Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When you start having alarmingly vivid dreams of living a life in a world entirely unlike your own, the normal response would be to seek medical help. After all, someone could have placed a strange, dream-based curse on him, by virtue of there being some sick fucks out there who would want to make a six year old’s life worse. Or would want to make his parents’ lives worse. That was more likely.

Unfortunately, as mentioned, Shen Yuan is a six year old. He believes dreams are just like that sometimes. He cannot yet comprehend a world where someone is intentionally causing him or his parents harm. The dreams aren’t scary or anything, either, so by the fifth dream Shen Yuan has decided this is just something everyone experiences and it’s nothing special.

By the time he’s eight years old, however, he’s dreamt enough of living the life of a fuerdai in a city called Shanghai where he spent a minimum fourteen hours a day on the internet to realize that these are not dreams. These are memories of his past life.

He considers informing his parents, but it’d feel weird to talk about his “old family” with his “new family”. Much less trying to explain to them what an “iPad” or “the subway” is.

When he is ten years old, he looks back on this decision with great gratitude for his younger self. Because that year is when he starts remembering Proud Immortal Demon Way .

Coincidentally, this is also the year his parents start prematurely graying.

His mom, Shen Xijun, works as a librarian in Huan Hua’s Liu Zhao library. The library is named after the first ever palace master’s wife, and is home to all of the sect’s poetry, songs, scripts, and sheet music. As one would expect from a Liu Zhao librarian, Shen Xijun has a passion for the arts, and has done her best to pass this down to her son.

Shen Yuan had never been terribly interested, much to her disappointment, but after he remembers that the Four Arts are a genuine cultivation path in this world he studies them with renewed interest. Shen Xijun is happy to help him improve his calligraphy and painting skills. She also sets him up to learn guqin from a musical instructor since she only knows how to play the pipa, but she is horribly bad at weiqi and has no friends that could teach him.

This is where his mama, Shen Pingyang, comes into the picture. The first time he plays weiqi with her, she destroys him ruthlessly and mercilessly. He cries about it. Shen Xijun scolds her wife. Shen Pingyang waits for both of them to calm down before declaring that by the time she is done with him, Shen Yuan will be able to do what she just did to him to any opponent.

Thus starts their weekly weiqi sessions, along with Shen Yuan’s guqin, calligraphy, and painting lessons. It was clear he was shaping up to be a promising young man.

You would think his parents would be very pleased and proud of him for this. And they were! For the first couple of months. Then he started applying everything he was learning to daily life and that’s when their stress started.

See, Shen Yuan had the great fortune to have a comfortable start to life in both of his lifetimes. Last time, he was the spoiled third son of a rich family. This time, he is the only son of two people affiliated with Huan Hua. They live in one of the outer, residential courtyards of Huan Hua Palace, in what is basically employee housing. This means that even though he is not a disciple of the sect (yet), he has easy access to the Palace.

Technically, he’s not allowed in any section other than the residential ones. As a normal ten year old, Shen Yuan would have never ventured outside of the permitted areas. After all, his mothers raised him with morals! Unfortunately for everyone, at this point Shen Yuan has many memories of straight up lying to his parents or teachers when he and his siblings made a mess, and he’s terribly curious about one of the main settings of PIDW.

It’s astonishingly easy to infiltrate sections of the palace by pretending to be running an errand for some master or another. If anyone questions him too hard, the child-brain takes over and he starts crying. Then the worst that happens is the offender awkwardly escorts him to where he claimed he needs to go.

To this day, Shen Yuan swears he was doing nothing wrong. He just wanted to look around the Palace! So what if he ended up being mistaken as a disciple by an actual disciple? And if he ended up helping the disciples his age with their work? And so what if he overcharged them for it? They clearly had the money to spare!

Sure, his mothers made a living and could have given him some pocket change, but if he asked them for any they’d want to know what he spent it on, and he doubts his mothers would approve of him purchasing giant thorny aster seeds. They wouldn’t give him enough money to buy those, anyway,

They only find out about the asters, and the rainy folded ear mushrooms, and the dusk goldwood sapling when the gardener Shen Yuan had been paying to buy and help tend to the plants mentions “that Shen boy’s green thumb” to one of their friends, who turns out to be an acquaintance of one of Shen Xijun’s friends, who then mentions it to Shen Xijun.

Shen Xijun and Shen Pingyang are not happy to discover the potted garden their son has hidden in the unused house nearby, but they also can’t confiscate the plants because one, where would they even put them, and two, Shen Yuan did buy these with his own money. A fact he exploits shamelessly.

“It’d be stealing if you took them, and stealing’s bad!” Shen Yuan argues. His mothers exchange pained looks but agree with him, so he gets to keep the plants. However, he is forbidden from buying any more. And he is given a stern talking to about how lying is bad, yes just as bad as stealing, and he shouldn’t do it anymore.

“I won’t lie anymore,” he lies.

Shen Xijun must sense the dishonesty in him, because the next day she tells him it’s time to start preparing for the entrance exam.

“I thought we agreed to wait until he was eleven,” Shen Pingyang starts.

“Clearly Yuan-er has enough time for more classes!” Shen Xijun interrupts cheerily. “And isn’t it better to start earlier rather than later?”

Shen Pingyang looks between her wife’s eager expression and her son’s dismayed one, and shrugs. “Sure.”

Like the other sects, Huan Hua Palace has a rigorous entrance exam. Unlike the other sects, applicants must pay to take the exam. Huan Hua claims this is just to cover the cost of creating, distributing, and staffing the exam, but anyone with common sense can tell that the price of the exam, combined with the number of applicants, means Huan Hua is making a fortune off of people’s hopes and dreams.

Anyone eight years or older can take the exam, although if anyone older than a teenager tries it they get weird looks. It’s universally agreed upon that the best time to start cultivating is in the early tens, and trying to do so afterward is so difficult as to be a waste of time. Shanghai Shen Yuan would be way past the prime cultivation age by now. This Shen Yuan is at the perfect age.

His mothers plan to have him take the exam when he’s twelve, which is why they were only going to have him start rigorously studying at eleven. They wanted him to have a childhood that did not consist solely of studying. Unfortunately, Shen Yuan himself put those plans to rest by exploiting his free time in unapproved ways.

Shortly after the plants incident, he is enrolled in a class specifically meant to prepare applicants. When he learns about it, he starts vibrating with classist rage, which his mothers wrongly interpret to be normal, childlike rage at his decreased free time.

But no! Not only do applicants have to pay money to take the exam, but if they want a good chance of having that cost be worth it they have to pay even more money for these preparatory classes? No wonder those Huan Hua kids he’d been overcharging could afford it! This system clearly favored the wealthy!

Okay, and maybe a bit of his rage is also the child’s one of having less free time. With these classes occurring five days a week, for four hours each day, and his other lessons on top of that, he no longer has the time to sneak into the palace and exploit children. He prioritizes following around the amused palace gardeners to learn how to take care of his plants, and reading every bestiary he can get his hands on.

For his eleventh birthday, his mothers gift him a space in their small courtyard where he can move his plants to. The universe gifts him a memory of the ending of Proud Immortal Demon Way and his unseemly death because of it.

If Shen Yuan is quiet the next week, and crawls into his mothers’ bed, and picks at his food more than he eats it, that has nothing to do with the memory of his body violently rejecting the expired yogurt and taking him out in its attempts to cleanse itself.

He bounces back quickly, though. He and his mothers are part of Huan Hua! Nothing bad will happen to them! Imagine if they were affiliated with Cang Qiong or, god forbid, he’d been reborn as Shen Qingqiu. Shudder . No, he was perfectly safe as a no-name, NPC resident of the palace. He just had to stand aside and let the plot progress, and everything would be fine! He can live his second life as he pleases!

Much to Shen Pingyang’s disappointment, he begs his way out of any more weiqi lessons with her. It’s his least favorite lesson, and he honestly can’t understand how it would help him with his cultivation. It just makes him experience the xianxia version of gamer rage. He actually punched a wall over it once, bruising his knuckles and prompting him to burst into tears.

That is part of the reason Shen Pingyang lets him stop playing weiqi with her. The other reason is that she thinks he’s made friends and he should therefore have time to hang out with them.

Shen Yuan wouldn’t call the Qin sisters his friends, exactly, but he’ll take what he can get. The Qin sisters joined his preparatory class this year, and he was selected by their teacher to help them catch up. Apparently he was the best in their class, which he felt kind of bad about. He was really leaning on his first life’s years of schooling, which gave him an unfair advantage over the other kids. It felt like cheating. But also, what was he supposed to do, not automatically remember math equations and how to write an argumentative essay?

The Qin sisters had a solid knowledge base, but Qin Wanrong struggled in the classroom setting. Shen Yuan, remembering every scrap of information he’d read on alternative teaching methods in his past life, found success in quizzing her on things while they did other activities, like tending to his plants or taking walks.

Qin Wanyue, on the other hand, did well in the classroom. She just needed to get caught up on where they were. She did so at a terrifying speed, yet she kept showing up to Shen Yuan’s tutoring sessions with Qin Wanrong for some reason. 

When he puzzled over this aloud to his mothers, Shen Xijun cooed that he’d made a friend! Shen Pingyang nodded along. They both looked really relieved about it, which is when Shen Yuan realized he’d probably been coming off as a real freak by not having any friends throughout his childhood except the gardeners, who were not his age.

Haha. Whoops.

Anyway, Shen Yuan milked the “friends” excuse for everything it had. Citing a desire to “hang out” with his “friends”, he dropped the calligraphy lessons as well, because firstly, when would he ever need to write fancy, and secondly, he had a strong suspicion that despite what Airplane had suggested, the Four Arts were not, in fact, actual routes to cultivation.

Cultivation was about drawing in qi from your surroundings, usually through meditation, and condensing it! What did the Four Arts have to do with that?!

He kept practicing the guqin and painting, though. His guqin master was always happy to have his company, and he enjoyed painting together with Shen Xijun. Even if her paintings always turned out infinitely better than his.

This lets him finally give in to the Qin sisters’ cajoling, and after class one day, instead of heading to the outer courtyard where he lived, they stay in the city. The Qin sisters are eager to show him around, since it was where they lived, and even more eager to show off.

He has to admit, exploring the city with them is… really fun. In his past life, he’d struggled to make friends, the constant hospital visits and his awareness of his own mortality keeping him from maintaining connections. Now, as a healthy kid whose biggest concern was passing an exam, he realized life could actually be enjoyable.

At the end of the day, as they’re walking him back to his house, he blurts out, “Are we friends?”

He immediately wants to sink into the ground and vanish. The feeling intensifies as the Qin sisters give him puzzled looks.

“Obviously?” Qin Wanrong says, like he just asked if the sky was blue.

“Of course,” Qin Wanyue says. Then she nervously adds, “Unless you don’t want to be…?”

“No, I do!” Shen Yuan yelps. “I really, really do. Um. Just. Why do you wanna be friends with me?”

Qin Wanrong shrugs. “I dunno, you’re smart and kinda funny.”

Qin Wanyue jabs her sister in the ribs. Ignoring her sister’s exaggerated cry of pain, Qin Wanyue says, “I like hanging out with you. You’re nice, and smart, and don’t treat us like we’re girls.”

“I’m really not that smart,” he mutters. His face is warm, but he fights through it to ask, “What do you mean, I don’t treat you like you’re girls?”

Qin Wanyue’s nervous energy increases. She actually bites her lip for a second, then responds, “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. You’re a boy, you wouldn’t understand.”

Shen Yuan almost pushes the subject, but Qin Wanrong sidetracks him by asking him what he likes about them. Thin face burning, he’s forced to genuinely compliment them; Qin Wanrong’s enthusiasm and friendliness, Qin Wayue’s determination and cleverness.

By the time they get to his house, all three of them are flushed and can’t look at the other party. Shen Yuan darts inside after bidding them a safe walk back, and collapses in his bed to roll around and quietly scream.

Friends! He has friends! Who actually like him and who he likes back! This warm feeling inside him must be the joy of companionship. Or he’s sick. Could be both.

Although he’s a little concerned about being friendly with Luo Binghe’s future wives, it’s incredibly difficult to think of them in that light. They’re just kids right now! Qin Wanrong tripped a boy for laughing at her, and Qin Wanyue cheated at cards the other day. They raced around the city market giggling to one another about uptight merchants and silly, stray cats.

Shen Yuan hides his smile in his blankets, kicking his feet. They’re friends!

–

The Huan Hua entrance exam is sort of like the Gaokao, in that there is a general test you must absolutely take and then up to three other tests you can pick the subject of. Passing the general test gets you general admission to Huan Hua, but to get into the cultivation and other specialized classes you have to take and pass the other tests.

The general test, which is what their preparatory class is preparing them for, focuses on history, arithmetic, and literature.

As for the other three tests, there is a limited number of subjects you can choose from. Shen Yuan already knows he is going to take the biology, mathematics, and physical tests.

Normally he would avoid the physical test like the plague, but to be accepted into cultivator classes you must pass a baseline standard of health. But also, he is banking hard on doing extremely well in the other tests, because when his mothers had signed him up for a physical strengthening class back when they’d first begun preparing him for the exam, he’d felt like dying after every single class. He quit after only two weeks, and avoided the topic whenever it came up.

Supposedly, doing well enough in the other tests makes up for any deficit you may have in another, so Shen Yuan is hoping to dazzle the proctors with his twenty-first century biology and algebra knowledge so hard that they forget his abysmal physical scores.

Qin Wanyue, being the overachiever she is, wants to be a skilled cultivator. Thus, she’s in a physical strengthening class. Qin Wanrong is in the same boat, but is also nervous about how she will do in the general exam, so she’s in that same class.

Well, “class” is not the right word. Being rich kids, their parents hired a retired cultivator to give them private lessons, because gods forbid anyone see these girls sweaty and red-faced.

At least, that’s the impression Shen Yuan gets when Madam Qin scolds her daughters for inviting a boy (gasp!) to sit in on their private lesson. They’d invited him to act as their cheerleader, but after the dressing down they get, they guiltily tell him he’ll have to wait until they finish class to hang out.

Shen Yuan, feeling bad for the girls and annoyed at the adults, tells them it’s no big deal. Then he goes and snoops around the Qin estate.

Three hours later, the girls find him in the library. He begs them to let him borrow some books. Qin Wanyue sighs and says she’ll ask their parents. Shen Yuan is certain that if the word existed here, Qin Wanrong would’ve called him a nerd.

Surprisingly, their parents agree, and Shen Yuan ends up reading every plant compendium, bestiary, and history book in the Qin library. Master Qin seems fond of him, and Madam Qin tolerates him, which is a relief. If they forbade the girls from hanging out with him, he’s not sure what he’d do. Probably die.

On Shen Yuan’s twelfth birthday, his mothers gift him a new plant for his garden. They have to shield their eyes from the blinding smile and sparkling eyes Shen Yuan directs at the velvet sacred lily bulbs. The Qin sisters gift him an expensive set of writing supplies. The universe gifts him something so anachronistic and startling he genuinely thinks he’s dying for a minute.

That night, a perfectly rectangular, neon cyan box pops up in his vision while he’s staring at the ceiling and feeling happy about life.

[ Hello, user Shen Yuan! ]

His happy feelings immediately plummet into fear and confusion. He may or may not scream so loud that his mothers rush into the room, Shen Pingyang with her sword at the ready.

[ Please calm down, user! ] The box says while his mothers ask him what’s wrong.

They can’t see the box , Shen Yuan realizes hysterically.

[ Of course not! This System is here just for you (˶ˆ꒳ˆ˵) ]

Oh my god I’m dying. I’m dying and hallucinating as my brain shuts down.

[ User is not dying! User’s health is optimal at the moment, except for elevated heart rate and perspiration. ]

“Yuan-er. Yuan-er!” Shen Xijun is shaking him, her green eyes wide with fear and worry. “Pingyang, get a doctor!”

Shen Yuan grabs his mom by her arms, glancing between her and mama wildly. “No! No, I’m fine. I’m…”

Shen Pingyang grabs his wrist, and he feels her cool energy spread through his undeveloped meridians. She lets go of him after a minute, frowning.

“He seems alright physically and spiritually,” she says, sheathing her sword. She moves her hand from his wrist to his shoulder. “Yuan-er, are you having nightmares again?”

“Again?” He squeaks.

“En. Last year on your birthday, you acted strangely, too.”

“It’s okay if you are,” Shen Xijun says soothingly. “Mom and mama will always be here for you. But we can’t help if we don’t know what’s wrong.”

[ Aww, user’s parents are so nice! ]

Shut. Up. I cannot deal with you right now.

Now that the initial shock has faded, he’s able to recognize the box for what it is. A System, like from all those transmigration stories. Except for some reason his waited twelve years to show up.

“I’m okay,” Shen Yuan says. His mothers clearly don’t believe him, so he swallows his pride and adds, “But, can I sleep with you tonight?”

Twelve years old is too old to still be asking to sleep with your parents, in his opinion, but his mothers happily sweep him off to their bed. He lays between them, eyes closed, yet is unable to sleep, even after hours pass and both of his mothers have fallen asleep.

System? He tentatively thinks.

The bright blue popup appears in the black of his closed eyelids. [ Yes, user? ]

He cringes, closing his eyes tighter. Do you have a dark mode?

[ This System does! Would user like to switch to dark mode? ]

Yes. The System window fades to a neutral dark gray with white text. Much better. Now, why the HELL did it take you twelve years to show up?!

[ Eek! User, don’t be mad! This System has found it best to wait for its users to fully regain their past memories and become completely integrated with their new world before appearing. ]

I regained all my memories a year ago! Where were you then, huh?!

[ ( ;´꒳`;) User, please. This System was busy! Besides, as they say, better late than never, right? ]

I think I would’ve preferred never. Does this mean I have to do quests and stuff now? His heart sinks. Am I going to have to get involved with the plot?

[ Not to worry, user. This System believes in a more hands-off approach! This System will assign you quests, however they are completely optional. The points you gain for successfully completing them can be used to purchase hints and scenario pushers! ]

Suspicious. If Shen Yuan could narrow his eyes at the System, he would. That’s it? You’re not going to force me to do anything?

[ Well… this System is not going to force the user to do anything, but it will have to force the user to not do certain things. ]

Interesting. Like what?

[ Would user like to view unavoidable plot points that must not be interfered with? ]

Sure.

The box expands as a list of bullet points appears. Unsurprisingly, they are all based around Luo Binghe.

[ ○ Luo Binghe’s mother, the washerwoman, must die.

   ○ Luo Binghe must join Cang Qiong Mountain sect.

  ○ Luo Binghe must fight during the demon invasion of Cang Qiong sect.

  ○ Luo Binghe must attend the Immortal Alliance Conference.

  ○ Luo Binghe must enter the Endless Abyss.

  ○ Luo Binghe must retrieve the cursed sword Xin Mo.

  ○ Luo Binghe must become the emperor of the Demon Realm.

  ○ Luo Binghe must become a disciple of Huan Hua Palace sect. 

… ]

Does an event being crossed out mean it’s already happened?

[ Correct! ]

Shen Yuan mulls this over. So PIDW has already started. This gives him something of a time frame for where he is in the story, but not a certain one. He’s pretty sure Luo Binghe joined Cang Qiong at… twelve years old? How old is Shen Yuan in comparison to him?

System, can you alert me whenever an unavoidable plot point occurs?

[ Certainly! Is there anything else the user would like this System to do? ]

Show me what quests I have right now.

[ One (1) Quest Currently Active:

   ○ Gold is the New Black (50 C-Points)

         Join Huan Hua Palace sect as a new disciple. ]

I assume the number next to the quest name is the reward for completing it? What does the C stand for?

[ User is once again correct! The “C” in “C-Points” stands for “Crazy”. Since this System is not plot-based and only sells hints and scenario pushers, it decided to rebrand from the standard “B-Points” currency to “C-Points”. ]

Shen Yuan rolls over, careful not to disturb his mothers. Weird choice but okay. One more question. What happens if I try to prevent an inevitable plot point?

[ (⊙_⊙) System would strongly advise against that. If user tries to interfere, up to three warnings will be administered, accompanied by increasingly severe point loss. If user’s efforts persist past the third warning, this System will be forced to terminate the user’s account. ]

Oh. Shen Yuan can guess what that means. It’s a good thing he wasn’t planning on getting involved with the plot, anyway. Go away, I want to sleep.

[ So mean… ] The System window rolls up and disappears, leaving Shen Yuan alone with his many, many thoughts.

–

For her birthday, Shen Yuan gifts Qin Wanrong a painting. He lets her choose the subject, and shows her the sketches and the works in progress until on her actual birthday, he presents her the full, finished painting. A commission, basically. He’s not sure his painting skills are good enough that it will suffice, but she exclaims that she loves it, and she’s going to hang it in her room.

For Qin Wanyue’s birthday, Shen Yuan gifts her a perfume made from the leaves of his aster plant. She’d commented before, disappointed, that the flowers had no smell, but when he showed her that the crushed leaves produced a scent she kept making comments on how pleasant it was. Commissioning the perfume dipped into the last of his exploiting-disciples savings, but he considered it worth it when she hugged him while thanking him, clearly happy.

And then, finally, the Huan Hua entrance exam is upon them. This is the year Shen Yuan’s mothers want him to take it. Coincidentally, the Qins are also taking it this year. The day before the exam, the Qin sisters sleep over, since the Shen home is closer to the exam hall than their estate in the city.

Shen Xujin and Shen Pingyang have met the girls before, and they’re just as delighted by them as always. After dinner, Shen Yuan, Shen Xujin, and Qin Wanyue play music together while Shen Pingyang shows Qin Wanrong her sword. Then Shen Pingyang pulls Shen Xujin up to dance with her, which is really sweet until they start kissing a bit too intensely.

Shen Yuan shepherds his friends to the one and only guest room, embarrassed by his mothers’ shamelessness.

“Your parents are so in love,” Qin Wanrong sighs dreamily. “When I grow up, I want me and my husband to be like the Madam Shens.”

Shen Yuan tries not to think about a harem nearly in the triple digits, and how little attention the wives in it got after their respective arcs concluded. “I’m sure you’ll find a man who’ll love you as much as you love him.”

Qin Wanyue’s lips thin, but she just says, “Yes, Rong-mei, I hope you end up happy. You too, Shen-di.”

“Thanks?” Shen Yuan hasn’t really thought about romance since his rebirth, and doesn’t plan to start now. So he smoothly pivots, “Are you two fine sharing a bed?”

The sisters are, and after another hour of anxiously talking about the upcoming exam Shen Xujin tells them to go to sleep. Shen Yuan bids his friends goodnight and goes to his own room.

Shen Yuan wakes up early the next morning, which happens so rarely that Shen Xujin actually startles when he trudges into the kitchen. She doesn’t seem to know what to do with him, floundering for a few seconds before ushering him to sit at the table with some tea. It makes him feel very much like the child he is supposed to be.

Shen Pingyang comes out next, and she also looks surprised to see Shen Yuan up. She kisses him on the head before going to help her wife with breakfast.

The Qins emerge just in time for breakfast, and they all dig in. The three kids are jittery with nerves and tension. Shen Pingyang tries to lead them in a meditation exercise after breakfast, but only Qin Wanyue seems to benefit from it. Qin Wanrong keeps shifting and Shen Yuan is silently freaking out.

It’s not the end of the world if I can’t pass, he reminds himself. I could take it again, it would just take mom and mama a couple of years to save up for the entrance exam fee again. By which point I’ll already be fourteen or fifteen and past the prime age to start cultivating…

“Breathe, Yuan-er,” Shen Pingyang says firmly. “You look like you’re going to throw up.”

“I feel like I am,” he replies mulishly.

“Ew,” says Qin Wanrong.

They set out for the exam hall together. It’s in the only public courtyard of Huan Hua Palace, and it is absolutely packed. It takes forever to get through the line, where Shen Pingyang hands the signed exam receipt to a clerk, who in turn writes Shen Yuan’s name on four sheets of paper, one of which he’s to turn in with each test. He clutches them close as they’re shuffled off.

There are three exam halls, yet Huan Hua still has to spread the exam out over five days to one, fit everyone comfortably, and two, make sure the traffic to and from the palace isn’t completely unmanageable. Shen Yuan is in a separate exam hall from the Qins, and they exchange nervous “good luck”s before separating.

“You’ll do great,” Shen Xujin says at the entrance, tugging him into a hug.

Shen Pingyang hugs him once her wife lets go. “We’ll be waiting for you when you get out.”

And so, Shen Yuan enters the exam hall armed with four identification papers he absolutely cannot lose, two years worth of preparatory classes, and the knowledge of a twenty-first century man who died as a college freshman. 

—

They have two hours to finish the general exam, which has zero multiple choice questions and are all free responses. Shen Yuan loses five minutes having traumatic flashbacks to the chemistry class he’d fought for his life to get a passing grade in. Then he locks in.

He finishes the general exam with twenty minutes to spare. He spends those minutes finding and using the bathroom. Why the fuck did they hide the bathrooms in the center of a labyrinth? Is this a test? Why is it so far from the exam hall?

