didn’t wash him of his sins, it must’ve felt terrible to die for upholding his shizun’s authority; like a soldier dying for the decisions his leaders made.

Maybe Ming Fan’s loyalty could extend past the need for validation from authority and PIDW never got the chance to do a character dive on him. That was always a possibility, knowing that hack of an author.

Either way, Shen Yuan didn’t care much. Ming Fan was at the bottom of his lists of worries. Since his System wanted to reform Shen Qingqiu, Ming Fan could experience some grace and be saved from his fate as well. He was already showing promise by hanging out with Shen Yuan compared to his peers. He even took it upon himself to learn a few signs. While his knowledge wasn’t as extensive as Shen Qingqiu’s or even Ning Yingying’s, he was able to engage in a short exchange without needing a piece of paper.

Shen Yuan really was collecting his very own gang of misfits and donned the task of setting them straight. Shang Qinghua had complained to him how hard it was to follow Mobei-jun, but that demon was the deuteragonist of the novel, and Shen Yuan was already in the process of straightening out two of PIDW’s villains without a voice of his own. Shen Yuan’s capability really was unparalleled.

Shen Yuan signed to Ning Yingying to translate for him. “A-Yuan says the sect leader likes him, so he lets him get away with things.”

Ming Fan scoffed. “Just another adult Shen-shidi has wrapped around his finger.”

Normally Shen Yuan would have responded back with a sarcastic remark, but comparing the way the two addressed him made him pause.

”Why do you call me A-Yuan and not A-Shen?” he asked Ning Yingying. He didn’t try addressing Ming Fan, knowing he wouldn’t understand him.

Normally the address didn’t bother him, but Ning Yingying was the closest to Luo Binghe in PIDW, and she even referred to him by ‘A-Luo.’ Everyone else had no problem with using his last name, so it was strange to be addressed so lightly.

“Before Shizun accepted me as a Qing Jing disciple, I called him Shen-daozhang. It felt like if I called you Shen-shidi, then I would also be improperly addressing Shizun even if you aren’t family. I know you’re two different people, but that’s the logic I followed in my head,” Ning Yingying answered with a shrug.

Shen Yuan just stared in disbelief. He had known plenty of people with the exact same last name, and that didn’t stop him from giving them the correct honorific. It was too late to complain now, seeing as both of them were already used to ‘A-Yuan.’

Shaking his thoughts away, Shen Yuan decided to make the most of having Shen Qingqiu’s two closest disciples in front of him. ”What does Shizun like?” He signed to Ning Yingying again, making her translate to Ming Fan.

”Why do you want to know?” Ming Fan asked as he furrowed his brow. “How much closer do you have to be to Shizun before you’re satisfied? He hardly interacts with his disciples outside of us.”

’I don’t even have enough points to speak yet after two years, and he’s asking me to feel satisfied,’ Shen Yuan thought to himself with a scoff. ’He doesn’t know it yet, but it’s his life at stake too. I’m trying to save you from the most ridiculous death you could dream of.’

”Shizun likes his fans,” Ning Yingying helpfully answered his question. “He has a big collection, but he only ever uses the expensive ones.”

Shen Yuan thought about the exquisite comb he used every night on Shen Qingqiu’s hair and had to agree. He wondered if there was a more generic comb his shizun had lying around that he hadn’t seen yet.

Shen Yuan wasn’t able to think much longer when he watched as Yue Qingyuan made his way down the path. “I guess he’s done speaking with Shizun,” Ming Fan commented as they watched him go.

Yue Qingyuan seemed to have noticed a few pairs of eyes on him and turned his head to find the trio standing not too far away. Instead of going out of his way to meet with them this time, he waved at them instead.

Ning Yingying and Ming Fan waved back, and Shen Yuan waved his hand more rigidly instead. “A-Yuan says ‘later’!” Ming Fan surprised Shen Yuan by translating for him.

Yue Qingyuan’s smile grew as he tried his best to replicate the movement. There was no need for him to do so since Shen Yuan had no trouble hearing, but the intent had warmed him slightly amidst the snowy landscape.

Once the sect leader came and went, Shen Qingqiu came out of the bamboo house a few moments later. “Qing Jing has received an assignment I think will be beneficial for the disciples who are old enough to go down the mountain for the first time. I want you three to round up those disciples,” Shen Qingqiu said, but stopped shortly when his eyes fell on Shen Yuan. He must’ve realized the dilemma of having a mute boy relay his message. “Instead of gathering disciples, you can go to An Ding and order the supplies we need. I’ll send you off with a list.”

Shen Yuan tried to not look too cheerful about the assignment in fear the man would retract it. He hasn’t been able to talk to Shang Qinghua much since they lived on different peaks and one was a peak lord while the other was a disciple. Shen Yuan was able to send messages, but it was hard to communicate when they were saddled with one-way communication.

Ning Yingying and Ming Fan left quietly while Shen Yuan followed Shen Qingqiu back to the bamboo house. He shifted his weight back and forth anxiously as he watched his master write words down with a brush.

“Quit moving your feet,” Shen Qingqiu snapped, eyes still on the paper.

Shen Yuan forced his feet to stand in one single spot, but waiting in silence made him feel even more jittery.

Shen Qingqiu set his brush down when he finished and used his fan to dry the ink with three quick flicks. Shen Yuan outstretched his arms to take it from him before Shen Qingqiu retracted the paper before he could grab it. “You are to just drop off this paper. Don’t make me send someone to collect you if you do not return in a timely manner.”

Shen Yuan nodded before signing, ”Yes, Shizun.”

Satisfied, Shen Qingqiu finally gave him the paper.

Shen Yuan decided not to press any more of his luck, signing Shen Qingqiu a goodbye before making a swift exit through the door.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan let the door to Shang Qinghua’s office open with a loud bang.

Said peak lord was currently hunched over with a steamed bun jutting halfway out of his mouth, hanging on by the loose grip of his teeth. Shang Qinghua screamed slightly at the sound, causing the half-eaten food to tumble out of his mouth and onto the papers in front of him.

Realizing it was just Shen Yuan, he picked the bun back up from the table and took a bite after clearing his throat. “Oh hey, I didn’t know you were coming. You could’ve sent me a message. You’re the one with the text message DLC.”

Shen Yuan stared back blankly before pulling up his chat log.

[Peerless Cucumber: I did.]

Shang Qinghua scoffed, eyes focusing elsewhere so he could pull up his System. “No, you did not—oh wait, you did! Sorry, I didn’t see it.”

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes before placing the paper he was sent with on the table in front of him. Shang Qinghua took a look at the paper before saying, “You could’ve had one of my disciples take care of this. It’s already bad enough with the other peak lords acting like I’m a pack mule.”

[Peerless Cucumber: I wasn’t transmigrated to listen to your woes. I did try to talk to your disciples on the way in, but you apparently gave me permission to walk into your office. Don’t be mad at me for being such a mess.]

Shang Qinghua gasped. “Don’t you know you now live in a time period where it’s expected to show some respect to your elders? Especially elders in leadership positions.”

[Peerless Cucumber: I’m older than you think I am.]

“That…makes a lot of sense actually. If you combined my age from our previous world with my age here, I’d be considered geriatric by their standards. Did you also get reborn as a baby?”

Shen Yuan shuddered at the idea of Shang Qinghua as a wrinkly newborn. He shook his head to expel the terrifying thought.

[Peerless Cucumber: If you were born with the memories of your past life, why are you in the position you are now?]

Shang Qinghua laughed. “Is this you saying I’m more than qualified for this position? Because I think so too.” His smile faded when Shen Yuan shook his head. “Rude.”

Shang Qinghua walked around his desk and took a seat on the wall next to the still-standing Shen Yuan. “The system dictated my life while I grew up—again. My first word the system chose for me in this life was ‘niang.’ It wasn’t ‘die’ like most kids, despite it being easier to say, because this body doesn’t have a daddy. Some things never change, I guess. Anyway, everything was predestined for me. Not everyone has the chance to go rogue as an OC.”

[Peerless Cucumber: I think not knowing is worse.]

Shen Yuan slid down so he was sitting next to him, fingers poised so he could continue to type on his invisible keyboard.

[Peerless Cucumber: Who knows if I’ll be able to stop Shen Qingqiu once Luo Binghe arrives and he still decides to kill everyone in Cang Qiong? Or if these reformation points will have any impact on the story in the first place? If I were you, I’d find the Sun-Moon Dew Mushroom and plant it to prepare for my inevitable death.]

“The Sun-Moon Dew Mushroom,” Shang Qinghua repeated. “Remind me again, what is that?”

Shen Yuan stared at him in disbelief. Once he rose from his stupor, he cupped his hands as if he were praying and placed his fingers so they encompassed his nose and took a long and deep breath.

“Hey, don’t be like that. You know how many chapters I wrote? It’s not my fault if I forget a thing or two—AH! Stop hitting me! Why do you always resort to violence?”

[Peerless Cucumber: How are you useless in your own novel?]

“That’s rude! You know, words of affirmation work as a better motivator than negative stimuli,” Shang Qinghua said as he rubbed his sore arm. “Look at One Piece! Over a thousand chapters and more plot holes than I can count, but it still was a piece of media loved dearly!”

[Peerless Cucumber: I can’t believe you just compared PIDW to One Piece. That’s like comparing a McDonald’s burger to a Michelin-star-prepared burger.]

“One Piece shows just as many tits as Proud Immortal Demon Way!” Shang Qinghua tried to defend himself.

[Peerless Cucumber: One Piece didn’t need its main character to perform papapa with every girl he happened to save to make a compelling story. Just admit you’re trash, and so is your writing.]

Shang Qinghua looked at his System and said, “I had so many PIDW fans, and you chose to send this one to me?”

[Peerless Cucumber: You should be thankful the system sent me and not some mindless, horny fan. I doubt they would’ve remembered the Sun-Moon Mushroom and its benefits.

Shang Qinghua rolled his eyes. ”At least they would’ve spared my mental health. Now please enlighten me, O’ Scholarly One, what is the Sun-Moon Mushroom, and how can it possibly help my situation?”

[Peerless Cucumber: The Sun-Moon Mushroom was used by an unimportant villain in PIDW who grew it to compose a soulless body for himself to possess once his original body died. You can grow it, and if your original body dies, you have insurance and can separate yourself from Mobei-jun after your death.]

Shang Qinghua furrowed his brow as he reread the new information. “I remember now! That could actually work! Bro, what could I have done without you? Death might not be the end! I’ve taken multiple beatings and died once. What’s dying one more time for freedom’s sake?”

[Peerless Cucumber: You implied you would’ve been better off with your barbaric fans.]

“Did I? I can’t recall,” Shang Qinghua chuckled. “We’re an unstoppable duo together. The author and his biggest fan!”

[Peerless Cucumber: Biggest H.A.T.E.R.]

“Only a fan would’ve remembered something as insignificant as the Sun-Moon Mushroom.”

[Peerless Cucumber: A good author would’ve remembered his own plot devices. Yet here we are.]

“I elect to ignore that because I’m in a good mood right now,” Shang Qinghua said as he gave Shen Yuan pats on the head. “Oh my sweet summer not-child. We survived one death. What’s one more?”

Shen Yuan knocked the hand away from his head.

[Peerless Cucumber: We’ll both grow a body. That way I can survive too if things go topside with Shen Qingqiu.]

“Good call,” Shang Qinghua agreed. “Your system is trying to develop a relationship with Shen Qingqiu, just like mine is trying to push me closer to Mobei-jun. A close relationship with Shen Qingqiu secures a death from Luo Binghe.”

Shen Yuan shuddered at the thought.

“On second thought, how old are you?” Shang Qinghua asked as he sized him up. “In this body, you don’t look a day past eleven.” Shen Yuan pinched his far arm with his nails. “OW! Can you go a day without being violent, or are you mentally wired to lash out?”

Shen Yuan huffed.

[Peerless Cucumber: I died at twenty, and I’ve been here for 3 years.]

“Dang, right at your prime. At least you got a few years of drinking in before you hit the casket. I don’t remember my exact age, but I was in my twenties too, although I was definitely a little older than you. I’ve been here a lot longer than in our motherland,” Shang Qinghua supplied with a sigh. “I’m somewhere in my forties here. You stop keeping track after a while. There are too many technicalities to consider when calculating.”

Shen Yuan eyed the man for another time. It made sense that he was much older than he appeared, given that he’d transmigrated as a baby. Still, talking to him felt like dealing with a rebellious teenager.

Shen Yuan decided that thinking about the logistics would only bring a headache instead of any revelations, so he decided to change the subject.

[Peerless Cucumber: Get up and get me the items on the list. Shen Qingqiu threatened me to not be out too long.]

Shang Qinghua rose from his spot on the floor. “The last thing I want is for Shen Qingqiu to come knocking on my door. What are the things on the list?”

Shang Qinghua studied the list once he made his way back over to the desk. “Two pairs of fingered gloves? Weren’t there already mandated gloves Qing Jing had been supplied with at the beginning of winter?”

Shen Yuan sighed.

[Peerless Cucumber: They’re for me. Yue Qingyuan ratted on me. It’s hard to sign with the standard gloves, but I didn’t complain about it. I almost managed two winters without it. I don’t know why they’re making a big deal.]

Shang Qinghua took a glance at Shen Yuan’s hands. Despite being indoors, they were still swollen and red from the cold outside for a prolonged time. “I could understand a request like that coming from Yue-zongzhu, he’s obsessed with you for some reason, but for Shen Qingqiu to be the one giving the order? Are you sure you don’t have enough reformation points yet?”

[Peerless Cucumber: If I did, then I wouldn’t have to talk to you like this.]

“That’s fair,” Shang Qinghua conceded. “Let me give this to one of my disciples so they can collect them for me. They’re like having legal servants.”

A few moments later, Shen Yuan was being weighed down with a few qiankun pouches. “Are you sure you don’t need help carrying this back?” Shang Qinghua asked as he was sending him off. “I won’t go personally, considering the last time I tried spending time on Qing Jing, but I could send a disciple up with you. It’s like having mini servants at your beck and call.”

Shen Yuan went to place his hands on his system’s keyboard but decided against it, conserving his energy. Instead, he gave the man a shake of his head.

”Alright, have a safe trip,” Shang Qinghua waved. “I’ll look into the thing we talked about,” he said with an ill-disguised wink.

Shen Yuan felt his eyes roll again for the umpteenth time and sighed a long sigh. He was already not expecting much from his research. The man was a busy peak lord on a logistics peak. Shen Yuan would have a much better chance at finding hints in the Qing Jing library as a disciple.

He didn’t feel the need to discourage him, still giving him a nod of his head.

Shen Yuan came back to Qing Jing and debated on where he should drop the load off. His arms felt heavy after carrying it for so long, and he rolled his shoulders to alleviate some of the pain.

Thankfully some disciples noticed the luggage and took it so they could drop it off in the dray they were preparing for the trip.

Before they could take away everything, Shen Yuan rummaged out the gloves that had been tucked away in one of the qiankun pouches. He placed one pair on his hands and experimentally wiggled his fingers to see if they fit.

Satisfied, he tucked the others into his pocket and left for the library. He was halfway there when Ning Yingying stopped him. “What are you doing? Shouldn’t you pack since we leave tomorrow?”

Shen Yuan shook his head. It made sense for Shen Qingqiu to bring Ning Yingying and Ming Fan, but what could a mute boy do on a mission? He assumed that despite all the excited commotion, he was bound to be excluded. “Not going,” he signed to her.

“What do you mean you’re not going? Shizun included you in the names of people who were coming.”

Shen Yuan raised his brows in surprise. She must have visited Shen Qingqiu after he had left because she pulled a list from her pocket. Sure enough, his name was right at the very top of the list. Shen Yuan took the paper from her hands to make sure he wasn’t reading it incorrectly.

”Shizun told me a bit more about the mission while you were away,” Ning Yingying informed him as she looped her arm around his, pulling him away. “Come on, I’ll tell you as you pack.”

As he was dragged to the dorms, she began talking, “Apparently a town paid Cang Qiong because there was a disturbance in the forest next to them. Apparently further inside the forest contains a high-level of fang shui, which is why Shizun believed they were being affected. There have been Long Snout Serpentstags migrating further from the forest and encroaching on human territory and killing livestock.”

Shen Yuan digested the information before signing, “Fire?”

Ning Yingying nodded excitedly. “Exactly! Long Snout Serpentstags hate fire, so Shizun is having us lure it away with fire so the stronger cultivators can finish it off.”

