A Little Guy

FUCK HARD

FUCK FAST

FUCK BADLY

NEVER USE GENERATIVE AI

CREATE JOY

MUSIC ALWAYS

PSPSPSPS AT KITTIES ON THE STREET

YUMMY SOUP

go see the doctor about that thing

BE TRANSGENDER

KISS YOUR FRIENDS

EAT CHEESE

NEVER KILL YOURSELF

As it's been established before, Shen Jiu is an incredibly traumatized man, who took that cycle of abuse and made it a snowball turned avalanche of abuse.

He made up survival rules that served him well as a child on the streets, but only isolated him as a Peak Lord. He's paranoid, hateful and erratic. He's well aware that he's a bad man, he sees himself as the scorpion asking a frog for a ride, and he can't see that he does not sting because such is his nature, he stings because he believes with such certainty he knows the frog will drown him. And even if he went mad and decided to be good, he wouldn't even know where to start.

We learn by example, and we're well aware of the examples to follow available for him.

On that note, now that he's Peak Lord, he recreates his own trauma as the abuser. It gives him a sense of power, and it makes things fair, because if he couldn't have a kind master, then why should they (his disciples). It would be unjust, to let them have what he didn't, it wouldn't make sense, because now that he's at the top he sees how easy it could be to not do things. He doesn't need to whip these children, to make them kneel under the sun for ours on end. But he does anyways, he doesn't derive amusement from it, but if Qiu Jianluo could just not pay attention to him when he had the choice and did anyway, why would he give his disciples the reprieve he didn't have?

And he knows what is done to cruel masters. He knows that if given the chance, those cowering pathetic creatures will turn on him.

He won't let them.

In the end, he does not regard any of them as his students. And when Luo Binghe arrives, Shen Qingqiu ends up behaving as a less predatory Qiu Jianluo; he places Luo Binghe in the role of Xiao Jiu and Ning Yingying as Qiu Haitang. And, in the back of his mind he feels he can understand Qiu Jianluo for the first time (he's wrong, the monster Qiu Jianluo was and the monster Shen Jiu became are not the same. But Shen Qingqiu always thought he understood people very well, never realizing that what he read on everybody's faces were his own thoughts reflected back at him.) because he just can't not pay attention to that boy. Because Xiao Jiu had not a moment's rest under Qiu Jianluo so why should Luo Binghe ever find relief under Shen Qingqiu? If Xiao Jiu was a thing to be used, then isn't he so kind to make of Luo Binghe a beast instead?

Shen Yuan arrives, perhaps before Luo Binghe does, but it doesn't matter. Shen Qingqiu takes this boy in after being urged by Yue Qingyuan for his lack of showing up at the disciple entrance trial.

And, from the beginning one thing is clear.

Shen Yuan despises Shen Qingqiu.

Every new disciple that reaches his peak seems eager, nervous, desperate to show Shen Qingqiu how good they are. They look at him with awe and tentative hope, as if Shen Qingqiu would ever play their game. As if he'd ever give them what they feel entitled to but do not deserve.

Shen Yuan looks at him like he knows exactly what kind of master Shen Qingqiu is, like he knows exactly what Shen Qingqiu is thinking of, well aware of what the future entails for him.

And as they perform the tea ceremony, Shen Qingqiu looks at this boy and finally understands why Wu Yanzi saw a mistreated slave and decided he was too funny to let go.

Shen Qingqiu takes Shen Yuan as his disciple. He drinks what's clearly a tea brewed to offend, and for the first time on his tenure as a Peak Lord, drinks with the intent to become a teacher.

But we learn by example. The previous Qing Jing Peak Lord might've been his Shizun in name, but in his pathetic life Shen Jiu only ever recognized one teacher.

And Wu Yanzi loved to play games.

Shen Qingqiu smiles kindly, a hint of amusement showing in his eyes. The child looks at him as if he's gone insane, and Shen Qingqiu tilts his head as if he finds it so endearing.

