Chapter Text
“Yuan-di?” A soft voice trails off quietly. Shen Yuan feels like he’s been hit by a truck. He’s pretty sure he hasn’t, but who knows? Maybe a truck somehow managed to sneak into his isolated hospital room and crush him in his sleep. Either way, the fact is that he’s in pain. Lots of it; too much pain for simple food poisoning, which means something else must be the cause. Something worse? Has he actually managed to survive long enough to experience something worse than the last twelve years of his life had been? Shocking.
“A-Yuan!” Another voice calls out, using more force than the previous one had, and Shen Yuan finally manages to pry his eyes open. What he sees isn’t new exactly, but it’s also a view Shen Yuan thought he’d only ever see in dramas or read about in trashy web novels. Two startlingly dirty children are hovering around where Shen Yuan lies. The glaring child on the left is definitely the angry speaker, so the boy on the right must be the earlier sweet talker. They both have at least shoulder length hair, though the gentler child has his in a bun, as opposed to the smaller child’s ‘half up, half down’ top knot.
“Hm?” Shen Yuan manages to cough out. He probably shouldn’t try speaking again, as evidenced by the new blood splatter on his… robes?
“A-Yuan, why can’t you just be good!” The mean one says in a legitimately concerned way. Shen Yuan reassesses his opinion of the child. Maybe, stressed is a better adjective than mean or angry?
Still, Shen Yuan can’t quite accept what’s going on. After all, the last thing he remembers is angrily shoving apparently expired noodles down his throat and then being rushed to the hospital by his neighbor. How’d he end up here? Wherever here may be.
{Ding!}
What? Shen Yuan thinks dazedly, his eyes beginning to close once more.
{Connecting…}
{Connection established! Host Shen Yuan is now bound to the role of Shen Yuan, Scum Villain Shen Qingqiu ’s younger brother!}
{Activation Phras-}
Shen Yuan is unconscious before he can hear the rest.
-/-
When Shen Yuan wakes up, two things surprise him. One, he’s still alive. Two, he’s no longer lying on a leafy forest floor, and, judging by the hair in his face and the hands under his knees, he’s being piggybacked?
“A-Yuan, are you awake?” the child’s voice is extremely quiet, but Shen Yuan manages to catch the words regardless.
“Where are we?” Shen Yuan responds carefully. When he doesn’t spit up blood once again, he feels a bit more confident about speaking.
{Host is currently travelling through the Chu Xiaolian forest! While not mentioned in Proud Immortal Demon Way , Chu Xiaolian has a significant role in the shaping of the future plot. It was in this forest that Minor Role: Shen Yuan was originally intended to die. Of course, this system will do whatever Host asks in order to avert that fate!}
“Chu Forest,” the boy huffs. Shen Yuan wants to ask for his name, but, at the same time, he feels like asking would really freak the kid out, so he just hums his agreement and decides to mentally refer to him as gege for now.
So… Shen Yuan sighs heavily into his gege’s neck, he’s been transmigrated? Into Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky’s dumpster fire of a novel? This must be some sort of heavenly punishment. Maybe Shen Yuan kicked a puppy in his past life.
“Gege,” Shen Yuan calls out, his face pretty much entirely masked by greasy black hair. “Where are we going?”
Shen Yuan can feel the exact moment that his gege stops moving. He then mutters, “somewhere nice,” and continues walking. Shen Yuan wonders where the other boy went, but it’s not as if he can check. Or ask, seeing as he doesn’t know the other boy’s name either...
{Host can always ask this system! Critical Character: Yue Qi is currently moving at a steady pace twenty meters ahead of Host and Critical Character: Shen Jiu. This system suspects that he is acting as a ‘scout’.}
System? Shen Yuan reaches out. Clearly, he’s not in his world anymore, so he isn’t going to fight the transmigration. Sure, he should probably be freaking out more about this, but what’s the point? It’s not like Shen Yuan left anything behind by coming here. The only major complaint he has is that it’s PIDW . Anyway, as every self-respecting web novel fan knows, the first thing a transmigrator should learn is the rules. Since Shen Yuan’s already here, he doesn’t really want to accidentally get kicked back to his o.g. body. His old, probably dead, body. Why am I here?