Shen Yuan’s mood dropped again. Here he was getting excited over his first mission, only for them to be acting as torches. Despite not having a spiritual sword, Shen Yuan was quickly making progress in his cultivation. He felt like a fool for letting himself feel hope for a mission.

Shen Yuan let out a long sigh. Maybe he was thinking too big. This was the first time he would be going down the mountain since he lived in the Red Pavilion. Maybe he won’t get to use his cultivation, but he will be acquainted again with the world outside of his sect.

He doubted he would be able to return to the Red Pavilion with such a large entourage, but the thought of finally being able to step down off the mountains had him brimming with excitement.

Before they left, he was going to lecture Ning Yingying to not venture too far from the group, touch strange or unusual objects, and to tell others where she was going before she left them. Now that he was sure he was going too, he would be able to watch out for her while they were together on the mission.

Although she was showing outstanding promise in academics, no amount of intelligence could outwit a damsel-in-distress wife plot. He wasn’t sure if Ning Yingying would be affected because the protagonist had yet to show his face, but it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.

In fact, it could serve as practice to help protect Ning Yingying once Binghe arrived at Qing Jing Peak. Maybe he could use saving Binghe’s first wife as a way to avoid death in the future.

Turning to her, he signed, “Stay by my side when we leave.”

“Duh,” she said with a shrug. “Who else will understand you? Except for Shizun, of course.”

Shen Yuan wasn’t expecting the snark and flipped her off. Ever since he had first done so to Shang Qinghua, he had added the gesture to his everyday sign language. Okay, maybe not every day, but he used it now just as much as he did in his previous life.

Consequently, that meant Ning Yingying picked up on the gesture and its meaning. While he never got around to specifically explaining what it meant, she knew it had to be a crude gesture. His heart dropped the one time Shen Qingqiu caught him flipping the bird to the girl, inquiring what the new sign meant.

He can’t remember how he dodged the question, but his anxiety kept his middle finger down for weeks.

Unfortunately, Ning Yingying didn’t get the message, so it had begun to gain traction between the disciples. They’d started using it so much that Shen Yuan worried he might have accidentally set off a domino effect that could ripple through history. He would have a scintilla of care if the underlying cause wasn’t because of his system’s influence.

That was the reason he paid her no mind when she raised her middle finger back at him in retaliation. She only put it down when the threat of Shen Yuan’s jaw came close to biting the raised finger. She knew too well about Shen Yuan’s biting hazard and settled for sticking out her tongue instead.

Despite the impending mission, Shen Yuan still found himself settled in the bamboo house drinking his medicinal tea that night. The brew warmed him slowly, leaving him to forget about the cold weather just outside the door.

Shen Qingqiu was quiet. Shen Yuan usually hated the days he was like that. Shen Yuan was meant to be the silent one, leaving Shen Qingqiu in charge to fill the silent gaps. Shen Yuan was almost certain he was the only person in existence who’d ever considered Shen Qingqiu the talkative one.

Shen Qingqiu was a reserved man who held no close relationships. He’s the type to close doors before someone could attempt to open them. That’s why Shen Yuan was so surprised he had gotten as close as he had to the man over the few years.

Shen Yuan made sure he always kept a barrier up when dealing with his shizun at first. Every time Shen Yuan corrected Shen Qingqiu in sign, he kept it respectfully curt. He’d figured out early that any attempt at friendliness just came across as conceited in Shen Qingqiu’s eyes.

Two Years Earlier

Shen Yuan frowned as he shook his head. He had been in the bamboo house in the morning to practice sign language with Shen Qingqiu. They had been practicing linking sign gestures together to form a sentence, but he was beginning to realize Shen Qingqiu had been mixing up a small thing. “Chores” and “training” had been substituted for each other by his master. Shen Yuan had always used them interchangeably, so of course the man misunderstood.

That was okay. Until it started throwing him off. It had taken him a few days to even realize the mix-up had occurred. He had thought about saying nothing, but Shen Yuan was a perfectionist. Normally he could let things slide if he didn’t care enough, but this was an entire language he was creating, and using it wouldn’t work until the few people who cared enough to learn could understand too.

Shen Yuan caught him understanding it wrong again that night, telling him that his “training” should be done for the night after Shen Yuan signed he had come back from doing his chores. Training still made sense logically. He did train that day. Training and chores had similar gestures, done deliberately so they could be used interchangeably. These were the main duties of a disciple, after all.

But training ended hours ago, and he had just come by after finishing his chores. That was the true meaning behind the sign he had shown him earlier. Shen Qingqiu hadn’t meant to mix them up. Shen Yuan knew he was talking about chores, and that made all the difference.

He hadn’t needed to reach for a paper and pen for a while, so Shen Yuan noticed the way the man’s eyes zeroed in on the action.

‘This lowly one has made an egregious error, and this master has suffered because of it,’ he wrote hesitantly. ‘This disciple asks for his master’s forgiveness and the chance to amend it right.’

“Go on,” Shen Qingqiu replied authoritatively, whipping his fan open to hide his face.

Shen Yuan wrote the two words he needed on the paper and pointed to each, showing him their respective sign.

Shen Qingqiu was quiet, making Shen Yuan feel more and more crushed by the thick and uncomfortable silence. Finally he spoke, “You said it was your fault.”

“What?” Shen Yuan signed this time.

”The only way this can be your fault is if you taught me wrong,” Shen Qingqiu scoffed. “Are you as a disciple saying your shizun is so stupid he cannot learn from a mere disciple?”

Shen Yuan curved himself inwards unconsciously, not used to being reprimanded like this. He had prepared for it, knowing he was dealing with a scum villain, but to actually endure it outside of his imagination felt terrifying.

Shen Yuan reached for paper and brush, abandoning the sign language altogether. ‘This lowly one is to blame. He led you to believe what you were saying was true, only to go back on his words. I—’

His writing smudged when he heard the loud click of a fan closing. He was bracing in preparation for the wood of the fan to smack the top of his head. Normally when Shen Qingqiu did it, it never hurt much. But now Shen Qingqiu was in a terrible mood, and there were dozens of chapters of PIDW explaining why Shen Qingqiu being in a terrible mood was a dreadful thing.

”Go back to the dorms,” Shen Qingqiu finally ordered, opening his fan back up to hide his face.

He had mocked Shang Qinghua for his cowardice before, but Shen Yuan also knew precisely when it was time to run, and bid his master farewell.

The next day Shen Yuan acted as if nothing had happened. Shen Qingqiu also made no effort to speak on it again.

The next few times they ran into issues, Shen Yuan corrected them with quickness and without the respectful rambling he had done the first time. The man was much more agreeable, correcting himself swiftly every time. Shen Yuan was graced again with a light penalty in terms of PIDW.

Present Day

Now that Shen Yuan had spent more time with Shen Qingqiu, he knew Shen Qingqiu’s pride was his greatest asset. He hated losing, and he hated it even more when he thought people were looking down on him.

Shen Yuan had never looked down on him, but Shen Yuan thought being babied by your own disciple wasn’t the best feeling. That’s why he understood the way he reacted. Shen Qingqiu wanted to spend more time learning than listening to someone kowtow and praise him excessively.

It was moments like those that made him glad he couldn’t speak. Shen Yuan had never been a talker, but he did know how to put on an act. His first instinct would’ve been to tell Shen Qingqiu all he thought his shizun wanted to hear. That would have only served him in pushing the man further from him.

Shen Yuan didn’t want to praise the system, but perhaps they knew what they were doing. It was easier to let someone break down their own walls instead of trying to forcefully tear them down.

Shen Qingqiu had to open himself up first to interact with Shen Yuan, and that’s what made this relationship, one that shouldn’t have worked, function.

Shen Yuan no longer felt jumpy every time he heard the man speak.

“Where is your coat?” His teacher asked him as he watched him above his fan.

”Left it. Accident.”

”Clearer,” Shen Qingqiu barked, rapping his fan on the table.

”I accidentally left my coat in the dorms,” Shen Yuan signed, more articulate this time. In the beginning, Shen Yuan originally made his sentences choppy. It helped him communicate efficiently, and Ning Yingying picked up on it quickly. It was Shen Qingqiu who complained, sending him away with homework to make his sentences more fluid and fluent.

Shen Yuan had complained about it at first, especially since he was already burdened with creating the language. He already felt the weight of creating sign language from almost scratch.

But making his sign sound less caveman and more like an actual language gave him a dopamine rush every time he signed. He felt more human when Shen Qingqiu understood him speaking clearly without a pen and paper.

But he still used choppier sentences around Ning Yingying, turning the signing pattern into what could be considered slang.

Shen Qingqiu finally seemed ready to respond.

”There’s a chest in the side room. You can find a coat there. I can’t have a disciple freezing tonight because he forgot to bring his correct attire. You will return to the dorms right after you finish your tea to prepare for the mission tomorrow.”

Shen Yuan stared up in shock before remembering to thank him. “This one thanks his Shizun for his benevolence,” he signed, following with a bow.

Shen Yuan stayed with his chin tucked as he felt his master’s gaze. His eyes snapped to the bag that was suddenly passed to him. “You will still come to me in the morning and the evening we are away, but you will have to make your own medicine in case your throat acts up. I believe I have prepared the tea enough for you to know what it should taste like.”

Shen Yuan nodded in agreement, taking the bag and slipping it away safely. “This one thanks Shizun again,” he signed.

After he forced down the rest of the tea, he wandered into the side room and opened the chest inside. It was disciple clothes, and Shen Yuan realized that the man must’ve kept his uniform from when he was a disciple. Shen Yuan felt bewildered at the revelation. The man didn’t seem like the sentimental type.

Shen Yuan dug through the clothes to finally pull out the disciple coat. He wasn’t expecting the coat to be as big as it was. It looked like a coat that could fit a young teen. Normally kids around that age could use their qi to regulate their body temperature.

Shen Qingqiu portrayed the energy of a prodigy. If the man was powerful enough to become a peak lord, then it was strange for him to be delayed in the regulation of his own qi.

‘Perhaps he was tall growing up,’ Shen Yuan thought to himself. That wouldn’t be too far-fetched. Shen Qingqiu was tall as an adult, so it would make sense to imagine him as a tall and lanky kid.

Deciding not to spend more time thinking it over, Shen Yuan threw the coat over his body and straightened the clothes inside the chest so they didn’t appear rumpled in his search and began to make his exit.

He caught Shen Qingqiu’s eyes as he found himself standing right outside the door. Shen Qingqiu eyed the way the coat dwarfed him, and Shen Yuan tugged the sleeves so his hands would stick out. “Thanking Shizun for his kindness.”

[+50 S-Points. + 25 B-Points]

Shen Qingqiu didn’t say anything in return, just kept his eyes fixed on the boy in a coat far too big for his body. Not wanting to stand under the scrutiny for much longer, he opened the door to the bamboo house and left.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan hated riding horses.

While they had their uses before the age of technology, nothing beat the modern modes of transportation. Goodbye to the days of luxury interior leather seats—hello to rough leather saddles instead.

He had only ridden horses in practice on the peak, each time only for an hour or so. Now he was going to be forced to ride for a full day on horseback. He could think of no worse torture.

To make matters worse, Shen Qingqiu had his own little carriage to tuck himself away throughout the trip. Everyone else had to suffer on horseback with a sore bum and torso, but at least their shizun had a comfortable ride.

Shen Yuan wasn’t a quitter. His dedication to finishing the worst piece of fiction proved just that, but he was absolutely a complainer. The tirades he left in the comment sections of PIDW fan spaces as Peerless Cucumber showcased his assiduous desire to tear Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky’s work to shreds.

Not being allowed to speak meant he couldn’t even complain in peace even if he wanted to. His butt ached from the hard saddle the same way it did when he rode a bicycle for too long. Not only was his butt sore, but his lower back was also in so much pain that only a chiropractor had the capability to fix it. 

He was still relatively new to horseback riding. There was no need for him to travel during his time at the Warm Red Pavilion, and he certainly never had the desire to learn in the modern era. He had to learn to ride as a part of his training at Qing Jing, but he was still too much of a novice to take his hands off the reins.

The horse he rode was considered a temperamental horse when he first met it. Back when he was being bullied, she was the horse he was normally given when the disciples were being taught how to correctly saddle and ride a horse. The horse was young and lacked the proper training, so not only was Shen Yuan learning how to control a horse, but the animal was also learning too.

It was a steep learning curve. She used to buck constantly, and sometimes when he was riding, she would begin to bolt as if she wanted to run freely despite him still being on her back. 

Once Shen Yuan had gotten into his fight, they stopped pressuring the misbehaving horse onto him, but Shen Yuan felt like a big fat cheater once he completed a lap on a new well-behaved stallion.

Shen Yuan was already in charge of reforming the scum villain; how much harder could it be to train a misbehaving horse? The answer to his problems was always carrying treats. He found food to be a big motivator for her, so he began to reward her with treats when she completed a full ride without trying to buck him or if she stayed still when he saddled her up. In true Pavlov fashion, modern psychology bore fruits of success, and the horse went from a delinquent teen to a rideable well-behaved friend.

He named her Taoqi as a play on her unruly behavior. She grew into her all-black fur, giving her coat a beautiful shine in the sun. Overall she was a delight to be around now, but the smell of the occasional dumps she would take along the road had him missing automobiles.

What happened to the flying sword magic he had been promised? Not only was he being robbed of his voice, but of flying swords as well?

Apparently cultivators were able to fly on their swords. He had been a passenger on Shen Qingqiu’s sword the night he met the man, but it was a rare occurrence. Flying swords posed a hazard for everyday people, so their use was largely limited to training, missions, and emergencies.

So when the groups’ path crossed a river, Shen Qingqiu granted everyone a few minutes of rest while the horses drank from the stream throughout their respite.

There were the combined sounds of groans of relief as disciples hobbled their way off their horses and walked off their stiff legs. Shen Yuan hopelessly massaged his tight thighs by the stream when the lotus caught his attention.

Normally he wouldn’t give flowers the time of day, but the color of the stamen halted him. Instead of the normal yellow hue, this stamen was bright crimson, reminding him of the color of blood. It contrasted beautifully against the purple petals. As if things weren’t already complicated enough, the cold made it impossible for ordinary flowers to bloom.

Ignoring the pain in his legs, he stood and began to slowly wade into the water. The cold shocked his nerves, making him tense from the ache of the temperature drop. The bottom of the river gradually dropped, causing him to have to tread the water a small portion of the way. Once he arrived at the petal, he ripped the flower from its stem. Before he could start to swim his way back, a voice called out for him.

”A-Yuan! What are you doing?” Ning Yingying asked from the edge of the river.

He tried to form a response, but he realized he needed his hands to stay afloat. He grabbed the lotus pod next to the flower and raised it so she could see. Once he swam back far enough so his feet touched the ground, he made the sign for food and pointed at the pod while hiding the flower behind his back.

”There were snacks that were packed. You didn’t need to do that,” Ning Yingying chastised with her hands on her hips. “Now you’re wet. You realize you’re going to have to ride like that?”

Shen Yuan looked down at his wet robes. She was right. He was soaked, and there was nothing he could do now. He wouldn’t have enough time to find a new set of robes to change out of his soaked ones. He was already sore from riding for hours, and being soaked from the neck up did him no favors.

He knew better than to complain about the situation he put himself in willingly and offered her a lotus seed for her to take. She accepted and unshelled one and popped it in her mouth without another complaint.

He gave her a few more and took the time while she was distracted to load the flower discreetly into a pouch on Taoqi’s saddle.

Shen Yuan did his best to wring out the water, but he was left completely soaked. It didn’t help that the weather was freezing too. He would complain if his heart wasn’t pounding like a drum in his chest. He had happened upon a stroke of luck in finding that flower.

The description of the flower perfectly matched the Blood Soaked Lotus. The flower wasn’t rare for PIDW standards, but it was seasonal and usually difficult to find. It grew in the winter months, and the bloom usually happened right before the waters froze over. It was a blessing that Shen Yuan stumbled upon one by accident.

Normally they were used for decoration purposes, but there was one exception that had been explored in PIDW.

Luo Binghe had been traveling after he merged the human realm and the demon realm, and he happened upon a grieving family. The man of the house died, and his bastard child and wife were found arguing about who would receive the estate. The bastard child lived with his mother, who wanted her son to claim the estate so they could live freely.