"Excellently brewed, Shen Yuan, this master formally accepts you as his disciple. From now on this one is your Shizun, and you'll refer to him as such. Your Shixiongs and Shijies will become your family, and Qing Jing your home." Shen Yuan has grown pale, defiance turned into fear. But such is not the face of a boy scared as he wanders in the dark, uncertain of what's ahead. That's the face of someone who knows exactly what kind of animal lurks in the shadows from the way its teeth glint under meager moonlight. His mouth's become a tight line, breathing controlled to not hitch. He looks grim, not afraid. He was not expecting this, but knows how to play along. Shen Qingqiu inclines his head in a shallow bow. "Welcome, Disciple Shen, to my Qing Jing Peak."

The boy unclenches his jaw and answers drily, "this one thanks Shizun."

Shen Yuan's voice is flat, like Shen Jiu's when greeted Wu Yanzi. Shen Qingqiu grinned just as Wu Yanzi did.

Shen Qingqiu forgets something though,

He's not Qiu Jianluo, and he's not Wu Yanzi. And he might've been right in another life, with Luo Binghe and a self fulfilling prophecy of cruel masters dying at the hands of ungrateful wretched boys.

But he doesn't know Shen Yuan is not tied to a narrative, that he can recognize a self fulfilling prophecy from a mile away and turn tail the opposite way.

He forgets Shen Yuan is not Shen Jiu.

What Shen Yuan is, is freaking out, shouting "WHATTHEFUCK WHAT. WHAT. THE. FUCK??????" inside his head.

He smells a fucking rat. And he's NOT buying whatever you're selling Shen Qingqiu!!! Ptoo ptoo!! He's going to compare whatever manual you give him with other disciple's!!! from ANOTHER Peaks!!! SYSTEM?? SYSTEM ARE YOU GLITCHING??? IS HE GLITCHING??

[Host may rest in peace knowing Scum Villain Shen Qingqiu is acting perfectly in character ^w^]

(What do you mean rest in peace, are you telling me to R.I.P?? Is he going to kill me??? This is not the two bit scumbag I was promised??? What the FUCK you mean perfectly in character???)

[He is large, he contains multitudes.]

(Is he thinking about killing me or not???)

[This System cannot answer that.]

(Throw me a bone.)

[... Scum Villain Shen Qingqiu will behave differently towards his victim depending on said victim's profile.]

(VICTIM???)

[Whoops uwu. This System meant to say disciple! Every student has different needs! A good teacher knows how to adapt!]

And thus begins Shen Yuan's life at Qing Jing Peak.

Shen Qingqiu does give Shen Yuan a fake manual. Shen Yuan compares it to every manual he can get his hands on, and goes AHA! At the utter bullshit inside the book Shen Qingqiu gave him. End ups stealing one of Qian Cao, glues the cover of a Qing Jing peak manual on it. Glues the Quan Cao manual's cover on the Qing Jing manual lose pages. Takes the fake manual to Shen Qingqiu with the intent to confront him with a gotcha! Shen Qingqiu makes worried sounds. Oh, how could this happen, how dangerous! Is disciple Shen hurt? And burns the manual in front of Shen Yuan's aghast face, effectively getting rid of all evidence. Then apologizes and, smirking, hands him a new manual.

(Cunt.)

Said manual is slightly altered, but only midway, so is more difficult to spot it, yet still managing to damage the reader's cultivation at a crucial point.

Shen Yuan uses the pages to make paper planes and, instead of throwing them, he viciously stomps on them.

(Shang Qinghua shudders at the distance and then glances around to see if Mobei-Jun is sneaking a peak through his portals again. Over a decade Shang Qinghua has been at his service and he still randomly opens a little hole in the fabric of space to check Shang Qinghua is not betraying him! If his King keeps this up he just might! Hmph! ((He won't)))

Shen Qingqiu keeps being his acidic self with everybody else, but by playing mind games with Shen Yuan he accidentally places him on the spot of most favored disciple, outshining Ning Yingying, someone who Shen Qingqiu actually likes, because when Shen Qingqiu likes someone he's not sharp and cutting with them, but with Shen Yuan he looks dotting. It's driving poor Shen Yuan up the wall.

