shen twins au where shen yuan is out studying fauna, researching wild beasts, fully dedicated his life to exploring the world of PIDW and helping improve citizens' everyday lives
he comes back to see jiu-ge very randomly. sometimes it'll only be a week or two before he gets homesick and flies back. sometimes he's so engrossed in a project, he doesn't remember to visit for a year.
(jiu-ge is very insistent that shen yuan lives his own life far away from cqm. despite missing his didi, he knows that if he stays for too long, shen yuan will like it. he will begin to form attachments because thats how he is. and yue qingyuan will smell blood in the water, will take the opportunity to never let shen yuan go - just as shen jiu was trapped by an offer too good to refuse, forever tied to yue qi's side. he refuses to let shen yuan share his fate.)
(add onto that the fact that shen jiu has many enemies who would love to exploit the fact he has a darling younger brother. yeah, he's keeping shen yuan's existence hidden and each visit is a risk.)
imagine his surprise when he visits one year and his brother says "yeah, i've taken the position of peak lord. my new title is shen qingqiu."
cue "oh fuck my brother is the scum villain"
he starts visiting a lot more, trying to change the plot to save his gege's skin. but he can't visit too much or it gets suspicious. he tries to admonish his behaviour, but his brother has always been stubborn, and refuses to listen. the day binghe gets selected, shen yuan is hiding and holding his breath. when shen jiu pours the scalding tea over his head, shen yuan wants to throw up.
they have a big fight over his treatment of binghe. shen jiu just can't understand. shen yuan thinks that what hes done is horrible, and he's too emotional to argue well, to make shen jiu see his point. they go to sleep in separate rooms.
shen yuan sneaks out of the room and looks for binghe.
while he is sleeping, shen yuan tends to his wounds and leaves medicine and a container of hot food with a heating talisman.
after the abyss, shen yuan dresses up as his brother and apologizes to binghe for all he's done in the past. his acting is superb. every facial expression, every intonation of his voice - shen yuan has practiced tirelessly. he knows binghe is not easy to fool. but nobody knows shen jiu has a brother, and he had to at least try and save his brother's skin, and if binghe is unsatisfied then at least the one who gets maimed will be him and not jiu-ge.
meanwhile, luo binghe stares at the man with the most sincere eyes he's ever seen. when shen yuan says sorry, indeed, he is sorry. the guilt is clear.
and yet.
this person is not his shizun.
luo binghe thinks back to the times he caught "shizun" leaving warm food at the woodshed. to the late nights he had caught "shizun" wandering around the peak, where "shizun" would look at him, actually look at him - not just pass his eyes over him like he was trash on the street.
to the night where he had woken up, and "shizun" was there, applying salve to the wounds he himself inflicted.
he thinks,
caught you, "shizun."