A demon gave Luo Binghe advice to wait at the river before nightfall and pluck the flowers that bloomed before the ice. He had to wait a week before he caught sight of the plant sprouting.

Those flowers were the Blood Soaked Lotus. Apparently it was used in settling matters of birthright. Luo Binghe had the bastard son cut his hand and bleed onto the stamen. He received blood from the corpse that had conveniently not rotted yet and waited for a reaction.

Normally, when blood of relatives mixes, it causes the red stamen to glow an eerie red. When there was no reaction, the truth was eventually revealed that the son had killed the father after he and his mother conspired to steal his wealth. Luo Binghe claimed the estate for himself, citing laws that denied women the right to own property, and in doing so, left the man’s widow with nothing but a dead husband. The widow consequently joined Binghe’s massive harem, never to be referenced again.

Shen Yuan thought the story was stupid at the time. Luo Binghe had more than enough wealth as emperor, and he practically robbed an innocent widow and then rewarded her with papapa. It was one of the many plot points he complained about publicly. He never thought he would be thankful for the story.

There was no inheritance waiting for Shen Yuan, but there still was the uncanny resemblance to his shizun that remained unsolved. If he could find a way for Shen Qingqiu to spill his blood onto the stamen, he could potentially learn if this body was related to Shen Qingqiu.

[Obtained a high-level item: Blood Soaked Lotus. + 10 S-Points. + 10 B-Points.]

Shen Yuan bit his lip to try to hide his smile as his System confirmed his suspicions. He could preserve the flower with his qi while he found a way to collect Shen Qingqiu’s blood.

Shen Yuan dug further into the pouch and pulled a few warming talismans and placed them all over his body. While his cloak did protect him from the cold with the warming talismans stitched inside, it clung uncomfortably, and the wind constantly blew it back, leaving him frigid. His teeth began to chatter subconsciously, and Shen Yuan ripped it off and quickly searched for a replacement in his sack.

He stopped as he came across Shen Qingqiu’s cloak he had worn the night before. He had packed it with the intention of returning it, but in his desperation for warmth, he sent a glance at Shen Qingqiu’s carriage to make sure he was still inside it. Once he was sure his master couldn’t see, he tore it out of his bag and wrapped it around himself. The edge of the robe dropped dangerously close to the ground, and Shen Yuan scooped it up in his hands in fear that the water trail he left would dirty it.

Someone called for the end of their break, and Shen Yuan almost tripped over the length of it as he slung his body over Toaqi to continue their journey.

Shen Qingqiu met with the man who paid for Cang Qiong’s services inside of his home. A few older disciples along with Ming Fan accompanied him in the meeting, and those who were left behind were given the task of finding an inn to house people for the night.

Shen Yuan and Ning Yingying stayed with the horses while they waited. Shen Yuan stood by Toaqi, but he was actually sending small amounts of qi to the Blood Soaked Lotus to keep it alive and nourished.

Once he was finished, he looked to find Ning Yingying only to realize she was gone. The mission hadn’t even started, and he was possibly already encountering the wife-causing-trouble plot.

He gave Toaqi one good pat on the snout before rushing out of the stables to find her. He didn’t have to search for long when he found her rushing over. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back to the horses. “I just talked to Shizun. He said we get to stay in the man’s house. Everyone else has to sleep in the inn.”

Apparently Shen Qingqiu didn’t like staying in inns when he traveled and preferred a life of luxury. The wealthy man had offered up his place to house the cultivators, but he couldn’t fit everyone who had come. Ming Fan was put in charge of the younger disciples while they had to stay in the inn, with the exception of Shen Yuan and Ning Yingying. The older disciples got to stay in the rooms of the wealthy man’s home. 

Shen Qingqiu had allowed Ning Yingying and Shen Yuan to stay in the same residence. Ning Yingying was his favored disciple and Shen Yuan’s interpreter, so it made sense to Shen Yuan as to why he was invited to stay in the house as well.

Shen Yuan and Ning Yingying had to haul their items from the stables to the home. When they arrived, they were ushered into a room that they were to share with six other older disciples. Two disciples had claimed the only two beds in the room, leaving everyone else to a mat on the floor.

Shen Qingqiu had gotten a room all to himself, which was unsurprising. The man hated sharing space. It was a blessing in itself that he allowed Shen Yuan in the bamboo house twice daily.

He waited for a disciple to tell him to head to Shen Qingqiu’s room for tea, but when they didn’t, he was reminded of the pouch Shen Qingqiu gave him before the trip. Pulling out the tea leaves, he stared at them.

”Are you going to drink your tea?” Ning Yingying asked as she pulled her bed next to Shen Yuan’s.

Shen Yuan looked at the busy disciples before shaking his head. “I don’t want to be a bother. Can make it during dinner.”

Satisfied with his answer, Ning Yingying nodded and began to ramble off about something entirely different.

He entertained her for a while, but it wasn’t long before they were called for dinner.

The wealthy man who had requested their services had prepared dinner for his cultivator guests. Everyone, including those who were placed in the inn, was invited to eat. Ming Fan had even taken the liberty of sitting next to Ning Yingying.

Shen Yuan noticed Shen Qingqiu had barely touched anything on his plate. The wealthy man was trying to make conversation with him, but Shen Qingqiu kept his fan up and looked uninterested, answering with one or two words.

Shen Yuan went back to picking at his rice when Ning Yingying poked him. “Aren’t you going to drink your tea?”

Shen Yuan stared at her, then remembered the pouch he left back in the room. He debated on whether or not to head back up to grab it but ultimately decided not to. “Left it. It’s fine,” he signed to her. It wouldn’t kill him to miss a day. He lived a year without taking medicine. Skipping one drink wasn’t going to hurt him.

”Shizun is going to be disappointed when he finds out,’’ Ning Yingying shook her head.

”When he finds out what?” Ming Fan asked as he looked between the two of them.

“A-Yuan is skipping his medicine,” Ning Yingying told him with a huff.

Shen Yuan shook his head. “It doesn’t work. Nothing changed since I drank it,” he signed.

It was true. His voice remained unchanged, no matter how much medicine he took. It depended on how many S-Points he could rack up. The only reason he tolerated the tea was because it gave him opportunities to collect reformation points.

Shen Yuan turned to Ming Fan and signed, “Fine.”

It was one of the few signs Ming Fan knew. “He says it’ll be fine. Don’t run to Shizun for every little problem. We’re on a mission; he doesn’t have time to listen to every little complaint,” he told Ning Yingying.

”But—“ Ning Yingying complained, looking at Shen Yuan before casting her gaze down to the table. “Fine. But you better take it tomorrow morning.” Shen Yuan nodded at the request, ready to finally settle the matter.

A little while later, Ming Fan left for the inn with a few other disciples, and Ning Yingying and Shen Yuan waved him goodbye.

Shen Yuan was ready to lead Ning Yingying back to their room but caught the eye of Shen Qingqiu. He was still seated, watching him over his painted fan. Unsure what to do, Shen Yuan picked up the teacup in front of him and gulped it down in one gulp. He assumed he was checking to see if he was really taking his medicine and one tiny fib wouldn’t hurt. 

He flipped the empty cup onto the table to publicly show the finished cup and watched as Shen Qingqiu’s eyes narrowed at the action. Not wanting to be caught in a conversation, Shen Yuan grabbed Ning Yingying to lead them both back to their room for the night.

The disciples were given the morning off to prepare themselves for that night’s hunt. Ning Yingying wanted to take that time to explore the town and find a souvenir to take back. Shen Yuan wasn’t sure why she needed a souvenir or who she was going to show it to, but in order to stay vigilant in keeping her safe, Shen Yuan had to reluctantly agree to go with her.

They found a tonghulu stand, and Shen Yuan enjoyed walking around so much more when he had food to distract him.

Ning Yingying was looking at a stand that was selling hair-pieces when something caught his eye. He had known Zi Chen was one of the disciples who were given permission to accompany Shen Qingqiu on this mission. They had accidentally made eye contact several times on the trip, but neither of them had elected to say anything.

The boy no longer bothered him, and there was nothing left for him to handle. But the sight of Ming Fan walking beside him made him do a double-take. 

Ming Fan had stepped away from his friendship with Zi Chen after Shen Yuan had bitten him. He wasn’t sure how their friendship split apart, but Shen Yuan knew it was one hundred percent his fault.

Zi Chen was a well-performing student near the top of their classes along with Ming Fan. Once Zi Chen had stopped messing with him, Shen Yuan was able to see just how gifted he was as a disciple. He was nowhere near Luo Binghe in terms of raw talent, but he was good enough to slack off and maintain high grades.

Shen Yuan excelled in his classes. Though he started behind the others, his earnest fascination about their foreign world helped him catch up. He also had the benefit of already being taught in a classroom setting in his previous life before being thrown into this. He adapted quicker than anyone could have imagined. His muteness, along with his “anger issues,” had people underestimating him, but his erudition surpassed even his own expectations.

It was no surprise that Zi Chen and Shen Yuan ignored each other once they reached similar marks in classes. What did surprise people was Ming Fan’s acknowledgement and praise. He readily gave praise to most people. Notably, Ming Fan was a good leader, which Airplane cut from PIDW and instead focused on his malicious behavior with Binghe. It did help in developing the story, but more details are always welcome when it comes to developing a story. 

His tooth grew back, but Ming Fan was left with a scar he inflicted. Shen Yuan had to commend him on the way he could forgive and move forward. He took Ming Fan’s apology at face value when he received it, but the boy showed him his sincerity.

Ming Fan was a capable leader. It was strange to admit that. Not a natural leader, but a good leader. Ming Fan did not possess the qualities of a natural-born leader. That title was reserved for Binghe and Binghe only. He was the protagonist of this story after all. But Ming Fan was a hard worker and was dedicated to the Qing Jing Peak and those who were a part of it. He had all the good qualities to help excel as first disciple.

Shen Qingqiu was a scrupulous man. He dressed himself in fine robes and proudly flaunted the aplomb of a scholar in both body and mind. Shen Qingqiu didn’t rely on Ming Fan because of the qualities he showed in PIDW. He relied on him because he was a hard worker who could micromanage his disciples when Shen Qingqiu wasn’t around. It was sad he succumbed to the peer-pressure of bullying.

Shen Qingqiu must have taken notice of the way he was able to take charge and let him continue to take lead as first disciple. Ming Fan saw it as favoritism, but Shen Qingqiu saw it as a way to have even more leisure despite being a peak lord. 

Despite it all, Ming Fan exhibited strong leadership potential. Shen Yuan believed that part of him was the reason behind why he apologized for his faults and strove to correct them. Ming Fan continued to approach him for training purposes, and they formed a small friendship. Not the type of close kinship like the one he shared with Ning Yingying, but the kind that trained together during lessons.

It seemed to strain Zi Chen and Ming Fan’s friendship until they no longer talked. It was unsettling to see it happen in real time, especially knowing he was the cause, yet Shen Yuan could not do anything about it.

“What do you think about this one?” Ning Yingying asked, holding up a hair stick. He missed her saying it, so Ning Yingying followed his gaze. Disgust filled an exhale as she watched them from across the street. “What is Ming Fan doing with that bully?”

She began to roll up her sleeves as if she was looking for a fight, so Shen Yuan blocked her path. “What are you doing? Someone has to say something.”

Shen Yuan looked over his shoulder to make sure they hadn’t been spotted. Once he confirmed they hadn’t, he ruffled through a pouch to find some coins to hand to the merchant and bought the hairpiece Ning Yingying was holding. He then grabbed her and pulled her into an alley so they could be hidden from the boys’ sight.

“Ming Fan can be friends with him and me,” Shen Yuan signed to her. “I don’t want him to think he has to lose his friends in order to be friends with me.”

Ning Yingying crossed her arms as she grimaced. “Alright,” she relented. Shen Yuan could tell she still wanted to argue, but Shen Yuan had made too good of a point. 

Desperate for a distraction, Shen Yuan's eyes found the hairpin in her hand. “Pretty,” he pointed at it.

Ning Yingying followed his finger and lit up when she saw the pin. “It is pretty!”

It was a polished ivory pin that had a flower carved at the end. There were two small red ribbons attached to the middle of the flower. Shen Yuan wasn’t used to buying objects for their beauty, but he had been around women who had. He knew how to compliment a woman’s new accessory for brownie points. “Want on?”

Ning Yingying touched her hair, done up in her usual buns. “No thanks. I’d have to undo my hair, and we don’t have a comb on us at the moment. Let me borrow your hair for a second,” she said as she slipped the pin into his ponytail. “Looks great on you! Why don’t you borrow it for today?”

Shen Yuan reached behind his head and rubbed the piece sticking out with the pads of his fingers. The ridges of the flower rubbed against his fingers. He nodded his head after releasing the accessory from his grip. “I’m still hungry,” he signed.

Ning Yingying led them out of the alley, humming contently. “We passed a noodle shop on the way here. We can try there first. It’s best to eat now so our food digests before tonight. Did you bring your medicine? We can brew some before it’s too late to drink it.”

Shen Yuan shook his head and Ning Yingying gave an exasperated groan. “You promised you’d take it today! Just because Shizun isn’t making you drink it doesn’t mean you don’t have to. I’ll tell Shizun if you forget again.”

As much as Shen Yuan came to enjoy spending time with Ning Yingying, she had snitch-like tendencies. He missed it when people didn’t try to be all up in his business all the time. “Please don’t. I’ll take it when I get back.”

“You better. Or I’ll brew it myself and make you take it by force.”

Chapter Text

The day began to darken with an orange hue, signaling dusk was steadily approaching. The disciples were brought to the edge of the woods to gain further instruction on how the night was to go.

Shen Qingqiu was not present. Apparently he had given instructions to the older disciples, but he was going to remain in his room unless there was a distress signal. Shen Yuan wasn’t surprised to hear his master had declined to partake in the hunt.

In Proud Immortal Demon Way, Shen Qingqiu often left his disciples to their own devices. His apathy allowed many mission arcs to unfold naturally during Binghe’s time at Qing Jing. It normally ended with Binghe having to save Ning Yingying from various damsel-in-distress scenarios, which led to him being bruised and battered by various villains in the beginning of the novel.

Shen Yuan shuddered as he sent a wary glance at Ning Yingying. For the sake of avoiding a gruesome death while Luo Binghe went on a rampage on Cang Qiong Mountain Sect in the future, he was going to make sure his First Wife remained safe and unharmed the entire time the protagonist wasn’t present. He could only hope that Ning Yingying didn’t drag him into being beaten too. Shen Yuan didn’t particularly enjoy pain, so he wasn’t looking to be a knight in shining armor if that ended with him being assailed in her stead.

Shen Yuan found the hilt of his sword and gripped it tightly. It wasn’t a spiritual sword; he wasn’t given the opportunity to claim one as his own yet. That didn’t mean the younger disciples weren’t given weapons to defend themselves if anything went sideways.

He was pulled from his thoughts as a disciple shuffled him to his left. They had begun to pair off the younger disciples with an older one. The older disciples were the ones with the spiritual swords to attack. A couple of wooden torches were placed into his arms, and he fumbled with them to get a better hold on the bundle.

“Shizun said you two stick together,” the disciple said, pointing between Ning Yingying and Shen Yuan. “That means you’re both in the same group. Come and follow us.”

Shen Yuan and Ning Yingying shared a glance at one another before following their shixiong to a small group standing off to the side. After taking a better look at their faces, Shen Yuan had to fight back an exasperated sigh. It had to be the bad luck wife plot that caused them to be paired with Ming Fan and Zi Chen, along with their older shixiongs.

Shen Yuan had meant to cast a quick side-eye Ning Yingying, her notorious wife-luck was a constant source of misfortune in PIDW, but the visible look of anger on her face made him send another more careful glance.

”Ning-shemei, Shen-shidi,” Ming Fan greeted in surprise, telling Shen Yuan that he had not known they were going to be placed together either.

Ming Fan looked ready to say more, but a scoff interrupted him. Zi Chen rolled his eyes, the motion visible even in the dimming light of the nearly faded sun. “One more wild beast I need to watch my back for.”

”Back off, or I’ll tell Shizun you were being mean to A-Yuan.” Ning Yingying warned. Shen Yuan fought back a new urge to rub his temples. Shen Yuan was her friend, but the constant threat of her running off to tell their shizun was getting old even to him.

Instead of letting the moment drag on, Shen Yuan caught Ming Fan’s attention and used a sign he knew Ming Fan would recognize. “Fall back.” He used it often during strategy training. Then he pointed at himself and Ning Yingying.