It doesn’t help that the System pops up to congratulate him for finishing the general exam, then laughs at him while he goes down the same hallway for the third time.

He gets back in time to hear the directions for the biology exam room. It’s a smaller space than where they took the general exam; more a big room than an actual hall. It’s no less ostentatious with its rich, dark wood and gold filigree.

He finishes the exam with confidence, turns it in with his ID paper, and goes outside to stretch his legs. The courtyard is so silent and empty now compared to earlier. There are only a few people milling around, others who’ve finished early like him.

As he’s bending down to touch his toes (children are so flexible!), the universe or the gods or something decides he’s not suffered enough today. A gust of wind catches the ID papers he’s holding and tugs them out of his grasp.

Shen Yuan fumbles for them, misses, and loudly swears, “SHIT!”

Someone breaks into a coughing fit behind him, but he has no time for whoever may have been trying to sneak up on him or whatever. Murder and/or kidnapping attempts can wait until he’s done with these fucking exams!

He runs after the papers with the desperation of a starving fox chasing the only rabbit it’s seen in weeks, but sadly his child legs are short and the world is cruel. He takes back everything good he ever thought about being a child. His body is working against him!!

Someone sprints past him and, in a flutter of gold and cream robes, leaps into the air to catch his papers. They land with barely a sound, their wavy brown hair bouncing in its ponytail, and turn to offer Shen Yuan his papers.

“Here you go.”

Shen Yuan grabs them and holds them to his chest. “Thank you so much, oh my god I thought it was all over. You’re a lifesaver.”

The person chuckles. “It’s no problem. I’m happy to help.”

Shen Yuan looks his savior in the face, and almost chokes on his own spit. Handsome! The person is a teenage boy, probably a few years older than him, and his smile is like the finishing stroke on a painter’s masterpiece. Despite being in the gangly teenage years, his complexion is flawless and gentle.

“Um,” Shen Yuan says. Where did his vocabulary go? Hello? Brain?

[ This System can play shoujo music if user desires, to really set the mood (･ω<)☆ ]

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.

“Keep a tight hold on those,” the boy says, like he’s used to people staring at him. He probably is.

The thought finally forces Shen Yuan’s brain to reboot, and his senses to return to him. He bows to the boy deeper than is technically necessary, but it feels, emotionally, like the right thing to do.

“Thank you again! I will!”

“No need for that! Please, stand up straight!” The boy sounds flustered.

Shen Yuan does as he asks, and is hit full force by the sight of the boy’s cheeks turning pink. Maybe this isn’t the universe having mercy on him. Maybe it’s another one of its trials, and the gods are laughing at his continued suffering right now.

“Are you a disciple?” Shen Yuan asks, and wants to slap himself. Obviously the boy is a disciple!

“I am,” the boy says. He seems to regain his composure as he continues, “This one is Gongyi Xiao, a cultivator in training.”

Gongyi Xiao. Gongyi Xiao? This is Gongyi Xiao? The man who gets cucked by Luo Binghe in like ten years? If this is what Gongyi Xiao looks like, what kind of heavens-blessed, unrealistic, billionaire beauty model appearance does Luo Binghe have?

“I’m Shen Yuan. I mean, this one is Shen Yuan.” Someone kill him. “Nice to meet you.”

Gongyi Xiao’s smile widens. “This one is pleased to meet you as well, Shen Yuan. I am grateful I could be of assistance. I remember how stressed I was taking the exams.”

“Haha, yeah, it’s stressful. When did you take them?”

“Four years ago.” Gongyi Xiao suddenly looks off to the side. Shen Yuan follows his gaze to see someone waving from the other side of the courtyard. “Apologies, someone is calling me.”

“Cultivator hearing,” Shen Yuan breathes.

“It’s not so impressive,” Gongyi Xiao chuckles. “Ah, before I go, may I give you a word of advice?”

“Sure?”

He lowers his voice. “Try not to swear around the proctors or hallmasters. Most of them are uptight about that sort of thing.”

Someone please kill Shen Yuan. Just strike him down with heavenly lightning. Right now.

“Okay,” he squeaks.

Gongyi Xiao chuckles again and leaves with a farewell. Shen Yuan stares after him, realizes he’s staring, and whips around to frantically pace.

[ User’s heart rate and facial temperature is elevated. ]

Shut up! I can’t be expected to act normal in front of a paragon of male beauty.

[ Sure, user, whatever you say (^ – ^) ]

–

Doing a math exam only an hour after a physical exam should be considered a kind of torture method. Shen Yuan’s clothes are sticky with sweat and he keeps thinking about how he nearly tripped and ate shit while running the ten laps around the testing area.

But he finishes the exams, and he staggers into the courtyard with the rest of the exhausted test takers. Some Huan Hua person gives a short speech thanking them for their interest in the sect and congratulating them for finishing their exams. Leftover identification papers go here, have a safe trip home, etcetera.

Shen Yuan finds his mothers already accompanied by the Qin sisters. Shen Yuan thought he’d be too tired to make conversation, but Qin Wanrong’s excited chattering draws him in. Before he knows it, he’s spent most of the walk tearing apart the structuring of the tests and how susceptible it is to corruption, a rant that is received with amusement, confusion, annoyance, and pride from his captive audience.

After they drop off the Qin sisters at their estate, Shen Yuan’s energy flags. When they get home, he trudges to his bed and promptly passes out.

Their acceptance/denial letters will come in a month, which means for the first time in two years, Shen Yuan has an entire month with no obligations. Except for his guqin lessons. But besides that, he spends the month doing his best imitation of a lazy, spoiled cat whose only troubles in life are finding the best sunbeam to lay in.

His mothers keep almost tripping over him as he finds increasingly strange places to sprawl while reading the fiction books he’d asked his mom to check out from the library for him. They’re all disgustingly age-appropriate and well-written. He makes a list of plot devices and similes from these books that Airplane should’ve used in PIDW to elevate it from “barely readable garbage” to “decently written garbage”.

That’s right, the children’s books are better than Airplane’s work. Consistent characterization! Plot coherence! Actual compelling romances!

He still finds things to nitpick, though. He wouldn’t be Peerless Cucumber if he didn’t.

Midway through the month, Shen Yuan and his mothers are invited to the Qin estate for a celebratory dinner. Well, the invitation is phrased more like “our daughters worked so hard and we want to reward them for that”, but the overall tone is giving “we know our daughters were accepted and we want to show off.”

“Are they that confident their daughters got in?” Shen Xijun asks as they read the invitation.

“Well, they are the Qins,” Shen Pingyang replies, which could mean multiple things. 

The dinner is a formal event, thus giving Shen Yuan’s mothers an excuse to spend an afternoon in the city dragging him from seamstress to seamster, finding one in their price range who also has robes that can be easily changed to fit Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan stands around feeling like a dress-up doll. At least his mothers have a lot of fun.

The dinner is upon them a week later, and Shen Yuan approaches the event with all the trepidation of a mouse who has been in a cat’s home before, and knows how to navigate it safely, but really wished it didn’t have to. He thought he’d left formal events crowded with rich people behind when he died! So why is he standing in the Qin’s grand dining hall trying to melt into the wall?

He makes pained, sympathetic eye contact with Qin Wanyue through the crowd. She and her sister had smiled at Shen Yuan in greeting when he and his mothers arrived, but they haven’t been able to greet each other properly. Madam Qin has been parading her daughters around to a bunch of self-absorbed looking people the whole time.

Shen Pingyang, at least, has found good company. She’s been talking to a Huan Hua cultivator for almost an hour, while the cultivator’s kid, a young boy, lingers nearby with a vacant expression. Every time he tries to leave his father’s hand clamps down on his shoulder.

“Shen Xijun!” Master Qin appears from the crowd with a big smile. The dress robes he wears look expensive enough to feed a small village for a week. “And Shen Yuan. This one is glad to see the Shen family in attendance.”

“Hello, Qin Haomu,” Shen Xijun says, returning his smile with a polite one of her own. She and Shen Pingyang have met Master and Madam Qin before, and although Shen Pingyang is neutral on both of them, Shen Xijun seems to dislike them. Not that she shows her distaste in front of them.

“Master Qin,” Shen Yuan greets.

Master Qin chuckles. “Shen Yuan, hasn’t this one told you before to call him shushu?”

“...shushu,” Shen Yuan amends. “The dinner was nice. Thank you for inviting us.”

“Of course, it would not do to neglect my daughters’ friends! Their other friends are in attendance as well. How about Shen Yuan go greet them?”

It may have been over a decade since his last rich person event, but Shen Yuan can still tell when he’s being ushered away. He glances at his mom.

“Go on,” she encourages, her smile turning more real. It seems the prospect of him making more friends outweighs any discomfort from being left alone to talk to Master Qin.

He’s not that bad at talking to people, okay? It’s just that the kids “his age” seem so immature sometimes!

“Okay,” he says, trying not to pout. He leaves his mom and Master Qin to whatever business they have.

If he is going to be forced to socialize, he might as well save that poor kid. Shen Yuan weaves through the crowd to get to Shen Pingyang.

“Mama,” he chirps.

Shen Pingyang pats him on the head. “Yuan-er.”

“Is that the famous Shen Yuan?” the cultivator she’d been talking to asked. Famous? Who's famous?

“En.”

Shen Yuan greets the cultivator, who introduces himself and his son. Said son snaps to attention at the sound of his name. He blinks at Shen Yuan, and then bows.

“This Zhu Ruwen greets Shen Yuan.”

“This Shen Yuan is pleased to meet Zhu Ruwen,” Shen Yuan returns. Then, to his mama and Master Zhu, “Can we go outside?”

The adults agree, with Master Zhu reminding his son to be nice, which is mildly concerning, and then they return to their conversation. Shen Yuan strides toward the large double doors leading to the Qin estate’s main courtyard and, after a moment, he hears the other boy following him.

The courtyard has far less people in it. Paper lamps illuminate the dusk shadows, casting the cobblestone pathways and verdant greenery in warm yellow. Shen Yuan leans against a wall to wait for Zhu Ruwen to catch up.

The other boy does, and immediately asks, “Did you need something?”

“It just looked like you needed an out,” Shen Yuan replies, somewhat sheepishly.

“Oh.” Zhu Ruwen hesitantly leans against the wall, a foot of space between him and Shen Yuan. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

An awkward silence falls between them. Shen Yuan stares at the darkening indigo sky. He keeps expecting Zhu Ruwen to say something or leave, but when five minutes drag by with neither happening, he can’t help wanting to fill the awkward silence.

“Are you friends with Qin Wanyue or Qin Wanrong?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Zhu Ruwen startle, as if surprised. “Huh? Oh, no. My baba works with Master Qin. He’s a consultant.”

Shen Yuan thinks of the sheathed sword and Huan Hua pendant on Master Zhu’s belt. “I thought he was a cultivator?”

“He is. Master Qin pays him to give advice on…” Zhu Ruwen suddenly cuts himself off. After a telling beat, he finishes, “...things.”

Shen Yuan is desperately curious about what those “things” could be, but he doesn’t want to push and get Zhu Ruwen in trouble. “I see.”

No response. With the timing of a slapstick comedy, cricket song begins to pierce the silence.

System.

[ That wasn’t me! ]

Someone, please, save Shen Yuan.

“Shen-ge!” Qin Wanrong appears like an angel from heaven. She skips over to him, stumbling in her fancy robes. Shen Yuan reaches out to steady her and she beams at him.

“Qin-mei!” He glances around, but Qin Wanyue hasn’t accompanied her sister. “Finally free?”

“Finally! I was so bored.” She looks over at Zhu Ruwen, and some of the cheer disappears from her face and tone. “Hello, Zhu Ruwen.”

“Hello, Qin Wanrong.” Zhu Ruwen is studying her and Shen Yuan with a slight furrow in his brow, but it smooths out after a second. “I wasn’t aware you two knew each other.”

Qin Wanrong clings onto Shen Yuan’s arm with surprising force. “Mm! We’re best friends!”

“I see.”

Apparently done talking to him, Qin Wanrong turns her attention fully back onto Shen Yuan. “Shen-ge, how’re you liking the party?”

From there, the conversation flows so easily and quickly Shen Yuan almost forgets Zhu Ruwen is still nearby. He’d have thought the other boy would leave, but Zhu Ruwen lingers. Shen Yuan tries to draw him into the conversation a couple of times, but he gives short answers and Qin Wanrong doesn’t make an effort to keep him in the conversation.

So there’s obviously some sort of history here. How much beef could these preteens have with each other?

Stupid question. Qin Wanrong still scowled at the girl in their preparatory class that had accidentally stepped on her foot months ago.

“There you are!” Qin Wanyue enters the scene from stage left. Her face is somewhat flushed and there’s a tiredness to her that Shen Yuan is only accustomed to seeing after a whole day wrangling her little sister.

“Rong-mei, Shen-di.” She glances at Zhu Ruwen, expression shuttering to something polite. “Zhu Ruwen.”

Zhu Ruwen greets her with far more seriousness than a boy their age should. “Hello, Qin Wanyue.”

Crickets. Again.

Zhu Ruwen continues to make no move to excuse himself. The Qin sisters look back at him, Qin Wanyue with polite neutrality, Qin Wanrong with a frown.

“Okay!” Shen Yuan says, at a very normal volume. He can totally navigate this social situation! “It was nice meeting you, Zhu Ruwen! We should hang out sometime. Qin-jie, Qin-mei, let’s go hide in the library.”

“Oh,” Zhu Ruwen says, his flat tone giving way to surprise. “I’d like that.”

Qin Wanyue nods at Zhu Ruwen. “Well, goodbye.” Then she grabs her sister and Shen Yuan by the elbows and marches them to the library.

Shen Yuan glances over his shoulder to see Zhu Ruwen heading back to the dining area. Before he can even ask his friends what that was all about, Qin Wanrong speaks first.

“Ugh, he’s so weird!” She pouts at Shen Yuan. “Why do you wanna hang out with him?”

“He seemed nice,” he ventures.

“He is,” Qin Wanyue says. “Rong-mei, don’t be mean. You called Shen-di weird, too, and now you’re friends.”

“You did what?” Shen Yuan asks.

“That’s different.” Qin Wanrong speaks over him. “Shen-ge’s never had a crush on you.”

Shen Yuan is thoroughly derailed from repeating his question. He whips his attention to Qin Wanyue. “You and Zhu Ruwen–?”

“ He liked me ,” she clarifies, cheeks pink. “He asked his father to ask my father to arrange a marriage between us. Obviously, baba turned him down. I’m the elder daughter, they wouldn’t waste me on a consultant’s son.”

There’s something wry and sardonic in her last sentence. Shen Yuan would think about that if he weren’t puffing up in righteous, past-life-meimei-enforced feminist rage.

“You’re only fourteen!” he exclaims. “Actually, putting aside your age, nobody should be marrying you to anyone! You should choose who you marry!”

Qin Wanyue scoffs. Her grip on his elbow tightens painfully (ow, those physical lessons are really showing!) “I don’t expect you to understand. Just forget about it, Shen-di. I’m going to be a cultivator anyway, so I won’t be marrying until my training is complete.”

“But,” Shen Yuan starts.

“Shen-ge,” Qin Wanrong interrupts, energetic voice taut with tension. “What books have you been reading?”

Shen Yuan really, really wants to address whatever is happening here. But he also doesn’t want to mess up his friendship with them. Somehow, these two snuck into his heart while he was distracted gardening and tutoring them, and now he, gag , cares about them.

So he goes along with Qin Wanrong’s terrible diversion, and they hide in the library until their parents find them, and Shen Yuan thinks about gender roles in ancient China and how rich the Qins are and how even in his past, modern life his parents had pushed their children toward marriage.

He’s especially thinking about it when days later, he asks his mama how she met Shen Xijun.

Shen Pingyang, practicing sword forms as he waters his garden, does not break stride as she answers. “Your mom was meant to be married to my older brother. I met her when she was brought over to meet him for the first time. I already knew my brute of a brother wasn’t suitable for anyone, but after talking with Xijun I knew I couldn’t let them get married. So I challenged my brother to a swordfight for her hand, and won.”

Shen Yuan thinks that if Qin Wanrong were here, she would squeal and sigh over such a story. Qin Wanyue would probably find it romantic too. He’s more focused on that last part to have gooey feelings about it.

“You only married her to keep your brother from marrying her?”

“Hm.” Shen Pingyang glances at him. “Yuan-er, do you want to start playing go again?”

“No thanks.” He did not have the patience for that game, seriously, he’s surprised he stuck with it as long as he did. “So I’m right?”

“En. But that is not to say I do not love her. It was after we were wed that we fell in love.”

Shen Yuan is pretty sure he already knows the answer to his next question, but he asks it anyway. “It wasn’t an option for her to not get married at all?”

Shen Pingyang moves into another pose. “No. She is the only daughter of a court official. She had to be married into a well-to-do family.”

“What do your parents do?” He pauses. “Yeye and nainai?”

Now that he is thinking about it, it’s strange that he hasn’t met either his maternal or paternal grandparents, or any of his extended family. In his past life, his grandparents had visited their kids and grandkids often, at least until they were unable to.

“Your yeye is a wandering cultivator. Your nainai has partial ownership of an elite horse breeding business. My older brother also owns it, and he’s going to take full ownership when your nainai dies.”

“Why haven’t I met them before?”

“So many questions today,” she huffs. “Nobody was happy with me breaking my brother’s engagement. We’re not on good terms.”

“Oh. How about waigong and waipo?”

“Go ask your mom.”

Shen Yuan does just that that evening, when Shen Xijun returns from her shift.

She pauses on her way to her room. “Your waigong and waipo? What brought this on?”

“I’m just wondering why I haven’t seen them before,” he replies, honest and maybe pushing the innocent little kid voice too hard.

She frowns, then sighs. “I suppose you should know. Your waigong passed away three years ago, actually. Your waipo is living with my didi.”

Where did all of these relatives come from? He feels like he's been dropped in the second season of a dogblood drama that he never watched the first season of.

“They rarely contact me, so I do not reach out.” She pats his head. “Don’t worry about them, Yuan-er. Come help me make dinner.”

She must be more distracted by the thoughts of her family than he thought, if she’s inviting him into the kitchen. He follows her anyway. Maybe this time it’ll go better!

Ten minutes later he is kicked out of the kitchen for accidentally adding sugar instead of salt to the pork.

–

Almost thirty days after taking the entrance exam, the Shens receive a scroll. It is hand-delivered by a graying man in stately robes and glasses. Shen Yuan didn’t even know glasses existed in this setting, and their existence is so distracting he almost misses what the man says.

“Truly?” Shen Xijun says, and she sounds so delighted that it snaps Shen Yuan out of his internal thoughts of how do they even make the optical lenses? 

Shen Pingyang pats Shen Yuan’s shoulder. “Good job.”

Shen Yuan frantically casts his mind back to the half minute that’d just elapsed after answering the door. His short term memory buffer comes in clutch; the man’s name was Li Xuelong, he was Huan Hua’s instructor of biology, and he had come to personally congratulate Shen Yuan on his acceptance since he had scored the highest on the biology exam.

Oh. “Oh.”

This was the first time Shen Yuan had ever done something of notable academic merit, yet the pride is tinged with guilt. He really isn’t a genius or that smart. He just has the unfair advantage of twenty-first century biology lessons. Sure, a lot of it wasn’t applicable because the exam didn’t ask questions relevant to that (it was more along the lines of “identify this plant” and “what are the uses of this animal’s horn”), but he can’t shake the feeling that he’s cheated his way into success.

Again, there’s literally nothing he can do about it, he can’t just forget, but knowing that doesn’t magically erase the slimy feeling.

He accepts the letter with both hands and a bow. “Thank you, Master Li.”

“Your schedule and all other relevant information are inside as well. I look forward to seeing you in my class.” Li Xuelong nods at Shen Yuan’s mothers, and curtly concludes, “Farewell.”

They wait until he’s left their courtyard to close the door. As soon as it’s shut, Shen Xijun is wrapping Shen Yuan up in a hug and cooing, “I’m so proud! Our smart boy.”

Shen Pingyang has strode to the storage room, and she shouts, “Xijun, we need more soy sauce! I’m going to cook Yuan-er’s favorite.”

Shen Xijun continues cooing over Shen Yuan, before settling him on the couch and sweeping out to go buy groceries. There’s clattering in the kitchen as Shen Pingyang begins to cook. And Shen Yuan just stares at the scroll.

It’s fine. This is good. He’s been accepted into the sect, and he can become a cultivator, and explore all the parts of the world he’d raged at Airplane for skipping over. He may not have gotten started in the best way, but he’s here now, and it’s happening.

He unravels the scroll.

–

[ Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! Good things must be said three times! ]

[ User has completed Quest: Gold is the New Black . +50 C-Points! ]

[ This System hopes User will continue his hard work ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝ ]

Chapter Text

Day one of being a disciple at Huan Hua Palace sect sees Shen Yuan miserably trying not to cry as his mothers send him off.

“Why can’t I stay here?” he asks, aware that he sounds like a puppy being abandoned but unable to change his tone.

“We’ve gone over this,” Shen Xijun sighs. “It will be better for you to stay in a dorm. It is closer to your classes. And you can make more friends!”

Again with this making friends business. 

“Qin-jie and Qin-mei are enough,” he sniffs.

“Well, it may do you some good to make friends with other boys,” Shen Xijun says gently.

Shen Yuan makes a face. If the boys in his preparatory classes, and the boys he’d met when tutoring Huan Hua disciples, were any indication, he’ll have a very hard time making male friends. They were all so stuck up.

Shen Pingyang cuffs him lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t make that face. You can still visit.”

“It’s only an incense time,” he grumbles, “I don’t need to be close to my classes.”

“No. This isn’t a discussion.”

Shen Yuan wilts. Although his eyes burn and his throat is tight, if he breaks into tears now he’ll really feel like a child. Which he’s not. Even though this body has its own instincts, he’s a full grown man! He’s not going to cry over having to dorm!

“Fine.”

Shen Xijun tuts as she smooths out his newly acquired robes. “Be good for us, okay?”

“Okay…”

“Now you better get going, you’ll be late otherwise.” She kisses his forehead. “We’re so proud of you, Yuan-er.”

Shen Pingyang leans down to kiss his temple. “Love you. You’ll be alright.”

“Love you too,” he sighs. He slowly turns and walks out of the courtyard. He feels like his feet weigh a hundred pounds, each step slow and reluctant. He keeps waiting for one of them to call him back, but he leaves the courtyard with no such thing occurring.

He whirls around. “What about my plants?!”

His mothers are still there, and his heart settles at their amused and exasperated expressions. Shen Xijun laughs, “The gardeners will take care of them!”

“But they’re my plants…” He doesn’t doubt the gardeners’ abilities, but what’s the point of having cool plants with magic properties if you can’t even take care of them? “Can’t I bring one?”

“You don’t have time for that,” she huffs. “If you wanted to bring a plant, you should have prepared it last night.”

Shen Yuan groans and turns back around. “Fine! I’ll be back for dinner later!”

“Or you could have dinner with your dormmates!” Shen Xijun calls as he walks away.

“No!” Shen Yuan hollers back.

It takes him a minute of stomping to his destination to realize how much like an actual twelve-year-old he’s acting. He covers his face and groans. The action sends his new disciple robes sliding down his arms, the material smooth and gold.

He uncovers his face and tugs his robes back into place. The layers of cream and gold are soft on his skin, which is admittedly very nice. He’d fought his hair into a neat ponytail with help from Shen Pingyang, and combined with the Huan Hua charm hanging from his belt, he feels like a proper sect disciple.

That’s right, I’m a Huan Hua disciple now! My life as a background cultivator starts now!

[ That’s the spirit, user! No more crying! ]

He scowls at the text box that popped up in his vision. I wasn’t talking to you. And who was crying, huh?! My cheeks are dry, System, dry as the desert!

[ User is correct. However, user’s eyes are particularly shiny right now. ]

Shen Yuan rolls his eyes. Are you broken? Only a baby would cry over leaving their parents for school.

[ No need to be ashamed, user. You are a kid right now! A very cute kid, too (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) All the aunties would be fussing over you right now if they could see you. ]

That is not the compliment you seem to think it is. What kind of man wants aunties fretting over him?

[ Everyone likes being pampered every now and then! ]

Not… he stops in his tracks. Looks around. Checks the scroll he’s tucked into one of the robe pockets. Was I supposed to turn left back there?

[ Maybe. ]

Oh my god, I’m actually going to be late. Shen Yuan scrambles back to the hallway junction and goes sprinting down the path he literally walked yesterday with his mothers to make sure he knew the way.

Huan Hua Palace is a huge, sprawling thing. Countless hallways hug countless courtyards, weaving between buildings and monuments endlessly. There are many buildings within Huan Hua sect’s walls, but the star of the show is the actual palace itself, which sits in the middle of the bustling grounds with all the grandiosity and presence of a dragon.

The whole complex reminds Shen Yuan of the Forbidden City, which he has hazy memories of touring with his family when he was a teenager. He might have been intimidated by Huan Hua Palace’s towers and richly decorated exteriors if he had not grown up right next to it.