Not only nobody believes him, but the apparent favoritism has isolated him from other disciples who, driven by jealousy, try to sabotage him. Shen Qingqiu notices this and it half amuses him, half makes him feel a strange sort of anger he cannot understand.

As a favored disciple, Shen Yuan starts to accompany him in what used to be solo hunts, and in one of every three night hunts Shen Qingqiu sets Shen Yuan up for failure, grave injury, or death if he's been too annoying.

After some time being tossed around like a mouse by his evil cat of a Shizun, Shen Yuan starts to play along. He works himself to the ground to excel in every subject Shen Qingqiu tried to sabotage him in, and aided by his knowledge as a transmigrator, he succeeds. He follows Shen Qingqiu around like a shadow, delighting in the stressed twitch of his eyebrows. Gets too into it and starts playing it up as a good little henchman. He basically goes "good one boss!" To everything Shen Qingqiu says.

"Qi Shimei claims to be uninterested in this Shixiong's affairs, yet she's up to date on every single drop of gossip surrounding him."

And before Qi Qingqi can snap at him, Shen Yuan peaks from behind Shen Qingqiu's back and chirps:

"Qi-Shigu should be too mature to try to attract Shizun's attention with such ploys! She ought to send this disciple a letter and he will make sure to arrange a private meeting for both of you!"

Shen Qingqiu hates it. But he's nothing if not adaptable.

"If Mu-Shidi is done, this master has matters to attend to."

"Shixiong, this one is worried, your constitution has been worsening these past few years and, not only as your doctor, but as a—"

"As a what, Shidi? Sect brother? Friend?" sneers Shen Qingqiu.

"As a mother?" Pipes Shen Yuan, "is Mu-shishu Shizun's mother?"

"Ah, Shizi—?"

"Such nagging can only come from a mother's mouth!"

"Shidi is not this one's mother and should mind his place,"

"Shishu should shave that moustache, too."

Sometimes Shen Qingqiu finds him funny, sometimes he needs to hurt him.

He makes Shen Yuan use his qi to strengthen his hands as he makes him submerge them inside a pot of boiling water, as "training". After a few private training sessions, Shen Yuan starts to succeed in keeping them from burning. Shen Qingqiu surprises him with a pot of boiling oil. Shen Yuan stubbornly complies and succeeds. Hands red and stinging, but the skin remains intact, if tender

Shen Qingqiu is both disappointed, and a little bit relieved. But more than anything, he's angry. Had it been him, at Shen Yuan's age, the oil would've melted the flesh off his bones.

No matter what he throws at Shen Yuan, the boy comes up top, and even if he doesn't, he heals so quickly (he doesn't know about the Qian Cao manual), and it is as if he never failed in the first place.

Shen Qingqiu ends up losing patience and whips him three years into this game. Shen Yuan is fifteen. And as he is lowered down he glances back at Shen Qingqiu from his shoulder and says, pale and shaking, "I win," and throws up.

Shen Qingqiu qi deviates.

Shen Yuan looks at him, as he bleeds and convulses and thinks about letting him die.

He crawls towards him and, with the healing knowledge he's gathered through the years, stops the qi deviation before it turns lethal.

Then he passes out.

Ming Fan finds them and runs for help.

The rumor of the Qing Jing peak lord qi deviating after whipping his beloved disciple out of sheer horror and grief spreads like wildfire. Shen Qingqiu and Shen Yuan avoid each other for a month.

What does Luo Binghe think of all this?

At first, he admired Shen Yuan, favored disciple as he was. Then he envied him, for he was the only one Shen Qingqiu never hurt.

Then he felt ashamed, for Shen Yuan was kind and worked so, so hard, he deserved to be favored. Luo Binghe saw how the others treated him, and that only made him admire him more. Shen Yuan rose above his circumstances even when others attempted to bring him down.