”I agree,” Ming Fan said. Zi-shidi and I are best suited to lead with our disciples.”

”I didn’t know you could understand him.” Zi Chen looked between the two.

Ming Fan looked surprised to be called out on this and shook his head in denial. “No, I need Ning-shemei’s help most of the time when it comes to translating his gestures.”

Zi Chen looked unconvinced, but he dropped the subject by alerting the older disciple he had been paired off with. “We picked which one of us will help lead.”

Before he had time to ruminate on what just transpired, Shen Yuan had a flame negligently shoved way too close to his body. “Pass the flame,” a disciple said as he lit one of his torches. Shen Yuan shoved the other unlit torch supply into his armpit and used his lit torch to light Ning Yingying’s.

Nightfall had fallen by the time the last disciple lit their torch, and some groups had begun to walk into the tree-line. Their group followed shortly after, and once they were inside, Shen Yuan found himself realizing that he had taken for granted the invention of the flashlight.

Unlike the flashlight, which is built with a cylindrical casing to cast a focused beam, a torch lacked a similar casing, causing its light to scatter only a few paces away. It was eerie to watch the other groups drift farther away, their flames eventually fading from sight.

Ning Yingying seemed affected by the atmosphere as well, drawing closer to Shen Yuan’s side. He refused to acknowledge the relief he felt when she grasped the fabric that ran along his side. She was careful enough not to grab his sleeve, his only free hand, so he could still sign if needed.

It worked to their benefit as Shen Yuan found himself tripping over something that felt uprooted from the ground. He leaned his weight onto Ning Yingying, and they both worked to find their center of gravity again.

Shen Yuan kicked away the snow and brought his flame closer to the ground to examine what he just tripped on. “What’s wrong?” Ning Yingying asked, her words closer to a whisper.

Shen Yuan ignored the question as he stared at the lifted root. It was dark, but through the flame he could make out the unusual reddish hue. The color of the root reminded him of a beet. It took a few more seconds for him to realize he had literally stumbled across the Migrating Red Root Vine.

Shen Yuan went to tell Ning Yingying but hesitated when he realized he didn’t have a word close to “migrating.” Putting that aside to worry about later, he decided to communicate what he could. “Red Root Vine. The vines prefer heat so they hide underground when the weather’s cooler and come out during the spring and summer.”

Ning Yingying didn’t bother looking impressed about the new information. Unfortunately, Shen Yuan turned into a plant and beast nerd after his short time living in PIDW and had a new fact to share almost weekly.

Thankfully she didn’t have to respond as the two disciples that were assigned to them beckoned them to move forward and catch up.

They continued walking for another hour in a silence deep enough to hear the torch flames crackle along with the squeaky crunch of snow beneath their feet.

Shen Yuan felt himself fighting off the urge to yawn when a talisman that one of the older disciples were holding suddenly fluttered upwards. 

While the younger disciples were given the opportunity to explore that morning, the other disciples with spiritual weapons flew above the treeline on their swords and set traps throughout the forest. They were carrying talismans that would alert them if a trap had activated close to them.

The talisman began to fly off to their right, and everyone trailed shortly behind it.

It took them only a few minutes to come across a barrier constructed from an array. A creature rammed at the edges, trying to escape its cage like the trapped creature it was.

The creature’s elongated snout reminded Shen Yuan of an alligator more than a snake. Despite the long snout, the Long Snout Serpentstag attacked the barrier with its head down. It lunged at the barrier, striking with its large, elegant antlers in an attempt to bring it down. If it weren’t up against a barrier array, Shen Yuan would’ve wagered it would've already knocked it down with the sheer force it was ramming with.

Zi Chen brought his torch right up to the side of the barrier, and the Long Snout Serpentstag hissed in discomfort, cowering to the other side of the array. Zi Chen followed the creature to the other side and shined his fire close to the beast’s face again, making the creature hiss again and return to the opposite side. “Look, Ming-shixiong, it's scared.”

“It’s been trapped, so of course it’s scared,” Ning Yingying said. She watched Shen Yuan sign angrily, and she translated for him. “A-Yuan says you're abusing it.”

”Abusing it? Didn’t he forget we’re only here because these beasts were abusing the town first? Right, Ming Fan?”

Ming Fan looked at the trapped creature before nodding too. “He’s right. But it is up to our shixiongs to know what to do next.”

”We kill it, obviously,” one of them responded before drawing his spiritual sword. Everyone watched with baited breath as he drew closer to the creature. The Long Snout Serpentstag was more subdued than before, the flames having tamed its fierceness, yet the sight of the approaching cultivator rendered it unusually still.

The disciple swung his sword for a strong hit, but the Long Snout Serpentstag jerked reactively at the last second, causing the sword to get caught in its antlers. The disciple frantically tried to pull his weapon free, but the Long Snout Serpentstag used its long mouth to its advantage and bit down hard on his arm.

The disciple screamed and rushed to pull his arm away from the barrier.

“Watch out!” Shen Yuan signed fruitlessly. No one could hear or see him, and the dripping blood covered a part of the crafted array, ruining it.

Two of the other older disciples rushed forward, but they weren’t expecting the beast to reach out past the edge of the barrier and swing its head in a wide curve and knock both boys up off the ground.

”Shit,” the last remaining older disciple cursed as he clung to his sword tighter. “You two,” he said, pointing at Zi Chen and Ming Fan with his sword. “Keep your flames up to grab its attention.”

The boys didn’t seem enthusiastic to receive that request, but they couldn’t fight seniority. They held their flames out further, and instead of a hiss, the creature released a sound that reminded Shen Yuan of a sneeze. He wasn’t exactly sure what sound a stag made, but he was certain the sound resembled a deer more so than a snake.

The creature had four legs and a body like a stag but the long tail of a snake. It stretched itself fully so it reached its peak height, and Shen Yuan found himself thankful that the disciple had asked Ming Fan and Zi Chen to hold it off and not him.

The Long Snout Serpentstag huffed as the boys got closer, oblivious to the disciple coming up behind it with his sword raised. Once the disciple drew close enough to swing, he began to bring his body upward to collect as much momentum as possible before coming back down.

Halfway through his downward arc an unknown force slammed into him before he could make a connection with his sword.

At that moment Shen Yuan thought back to the deer-like sound it made earlier and realized that they shouldn’t have taken that sneeze as a warning sound but instead as a cry for help.

Two more Long Snout Serpentstags joined the scene, instantly changing the odds.

Shen Yuan yanked Ning Yingying and pushed her behind him. It would be bad if Binghe’s first wife were injured, since the protagonist wasn’t here to protect her yet.

The two creatures that arrived sniffed their previously captured friend with their long snout, grunting like a deer while doing so. Unfortunately, they weren’t distracted for long as the sound of Ming Fan drawing his sword caused all three to turn and look in his direction.

Ming Fan raised his sword higher, but when he noticed the creatures’ eyes tracking the flame in his other hand instead, he thrust his torch farther out.

Shen Yuan was startled by the sharp chime of the system despite the high tensions.

[Intermediate-level mission issued. Mission: Rescue Qing Jing’s disciples. Please click yes to accept. Reward: 500 S-Points.]

‘500 S-Points?’ Shen Yuan thought to himself. ‘That puts me at 3,025 S-Points, enough for me to buy some words.’

He would have enough to purchase three measly words from the system, but the thought of finally speaking again sent a rush of excitement through him like nothing he had ever felt. In the past few years, speaking seemed like an unattainable goal. He adapted to being forcibly mute, but that didn’t make the idea of speaking any less irresistible.

‘I accept,’ Shen Yuan told the system as he shrugged off the coat he was wearing.

He had been around Shen Qingqiu enough to know he could manipulate his qi to create subtle wind attacks with his fan. Shen Yuan had been able to replicate it in his own spare time by experimenting with the paper he used to communicate with the other disciples when Ning Yingying wasn’t around.

It was his first time attempting something like this with bulky material. It didn’t help that the coat he was wearing was previously his master’s. It was heavier than his own since it had more fabric, but it didn’t stop him from walking a few paces away from Ning Yingying and sticking his lit torch into the ground and standing behind it.

Shaking the fabric as if he were trying to shake out wrinkles, he gathered his qi and forced a strong output of wind in Ming Fan’s direction, creating a fiery barrier between him and the Long Snout Serpentstags.

All three hissed at the heat and light of the flames. Shen Yuan felt the qi he was using run low quickly due to the short burst he gave right at the start. The dying flames gave the creatures the relief of dimmer light, yet they still followed the source, their attention drawn toward Shen Yuan.

Noticing this, Shen Yuan grabbed a spare unlit torch from the ground and lit it using his old charred one. He dropped the coat he had used on the ground to free up his hands.

”A-Yuan!” Ning Yingying cried out to him, ready to rush over. Ming Fan stepped in to block her path when he noticed that not even the sound of her voice distracted the creatures from their new target.

”We need to run,” Zi Chen said as he tugged on the two.

”What about A-Yuan?” Ning Yingying asked as she tried her best to resist the pull on her.

”He’s Shizun’s prodigy, right? He can hold them off until we can get to Shizun,” Zi Chen replied back in a hurry. He turned his attention to Ming Fan to persuade him instead. “Those things just took out four of our shixiongs by themselves. We’re no match for them. We need Shizun’s help.”

Ming Fan looked hesitant, as if he were unsure about leaving Shen Yuan behind after he had just stuck his neck out to save him. To be fair, Shen Yuan was also nervous himself. He normally didn’t find himself this chivalrous without a reason. And being able to speak again was a damn good one.

Shen Yuan didn’t want to risk his S-Points by allowing anyone to get hurt. “I’m fine,” he signed knowing Ming Fan could understand that.

The boy looked uncertain, but he nodded anyway. “Just hold out for a little, Shen-shidi. We’ll get Shizun.”

Shen Yuan nodded and watched as Ming Fan grabbed hold of Ning Yingying so both boys had a hold on Ning Yingying.

”What are you doing? He can’t speak! How will Shizun even find him?” Ning Yingying argued as she began to be pulled.

”It’s Shizun. He’ll find him,” Ming Fan answered before breaking out in a run.

The movement distracted the creatures, causing them to turn their heads to look. Shen Yuan used the distraction to turn tail and run in the opposite direction.

The creatures looked back and forth but eventually decided that Shen Yuan was the better prey and followed after him.

Knowing he had no chance at outrunning three four-legged beasts as a bipedal human, Shen Yuan blew on the flame to make it flare higher. The trick was inspired by the islanders he used to watch perform on social media in his old world. Instead of oil, he had channeled his qi instead to create the spectacle. 

Instead of holding onto the torch, he launched it away, knowing the flames would disrupt the creatures’ vision, and ducked behind the trunk of a wide tree.

Shen Yuan could feel the sensation of his heart pumping wildly in his chest. Now that some of the adrenaline had been staved off, he was left to ponder his own stupidity. Realistically, how long could he survive just from hiding behind a tree?

It was a one-against-three matchup, and even if his friends used a talisman to alert others that he was in danger, he was so deep into the woods that no one could reach him before the beats’ massive jaws closed around him.

He had severely jumped the gun with this fool’s rescue mission.

‘Is there a way to back out of the mission now? I didn’t realize just how close to death I needed to be to collect 500 S-Points.’

[It is too late for Host to rescind his decision. The mission is now currently underway.]

Shen Yuan cursed the System internally as he quietly hit the back of his head against the bark of the tree.

He peered slightly out to the side to get an idea of what was going on. The Long Snout Serpentstags had spread out slightly, their tongues slipping out periodically. Shen Yuan was reminded that Long Snout Serpentstags exhibited snake-like behavior and that they were flicking out their tongues in an attempt to sniff him out.

Shen Yuan took a quick glance at the discarded torch a few paces away and found himself hesitating when he noticed the snow around the torch had melted away, leaving red vines to rise from the ground and circle around it.

The sight left Shen Yuan to pause and glance down at his own feet. He used his shoe to brush the snow and find more of the Migrating Red Root Vine he had tripped over earlier. 

In PIDW, Binghe had encountered one of the many attempts on his life from the Migrating Red Root Vine. They were a plant that preferred the heat, so the vines would bury underground in the winter to avoid the cold, leaving the red roots to grow up instead. The summer is when they are the most dangerous. The vines loved heat but were easily flammable, so it was easy to use them to start a fire. Binghe had been led into a trap by one of his future wives. 

She was upset that demons were encroaching on her territory and tried to kill Binghe by luring him into an area densely packed with Migrating Red Root Vines and setting it ablaze. She hadn’t realized that the heavenly demon blood made him durable against most physical threats, heat included. He had walked out of the mess practically unscathed and papapaed her into submission.

Fortunately for Shen Yuan, his threat wasn’t a heavenly demon. Using the Migrating Red Root Vine might be his only chance to survive this situation. He just needed to box the beasts in.

He would use the already surfaced vines to his advantage. If he could create three more points, he could channel his qi to create a flammable barrier.

Taking his sword out of his sheath as quietly as he could, he cut away some of the fabric hanging loosely from his disciple uniform. It was a big enough piece, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he still needed more.

Shen Yuan looked down at his arm and wondered if he should take off his wrist guards and use the material from his sleeves too. ‘Would that technically make me a cut-sleeve?’ Shen Yuan thought with dry humor before deciding against it. He didn’t have much time to waste, and taking off two wrist guards would take too long.

He cut the material into three and took out a piece of paper he always had on him in case of emergencies. He sliced his finger on his blade and hastily wrote a heating talisman before kicking aside some snow and placing it onto the crimson root.

He watched in an urgent panic as the root sank further into the ground, leaving budding red vines in its wake. Once he thought he had enough, he sliced it from the ground and put his back firmly against the tree again.

He gave one last lookout to watch out for the Long Snouted Serpentstags. One of them had gotten a lot closer to his hiding spot, causing his stomach to flip in fear. Realizing this was his best chance, he used one more paper to inscribe an igniting talisman with his blood, letting it fall on the remaining budding Migrating Red Root Vines before making a swift dash away.

The Long Snouted Serpentstag looked up at the movement, but the burst of flames from the vines distracted it instead, causing the creature to hiss from the sudden pain of light.

Because the flames actually caught onto the vine unlike the torch, the blaze was much brighter than the flame coming from the torch. The other two beasts hissed as well.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Shen Yuan found a new spot and kicked aside the snow, and placed the cut fabric along with the severed vine on the ground. He didn’t even bother checking his position before drawing a new igniting talisman and setting it ablaze.

He ran off again, ignoring the hiss of the beasts. He was trying to find a new spot on the outer edge, far enough from the beasts to light up as a new spot.

The flames from two spots he had already lit rose further and further, and Shen Yuan was worried that he may inadvertently cause a forest fire. His first fire he lit was already threatening to peek through the tree line. It must’ve caught onto a fresh new batch of vines because the flame shot up even higher.

Shen Yuan fought back a smile. His plan had coincidentally made a help signal as a byproduct of his actions. Not trying to lose momentum, Shen Yuan found the next spot and threw his butchered shirt wrapped in the Migrating Red Root Vine and lit that one as well.

All that was left was the unlit vines around the discarded torch. Not wanting to psyche himself out, he made one final dash to the small flame. He was a few paces away when a strong force knocked him off his feet and extinguished the air in his lungs.

Shen Yuan was able to wheeze despite the lock on his voice and grunted when he felt himself crash hard onto the ground. He felt something snap in his leg, and the sound of breathy whimpers joined the surrounding sound of the crackling fire.

Despite having shed a few layers already, sweat began to build on his brow, and his pants of air grew heavier as he reached down to clutch his injured leg. With his leg in his hands, he noticed that it was now bending at an odd angle. Shen Yuan looked down to find his left leg broken and his shin curved inward at a fifteen-degree angle.

As if his brain was waiting for him to notice the injury, the pain in his leg spiked, and Shen Yuan involuntarily cried out again in pain, causing his throat to feel raw from the use.

A hiss coming from above caused him to instinctively pause and look up. One large Long Snout Serpentstag must have noticed him despite the flames and cut him off from reaching his last checkpoint.

Shen Yuan crawled backwards using his hands and his uninjured leg, but he knew he was trapped with the beasts’ jaws ready to snap him into two. The beast stalked forward, and Shen Yuan shut his eyes tightly to brace himself for the pain to come.

He heard the creature let out a low hiss and the crunch of snow as it lunged, but the sudden heat in front of his body caused him to open his eyes again.