He enters the palace from the west wing, dodging disciples and workers like a pro. The palace hallways stretch high overhead, rounded windows in the tall walls letting in light from courtyards. Paintings and statuettes line the grand halls.

Beautiful architecture? Expensive decorations? Whatever! He’s in a rush! He saw it all before when he was ten, anyway!

Take a right here, go down until he passes the weird lotus painting, through the open arch… why is the meeting place for new disciples so convoluted to find? Is this like the bathroom at the exam building? Another test? A humiliation tactic?

Shen Yuan slides into the correct hallway like a baseball player going for a home run. He stops himself from shouting, “SAFE!”, but he can’t resist the urge to do a little fist pump.

He knows he’s in the right place not just because he came here yesterday, but also because the hallway resembles one straight out of a fancy high school. It’s filled with preteens and teenagers milling about, talking to one another or lingering around the edges nervously.

His scan of the hallway has him making eye contact with Qin Wanrong, and she lights up. With hardly a word to the small group she and her sister had been in, she darts over to him. Shen Yuan moves through the crowd to meet her.

“Shen-ge!” She stops just short of running into him, looking more excited than he’s ever seen her. “How do I look?”

Her hair is done up with simple but undeniably expensive ornaments. The robes fit her perfectly; no doubt she and her sister got theirs tailored after receiving the standard size in the mail.

“You look great!” He catches himself reaching out to pinch her cheeks, and yanks his hands back down to his sides. Propriety, Shen Yuan, propriety! You’re both disciples now!

“Thanks!” Qin Wanrong chirps, and then eviscerates him in that same cheery tone by saying, “Did you comb your hair? It’s kinda messy.”

Shen Yuan pats his own head and his heart sinks. Sorry, mom, mama! This son won’t be making the best first impression on his roommates!

Actually, maybe this is a good thing. If they’re mean to him he can use it as an excuse to move back home!

Qin Wanrong leads him back to her sister as they talk about how much of a hassle navigating the Palace is. They’ve just joined Qin Wanyue and exchanged greetings when two hallmasters sweep in and call for their attention.

From there, they’re taken on a tour of the palace. Not the whole thing, as that’d take the whole day, but the areas relevant to them as disciples. Shen Yuan has seen a lot of it before, but the gardens (multiple!) for spiritual herbs are fascinating, and he’s never been inside the classrooms.

They finish the tour where they started, which turns out to be one wing for disciple housing. One hallmaster begins assigning girls to each room, while the other does the same for the boys.

A third hallmaster materializes from nowhere to pull aside a few of the disciples. Qin Wanyue and Qin Wanrong are among them, and before Shen Yuan can ask if they’re being kidnapped Qin Wanyue hurriedly explains that their parents paid for individual rooms.

Shen Yuan watches them go with an envy more suitable for an immortal master watching a rival sect make off with a once-in-a-lifetime treasure.

“Shen Yuan?” One hallmaster says, and Shen Yuan trudges forward to meet his fate.

The room he’s put in is as nice as one would expect from Huan Hua. It's a good size, with well-made desks and a fairly plush carpet. The four beds, each tucked into a corner of the room, are made up tidily and have a chest at the end of each of them for personal effects.

Shen Yuan, who only brought his class schedule and the initial scroll that explained what his first day would be like, watches agog as one of his new roommates ignores the chest to upturn a small pouch over the bed they’ve claimed. A million things start waterfalling out of it.

His two other new roommates stop in their inspection of the room to stare as well. The roommate in question stands there like everything is perfectly fine and natural as his bed starts overflowing, various robes and accessories falling onto the floor.

One accessory, a carved bronze bracelet, rolls across the hardwood floor and bumps into Shen Yuan’s foot. The man’s face carved into it scowls up at Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan wants to go home.

–

His schedule is a mishmash between academic-slash-general classes and cultivation specific classes. His general classes focus on things the preparatory class did, like writing, classic literature, and (shudder) bureaucracy. All the things a rich family would want their kids to know, basically.

Sprinkled in are his biology classes (one focusing on plants, the other on animals) and cultivation classes. Physical training, introduction to talismans and arrays, and fundamentals of qi condensation.

Between all of that is free time, which is actually when they’re supposed to report to their hallmaster for their daily chores. Fun.

He doesn’t have the time to find the Qin sisters and compare his schedule to theirs before it’s time to hurry to his first class. Thus, he finds out organically that he and Qin Wanyue are in the same general classes.

They naturally sit together, and Shen Yuan asks about the Qin’s private room until the instructor arrives. Qin Wanyue smugly tells him about it, but does sympathize when he tells her that one of his roommates upended their entire qiankun pouch.

When that’s done, there’s a time slot for lunch, and the two of them meet up with Qin Wanrong. They happily talk about how classes are going for a while before the three of them realize none of them know where they are going.

Shen Yuan and Qin Wanrong are prepared to wander the halls until they either find the food service or die of starvation. Qin Wanyue responds to their impassioned sentiment with a deadpan and by asking a nearby senior disciple where the nearest place to get food is.

They find the canteen, stuff their faces as politely as possible, and then disperse to find their next classes.

Shen Yuan gets assigned cleaning by the hallmaster, and after he’s swept their dorm hall and the miscellaneous decorations within it he has time to relax. He uses this time to find the place for his physical training class, which is outside the palace but still within Huan Hua’s walls.

Physical training is as bad as expected. Unsurprisingly, it seems like he got put in the beginner’s class. The exercises aren’t arduous, but they leave him sweaty and sure to ache tomorrow, which already makes this his least favorite class.

But to balance that out, right after is his plants class! Shen Yuan enters the classroom fully recovered by the power of excitement. He doesn’t even notice he’s the youngest in the class until the seats are filled and the person next to him talks to him.

“You’re young to be here, shidi. Are you sure you have the right class?”

Shen Yuan blinks at the person, then double checks his schedule. “I– this one is fairly sure he has the right class, shijie.”

The disciple on the other side of him leans over to look at his schedule. His eyebrows rise. “Huh, this is the right class.”

Li Xuelong enters the classroom then, and everyone falls quiet. He wastes no time, launching into a speech even as he unpacks his supplies.

“Welcome to plant biology and function. As you all know, I am Master Li, your instructor for this course. I also teach introduction to biology, and animal biology and function. I expect all assignments to be turned in on time and any questions to be relevant. We are all busy people. Respect everyone’s time.”

He unrolls a scroll across his desk. “I will now call attendance.”

Now that Shen Yuan is looking around, he can see that everyone else is older than him, probably fourteen or fifteen. He feels embarrassingly young as he responds to his name and his voice is more akin to the girls’ than to any of the boys’.

But he forgets about his discomfort once Li Xuelong starts lecturing. He desperately wishes he’d brought his writing materials with him. He’d assumed that for the first day, the classes wouldn’t go into anything serious. Which had been true for his general class! But nope, Master Li is getting right into the composition of plants.

When class finishes, the shixiong and shijie who sat beside him question him about his placement in the class. Shen Yuan, already ashamed for being the youngest and the only one not to take notes, almost dissolves into a red-faced mess.

Luckily, that is when Master Li calls him over. He escapes the teenagers with all of his limbs and pride intact.

“This master noticed disciple Shen was not taking notes,” Master Li says, and Shen Yuan’s intact pride crumbles.

“This disciple apologizes!” he bows. “He did not realize the class would be so fast-paced. I will rectify my mistake by tomorrow.”

Master Li pushes his glasses up his nose, looking down at Shen Yuan with a stern expression. “This master assigned you to this class due to your placement on the entrance exam. If disciple Shen feels underprepared for a course of this level, this master can move him to the beginner’s class.”

“I am, I mean, this disciple is prepared!” Shen Yuan may not be among his age range here, but the content of the lecture was interesting, and he did understand it. “This disciple can prove it to Master Li if he desires!”

“Hmph. No need. Be prepared for the biology class tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir!”

After that harrowing encounter, it’s dinnertime. Lingering by the canteen he’d eaten at for lunch is the right move, as the Qin sisters appear and join him for dinner. They talk about their classes the whole time, and Shen Yuan is happy to hear that both of the sisters have made friends. He skillfully dodges the question when they ask if he’s made any friends (read: purposefully chokes on his food, and then actually almost genuinely chokes on it).

They have a bit of time until curfew, so Shen Yuan returns to the employee housing section of the estate and throws himself at his mothers. He regales them with his first day, and is met with praise and questions about any new friends.

What is with everyone and trying to socialize him like a stray cat?!

He promises that he’ll try to make friends, and hurries out with his writing supplies, some changes of robes, and his velvet sacred lily before his mom can sixth-sense his lie.

Thus ends his first day as a Huan Hua disciple.

[ Congratulations on surviving your first day of school! ]

Shen Yuan does his best to glare at a text box, in his mind, with his eyes closed. The sentiment must get across, because the System pops a digital party popper and then shuts up.

His second day consists of a similar schedule, but with the classes he didn’t have yesterday. To his disappointment, the qi condensation and basic talisman classes sound more interesting than they actually are. At least both Qin sisters are in his classes.

For fundamentals of qi condensation, they go to a courtyard that has immaculate feng shui, but Shen Yuan is an uneducated neanderthal for things like that and he kind of just nods along as the instructor talks about how every stone and leave in this courtyard was placed to maximize qi flow. Qin Wanyue seems very into it, however.

Introduction to talismans and arrays is just interesting enough to keep his attention, but also just confusing enough to make him frustrated. The different grades of talisman ink and paper, sure. Memorizing what each type of ink and paper is made out of, and why that specific plant-slash-mineral works? Sounds like something Shen Yuan should be all over, but the instructor presents the information in such a mind-numbing way that despite his best efforts he spaces out and gets confused.

Unsurprisingly, his animal biology class is the best class on those days. Master Li seems just as passionate about fauna as he is flora, but Shen Yuan finds the animals to be more fun to learn about. His classmates in both biology classes stop wondering if he should be in the class three days in, when he gets the confidence to start asking questions and then doesn’t stop.

Overall, he is having a good time. Even sleeping in a dorm room gets easier as the weeks go by. In fact, being a disciple at Huan Hua Palace is scarily similar to being a high school student, except this time he’s twelve years old and most of his classes are actually engaging. So it’s not actually that similar, except in one aspect.

The social scene.

–

Shen Yuan is first confronted with the actual gossip and interpersonal drama within the Palace when one evening, Qin Wanrong slides into the seat next to him at the canteen and giggles, “So, you and Chen-shijie?”

Shen Yuan glances around, confused, before realizing yes, she’s talking to him. “What?”

Grinning in a way that sets off his meimei-is-up-to-some-mischief alarms, she says leadingly, “I’ve heard you and Chen-shijie have been getting close. Talking a lot, spending time together outside of class…”

“Yes…?” he warily responds. “We have?”

Qin Wanrong’s grin grows. “Oh my gods, it’s true?”

If this were a video game, big cartoony question marks would appear over his head and wiggle inquisitively. “What’s true?”

“Do you have a crush on Chen-shijie?”

Shen Yuan drops his chopsticks, and strangles out, “What?!”

Qin Wanrong’s giggles evolve into full laughter. “Hahaha, your face is so red! Shen-ge, I was just teasing, but don’t tell me you actually do?”

“No, I– what?!”

“A-rong, if you poke him anymore he is going to melt.” Qin Wanyue sat on Shen Yuan’s other side, an action that contrasted her seemingly helpful words. Sure enough, she flashed him the same predatory grin as her sister and continued, “He’s not allowed to do that until he tells Qin-jie all about it.”

“There is nothing for this Shen-di to tell his Qin-jie!” He hisses. Qin Wanrong opens her mouth. “Or his Qin-mei!” 

Qin Wanyue seems to be barely holding back laughter. “Don’t be like that, Shen-di.You can tell us anything.”

“There’s nothing to tell!” Shen Yuan insists. “The reason Chen-shijie and I have been spending time together is because Master Li paired us up for a project! And she is in both of my biology classes, so we just end up talking a lot.”

Chen-shjie, or Chen Ting, was the shijie who had questioned him his first day in the plants class, but now she’s become a friendly acquaintance. Although she’d balked at getting her hands dirty to take care of the quicksilver blossom they’d been tasked to grow (thus leaving Shen Yuan to do the work, not that he minded), she was very perceptive and detail-oriented. Her daily observations and notes on the blossom’s growth were definitely going to score them a fantastic grade.

Both Qin sisters deflate at this information, leaning back and finally giving him some space. He picks his chopsticks back up and says grumpily, “Why would you assume I have a crush?” Before shoving food into his mouth.

“Well,” Qin Wanrong says, “I heard from Mei-shijie that Wu-shixiong was complaining to her gege, the two of them are friends, that his crush Chen-shijie was spending too much time with you. Mei-shijie said Chen-shijie was too cool to be hanging out with a twelve year old, so she assumed you must have a crush on her and be begging for her time.”

“Oh.” Qin Wanyue sounds a bit surprised. “That’s what you heard? I was pulled aside by Mei-shjie’s gege after sword practice since he knew I was friends with Shen Yuan. He told me that Chen-shijie had a crush on Shen Yuan.”

Shen Yuan swallows his food, and says, strained, “Wait. How many people know about this… rumor?”

The Qin sisters exchange a glance, and shrug. Qin Wanyue says sympathetically, “Mei-shijie is a bit of a gossip. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least her whole friend group knows.”

Shen Yuan drops his chopsticks again, but this time to cover his face and groan. 

Of course there’s gossip. He’d known that in the way you knew a tiger had stripes to blend in with its surroundings, but you never really thought about it because when on earth would you run into a tiger? Except the tiger is gossip, and Shen Yuan made the stupid mistake of walking right into its territory without considering he’d ever be in its sights.

Qin Wanrong pats him on the back, firmly enough that it stings a little. “It’s okay. I’ll tell Mei-shijie she was wrong.”

“It’s not the worst rumor,” Qin Wanyue adds. “You must’ve heard worse, like what happened with Lan-shixiong.”

Shen Yuan bats Qin Wanrong’s hands away. “Thanks, Qin-mei. And I don’t know who Lan-shixiong is.”

“How do you not know?” Qin Wanyue demands. “Alright, let me tell you…”

It is only after hearing the story of how one of their shixiongs fell directly into a patch of, ahem, spring flowers on his first ever night hunt and had to seek help from an An Ding, yes An Ding as in the peak in Cang Qiong, disciple that Shen Yuan realizes he’s just partaken in the gossip culture he’d been so horrified by.

He decides right then and there that he will avoid it like the plague. No matter how morbidly interesting or funny the rumor.

…

This resolve lasts him two days. Listen, if people are going to look at him and Chen Ting in the courtyard taking care of and making notes on the quicksilver blossom and giggle all the time, then he thinks it’s only fair that he understands the hell pit he’s just been thrown into!

It’s not hard to learn about the latest tomfoolery and teenage-hormone-induced messes around the palace. The Qin sisters have each found themselves their own social circles, except not really, because their circles overlap a lot, and in that overlap there is a lot of exchange of information. And drugs. Apparently.

After fending off three offers for three separate horribly named drugs literally seconds after introducing himself, Shen Yuan finally gets the scoop on the palace’s rumor mill from Mei-shijie and others. He does this by simply existing at the edge of the Qin’s friends’ dinner table.

He finds the Qin’s social circle to be… not pleasant, but tolerable. He sees why the sisters still choose to eat meals with him rather than with their other friends, if this is what they’re all like.

To his surprise, one of his roommates is part of this circle. Not the one who dumped all their shit on their bed the first day, but the tall guy. Shen Yuan wants to say his name is Zhang Wei, but he’s honestly not sure because he’s made zero effort to get to know his roommates.

Listen, they’re all older than him and never seemed interested in being friendly with each other, including him. Truly a “you mind your space, I’ll mind mine” mindset.

Anyway, after dinner Shen Yuan has had so many names and incidents and random pieces of information on what seems like half the palace thrown at him that he’s actually a bit lightheaded. To make matters worse, the System decides to speak up for the first time in a while.

[ Congratulations on forging new connections! Your efforts give this System opportunities for more wonderful quests in the future. ]

Shen Yuan leans against the wall, both to recover from that gossip-fest and so he doesn’t walk into anyone while reading the System’s text.

Speaking of quests, how come I haven’t gotten any since becoming a disciple? It’s been months!

[ ∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ? But you have? ]

His jaw clenches. What do you mean I have? Show me!

The box rises and expands vertically, revealing a list of quests to him. All of the rewards for them are pitiable, the most giving 20 C-Points, yet the fact they exist at all and he didn’t know irks him.

Since when did I get these?!

[ This System makes quests available as the circumstances for their initiation are met. The oldest became available the day you moved into the dorms. The newest became available thirty seconds ago. ]

Can you give me a notification or something whenever a new quest becomes available? Isn’t that standard video game design?

[ User, life is not a video game. This System tries not to be too obtrusive. ]

Yeah yeah, I know. The alert?

[ This System will notify User when new quests become available. Would User like to see the quests he has already completed? ]

Yes.

At the very least, he can still complete and get the rewards for quests without knowing about them. Shen Yuan discovers he’s completed two additional quests since that first one, bringing his C-Point total to 70.

Those quests and his uncompleted ones are all things of inconsequential nature. Stuff like making five new friends, never missing a class this year, discovering the servant tunnels, etc.. Actually that last one sounds interesting. But the point is, the amount of quests, and subsequently the amount of C-Points he could potentially earn, make him curious.

How much do these scenario pushers the System mentioned cost? And what else is in the Shop?

He’d asked before, the day after the System popped up in his life, and now he asks again. System, show me the Shop.

He gets the same response now as he did back then. [ Apologies, but the Shop is unavailable until User completes his first Night Hunt! ]

The excuse the System gives is that it wants him to experience a Night Hunt in its entirety before giving him the option to make things easier for himself with items from the shop. It annoys Shen Yuan more now than it did back then, and he dismisses the System with a sharp command.

–

Almost a year after he joined Huan Hua, in the autumn, the Immortal Alliance Conference occurs.

It is being hosted by Zhao Hua Monastery this time, a fact that the chosen disciples lament. The accommodations will probably suck, there’ll be no interesting monsters, what if they have to eat vegetarian…

Despite this, there is undeniably excitement as well. The chosen disciples boast about going, masters chatter in the halls, Master Li even takes the plant class on a fieldtrip to Bai Lu Forest to identify the herbs the alchemists will be using to prepare supplies for the participants.

Not gather–-identify. Huan Hua Palace has several gardens and contractors to source their herbs from. Shen Yuan is sort of bummed, but also touching the wrong plant in this world can have terrible, sex-related consequences, so he’s not too bummed that they’re limited to just noting down every species they can identify.

Shen Yuan remembers that Bai Lu Forest was hardly mentioned in PIDW, only as the location for the sun moon dew mushrooms, but as a resident of the world, and one who has voraciously consumed plant encyclopedias and bestiaries, he knows the forest is far more alive than PIDW ever suggested it was.

That’s why he doesn’t immediately scream when the ugliest fucking thing he’s ever seen slithers through the undergrowth ahead of time.

He does freeze and say, “What the fuck,” on pure instinct, which draws Chen Ting’s attention.

“Is something wrong?” she asks, looking up from the paper they’ve been writing their notes on. The most recent addition to their herbs list is the black henbane they’ve stopped next to.

“I just…” he trails off. If he tells her about the thing, she’ll want to tell Master Li, and then he might call the field trip short. Or maybe he’ll inform them it’s a harmless species and send them back, and then they’ll have wasted time they could’ve spent finding more plants.

It’s not a competition, Master Li had sternly said before setting them loose. Master Li had clearly spent too long as an adult, as everyone in the class had exchanged looks that meant whoever found the most plants would get bragging rights for the rest of the class, before scrambling into the forest with the fervent teenage desire to prove oneself as the top dog.

Unbeknownst to them all, Li Xuelong had sighed long sufferingly, pulled out a tea table and tea set from his qiankun pouch, and settled down for a long wait. He was certain none of them would be coming back on time.

Anyway, basically, Shen Yuan and Chen Ting need to crush the competition and prove their superiority over everyone, but mostly those who still doubt their botany prowess even after their amazing report on their very well-tended quicksilver blossom.

“I saw a giant bug over there,” he decides, gesturing in the direction the ugly thing had been.

Chen Ting recoils. “Ew. Let’s go somewhere else.”

Shen Yuan checks the map each group has been given. “But if we keep going that way, we might be able to find the cave with the sun moon dew mushrooms.”

Chen Ting gives him a tired, yet for some reason warm look. “Shen-shidi, those are a myth. Don’t you think if they grew in this forest, Huan Hua would have found them already?”

“Well,” Shen Yuan starts, then stops. Because she has a point. In fact, he remembers leaving an angry comment about just that when that chapter came out.

After a moment, Chen Ting sighs. “Alright, we can continue on. But you must tell me if any,” she shudders, “ Bugs get near me.”

“Yes, Chen-shijie!”

While searching for more herbs, he also keeps an eye out for the weird, lumpy, snake-man fleshy thing he’d seen, but there’s no sign of it. He forgets about it when they return to Master Li and the rest of the class, because a couple of the groups have herbs listed that Shen Yuan is certain do not grow in the area, prompting a classwide argument/discussion on the validity of everyone’s lists.

Master Li loudly reminds them that it was not a competition, and also points out that all of them were late and came back at different times, so even if it was a competition none of them would be valid to win.

The class obediently and quietly follows Master Li back to the Palace. This gives Shen Yuan time to remember the ugly creature he’d seen. When class is dismissed, he hangs back to ask Master Li about it.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing in the region,” Master Li says contemplatively. “I would suspect it to be demonic, however you said it did not act aggressively?”

“No, sir, it simply went by.”

“Then it is most likely not a demon, and only an unfortunate looking beast. I will inform the patrols in that area to be on alert for it.”

And that’s that.

–

Not long after the Immortal Alliance Conference (which was won by a Cang Qiong disciple from Bai Zhan, much to the collective Palace’s dismay), it is Shen Yuan’s thirteenth birthday.

Under pressure by the System, aka an optional quest that lines up with his mother’s interests, he invites people other than the Qin sisters to the Shen household to celebrate.

Chen Ting is a given, but Shen Yuan is surprised when Wu Hao happily accepts his invitation. The older boy is only in his plants class, and they have not spoken much outside of it. Honestly, he’s pretty sure Wu Hao is only coming because Chen Ting is, but he’ll take it.

Each additional person invited is 5 C-Points, so he comes away from it with 10 more C-Points to add to his slowly growing wallet.

His mothers are inordinately delighted by his two new "friends". Not the word Shen Yuan would use for them, but okay! It makes them happy, and Chen Ting smiles when they say so, and Wu Hao doesn’t seem uncomfortable with it, so he doesn’t protest.

Qin Wanyue hits it off with Chen Ting, and to Shen Yuan’s surprise Wu Hao, Shen Pingyang, and Shen Xijun end up in a pretty deep discussion about Tao Te Ching.

Qin Wanrong and Shen Yuan end up in his garden. The gardeners have been taking care of it, evidenced by how his dusk goldwood sapling needed repotting to a larger pot and how his rainy folded ear mushrooms have expanded onto a second log.

He still wishes he could be the one taking care of them, though.

“Wow,” Qin Wanrong says, admiring the dusk goldwood’s auburn leaves. “This is the tree that glows at sunset, right?”

“Only if it is healthy, and when it is around ten years old.” Shen Yuan is excited for the day to come. There’s at least another seven years until then, at which point Luo Binghe will no doubt be enacting his takeover of the jianghu. That will be even more exciting than his dusk goldwood beginning to glow.

“A whole forest of them must be beautiful,” Qin Wanrong says wistfully. “Shen-ge, you should take Wanyue-jie and I to one!”

“You think I know where one is?” Shen Yuan asks, and Qin Wanrong raises her eyebrow at him in a wonderful imitation of her sister. He laughs. “Okay, yes, I do know. But wouldn’t it be Qin-jie taking us? She’ll be getting her sword before us.”

“Oh, good point! She can fly us and you can direct us.”

There is a brief, but comfortable, lull in the conversation. Shen Yuan is inspecting his giant thorny aster bush when Qin Wanrong asks something entirely unexpected.

“Did you ever hang out with Zhu Ruwen?”

Shen Yuan blinks at her. She looks back with a furrow between her brows.

“Ah, no,” he responds, somewhat awkwardly. He’d asked his mama to ask the senior Zhu about it, but apparently he had refused. Thus, Shen Yuan had never encountered Zhu Ruwen again after that party, and he'd let the boy fade to the back of his mind.

“Good,” Qin Wanrong says with such fierceness that Shen Yuan is taken aback. He doesn’t even get the chance to ask about it, because she launches into a rant. “He’s so annoying and weird! His father asked our father about marriage again, and when the Zhus came over to discuss it he kept staring at jiejie and I. He even asked about you!”

Absolutely bewildered, in the tone of someone who had been hit over the head, Shen Yuan asks, “Me?”

“Yes! He’s met you once, and then he asks after you?” Qin Wanrong stomps her foot. “He’s not allowed to try and make nice to jiejie through you!”