Shen Yuan cross referenced an older Qing Jing disciple's manual with a Qiong Ding and a An Ding peak one, and his own Qian Cao manual, and wrote Luo Binghe a personalized manual (he also learned Shen Qingqiu kept faulty manuals around?? And sometimes gave them away?? WHY???? ((Shen Jiu confiscated them during his tenure as head disciple and never got rid of them. He did give one away accidentally, but Luo Binghe's and Shen Yuan's he gave on purpose)). Luo Binghe cries and hugs his kind, beautiful Shixiong. His cultivation improves immensely after that.

Shen Qingqiu notices this, notices the new manual and Shen Yuan's, who's become his Head Disciple, handwriting. He summons Shen Yuan to the bamboo house and berates him.

At first, Shen Yuan believes Shen Qingqiu is shouting at him (he lost his patience!! Shen Yuan 2, Shizun 0!) for not letting him kill Luo Binghe. Then he thinks it's actually for defying his authority.

Then, it dawns on him.

Shen Yuan had told him Luo Binghe had enough talent to surpass him and he shouldn't stifle it. Shen Qingqiu hissed an incredulous: "Then how will you fight him off when he turns on you?!"

Shen Qingqiu was going purple on the face over the thought of Shen Yuan giving Luo Binghe the tools to eventually hurt him

At first, Shen Yuan had been offended on Luo Binghe's behalf. Then, because was Shen Qingqiu trying to sow discord between them or something?

Then he remembered that in PIDW Shen Qingqiu gave Luo Binghe a faulty manual too, that he poured tea on him after Luo Binghe earnestly told him about his mother. Remembered how when he first began his good one boss! routine, Shen Qingqiu tensed imperceptibly when Shen Yuan trailed after him. How he's come to know this man, the way his eyes glint when he is satisfied and how his hands shake when there's a qi deviation incoming. How his lips twist when displeased, and how his breathing hitches when he is in danger. He's come to know his paranoia. He's learnt to recognize the way this man wears fear and realizes that that's what he's seeing now.

Shen Qingqiu is scared.

And when Shen Yuan looks back to what he knows of his Shizun, the things he's done in this life and the other. Many behaviors who seemed erratic and unpredictable, suddenly make sense when framed by fear.

And now he realizes that Shen Qingqiu is not only afraid of Luo Binghe, but he is also afraid of Shen Yuan.

But more than that, he's afraid for Shen Yuan.

Suddenly this game they play is not so fun anymore.

It never should've been.

Why can’t he just take out the broken puzzle piece? Is he stupid?

His mother, his dearest A-niang, died several months before, and as he'd promised her, he'd been slowly making his way to the nearest Cultivation Sect, Cang Qiong Mountain- but the path there was cold. So cold. And he didn't just mean the weather, it was the people too.

Binghe, despite everything, believed his mother's words. Good people do exist in the world, he has proof in way of his own A-niang; but there must be something wrong with Binghe, something inherently despicable or just grating to the senses that his poor mother just was too sick to feel or see, because even animals avoided standing in his path. He was a pariah to everyone and everything- and that. That was a problem.

Maybe it was part of his rare hints of good luck- maybe there was a God out there taking pity on him- but Winter had set in late this year. On one hand, this was great for everyone. More time to store food and supplies (if you had a home), more time to seek steady shelter (if you didn't).

On the other, when Winter- like a desperate new hire who'd never meant to cause trouble on its first day- came in, it came in scrambling and frantic.

For Binghe, it was the beginning of the end. He'd not been able to find shelter. He'd not even been able to secure a blanket, or extra clothes to wrap himself in. He was exposed, cold, and terribly, terribly alone as bitter, biting winds swept through his tiny alley and stole away even the heat from his lungs with its awful, chilling wails.

The last thing he remembers is noting how his teeth had stopped chattering; and then, like a miracle, the sleep he'd been chasing finally stopped running. His eyes closed, and for a brief moment, he felt warm.

Then he woke up here, in this dark place.

"H-Hello?"

His voice did not echo.

Binghe turned this way and that, hands clenched together tight enough to hurt. This place was dark as he'd never seen it. No moon, no stars...it was as if the deepest shadows had swallowed him whole, and now he was in the belly of some beast.

