Fuck My Life

he gives sj a warning, some kind of ultimatum in a shenbros au. if you hurt this child again i will take him and i will leave. and sj doesn't believe him, because that's his brother and he's been through hell with him

only for shen yuan to catch him hurting lbh again. and he does, in fact, leave. and he takes lbh to raise as wandering cultivators.

oh yeah just rip away his healthy AND unhealthy coping mechanisms at once. that's a great way to have no idea how someone reacts (pos)(good story) (wouldn't wanna be there obvs)

so idk about specifics but i think there's a mini mass exodus from qjp. not everyone leaves entirely — bai zhan at least will take all comers with guts enough to try — but all the lower ranked/lower grades disciples and probably some teachers who tried to only work with sy. and when all the lower men on the scaffolding leave, the guys in the middle are suddenly in the Danger Zone. At least one of ming fan's gang takes a hit while sj is at his most erratic, and mf has to make decisions re: loyalty.

it gets to the point that everyone agrees that there needs an intervention but nobody knows how to do it. yqy is forced to admit that if he tries to tell sqq to stop it will only make the behavior worse, which is why he tries to ignore him entirely. if this is early enough, lqg DOES intervene and there's property damage. mqf gets close enough to realize he's gotten himself into a deviation and the rotten qi he's radiating is damaging his disciples so he tries to take them all away but nyy won't have it. shizun can't have NO ONE. (ymmv if mf is right there with her. depends on the story you wanna tell.) they're right that he will likely deteriorate further without human contact but mqf insists that its not a child's job. nyy/mf say they're the only one(s) who can.

yqy also can't help but try and reach out. he is the indirect cause of all of this after all. at the very least he has a duty to sqq's last loyal disciple(s). but eventually (after several years) he finally hits his breaking point "yes, xiao jiu, you should turn your last disciple into a glorified nursemaid and poison her qi with your rancid upset. clearly that's the best solution."

sqq is qi deviating and contrarian and loves nyy as a daughter and hates when the stupidest, most disloyal person he knows makes a good point and manages pulls himself together a bit. he's still utterly dependent on the kid(s) for his emotional regulation but at least he's trying to teach them and to fix his cultivation again.

meanwhile bingyuan are having lighthearted nighthunts in the World of Porn. nothing too explicit while binghe is underage bc the universe has a sense of escalation but they go thru robes FAST. and they have saved so much immortal binding cable because it's supposed to be rare but uh. man every criminal and demon in this part of the country seems to have enough to hogtie a peak lord'a brother huh (maybe cang qiong is funding a secret kidnapping effort? they are not but it makes sense to sy)

hope swells luo binghe's heart as shen qingqiu's hand finds the top of his head. it bubbles away in abject confusion as the hand lifts.

"seriously, you haven't even had your last growth spurt yet. look at your hair, it still has curls — you're still a baby. why would you come back so soon? certainly the cultivation sects are dens of iniquity that deserve to be burned for their crimes, but surely binghe knows he must be undefeatable if he wants to survive enacting such a sweeping change? i've been anticipating this moment since i first met luo binghe, but i'm not so impatient to be tortured to death that you had to be this much of an overachiever! honestly, binghe, go home to your palace and finish your training, what's lighting such a fire under your pants?"

so like i think he's a bit in a trance or something?

i also want to encorporate something about it being "in the book" which the audience takes to mean that sqq had a detailed written plan to raise lbh to bring down all the sects with him. someone (yqy due to experience?) points out that suicidal people are the most cheerful when they have a plan for the act, and hasn't sqq been the most cheerful these last few years, until the obvious?

#oooooough i love that shit where everyone thinks they've figured out SQQ's deal #where they get some/half of it right even if they don't have the specifics

yes, Yes, YES!!! look i love bingqiu with an undying passion, but with the right misunderstandings, with representatives for so many sects here and the issue basically resolved? we could easily have like. another 8 novels of everyone being the smartest person in the room and having COMPLETELY different ideas of what's going on and how to stop it. i love it so much. romance pls burn slower i am sowing political unrest that will last decades.

