A Mustard Flower

Rating: Teen (T)

Pairing: Bingjiu (Original Luo binghe/Original Shen Qingqiu)

Summary: “Have you heard? The Qing Jing Peak guest disciple has proposed marriage to his shizun!”Shen Qingqiu accepts a demonic disciple into his fold, and comes to regret it years down the road.

Author’s comments: so this fic was inspired by the five million moshang fics of sqh completely misunderstanding mbj proposing to marry him + demon courtship, except i wanted it for bingjiu, but then before i could make a proper romcom i’d have to literally retcon their whole relationship.

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So, a bit of a warning first. In this fic Shen Jiu uses corporal punishment on a young Luo Binghe. Not kinky corporal punishment (or at least that was not his intention) but there’s a bit of it, and that part is emotionally intense, so it’s not a fic for anyone who has that as a trigger.

That said, this is a very well crafted fic.

It’s a canon divergent story. Tianlang Jun was never defeated and so he is Demon Lord ruling over his kingdom with Su Xiyan and Luo Binghe ends up on on Cang Qiong Mountain as a sort of exchange student. He had a happy childhood, apparently, but living with demons leaves him having different opinions on what constitutes as romatic.

Shen Jiu’s characterization is very, very well done. He is manipulative and self-deprecating and relatable. The fic is told through his POV and his reasoning for doing what he does, just flows. Luo Binghe, although the tag says it’s supposed to be Original!Luo Binghe, actually reads between a mix of Bingge and Bingmei.

Pay no mind to what the summary says. Shen Jiu is courted and proposed to without realizing a thing, but he doesn’t regret it. Not really.

like ok I get that you have your personal preferences.. but to invalidate a canon couple that obviously love and sacrificed so much for each other, ugh that just runs me the wrong way. sorry had to rant.

Oh wow, that’s very flattering. I don’t think I’m a connoisseur but more of an eager enthusiast! I’ll try to answer to the best of my abilities, but, in the end, MXTX’s work will always call for discussion and debate because different readers have different perceptions. I do believe that in Scumbag Villain, the author’s intention was to portray a romantic relationship between Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu but because of the unconventional nature of their romance, it may not be so apparent.

For sure they love each other. Their devotion for one another is never put into question and this is why the novel is such a fantastic read. In fact, Scumbag Villain is probably more of a love story than a romance story. The romance is an important element, but it’s just another layer of what comprises the plot. The thing is, it’s a teacher-student relationship from beginning to end. Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu meet when Binghe is fourteen, and Shen Qingqiu takes him as his charge. This aspect of their relationship never goes away, not even when Binghe is a fully grown man. Not even in the extras. That’s very unconventional and can be read very differently according to perception. It was easy for me to see where Shen Qingqiu was coming from because I had my first job as a teacher of teens at 22 and I could understand why it would take such a loooong journey for SQQ to realize he had an actual ‘man’, not a teen anymore, in front of him.

Their first time is also another important point. It was not sexy or romantic and it was not meant to be. It’s supposed to read as the pinnacle of a long discussion  the author had about freedom and agency. 

All in all, if you are hesitant to read I can only say Scumbag Villain, although entertaining and fun, has to be approached with the right frame of mind to be a satisfying read. It’s not a light feel-good read, but rather a thing that has to be digested afterwards. Also, it deals with topics like coercion and freedom, so it might not be a right match for those who find that triggering.

Hi! Glad the recs were useful!

No, not all extras involve Bingqiu. Out of all the extras ‘Zuzhi’s song’, ‘Master Liu’s Adventure’, ‘Yue Qingyuan & Shen Jiu’ and the ‘Airplane’ extras focus on other characters expanding on their backstories, although Bingqiu is a background pairing in some of them.

pizZiCcato has translated all the explicit scenes. In total they are ‘You Understand’, which is the final part of the Bingge vs Bingmei extra; then ‘Resentment of Chunsam’ and ‘A tale of marriage’. If you go to pizZiCcato’s masterpost the content with explicit scenes is labelled NSFW. Absolutely all NSFW scenes in the novel are Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu(Shen Yuan)

Link: https://pizziccato.tumblr.com/post/180786497951/translation-masterpost

There’s also a controversial Bingqiu explicit scene at the end of the novel. The BC novels site which hosts a complete translation of the novel includes it but I don’t remember which chapter it is. Faelicy’s translation still hasn’t gotten to it, though.

Mmm, I think that’s all NSFW in it. Hope that helps!

EDIT: Thank you  @fifth-dimensional for telling me the chapter with the NSFW scenes in the BC Novels translation site is 80.

I’m also adding a link to the site.

Relationship: Bingqiu (Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan), minor QiJiu (Yue Qingyuan/Shen Jiu)

Rating: Explicit

Fanfic tags:  Ballet AU,  Hurt/Comfort, Masturbation, Epilepsy, Anal Sex, Dirty Talk, Slow Burn, Pining.

Summary: Fourteen year-old Luo Binghe is a student of the prestigious, highly-competitive Cang Qiong Academy of Modern Dance. There, he meets Shen Yuan — an enigmatic (and devastatingly beautiful) dancer-turned-teacher. 

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This fic was absolutely beautiful. Stunning in its visuals. One can tell the writer is well versed in all things ballet. In fact ballet in itself was an additional character of the whole fic, beautiful and heartbreaking as it’s prone to be. To be loved and to be hated and impossible to live without.

Would you like to read a fic about yearning? A fic about yearning so well written you can actually feel the emotions in your belly? Well, this is that story.

In this beautiful fic Luo binghe falls in love at fourteen, to the point of obsession and yeah... it’s basically 50k that describe 5 years of pining. Shen Jiu is there, aptly described as Saint-Exupéry’s rose; volatile and capricious. Sha Hualing is there too, and Ming Fan and Ning Yingying. It’s a gorgeous fic. Epilepsy is a big part of the story, though. In case that may be triggering for someone.