"Hello?" He tried to keep his voice steady, but it still cracked on the 'o'. Terror climbed; what if there was a creature out there? And now that it has heard his fear, what if it charges out from the dark to hurt him?!

No! No. Stay calm, Binghe! Be brave!

"........!"

Ah? A voice!

"Hello?" Binghe takes a few steps forward, "Hello?! I hear you! Can you help me? Can you tell me where I am?"

The voice continues on like it hadn't heard him. Maybe he was too far away?

He was! As jittery legs cross the unknowable distance, that inaudible voice becomes faint words, and those faint words- they sound upset. Furious, but also...sad. The same sad he felt when he came home and found his A-niang had passed without him.

Sympathy, hurt, and grief wells up from his chest, lodges in his throat, and burns his eyes. He walks faster now. He remembers what if felt like to be alone and feeling this way. He remembers it accutely. Maybe if he's kind and good to this other person, they can feel this way together, and it won't hurt so bad? A-naing used to say burdens shared were burdens made lighter, so-!

".....on't care...!" The voice cries, "...put me through hell...start all over again?! No! I refuse!"

Oh! A light! That must be where the voice is coming from!

There's also a new voice: odder, quieter. There's a strangely metallic, shinging echo in its words. Something Binghe had no comparison for. He just barely makes out "Needed" before the first voice explodes in a rage so potent that it brings Binghe to a frozen standstill.

"MY HUSBAND NEEDS ME! MY PEAK- MY DISCIPLES-" The voice chokes, stalls, then resumes with less volume, but so much more venom. "Why should I help you? Why should I fix *your* mistakes? What gives you the right to tear me away from the happy ending my husband and I- What gives you the *right*?!"

Oh. This- This was not a good time to speak up.

Binghe takes a step back; but then, from the nothingness behind him, a hand pushes him forward.

He can tell the touch was meant to be gentle. It landed on his back with the faintest touch, and only put pressure as it pushed, but whoever the hand belonged to was either strong or healthy, and Binghe was small and weak with hunger, exhaustion, and all sorts of little ailments he could no longer pinpoint after months or years of feeling them constantly.

All that to say, he tripped over his own two feet trying to regain his balance and fell onto his aching hands and knees with a yelp sharp enough to cut through everything.

The yelling stops abruptly.

"....Binghe?"

There were no footstep. One moment the voice is far, then next it is right above him. Large hands reach out and help him into a kneel, and when he looks up, he sees a man with sharp features, long, inky hair, and clothes far more expensive than even the masters his mother worked for would ever have been able to afford.

Binghe stares. He registers, with some distant, glimmeringly bright disbelief, that those same hands are patting him down and checking his hands and face for scrapes and bruises. Those hands are cold and calloused, he notes. They feel like hands that should be hurting him, rather than soothing.

-but those eyes, they're like his mother's. They look at Binghe with care and worry and warmth. They look at him like he means something beyond 'pest' or 'trouble' or 'dirty.'

At the same time, they're nothing like her's at all, and for the life of him, Binghe can't pinpoint *how*.

"...Um!" He suddenly remembers his manners, "H-Hello! This lowly one is Luo Binghe!" He bows clumsily, "Excuse this one for not greeting you properly!"

A cold hand pushes him out of his bow by his shoulder. Those green eyes watch him intensely, colored in shades of confused grief.

"Binghe, what are you doing here?"

Binghe opens his mouth, but that light answers for him, popping into existence with an odd bell sound.

[Character: Luo Binghe has died.]

"...huh?"

The man turns to him sharply while he gapes at the odd light. The hands are back, patting him down more thoroughly, turning his head this way and that. "Impossible. How? There's not a wound on him that could have led to that!"

[Character: Luo Binghe succumbed to the elements. ._.)]

.....oh. So, when he fell asleep just now...

Binghe doesn't even have a moment to mourn himself before the man is turning a snarl onto the light. "You let him *freeze to death*?!"