[good snip comes up again later] #"act on most deeply suppressed thoughts" so like lowered inhibitions combined with compulsion? #possibly with some kind of disorientation and sedative as well #something like that would be some kind of "interrogate enemies on their greatest weaknesses" kind of potion #or perhaps some kind of bullshit animal venom to keep prey docile but still fresh?

vague on purpose, i changed the desc. like 3 times already to describe what i was writing and still didn't fit in "sqq physically trying to straighten and then re-curl lbh's hair" and "it was in the book" so like clearly i vibe with what you're vibing here. i definitely want it to be an almost trance like state, but with full bodily autonomy. like if the description could be valid for interrogation purpose but actually have the result of just his id taking over that would be ideal

Also? in my mind he got it early somehow. lbh impatience and/or going against the plan bc the answers he wants and the farce trial are two separate lines of interrogation? gyz trying to be helpful, heard this potion was for sqq, tells him it's medicinal, he takes it bc without a cure flare up because it "can't hurt"? maybe he takes the whole bottle instead of a dose, rpg health potion style. or fuck, maybe the sowers have it either as a thing to get their infection to spread more naturally or as something zzl gave them to try and lure sqq away. natural adverse reaction between without a cure and the sower infection?

in any case: sqq starts talking before hhp can get any accusations out and this line of thinking seems wayyyy more incriminating so opm gonna let it play out.

"i threw myself at shizun every day when we lived together and this disciple is still a virgin, also if i even suspected any of my shixiongjie of making it where i couldn't, i simply would have killed them in a fit of jealousy"

I'm trying to decide which would be funnier. SQQ latching on to LBH saying he's a virgin and going on a tangent abt all the weird kinky sex he should have had by now. (LBH is living the dream of shizun imagining binghe in sexual situations. Cannot understand how shizun thinks he would be satisfied with anyone but shizun.) (everyone else is just scandalized and learning new things about themselves. jin lan city is abt to have an erotica renaissance). Reinforces "SQQ is a pervert" allegations.

OR option 2: SQQ's brain hears "my precious white lotus disciple propositioned me" and goes on a whole "no no that can't be right. i would have noticed that. that would never happen of course." only for binghe to detail every attempt at seducing his shizun since he was 15.

going from subtle (for a teenager) to outright obscene but SQQ refutes each one with SOME kind of explanation that it seems like he whole-heartedly believes. Gossip will now range from "SQQ is as pure in thought as a young child" to "SQQ is perhaps cursed to be incapable of thinking about sex". Also that such a pure man raised such a deviant disciple. Increases SQQ's reputation, but also makes him appear naive and gullible. LBH reputation goes waaaaaaaaaaaay down.

let it be revealed that he set lbh up as a ticking time bomb with the full intention of changing his face and his name and living a quiet life in the borderlands, that'll cause some angst all around.

SQQ: It's okay I won't die for real! I mean I will die for real, and it will hurt much more this time I presume-

(Several people are now Very Concerned.)

SQQ: but I have back up plan you see! I shall simply move my soul to a new body and pretend I was never Shen Qingqiu who had a terrible life and death. This is what contingency plans are for-

And then he starts lecturing on how "Planning in the past prevents panicking in the present" and how he could have really used that at the last Immortal alliance conference. He knew everything was going to go tits up of course, but he just couldn't bring himself to think about it long enough to plan for it. And of course then he panicked when it mattered most-

and now we can add "SQQ knew about immortal alliance conference and did fuck all" to his list of crimes. And also give LBH new conclusions to make. "Shizun didn't hate him! shizun panicked! :D Shizun's panic response was like. attempted murder! We can work on that though!"

qiu haitang in the background like "oh wow none of you saw this coming, huh? fascinatinggggg"

QHT: wow this whole thing smacks of "carefully planned long term suicide with intent to catch as many bystanders as possible and actually just an elaborate and extreme version of faking one's death to avoid justice for despicable crimes". which this guy has already done to me.

i do love taking the route that just Adds New Crimes tho. "wow, that's way worse than anything i was setting you up for accusing you of, tell us more!" and he does bc infodumping about PIDW is his happy place.