Shen Yuan is shocked that Qin Wanrong deduced that. Then he feels ashamed for feeling shocked. PIDW may have depicted Qin Wanrong as an airheaded, oblivious girl, but he’s known that she’s more than that for years. Although she may not pick up on some things, and can be pushy about getting her way, she’s startlingly attuned to things that have to do with her sister.

Qin Wanyue, always keen and sharp minded, is the same toward Qin Wanrong. Shen Yuan finds their sibling comradery heartwarming, and also heart-aching. It makes him think of his past family, the brothers and sister he left behind.

“I actually wanted to ask about that,” Shen Yuan says. The topic has haunted him the past year, and this is the perfect opportunity. “Are your parents truly pushing Qin-jie to decide on a fiance already?”

Qin Wanrong huffs. “Of course. They want her to pick by her Ji Li.”

By fifteen? She’s turning fourteen soon! She has to pick who she’ll be tied to for life in the next year?

A previous fiance-slash-spouse was never mentioned in PIDW. Shen Yuan can only assume whoever the man was died or something, or was otherwise removed from the equation so Luo Binghe could marry her, so logically he shouldn’t worry about it. Sorry, mystery man, but you’re not going to be around in ten years!

Yet logic does not overcome the horror churning his gut.

“It’s not that bad,” Qin Wanrong says quickly. “Jiejie’s been thinking about it since she was ten! And several families have put offers forward. She has choices.”

“But it’s not really a choice!” How did Shen Yuan not know this? Qin Wanyue’s been having to consider marriage since she was ten? Since before Shen Yuan knew her? “Why didn’t you or her tell me sooner?”

Qin Wanrong looks both nervous and annoyed, now. “Jiejie didn’t want me to tell you. It’s not your business!”

“It is! You’re my friends!”

“Which is why I’m telling you now!” Qin Wanrong crosses her arms, face pinched. “I thought I could tell you, but now I wish I hadn’t! You’re being weird about it, just like jiejie said you would be.”

Admittedly, it hurts. Shen Yuan knows everyone is entitled to their secrets, he has his fair share of them, yet for some reason he feels shaky. Emotional. Like he wants to yell more and get his hurt across.

“Am I not allowed to be upset for her? For my friends? If you don’t think I should be, then are we even—”

It is at that point that Shen Yuan stops, shocked and appalled with himself. Because why would he say that? The phrase are we even friends had come out of nowhere. He hadn’t even thought the words before they were already coming out of his mouth.

Qin Wanrong is staring at him, eyes wide and shiny, and Shen Yuan drops the tension out of his body. “Fuck. I’m sorry, Qin-mei. I didn’t mean to say that.”

“You’re not supposed to say that word,” Qin Wanrong says automatically.

There’s an agonizing stretch of silence, the polar opposite of the quiet that had existed between them before.

At last, she quietly says, “Okay. Let’s go back inside.”

–

It’s a paltry offering, but for the Qin sisters’ birthdays Shen Yuan dries, presses, and frames the most striking leaves he can find from his gold duskwood sapling, along with a giant thorny aster flower. He includes a copied passage from a book on where the nearest gold duskwood forest is, and notes down next to it, let’s go here later!

He’s not happy over combining both of their birthday presents into one thing, but both of them had said they didn’t want any gifts this year. And since he’s spent less time around them due to classes and their new friends, he’s not confident in his ability to guess what each of them would want.

Hence the combined gift. They thank him for it anyway, and when Shen Yuan apologizes for it Qin Wanyue waves him off, saying it’s fine since they got him a joint present for his birthday.

It does not make him feel much better, considering their joint present this year was a silk folding fan more fit to be wielded by an aloof scholar than a nerdy thirteen year old whose idea of a good time is birdwatching.

But they seem happy with his gift, and they all agree that once Qin Wanyue has her sword they’ll seek permission for a trip to the forest.

–

Shen Yuan and the other Huan Hua first years, now second years, have their schedules changed. Some people have new classes and have to retake old ones. Some have done well enough in all their classes to move to the next level.

It’s all very exciting, especially the new cultivation classes, which are more interesting. Not as interesting as his new biology class, though. Instead of two, he now has one that meets for longer and is more discussion and project based.

Also, now that he’s fully settled into life as a Huan Hua Palace background character, he starts taking on more quests from the System. He discovers several servant hallways and their entrances/exits, reaps the rewards of attending all of his classes the past year, and independently researches and presents a paper to Master Li on possible new uses for sky scorched moths.

To be clear, he’d already had several similar research papers that he’d done in his free time, but the System had specifically asked for one on sky scorched moths, and for him to present it to Li Xuelong. Insects weren’t as interesting to him as beasts, but it was fun to get out of his comfort zone.

Master Li sits through the presentation with an entirely straight face, until the conclusion. At which point he says mildly that Shen Yuan seems very familiar with researching and essay writing. He also praises Shen Yuan (“good work”), which has Shen Yuan preening with pride.

Maybe he should polish up his other papers and present them!

Anyway, his extraneous quests bring his C-Point total to a cool 120. He’s still not sure if that’s a lot or not, but better to have more than none, right? The System agrees.

The most exciting part of the new academic year, however, is his new physical training class. Having passed that, he is now taking the basics of martial arts, the class the Qin sisters had started in. And the latest hot gossip in the Palace, gossip that he has confirmed by being in the class, is that the instructor has a new assistant. An assistant who, after getting third place in the Immortal Alliance Conference, is being considered for head discipleship.

Gongyi Xiao is as picturesque as Shen Yuan remembers. The first time Shen Yuan entered the courtyard for his class and saw him, he’d frozen like a deer in headlights. It took the System playing the Windows error sound to snap him back.

Horrifyingly enough, Gongyi Xiao had made eye contact with Shen Yuan, smiled, and walked over. Acutely aware that he was beginning to sweat, Shen Yuan began calculating the pros and cons of just booking it.

“Hello shidi,” Gongyi Xiao greeted before he could commit to sprinting away. “This one is glad to see you passed the entrance exam.”

“You remember me,” Shen Yuan said numbly.

“I do. You are Shen Yuan, correct?”

Holy shit. Shen Yuan nodded, struck dumb. How the hell did Gongyi Xiao remember his name? Shen Yuan can barely remember what he had for breakfast a week ago.

“Shen-shidi, then.”

“Gongyi-shixiong?” Shen Yuan tried, weakly.

Gongyi Xiao’s smile warmed. “En. Do not hesitate to ask for my assistance if you require it. I am here to help.”

Caught firmly between flight and freeze, Shen Yuan continued his imitation of a prey animal by squeaking, “Okay.”

Gongyi Xiao nodded and stode away, collected, posture perfect, the exact image of a handsome young master. Handsome? Well, of course he is, he’s meant to have some resemblance to Luo Binghe’s mother, and they can’t have the readers thinking either of Luo Binghe’s parents are bad looking!

[ User’s thought patterns are fascinating… ]

First of all, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Second of all, I’m going to take that as a compliment.

Although the first few lessons were a nightmare of Shen Yuan being sweaty and struggling with swordforms and knowing Gongyi Xiao is witnessing his failures, he starts to get over it. This is in no small part due to Gongyi Xiao’s encouragement.

“There is no shame in struggling to learn a new skill,” their shixiong always says to frustrated disciples. “You are here to learn. Do not fear a long road; only fear a lack of aspiration to see it through.”

“He’s the perfect man,” Mei-shijie sighs. Everyone at their table titters. Shen Yuan pretends to be air by Qin Wanyue’s side. “So kind and encouraging. Educated and skilled at the sword.”

“Which sword,” someone snickers, and some laugh, some hiss at them for being disrespectful. Shen Yuan wonders what is disrespectful about that. Being skilled with different types of blades is impressive.

[ … ]

Partway through his second year at Huan Hua, he meets the Old Palace Master for the first time.

He’d seen the old man before, of course, but always at a distance. Lao Gongzhu had been in seclusion when Shen Yuan’s year entered, and now that he has come out it seems he is making up for it. He stops by every class, including Shen Yuan and the Qin sister’s talismans class (now a separate class from their arrays class).

He takes the time during the class to greet each disciple, and either praise or give advice on their practice talismans. Shen Yuan is quietly awed when it is his turn; cultivators are immortal, so to live long enough to show one’s age is a feat of great power. Lao Gongzhu is living up to his reputation as the grandfatherly mentor figure he'd been in PIDW.

Unfortunately, with Lao Gongzhu’s return, the masters and staff are more stern. This, and the other aspect of being a second year, are the worst parts of the new academic year.

The other aspect being the tests.

–

General disciples, as in those who simply want the prestige of studying at Huan Hua, graduate when they’ve completed the full series of classes for whatever subject they are here for. From there, they seek high status employment, or go take the Imperial Exams.

There is a sort of divide between them and the cultivation disciples. The general disciples respect the cultivation disciples, but scoff at their inability to recite passages from the Four Books and Five Classics from memory. The cultivation disciples flaunt the fact that they will be immortal before the general disciples, but consistently do worse than the general disciples in the non-cultivation-specific classes.

The one thing both types of disciples are united in, however, is exam season. Misery loves company, and every two or three months most of the disciples are plunged into the depths of it.

Unlike school back in Shanghai, the only scheduled breaks are the holidays. Disciples are otherwise expected to learn and study all year round. Despite this, there are still exam seasons, where every master in Huan Hua decides their students have learned enough to be tested and for some godforsaken reason they all decide this in the same two week period.

Shen Yuan and the other people in his year did not have to truly suffer through this last year, as being first-years meant most of their classes were basic enough that the tests were not that hard. Some in more advanced classes, like him in his biology classes, did have to study for those class’ tests, but since their other classes were easy-ish they had the time to dedicate to it.

As a second year disciple, however, all of his classes have content that is harder to digest and understand. Not that much harder, but the combination of all of them happening at once makes it feel a lot more difficult than it probably actually is.

Shen Yuan spends all of his free time in the Liu Zhao library, perfectly positioned to receive commiserating head kisses and snacks from his mom. This is great, as is the fact that the Liu Zhao library is the most peaceful library in Huan Hua. Most of the visitors are general disciples, who know how to shut up, hunker down, and study like nine generations of ancestors are breathing down their necks. Zither and lute lessons are held in closed rooms of the library, muffled enough to be nice background music.

Qin Wanyue joins him often, as they are in the same general class, and Shen Xijun is happy to dote on her as well. Sometimes Shen Yuan arrives later and catches them talking, or sometimes he leaves earlier and Qin Wanyue stays behind to talk to his mom.

He’s not jealous of the time they spend together, but he does mope about it to his mama when he makes his weekly visit home. Shen Pingyang pats his back and assures him that they are talking about “woman stuff.”

He really considers asking Qin Wanyue about it, but every time he considers it he gets flashbacks to his thirteenth birthday. And the one time he asks his mom about it, Shen Xijun gently tells him that it's private business. So he reluctantly drops it and tries not to think about it.

Besides that, Shen Yuan recasts himself in the role of Qin Wanrong’s tutor, as she’s unable to focus in the library or any other “sit down and memorize” environment. To his surprise, however, season two of his tutoring series includes an expanded cast, and he finds himself on walks and gardening trips with not just Qin Wanrong but several other disciples.

It reminds him of when he snuck into Huan Hua when he was little and overcharged the disciples his age for tutoring, except this time he’s not even getting paid.

Speaking of that, Shen Yuan has actually recognized a couple of those disciples who once threw money at him without a care. Only in passing, and they don’t seem to recognize him, but he is unsurprised to learn they all come from rich families.

He knows this because of his rare sit-ins at Mei-shijie and co.'s table. He must not have done a good a job at being a wall flower as he thought he was, though, because post spring exam season, he is invited to a party Mei-shijie and some other older disciples are throwing.

“Do I have to wear fancy robes?” Shen Yuan asks with dread. The only thing he has are the formal robes his mothers bought for the Qin’s acceptance party, and he’s definitely outgrown them.

“No, you don’t have to,” Qin Wanyue reassures him. She thoughtfully adds, “Actually, it might be better if you wear something you don’t mind getting dirty.”

That bodes well.

The party is held in somebody’s private dorm room, which itself is over twice as big as Shen Yuan’s shared one. Whoever owns it must be rich, but he doesn’t have time to figure out who it belongs to as he fights for his life trying to seem like a normal thirteen year old while also not coming off as shy/pathetic enough for the older teens to smell blood in the water.

Once again, he is employing the skills he learned at the rich-people parties he’d attended in his past life. Except this time there’s only teenagers and young adults in the increasingly-stuffy room, which is honestly worse.

It only gets worse when Gongyi Xiao joins. Not because of him, the young man seemed somewhat nervous and out of place, but because of who dragged him in.

This marks the first time Shen Yuan has ever laid eyes on Hou Lianhua, aka the Little Palace Mistress. He immediately knows who she is because several people in his vicinity curse, groan, or otherwise utter her name in the sort of tone usually reserved for acidic, hostile monsters.

It is a first impression he will never forget, as only twenty minutes after joining the party she gets into a screaming argument with Lan-shixiong that ends with her challenging and subsequently beating him in a duel. The thing is, she uses her whip in the duel, and the unintentional property (and person) damage is significant.

Not long after, the party is busted by hallmasters, and everyone scatters like that scene in Ratatoille. Shen Yuan ends up leading the Qins and some of their friends through a series of rarely-used courtyards and passages, laughing at their incredulity the whole time.

“Shen-shidi, how in the world do you know the palace so well?” One of them asks once they’re far enough away that they can sneak back to their respective dorms without trouble.

Shen Yuan grins, unaware of how mischievous he looks in the lanternlight with his tousled hair and glimmering eyes. “Why wouldn’t I?”

What he means is, why wouldn’t I familiarize myself with the place I’ve lived in and am going to keep living in for the foreseeable future? A very rational line of thought.

That is not quite the message the others take away.

By the next day, the rumor mill that is Huan Hua’s disciple population is abuzz with what happened at the party last night. And underneath all of the far more exciting gossip is a passing line of judgement, something that Shen Yuan won’t hear of for years.

That Shen Yuan is a bit of a troublemaker, isn’t he?

Chapter Text

Ding!

[ System alert! Required plot point, Luo Binghe must fight during the demon invasion of Cang Qiong sect , has been completed. ]

The notification comes on a random afternoon, and distracts Shen Yuan enough that he stops talking mid-sentence.

“Disciple Shen?” Li Xuelong prompts after a moment.

Shen Yuan blinks, shakes his head, and says, “Apologies, Master Li. As I was saying, I believe the red horned water-walking salamander may share some similarities with dragons. The salamanders have been severely overlooked in the reptilian bestiaries and alchemical texts I have read…”

His presentation concludes after about thirty minutes, and after spending another thirty minutes discussing further avenues of research and possible ways to test his theory with Master Li, he leaves Master Li’s office and heads straight to the Liu Zhao library.

He collapses at his table and pillows his head in his arms. System? The fight just happened?

[ Luo Binghe’s participation in the duels during the demon invasion occurred roughly an hour ago. The demon invasion itself has been concluded. ]

It’s an unwelcome reminder of the fact that Shen Yuan is truly living in a story world. It’s real, no doubt about it, and alive in ways that make it impossible for him to dismiss people as just characters. But there are still plot points to be hit, story arcs to be fulfilled, and roles to be played.

Luo Binghe is the protagonist and is suffering on that terrible peak right now. Shen Yuan remembers how distraught he’d been finishing that chapter; Luo Binghe had beaten the odds, defeated a demon, and proved himself. And yet that stupid Shen Qingqiu had continued to scorn him, the bullying hadn’t stopped, and Luo Binghe continued to be hurt every day.

And here Shen Yuan is, with the leisure to research and write papers on whatever random beast last caught his attention. He’s got a comfortable bed, warm food for every meal, and friends, while Luo Binghe sleeps in a woodshed, has to sneak scraps of food, and is hated by everyone except Ning Yingying. Shen Yuan freely attends his classes and even has the time to keep painting with his mom and play guqin with his tutor. Luo Binghe barely has the time to attend classes, much less have free time when arduous chores are unfairly piled on him.

What is Shen Yuan doing? He should be trying to help Luo Binghe, not just because he’s his favorite character but because that’s what a decent person would do. Who just sits back and does nothing when they know someone is getting hurt?

“Yuan-er?” His mom’s voice is usually a soothing sound, but right now it just makes Shen Yuan think of the washerwoman who was, for all intents and purposes, Luo Binghe’s mother. Luo Binghe didn’t even get to say goodbye to her properly. The jade pendant she gifted him is gone.

“Mom,” he croaks into the table. “Am I a bad person?”

He hears the chair next to him pull out, and feels Shen Xijun brush against him as she sits down. Her fingers gently stroke through his hair. “Yuan-er, where did this come from? You are the furthest thing from a bad person.”

“But I’m not a good person.”

“You are.”

He shakes his head against his arms. When he doesn’t say anything else, Shen Xijun sighs, and she stops stroking his hair. A devastating move that makes his throat grow tight.

“Yuan-er, look at me?” Her pleading tone has him shifting so he can peek up at her. She smiles when they make eye contact. “There we go. Now, tell mom why her wonderful son is upset.”

He swallows and slowly says, “What if… what if someone knew someone else was suffering, and they didn’t do anything about it? Wouldn’t that make them a bad person?”

“It’s not as simple as that,” Shen Xijun immediately refutes. “Would helping the other person cause the first person harm? Is helping the other person beyond their means? Has the person getting hurt purposefully put themselves in that position to keep the first person from leaving them?”

“No, none of those. I mean…” Is it beyond his means? Cang Qiong Sect is far from Huan Hua Palace, and getting there would take a long, complicated series of steps. But that doesn’t mean it's impossible.

Shen Xijun resumes stroking his hair. “What are you thinking, Yuan-er?”

“Helping the other person would be hard,” Shen Yuan decides, “But it’s doable.”

“How hard?”

“It’d be expensive. And time consuming. And it’d take a lot of work. But I don’t think that matters if you stop the other person from hurting in the end.”

“Hm.” Shen Xijun is silent for a minute. Eventually, she says, “If the person who could help was, say, a young disciple, one who was very busy with their schoolwork and their own life, one who was not even considered an adult yet, I believe they should not be blamed for not helping.”

“I–”

“I was not done.” Shen Yuan snaps his mouth shut. Shen Xijun continues, “I understand teenagers believe they can do a lot, and they certainly can. However, in the situation you are describing, it sounds as if it would burden them greatly to help the other person. For a disciple who is already working hard to secure their own future, it would be unfair to expect them to take on another hefty weight. The best thing that person could do is tell a trusted adult and have them take care of it.”

Here, she levels an expectant look at Shen Yuan. He swallows.

System? Can I tell her?

[ This System will not prohibit User from informing others of information his transmigrator status affords him. However, User should very carefully consider the consequences of doing so. ]

Although he’d asked, Shen Yuan already knows what he’s going to tell his mom.

“Okay. I’ll… think about it.”

Because what is he supposed to say? Hey mom, I’ve actually died before and in my past life this whole world was a shitty stallion novel, aka a porn novel with a dogshit plot. The protagonist is having the worst time of his life right now, well actually the worst time of his life is going to be the Endless Abyss, oh yeah that’s going to happen at the next Conference, anyway, can you do something about that? Yeah, he’s being abused by the second highest ranking Peak Lord in Cang Qiong, you can totally fix that, right?

As if! Not only would Shen Yuan sound insane, if on the off chance Shen Xijun believed him, she’d definitely try to help. Which meant Shen Pingyang would try to help. Which meant his moms would be going up against the scummiest man this side of China, who has the unconditional backing of the most powerful man in probably the whole of China, Yue Qingyuan!

He absolutely could not put his mothers in that situation.

So he ignores Shen Xijun’s disappointed sigh, mutters something about getting some rest, and slinks back to his dorm room, not feeling any better.

In the middle of the night he bolts upright in bed. He’d been unable to sleep, turning the upcoming plot and his mom’s words over and over in his mind, stuck in a self-inflicted torment nexus until inspiration struck him like a cast iron pan over the head.

It had been mentioned several times in PIDW that of all the sects that attended the upcoming Immortal Alliance Conference, Huan Hua Palace had suffered the most casualties. Shen Yuan may not be able to help Luo Binghe yet, nor interfere with the major plot points, but couldn’t he help with this?

He scurries to the Junzi Library, avoiding patrolling hallmasters and servants by the skin of his teeth. Once inside, he uses a light talisman to illuminate the dark, looming bookshelves, casting flickering shadows around himself.

Creepy! This would be the perfect time for a horror movie monster to appear out of nowhere and gorily kill him.

But it turns out the only monster in the library is its organizing system. The Junzi Library is home to Huan Hua’s high level cultivation-related texts. Shen Yuan has only come here for texts in the alchemical and spiritual lifeforms sections, both of which were neatly organized.

Yet for some reason, the section he’s perusing now, Talismans & Arrays, is a complete mess. Sorting by last name character? Nope! Sorting by first name character? Try again! How about the number of strokes per character? What are you, an idiot? Grouping books in each section by their specific topic? Ha!

Pinyin doesn’t exist in this fuckass world, so Shen Yuan is really not sure what the hell the librarians here are thinking. The Liu Zhao library is so much nicer.

It takes him a full hour just to get through one line of bookshelves, and it doesn’t even have what he wants. The next little hall of shelves in the section takes the same amount of time, but at the very bottom of one of the shelves Shen Yuan finds something promising.

Unrolling the scroll and squinting at the criminally tiny characters by the light of his talisman, he slowly goes passage by passage until he’s finished the whole scroll. Then he reads it again for good measure.

“Perfect,” he whispers.

–

The next day, he tries to check out the scroll, but because he is only a second year, the librarian refuses him. That’s the thing about the Junzi Library; you have to be at least a Core Formation cultivator to access the texts. If you’re not, you need a master’s permission to check things out.

Every time he checked something out before, it was for his biology class and Master Li had written him a permission slip. He figures it shouldn’t be too hard to convince his arrays teacher to do something similar.

He is wrong. Before he can get more than a sentence into his rehearsed excuse for why he wants some old scroll containing protection arrays far above his skill level, his teacher is saying no, absolutely not, and shooing him away.

Great. Awesome. Guess he’ll have to sneak in again and copy down the instructions.

This plan fails almost immediately, as five minutes out of his dorm he is caught by a hallmaster. And of course his roommate Zhang Wei wakes up as Shen Yuan is being ushered through their dorm door by the hallmaster, so by dinnertime everyone knows that Shen Yuan tried to sneak out past curfew.

“I’m going to tell the Madam Shens,” Qin Wanrong teases in a singsong voice.

“You will not,” Shen Yuan snaps, and colors red as his voice cracks on the last word.

Qin Wanrong bursts into giggles. Qin Wanyue hides her amused smile behind her hand. Shen Yuan wishes for the sweet embrace of death.

Puberty, everyone! Shen Yuan no longer has to imagine gods or the universe laughing at him whenever something unfortunate happens, because now he’s always surrounded by teenagers who will do it for real and mercilessly.

“Why were you sneaking out, anyway?” Qin Wanyue asks.

Shen Yuan opens his mouth to tell the truth. He promptly closes it, turning even more red as he realizes there was genuinely no reason for him to sneak into the library when he could literally just ask someone else to check the scroll out for him.

“I’m so dumb,” he groans, covering his flaming face with his hands.

“What?” Qin Wanrong pokes him in the ribs. “What is it? What were you trying to do?”

He’s so embarrassed that he refuses to answer, but Qin Wanyue casually points out that if he doesn’t explain himself she’s going to think his red face and refusal to answer mean something else. It takes a long moment for it to click, and once it does Shen Yuan shrieks that he was just trying to sneak into the library, not do– do that!

They laugh at him some more. Shen Yuan wishes even harder for death to take him.

–

Chen Ting has finished her Foundation Establishment, and is close to Core Formation. The only thing holding her back is a breakthrough.

Shen Yuan knows this because she has complained about it twice in the past year to both him and Wu Hao. Each complaint occurred because a master she asked to chaperone her on a trip to a place with naturally abundant qi rejected her.

She has been trying to get past this bottleneck for almost a year and a half now. Which is not that long, all things considered. Forming a Golden Core can take a very long time. The longest it has taken a Huan Hua disciple to do so after foundation establishment is twenty years, which, oof. Imagine starting training as a teenager and then ending up immortalized as a thirty or forty year old.

The fastest it has taken a Huan Hua disciple post foundation establishment is an impressive two months. This feat, his instructor told them with a somber face, was accomplished by their late head disciple, Su Xiyan.

There was something familiar about that name. Shen Yuan had probably heard it around the Palace before. R.I.P. to a legend.

Back to the current subject, Chen Ting has only been trying for a year and a half, but it is not that which frustrates her. It is the fact that neither of the masters she asked agreed to help her out.

Shen Yuan had hoped it would work out, but, well. Leaving the Palace is not easy right now. News of the demon invasion on Cang Qiong has made all of the adults nervous, try as they might not to show it and claim that they would have never let demons so deep into their sect. Even before that, readjustment to Lao Gongzhu returning from seclusion made the masters more snappy and uptight than before.

Which means Shen Yuan is going to have to intervene for all of their sakes. Sorry, mama!