[It was unintentional! This System only looked away for a moment. ( •̯́ ^ •̯̀)]

The man sputters, hisses, and then slaps at the light with clawing fingers. "Now is not an appropriate time for your stupid Koamojis! Fix him! Fix him right now!"

His hand passed through it harmlessly, but the [Σ(°ロ°)] and quickly followed up [Please do not hit this System!] Said that, even if no physical harm was done, this light still registered it as an attack- or atleast a sign of displeasure.

"I'll hit you more if you don't put this boy exactly where you found him!"

[ >A<) System can't do that! This System already said it needed User's assistance: this is what this System needs help with!]

Binghe quickly becomes peripheral in this argument, but not lost. Somehow, this light- a spirit?- was responsible for him. It was...some kind of guardian? Meant to keep him alive and 'monitor him throughout the plot'.

For some reason, it failed. It wouldn't say why, but Binghe recognized this sort of confrontation. The man, like an experienced, valued hire on a farm to a disfavored, incompetent 'young master', was scolding this System at length, giving it no quarter as he tore into it with words Binghe only vaguely understood because of context clues.

In conclusion, Binghe is in a precarious position. At the moment, he's newly departed. Freshly dead. His soul is still tethered to his body, but if this man does not assist, this System spirit will have no choice but to lift the stasis it currently has on him and allow him to return to the cycle of rebirth.

The man doesn't want this. He seems to care for Binghe dearly, and is enraged on Binghe's behalf that his life was cut short too early, but at the same time, System-Spirit seems to be demanding a price the man just isn't willing to pay.

It sounds like, maybe, whatever it is that System-Spirit must do to bring him back might require the man to stay with him? Possibly forever.

Maybe it's selfish of him, but Binghe...doesn't mind that. Maybe even hopes for it, just a little. After all, this man's first reaction to seeing him was to check if he was unharmed, and his second upon hearing of his possibly very permanent death was to grip onto Binghe and not let go. Someone like that- shouldn't he hold on back just as tightly?

"But..." The man turns a helpless look onto him. There's a hint of shine in his eyes. "My husband..."

Oh. *Oh.*

Binghe scolds himself. This man isn't like him. He has a home, a family: people he obviously cares very deeply about for such a stern face to come near tears. Binghe has no right to ask him to give it that up- not when he isn't even sure he *wants* to go back.

"Sir," There's a tight feeling in his chest, but Binghe ignores it in favor of grabbing the hand holding onto him and tugging it free. The man, strangely indulgent of him, lets him, watching Binghe take it into both his small hands. In return, he gives the man his best beaming smile, hoping to assure as well as comfort. "It's alright. You can go."

The man's eyes widen, then settle into deep sadness. "Oh, Binghe..." He pulls his hand free and then, with both palms open, gently cradles Binghe's face. A thumb brushes under one of his eyes. "Silly boy, you don't even know your crying, do you?"

Ah? Oh, oh no...! Binghe flinches back and frantically wipes at his face, but the damage is done. The man watches him struggle with himself for just a moment, then lets out a great, shoulder slumping sigh.

"I will stay," he say to the spirit. "I will fix your mistake and keep him alive, and in return you *will* figure out some way for me to return home. Do we have a deal?"

[ . . . ]

This homeless person is making me uncomfortable. Should I call [a man with a gun]?

My neighbor is having a loud party. Should I get [a man with a gun] involved?

There are some teenagers skateboarding. Do you think [a man with a gun] would get rid of them for me?

County Crisis will usually send a social worker (or therapist-in-training) to the scene. Those folks are very good at what they do, in general, and they are not going to be armed. They will try to get the person in question connected with support services, housing, and may be able to get them home if they seem lost.

yes, India made legal gender change impossible but my friends have always gendered me correctly and stick to it even when it confuses other people and my friend's little sibling calls me older brother in Kannada yes, India made legal gender change impossible but my dog learned my new name quicker than the humans and she runs to give me a kiss when she's told to without being confused about who's being referred to

yes, India made legal gender change impossible but I can feel the Adam's apple growing in my throat and my muscles getting stronger, and my smile more real and I'm growing a beard, and I talk more freely