"Of course, none of that happened because of SQH's interventions, so instead Mobei-jun showed up and hurt a lot less disciples than a stampede of Black Moon Python Rhinoceroses would have" maybe accidentally elevates sqh's rep to sainthood? he would hate that more than anything else, i love it 🤣🤣🤣

shizun's panic response was like. attempted murder! We can work on that though!

this line is A+ tier frfr 🤣🤣🤣 perfect binghe in solutions mode, love it, no notes

and yeah while things are coming out i think his blind spots should become increasingly obvious to the point that they have to think he's either under some intense curse or he's been hiding memory loss. and you know, he's currently in a mood to tell you which lmaooo

#since i have been peer reviewed i shall put my words in the post proper and u dont have to extract me from tags

this AFTER leaving the best bit in that tags, we are truly 2 of a kind haha

meanwhile YQY is abt to commit a political incident So Big that it's going to affect the local trout population. like HELL he is going to let OPM get away with slandering his xiao jiu who has been drugged and publicly interrogated when he's unable to defend himself. i dont know what hes going to do but im tired of him being nice. i want him to go apeshit. the tension and drama of CQMS vs HH and whoever else. HH's whole platoon and their angry mob VS YQY

(MQF is like a fly compared to YQY. LBH and LQG are stressed tf out. trying to figure out where a snake that big could have possibly disappeared to) YQY just barely manages to bully huan huan into shutting up but now like. SQQ's rep is in shreds. very "he's either dead now or he's working with demons so you better hope u never see him alive or ur whole sects rep is ruined"

eventually LQG and LBH returning to the CQMS party where they rally up more resources to go hunt down SQQ. cue YQY/LBH 'who loves SQQ more' pissing contest

anyway ALL this buildup to switch over to ZZL spitting out SQQ who is immediately trying to guess what species of snake ZZL should be based off of and oh you guys are heavenly demons? that's soooooo crazy he thought his binghe was the last one. any relation? have you met his binghe?

LBH should break into TLJ's base just to see SQQ with xinxania white boards or w/e lecturing ZZL (taking notes, receiving headpats) and TLJ who has turned to make direct eye contact with the smuggest Most Punchable Aura. (After he got info abt the state of the cultivation sects he's been tricking SQQ into telling the most embarrassing stories about LBH) everyone else follows in and LBH has gone full demon to kick his dad's ass while SQQ is giving a play by play to ZZL as if ZZL doesn't have eyes and isn't watching as well

sqq full fanboy mode watching the fight, everything is punctuated with a "whachow!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

i do love the contrasting image of sqq having tea and cookies with his new friends (who want to know about his binghe!) while cqms Goes To War hahaha. the contrast between lqg thinking about the immediate (sqq has been kidnapped, we need to get him unkidnapped, preferably with my sword) and yqy thinking long term (trying to salvage xiao jiu's/the sect's strategist's/by extension the whole sect's reputation) hits beautifully.

(lbh of course can worry about both simultaneously and get caught in a bit of decision paralysis as a treat)(until he realizes that if shizun can't go back to the sect, he'll have to stay in the demon realm, with him (he thinks) and away from all these men who want to steal sqq from lbh)

i've had an image in my head for a long time of sqh pulling a massive double cross on hhp to basically tank their reputation, maybe he can use all of his double agent experience? opm like "peak lord shang, you saw through shen qingqiu's machinations and tried to save many innocent lives back at the last immortal alliance conference, surely you will stand on the side of protecting innocents against those who collude with demons again" and sqh like "oh yeah i definitely hate demons and don't want to sleep with any" and he is able to feed info back to cqms/sabotage hhp's "totally reasonable" plans. just. let him do what he does canonically, on screen this time haha

hope swells luo binghe's heart as shen qingqiu's hand finds the top of his head. it bubbles away in abject confusion as the hand lifts.