He swivels to Chen Ting after biology and says without preamble, “I know someone who can grant you leave and accompany you out of the Palace. But I want a favor.”

Chen Ting stops packing up her scroll, and turns to him with a gleam in her brown eyes. “Name it, Shen-shidi.”

“I want to accompany you. And after you have your breakthrough, I need you to check something out from the Junzi LIbrary for me.”

“Those are two favors.”

“No, the second thing is a favor. The first one is a condition.”

Chen Ting narrows her eyes, then smiles. “Alright. But first you must tell me why you are only just now making this offer.”

Shen Yuan holds up his hands placatingly. “I will, I will. Let’s walk and talk.”

–

As merrily as Shen Pingyang plays the role of a housewife, the truth is she is a housewife who can kick your ass.

This is because she is actually a Golden Core cultivator, one who studied at Tian Yi Overlook decades ago. She promptly left when she decided to marry Shen Xijun, as Tian Yi was strict about that sort of thing. She supported the two of them for a while as a wandering cultivator until Shen Xijun landed herself a spot as a Huan Hua librarian, and Shen Pingyang had to pledge her loyalty to the Palace for everything to work out.

That feeling of having come into a dogblood drama halfway through a season had hit Shen Yuan again when he learned this from his mothers. He had just wanted to know why his mama did not go on Night Hunts!

“I don’t think mama likes carrying out the duties of a cultivator,” Shen Yuan concludes as they reach his home. “After all the uncertainty of having to support herself and mom as a wandering cultivator, I think doing cultivator stuff stresses her out.”

Chen Ting, who has just received a full rundown of Shen Yuan’s mothers’ family situations so Shen Yuan could explain this, thus explaining why he hadn’t made this offer to Chen Ting before, looks a bit dazed.

“Wait,” she says belatedly as they walk through the courtyard. “If doing this will upset Shen-ayi, we do not have to.”

“Of course?” Shen Yuan says, mildly offended she would think he’d push his mama. Although he made the offer, he has no intention of following through if his mama appears uncomfortable. It just means he’ll have to try sneaking into the library again. Maybe he could figure out a notice-me-not talisman?

He knocks on the front door before entering, calling, “Mama, I’m here with Chen-shijie!”

“One minute!” Shen Pingyang’s voice comes slightly muffled. She emerges from her and Shen Xijun’s room, and after Shen Yuan and Chen Ting exchange their shoes for slippers she points them to the daybed.

“How are you two?” She asks as she ducks into the kitchen.

“Good,” Shen Yuan replies, then adds hastily. “Mama, you don’t need to make tea, we won't be here long.”

“I’ve been well, Shen-ayi.” Chen Ting’s knee bounces slightly, but the movement stops as Shen Pingyang comes back with a tea set. She glances at Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan gives her an encouraging smile—he’d told her that Shen Pingyang was more likely to agree if she asked, rather than if Shen Yuan asked for her.

“This disciple actually has a favor to ask of Shen-ayi,” she says, a bit quietly. When Shen Pingyang raises an eyebrow at her, she straightens her spine and continues with more confidence, “Would you be amenable to chaperoning this disciple and your son on a trip out of the sect?”

Shen Pingyang looks between them, then starts preparing the tea. Shen Yuan watches this happen with resignation. “What for?”

“This disciple is at a bottleneck in her cultivation. My Foundation is established, however despite my efforts in the past year and a half, I have been unable to form my Golden Core. I am hoping meditation in a naturally qi-rich area will change that.”

“Hm. Huan Hua’s courtyards are not working for you?”

“No, ayi.”

She nods. “Feng shui can only do so much when we are not in a place of abundance. Shen Yuan, why do you want to come?”

Shen Yuan earnestly replies, “I want to see the wildlife. There’s some species of plants and animals that only live in areas abundant in qi, like the three-hued lotus, or the luminescent indigo tree hopper, or, ooo, if we go to an open area maybe we’ll see sky scorched moths!”

Shen Pingyang begins to pour the tea, exchanging an amused look with Chen Ting as Shen Yuan begins listing off the closest qi-abundant places and the species endemic to them. Shen Yuan accepts his tea cup but does not drink. Chen Ting takes a sip and makes a face that is quickly smoothed over.

“Alright,” Shen Pingyang interjects when Shen Yuan pauses for breath. “I will have to discuss it with Xijun, and figure out who I need to inform, but I can do that.”

Chen Ting sets down her cup, any traces of disgust replaced by pure enthusiasm. “Truly? If it troubles you, you do not have to.”

“I do not say things I do not mean.”

“Thank you so much, Shen-ayi. I can bring the form you need to fill out tomorrow, and show you where to submit it.”

Shen Pingyang nods. Her resting-stoic-face is broken by a small smile, which makes Shen Yuan smile, too. She’d agreed! He thought she might’ve, since this wasn’t really “cultivator stuff”, it was just being a chaperone, but he’s glad to see how easily she did it.

Then she turns to him. “Yuan-er, drink your tea.”

Shen Yuan’s smile drops into a half grimace. He hides behind his teacup. Truly, never let it be said that he and his mama do not have anything in common. She may be great at cooking, but they are united in their truly poor tea making skills.

–

They leave a week later. Wu Hao was torn between wishing Chen Ting luck and glaring at Shen Yuan when they told him, while the Qin sisters only had well-wishes to give them. Shen Xijun kissed her wife on the lips, kissed Shen Yuan on his head, and told Chen Ting to be careful.

Chen Ting has her own sword to ride on, so Shen Yuan stands in front of his mama on her sword. They can’t talk with the wind rushing by them, but the time passes quickly anyway with the landscape soaring beneath them.

He’s flying! On a sword! For real!!

If only that shut-in fuerdai could see him now. If Shen Yuan had known that one day, he’d be reborn in his least favorite novel, but this was the life he got to live… wouldn’t he choose it again in a second?

The weirdly emotional thoughts come out of nowhere, and when Shen Yuan’s eyes start to sting he blames it completely on the wind. Ignore the fact that his mama’s qi is acting as a skin-tight barrier against it! His body thinks he should be tearing up from the wind, so he is! It’s psychology or something.

They only fly for an hour until Shen Pingyang makes a gesture. She and Chen Ting descend at the same time, and they land on a dirt path. Tower karsts stand tall in the distance, dark green forests capping light brown stone.

“Why’d we stop here?” Shen Yuan asks.

Shen Pingyang pulls a thick outer robe from her qiankun pouch and throws it around Shen Yuan. “Put that on.”

Chen Ting explains, “The top of the karsts are quite high and can get cold.”

Makes sense. Everyone puts on an extra layer, and then they’re back in the sky.

It does get colder the higher they go, even with Shen Yuan circulating his qi. They stop on the first karst they reach, but they don’t stay long, as after five minutes of sitting in lotus position on a rock Chen Ting shakes her head. Then they’re back to it.

They try a couple of higher karsts, and a few lower ones, but the longest Chen Ting sits on one is an hour. During that hour, Shen Yuan peers over the edge of the karst while his mama holds the back of his robes, and when he gets bored of giving his mama a mini heart attack he explores the small space atop the karst.

They’re in the right area for twin-tailed leaf monkeys and foggy moonlight leopards, but the only interesting wildlife Shen Yuan spots is an earthly dancing goat-deer. It lets loose a single angelic note upon spotting him and twirls away. It pirouettes (how??) off the cliff side, and when Shen Yuan rushes over to look he can’t see it anymore.

…It’s probably fine.

After an hour, Chen Ting stands up with furrowed brows. “Apologies, Shen-ayi, but I am struggling to connect with the qi flow here.”

Shen Pingyang shrugs, already throwing down her sword and stepping back on it. “That’s fine. We’ll go to the river cave next.”

Shen Yuan goes to pat Chen Ting on the shoulder before remembering one, formalities between girls and boys, and two, she is in fact older than him as he is now. He aborts the motion and acts like he’s brushing a leaf off her shoulder.

“This is why we picked multiple spots,” he says in his best reassuring voice.

“I suppose,” she sighs, and they mount their respective swords and take off.

–

The river cave is further north, and by the time they get there it is past noon. They take a break to eat the lunch Shen Pingyang packed before heading into the cave.

The entrance is a narrow fit, requiring them to go single-file into the crack in the hillside. Shen Pingyang pastes a light talisman onto all of them before they go in. Shen Yuan is safely sandwiched between his mama, who is at the front, and Chen Ting, who brings up the rear.

The path gently slopes downward for a while until they reach a sheer drop. Shen Pingyang jumps down first and summarily catches each disciple when they jump down. It is here the cave opens up, yawning wide into a darkness their light talismans can’t illuminate.

“Chen Ting?” Shen Pingyang prompts.

Chen Ting jumps slightly. “O-oh, right.” Shen Yuan feels a pulse of energy run from beneath her feet and through the stone, and a moment later, soft orange glows begin to appear in the dark, growing brighter as Chen Ting circulates her own qi with the natural qi of the cave.

Like the cave itself is breathing, the air begins to move around them, thick with a buzzing density of qi. Shen Yuan unconsciously shuffles closer to his mama as the darkness becomes lighter, revealing a wide, descending cavern studded with stalactites and stalagmites. The glows come from a golden lichen growing thickly on the rock, interspersed by tree roots and other species of lithophytes.

“Hear that?” Shen Pingyang asks.

Shen Yuan listens, and shakes his head. Chen Ting responds after a moment, “Yes. Is that water?”

“En. Come.” Shen Pingyang makes her way further into the cavern, and they follow.

Shen Yuan hears the gentle trickle of running water not long after. They come upon a crack in the cave floor, through which runs a shallow stream. Tiny fish dart below the surface, scales a pitch black. Abyssal minnows!

Chen Ting steps over the stream and jumps onto a relatively flat ridge sloping out of the wall. She sits on the cushion of moss there, taking up the lotus position, and closes her eyes. Shen Yuan feels the air move again, gentle but powerful.

Shen Pingyang asks. “Disciple Chen, is this your choice?”

“Mm. I feel…” Chen Ting trails off for a long moment, before eventually saying, “Good.”

“There is a lot of qi here,” Shen Yuan says, a bit nervously. It’s like Chen Ting circulating qi with the cave has awoken it, and he has this uneasy feeling of standing in a beast’s maw. Nothing like this happened at the karsts.

“Not many choose to cultivate here. Huan Hua and their sensibilities.” Shen Pingyang rolls her eyes. “The closed space means the qi is particularly dense.”

“This is so much better than the courtyards,” Chen Ting sighs. “Shen-ayi, may I start now?”

Shen Yuan is surprised at how quickly she’s made her decision. He thought she’d connect with the spiritual springs they would’ve gone to next, not this cave.

“You may. Shen Yuan and I will be in the closest town. It is northwards from here. Come along, Yuan-er.” Shen Pingyang marches back the way they came, calling over her shoulder, “Good luck, Chen Ting.”

“You got this shijie!” Shen Yuan adds, and jogs after his mama.

Leaving the cave is harder than coming in, but once they’re out he feels considerably lighter. He can’t stop the sigh of relief that leaves him, and Shen Pingyang glances at him.

“You don’t like it,” she surmises. He shakes his head and her lips quirk up. “Let’s go to the springs.”

“I thought we were going to town,” Shen Yuan says, but he steps onto her sword anyway as she prepares to take off.

“We will. But we can sightsee first.”

Who is Shen Yuan to deny the opportunity to explore the world some more? He enthusiastically agrees.

Thus begins their mini roadtrip. They start with the spiritual springs. The springs are nice, but there’s some Huan Hua cultivators cultivating in this area already, and Shen Yuan feels kinda awkward meditating around them.

But while they’re there Shen Pingyang instructs him on how to truly connect with nature, and although she’s not a great teacher he does get the gist of it. It’s harder to circulate with the untamed qi of natural locations than the orderly qi of Huan Hua’s feng shui courtyards, yet he feels more refreshed in a shorter amount of time.

After spending a night in an inn, he and his mama go to a grotto in a rainforest. It’s a beautiful place with crystalline blue-green water, and Shen Yuan immediately gets distracted by a school of iridescent rainbow fish. Shen Pingyang casually mentions the time she and Shen Xijun took a vacation here and nearly got arrested. She then refuses to elaborate.

Finally, they head to a forested valley. There’s a subrealm that opens at its deepest point once a month, and it is often visited by cultivators for the spiritual herbs that grow within it. Besides the helpful herbs, inside are hypnotic flowers and toxic butterflies that pollinate them. It is just as cool and dangerous as Shen Yuan could have hoped.

At last, they circle back to the town they told Chen Ting they would be in. They buy an inn room on the sect’s coin, and Shen Pingyang spends her days writing to Shen Xijun, taking walks, and generally having a good time. Shen Yuan writes to his friends, too, but mostly he’s miserably doing his homework while wishing he was out in the woods.

Although Shen Pingyang and Chen Ting have permission to be out of the sect for two months, Shen Yuan was only allowed two weeks of leave. This means it’ll almost be his birthday when he gets back. It also means all of his masters gave him homework to complete while he’s gone.

The only work he enjoys doing is the away essay Master Li assigned him, which is to write about three organisms from the locations they visited. He’s already gone over the character limit by twofold.

Other than that, however, the work is extremely boring. Shen Yuan hadn’t realized how much his friends’ presence impacted the tolerability of the work. When he’s puzzling over talisman sigils with Qin Wanrong or debating the meaning of poetry with Qin Wanyue, the time goes by easily. Now, it feels like each assignment takes a million years. It doesn’t help that he procrastinates terribly.

Close to the end of the two weeks, the drudgery is interrupted by a System notification. It’s not just a textbox; this time, the words are also read aloud in his brain in a Google translate-like voice.

[ Alert: Power reserves low. Please establish contact with Power Source to continue services. ]

Another textbox quickly appears, this one silent like normal. [ Uh oh. ]

Shen Yuan lowers his hands from his ears, thoroughly unnerved. System? What was that?

[ User, do not be alarmed, but that is not supposed to happen. ]

Funnily enough, this alarms him even more.

[ This System will run its debugging program. Please wait. ]

How long is that going to take–?

[ Debugging complete. Error located. Compiling report to Power Distribution Center. Sending report. Awaiting response. Response received.

Time until repair: approximately 120 hours.

Probability of extinguishing power reserves before repair: 5%.

Value Judgement: Bad. Locating temporary solution… ]

The lines fill the textbox rapidly. It’s the most like a computer terminal that Shen Yuan has ever seen the System act, and before he can even figure out what to say the System is already moving on.

[ Temporary solution found.

~override Limit:Tyrants&Ants :

~override Key: EmergencyProtocol90534.

Mainframe notified of override. Override proceeding.

100 C-Points deducted from User account. Significant Scenario Pusher Purchased . Significant Scenario Pusher activated.

Now entering low power mode. This System will be unavailable until the issue is resolved. Our most sincere apologies, User! ; (◞‸◟) ]

He barely finishes reading this textbox before it abruptly disappears. His jaw drops.

“MY POINTS?? SYSTEM?! Hey, System! Come back! When did you get bold enough to steal my shit, huh?! SYSTEM!”

–

Nothing happens after that, though he keeps expecting something to appear from thin air. Every time he prompts the System he gets an automated message on how the System is in low power mode and cannot respond to inquiries at the moment.

He didn’t even get to know what went wrong with the System! It’d been uncharacteristically brusque at the end there, even daring to steal his precious C-Points that he didn’t even know the value of yet, but maybe that was just the debugging program. Whatever the case, the incident has him on edge for a couple of days.

But there’s literally nothing he can do about it, so he finishes his schoolwork the day before he’s set to return. This, at least, brings his mood up. He explores the town thoroughly, buying some souvenirs for his friends and sampling fresh street food.

He’s not wearing Huan Hua’s uniform, but his robes are still of nice make, and he has the sect’s charm hanging from his belt beside the fan the Qin sisters gifted him. This means he has several people asking him if he’s a disciple, and telling him about weird things that’ve happened nearby.

“My mama has been around town, didn’t you ask her for help?” he asks at one point.

“Is your mother also a cultivator?” the person he’s talking to asks.

“Yes. About a head taller than me, with black hair in an ivory hairpin, wears robes in dark blues?”

The person he’s talking to pales. “Oh. She’s your mother?”

“En.”

“Ahaha, how wonderful. I have to go now, but it was nice speaking to you!”

“Wait, what about the forest you…” Shen Yuan trails off. The person has already hurried away. Damn it! He wanted to hear more about the monster in the woods!

Indeed, all of the people who’d approached him had something to say about the supposed monster in the woods northward of their town. Judging from what he’d heard so far, it sounded like it wasn’t a singular monster, but a pack of thunderstruck wolves.

Which is a stupid ass name considering thunder is the sound, so it’d make more sense if they were called lighting -struck wolves, but whatever. The species is pretty harmless unless aggravated, in which case their howls can summon a thunderstorm.

Basically, they are super cool, and Shen Yuan has to see one.

The next day, he informs his mama he’s going wolf hunting. She waves him off with a casual, “Don’t get any limbs chewed off,” which is honestly a bit confusing. Why is she more chill about this than when he’d been buying plants as a ten year old? Her priorities are so weird.

The woods are a mixed forest, blanketing the foothills by the town in a pleasant green. Shen Yuan, already mentally composing his next essay for Master Li, uses everything he’s learned about tracking animals to narrow down where the wolves could be.

He’s just about figured out where the wolves are when he hears distant shouting. Huh. He thought everyone was staying away from the forest? He follows the sound to a clearing deeper in the forest, and stops in his tracks at what he sees.

What the fuck? Hello?

The scene is so genuinely unexpected that Shen Yuan rubs his eyes. Blinks hard. Nothing changes. He checks himself for poison and finds nothing.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” he breathes.

Because what are the chances that he’d run into the protagonist here? In some random forest by some random town? By pure coincidence? They have to be next to zero.

But the fluffy dark brown curls, green and white uniform, and fair face say Luo Binghe? Appearing during your vacation? It’s more likely than you’d think.

The teenager is on the ground, picking himself up slowly as other boys in the same uniform jeer at him. A ripped up talisman lies crumpled in the mud nearby. Shen Yuan squints at it. Is that a tracking talisman?

One of the bullies sneers at possibly-Luo-Binghe, “Everyone knows your cultivation is useless! What did you possibly think you could do?”

“You should consider yourself lucky we stopped you before you blew us all up,” another boy scoffs. He kicks the downed boy’s arm. “Say thank you.”

The downed boy’s lips thin, and then he says in a flatly polite voice, “This Luo-shidi is grateful to his shixiongs for their instruction.”

Holy shit. It actually is Luo Binghe.

Shen Yuan frantically searches his memory for any mention in PIDW of a Night Hunt involving thunderstruck wolves. There’s none he can remember; his knowledge of the wolves comes entirely from what he’s learned in this second life. But he does remember that after the demon invasion, Shen Qingqiu began to send Luo Binghe on Night Hunts in the hopes that the boy would be killed on one of them. Not all of these Hunts were described in the story.

This must be one of those undescribed Hunts.

One of the bullies bends down to grab Luo Binghe by the back of his robe, shaking him around roughly. “You don’t sound very grateful. Did your win against that demon give you a big head? Everyone knows that was just pure luck. In fact, I think you need a reminder of your place.”

Shen Yuan has heard enough.

He straightens his spine, strides into the clearing, and immediately snaps open his fan to hide his face as everyone’s attention jumps to him.

Scary! Everyone here is older than me! The teenager part of his brain wails. Get yourself together, you’re basically an adult and these are just some assholes, the rest of him argues. Just think of them as netizens. Imagine them as the people who used to say the stupidest shit in webnovel comments.

Despite having not read a webnovel in over ten years at this point, the thought fuels his sparking anger into a full fire with such swiftness that before he can even think about what to say, he’s already talking.

“It is truly amazing that you lot are walking and talking when your heads are completely empty. Though, I suppose your lack of brains explains the pure nonsense coming out of your mouth. I would think the illustrious Qing Jing Peak would be more selective with its disciples, but you must be charity cases. Perhaps your master finds it amusing to watch you bumble about like mindless apes.”

The clearing goes so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Even the natural sounds of the forest seem muted, as if the world itself is going, damn, you really went and said that?

“ What did you just say?” One of the bullies snarls.

“You didn’t understand? Wow. Alright, let me make it simple for you.” Shen Yuan makes direct eye contact. “You’re a fucking moron.”

He is, admittedly, out of practice being a hater. And saying mean things to a person face to face is very different from leaving long, winding rage comments on forums. But he must still have some skill, because the Qing Jing disciple goes red with anger and goes to punch him.

It is at that moment that Shen Yuan realizes that, right. That’s the other huge difference about insulting someone in person. They can physically retaliate.

He dodges the punch by the skin of his teeth and flings his fan out, sending a clumsy blast of qi at the other approaching bullies. It’s only strong enough to make them stumble, and Shen Yuan uses that time to shove his fan back on his belt and grab Luo Binghe by the arm.

“Come on!” He says, yanking the other boy to his feet. Luo Binghe stumbles after him.

“Ah, I don’t,” Luo Binghe starts.

“Get back here!” One of the bullies shouts, and Luo Binghe glances over his shoulder, makes a small sound in the back of his throat, and shuts up.

“Just follow my lead,” Shen Yuan says breathlessly. He almost trips over a tree root as he does. Fuck his stupid teenage legs and body! Why is he so gangly?!

He goes back the way he came, and then past that in a different direction. His heart is pounding in his ears and his palm is disgustingly sweaty against Luo Binghe’s wrist, but as he draws close to his goal a giddy feeling rises in him.

“Jump!” Shen Yuan hisses to Luo Binghe, and lets go of the other boy to leap into the canopy. Of course, he almost overbalances and falls off, but he catches himself on the trunk. A second later, Luo Binghe joins him on the branch.

Shen Yuan circulates his qi to his throat and diaphragm, sticks two fingers in his mouth, and whistles hard. The rush of air is silent to his and Binghe’s ears, but he keeps going until he runs out of breath, even when the bullies burst through the underbrush below them.

The bullies must be using their qi to search for them as well as their mortal senses, but they don’t get the chance to notice him and Binghe, because they notice something much stronger first.

“What is that?” One of them asks.

Then, one of the boys points through the trees and yells, “Wolves!”

The bullies clamor among themselves, some wanting to confront the wolves, the others panicking because of how unexpectedly the wolves have appeared. Meanwhile, the thunderstruck wolves prowl closer, their black pelts sparking with static.

“Let’s just get out of here!” The ringleader of the bullies decides, and the bullies flee.

Shen Yuan’s smiling so wide he’s sure he looks deranged. But who cares! Not only did his plan work and the bullies are gone, but he gets to see the wolves!

He peers down at the pack, just barely keeping his own qi tamped down so as not to alarm them. Beside him, Luo Binghe shifts and wobbles a bit on the branch. Shen Yuan clamps a steadying hand on his upper arm, giving the boy a brief warning look before refocusing on the wolves.

The pack sniffs around the area, chuffing and woofing lowly. Their fur really does look like a storm cloud. God, he wants to pet one so fucking bad. Thankfully for his fraying self control, after only a couple of minutes the wolves move on, not having found whatever had caught their attention.

Thank you, fellow students of the biology discussion class, for teaching him how to dog whistle using his qi! He’s sure they’ll be excited to hear how he used it to draw thunderstruck wolves to his location.

Shen Yuan waits another minute before letting go of Binghe and slumping against the tree trunk. “That was a close one. Are you alright?”

Luo Binghe looks back at him with wide, sparkly eyes. Wow. That sure is. A face. Definitely one of The Faces Ever. In fact, it is The Face Ever, because Binghe is the protagonist and protagonists have to look handsome. Good. Er, conventionally attractive.

Haha. Whose heart wouldn’t beat faster upon taking in the best looking person ever, as designated by a narrative that Shen Yuan had half stopped believing in but is now wholly believing in at this moment for no reason whatsoever? Actually, he did just sprint through a forest. That must be why his heart is racing and his face is hot. Not because Luo Binghe(!!) is sitting less than a foot away from him.

“This one is well. Thank you…”

Shen Yuan is so distracted by the curve of Binghe’s cheek bones that he almost gives him his name. He catches himself at the last second. He’s not naming himself! For one, he’s a background character. For two, if his name gets out attached to this incident, his mom is totally going to ground him.

“It’s no big deal,” Shen Yuan says, trying to be suave and cool, except his voice cracks on the last word.

You know what, he’s going to whistle those wolves back and hope they electrocute him to death.

“Please, accept this Luo Binghe’s gratitude.” Luo Binghe half-bows as best he can in the tree. Shen Yuan tenses in preparation to catch him, but by the power of protagonist he doesn’t fall. He straightens, and Shen Yuan catches a glimpse of something dissatisfied in the twist of his mouth before it’s gone.

Shen Yuan can guess why. He smiles sympathetically. “No, truly, you do not need to give it. Your shixiongs are going to get you back for this, aren’t they?”

Judging by Luo Binghe’s quickly hidden grimace, he’s guessed right. Still, the other insists, “Even so, this one greatly appreciates your kindness.”

