Au where Shen Yuan is transmigrated as a street kid and somehow wiggles his way into Yue Qi and Shen Jiu's good graces.
Not that he knows those are their names. To him, they're Qi-ge and Jiu-ge and they're best friends.
Until Shen Yuan is taken. He's taken before the other two, before the carriage accident happened. He wishes every day that they'll be okay and that they'll reunite when he escapes.
Except Shen Yuan doesn't escape. He's stuck in abusive manor after abusive manor, sold around until he ends up at Chen manor when he's an adult. Until a skinner demon shows up and wreaks havoc. He may be pretty, but he's glad he's at least not a target for them due to his status as a slave.
The Qing Jing peak lord and his disciples arrive, and hearing the name makes Shen Yuan want to snear, but he smooths his expression and continues his work.
The skinner demon is taken care of, but Shen Qingqiu is restless, thinking of his idiotic disciples. He almost doesn't see the man.. But he does, and Shen Yuan freezes when he hears him.
"A-Yuan..?" Only two people called him that, only two people knew his real name rather than the number he'd been renamed. Shen Yuan looks at him and feels his world shatter. This man... This is the Qing Jing peak lord Shen Qingqiu. But he called him...
".. Jiu-ge..?" He chokes, throat tight. "It... Jiu-ge?" He asks again, almost desperately, because if Shen Qingqiu is Shen Jiu maybe he can save him- And Luo Binghe as well.
"A-Yuan.. You're.." "Jiu-ge, you really made it huh? Is it nice? Being a cultivator? Living on that big mountian?" Shen Yuan smiles tiredly, and Shen Qingqiu hesitates and nods faintly.
The conversation is short, but by morning-
"Jiu-ge what do you mean. You bought me." Shen Yuan asks as delicately as godzilla in a residential neighborhood.
"A-Yuan I demanded your slave contract as payment and I'm now giving it to you. As well as an invitation to join this master on Qing Jing to train in cultivation, personally."
And Shen Yuan snatches up that opportunity- Of course he does! He's accepted as a personal disciple in the carriage, and then Shen Qingqiu explains the... Situation (cough Yue Qi cough).
So now Shen Yuan is mad at Yue Qi too.
Shen Yuan gets Shen Qingqiu to ease up on the punishments because he can't bear to see poor Binghe hurt. The reason?
"Ah, he reminds me of you Jiu-ge. I think it's that determined glint in his eyes. Smart and watching, just like you. Remembering. Ah, I hope he doesn't grow spiteful one day." Hints hints and more hints, and honestly pretty quickly Shen Qingqiu is too busy training Shen Yuan and spending time with him to do anything more to Binghe, and Shen Yuan scolds anyone he finds bullying anyone so that stops too.
Clearly to everyone looking outside their Shizun is teaching his secret mortal lover cultivation so they can be together for their immortal lives~ It's so romantic!
The story gets to Xian Shu peak pretty quickly. Novels are written before the next peak lord meeting even happens, and of course Qi Qingqi confronts Shen Qingqiu in the meeting. He denies such relationship, though someone nearby may be able to hear him mutter under his breath about "he'd be too clueless to tell I was"
Alas, Shen Yuan comes across a certian yellow book among the disciples he confiscates and starts reading and
Oh.
This is about him and Jiu-ge. Are they really that domestic? But Jiu-ge couldn't be gay, no no didn't he go to brothels all the time? Though he hasn't gone at all since he's been here. And well he's never been in a brothel before, maybe there are male courtisans there?
Is... Is Jiu-ge trying to court him?
Somehow he ends up talking to someone, just kinda ranting a little to maybe Liu Mingyan who just deadpans "Shen-shixiong it sounds like you may actually like him like that."
So by the time Shen Qingqiu gets back from the meeting Shen Yuan is fidgiting and blurts out durring dinner "Jiu-ge are you courting me?"
And Shen Qingqiu pauses. And looks at him.
"Shen Yuan we have been courting since we were on the streets. I promised you my hand."
"You- You did?" Shen Yuan is taken aback- But now that he thinks about it... They did.. Sort of.. Say something like that once, didn't they? One day when the three had thought they would be seperated, not too long before Shen Yuan really was... "Oh. You did."
".. Thankfully, this master knows how little of his brain his A-Yuan uses." And oh that sends a little shiver up his spine. His A-Yuan? His?
He could get behind that actually. He'd never be able to be taken away from Jiu-ge again, and Luo Binghe liked him as a shixiong enough, maybe he would spare his Jiu-ge if they got married!
A few years later Shen Yuan wakes up in the middle of the night, his husband draped across his chest stealing all of his body heat and somehow also hogging all the blankets, and all he can think of is how fond he is of him before the realization hits him like a truck.
"I think I'm in love with Jiu-ge." He had been this whole time, of course, this is just the moment he realized it was all really real, and he loves his prickly husband.
And if Shen Qingqiu wakes up to his husband smothering him in kisses that morning well that's his buisness.