"seriously, you haven't even had your last growth spurt yet. look at your hair, it still has curls — you're still a baby. why would you come back so soon? certainly the cultivation sects are dens of iniquity that deserve to be burned for their crimes, but surely binghe knows he must be undefeatable if he wants to survive enacting such a sweeping change? i've been anticipating this moment since i first met luo binghe, but i'm not so impatient to be tortured to death that you had to be this much of an overachiever! honestly, binghe, go home to your palace and finish your training, what's lighting such a fire under your pants?"

so like i think he's a bit in a trance or something?

i also want to encorporate something about it being "in the book" which the audience takes to mean that sqq had a detailed written plan to raise lbh to bring down all the sects with him. someone (yqy due to experience?) points out that suicidal people are the most cheerful when they have a plan for the act, and hasn't sqq been the most cheerful these last few years, until the obvious?

#oooooough i love that shit where everyone thinks they've figured out SQQ's deal #where they get some/half of it right even if they don't have the specifics

yes, Yes, YES!!! look i love bingqiu with an undying passion, but with the right misunderstandings, with representatives for so many sects here and the issue basically resolved? we could easily have like. another 8 novels of everyone being the smartest person in the room and having COMPLETELY different ideas of what's going on and how to stop it. i love it so much. romance pls burn slower i am sowing political unrest that will last decades.

[good snip comes up again later] #"act on most deeply suppressed thoughts" so like lowered inhibitions combined with compulsion? #possibly with some kind of disorientation and sedative as well #something like that would be some kind of "interrogate enemies on their greatest weaknesses" kind of potion #or perhaps some kind of bullshit animal venom to keep prey docile but still fresh?

vague on purpose, i changed the desc. like 3 times already to describe what i was writing and still didn't fit in "sqq physically trying to straighten and then re-curl lbh's hair" and "it was in the book" so like clearly i vibe with what you're vibing here. i definitely want it to be an almost trance like state, but with full bodily autonomy. like if the description could be valid for interrogation purpose but actually have the result of just his id taking over that would be ideal

Also? in my mind he got it early somehow. lbh impatience and/or going against the plan bc the answers he wants and the farce trial are two separate lines of interrogation? gyz trying to be helpful, heard this potion was for sqq, tells him it's medicinal, he takes it bc without a cure flare up because it "can't hurt"? maybe he takes the whole bottle instead of a dose, rpg health potion style. or fuck, maybe the sowers have it either as a thing to get their infection to spread more naturally or as something zzl gave them to try and lure sqq away. natural adverse reaction between without a cure and the sower infection?

in any case: sqq starts talking before hhp can get any accusations out and this line of thinking seems wayyyy more incriminating so opm gonna let it play out.

"i threw myself at shizun every day when we lived together and this disciple is still a virgin, also if i even suspected any of my shixiongjie of making it where i couldn't, i simply would have killed them in a fit of jealousy"

I'm trying to decide which would be funnier. SQQ latching on to LBH saying he's a virgin and going on a tangent abt all the weird kinky sex he should have had by now. (LBH is living the dream of shizun imagining binghe in sexual situations. Cannot understand how shizun thinks he would be satisfied with anyone but shizun.) (everyone else is just scandalized and learning new things about themselves. jin lan city is abt to have an erotica renaissance). Reinforces "SQQ is a pervert" allegations.

OR option 2: SQQ's brain hears "my precious white lotus disciple propositioned me" and goes on a whole "no no that can't be right. i would have noticed that. that would never happen of course." only for binghe to detail every attempt at seducing his shizun since he was 15.

going from subtle (for a teenager) to outright obscene but SQQ refutes each one with SOME kind of explanation that it seems like he whole-heartedly believes. Gossip will now range from "SQQ is as pure in thought as a young child" to "SQQ is perhaps cursed to be incapable of thinking about sex". Also that such a pure man raised such a deviant disciple. Increases SQQ's reputation, but also makes him appear naive and gullible. LBH reputation goes waaaaaaaaaaaay down.

let it be revealed that he set lbh up as a ticking time bomb with the full intention of changing his face and his name and living a quiet life in the borderlands, that'll cause some angst all around.