Ah! Such a polite white lotus! Shen Yuan can admit his intervention was ill-thought. In fact, he didn’t even really put any thought into it. He’d just acted. But he can’t tell Luo Binghe that. Then Shen Yuan will look like the mindless ape.

“Alright, your gratitude is accepted. But I don’t want you getting more hurt because of me. Let me think.”

Shen Yuan fiddles with his fan as he wracks his brain for herbs that grow in this sort of biome. He can still fix this! He can still come off as a knowledgeable background character who just helps out once and then is fondly remembered once in a blue moon!

He snaps the fan shut as he remembers. “Violet yarrow grows along muddy embankments. You can find it in this forest, or any other temperate area. Dry the flowers in the sun for a day, then grind it to create a powder. The bamboo that grows on Qing Jing has some spiritual power, yes? Grind together the bamboo leaves, yarrow powder, and diluted alcohol to make a medicinal poultice.

“Use twice as much bamboo leaves as powder, and half as much diluted alcohol as powder. For the alcohol, two parts water to one part rice wine should work. The resulting mixture is not as powerful as the salves your medicine peak makes, but it should promote wound healing. If you use that in combination with cycling your qi, most skin wounds will heal quickly.”

Luo Binghe blinks at him. He starts to open his mouth, and Shen Yuan suddenly remembers that Luo Binghe is still using that stupid fake manual, and can’t properly circulate his qi without hurting himself.

He blurts, “Give me your hand!” And thrusts his free hand forward proprietarily. Sweat trickles down the back of his neck.

Luo Binghe hesitantly holds his hand out. Shen Yuan maneuvers it so his pointer and middle fingers are resting on the inside of Luo Binghe’s wrist, and Luo Binghe’s pointer and middle fingers are resting on the inside of Shen Yuan’s wrist.

“Feel my meridians,” Shen Yuan says, bulldozing forward with his explanation because if he stops for even a second he’s going to freak the fuck out.

Luo Binghe makes a quiet, awed sound as Shen Yuan begins cycling his own qi. After half a minute of that, Shen Yuan feels Luo Binghe’s qi begin to move as well, copying the movements of Shen Yuan’s qi. Luo Binghe’s qi is jittery at first, starting and stopping and occasionally twisting in confusion, but after another minute and a half it smoothes out.

This is great, but unfortunately, the two minutes of silence and touching each other’s wrists has given Shen Yuan all the time he needs to begin freaking the fuck out. So the moment he can tell Luo Binghe has figured out the right way to cycle his qi, he pulls away. Luo Binghe’s hand twitches, fingers lightly clasping around his wrist before Shen Yuan slips his hand free.

Haha! Shen Yuan feels really normal about that!

“You’re a fast learner!” He says, maybe a bit high pitched. “So, uh, yeah. Just do that. With the medicine. I hope it helps. Anyway, I need to go now!”

He jumps off the tree branch. Above him, Luo Binghe cries, “Wait!”

Shen Yuan glances back at him. Luo Binghe is crouching like he’s about to go after Shen Yuan, but he’s moving slow due to his injuries. Shen Yuan flaps his hands at him.

“Don’t move around too much! I’m sorry for ditching you like this, but–” if I stay any longer my head is going to explode “–I have things to do! I left my stove on!” Why did I say that?

He’s just about to sprint off, but at the last second he hastily whips around to add, “By the way, everything I said back there, I meant it entirely about your shixiongs! You’re great! You’re brilliant! Your talisman looked perfect! Um. Bye!”

Luo Binghe jumps down from the tree, calling for him to hold on. Shen Yuan fucking books it.

–

“Did you wrestle the wolves?” Shen Pingyang asks when Shen Yuan trudges back into their inn room with twigs and leaves stuck in his hair, and dirt stains on his robes.

“I wish,” Shen Yuan replies glumly, and flops face-first into his bed. Wrestling the wolves would have been less painful than running away from a boy his age because his brain had hit every panic button. Muffled, he continues, “They were pretty cool.”

“Mm. I’m glad you had fun.”

Shen Yuan cannot wait to go back to the Palace tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan did not get any sleep that night. He drifts off, sure, but never goes fully unconscious. It’s like every time his thoughts begin to blur and the haze of sleep begins to settle, the interaction with Binghe blares behind his eyelids in crisp, 4K resolution, fully awakening him with the strength of his shame and embarrassment.

Why did his voice crack? Did Binghe think he was an idiot? Why didn’t he plan ahead before jumping in to help? Why didn’t he detail the medicine recipe more? Did Binghe even have access to a mortar and pestle? Did Binghe notice when he almost fell off the branch right after jumping onto it? How stupid did Shen Yuan look while whistling? What if Binghe hates him for stepping in? Is there a spell that can send Shen Yuan back in time so he can strangle himself?

Ultimately, rather than spiralling into more exhausting what-ifs and could-haves, Shen Yuan decides this is all the System’s fault, and any consequences of his untimely encounter with the protagonist fall squarely on the System’s nonexistent shoulders.

Shen Pingyang flies Shen Yuan back to the Palace after breakfast. She only stays long enough to exchange kisses with Shen Xijun, a scene that Shen Yuan averts his eyes from. You’d never think their marriage had initially been loveless with how they acted now!

After taking a long nap in his bed and waking up with a dry mouth, blurry vision, and that post-nap sensation of having jumped realities, Shen Yuan cleans himself up and changes into his Huan Hua robes. Then he goes looking for his friends.

Qin Wanrong shouts his name when he strolls over to the crowded table she’s sat at with her big social circle, shooting up from her seat to hug him. Qin Wanyue scolds her for the impropriety, then smiles wide at Shen Yuan as he sits down, welcoming him back and asking about the trip. The other people at the table pepper him with questions as well.

He regales them with descriptions of the karsts, the river cave that Chen Ting is currently still cultivating in, and the additional locations he and his mama visited. This lasts them through lunch, and they reconvene at dinner so Shen Yuan can finish his story. The Luo Binghe Incident™ is changed to a short story of Shen Yuan tracking the thunderstruck wolves and whistling to lure them out.

In return, the Qin sisters’ friends eagerly explain the latest gossip around the Palace to him. It’s standard stuff, all “he kissed her,” and “his boyfriend told me that this hallmaster,” and “she said she saw,” etcetera.

After dinner, Shen Yuan finally gets alone time with Qin Wanyue and Qin Wanrong. They go to his house so he can check on his plants while talking to them about how they’ve been. Qin Wanrong chatters the whole time, Qin Wanyue mostly watching without speaking.

“Are you alright?” Shen Yuan asks during a brief pause in the conversation.

Qin Wanyue smiles, but it looks strained at the edges. “I’m fine. I’ve simply had a hard time completing my assignment for our arrays class. A-Rong’s told you all about the partner she was assigned, but the girl I had to work with was the complete opposite…”

The conversation continues from there, flowing easy and long with jokes and vignettes. The two weeks they’d been missing from each other’s lives was extremely short in the grand scheme of things, but it was the longest they’d gone without talking since entering the sect.

On the way to the Qin sisters’ dorm, a hallmaster warns them they have half an incense stick until curfew, prompting alarm and respectful promises to make it back to their dorms on time.

As soon as the hallmaster has left their line of sight, Qin Wanrong bursts into a sprint. “Race you two!”

Shen Yuan squawks indignantly and hurries after her. “No fair! Qin-mei, I’m coming for your kneecaps!”

“What?!” she half-laughs, half-shrieks, stumbling as she glances back at him. He speeds up, playfully grabbing at her, and she whips her head back around, picking up her pace. “Shen-ge! Don’t you dare!”

They make it to the Qin sisters’ dorm in record time. Qin Wanrong practically slams into the door, fumbling to unlock it with her key. She slips in and yanks it shut behind her. Shen Yuan is there a second later, skidding to a halt and trying to pull the door open.

“Qin-mei!” He whisper-shouts, lungs burning with exertion and laughter. “Open up! Come on, you don’t need your patella that badly, do you?”

Qin Wanrong’s voice is hardly audible through the door. “Patella? Shen-ge, you’re so weird!”

“Says the one who rates paintings by how many animals are in them!”

“That’s more normal than referring to bones by their scientific names,” Qin Wanyue says, strolling to a stop by the door. She opted for a power walk rather than a sprint, as if she was above the race. Which is a lie, Shen Yuan saw her start to run but stop. She just didn’t want to compete when he and Qin Wanrong already had a headstart!

Qin Wanrong cracks open the door, only half of her body visible as she peeks around it. “Jiejie, come in quick! Before Shen Yuan steals your patella.”

“You!” Shen Yuan mimes jabbing at her shoulder, and she squeals as if he actually hit her.

“Jiejie, he hit me!”

“Wh–! I did not!”

“It hurts, oh, the pain! Shen-ge how could you harm your Qin-mei like this!”

“When did you become a drama queen?” Shen Yuan snaps playfully. “Come here, I’ll show you real pain!”

“Jiejie!”

“Alright, enough,” Qin Wanyue laughs. “Shen-di, if you’re not back in time for headcount, people will truly begin to think you have a secret lover.”

Shen Yuan thinks of sparkling black eyes and dark brown curls. Only because it was Qin Wanyue saying the word lover! Obviously he would think of her future one. Shen Yuan has zero plans to get into any sort of romantic relationship with anyone.

“Can this Shen Yuan not catch a break?” he laments, ignoring how warm his face feels.

“Welcome back to Palace life,” Qin Wanyue says mirthfully. “Goodnight, Shen-di.”

“Goodnight, Qin-jie, Qin-mei.”

Qin Wanrong waves. “Goodnight!”

Shen Yuan is only halfway to his dorm when the bell signalling curfew tolls. He curses and sprints the rest of the way, scrambling to change and get in bed once he’s inside. But it turns out he didn’t need to rush, because the hallmaster takes another five minutes to arrive and check their dorm.

Better safe than sorry, though. Shen Yuan does not want to hear any speculation on a secret lover, and he will dump pebble ants in Zhang Wei’s bed if he hears anything tomorrow about Shen Yuan coming back to the dorm late.

–

Shen Yuan experiences the normal amount of looks and greetings the next day, so Zhang Wei is safe for now. The one who is not safe is the System, who, despite expressing itself solely in text boxes and emoticons, manages to give off the energy of a whimpering animal as he immediately starts yelling at it as soon as it pops up in his vision.

“Fuck your programmer, fuck your power reserves, and fuck your family!” He finishes. He’s glaring very intensely at his homework, where the System textbox lies flat against it, trembling. “And stop shaking!”

[ User, this System has never experienced such a thorough dressing down (╥﹏╥) Please have mercy. This System has already apologized three times! ]

“I want a hundred apologies! One for each point you stole from me!”

[ User, your upset is understand but it was a necessary— ]

Now!

[ … ]

[ Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry… ]

This System of his is really too pitiful. Shen Yuan sighs.

“Whatever, you can stop. How many points do I have left?”

[ User has 50 C-Points remaining. ]

Shen Yuan puts his head in his hands. Honestly, he does not care that much about his C-Points, considering he can’t even access the shop right now. But still. His points.

“You didn’t have to steal them,” he says, lifting his head. “If you’d just explained what was going on, I would have given them to you. Running out of power means my account would’ve been terminated, right?”

[ Correct. User is so smart ˊᗜˋ ]

“Do not try to suck up to me. It’s all your fault I embarrassed myself in front of Luo Binghe.”

[ Scenario pushers only trigger a scenario. How the User and others act is unaffected by the pusher. ] Shen Yuan’s glare intensifies. [ (⊙﹏⊙);; But this System will take responsibility in this case! ]

“Ugh.” He pokes at the System’s textbox. It finally peels itself off his homework, hovering at eye level. “Just tell me what went wrong. How come you’ve never had power issues before? And how did meeting Luo Binghe help with that?”

[ Systems require a special type of power to operate. Certain individuals are capable of providing that power. In this world, Luo Binghe is the Power Source. Normally this would mean a System would push their User to frequently be near Luo Binghe. ]

[ However, as this System informed the User upon introduction, it specializes in being ~lowkey~ and giving its Users the option not to directly participate in the plot. Thus, this System receives its power from the Power Distribution Center, which collects and distributes excess power generated by other Systems’ Users. ]

[ It appears that in this System’s latest update, its power needs were erroneously calculated to be lower than they should be. Thus, it had been receiving less from the Power Distribution Center. This System foolishly did not notice until the alert, as the power distribution is automatic. ]

Dang. It sounds like there’s a whole, heh, system behind how the System works. Shen Yuan’s inner reader is perking up at the sound of some interreality world building, but first he asks, What kind of shitty update did you install? Do you run on Windows or something?

[ This System would never use such a terrible OS (¬_¬) This System has already filed a complaint to the Mainframe. Updates occur rarely, and User should not have to worry about anything like that happening again. ]

“It better not.” Shen Yuan imagines being forced to meet Luo Binghe again, and his insides squirm in discomfort. “Tell me more about how Systems work.”

[ Apologies, User, but that is classified information. ]

“Not even to make up for stealing my points?”

[ The information this System has already shared is restricted. Sharing any more would be improper. ]

No amount of wheedling gets the System to change its mind, so Shen Yuan switches and asks it to show him his quests. The familiar list of trivial tasks unravels before him, but a new quest at the bottom quickly has his attention.

[ ○ Safe and Sound (50 C-Points)

Develop an accessible talisman to keep your sect-mates safe. ]

“System? What’s this ‘Safe and Sound’ quest?”

[ This System cannot freely give out C-Points. This System, can, however, create quests that line up with the User’s preexisting interests (ദ്ദി > ؂⠈) ]

Shen Yuan might have to forgive the System after all.

–

Shen Yuan’s fourteenth birthday comes and goes. His mom cooks the traditional birthday noodles, and although they don’t come out as good as Shen Pingyang’s they are still delicious. She gives him a rare compendium of Demon Realm animals, which Shen Yuan is delighted by.

The Qin sisters present him a grand humming vine. Another plant he can actually keep in his dorm! He situates its planter and trellis by the window, where his velvet sacred lilies sit in a long flowerbox. One of his roommates complains about it, saying flowers are too girly for their room, and Shen Yuan goes off on a tangent about fragile masculinity and how if you’re so insecure about something so small that’s not Shen Yuan’s problem.

None of his roommates complain about it after that.

Qin Wanrong turns thirteen not long after. Shen Yuan gives her one of two belt tassels he’d commissioned (with his red envelope money, as he’s sadly run out of tutoring money). The centerpiece of the tassels are scales from an iridescent rainbow fish. Cleaned, polished and carved into beads that could be mistaken for mother of pearl.

And then, the dreaded date looms before them.

Qin Wanyue’s fifteenth birthday.

She and her sister get the two days before and the day of her birthday off. Shen Yuan has an invitation to her Ji Li ceremony, so he gets a day off to attend it. Shen Xijun plans to come as well.

The evening of her and her sister’s departure back to their family home to prepare, Shen Yuan and her spar together.

Qin Wanyue is embarrassingly better than him. Not in a “how can a girl be better than me” way, but in a “Qin Wanyue is one of the best in their age group with the sword and Shen Yuan is barely passing his martial arts class” way.

After getting his ass handed to him for the sixth time in a row, Shen Yuan begs for a break. Qin Wanyue magnanimously allows him to collapse on a bench while she continues going through different sword forms. She’s utterly quiet as she does them, and Shen Yuan would think her completely focused on the task if not for the several mistakes she makes and seems to not notice. Qin Wanyue always corrected her mistakes.

“Are you alright?”

Qin Wanyue does not look at him. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“You’re kinda quiet today.”

“Your Qin-jie simply has a lot on her mind.”

Shen Yuan stares at her. She continues going through the motions, twirling and thrusting her wooden sword in some complicated moveset he hasn’t learned yet. Her sword grazes her own shin at one point, and she doesn’t stop to redo the moveset.

“Is it about your Ji Li?” He slowly asks. “About having to… you know.”

“About having to?”

“Um. Pick a fiance.”

Qin Wanyue stops her swordplay and turns to him. Her tone is not happy when she asks, “Wanrong told you?”

Shit. Shen Yuan hastily lies, “I overheard Qin-shushu talking to Qin-ayi about it before.”

There’s a brief moment of silence. Shen Yuan watches Qin Wanyue frown, visibly consider what to say, and finally sigh, “Yes. It is about that.”

Shen Yuan thinks of the boy he met in the forest, with his bruises and dirtied clothing, and tries to imagine him as the domineering, flirtatious demon lord Qin Wanyue is going to marry. The two images are nearly irreconcilable.

He can’t say, don’t worry, you’re going to papapa a boy in the upcoming Immortal Alliance Conference and then marry him years later, and he’s literally the most powerful husband you could ask for. Not just because he would sound insane, but because Shen Yuan is struggling to accept that himself.

Qin Wanyue is not the two-dimensional character that the Shen Yuan of Shanghai rolled his eyes at. She’s not just the girl who Luo Binghe will lose his virginity with. She’s a real person with a complex personality and an emotional depth that Shen Yuan, as her friend, has been lucky enough to learn.

But that also means that if Shen Yuan says the wrong thing here, he could mess up their friendship. Qin Wanyue isn’t a character he can analyze and pick apart the motivations of. At this moment, he truly does not know what is going on inside her head.

Before, this made him back down and not push the topic. But with her Ji Li so close at hand, how can he continue to stay quiet?

He wishes he’d brought his fan to fiddle with. “What’re you going to do?”

“What can I do?” she replies, and his heart sinks. “I will pick a fiance, we will court once I finish my studies, and then we’ll marry on some auspicious date.”

“You’re actually going to do it?” He asks, and fuck. His tone comes out way too incredulous.

Qin Wanyue’s expression goes unreadable in a way that makes her look very different from the girl who had, years ago, nervously asked if he wanted to be friends. She sheathes the practice sword and crosses her arms.

“What do you expect me to do?” she snaps. “I’m not a boy, I don’t get to do whatever and not worry about my future. I’m the eldest Qin daughter. I have responsibilities that you wouldn’t get.”

Shen Yuan bites back his instinctual, snappy response. “But–” he thinks about how often he found her and his mom talking. “But, didn’t you figure something out? With my mom?”

“We tried!” Qin Wanyue says, sharp and loud in a way he’s rarely heard. “Shen-ayi and I tried. This is the best we could do. This is the best I can do, okay?”

“Okay, okay, but,” Shen Yuan casts about frantically for something to say, something about how this isn’t fair to her, how he’s sorry she’s being put into this situation, “It’s just not right! You shouldn’t have to get married, you’re your own person, if you don’t want to get married you shouldn’t have to.”

“Who says I don’t want to?!”

“Because you’re fourteen!” Shen Yuan cries, “You’re barely in high school! How can you know?”

Qin Wanyue shakes her head in disbelief. “Shen Yuan, what are you talking about, you’re younger than me! I’m going to be an adult soon. This is my future, alright? I don’t need another person trying to tell me what I should and shouldn’t be doing! You’re my friend, not my parent.”

Her words are like a bucket of cold water over his head.

Weakly, Shen Yuan says, “I’m trying to be a good friend.”

“You are?” Qin Wanyue asks, and although her tone is skeptical there’s some sort of edge to it that Shen Yuan is too emotional to decipher right now. The words hurt, anyway.

“I am,” he insists, “I care about you, and I—”

“If you care about me, then don’t bring this up again.”

The sentence practically rings in the silence that follows.

Shen Yuan lowers his gaze. Qin Wanyue says, voice flat, “I’ll see you at my Ji Li.”

–

Qin Wanyue’s Ji Li is being held at the temple closest to the Qin manor. When Shen Yuan and his mom arrive, the courtyard is already full of people. The Qin family sits at the top of the steps watching over the proceedings. Shen Yuan fails to catch either of the sisters’ attention; Qin Wanyue is dressed the most finely, and kneels on a cushion, staring straight ahead with a calm bearing, while Qin Wanrong beside her keeps leaning over to whisper in her ear.

Eventually the ceremony begins. Qin Wanrong gives her sister space while their parents step forward. Master Qin reads out the rites while Madam Qin combs, braids, and arranges Qin Wanyue’s hair into a bun. Once the rites are done, Madam Qin slides a gold hairpin dripping in precious jewels through Qin Wanyue’s hair. Qin Wanyue bows to her parents, sits back up, and kneels there primly as more words are said.

The Qin Wanyue up there, in the layered robes that complement her figure, with her hands folded in her lap, with the makeup accenting her naturally pretty features, is almost convincingly someone else. A young, beautiful woman of good blood and fortune, eligible for marriage.

But she’s fifteen. Shen Yuan’s meimei from his past life was older than her when he died. He wants to scream at the top of his lungs.

Shen Xijun slides her hand over his, squeezing comfortingly. She murmurs, just low enough for him to hear, “Calm down.”

Shen Yuan forces his muscles to relax, which is when he realizes he’d been as tense as a wind up toy. He squeezes his mom’s hand back and takes slow, deep breaths.

It takes forever for the ceremony to finish. At the end, the guests line up to present Qin Wanyue with gifts. Qin Wanyue receives them with a smile he’s never seen on her before, demure and nothing like the little smile she had when she saw Qin Wanrong and Shen Yuan goofing off together, or the smirk she pulls when she tells him about her latest accomplishment.

Shen Yuan is glad he and his mom had decided beforehand that Shen Xijun would prepare and hand over the gift for the ceremony, because by the time they get to the front of the line he’s nauseous.

Qin Wanyue meets his eyes for a second, and some complicated emotion passes over her face. It’s gone in the next second. She looks back to Shen Xijun, accepts the thin box that contains the second belt tassel Shen Yuan made, and says, “Thanking the Shen household for their gift.”

“The Shen household extends their well-wishes and congratulations to Qin Wanyue,” Shen Xijun replies.

They move off to the side. The rest of the gifts are given, Master Qin thanks everyone for coming, and everyone is ushered out.

Shen Yuan didn’t even get to say a single word to either of the sisters.

And when they come back to the Palace the next day, Qin Wanyue is mobbed by her other friends and acquaintances congratulating her and asking how it went. She and Qin Wanrong sit with them every meal, and Shen Yuan sits at the edge of the table, occasionally drawn into the conversation by one of them or one of the other people at the table.

It’s much more noisy than Shen Yuan is used to. And it gives him a lot less time with just the Qin sisters. But as the days go by and the pattern repeats, Shen Yuan accepts it. Shamefully, he’s even secretly a bit relieved; it means there’s less opportunities for things to turn awkward between him and Qin Wanyue.

He doesn’t want to argue with her or Qin Wanrong again. He never asks either of them who Qin Wanyue picked as her future fiance.

So just like that, things settle into a new normal. More often than not the Qin sisters sit with their social circles at meals, and Shen Yuan sits at that table too, joining in every now and then. But at least Shen Yuan gets time with just the sisters during their shared classes and when they do homework together.

He never sees them wear the belt tassels he gifted them, though.

–

As they move into their third year, Chen Ting and Shen Pingyang return from the river cave. Chen Ting has a new, healthy glow to her skin, and her qi thrums in a way that reminds Shen Yuan of the cave. It’s a lot less unsettling on her, though, feeling more like the comfort of a burrowed den than a waiting, earthly maw.

Shen Pingyang and Shen Xijun are grossly affectionate with one another for days following their return, which, ew. They’d literally been exchanging letters near daily the whole time. But Shen Yuan dares not complain, not when they are also being more tolerant of his presence at meal times. Withstanding his mothers kissing each other on the cheek every time they pass by one another is worth neither of them telling him to go eat with his friends when he shows up for dinner every day.

With Shen Yuan’s year now being third years, schedules change again. Shen Yuan no longer has to attend the class for Foundation Establishment; he’s expected to figure it out himself and be assessed by a master when he feels he’s ready. He has also finished the general education classes. The general disciples have more of them to take, but the cultivation disciples can choose whether or not to take the higher level of general ed classes.

Qin Wanyue and Qin Wanrong both take it. Shen Yuan, after scrutinizing the other classes available to take, opts not to. Instead, he signs up for the basic alchemy course. Except when he actually gets his schedule for the next year he’s been automatically bumped up to the intermediate alchemy course, on recommendation of Master Li Xuelong.

Speaking of which, there is no next level of biology class. Instead, Master Li informed the biology discussion class that anyone who wanted to could apply to be an assistant. He had multiple ongoing projects with masters both immortal and mortal, and anyone who was accepted would be reassigned to work under one of his colleagues.

Obviously Shen Yuan applies. This prompts an interview with Master Li. Shen Yuan’s never done a job interview in this life or the past one, but he’s pretty sure they aren’t supposed to go like how his did.

The first thing Master Li says when Shen Yuan sits down in his office is, “This master’s last personal assistant retired after her arm was bitten off by a shrieking moon bat.”

“Um,” Shen Yuan says, because he’d rehearsed several questions with his mom and this opener had been exactly zero of them. He doesn’t have a practiced answer for that, so he just speaks his thoughts. “Does that mean we’d be working with shrieking moon bats?”

A bit of his excitement at the idea comes through. At that moment, Li Xuelong recalls overhearing Shen Yuan telling his classmates about his two week vacation from the sect. Right. This is the kid who dog whistled thunderstruck wolves, creatures strong enough to influence local weather phenomenon, to his location just because he wanted to see them.