{As this system previously stated, Host was logged in after speaking the activation phrase: ‘Stupid author, Stupid novel.’ Host’s goal is to improve overall reader satisfaction, fill plot holes, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, reform Scum Villain Shen Qingqiu. In order to accomplish this goal, Host will be given tasks to complete. Each task will offer a different amount of C points in reward.}
Wait, what are C points? Shen Yuan snuggles further into Shen Jiu’s back and ignores the fact that he’s letting someone like ⅕ his age give him a piggyback ride.
{Did Host not listen to anything this system said earlier? QAQ}
Are you referring to when I was unconscious? Shen Yuan thinks dryly in response.
{...}
{C points are points given for... being likable and acting in-character. Would Host like an overview of his profile?}
Sure. Shen Yuan politely refrains from pointing out the system’s long pause. They both already know Shen Yuan’s words were correct, he doesn’t need to rub it in even more.
{Host: Shen Yuan
Role: Shen Yuan
Title(s): A-Yuan, Yuan-di
Skills: [Crocodile Tears], [Sickly Beauty Halo*]
Inventory: [EMPTY]
C Points: 100
*Skill may not be viable yet, Host is below the min. age for proper use*}
Crocodile Tears! Sickly Beauty..? What? Can either of those names be considered proper titles? Aren’t those more like nicknames! How old even am I? And how old are Shen Jiu and Yue Qi?
{Skills are skills, and titles are titles, Host. Your current body, Minor Role: Shen Yuan, is four years of age. Critical Character: Shen Jiu is age seven. Critical Character: Yue Qi is between eight and nine years old.}
And is there anything I should know? You said I die in the forest, right? How?
{This system cannot reveal everything, but Upcoming Plot Points include: ‘A Promise between Brothers’, ‘The Ravaging Fever’, and ‘Captured’. Minor Role: Shen Yuan is necessary for all of these events, and only these. Once these Plot Points have been completed, Host may do whatever he feels is best in his quest to improve Proud Immortal Demon Way! }
Okay, seems simple enough. Shen Yuan quietly yawns as his eyes fall shut once again.
-/-
“How is he, Xiao Jiu?”
“Better, I guess, but still not good . Look at him!” Shen Yuan wakes up somewhere around Shen Jiu’s third or fourth word, barely catching the gist of what his new older brother had said.
“Gege?” Shen Yuan calls as he realizes where he is once again. Still in PIDW, still in the Chu Forest, still in pain, but this time, instead of hanging off his brother’s back, Shen Yuan finds himself using Shen Jiu’s lap as a pillow.
“Yuan-di?” Yue Qi leans in to pet his head, and it actually sort of hurts, but Shen Yuan doesn’t really care anymore. Everything hurts, what’s new? “Do you still feel tired?”
“Hmmm.”
“Tch,” Shen Jiu, and, actually, Shen Yuan’s going to call him Jiu-gege from this point onwards… scoffs at the older boy’s question. “Of course, he’s still tired! Why else would he still be laying on me?”
“Y’er comfy, Jiu-gege,” Shen Yuan mumbles as he curls his newly miniaturized body around his brother’s. Yue Qi laughs at the picture the two Shens paint. Shen Jiu glares at him hotly, but refrains from yelling, so as not to startle his didi.
“Gege?” Shen Yuan asks before he falls asleep again.
Shen Jiu quickly replies, “What is it, A-Yuan?”
“...promise...won’t ‘appen ag’n, ‘kay? A-Yuan’ll be g’d.”
Yue Qi smiles gently as Shen Jiu tries to come up with a proper response.
“It’s a promise then, Yuan-er! If this happens again, you can’t be my didi anymore!”