SQQ: It's okay I won't die for real! I mean I will die for real, and it will hurt much more this time I presume-

(Several people are now Very Concerned.)

SQQ: but I have back up plan you see! I shall simply move my soul to a new body and pretend I was never Shen Qingqiu who had a terrible life and death. This is what contingency plans are for-

And then he starts lecturing on how "Planning in the past prevents panicking in the present" and how he could have really used that at the last Immortal alliance conference. He knew everything was going to go tits up of course, but he just couldn't bring himself to think about it long enough to plan for it. And of course then he panicked when it mattered most-

and now we can add "SQQ knew about immortal alliance conference and did fuck all" to his list of crimes. And also give LBH new conclusions to make. "Shizun didn't hate him! shizun panicked! :D Shizun's panic response was like. attempted murder! We can work on that though!"

qiu haitang in the background like "oh wow none of you saw this coming, huh? fascinatinggggg"

QHT: wow this whole thing smacks of "carefully planned long term suicide with intent to catch as many bystanders as possible and actually just an elaborate and extreme version of faking one's death to avoid justice for despicable crimes". which this guy has already done to me.

The idea of Luo Binghe personally murdering Mobei-jun’s dad, just for the sake of marrying his mother— and in doing so becoming Mobei-jun’s stepdad— is super funny to me. Let Shen Yuan play up his MILF vibes to maximum effect!

Also, imagine Shen Yuan using his position as Mobei-jun’s beloved mother to harass the heck out of Airplane. As a demon mother and queen, it’s only natural for him to make his son’s prospective spouse undergo dramatic loyalty trials, right? Shen Yuan has so many ideas, most of which related to the various trials Airplane made Bing-ge go through in PIDW. (He’s unexpectedly accepting of the gay thing because, well, all the women are for Binghe, right?)

Peerless Cucumber, the MIL from hell. 🔥🥒🔥

—

Since the Mobei-clan is made up of ice demons, I tend to imagine Mobei-jun got his shadow portal ability from his mother’s side. This would likely make Shen Yuan some form of shadow demon, with his own teleportation abilities.

He probably transmigrated in when the original goods was meant to die, while Mobei-jun was only a few years old. While he can’t prevent the whole Huan Hua kidnapping arc (the System insists) Shen Yuan ends up quite the helicopter mom afterwards. He shadows his son everywhere— often in a human male disguise— and only reveals ‘himself’ in his full ‘MILF demon queen’ glory after Mobei-jun has finished off all his enemies, to praise and dote on him.

Of course, being Shen Yuan, he also takes advantage of his teleportation abilities to sneak away and offer stealthy bits of assistance to Binghe as well. This definately leads the future demon lords to some nasty bouts of feuding even before the Abyss tossing incident. (Mobei-jun trying to make Binghe’s night hunts harder so he’ll stay away from his mother).

The motivation for Mobei-jun removing Luo Binghe’s seal during the Immortal Alliance Conference in this case is probably a bit more malicious… though when the man successfully survives both his peak lord master’s attempt to kill him and the abyss, Binghe earns Mobei-jun’s begrudging respect.

To Shen Yuan’s horror, Mobei-jun later replicates Shen Yuan’s worthiness trials for Airplane x100 before he’ll consider Binghe an acceptable stepfather. Shen Yuan has no idea how his idiot son got away with commanding the demon emperor to do all those insane tasks without getting them all killed!!!

Mobei-Jun: What?

Luo Binghe: According to Shizun and Shang-shishu, a 'gay awakening' is the moment you realize you're into men

Luo Binghe: For example, my gay awakening was seeing Shizun shirtless (although that is more of a Shizun awakening because I don't like other men)

Luo Binghe: What about you?