“What drew Disciple Shen to biology?” Master Li asks.

This is a question Shen Yuan actually has a rehearsed answer for. Except his nerves and eagerness get the better of him, and he starts rambling a bit. “This disciple has always been fascinated by the monsters of the world. He’s long wondered what environmental factors caused monsters to evolve the deadly traits they have, and how they utilize those traits. He read every bestiary he could get his hands on, and as he grew older his interests expanded to the other organisms the monsters interacted with. Unfortunately, studying monsters was not possible, so when he was ten he began to buy plants with interesting features. His first purchase was actually a giant thorny aster!”

Li Xuelong wonders if Disciple Shen’s parents know that the giant thorny aster’s roots, when prepared correctly and then burned, produce a powerfully soporific smoke that can affect even lower level cultivators.

“What would Disciple Shen want to learn and do as an assistant?”

“This disciple would love to do some actual field work! He wants to learn how to better track and study creatures in their natural habitat. He is especially interested in finding rare organisms and proving the existence of mythical ones, such as the sun moon dew mushrooms.”

“How ambitious.”

“This disciple knows they exist,” Shen Yuan insists with a fervency Li Xuelong has only ever seen in geniuses and insane lunatics, both of which he has an unfortunate amount of experience with.

The interview wraps up soon after, and the next day he informs Shen Yuan that the boy will be his personal assistant.

As for Shen Yuan’s cultivation classes, he passes them all. Unfortunately, Qin Wanrong fails their arrays class and has to retake it. Qin Wanyue and Shen Yuan move up to the next level of classes for arrays, where they begin to learn how to create and maintain Huan Hua’s iconic maze and protection arrays.

But all three of them pass their talisman class and are moved up a level. The disciples are now encouraged to make talismans from memory, and even brainstorm how to create hypothetical new talismans. These hypothetical talismans are then discussed and critiqued in class. This is great for the Safe and Sound quest.

Chen Ting had checked out the scroll Shen Yuan wanted from the Junzi Library, handing it off with a warning that if he did not return it in prime condition she would enact a terrible and subtle revenge. Shen Yuan has been handling the scroll with all the delicacy one would afford a live bomb.

The scroll was written by some old, unnamed master, and it is an indepth manual on the tradeoff between energy usage and protection talisman efficiency, and how the materials of the paper and ink influence them. Using it, his previous knowledge, and what he’s learning in his new talismans class, Shen Yuan has been making steady progress on creating a protective talisman.

The idea is for it to be both low cost and highly effective. This is a tall order, something the master for his talisman class points out. Judging by his tone, he seems to think Shen Yuan is punching way above his weight and won’t figure it out, but he’s nice enough to let Shen Yuan spend every class agonizing over it anyway.

Shen Yuan manages to pass his basic martial arts class, which is a relief and a disappointment. A relief because he’d been really unsure if he was going to pass or not. A disappointment because although Gongyi Xiao’s presence had initially intimidated Shen Yuan, he’d really enjoyed learning from the older teen by the end.

Gongyi Xiao actually seeks out every person from that class to congratulate them for passing, and tells them to not be afraid to find him for any help they might need in their new martial arts class. Shen Yuan is aghast by how many people take him up on that—how shameless! Don’t they know Gongyi Xiao is busy?!

At least, that’s what he thinks until the instructor in his new martial arts class calls him out in class for being the worst of the group. Shen Yuan is prepared to find a hole to curl up and die in after that, but Gongyi Xiao hears about it somehow and benevolently offers to tutor Shen Yuan twice a week. And since he’s personally, specifically offering to help Shen Yuan, well. Shen Yuan does need the tutoring.

Their first few sessions consist of the two of them in one of Huan Hua’s training grounds, Shen Yuan sweating at how many people keep glancing over at them because of course they are, Gongyi Xiao is down to three layers of robes and artfully sweaty from the exercise and smiling at Shen Yuan encouragingly. Of course everyone keeps looking over. That’s why Shen Yuan is so distracted.

This problem ultimately solves itself in the form of the Little Palace Mistress.

She just appears one day during one of their sessions, shouting, “Gongyi Xiao! There you are! Is this where you’ve been running off to recently?”

“Hou Lianhua!” Gongyi Xiao pauses in showing Shen Yuan where to place his feet for a specific move. “You were looking for me? Is there something you need?”

“Do I need to be in trouble or wanting something from you to seek you out?” Hou Lianhua huffs, lifting her chin imperiously. She somehow looks down on Gongyi Xiao despite being shorter than him. “Perhaps the only thing this one wants from her Xiao-ge is his company.”

Xiao-ge?! Shen Yuan thought the two weren’t betrothed yet! Gongyi Xiao hasn’t even been named Head Disciple yet! Don’t tell him they were always this close?

“Apologies, Lianhua, but your Xiao-ge is busy right now,” Gongyi Xiao replies. “I’m tutoring Disciple Shen Yuan, our shidi, in swordplay.”

“Shen Yuan?” Hou Lianhua looks him over the way Shen Yuan imagines a pampered house cat would look over a flea-ridden street cat. “You’re that horrible with the sword?”

“Hey,” Shen Yuan protests. “I’m not that bad .” He is that bad.

“Don’t be rude, Lianhua,” Gongyi Xiao scolds.

Hou Lianhua tosses the loose strands of her elaborate hairdo over her shoulder, and lifts her whip from its holster on her belt. “I can help, Xiao-ge. Then you can finish faster.”

Shen Yuan doesn’t even have the time to feel properly terrified about this before Gongyi Xiao steps in front of him, sternly saying, “Lianhua, I appreciate you wanting to help, however the last time you helped you broke someone’s finger.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Lianhua says dismissively. Gongyi Xiao must make a face, because she quickly switches tactics. “Come on, Xiao-ge, this Lianhua will be nicer this time. She learned her lesson.”

Gongyi Xiao turns to Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan tries to convey with his eyes how much he doesn’t fucking want the Little Palace Mistress “helping” him. Gongyi Xiao wavers, then turns back to Hou Lianhua.

“Shen-shidi learns better with individual instruction, Lianhua, but we appreciate your offer. If you’d like, you can stay until we are done, and we can spend time together after that.”

Hou Lianhua visibly considers this. After an adrenaline-inducing moment, she sighs, “Fine. I’ll wait.”

She stomps over to a bench. Gongyi Xiao says to Shen Yuan, “Apologies, Shen-shidi. I know you are uncomfortable having spectators, but Lianhua can be quite stubborn.”

“It’s fine,” Shen Yuan replies with full sincerity. He can handle being judged by the Little Palace Mistress. He would not have been able to handle whatever her “help” would have entailed.

Hou Lianhua attends each of their tutoring sessions after that, lounging on the bench and waiting for their practice to end. When Shen Yuan is particularly slow picking up a move, she’ll groan and complain and say he’s wasting her Xiao-ge’s time.

It’s definitely annoying, but there is an upside. Whenever anyone else in the training field looks at Gongyi Xiao, and by extension Shen Yuan, too long she’ll charge over to them and demand they stop staring at her Xiao-ge. It’s actually pretty funny to watch people skitter away from this petite young woman in fluttery clothing and excessive jewelry like she’s a snarling tiger.

The other upside; Shen Yuan stops feeling so flustered during his tutoring sessions. He can only assume it's because of Hou Lianhua’s presence. It’s hard to be embarrassed or want to hide from Gongyi Xiao forever when Hou Lianhua is the deadliest and most judgemental person on the field. Over time, he stops feeling like he’s about to explode when Gongyi Xiao touches him to correct his sword forms or praises him with a warm smile. It’s nice. Normal. It makes it a lot easier to focus during the tutoring sessions.

So he puts up with Hou Lianhua’s jeers, even though sometimes he wants nothing more than to snap back and shove her in a mud puddle.

–

After four years of guqin lessons from Shen Xijun’s friends, Shen Yuan quits.

He doesn’t quit the guqin entirely. He just quits the lessons because he needs the biweekly time slot back. He swears, sincerely, to keep playing, and his guqin teacher sends him off with a smile and a promise from him to play for her again some time.

It’s an entirely amiable goodbye, and not even a real goodbye because he’ll see her again, yet he tears up anyway.

These stupid teenage hormones! At least his voice has finally stopped cracking.

Anyway, he immediately eliminates his new free time by begging Master Li, practically on his hands and knees, to let him help with the Immortal Alliance Conference preparations.

“Please, Master Li, it would be this disciple’s greatest honor to assist his masters in capturing the monsters for the Conference. Or even spectate the capturing! Please!”

He knows Huan Hua Palace is beginning preparations because he saw a scroll discussing it on Master Li’s desk the other day. It had sounded secretive and the information on it was definitely not meant for disciples, but if Master Li didn't want Shen Yuan peeping his mail he shouldn’t make Shen Yuan do so much paperwork for him.

Li Xuelong, who left that scroll out to discern the limits of his disciple’s audacity, is not surprised to discover Disciple Shen’s audacity increases a great deal when it comes to seeing dangerous creatures that anyone in their right mind would flee from.

He stays silent for a minute. Shen Yuan sweats. At last, Master Li replies, “Disciple Shen may put together a list of possible monsters for the Conference participants to fight.”

Shen Yuan lights up.

“He will also be temporarily banned from this Master’s greenhouse for going through his mail.”

Shen Yuan droops. “Yes, Master Li.”

He wanders by the greenhouse later to put a hand on the glass and gaze longingly through it like a wife looking out the window waiting for her husband to return from war. The demonic plants quarantined inside sit just out of reach.

“I’ll be back, cat-headed creeper, bloom of fear, sinister tree…”

[ There there, User. ]

Don’t comfort me like I’m a baby!

[ But User, your serotonin levels are abnormally low. ]

Shut up!!

The initial list Shen Yuan puts together makes Master Li ask him if he truly hates his peers that much. Master Li also points out that at least half of the beasts on the list would be extremely difficult to safely capture and transport.

It is a valid point, but disappointing nonetheless. Shen Yuan can admit his list maybe turned out more like his bucket list of creatures he wants to see rather than a list of creatures disciples could reasonably be expected to fight.

So he narrows down his list to more local monsters, then excludes monsters whose entries in the bestiaries include the phrases “EXTREMELY DANGEROUS” and/or “AVOID AT ALL COSTS.” This leaves him with a list of monsters that’s not necessarily boring, because no beast is boring if you look at it from enough angles, but it’s not exactly interesting.

He can’t complain about this to his friends, because he knows better than to leak his own involvement in the Conference preparations, so he complains about it to his mothers.

When he finishes reading out his list to them, Shen Pingyang nods approvingly. “Those monsters would be suitable for disciples without their Golden Cores. The variety in difficulty is good as well.”

“But there’s going to be Golden Core disciples at the Conference!” Shen Yuan complains. “Shouldn’t I get to put at least a couple of interesting beasts on there? Like a sun swallowing snake, or a pink haired hyena-hare?”

Shen Xijun looks up from the mess of papers across the dining table. “What is a pink haired hyena-hare?”

“A mammalian beast which resembles a hare, but has the pattern and eating habits of a hyena. Its spots glow pink when threatened as a warning to predators that it is toxic to the touch,” Shen Yuan recites.

“That does not sound too dangerous. What is the catch?”

“It’s so toxic that a single touch can kill mortals, and incites paralyzing pain in cultivators.”

Shen Xijun sighs. It is the sigh of a mother who is glad her child has interests, but wishes those interests were something a bit more normal or safe.

“Yuan-er, there will also be low level demons brought in,” Shen Pingyang reminds him. “Those will be enough of a challenge for the few Golden Core cultivators participating.”

“I guess.” Shen Yuan fiddles with his list. “Isn’t it kinda messed up to kidnap sentient beings for canon fodder in a competition?”

“Canon fodder?”

“Uh, it means like, things that exist just to be killed off.”

“Demons may be sentient, but they are cruel and malicious by nature.” Shen Pingyang’s voice is firm. “If you forget this, they will take advantage of your kindness and kill you.”

Shen Yuan’s list wrinkles in his grip. “All demons?”

“All demons.” Her tone brooks no argument.

Shen Yuan brooks the argument, anyway. “I don’t think that’s true. If humans can be cruel, can’t demons be kind? Sentience means they have the ability to make that choice.”

“And demons will choose to be cruel every time.”

“That doesn’t sound right.”

“There is no ‘right’ with demons. They cause suffering and death because they can, and they want to.”

“Those are just the ones who make it to the Human Realm!” Shen Yuan protests. “Of course you’d think all demons are evil if the only ones you’ve met are trying to cause trouble. But there’s a whole Realm of them! Some of them must be different.”

“The Demon Realm is a place no human should ever enter, so you should not concern yourself with whether or not the beings in it are different!” Shen Pingyang rises from the table. Shen Xijun puts a hand on her arm.

“I’ll concern myself with it if I want! How else am I meant to study demonic plants? Demonic beasts? I can’t just study whatever happens to cross into the Human Realm, or whatever the Masters have in their greenhouses or cages.”

“You most certainly can. Ask someone else to bring you any specimens you require.”

“They’re not just specimens! Seeing an organism in isolation is entirely different from observing it in its natural habitat! And, I’ll be an adult in six years! I’ll have my Golden Core by then, and I can go to the Demon Realm then.”

“Absolutely not.”

Shen Yuan throws his hands in the air, nearly shouting, “Why?! You were completely fine with me going to find thunderstruck wolves, but demons are too much?”

Shen Pingyang matches his volume. “You said it yourself. Demons are sentient. That makes them a thousand times more dangerous than any beast!”

“Yuan-er! Pingyang!”

Shen Yuan and Shen Pingyang shut up. Shen Xijun levels them both with a stern look, and uses her grip on Shen Pingyang’s arm to pull herself to her feet.

“You two are giving me more of a headache than the taxes are. I expect any debates in this household to be civil. Which means keeping an appropriate volume and an open mind to the other’s stance and argument.”

Shen Yuan bites back his protest. He sullenly concedes, “Yes, mom.”

“Xijun,” Shen Pingyang tries. Her wife lets go of her to cross her arms. “Alright.”

“Good. Come here, you two.” Shen Xijun takes them into the main room, where she sits between them on the daybed. “Now. Why are you arguing? Pingyang, you start.”

“I don’t want to argue. I want Yuan-er to understand how dangerous demons are.”

Shen Xijun nods. “Shen Yuan?”

“I want mama to not stereotype all demons. There have to be some good ones, I know–”

“Shen Yuan,” Shen Xijun gently interrupts. “Just your reason for continuing the argument, please. Think about it.”

Shen Yuan does. He does not want his mama believing all demons to be evil, because it’s not true. Luo Binghe is half demon, yet before the Abyss he had been a sweet little white lotus. Who he became after that was because of the actions of the people around him, most especially Shen Qingqiu. And in PIDW , a number of demons were shown to be kind and caring. So Shen Pingyang’s belief is just not true, and Shen Yuan couldn’t stand when people were wrong on the Internet, much less his family members in real life.

But also. That one note belief that demons are evil and incapable of compassion is the kind of attitude that got cultivators killed in later chapters of PIDW . They were the ones who railed against Luo Binghe’s rule, and were subsequently crushed.

Vocalizing this is a lot, though, and makes him squirm in embarrassment, so he settles on, “I just don’t agree that all demons are evil. I don’t like that mama believes that.”

Shen Xijun says, “Then it seems there is a resolution for this. Shen Yuan, do you understand the dangers demons pose?”

“I do.” He really does. PIDW had plenty of atrocities and violence committed by demons (including Luo Binghe). Not just that, but in this life he’s heard the horror stories and seen the people ushered to infirmaries after Night Hunts. “I understand, mama, I swear.”

Shen Xijun turns to her wife. “Pingyang, can you try to understand Yuan-er’s perspective? I know the demons we encountered were… disgusting, and that you fought others before the ones we faced together. But please, think over his argument and see the sense in it.”

Shen Pingyang sighs through her nose, and is quiet for a long moment. Eventually, she says, “Alright I can’t accept your perspective, Yuan-er, but I can see where you are coming from. I just want you to be safe.”

“I know,” Shen Yuan replies, the fight leaving him in favor of warm, mushy feelings that make him want to tuck his head against his mama’s shoulder. “I’ll be careful. If I did ever go to the Demon Realm, I’d go with other cultivators.”

“Good.” Shen Pingyang pauses before adding, “Any demons brought into the Conference are captured on Night Hunts. They are demons who have already caused misfortune to humans, and would have been killed anyway. They are not innocents swiped from their beds, or whatever you were thinking.”

“Oh.” That makes sense. Shen Yuan feels stupid for not thinking of that before. His emotions had run faster than his mind.

Shen Xijun wraps her arms around her family and pulls them close. Shen Pingyang goes stiffly, but Shen Yuan lays down on her lap contentedly. Shen Xijun kisses Shen Pingyang’s cheek, and she at last goes lax, leaning against her bonelessly.

“I’m glad we have resolved this,” Shen Xijun hums.

Shen Yuan is surprised to realize they have. The argument has come to close amiably and without new dispute on either side. He’s almost never had that happen in his past life with his siblings, much less on the Internet.

Is this the fabled conflict resolution? The ever elusive and mythical healthy communication?

What would the netizens think of the legendarily wrathful Peerless Cucumber if they could see him now? Resting with his head on his mom’s lap, with the person he just argued with smoothing the wrinkles in his robes?

The whole thing only reaffirms the silent belief Shen Yuan’s had since he was ten years old.

His mom, Shen Xijun, is by far the most powerful person in this Palace.

“Now get off, I need to keep doing taxes,” says the most powerful person in the Palace. Who willingly forsakes cuddling with their family to get arduous work done sooner rather than later?

Truly, her might is awesome.

Chapter Text

Just before summer exam season, two of Shen Yuan’s three roommates move out.

Zhang Wei is one of them. The other is the boy who complained about Shen Yuan’s plants. This just leaves him and the disciple who, on that first day years ago, dumped their entire qiankun pouch out on their bed.

“Your roommates have moved to different dorms. Normally we would assign new disciples to fill in the empty slots, however all of the new disciples have already been assigned rooms,” their hallmaster explains. “Next disciple selection your room will fill up again. For now it will be just the two of you.”

Shen Yuan and his singular roommate are more than happy with this. They split the room in half, and soon enough Shen Yuan’s half is as messy as his room back home. Somehow, his roommate’s half is worse.

Shen Yuan worries about, and subsequently dismisses, how much of a nightmare cleaning up for the next disciple selection is going to be. That’s a problem for future Shen Yuan!

He spends many summer days laying on the floor doing homework, reading herbariums and bestiaries, crying over the latest failure in developing his protection talisman, and staring at the ceiling thinking about life and his relationships.

It’s nice to wallow without fear of your wallowing making its way into the Palace’s gossip. 

Then summer exams properly hit, and he spends weeks alternatively in the Liu Zhao and Junzi Libraries, referencing materials and studying with the Qin sisters and other classmates. While the Qin sisters have to memorize poems and mathematical formulas for their general class, Shen Yuan has to memorize the components of alchemical potions and why those components work for his alchemy class.

As always, the exam season engulfs the Palace and leaves in its wake sleep-deprived disciples ready to do anything but study for a second longer. Although the summer heat usually makes everyone lethargic, the freedom of not having to worry about exams for another few months propel people into action.

This is how Shen Yuan finds himself invited to his second ever post-exam party, and once again finds himself in some rich disciple’s room staring into space wondering if he answered question twelve on his arrays exam correctly.

He’s pretty sure he did. But what if he didn’t? Ugh, and he knows he got that question on his alchemy exam about the usage of aluminum wrong.

“Shen-ge!” Qin Wanrong appears from the crowd, grabbing him by the arm and yanking him in. The smell of sweat and perfume bags mix into an utterly unpleasant aroma that has Shen Yuan wishing he hadn’t shown up.

But the System had offered him 5 Points if he attended, so here he is. Regretting it.

Shen Yuan splutters, “What is it? Did someone get hurt?”

“Pfft, no.” Qin Wanrong seats him on a low chair, and as he takes in the scene before him an ominous dread creeps into his heart.

About a dozen disciples, including him and the Qin sisters, sit in a rough circle. Shen Yuan doesn’t recognize them except for Mei-shijie, who smiles at him like a shark when he joins.

“Good to see Shen-shidi has decided to play,” she chirps, and Shen Yuan gives Qin Wanrong an alarmed look. Qin Wanrong blinks at him innocently.

“Play what?” he cautiously asks.

“Truth or dare.”

Shen Yuan blanks for a second. Then he has a brief, vivid daydream of returning to his past life, tracking down Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, choking the excuse of an author out, and then forcing Airplane to explicitly state that party games do not exist in PIDW.

They are in ancient China. What is this bullshit?

“Actually,” Shen Yuan says, starting to stand.

“Just one round.” Qin Wanrong pouts at him, tugging his sleeves. “Please?”

“What even counts as a round in truth or dare,” Shen Yuan complains as he settles back down.

Some people in the circle titter and giggle. Mei-shijie replies, “Once everyone in the circle has been questioned at least once.”

So basically, Shen Yuan is doomed. Even one truth or dare will kill him. The minds of his fellows are a twisted place, and he doubts he will find mercy from the Qin sisters.

“Fine.” Worse comes to worst, he runs away from the sect and everyone who ever knew him and starts a new life as a lobster fisherman.

Mei-shijie starts. The tone she sets for the game is exactly as ruinous as he expected, as her question to the unfortunate shixiong she picks is, “Have you ever had a spring dream about anyone here?”

The young man goes pink. Shen Yuan is torn between his own curiosity and forcibly tuning himself out to give the guy privacy. Turning his hearing off is a futile endeavor, however. The guy glances for maybe 0.1 milliseconds at one of the people in the circle and Mei-shijie crows that he looked at that shijie!, prompting the rest of the circle to laugh and tease the young man and the young woman he glanced at.

What the hell? How the fuck did Mei-shijie even catch that? Are her crazy observation skills a power she developed by being a gossip, or is she actually that perceptive and just chooses to use her talent to torture her peers?

Shen Yuan casually slips his fan out from his robes and fans himself with it, as if he’s just warm and not like he’s hiding his face. Qin Wanyue does a double take, but looks away before Shen Yuan can make questioning eye contact.

The hell game continues, with Shen Yuan learning things he never wanted to know about his fellow disciples. At least he doesn’t know most of them, so it’s not like he’s going to be appalled that that one girl finds ankles sexy, he’s just confused and embarrassed.

Just. Why?

When someone at last deigns to turn to Shen Yuan, swivelling and fixing their gaze upon him like the Eye of Sauron, he revisits his daydream of strangling Airplane. It gives him a fleeting moment of peace before the disciple opens their mouth.

“Shen-shidi, if you were dosed with spring medicine, who would you want to resolve it with?”

He’s been mentally preparing himself to be asked a shameless question like that. Yet his face goes hot behind his fan anyway. Inexplicably, starry eyes and the soft skin on the inside of a wrist flash through his mind.

“I’m not answering that,” he primly declares.

“First dare!” The circle shrieks in uncanny synchronization. Qin Wanrong shakes her head at Shen Yuan, but she’s got a mischievous look on her face, and she contributes to the sudden onslaught of suggestions the disciple who’d questioned Shen Yuan is now under.

“I already have an idea!” the disciple shouts, and the others quiet down the way a movie theater quiets down when the lights dim. Like they’re about to get a show.

Shen Yuan steels himself. With the heaviness and importance of an imperial decree, the disciple says to him, “Shen-shidi, sing a love song of your own composition to someone random. Not anyone in the circle.”

Well. It’s not as bad as some of the things the other disciples were suggesting. Some of those things would have made Shen Yuan quit, pride or no pride, because being a coward is better than potentially ruining his academic career.

It does still make him want to shrivel up into a husk, though.

“I have to make the song up?” Shen Yuan double-checks.

“Yes. Bring the person over here so we’re sure you don’t cheat.”

Fuuuck.

Shen Yuan is about to disappoint every single one of his instructors ever by committing the great taboo that he used to think would get him life in actual prison; plagiarism.

“Be right back.” He stands and, with more confidence than he truly feels, strides through the crowd. He’s not sure whether he should grab a classmate or a stranger. In the end, his gaze lands on someone he didn’t think would be at a party, and he decides it would be easier to explain his next actions as a dare to someone he knows rather than a stranger.

“Wu-shixiong!” He taps his shixiong on the shoulder. “Come with me.”

Wu Hao lowers his cup of alcohol, seeming relieved to see a familiar face. “Shen-shidi, what is it?”

“A hundred apologies to my shixiong, but I require you to complete a dare.”

The relief drains to pure horror. Wu Hao holds up his hands. “Hold on, Shen-shidi, what kind of–”

“It’s not too bad. I just need to sing you a love song.”

“That is still bad!”

Wu Hao looks as if he is going to completely deny him, so Shen Yuan grabs him and hastily explains his reasoning. “Wu-shixiong, please. It’s not as if anyone will think I actually have romantic feelings for you, you’re a man, and everyone knows you still like Chen Ting. Nobody will think much of it beyond it being a stupid dare! It’ll be over quickly.”