The creature was blocked by the sight of a torch being waved in front of his body like a shield. Shen Yuan took in the sight of the torch, then proceeded to look up to examine his savior.

Out of everyone he expected, the person he last expected to rescue him was Ming Fan.

The boy didn’t look heroic either. He looked like he was seconds away from passing out in fright, but that didn’t stop him from creating more space between Shen Yuan and the beast by urging it back with the flames.

Despite Ming Fan fanning the flames, the creature still seemed interested in Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan scooted back further until his hand caught onto the ribbon of his hair, causing his hair to come loose and pool around him.

The stag’s eyes followed his hair and landed on the ground. Shen Yuan followed the gaze to find the ivory pin he had bought Ning Yingying from the market earlier.

Shen Yuan looked back up to the creature to realize the pin was never made of ivory but was instead carved from antlers.

‘You weren’t causing trouble,’ Shen Yuan thought to himself as he watched the creature. ‘You were being poached. You were defending yourself.’

Shen Yuan picked up the hairpin and grabbed the remaining pieces of vine he saved and forced himself to balance on one leg. Ming Fan rushed to support him, holding him steady on his injured side. Shen Yuan threw the remaining vines in front of them and grabbed Ming Fan’s torch and ignited it.

Shen Yuan rushed them to step back as fast as his leg would allow it before the vines went up in flames.

”Woah, how did you do that?” Ming Fan asked as he periodically turned his head to watch the flames rise.

Shen Yuan didn’t bother trying to respond knowing he wouldn’t be able to understand him anyway. Instead they ducked behind a new tree, and Shen Yuan showed him the hairpin.

”I think your hair is the least of our issues right now,” Ming Fan scoffed as he looked at the pin before fixing his gaze to watch out for the beasts.

Shen Yuan shook his head and shook Ming Fan for his attention again. Once he looked, Shen Yuan placed his pointer fingers on the side of his head facing up. He was used to using charades to communicate with others when he didn’t have paper, but he never had to rely on it in a life-or-death situation.

”Up?” Ming Fan tried to interpret, looking up. “Are you talking about the trees?”

Shen Yuan shook his head harder this time, pointing to the Long Snout Serpentstags, then back to placing his pointer fingers to the side of his head. “Their antlers? What about them?”

Shen Yuan nodded at the improvement and pointed at the hair pin. Ming Fan struggled before saying, “I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me.”

Shen Yuan gripped his hair in stress before consulting the System. ‘System, I’ve saved the disciples. Can I please have the S-Points now?’

[Host has not finished his mission.]

‘I know I don’t have enough S-Points for three words, but I have more than enough for two. Can’t I purchase two words?’

[Updates to the S-Point reward system would transpire after Host completes his first intermediate-level mission. If updated now, System would need to perform a forced restart.]

‘Yes, that’s fine. Now hurry and give me my rewards.’

[Updating System. Would Host like to buy 4 words for 2,000 S-Points via the new reward system?]

‘Yes, please give them to me now before I die!’

Shen Yuan heard a ding before seeing his word count increase by four. Shen Yuan grabbed Ming Fan again, and the boy looked at him with an irritated look. “What now? I’m trying to keep a lookout.”

Shen Yuan held the pin out again before clearing his throat. “Hunted.”

Ming Fan looked like he had just witnessed paranormal activity.

Shen Yuan noticed his voice was soft and gravelly from not using his voice. It was higher pitched than he had expected. He had known he was in a younger body, but he hadn’t been ready for his voice to sound younger as well.

He rubbed his throat before looking back up at Ming Fan expectantly. The boy still watched him in shock, and Shen Yuan fought the urge to roll his eyes. To be fair, Ming Fan was the last person he expected to speak to first as well.

He had so many scenarios he went through in his head that involved Shen Qingqiu and even Ning Yingying, but this was new territory for him too.

Shen Yuan reached over and shook the boy hard before waving the pin in his face. “Hunted,” Ming Fan repeated dazily. “Hunted. You mean your hairpin?” Shen Yuan nodded excitedly before pointing in the direction of the Long Snout Serpentstags. “You think the pin came from the Serpentstags?”

Shen Yuan nodded with so much force he felt dizzy. “Shizun did say it was unusual for them to be so close to a village and cause trouble. It makes sense if they were only causing trouble because the villagers had hunted them first.”

Shen Yuan nodded some more, debating on whether or not to try speaking again when the chime of the System interrupted him.

[Mandatory Restart Required. System and Host will undergo an automatic restart to completely download recently installed software.]

[Restart: Now    OR     Restart: 10 minutes]

Shen Yuan lunged up, causing Ming Fan to startle. He paid no mind to the boy and rushed to click the delayed restart option. “What is your problem today?” Ming Fan interrogated him as he grabbed the boy by his waist and threw him down so he was still under the cover of the tree they were hiding behind.

The sudden jolt made a sharp pain run throughout his leg, and Shen Yuan reached out and clung his fingers to Ming Fan’s coat with a pained gasp. Ming Fan noticed the pained grimace and maneuvered his hold so Shen Yuan was in a more comfortable position. “Sorry about your leg. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said as he took off his coat to reveal a second one already wrapped around his body. “I found your coat while I was trying to find you. We’ll have to get you a new one; it’s too big for you. I was able to wrap it around all my layers. It’s too cold to be walking around without proper clothing.”

He draped the coat onto his shoulders, and Shen Yuan fitted his arms through the armholes. The adrenaline made him unaware of the freezing night, but now that he could feel Ming Fan’s body heat from the coat, all he could think about was how cold he was.

His eyes fell to the timer counting down on his System, and Shen Yuan shot a glance at the fallen torch he never made it to. The burning flame stuck mainly to the wood of the torch, leaving the unaffected vines still unlit. The other fires were still burning brightly, and the Serpentstags still remained disoriented from the flames, having not yet figured out how to properly escape from them.

Shen Yuan tugged Ming Fan’s arm and drew out a sloppy depiction of a baseball field in the snow. He pointed to each lit pile, then at their corresponding bases. Eventually he pointed at the torch and said, “Burn vines.”

”Vines? What are you—“ Ming Fan began to trail off before adding in a hushed whisper, “The stuff you threw to make the flames grow!”

Shen Yuan nodded fervently. He then pointed to himself before connecting the bases by dragging a line in the snow.

”You planned to cage them in? That’s not a bad plan,” Ming Fan looked at him with an impressed stare.

Shen Yuan would’ve appreciated it more if he didn’t have to worry about that stupid timer. He had a little less than four minutes to complete the task.

Shen Yuan shrugged off the jacket and nodded at Ming Fan to visibly show him he was ready. Ming Fan looked surprised to see him shedding the coat but nodded anyway in assurance.

Ming Fan gave one last scan for danger before darting out quickly on his feet. Shen Yuan did his best to rush, hobbling himself on one foot as he readied his coat one more time.

As Ming Fan moved, Shen Yuan raised his coat and fanned it down hard after charging the gust with qi, connecting two of the lit flames. That caused the Serpentstags to lose interest in Ming Fan and focus on the new wall of fire. The Serpentstags hissed in discomfort, but Shen Yuan had already used that moment to position himself so he could blow a new gust of charged qi.

They finally noticed they were beginning to be boxed in, but Ming Fan had successfully grabbed the torch and launched it into the vines that had circled around it.

The torch had burned on the ground long enough to draw a swarm of vines from underground to feed the fire, causing the flames to leech onto the spot where Shen Yuan lit up by accident when saving Ming Fan, causing it to connect as a new fire wall without Shen Yuan’s interference.

Shen Yuan went to move to connect the last base, but he found himself falling over. He felt like all of his energy suddenly got zapped to the point where he didn’t even feel the pain in his leg anymore.

He turned his head so it wasn’t facing down, and the sight of his System’s screen came into view.

[System is now automatically restarting. System’s controls are temporarily shut down until the software is installed.]

Shen Yuan glanced further up on the screen and saw that he had run out of time. He felt his face scrunch in hopelessness. All that hard work for nothing. And he had to go and drag Ming Fan into a mess he couldn’t even complete.

Shen Yuan propped himself up to try to drag himself along by his elbows, but his upper body strength gave out, and he collapsed fully onto the ground. His breaths were short and audible pants, and he used the last of his energy to turn himself over to keep pressure off of his stomach so he could breathe better.

His vision began to cut in and out, but he was beginning to have a hard time breathing with the thick smoke beginning to pollute the air around him.

His vision swam between the orange hues of fire and the black sky above the tree lines, but a blob of green moving into his field of vision caught his attention. A gentle hand came up to rest behind his head, and the touch was so caring that Shen Yuan had mistaken it to be his older brother who he had left back home in his previous life. 

“Da-ge?” His voice came out sounding far away. He felt so dizzy and drowsy that he believed he may have entered into a dream. “Da-ge, the Serpentstags. Don’t kill the Serpentstags. They just want to protect their family too. Don’t kill the Serpentstags.”

After managing to choke out that many words consecutively, Shen Yuan was positive he had to be dreaming. Perhaps it was a side effect of the system restarting. 

Despite the fluctuating lucidity, Shen Yuan was able to hear a response. “No one has harmed your beasts.”

“Da-ge,” Shen Yuan repeated softly before his eyes grew tired enough to shut with finality.

Chapter Text

Upon hearing the incident beyond his sect’s mountain range, Yue Qingyuan took it upon himself to oversee the situation. Together he and Mu Qingfang rode on their swords for hours through the night. He had a spare spiritual sword kept specially for emergencies such as this.

It wasn’t the first time Qing Jing had sent a letter to request support, but it was the first time Shen Qingqiu did so himself personally. The letter detailed some disciples had sustained injuries, but Yue Qingyuan found Shen Yuan going through a qi deviation far more terrifying.

Shen Qingqiu did disclose in the letter that he had managed to suppress it so the boy was on the mend now, but Yue Qingyuan knew the man enough to find the worry laced in his letter for the boy.

When they had arrived at the village, some disciples directed them to a cottage away from the house they were residing in at the moment. Apparently, the injured had been brought to an old apothecary, where they could receive treatment.

Yue Qingyuan knocked on the door, and an older woman with a face full of wrinkles opened it. “I assume you are also members of the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect?” she asked as she looked both men up and down.

”You would be correct,” Yue Qingyuan answered with a nod. “We heard you are currently housing some of our injured inside your residence.”

”You have heard correctly,” the woman hummed as she opened the door further. The two men entered to find five disciples lying unconscious in makeshift beds. One in particular looked gaunt, and Yue Qingyuan had known battle enough to be able to guess he was most likely suffering from blood loss.

“Most of the disciples in this room sustained the worst of the physical injuries, so I have been tending to them personally. Their master has asked for a private room and has been tending to his son.”

”Despite their looks and names, Shen Yuan is not Peak Lord Shen’s son,” Mu Qingfang politely corrected the woman.

She looked unconvinced at that but didn’t bother arguing. “Are you the healer they said they were going to send for?”

“Indeed,” Mu Qingfang confirmed.

”I assume you will need to speak with your fellow peak lord first, but if I may, I request some assistance with the others. These disciples here need to be properly examined.” The woman motioned to the injured.

”Of course,” Mu Qingfang agreed with a smile. “If I may inquire, where is Peak Lord Shen residing currently?”

”There is a back room down the hall. It’s a private room set up there.”

The men thanked her and ushered themselves down the hall. Yue Qingyuan knocked twice on the door before opening. “Shen-shidi?” he called out as his eyes searched for the man.

He found the man sitting at the side of the bed, his fan raised to cover everything but his eyes. His expression gave nothing away, but Yue Qingyuan grew concerned as his eyes landed on Shen Yuan.

The boy looked better than the others, but he still portrayed a pale complexion. There was a damp cloth resting on his forehead along with a small bowl of water sitting at the bedside table next to his head.

Yue Qingyuan didn’t have the nerve to comment on it, but the edge of one of Shen Qingqiu’s sleeves that was holding his fan was slightly darker due to a damp stain.

He wished he could’ve seen the way Shen Qingqiu cared for the boy when no one was looking. He wondered what expression he would’ve worn. Would he have been irritated? Indifferent?

Yue Qingyuan’s mind wandered to the past, to the times his slave masters had injured him, and how his Xiao-Jiu would tend to him afterward. He feigned vexation as he wrapped his wounds with scarce cloth, if they were fortunate to have any, but Yue Qingyuan could always detect the concern he hid beneath it.

He tried to imagine that same look of concern as he tended to Shen Yuan, but for some reason, even that didn’t feel like the right expression.

”Mu-shidi, take a look at the boy,” he said as he rose, giving the man enough space to examine him.

”Of course,” the man answered before grabbing his wrist. “You mentioned he underwent a qi deviation. What was the duration of it?”

”It lasted a little less than half an incense time,” Shen Qingqiu supplied. “I had been there when it just started and circulated qi throughout it.”

”Were there any symptoms leading up to the deviation?”

Shen Qingqiu hesitated, causing Yue Qingyuan to turn his attention back to the man. Shen Qingqiu noticed the look and raised his fan further. “He spoke,” he finally answered.

Both men froze at the words. “He spoke?” Yue Qingyuan repeated.

”Do not parrot me,” Shen Qingqiu snapped with both his voice and his fan, sliding it shut. “One of my disciples informed me he had begun speaking before I arrived. By the time I reached him, he was clearly disoriented.”

Mu Qingfang took his hand from the boy’s wrist and raised it to his throat. “Was he able to communicate anything helpful to you?”

There was another pause before Shen Qingqiu said, “No, it was nothing but the ramblings of an incoherent child.”

“You handled his qi regulation well. For now, his life is no longer in danger,” Mu Qingfang hummed before placing his hand back at his side. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll tend to your other disciples who are in more dire health.”

Mu Qingfang began to rise, but Shen Qingqiu moved to block the door. “No,” Shen Qingqiu refused. “Help this child first.”

“Shen-shixiong, I understand your concerns, but there are others who are in need of my help more,” Mu Qingfang tried to placate him.

”I don’t care. I called you here to help this child. What happens to the rest is of no concern to me.”

Yue Qingyuan felt his brows furrow in shock. This was the first time Shen Qingqiu had ever explicitly shown care for another. The realization made an odd pang in his chest.

“Xiao-Jiu,” Yue Qingyuan attempted to coax.

”Don’t you start,” Shen Qingqiu sneered. “All I am asking is for Mu-shidi to take a closer look at the boy’s meridians.”

”I understand that,” Mu Qingfang said. “But I cannot be unfair to those who need my help more right now.”

”If we found a way to resolve this unfairness, would he be your first priority?” Shen Qingqiu challenged.

”Hypothetically, if we could, then yes,” Mu Qingfang agreed. “But at the present, I cannot justify neglecting the lives of those who demand my attention more.”

”Would sharing the same blood be enough justification?”

The silence that followed was loud enough to hear a pin drop.

“Xiao-Jiu,” Yue Qingyuan spoke softly. “You have already denied he is not your son in the past.”

”Because he isn’t,” Shen Qingqiu agreed. “Fatherhood and kinship are two very different things.”

”Your concern to go above and beyond for this boy amazes me,” Mu Qingfang sighed. “As a physician I have witnessed many who try to assert power to bend circumstances to their will. This one had expected more from the Qing Jing Peak Lord than that.”

”Do you claim me to be fallacious, Peak Lord Mu?”

“I am simply asking you to reflect on the repercussions first before you purport to claim an unsuspecting boy to your side,” Mu Qingfang challenged back.

“That's enough!” Yue Qingyuan interjected. He knew he had to step in now before things escalated. It wasn’t often Mu Qingfang raised his voice, but Xiao-Jiu had that effect on others. “Shen-shidi, you have gone so long denying your relation; perhaps you can explain your adamance now.”

Shen Qingqiu scowled further but reached into his sleeve to pull a flower from it. It was an exceptionally beautiful flower by itself, but the faint red glow from the middle of it made the lotus look sultry red as the light bounced off the petals as if it were a part of a dance.

”What is that?” Yue Qingyuan subconsciously moved closer to examine the mysterious flower further. He had seen many strange beasts and vegetation during his time as a cultivator, but his knowledge fell short of this breathtaking beauty.

”If I may?” Mu Qingfang extended his hand to hold the flower. Shen Qingqiu looked reluctant as he placed it into the middle of the man’s palm. “A Blood Soaked Lotus,” he answered as he softly ran a hand along the lotus’ stamen. He twirled the flower lightly by the stem, and the glowing stamen spun slightly along with it, reminding Yue Qingyuan of a dance of fire.