Mobei-Jun: ...

Many years ago

Mobei-Jun, doing nothing: ...

Voice of god: hey you

Mobei-Jun: Me?

Voice of god: yeah you, you like men

Mobei-Jun: ...ok

Present

Mobei-Jun: Same as everyone else's

some people really don’t realize how privileged they are that they get fanfics for free. imagine having access to something for free because someone is kind enough to share it with you… and then being rude, entitled and an ungrateful pos to that person who was kind enough to share their creation with you for free

“almost 1 year is a lil too much for me” fuck off. fanfic writers don’t owe you anything. one of my favorite fics was updated after 13 years, and what I did is that I thanked the author for choosing to continue the work, I didn’t act like a spoiled toddler by asking why they didn’t update sooner. and even if a writer chooses to abandon their fic permanently with no explanation, that is their choice, their hobby, their decision. they don’t owe your entitled ass anything.

Everywhere on the internet you are either a paying customer or you are the product being sold (your data) or pay with your time by watching ads.

On Tiktok and YouTube popular channels are monetized = making money from your views and/or by convincing you to buy something.

NOT ON AO3!

You don't watch ads, your data isn't sold, no one makes you buy anything, and no one is making any money whatsoever!

Make her shorter if you must

Make them exactly the same size and shape but different colors

Give him a huge flock of babies following him around to show off what a great lay he is

Surprise mPreganté

Exactly the same but one of them has a cool hat (you decide which)

Give her a sensible haircut for successful hunting while he has a big dumb mullet so big and dumb the food can see him coming and book it

I need each of these troubled children to look up to XF &/or SY and cling to him despite the fact that XF wants nothing to do with them and SY is very dense actually

like XF is an elusive pl, he's also the head of the logistics peak. He's not bound by a system or anything but he sticks around because why would he ditch the life of a person in power? Like sure he has to work but he has tons of freetime and plenty of people to boss around.

Imagine SJ scurrying off to QJP's library only to find the current An Ding Peak lord lounging in there reading some specific book series that the QJPL (SY) bought for themself.

SJ's like "what the hell" as XF's just sitting there reading, kicking his feet and eating some snacks of some kind. SJ's immediately like "oh this guy's weird." And XF sees SJ staring at him and he’s in a good mood so he offers SJ like,, a snack and SJ unintentionally gets like puppy trained.

one day SJ's running from... idk some older disciples on his ass and he runs into XF again and XF chews them out (one of the disciples was like "do you know who my parents are" and that's like one of XF's irritants so he got real passive aggressive or something)

Now SJ finds himself hanging out w/ XF whenever the other's in the library because it's guaranteed that SJ won't be bothered on those days (people still come looking for trouble but they don't dare pick a fight infront of a peak lord) AND he gets snacks.

XF also likes fucking w/ the QJPL (SY) so SJ sees him quite often.

SY in the other hand is real strict with his disciples because he doesn’t know who SQQ is yet and he’s really stern about morals and what’s okay and not okay to do. This of course means that SJ is subjected to the scene of SY chewing the sect leader (YQ’S SHIZUN) out for the way he treated YQ (All of the pls are aware of what happened to YQY) and a few other disciples of his.

SY gets in trouble because he scolded the fucking sect leader but he drags XF to go on strike with him and the sect leader has no choice but to relent because there’s nobody to handle accounting, negotiations, and diplomacy.

LQG picking a fight with SJ and SY picks up LQG by his scruff and brings SJ along with him as he goes straight to Bai Zhan and scolds both LQG and the Bai Zhan peak lord because STOP LETTING YOUR DISCIPLE COME ONTO MY PEAK TO FIGHT MY DISCIPLES. And SJ’s standing behind him smugly like “stupid brute.” (He gets scolded when they get back and is told not to pick any more fights w/ any of the Bai Zhan disciples)

SJ can never forget the scene of like some noble family visiting CQMS to try and build a relationship and offering their very young daughter to like SY (they went to QJP because they thought the scholars would save them face and humor them) and the man’s like “Wtf no ew that’s a child.”