“A promise between brothers,” Yue Qi adds as he finally sits next to Shen Jiu. Neither of the older boys know enough about Cultivation to light the damp wood around them, so they can’t start a fire, and even if they did know how, they still wouldn’t be able to because a fire would be like an open invitation for demonic beasts and even more demonic humans. Instead, the three children huddle together. Body heat warms them enough to make it through the colder fall nights. However, it will not be enough for winter.
That’s why they started towards civilization again after barely escaping slave traders two towns over.
It’s just a risk we’re gonna have to take , Shen Jiu had declared with zero hesitation. After all, the first casualty of the sharpening weather and dropping temperatures would be A-Yuan, and neither of the older boys will let that happen.
They’re still in control of their own actions, if nothing else.
-/-
Just before Shen Yuan drops into sleep for like the third time, he hears a telling beep signifying the completion of a task. One down, he thinks, two to go.
-/-
Unfortunately, the completion of task two is much more sudden and uncontrolled. As Shen Yuan wakes up, his body burning like a thousand suns, the hit-by-truck feeling returning full force, he hears a congratulatory beep from the system.
Apparently, ‘The Ravaging Fever’ was in reference to Shen Yuan.
Fuck.
-/-
“Didi! A-Yuan!” A hand runs through Shen Yuan’s sweaty hair, but he can’t feel it over the whole-body ache of his fever. The words, too, become lost in Shen Yuan’s dazed mind.
All he can think about is how ravaged, and not in a good way, he feels.
Time passes slowly and quickly and jaggedly all at once.
-/-
“Watch him! You know I’m faster than you, Qi-ge! I can run to Chu Fai and come back with medicine in half the time it’ll take you.”
“Xiao Jiu, you-”
“He doesn’t have enough time left for us to waste it arguing! I’m going. Watch him, Qi-ge, or I’ll never forgive you!”
-/-
Yue Qi watches the younger Shen. Watches his skin pale and redden in turns. Watches him struggle to keep breathing. Watches as the four year old inches closer and closer to an edge no one can pull him back from.
Xiao Jiu isn’t going to make it, Yue Qi thinks while smoothing Yuan-di’s hair back off his forehead. Yuan-di isn’t going to last long enough, even if Xiao Jiu does half the time Yue Qi expects the journey to take.
Shen Yuan whimpers quietly as he curls into himself, looking an awful lot like a pill bug.
Yue Qi laughs even though tears are starting to build in his eyes.
And still, he can’t help but think, Xiao Jiu isn’t going to make it.
-/-
Shen Yuan blinks his eyes open, body still staging a coup, and finds himself alone.
{Ding!}
{Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations! Host has now completed his three tasks!
+300 C points}
A twisted growl roars it’s way out of the surrounding trees. And now, I die, right? This didn’t last long at all…
{Host! Don’t give up! This system will help! Would Host like to purchase an Extreme Scenario Pusher for the heavily discounted price of 350 C Points?}
Will it stop me from being eaten by whatever’s out there?
{Yes!}
Will it keep me from dying of the fever?
{Of course!}
Then do it! Shen Yuan can feel demonic energy oozing out of the woods to his right. He knows the animal must have set its sights on him by this point, but it’s not like he has the strength to do anything about it. Another growl echoes, obviously much closer this time.
{Initializing Extreme Scenario Pusher… 20.. 43...56...74%}
Can you hurry it up a bit? Shen Yuan screams mentally. There’s a visible black form only about ten meters before him. It pauses briefly. Shen Yuan holds his breath. Maybe, it hasn’t picked whether or not it really wants to eat him?
{81… 86… 90%}
It makes up its mind pretty fast, though, choosing to leap straight at him.
And Shen Yuan feels spit on his face moments after he hears: {Purchase complete! ESP activated!}
Shen Yuan flinches back as a glowing blade swipes out, easily blocking the beast’s teeth from reaching him. Shit, he’s still alive! Thank fuck!
A hand catches his small form as he falls backwards in a dead faint.