”Most peculiar,” he said as he lowered the flower away from eye level. “And may I ask how you were able to procure this?”

“This one had no part in picking it.” Shen Qingqiu shook his head. “It was the boy who found it on the road here. I cannot fathom how he knew the abilities of this plant. How he imagined he could claim this one’s blood while I remained unsuspecting is beyond me.”

Yue Qingyuan looked down at the man’s nondominant hand. A bandage was wrapped around the palm of Shen Qingqiu’s hand, likely slit by a blade. Shen Qingqiu was quick to hide the bandage behind his back to keep the wandering eyes at bay.

“What purpose does this flower serve?” Yue Qingyuan asked, feeling quite lost in the conversation.

”I only know its attributes due to some wounded or elderly patients caring about matters of inheritance at the end of their lives,” Mu Qingfang responded as he finally handed the flower back from Shen Qingqiu. “It isn’t often I see the flower illuminate, but if two people sharing the same bloodline were to bleed onto the stamen, the flower would begin to glow.”

Mu Qingfang turned to Yue Qingyuan. “Yue-zongzhu, would you mind informing our host I will require more time than I originally intended? This one is required to tend to Shen-shixiong’s…family.“

Yue Qingyuan found it hard to move at first, his mind spiraling in a daze, but the scowl from Shen Qingqiu had him blinking the haze away. “Of course. I will wait right outside.”

He knew he had to open the door to reach the hallway, but it felt as if his mind wandered from his body as he returned to the main entry of the cottage.

He had known Xiao-Jiu longer than everyone else. Their relationship had grown estranged in recent years, but sometimes he still finds himself reminiscing on the days where he had nothing but a number to his name and Xiao-Jiu attached to his hip.

Just as Yue Qingyuan had no one to take care of him back then, Shen Jiu was alone too. With no family to rely on, Xiao-Jiu and he were a faux family. But it is family that suffers the deepest betrayal, and lately, all Yue Qingyuan seemed to be capable of these days was betraying his Xiao-Jiu’s trust.

The years of estrangement between him and Xiao-Jiu had long surpassed the time they had ever been family.

Xiao-Jiu was an expert at pushing others away. The only moments he sought the presence of another were when he spent time away at the brothels he was always rumored to visit.

Yue Qingyuan used to pride himself on knowing what Xiao-Jiu was thinking when they were younger. At first he thought all the boy knew was anger, but he was quick to learn there were even more emotions lying underneath the spite and wroth.

In a few short recent years, he had noticed a rare subtle softness in the man. A gentle quality seldom seen in the unforgiving climate of their childhood. But now Yue Qingyuan sees this look mainly when Xiao-Jiu spends time in a certain boy’s presence.

It’s easy to miss for most, but Yue Qingyuan watches the way his fan stays closed in Shen Yuan’s presence, removing one of the many symbolic barriers Xiao-Jiu easily puts up now. Yue Qingyuan recognizes it in the moment when, as children, the man had once extended that same grace to him.

Xiao-Jiu was a closed book to him now. He only feels uncertainty when he attempts to study Shen Qingqiu’s gaze, but right now he knows for certain the actions he’s seeing from Xiao-Jiu now.

Shen Qingqiu had grown closer to Shen Yuan even faster than he had realized, and instead of pushing the boy away, he had made the decision to cling on even tighter now that they were connected by blood.

Any orphan child is grateful enough to gain a family. He and Xiao-Jiu knew that better than anyone else. Shen Qingqiu on the other hand, gets insurance to make it hard, if not impossible, for Shen Yuan to break away from him. Shen Qingqiu had just found a new family and a successful way to keep it.

Yue Qingyuan knew there was little left to repair their irreparably broken friendship from their childhood, but a part of him grieved a lifetime in which he would be invited to celebrate the addition of Xiao-Jiu’s family, rather than turned away.

“Is your healer still occupied?” The question caused Yue Qingyuan to jump. He had looked over to find the elderly apothecary grinding herbs into a paste.

“He is; this master apologizes for the trouble. Peak Lord Mu will help you shortly.” Yue Qingyuan apologized with a bow. “The boy suffered a strong qi deviation, and Peak Lord Shen wanted to make sure there was no lasting effect.” Yue Qingyuan paused before asking, “Are you aware of the extent of the boy’s injuries?”

The lady scoffed. “You are in a room full of your wounded disciples, yet you ask about the well-being of another boy?” Yue Qingyuan hesitated, acknowledging the truth in her words, and the woman sighed softly as she observed him. “I’m only an apothecary, so I am not knowledgeable in issues of the heart and spirit, but I heard the prevalent theory behind his deviation is due to his voice. I was told it was his first time talking.” She pointed at one particular unconscious disciple. “This one was especially worried because of it. Apparently he had begun speaking to him first, and it was enough to make him anxious. I had to slip him a sleeping medicine to finally get him to settle down.”

”The first? He spoke to more people?”

The old woman nodded. The first peak lord I met told me he was communicating in sentences before his deviation. He was able to treat the boy quickly. I don’t understand cultivation, but as a healer, the quicker you are able to treat a patient, the better. There are even worse patients here who have yet been seen.”

“If there is any help this one can provide as we wait, this one will be happy to give it,” He offered. “And I encourage you to bill Cang Qiong for any financial reparations resulting from the trouble caused tonight.”

Yue Qingyuan had finished boiling water for her by the time Mu Qingfang walked in. “All done,” he said as he entered. “Nothing physically wrong except a broken leg and some bruising. I cleared his meridians further, but nothing more can be done until the boy wakes.”

Before Yue Qingyuan could respond, the sound of the front door banging open made his hand flinch to his sword hilt. He only relaxed when a female disciple in green appeared hunched over and panting out of breath.

”Yue-zongzhu, Peak Lord Mu,” she quickly straightened up so she could bow. Upon further inspection, he noticed it to be Shen Yuan’s translator and friend.

”Please rise,” he said. “What are you doing rushing here at this hour?”

”I was staying with Shizun and A-Yuan when I told Shizun that A-Yuan hadn’t taken his medicine since he left Qing Jing, so he asked me to go and grab it. This lowly one is sorry for the noise. I know it’s bad for the other patients. I just didn’t want A-Yuan to wake up without it.”

”As long as you are aware,” Mu Qingfang spoke. “I have just attended to your friend, so you can visit him again.”

“I will take you in,” Yue Qingyuan volunteered.

The girl nodded, and in that moment he realized that he never knew her name. They held a conversation once on the behalf of Xiao-Yuan, but there was never an opportunity to catch her name since the only other participant couldn’t speak.

It was easy to remember Xiao-Yuan’s name. One look at the boy’s face and suddenly he had been transported back to the times when he was allowed to call Shen Qingqiu, Xiao-Jiu. It was harder to remember all of the faces of the children who were a part of his sect, especially when they weren’t a part of his own peak.

The girl nodded and began to trail behind him while clutching a small pouch. He watched the way the girl toyed with the drawstring with a small smile.

He felt his nerves rising as he knocked on the door for the second time that night. After a few moments in silence, Yue Qingyuan pushed open the door.

Shen Qingqiu hardly paid Yue Qingyuan any attention, instead reaching out his hand for the medicine bag. The girl walked ahead and placed the item into his palm.

No one seemed willing to speak, so Yue Qingyuan cleared his throat. “Your letter was missing the events that transpired tonight. I came in here hoping you would fill me in.”

Shen Qingqiu still didn’t bother looking at him, his eyes still on the boy as his fan opened again. “The creatures that plagued this village only migrated this far to defend and protect their herd. This village found profit in crafting various items from their antlers. I warned them to stop it, and if they choose to continue their hunt, then they could expect more attacks without help from Cang Qiong’s Sect. This boy had done enough in spooking the creatures away. Anything that happens to them after this is of no concern to us.”

Yue Qingyuan hummed in agreement. “Let it be so.” He nodded. “And how is Xiao-Yuan fairing?”

That caused Shen Qingqiu to finally pierce him with his sharp glare. “He is none of your concern as well.”

Yue Qingyuan knew that was coming, but that didn’t stop the words from hurting any less. “I understand,” he said with a long sigh. “I just want to make sure you are acting in Xiao-Yuan’s best interest as well as your own.”

Shen Qingqiu’s look grew colder as he turned to his female disciple. “Leave us,” he ordered.

The girl looked surprised to hear that tone of voice directed at her but still bowed in farewell before leaving them alone in the room.

Yue Qingyuan found it hard to speak first with the tension permeating the room but did so anyway. “Shouldn’t Xiao-Yuan have been awake first before declaring him your blood?”

”Awake or not, the results from the flower would have remained the same,” Shen Qingqiu scoffed as he turned his attention back to the boy.

“This is a revelation Xiao-Yuan should celebrate too,” Yue Qingyuan shook his head in exasperation. He watched the way Shen Qingqiu’s brow twitched before coming to a realization. “You were never planning on telling the boy, were you?”

“He does not need to know something that cannot harm him for being unaware.”

”It is alright if you don’t want him to think of you any differently, but it is cruel to—“

“You are the last person to lecture me on what is or is not cruel,” Shen Qingqiu snapped as he rose from his seat. “You, who were nothing but cruel to me.”

Yue Qingyuan struggled to swallow as he felt his stomach plummet at his words. “I know,” he finally managed to choke out. “I know that well. But for the sake of Xiao-Yuan, I must try to persuade you otherwise.”

”Your words have held no weight to me for a long time,” Shen Qingqiu finally spoke. His words felt as if they were ringing in his ears.

Yue Qingyuan exhaled a shaky sigh before speaking again. “Alright. I just ask you to treat the boy well.”

Shen Qingqiu studied the fight that had left the man’s face before closing his fan. “I know how to treasure what is mine.”

The hidden meaning behind those words did not go unheard. Not wanting to hear anymore, Yue Qingyuan did what he knew how to do best and turned to run away from his Xiao-Jiu yet again.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan felt like hell on steroids as he blinked back some measure of lucidity. His eyes hurt from the sensitivity, and when he tensed his body, a dull pain rippled throughout it, drawing a wince from him.

The pain washed the grogginess from his body, and he used his elbows to attempt to sit up.

Gasps were heard from somewhere in the room, and suddenly there was a pair of hands pushing him back into a lying position. “A-Yuan, not so suddenly! You’ve been out for two days,” Ning Yingying said as she fluffed the pillow behind his head before cradling the back of it to lay gently on top.

Shen Yuan took a moment to grasp his surroundings, only to find him in a completely unfamiliar room. Ning Yingying wasn’t the only person keeping him company. Surprisingly, Ming Fan was also next to her. His hand was wrapped in bandages, and suddenly the last events he was aware of dawned on him. Ming Fan must have gotten hurt while Shen Yuan was unaware.

Shen Yuan opened his mouth out of habit to ask where he was, but the sound of the system cut him off.

[Insufficient words. Words available to use: 0]

Shen Yuan had to fight himself from scoffing outwardly. What a ripoff System! He had purposefully saved one word during his exchange with Ming Fan. He had just fallen victim to a highway robbery!

Closing the screen with the mindset of dealing with it later, he signed with one hand, “Where?”

“Some of us were injured far more greatly than what our resources we brought could fix, so we had to seek a third party for help,” Ming Fan answered this time. His eyes grew watery before adding, “You had a qi deviation.” His voice cracked at the end of his sentence.

Ning Yingying eyed him momentarily before rising. “I'll inform Shizun you’ve awakened,” she said before dashing out of the room.

Shen Yuan found the silence between Ming Fan and him awkward until he heard the boy sniffle. ‘Is he trying not to cry?’ Shen Yuan thought to himself as he watched the boy unsuccessfully trying to conceal the stray tears slipping down his face by wiping them away.

”They—“ Ming Fan choked out. “They say you had a qi deviation because you talked. If I had just known your language better, then you wouldn’t have had one in the first place.” The more and more he talked, the more his tone became indistinguishable from wailing. When he finished, Ming Fan was unable to stop the fat tears falling from his eyes.

‘Is this truly the stallion protagonist’s first bully? He looks like a sad kid right now,’ he thought to himself as he watched the boy’s face grow red. He didn’t look like much with globs of snot dripping from his nose.

Shen Yuan studied him longer before realizing, ‘He is a kid.’

After his first year in this world, he had been able to detach his jiejies from the Red Pavilion as unmentioned characters from a novel and start viewing them as real people. Despite that, he had never managed to distinguish fiction from reality when it came to the novel’s characters. Not until Ming Fan stood in front of him crying, not like a bully, but as an emotionally hurt human being.

Feeling emboldened, Shen Yuan reached out and patted him on the head. Ming Fan hid his face with his hands, but he was still able to speak through the muffle of his hands. “I’ll learn your sign. That way you won't almost have to die again while I’m around.”

The sincerity touched his heart. Truthfully, it didn’t matter if Ming Fan learned it or not. He already had one disciple who could communicate effectively, but it never hurt to have another. To be the recipient of such candor made him glad that this was the outcome of using his first words on Ming Fan.

His thoughts were interrupted once he heard the sound of a door opening. Ning Yingying was holding a tray with a tea set on top, trailing behind none other than their shizun.

“Shizun,” he signed with his hands. Since he communicated with Ning Yingying and his shizun often, he learned it was simpler to make a singular sign for them instead of fingerspelling out their names every time. 

He vaguely remembered from his past that it was common for deaf people to do that, and it was the equivalent of giving a person a nickname. Of course, he never disclosed that, especially with his shizun. He could only imagine the look on the man’s face if Shen Yuan told him his sign language name was nothing more than a casual nickname.

His nickname for Ning Yingying was two fists on top of his head, mimicking her usual buns. He did take pride in the development of Shen Qingqiu’s sign. He knew it was high stakes to come up with a sign the man would respond to. Anything disrespectful would’ve set back progress by years.

Eventually he came up with folding his hands straight like a prayer before turning his palms at a forty-five-degree angle while spreading his fingers to imitate a fan being opened. The spread ended with his right pinky and left thumb lying at a flat angle, with his right thumb peeking through the gap between his left pointer finger and thumb. 

He was nervous as he performed the sign to Shen Qingqiu after he explained its purpose. He was waiting for the sting of rejection but was pleasantly surprised when he received passive approval in its place. He would have assumed his master was uncaring about the sign, were it not for the System’s ding and the influx of point alerts that followed.

Shen Yuan hadn’t noticed Ming Fan had backed away from his side until there was a tea tray placed onto the bedside table next to him. “Can you sit up? Or do you currently require assistance?” Shen Qingqiu asked with narrow eyes.

Shen Yuan nodded, brushing aside his previous attempt as he carefully pushed himself upright. “Help him.” Shen Qingqiu motioned to Ming Fan. Ming Fan needed no other orders and immediately joined his side again. He helped Shen Yuan up with one hand and propped his pillows up with another before gently guiding Shen Yuan to sit back. Shen Yuan nodded in appreciation, thankful he was willing to help despite his own injuries.

Shen Yuan was distracted by Shen Qingqiu putting a hand in his sleeve and extracting a familiar small pouch. Shen Yuan gave Ning Yingying a betrayed expression as he came face to face with his neglected medicine pouch. The girl avoided his gaze, looking everywhere in the room but at his face.

”Thinking you could outsmart this master at the detriment of your own well-being is the most foolish behavior I have ever seen out of a disciple,” Shen Qingqiu said as he poured the medicine into the teapot. Shen Yuan winced as he watched as more medicine was added than usual, knowing a larger dose made the tea more bitter.

”You were speaking sentences earlier before you passed out. Are you able to right now?” Shen Qingqiu asked as he placed the lid back onto the tea kettle.

Shen Yuan felt his mouth drop in shock. ‘Sentences? System, I thought you only gave me four words?!’

[Host was able to override controls as System rebooted, hence the lack of words available now.]

‘That’s not fair! You’ve taxed me for something I don’t even remember!’

“Fix that brow, boy,” Shen Qingqiu snapped, causing Shen Yuan’s focus to leave the blue screen. “Do you not remember?”

Shen Yuan shook his head.

”I learned your language so you could communicate with me. I asked you two questions,” Shen Qingqiu snapped at him, and Shen Yuan swallowed the lump in his throat as the man’s anger rose exceptionally quickly today.

“No for both questions,” he answered. 

Shen Qingqiu studied his face for a moment longer before exhaling sharply. “Ning Yingying, pour your shidi his tea.” Ning Yingying did as she was told before placing the clay cup into his hands. “Now drink,” he commanded Shen Yuan. “Quickly.”