SJ’s genuinely so shocked because while yes it’s the bare minimum, SJ grew up in a place where the bare minimum wasn’t the norm. Seeing SY start chewing out the nobles before kicking them from his peak leaves such a lasting impression on SJ.

SJ following SY like a little duckling whenever he can. Whenever SY chews SY out SJ is there staring judgementally. (Eventually SY pieces together that SJ is going to be SQQ and he emphasizes that children are meant to be cherished to SJ in the hopes that they’ll become values that SJ follows. SJ thinks that his Shizun truly cares about him and he’s like well okay maybe I have a dad now)

One time a disciple of XF’s is tossing their sword around aimlessly and XF (who hates all of the additional expenses added to the budget on whims) drags all of his disciples to Wan Jian peak and chews them out for like half an hour going on about who makes the swords and the materials needed and how they need to treat their swords better and that he wants the disciple that started the whole thing to go publicly apologize to the WJPL and WQW has never found another PL besides his Shizun agreeable until now.

Svsss au where XF and Sy can only appear in the dreams of important characters and after a system error the plot gets skewed somehow? So they have to go into the dreams of characters/into their consciousness and make convincing suggestions/tell the future to get the story back on track except they are terrible at it.

IT'S NOT LIKE THEY'RE NOT SAYING WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO, IT'S JUST THAT THEY FORGET THAT THE CHARACTERS CAN STILL HEAR THEM AFTER THEY'VE SAID YOUR LINES

XF going into YQ's conscious right before saving the boy that would rat YQ and SJ out in the future and going "You really should save him."

Right when YQ's going to act on it he hears the rest of XF's words. XF, who completed what he was supposed to do and finished his suggestion, has started a conversation with SY.

"It's a shame that after saving this kid they'll get betrayed and ratted out and permanently estranged."

in the background SY's like "You made the story, do you have a fetish for tormenting kids or something? What's up with this tragic backstory???"

and YQ pauses long enough that he misses the window for a rescue. There's no betrayal, no capturing QJL's attention, and they don't go through their own separate hells.

XF and SY start panicking because how are they supposed to get the two to go to CQMS? except XF still hasn't gotten out of YQ's head so the boy hears about their "destinies" and decides that since the misfortune hasn't happened they should still go to CQMS to make the most out of life.

it's like a task failed successfully because they're both at CQMS now but they don't have like half of the trauma needed for the story. It's okay XF and SY can probably figure something out

In the scene where SJ saves LQG SY goes into LQG's mind and goes "He obviously tried to kill you" and before LQG can agree with him SY keeps talking like "okay well he actually didn't and saved LQG's life but this is supposed to mark the permanent scar on any relationship they had." and LQG gives SJ a strange look before assessing the area, finding that there is indeed traces from something that lingered behind him.

SY and XF are panicking once again because what the hell is with this (mostly one sided) sense of camaraderie between LQG and SJ/SQQ now? Aren't they enemies?

In the caves XF's all like "You're strong you don't need any other preparation" in LQG's head and SY's yelling at him like "what a waste of a genuinely cool character, killing him off in the caves by a qi deviation of all things is horrible" (The system words missions really specifically so all of XF's plots are laid out for SY to see, so he has a deeper understanding of each of the characters and their stories) and LQG stiffens up before he makes a trip to MQF.

As usual, XF and SY are panicking because LQG didn't die in the caves, SQQ didn't take the blame, and WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?

Shang Qinghua: My system always gives me the mission 'survive', and nothing else

Shen Qingqiu: My system saved my and my husband's life once, but I don't think it makes up for that time it tortured me

Rimuru: Mine is called Great Sage and it revived all my dead friends plus it is constantly giving me new abilities

It‘d probably take a while until SY is assured everything is well, at which point he will flip them over AGAIN, lay down like the pillow princess he is and go "ok, you may continue pushing me down now" while pretending that entire embarrassing interlude just didn’t happen.