#qiubing

However the apparently cold and adamant General can help to let some of those feelings slide out of his heart and his eyes. It's brief, mere seconds, a moment of weakness that his man can't see and the General can control because he is there, he is safe and the relief is to much to hold on behind that mask.

But it's pain that crosses Li Bing's eyes and heart before a memory can bring a past that both would like to change. Why is the question hanging in Li Bing's mind, watching again the other one walking way. His heart is broken for what happened but can help to still beat fast and fully when he is around because a part of him still believes he is always the same and he hasn't change.

this is the ending that we deserve, qiu qingzhi survived and they live happily ever after, catbing deserves to sleep on his hubby’s lap lol

A/N: @xinyuehui @snicker-doodles

I just had a long day and I need to write something out.

--

"Are you ready to talk now?"

Li Bing bites the inside of his cheek at the way Qiu Qingzhi physically starts at his voice. Granted, he'd been loitering around in the shadows with the aim of not startling Qiu Qingzhi as he snuck back into his room, the way the other man stumbles against the corner of his desk, gasping at the impact.

It looked like it hurt.

Good.

"There's nothing to talk about," Qiu Qingzhi hisses, moving to light a candle. Obstinate, Li Bing thinks, equal parts fond and frustrated by him.

"Oh, I beg to differ. We're talking. Whether you want to or not."

Qiu Qingzhi shoots him a gaze, the tension in his shoulders sitting tight and pinched. Li Bing doesn't flinch and is soon rewarded with the way Qiu Qingzhi visibly unfurls. A surrender.

He takes a half step forward. Then, another. And closer still, until he slides his hand around Qiu Qingzhi's wrist. Gently and slowly, wrapping his touch skin to skin.

Li Bing hears the soft stutter of breath, right as he sees the way Qiu Qingzhi angle his body to him. "Do you regret it? Telling me you love me?" He asks.

The wounded spark in his beloved's brown eyes immediately makes him want to retract what he just said, but he perseveres. Shuffling forth until they are chest to chest. This close, he thinks he can count every dark lash that flutters when Qiu Qingzhi blinks at the sight of him.

"Some days I wish you had told me earlier," Li Bing says. "Some days I wish you hadn't told me at all."

"Li Bing..."

"But every day," Li Bing continues, keeping their gaze with a hand over Qiu Qingzhi's heart. "Every day I am glad you were the braver one of us two."

Qiu Qingzhi grabs the hand on his chest. "Do not... Please do not jest about this. I won't survive it if--"

"I'm not lying. I would never lie about this." Li Bing insists. Swallowing around the lump in his throat, he searches Qiu Qingzhi's face. "I do love you too, you know?"

Li Bing can't stopper the bark of laughter that bubbles out of his chest when Qiu Qingzhi wraps him up in a tight hug and sweeps him off his feet.

"You do?" Qiu Qingzhi asks earnestly, hands cradling Li Bing's face like a precious jewel.

Sharing some more Qiubing fic recs from Lofter! Remember, these fics are written in Chinese, and so if you want to read them, you'll have to suffer some terrible MTL (or be able to read Chinese). Note: I’ve found that Safari’s built in translation seems to fare better than Google, as the names are least translated properly. I haven’t played around with other translators.

This round is focused on some of the (many) 'what if?' themed rewrites, which I'm currently obsessed with (in case you missed my first rec). Most of these involve rebirth / time-travel / consciousness returning to a previous part of the timeline. (Reborn here means to have been reborn into an earlier time.)

Note: Lofter is similar to Tumblr, and authors post chapters in individual blog posts. To find later chapters of the same work, just navigate to the author's page and search through blog titles with the same title (usually they'll number it somehow). Also, these titles tend to be more descriptive like a prompt rather than function like AO3 poetic titles.

Disclaimer: Crappy title translations and rough synopsis are mine... don't judge too hard 🤣). These synopsis notes are more for me to remember what the story is about... Also, my criteria for good Chinese fics is simply not being too OOC, and NO easter egg BS (i.e. the author basically tries to make money off of their fic by hiding majority of the story behind a paywall). My Chinese is too crappy to pick out good prose vs. bad prose haha.

Title TL: Sickly kitty, acting mode is on (WIP)

(AKA: What if Li Bing had returned to Shendu after those three years still sickly and with white hair, if he never entered Dalisi, but knew a lot of things?)

Synopsis notes: Mostly a canon rewrite, but with a LB who has white hair and prone to illness. LB still ends up involved in all the cases, but there's slightly less animosity between our favorite pair and more of QQZ trying to look after LB.

Title TL: Reborn before any tragedy occurs; this time we must have satisfaction (WIP)

(AKA: What if Li Bing's consciousness returns to a time when no tragedy had yet occurred?)

Synopsis notes: LB returns back to before their country started the war, before his father died, and before he parted with QQZ. He implores his father and QQZ to investigate the suspicious nature of the war, and thus they embark on more investigations. Features a stubborn LB, protective but indulgent QQZ, LB crossdressing as a woman because Wang Qi isn't there, redeemed Chen Jiu...

Title TL: What if after General Qiu died, Li Bing was reborn? (COMPLETE)

(AKA: What if LB returns to when he first took up his post as the Vice Minister of Dalisi?)

Synopsis notes: LB returns to when he first returned to Shendu and took on the Vice Minister post. Features a calm and shameless tease LB and a QQZ trying his best to remain unaffected and maintain a charade. LB keeps sneaking into QQZ's room in the middle of the night...

Title TL: If you eat (my) Li family's bing (cake), then you become my (Li Bing's) person (WIP)

(AKA: What if QQZ's consciousness returns to when he first met LB?)

Synopsis notes: QQZ returns to when he first met LB and tries to cue him into the conspiracy earlier and prevent all tragedies from happening. Features QQZ centric POV, which is a fresh take! Of course, doting and indulgent QQZ as always...

Title TL: A reborn Li Bing will definitely force Qiu Qingzhi to spill the beans (COMPLETE)

(AKA: What if LB was reborn to three years prior as QQZ returns from war and manages to force him to speak the truth instead of avoiding him?)

Bamboo Horses 竹馬

* 青梅竹馬 : lit. green plums and hobby-horse (idiom)​, fig. innocent children's games, childhood sweethearts, a couple who grew up as childhood friends. Green plums for girls, stick-horses for boys.