Shen Yuan didn’t dare try to defy him, downing the cup in a few big sips, trying not to make a face at the taste. “Ning Yingying, pour him another,” Shen Qingqiu ordered again.

Ning Yingying glanced from Shen Yuan back to their shizun before refilling the cup.

”Drink again. Quickly.”

Shen Yuan studied the cup before downing the liquid again in two big swallows, wincing at the bitterness.

”Ning Yingying. Again.”

Ning Yingying shot Shen Yuan a pitied look as she refilled the cup. Shen Yuan didn’t need to be prompted again, taking more big gulps. The exchange happened three more times before Shen Yuan placed the cup in his lap. “I’m full,” he signed to his shizun. His stomach felt like it was sloshing in liquid.

”Ning Yingying, refill that cup.” Shen Qingqiu ignored him.

Shen Yuan drank two more times before signing. “I need to use the bathroom.”

The consequence of drinking liquid right after waking up had caught up to him.

The goodwill he had been feeling towards Ming Fan had all but turned into embarrassment as he had to have the boy help hold him so he could pee into a chamber pot provided. He held onto the side where he had received a broken bone. Shen Qingqiu and Ning Yingying had left, leaving Ming Fan to help him handle his business. Shen Yuan could tell the boy was trying to be respectful, but he was certain he had gotten several good looks at his pillar.

‘I never want to think about this again,’ Shen Yuan thought to himself as he pulled up his pants. ‘I can only imagine the Reddit title: “Is it pedophilia if I (22M transmigrated into a boy’s body) accidentally showed my junk to another young teenage boy because of medical issues?” I’d get ratioed bad in the comments.’

Shen Yuan had only just begun to settle after being helped back into bed when another knock came at the door. Watching Mu Qingfang open it only added to the many surprises of the day.

”Hello, Shen Yuan,” he greeted. “Your shizun told me you had just woken up.” As he walked into the room, he had found Shen Qingqiu trailing behind the man. “I was told you have already consumed a fair amount of your usual medication today. Perhaps next time we should wait before consuming a large quantity of medication while you are still recovering,” Mu Qingfang told Shen Yuan, but Shen Yuan felt like the words weren’t fully meant for him, especially with the way Shen Qingqiu flipped his fan open with a small fwip.

“Ming Fan, go wait outside with the rest,” Shen Qingqiu ordered the boy. Ming Fan bowed in respect before leaving.

”You underwent a qi deviation, Shen Yuan. How do you feel?” Mu Qingfang asked as he sat in the seat beside him.

“I feel fine,” Shen Yuan signed.

”The truth,” Shen Qingqiu demanded.

‘It is the truth,’ Shen Yuan thought to himself. ‘What you guys saw as a qi deviation was nothing more than a hard system restart.’

Instead of actually explaining his thoughts, he signed, “Just feel weaker.”

Shen Qingqiu translated for him. Mu Qingfang watched the exchange in interest, likely since it was his first time watching them communicate in sign language. All of Shen Yuan’s checkups throughout the years had been by himself once he had gotten acclimated and didn’t need Shen Qingqiu’s help to find his way around anymore.

Mu Qingfang didn’t comment on his curiosity and instead asked, “I was told you were speaking that night before your deviation. Do you remember that?”

“I remember speaking to Ming-shixiong,” he told the truth.

“Not to your peak lord?” Mu Qingfang asked as he grasped his wrist.

Shen Yuan shook his head. He wondered what had come out of his mouth while he was incapacitated. He only spoke a few sentences, so whatever he said couldn’t have done that much damage, could it? Besides, Shen Qingqiu was acting just as prickly as ever.

“Interesting,” Mu Qingfang hummed as he placed his hand from his wrist and laid it onto his neck. “I hear you’re unable to speak again. Can you try for me right now?”

Shen Yuan opened his System to make sure the display actually said he had no words left before nodding. Mu Qingfang placed his other hand so it was resting on the opposite side of Shen Yuan’s throat before Shen Yuan released a breathy grunt. Mu Qingfang repositioned his fingers before telling him, “Again.” Shen Yuan let out a similar breathy groan before Mu Qingfang repositioned his fingers one last time before asking him to try again.

Finally Mu Qingfang released Shen Yuan’s throat from his fingers. “I can’t find any new damage. While that is a good thing, I ask you to restrain yourself from speaking again until we have a deeper understanding of why your voice played a part in your qi deviation.”

‘It wasn’t my voice that did that to me,’ Shen Yuan thought to himself. ‘The blame is to be placed entirely on that blasted, good-for-nothing System.’

Rather than voicing the thought, he simply nodded in response to the instructions.

”I wish you a speedy recovery,” Mu Qingfang said as he rose. “Feel free to call for me with any concerns if anything were to arise in the future.”

Shen Yuan nodded before he was left alone again.

Ning Yingying told him he shouldn’t have been out of bed the next day, but Shen Yuan ignored her as he used a stick as a crutch to walk himself forward.

Ning Yingying and Ming Fan followed him close behind. They had caught him trying to sneak out and decided if they were to stop him, then they would never learn what passioned Shen Yuan so exuberantly on his second day awake.

He finally paused at the edge of the forest, swinging his broken leg so it was in front of him so he could sit down. “What are you doing?” Ming Fan asked from behind.

Shen Yuan beckoned them over, and he watched the two eye each other in his peripheral vision before taking a seat. Shen Yuan hurriedly signed something to Ning Yingying, causing her brows to rise in confusion.

”What did he say?” Ming Fan asked her.

”He said we should kneel for him since he can’t do it right now.” She answered as she changed positions. Ming Fan also rose so he was kneeling as well.

Once Shen Yuan felt like the two were showing enough respect, he pulled on the hairpin he had bought at the market for Ning Yingying. She looked confused by his actions, but Ming Fan quickly realized what was happening and began to bury a hole in front of Shen Yuan.

”What are you doing?” she asked Ming Fan once he dug far enough.

Ming Fan brushed the dirt from his hands before answering. “He’s honoring the dead.”

Ning Yingying looked even more confused, so Shen Yuan decided to take pity and clue her in. “The creatures weren’t hunting the humans because they were the ones being hunted,” he signed to her.

Ning Yingying raised her eyebrows in shock. “You mean…?”

”Humans were killing them for their—“ Shen Yuan trailed off in his sign, realizing he didn’t have a word for antlers. Shen Yuan turned to Ming Fan and pointed at the pin.

He seemed confused as he looked at it. “What? The hairpin?” Shen Yuan shook his head at Ming Fan’s response. “The antlers?”

Shen Yuan nodded enthusiastically and pointed at Ming Fan as he finished his sentence.

”I see,” Ning Yingying said in an upset tone. “How cruel.”

Shen Yuan nodded before placing the pin into the ground and covering it. He lowered his head while Ning Yingying and Ming Fan lowered themselves into a proper bow. “We don’t have incense, but hopefully they understand our intentions,” he signed to Ning Yingying.

“I agree,” she said before translating for Ming Fan.

”How compassionate.” A deep voice from behind them caused all three of them to jump. Turning his upper half, Shen Yuan found their sect leader standing behind them. Everyone hurried to rise to their feet, but Yue Qingyuan waved them to stop. “Continue to pay your respects. I did not mean to interrupt.”

Ming Fan looked especially hesitant, but Shen Yuan and Ning Yingying relaxed. Shen Yuan signed something to Ning Yingying and motioned for her to translate for him. “He says that it isn’t compassion if you’re just doing the right thing.”

Ming Fan looked ready to keel over at the blatant disrespect Shen Yuan had shown, trying to lecture their own sect leader.

Yue Qingyuan studied Shen Yuan for a moment before giving him a small smile. “You are correct, please excuse me,” Yue Qingyuan said as he bowed at the makeshift burial. It wasn’t a bow on the knees like Ning Yingying and Ming Fan, but he still bowed low at the hip. “It is hard for people to remain kind to the same things that once hurt them before. You all have kind hearts.”

Shen Yuan was shocked at the gesture, not expecting something like that from their sect leader. Once Yue Qingyuan rose, he said, “I hope you didn’t mind me following. I was worried when I watched the three of you wander off by yourselves while you are still recovering.”

“We were going to return right after,” Ming Fan assured him. He eyed Shen Yuan before adding, “Probably.”

Shen Yuan fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Do you three need an escort back?” Yue Qingyuan asked the trio.

”We wouldn’t dare ask that of you,” Ming Fan denied the help as he rose.

”It would be no bother to me,” Yue Qingyuan assured. Ming Fan still looked nervous, but Shen Yuan had plenty of experience allowing the sect leader to guide him when asked, so he nodded.

Ning Yingying had once experienced the same and quickly rose to her feet to follow. Ming Fan still looked lost but rose to follow anyway.

“Are you feeling better, Xiao-Yuan? I hear you had a nasty qi deviation,” Yue Qingyuan asked as they walked.

Shen Yuan nodded. “He’s not allowed to speak anymore, even if he can,” Ning Yingying pouted. “I just can’t believe after all these years he would choose to talk to Ming Fan first and not me. I was his friend longer, and I may never know what his voice sounds like.”

Ming Fan scoffed, flabbergasted. “It was a life-or-death situation. I don’t even remember what he sounds like since I was focusing on not dying.”

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes as he listened to them bicker.

“How is your leg, Xiao-Yuan?” Yue Qingyuan asked him.

Truthfully it was beginning to hurt, but Shen Yuan knew better than to complain to his sect leader. He smiled and nodded, hoping that was enough to convey he was okay. Then he paused and signed something to Ning Yingying.

“He says a break wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Ning Yingying translated for him.

“Perhaps I could carry you on my back?” Yue Qingyuan suggested. Ming Fan truly looked ready to fall over. “Your companion here still looks injured, and I don’t want to weigh a young girl down.”

Shen Yuan would’ve accepted since he had grown used to the man randomly offering his help, but figured it would be a bad look for him to come back being carried by their sect leader.

Before he could deny the offer, Ning Yingying spoke up, “That would be good for you, A-Yuan. Shishu said you should keep weight off of your bad leg for a while.”

He would’ve lectured her on the disrespect he would be showing if he hitched a ride on their superior if his leg wasn’t already beginning to throb from the strain. He handed off his walking stick to her and held out his arms in preparation to be picked up. Ming Fan released a wounded noise at his audacious behavior.

Yue Qingyuan didn’t seem agitated, but rather pleased with his decision as he lifted him onto his back in a piggyback. “If you were as small as you were when we first met, I’d let you sit on my shoulders.” He gave a hearty laugh as he shifted him to reposition him better.

Shen Yuan hesitantly placed his hands so they rested on his shoulders but eventually wrapped his arms around his neck so it would redistribute his weight better.

They made idle conversation the rest of the way back, but Shen Yuan had to stay out of it since his hands were currently indisposed. 

The peaceful atmosphere didn’t last long once they returned to the village. They only made it a few steps before their path was blocked by a figure in green. “What are you doing?” Shen Qingqiu spoke with a downward curved lip.

“I trailed Xiao-Yuan and his friends to ensure their safe return,” Yue Qingyuan said politely as he maintained his grip on Shen Yuan.

“Where did you go?” Shen Qingqiu turned his ire onto Shen Yuan, causing the boy to hide his head behind Yue Qingyuan’s. With his face close to his hair, he was able to get a whiff of his hair oil. It smelled different from the one he used on Shen Qingqiu. It had less of an incense scent and smelled more like natural oil. Shen Yuan felt pathetic as he sneakily stole small whiffs to calm his nerves. 

“A-Yuan brought us to pay respect to the Serpentstags that were killed,” Ning Yingying answered for him. “We weren’t meaning to cause trouble.”

Shen Qingqiu studied her as she spoke before eventually heaving a sharp sigh. “Ming Fan, take the boy.”

Ming Fan didn’t argue as Shen Yuan was transferred over to him from Yue Qingyuan. Shen Qingqiu began to walk away with the implicit order to follow, so both Ning Yingying and Ming Fan gave a quick bow to Yue Qingyuan before trailing behind. Ming Fan gave his best bow with Shen Yuan latched to his back.

As they walked, Shen Yuan twisted his torso so he could look behind and released one of his hands from being wrapped around Ming Fan to wave goodbye. 

He smiled as Yue Qingyuan waved back, still rooted in the spot where they had left him.

He eventually was cut off by a sneeze, causing Ming Fan to squirm when he was accidentally sprayed with his spit. “Gross,” he complained as he took a hand from Shen Yuan’s leg to wipe the back of his neck. “Cover your mouth next time.”

He wrote the character sorry on the back of his neck. Ming Fan didn’t comment, only adjusting his grip and hoisting him slightly so he wouldn’t slide off his back.

Chapter Text

The room was turned upside down by the time Shen Yuan finally consulted the System.

‘System, where the hell is my Blood Soaked Lotus?!’ he asked as he flipped his bedding over for the third time. ‘My pouch is gone!’

[Item: Blood Soaked Lotus is no longer available in your inventory.]

Shen Yuan dragged his hands over his face as he read the message. ‘What? It’s not like it grew legs and wandered off. Do you know where it is now?’

[That information is currently unavailable. Would you like access to the spatial inventory now available with the new update?]

Shen Yuan scoffed as he read it. ‘Why would you ask me permission to upgrade? Shouldn’t a System like yours do it automatically?’ He paused his thoughts before backtracking. ‘Nevermind, always ask for permission. The last thing I need is to be scammed again.’

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Ning Yingying asked as she watched him search. “We leave tomorrow morning, so it is your last chance to find it.”

Shen Yuan shook his head and rose. It wasn’t like he lost something major. He happened to find the Blood Soaked Lotus by coincidence, so him not having it was just a minor setback. It was something that was going to be used to offer him more insight, but losing it didn’t deter his main mission of gaining reformation points.

‘System, what am I even collecting reformation points for?’

[Host requires 100,000 reformation points to stop the Endless Abyss plot line and save Cang Qiong.]

Shen Yuan’s mouth dropped at the number. ‘100,000? How many do I currently have at the moment?’

[Host currently has 24,205 reformation points.]

‘That little?’ Shen Yuan panicked. He originally prided himself at the pace he set for acquiring them, but now they felt inconsequential. ‘Wait a minute, last time I checked I was a few hundred away from twenty thousand. What caused that big of a jump?’

As usual, his System remained silent to his most pressing questions.

‘Can you show me the rest of my stats at least?’

[24,205 reformation points. 2,105 S-Points. 9,450 B-Points.]

‘I just used up all of my S-Points; why have I gained back that many?’

[Host had made significant progress in the plot.]

‘I have?’ Shen Yuan thought. ‘What was it?’

[System cannot give free hints.]

‘Cheap good-for-nothing System you are,’ Shen Yuan simmered as he raged inwardly. ‘The most important thing that happened was uncovering the truth about the Serpentstags and this village. Maybe it was that combined with my plan on trapping them so no one got hurt.’

Shen Yuan was satisfied after he came up with a reasonable explanation. He didn’t need to pay to have something spelled out for him when he was blessed with good critical thinking skills.

His thoughts were interpreted when a strong sneeze caught him unexpectedly. 

“Maybe you should lie down for now,” Ning Yingying said as she approached him. “You’ve been sneezing for a while now. You rode here after getting wet in this weather. No matter how good you are at qi control right now, you just had a qi deviation. Maybe you need to lay down.”

Feeling defeated, Shen Yuan didn’t try to fight her once she began pushing him into the newly made bed.

Shen Yuan was to receive one last check from Mu Qingfang before the man would leave. Both he and Yue Qingyuan were set to leave earlier than the rest due to them arriving on their swords. They were to set out later in the night so they wouldn’t be spotted by unsuspecting civilians as they flew back.

For each of his appointments he had recently received, Shen Qingqiu had remained by his side. It remained unclear whether Shen Qingqiu was there to monitor Shen Yuan or Mu Qingfang, but he proved beneficial to keep around, being one of the few who could understand him.

Currently he watched the way Mu Qingfang unwrapped his bandages to examine his broken leg. Shen Yuan winced whenever the man pressed too close to the injury but still tried his best to remain pliant in his grip.

”It’s still in the process of healing, so you won’t be able to ride horseback on your way back to Cang Qiong,” Mu Qingfang said as he wrapped his leg in new bandages around a sturdy splint. “I have already advised others to ride in a wagon, so you will not be ostracized for it.”

Shen Yuan already figured he wasn’t going to be able to ride back on horseback. Even if he could sling his injured foot over a horse’s back, he’d still run into issues when keeping his foot inside the stirrup. He was going to have to ask someone to lead Taoqi back for him.

Once he was done with his leg, Mu Qingfang clutched the boy’s wrist and began circulating qi through it. The process reminded Shen Yuan of being fanned on a hot day. It felt like relief from an itch he hadn’t been aware of until it was already being soothed.

”A few days of having your qi cleansed should clear up any remaining blockages and prevent future flare-ups,” Mu Qingfang said once he finished. “You are welcome to either travel to Qian Cao for treatment or receive it from your shizun. Whichever is most beneficial to you.”

Shen Yuan nodded as he drew back his wrist to his body. Another routine to be added into their strange rituals in the mornings and evenings, assuming Shen Qingqiu even wanted to help him in the first place.

Shen Yuan sneakily glanced up at his shizun, but nothing was given away beneath his frosty stare and open fan.

”Could I speak to Shen Yuan alone for a moment?” Mu Qingfang asked as he politely smiled at Shen Qingqiu. 

“No,” he answered immediately. “How do you expect him to talk if I am not here?”

”I always carry some paper on me,” Mu Qingfang countered, still smiling. “I don’t mind sharing some with him.”

”There is nothing you should be telling my disciples without consulting me as their shizun first,” Shen Qingqiu spoke again, and this time you could tell there was a sneer hiding beneath his fan.

In fear the System would start subtracting points due to his behavior, Shen Yuan quickly got Shen Qingqiu’s attention and signed, “It’s fine.” Shen Qingqiu looked like he didn’t believe him, so he added, “I’ll tell you what we talk about later.”

[+50 S-Points.]

Shen Qingqiu’s expression seemed to relax before he began to make his way to the door. He gave Mu Qingfang one last withering glare before closing the door behind him.

”Shen Yuan,” Mu Qingfang began once several moments passed. “Do you have any information on your family? Mother, father, or even siblings?”

Shen Yuan shook his head.

Mu Qingfang hummed as he scratched his chin. “Where did you originate from before coming to Cang Qiong?”

Shen Yuan had to write on the paper provided. A brothel.

Mu Qingfang’s eyes widened before he looked back up at Shen Yuan’s face. The man seemed to be studying him closely, so Shen Yuan added, I’m not Shizun's son.

He wasn’t sure why he felt the urge to clarify that; he had been denying those accusations for years. Everyone knew they “allegedly” weren’t father and son. He knew a lot of people didn’t believe him, but it felt like Mu Qingfang was one of those people at that moment. Shen Yuan didn’t mind when nobodies talked nonsense, but having a peak lord believe it felt dangerous.

”Of course,” he replied, but his tone carried the air of an adult humoring a child, not because he truly believed it, but out of reluctance to say otherwise.

I’m not! Shen Yuan wrote again; his letter’s larger to add emphasis. You shouldn’t make assumptions based on baseless evidence. 

The most Shen Qingqiu did at the Warm Red Pavilion was sleep. If all he did was fall asleep around plenty of beautiful women offering sexual acts, then there was a good chance he’d never used his tool on a woman either. Shen Qingqiu was lonely both in this life and in PIDW. There was no way he could have an offspring.

If only he had access to the Blood Soaked Lotus to prove him correct. It was still a shame to have lost such precious treasure. It would have helped correct mistakes like these, provided it didn’t trigger any reaction.

“You’re correct. Please forgive me,” Mu Qingfang said as he rose. “I was curious about your answer.”

Shen Yuan felt suspicious of his curiosity that had arisen out of nowhere, but he decided to let it slide with a nod.

”Please feel free to visit Qian Cao for any issues in the future, whether they be physical or emotional. I promise I will do my best to help.”

Shen Yuan nodded at his offer. Thank you for your help. This disciple appreciates it greatly. I’m sorry for the bother.

“It has been no bother at all with you,” Mu Qingfang spoke with a smile. “I’d argue your Shizun has been the hardest to work with throughout my time here, not you.”

Shen Yuan knew the man said it as a joke, but he couldn’t help but think there was some truthfulness laced into his words. Knowing the man was difficult to work with in both PIDW and now, all Shen Yuan could do was mutely chuckle awkwardly.

Shen Yuan wasn’t there to see Yue Qingyuan and Mu Qingfang off in the night, but he was present to help pack and leave for the day. Well, he really wasn’t able to help in packing, but he provided support by sitting on the sidelines with Ning Yingying and remaining an onlooker.

Despite his injuries, Ming Fang was helping load some lighter items onto horses or move items so the wagons had more room for the injured. While Shen Yuan was thankful his butt wasn’t going to hurt from riding, he knew it was still going to hurt from the bumpy path and hard wood. He rubbed his tailbone in preparation as he stared at the wagon.

Shen Yuan made eye contact with Zi Chen, but the other boy didn’t remain staring, cutting his eyes back to his task quickly. Shen Yuan noticed that Zi Chen and Ming Fan weren’t interacting like before and remembered that Ming Fan had stuck close to him and Ning Yingying while they were recovering. He decided to ask Ning Yingying about it.

”They had a fight that night while you were fighting the Serpentstags alone,” Ning Yingying answered him. “Ming Fan wanted to turn back and check on you since you were by yourself, but Zi Chen thought you were going to die anyway since you were alone. He said some more hurtful things, so Ming Fan said he’d rather be friends with an honorable defect than a coward before he went back to get you.”

‘Welp, there goes that friendship,’ Shen Yuan thought with a wince. He was thankful Ming Fan had run back to get him since that action led to his life being saved, but he couldn’t help but mourn the boy’s social life in the process. Shen Yuan was far from being the most sociable disciple. He just hoped the boy didn’t regret his decision any time soon.

”I’m no better,” Ning Yingying spoke unexpectedly, causing Shen Yuan to jump. His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to decipher what she meant. “I was worried about you too, but once he got far enough away, I didn’t have the courage to go back and check. I was going to let my best friend die because I was a coward too.”

“No, that’s a completely normal reaction for a child to have in a stressful situation,” Shen Yuan signed, disagreeing. Shen Yuan was older mentally, but even he would’ve found himself double-guessing on whether or not to play the hero. He had a System to incentivize him, leaving what Ming Fan did willingly that much more heroic. “A lot of people freeze in stressful situations. You just did what was best for you to live.”

”You’re a child too,” Ning Yingying scoffed. “But don’t worry, I’ll get stronger! That way you can rely on me when we get married!”

Shen Yuan wheezed despite his disability. “Married?!” He fumbled to sign. “Where did you get that idea from?!” Due to him lacking vocal cues, he had to be more expressive when signing. This was one of the few times he didn’t feel like he was artificially adding emotions into his sign language.

“Everyone says so,” she answered with a shrug. “They say since we can understand each other, we’re meant to be married, as no other wife could ever truly understand you.”

Shen Yuan shook his head rapidly. “Don’t listen to them. We aren’t getting married.”

“You don‘t want to marry me?” Ning Yingying asked dejectedly.

‘It’s not a matter of if I want to or not,’ Shen Yuan thought as his mind spiraled. ‘It’s a matter of your future husband coming to behead me in the future because I stole his wife.’

“I think there’ll be another man who will come and woo you better than I can,” Shen Yuan decided on signing instead. “Besides, you don’t want to spend your days with a mute man!”

“It doesn’t matter to me if you’re mute or not.” Ning Yingying crossed her arms. “You can communicate without needing words. I can help others understand you as my husband.”

Shen Yuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Had he been unknowingly crafting his death flag all along?! Rubbing his hands down his face, he decided to go in a different direction.

“What do you expect from a marriage?” He asked in sign language. 

Ning Yingying pondered for a second before responding. “A husband.”

Shen Yuan looked up to the heavens and cursed his life for leading him to this moment. “Obviously you’ll get a husband,” Shen Yuan signed. “But what do you get out of marriage besides that?”

”A man,” Ning Yingying answered again, causing Shen Yuan to rub his nose.

He was ready to sign angrily again before his thoughts stopped him. Marriage here and marriage in the modern world were two different things. In his previous world, marriage symbolized love and new beginnings, and most women had the chance to marry because of their emotions. Women in PIDW married for status and children. The opportunities offered to women were not equal to their counterparts. Even though women were accepted into Cang Qiong, not many rose to success and status unless they were lucky to be chosen as the Xian Shu Peak Lord, the only women’s peak.

“Ning-shijie, I love you as a sister, not as a lover,” Shen Yuan signed, finally finding the words. “You deserve to marry someone who is interested in you romantically.”

‘Like a mighty half-demon emperor,’ he added in his thoughts.

”Romance isn’t needed in marriage,” Ning Yingying said, and Shen Yuan felt as if the words had been regurgitated and unoriginal, like she was only repeating them.

“It may not be needed, but I want you to experience it,” Shen Yuan signed. “My Ning-shijie is too beautiful and kind to not know what it feels like to be loved romantically.”

Ning Yingying had tears in her eyes as she watched him sign. “A-Yuan is beautiful and kind too, so he also deserves love.”

Shen Yuan winced as he thought about Luo Binghe’s enormous harem. Love was not waiting for him in this life unless he wanted to know the bite of Xin Mo. He didn’t dare voice that and nodded along. “That’s why we shouldn’t be looking to marry each other,” he signed. Ning Yingying nodded too, and Shen Yuan felt the tension deflate from his body.

It made sense why people believed they were going to get married. Not many boys and girls manage to maintain a relationship like theirs and remain friends in times like these. Fortunately, Shen Yuan was wise enough not to pursue the protagonist’s first wife as a potential partner.

Thankfully he didn’t have to stay with her long after that because they were told everyone was ready to leave. Shen Yuan sprang at the opportunity to escape and hobbled toward the wagon. He was examining it to track the best way to lift himself up into it when his shizun’s voice caught his attention.

”There is not enough room for all of you,” he said as he flicked his eyes over to the wagon. “You will ride with me.”

Shen Yuan wasn’t sure if he had just gotten lucky or unlucky at the development. More time with Shen Qingqiu meant more time to farm for points, but that also meant he also had no escape from him for an entire day. He already felt his joints aching with tension from his anxiety. It had just been one blow after another today.

Shen Yuan shot Ning Yingying a troubled look before hobbling his way into the carriage after Shen Qingqiu.

The ride began in an awkward silence, and Shen Yuan was trying with all of his might to avoid the man’s gaze despite being trapped in such restricted confinements. Because of his leg, Shen Yuan had to keep his leg straight to avoid worsening the injury, but it left him taking up far more space than Shen Qingqiu. It was disrespectful for a disciple to occupy so much more space, and Shen Qingqiu’s silence did nothing to ease his anxiety.

It was half a sichen into their trip before Shen Qingqiu spoke up, “What did your Shishu ask of you?”

Shen Yuan furrowed his brows in confusion as he signed, “What?”

“You told me you would tell me whatever you discussed,” Shen Qingqiu reminded him with a flick of his fan. “Unless you intended to lie.”

Shen Yuan relaxed as he remembered their conversation from the previous day. “He asked about my family for medical purposes,” he signed honestly. “I told him that I have none.”

Shen Qingqiu’s eyes narrowed, and Shen Yuan felt as if the man were hiding a sneer from beneath his face. Shen Qingqiu studied him for a bit more before exhaling some tension. “Were you lying?” he asked, and Shen Yuan felt himself grow confused at the accusation. “When I came to help in the woods, you were so delirious that you were calling out to me as your brother.”

Shen Yuan felt his cheeks redden at the new information. ‘This has to be the equivalent of mistakenly calling your teacher “mom” in elementary school. How embarrassing,’ Shen Yuan thought as he resisted the urge to repeatedly slam his head onto the carriage ground.

As he thought about it, it made sense that in his time of confusion he had initially believed his older brother had come to help. He had always been closer to his younger sister in his previous life, but Shen Yuan had been ill in his past life, causing him moments of unconsciousness or delirium. His younger sister was too young and too weak to help him during his episodes, so it was up to his brother to help if he were home at the time.

Not knowing how to convey that, he settled on apologizing instead. Shen Qingqiu was unbothered by the plea for amends and instead asked, “Do you have a brother?”

Shen Yuan’s first instinct was to deny, but he hesitated before he went to act on it. Shen Yuan hadn’t transmigrated into a main character of PIDW like Shang Qinghua. He was effectively an OC with an unknown backstory. If he were to deny his family now, it would be erasing his identity as Shen Yuan from his world. He’d be leaving behind the memories and relationships he had with his family too. It also would have been weird to deny he had once had a brother after mistaking his master for him.

He knew it was risky to tell the truth, especially since Shen Qingqiu was close to his jiejies, but he ended up nodding his head. “Where was he when you needed him?” Shen Qingqiu asked, and Shen Yuan could tell he was referring to the night where they had met after Shen Yuan had gotten into trouble.

“He’s not in this world,” Shen Yuan confessed honestly. Shen Yuan was dead in his previous life with no way of returning. He had unknowingly purchased a one-way ticket, his final chance at life. That meant he consequently had to leave everyone he had loved behind.

”It is just you living?” Shen Qingqiu clarified. Shen Yuan nodded in response.

The carriage filled with an uncomfortable silence. Shen Yuan would likely feel more sorrowful about the life he had left behind if the tension of the moment weren’t so overwhelming.

They rode in silence for a while more before Shen Yuan remembered something he wanted to clear up since he got into the carriage. “I don’t want to marry Ning-shijie,” he signed, causing Shen Qingqiu to scrunch his brows in confusion.

“What?” Shen Qingqiu scoffed at the unusual remark.

“I don’t want to marry Ning-shijie,” he repeated before adding, “or any girl for that matter.”

“Where is this coming from?” Shen Qingqiu asked, not caring to disguise his confusion.

“Earlier, Ning Yingying said people think we’re going to be wed. I don’t want to marry Ning-shijie, or any woman at all,” Shen Yuan signed. He thought it was best to inform his master as early as possible so they weren’t matched in the future. “Women do not interest me as much as the life of cultivation.”

‘Who am I to take the protagonist’s first wife?’ Shen Yuan thought to himself. ‘I might as well pledge myself to a life of abstinence so I don’t end up with any of Luo Binghe’s wives. It’s best to take precautions now.’

Shen Yuan was planning to say more when a sneeze interrupted him, causing both men to jump. “Sorry,” Shen Yuan signed again before rubbing his nose. Shen Qingqiu shocked him by reaching over and placing a hand over his forehead. Shen Yuan felt his eyes scrunch as Shen Qingqiu’s cold fingers provided some relief against the heat radiating from his head.

”You’re running a fever,” Shen Qingqiu informed him as his hands left his forehead. Shen Yuan placed his hand on top of his head to check, but he couldn’t tell since his fingers were so much warmer than his masters’. “You have had nothing but health complications since we have embarked on this mission.”

“Sorry,” Shen Yuan signed again.

”Lay down; we have plenty of time before we arrive at Cang Qiong. Some rest will do you some good.” Shen Qingqiu motioned to the rest of the unused floor with his fan. Shen Yuan looked on nervously. He knew he was being offered the space, but he was already taking up far more space than he should’ve. 

He began to lower himself gently to the floor but soon came to realize he couldn’t remain on his back since the rattle of their ride jostled the back of his head against the floor. Lying on his side posed a problem to him as well. His first option was to sleep faced toward the wall, but that would place his weight on his injured side. His other option was to rest on his uninjured side, but that meant he would have to sleep facing Shen Qingqiu.

Making up his mind, Shen Yuan turned so he would be sleeping on his injured side. He began to lower himself down until the edge of Shen Qingqiu’s fan lifted his head so he couldn’t lower himself completely. “You’ll just reinjure yourself. Turn around.”

Unable to argue, Shen Yuan turned so his body was facing Shen Qingqiu and tucked his arm to protect his head against the hard floor of the carriage. Shen Yuan still felt uncomfortable, and between his stiff position and the risk of accidentally catching Shen Qingqiu’s gaze, Shen Yuan found himself struggling to sleep.

He thought he was doomed to lie there awake for the rest of the ride until Shen Qingqiu took his free wrist and began pumping his qi into his system. Shen Yuan relaxed immediately, and his eyelids grew so heavy that he didn’t even remember closing them for good.

Shen Yuan’s consciousness slipped in and out as he woke intermittently during the ride, but he couldn’t tell whether the kneeling mat Shen Qingqiu had been using was beneath his head, or if the gentle fingers threading through his hair were real or merely part of a dream.