Also, it would be so weird if Shen Yuan got a girl for this dare. People would jump to the conclusion that he actually has feelings for that girl if he did. With a man, no one will think something so unreasonable!

Wu Hao still looks uncertain, but after a second of consideration he drains his cup and says, “Alright. Let’s get it over with.”

“Thank you, Wu-shixiong!”

He drags Wu Hao back to the truth or dare circle. Mei-shijie looks up from rolling some sort of powder and grins like the Cheshire cat. “Hello, Wu-shidi.”

Wu Hao groans, shoulders hunching towards his shoulders. “Hello, Mei-shijie. Everyone.”

The circle refocuses on them. Sweat rolls down the back of Shen Yuan’s neck, and he flutters his fan faster before taking a deep breath and weakly saying, “Alright. Okay. Um. I guess I’ll start.”

He rapidly goes over the lyrics in his head. Singing a translated English song isn’t the best idea, but he’s genuinely not sure which modern songs might exist in this world. Airplane was disastrously inconsistent with his worldbuilding, and Shen Yuan wouldn’t be surprised if references or even lines from modern songs made their way in. So a translated English song is his best bet for seeming original.

He takes another deep breath and forces himself to look at Wu Hao. The circle’s attention is like a physical weight on his skin.

He clears his throat. Someone shouts at him to start already.

“We’re no strangers to love… you know the rules, and so do I.”

“Louder!” The disciple who dared him demands.

He forces his volume up, lowering his fan so he can be heard better. “A full commitment is what I’m thinking of, you wouldn’t get this from any other man. I… just wanna tell you what I’m feeling. I have to make you. Understand.”

Shen Yuan is one hundred percent certain he is off pitch and getting some words wrong. Thankfully, it seems he was right. Nobody recognizes the song and calls him out on his mistakes.

Mei-shijie does laugh, “Start singing and stop reciting, Shen-shidi!”

He glares at her, but hits the chorus with more of a tune, even though his face is burning hot. “Never going to give you up, never gonna let you down. I’m never gonna run around and desert you.”

Wu Hao covers his face. Qin Wanrong is laughing so hard she’s leaning against her sister for support.

“Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye. Never gonna tell a lie, and hurt you.” Shen Yuan can’t take the giggling anymore. He lifts his fan back up and shouts, “That’s it! I don’t have any more!”

“But the lyrics were so touching!” Someone half cries, half laughs.

“I never knew Shen-shidi was such a romantic,” someone else comments.

“Shen-shidi, can I borrow a line for my poetry assignment?”

“Wu-shixiong, do you feel wooed?”

“Shen-di is so red,” Qin Wanrong gasps, pointing at his face. Shen Yuan feels like he is going to burst into flames.

“Wu-shidi, aren’t you touched?” Mei-shijie cajoles.

Wu Hao shakes his head furiously, and flees without a word toward the alcohol stash. Most of the circle is too occupied quoting lines from Shen Yuan’s plagiarised song to notice, anyway. Shen Yuan wishes he could flee too, but he has to reaffirm his position in the Palace’s social hierarchy after that mortifying endeavor.

He knows just who to pick, and what to ask. He loudly says, “Mei-shijie.”

A chorus of ooohs rise from the circle, and they quickly shift from tittering about Shen Yuan’s dare to tittering about his bravery. He stands his ground; his years spent listening in on gossip and as Zhang Wei’s roommate have finally come to fruition.

“Yes, Shen-shidi?” Mei-shijie responds, amused.

“What is the worst rumor you have ever heard about yourself?”

Her smile twitches. Shen Yuan knows what it is, even though it did not get around much before dying. Zhang Wei had whispered about it to one of his friends, once, just outside their dorm room. They were both certain it was true, and that was why Mei-shijie had stomped it out.

“The worst rumor I have heard about myself? It would have to be that my mother slept with an admissions officer to secure my entry to the sect.”

Everyone gasps, yet it’s a mixture of shock and excitement. Mei-shijie says it with such confidence and casualty that rather than comforting her, they ask if it’s true, who started that rumor, how she heard about it. Shen Yuan is impressed. He wishes he had Mei-shijie’s poker face, because his still feels extremely warm.

He won’t call her out on her lie. Her answer got the attention off of him, and that’s what matters.

The game resumes, and Shen Yuan hides behind his fan the whole time, even when his face has returned to normal. As soon as everyone has been questioned he declares his part done and fucks off, ignoring the circle’s cries for him to keep playing.

He’s embarrassed himself enough tonight! And poor Wu Hao, too. Maybe Shen Yuan should join him and hope the alcohol eradicates any memories of tonight.

–

Unfortunately, drinking does not erase Shen Yuan’s memories. It just gives him a terrible headache, a dry mouth, and a reminder of why he never drank in his past life.

Even worse, it turns out more than just the people in the truth or dare circle were watching his impromptu performance. Shen Yuan discovers this when someone passing by him in the hall sings, never gonna give you up, under their breath as they pass by.

He whips around in abject horror. They smile at him and genuinely compliment his lyrical skills, which is somehow worse than if they’d been mocking him.

To Shen Yuan’s eternal despair, it becomes a Thing. Because who needs to blame god or the universe or some other spiritual/metaphysical mechanism when teenagers are provably real, physical, always present, and ready to ruin his life?

He can’t go a day in the Palace without someone quoting the song at him or bringing it up. Even Chen Ting jokingly asks him if she should be worried about Shen Yuan stealing Wu Hao’s affections.

Which, first of all, major game changer to learn Chen Ting is aware of Wu Hao’s feelings. Will she ever put him out of his misery? He’s had a crush on her for years.

Second of all; fuck Shen Yuan’s stupid baka life.

He resorts to using the servant passageways he’d mapped over a year ago per the System’s quest, because people will see him from the other side of a hallway, light up, and zoom over to him like they’d specifically been given a quest by god to make his life harder. It’s made him late for class or tardy to Master Li’s summons far more than he’d like to admit. Utilizing the servant passages fixes this, although it does get him some startled and confused looks by servants when he passes by them, and from other disciples when he appears seemingly out of nowhere.

Finally, his performance becomes old, boring news when something far more exciting is announced at the end of summer.

Gongyi Xiao has officially been named the new Head Disciple.

Shen Yuan half expects him to not show up at their tutoring sessions, but he does, cloaked in new robes of gold and black. A Huan Hua emblem still hangs on his belt, but his new uniform features the sect’s characteristic golden peony tastefully embroidered on the front and back. He seems tired, but he perks up when Shen Yuan bounds over to him.

Hou Lianhua is not here this time, but Shen Yuan ignores her absence to congratulate Gongyi Xiao and ask how he is doing, if the workload is bad, and if Gongyi Xiao would like to stop these one-on-one sessions since he has so much more work to do now. Gongyi Xiao thanks him with a smile that grows softer as he answers Shen Yuan’s questions.

“Shen-shidi, for as long as you need this Gongyi Xiao’s help, he will provide it,” is Gongyi Xiao’s sincere response to his last question. “Do not worry about your shixiong. It is the shixiong’s job to worry for his shidi.”

He pats Shen Yuan’s shoulder awkwardly. Shen Yuan struggles not to laugh when he realizes it feels exactly like his da-ge from his past life trying to comfort him. Although Gongyi Xiao seems like the picture perfect shixiong and head disciple, he’s really not that great at deflecting other’s worries for him, is he?

It later occurs to Shen Yuan that that might be because he hasn’t had many people in his life who will worry for him, which dampens his amusement and also motivates Shen Yuan to become one of those people.

He considers finding another tutor for martial arts, but those sessions are practically the only time Shen Yuan has with Gongyi Xiao. Any other time he sees the new Head Disciple, the young man is delivering orders or resolving conflicts or having two conversations at once with the crowd of people who now seem to perpetually tail him.

So he needs to keep the tutoring sessions. But he also wants Gongyi Xiao to stop being so stressed out by everyone who suddenly wants his attention all the time.

Actually, speaking of people who want Gongyi Xiao’s attention, where is the Little Palace Mistress?

After two weeks of Gongyi Xiao pretending he’s completely fine when he shows up for their sessions, Shen Yuan swallows his own distaste for Hou Lianhua and seeks her out. The one person with no responsibilities, and a willingness to spend that responsibility-free time playing guard dog, and she vanishes now when Gongyi Xiao needed her most?

Well, actually, the time Gongyi Xiao will need her most is about six years in the future when Luo Binghe is eroding his reputation to take the role of Head Disciple for himself.

Nothing Shen Yuan can do about that! But he can do something about this.

His search for Hou Lianhua takes him deeper into the Palace than he’s ever gone before. He has to bypass the wall separating the Outer and Inner Palace, a feat he accomplishes by drawing on his espionage experience from when he was ten. Read; he dresses up in servant’s robes, uses the servant passageways, is questioned for his reason for entry, lies that he’s been tasked to bring the Little Palace Mistress a letter from Gongyi Xiao, and is pointed in the right direction, the handmaiden who’d questioned him doing so with a pitying look.

He can only assume their lax security is because they can’t comprehend the idea of anyone willingly seeking out the Little Palace Mistress.

The Inner Palace is more cloistered than the Outer. There are fewer buildings, but they sit close together, the only open spaces being the decorated pathways and aesthetic courtyards for anybody who isn’t a servant to walk. The servants have to make do with the narrow, hidden walkways between buildings and within their walls, which turn and curve like a maze.

Shen Yuan very quickly gets lost. But the servants of the Inner Palace are much stricter than the ones of the Outer Palace. Every time he slows down or considers which way to go, one teleports behind him, brusquely asks for his destination, winces sympathetically when he answers, and gives him directions.

After about thirty minutes he finally stumbles up to a set of double doors with flowering vines carved elegantly into the wood. He knocks, and when he gets no response, knocks harder. Ouch, his knuckles! That’s some solid wood.

A muffled, familiar voice cries, “I told you I don’t want to be bothered!”

“Hou-shijie! Open up!” He double-checks that he’s alone in the lavish hall, and shouts, louder, “It’s Shen-shidi! I want to talk to you about Gongyi Xiao!”

Thump thump thump. The doors fly open. Hou Lianhua glowers down at him the same way she had the first time they met, and he feels their two inch height difference starkly. “It’s Gongyi-shixiong to you! Show him respect!”

“Apologies, Hou-shijie,” he automatically responds, before remembering, wait, he’s lowkey pissed at her. “I thought you didn’t care about him anymore.”

One hand goes to her whip, and she snarls, “What?! Of course I care about Xiao-ge! I should whip you for your insolence!”

“Try it! I’m here on behalf of Gongyi-shixiong, so if you whip me, that’ll tell me how much you care about him!”

“You—!” She clenches the handle of her whip, and for a second Shen Yuan really thinks she’s going to do it. But after a fraught moment, she tightly asks, “Xiao-ge sent you? What did he say?”

Shen Yuan has a split second to choose between lying and telling the truth. He chooses the option that’s less likely to get him whipped.

“He misses you, and he wonders where you’ve been.”

A loud, incorrect buzzer noise plays in his head just as Hou Lianhua snaps her whip out and cracks it right in front of his feet. He jumps back as she shrieks, “Liar!”

System, you couldn’t have told me beforehand?!

[ Nope (ﾟωﾟ；) ]

Heart racing, he spills the truth. “Okay, he didn’t send me! But I am here for him! He’s been super stressed since becoming Head Disciple, and he doesn’t get a break! Everyone is following him around or trying to get his attention, and you’ve always been there for him before so why the hell aren’t you now?!”

“Don’t! Take! That! Tone with me!” Each sentence is punctuated by a whip crack, and Shen Yuan avoids three out of four of them. He swears loudly as the last one catches him on the arm and rips his sleeves. He’d had to borrow these robes from a servant!

“Fuck! What’s your problem?!” He flaps his ripped sleeve at her. “Did you two get into an argument? You know, if you did, there’s this thing called conflict resolution—”

“We didn’t! Xiao-ge is perfect and kind and he wouldn’t ever yell at me like you are!” Her whip lashes through the bottom hem of his robes.

In a moment of pure frustration driven by the knowledge he’d have to spend some of his precious red envelope money paying back the servant for their robes instead of saving it for more plants, and honestly some pent up frustration from her peanut gallery comments during his tutoring sessions, and lastly just pure teenage recklessness, Shen Yuan bodily throws himself at Hou Lianhua.

She screams. They hit the ground hard.

“What’s your problem?!” She demands, kicking at him.

“You wouldn’t stop hitting me! How can a little mistress like you be so rude?!”

“Little mistress?! I’m older than you!”

“Why are you mad, everyone calls you the Little Palace Mistress!”

“You forgot the palace!”

“Why the fuck does that matter?!”

Her foot jabs itself into his stomach as she twists to grab her whip, which she dropped when they hit the ground. Some long buried instinct from his past life awakens within him, and forgetting entirely about propriety and social status and maturity, he yanks her back by her ankle, rolls over her, and grabs her whip.

“Hey!” She shouts, clawing at his arms. His ripped sleeve tears further as he bundles the whip into a ball and curls up around it, shoving it between layers of his robes.

“It’s mine now!” He rolls again to get away from her long nails and smacks his head into the doorframe. “OW.”

“No it’s not!” Voice reaching a pitch only dogs can hear, which, wow, maybe he should bring her along next time he wants to see a canid beast, Hou Lianhua wrests him toward her by his torso.

She abruptly freezes, arms around his chest. This startles Shen Yuan into going still as well. He hears rapidly approaching footsteps.

He and Hou Lianhua make panicked eye contact. Huh. This close, he can see that the whites of her eyes are red, like she’d been crying.

Then, with strength far beyond anyone with her kind of frame should possess, she twists and slides him like a hot pocket across the floor. She scrambles after him and slams her doors shut, stepping on his hair in the process. She loudly shushes him before he can even complain.

A tense ten seconds pass. Then someone knocks on the door and calls, “Hou-guniang?”

“Go away!” Hou Lianhua yells.

“Ah, Hou-guniang, apologies for prying but this one heard shouting—”

“I SAID LEAVE!”

Shen Yuan cringes. The person outside apologizes, and their footsteps quickly fade away.

“Now,” Hou Lianhua starts, turning back to him, only for him to flee as soon as his hair is free. “SHEN-SHIDI!”

He strategically positions himself on the other side of a rosewood table. There’s a lot of other furniture and fancy decorations in the enormous room, but Shen Yuan’s focus is entirely on the young woman across from him.

“Don’t shout my name! Do you want someone to come back?” There’s an unspoken idiot at the end of his question that is nevertheless entirely audible.

Hou Lianhua grabs at her hip for a weapon that isn’t there, and her glare gets ten degrees worse. “I am giving you one. Last. Chance. Give it back and I’ll only let you off with thirty lashes.”

“That’s a terrible deal,” Shen Yuan deadpans. “I have a better one. You hear me out, promise not to hit me, and I give your whip back.”

“You’re the one with the terrible deal! Did you forget who I am? I could have you expelled from the sect with a single word. Thirty lashes is a mercy!”

“Expelled from the sect?” he scoffs, as if the very thought isn’t making his heartrate pick up again. “What, you can’t solve your own problems? Hou Lianhua needs to run to daddy at the first inconvenience?”

She gasps in affront and storms toward him, but as she rounds the table he scurries around it, keeping it between her and him. She stops, bafflement briefly crossing her face.

She tries to reach him again. He starts to circle, and when she suddenly switches directions and lunges, he changes his direction just as fast. He can’t stop the laughter that bursts out of him when he sees her confusion change to genuine frustration.

She gapes at him. Probably no one has ever laughed at her before. Then, she stomps her feet and shrieks, “You’re so annoying!”

“So you’ll hear me out?” he asks, half teasingly, half serious.

She looks between him, the table, and where he’s still clutching her whip to his chest. She crosses her arms. “Fine. But if you don’t give it back afterwards, I’ll have dad ban you from the sect forever.”

By the skin of his teeth, he does not mutter, daddy’s girl.

“As I said earlier, Gongyi-shixiong has been stressed the fuck out since his promotion. He tries to hide it, but in our last session he spaced out three times! He had to ask me to repeat myself and do the movement again!”

Hou Lianhua’s pissed expression shifts slightly, from I’m going to flay the skin from your bones to maybe you can keep your skin. “Thrice?”

“Thrice! And in the session before that, he messed up a move he was demonstrating to me two times. And! Before each session he has to get free from the people trying to talk to him, and as soon as he’s done he’s mobbed. At this rate people are going to start interrupting our sessions.”

Concern and hostility twist Hou Lianhua’s pretty features, until she drops her hands to her hips and huffs, “Gongyi Xiao does not need me fighting his battles for him. If he does, he can find me himself. He knows where I am.”

Oh, they definitely had some sort of argument. Or at least a bad misunderstanding.

“Does he know he can do that?” Shen Yuan asks. He considers Hou Lianhua turning away everyone who’s come to her door, and how he hasn’t seen her in the Outer Palace for weeks, and chooses what he hopes is the right dialogue option this time. “If you’re avoiding him, he probably thinks you don’t want to see him. So he’ll respect your space and won’t come to you because he thinks he’ll be bothering you.”

“I haven’t been avoiding him!” Hou Lianhua snaps, hands clenching.

“Then what do you call holing up inside your room and not making any effort to contact him?”

“Secluded meditation.”

That startles a short laugh out of him. He instantly smothers it with a cough.

“We both know that’s not what you’re doing. I don’t know what happened between you two when Gongyi-shixiong was promoted, but not talking about it isn’t going to fix anything.”

“Not true!” Hou Lianhua crows. “We’ve had disagreements before, and after time passes it’s never brought up again. If we do not want to talk about it, we won’t. It works well.”

Shen Yuan abruptly wonders if couples therapy exists in this world. Probably not. Just it existing would undermine the stallion protagonist’s whole deal. Besides, he doesn’t think Hou Lianhua and Gongyi Xiao are officially a couple yet. Preemptive couples therapy?

“Hou-shijie, just because you do not talk about something does not mean it magically goes away.” When it looks like Hou Lianhua is going to protest, he quickly switches back to his original complaint. “And it’s worse because it is different this time! Gongyi-shixiong is going through a big change in his routine right now. You’re the most familiar person to him, and I think without that familiarity this promotion is affecting him way more than any of us thought it would.”

Hou Lianhua is silent. Her emotions clearly play across her face, and Shen Yuan holds his breath until something like hope, concern, and annoyance settles over her.

“You truly believe Gongyi Xiao needs me?”

“Yes,” he says wholeheartedly. Maybe not all the time, but right now? Yes.

She humphs, nods, and lifts her chin, any indecision gone and replaced by that haughty demeanor he unfortunately knows well. “Fine! If Xiao-ge is struggling, his Lianhua shall kindly help him out.”

She then holds out a hand. Shen Yuan tentatively asks, “You’re not going to whip me?”

“If you’re lying to me, you’re going to get far worse than a whipping. This Lianhua has decided to be magnanimous until then.”

“Fine.” Shen Yuan returns her whip to her. She inspects it before holstering it on her hip again.

She points to the door. “Now get out.”

He gets out.

–

A couple of days later, after paying the servant he borrowed the robes from and procuring salve for his relatively light whip marks, he spots Gongyi Xiao in a library. Beside him, Hou Lianhua glowers at the few people who’ve dared to approach.

When more than a handful of minutes goes by and the same person is still talking to Gongyi Xiao, Hou Lianhua snaps something at them that Shen Yuan can’t hear from where he is. The person pales, waves their hands apologetically, and backs off. The remaining people make whatever business they have with Gongyi Xiao fast.

Afterwards, the two walk out of the library arm in arm, Gongyi Xiao with an exasperated, yet fond smile, and Hou Lianhua with a triumphant smirk.

Shen Yuan is struck with an epiphany right at that moment.

He’s the preemptive couples therapy. Shit. Who let that happen?

–

Master Li informs Shen Yuan that his list of suggested monsters was reviewed alongside suggestions made by the other masters helping organize the Conference. A list had been finalized, and soon, Master Li and other cultivators would begin collecting the creatures.

Before Shen Yuan can do more than perk up hopefully, Master Li crushes his hopes and dreams by telling him he’s not allowed to assist in these captures until he’s gone on a proper Night Hunt.

Shen Yuan just barely does not sink to the floor and cry. Master Li knows he’s ass at martial arts! Everybody in the Palace does, thanks to Palace gossip! The lessons with Gongyi Xiao have been helping, but he’s not even half as good as someone like Qin Wanyue.

Life is so unfair. Not only is the System gatekeeping the Shop from him with the Night Hunt requirement, but now Master Li is gatekeeping cool monsters from him with the same thing?!

Speaking of Qin Wanyue, literally the day after Shen Yuan is hit with this barrier she casually boasts to her friends that she’s been chosen for a Night Hunt. This further proves that Shen Yuan’s life is a cosmic joke for the System and teenagers to laugh at.

He congratulates her sincerely, then splays out on his bed and sighs heavily. His roommate echoes his sigh from their side of the room, not in a mocking way, but in a truly genuine way.

He has no idea what they do with their days, or what could sink them to the same depths of misery as him, but it’s a good thing the Palace is heavily warded against demons. If either of them developed heart demons, someone would know.

Qin Wanyue and her Night Hunt group take a week to finish. When they get back, Qin Wanyue humbly regales their canteen table with the story of the Hunt. Restless spirits causing nightmares and misfortune for a town, tracking down the source of the spirits, sealing the area off until the Daoists they called in could perform rites to put them at peace… It sounds like it went smoothly. The hardest part, Qin Wanyue says primly, was the travel. Two days there, two days back. They had to camp. The horror.

This prompts discussion of when she thinks she’ll get her spirit sword. The shixiongjie all seem to think she’ll get hers soon, throwing out ranges of within months to within the next two years. Someone makes a betting pool, which Qin Wanyue doesn’t seem happy about so Shen Yuan doesn’t participate.

Personally, though, he’s thinking she’ll get it as soon as her Foundation is solidly Established. She’s almost there already. Maybe next spring?

As the year goes on and Shen Yuan’s fifteenth birthday passes, the preparations for the Immortal Alliance Conference become more obvious. Several masters take leave from teaching their classes, including Master Li, and the general harried-ness of the assistants and servants of the Palace increases by 25%. The Old Palace Master is seen more frequently as well, often conversing with senior cultivators, dropping by classes, and speaking with Gongyi Xiao.

He even appears once during Shen Yuan’s lesson with Gongyi Xiao, which startles both of them. Hou Lianhua, who still attends each lesson despite her and Shen Yuan shooting daggers at each other whenever Gongyi Xiao’s back is turned, flies up from her seat to hug her father.

Shen Yuan fumbles, putting his practice sword away and bowing. Gongyi Xiao executes the movement flawlessly. They both greet, “Shizun!”

“Rise,” the Old Palace Master says. His tone warms as he addresses his daughter, “A-Hua, I must borrow Gongyi Xiao for a minute. Please excuse us.”

Okay. Bit rude to interrupt Shen Yuan’s training session and not even say anything to him, but whatever.

To Shen Yuan’s surprise, Hou Lianhua giggles and points this out. “Baba, this is Disciple Shen’s time with Xiao-ge.” Then, not at all to Shen Yuan’s surprise, she adds, “Shen-di is so terrible with the sword that he requires weekly supplemental lessons from Xiao-ge.”

Shen Yuan almost glares at her, as has been his usual choice of action ever since their confrontation in the Inner Palace. Thankfully, his survival instincts override his hater instincts, and he does not glower at the sect leader’s daughter right in front of him.

“Disciple Shen?” The Old Palace Master looks at him, and the shudder that runs up Shen Yuan’s spine surprises him. He should be happy to have his shizun’s attention, the man is hardly seen in the Outer Palace, but the only thing he feels is uneasy. 

The Old Palace master smiles, and it is grandfatherly and normal. “Ah, apologies, Disciple Shen. This master will return Gongyi Xiao in a minute.”

“Of course, shizun,” Shen Yuan responds, bowing again. He waits for the Old Palace Master and Gongyi Xiao to walk off before collapsing on the bench Hou Lianhua usually sits on.

He hardly gets a moment to relish the disappearance of his unease before Hou Lianhua is demanding he remove his peasant body from her bench. He shoots back that this is nobody’s bench, and it's been sat on by hundreds of other disciples, and she snaps back that it’s her  bench for this hour so he should move.

They snipe at each other until the Old Palace Master and Gongyi Xiao return, at which point Shen Yuan is forced to get up to bow and Hou Lianhua immediately splays across the bench smugly.

He silently vows that next time it rains, he really will shove her in a mud puddle, consequences be damned.

Shen Yuan tells the Qin sisters about this incident later, as word had gotten around that the Old Palace Master had stopped by. They seem disappointed by how little he has to say about their shizun, but when he shifts the conversation to their upcoming birthdays they flee the conversation entirely.

Well, “flee” isn’t the right word. In reality, Qin Wanyue extracts them from the conversation so smoothly that Shen Yuan doesn’t even realize that’s what she did until the next day.

When he does realize that’s what happened, his chest goes tight and the backs of his eyes sting. He wants to hole up in his room. He wants to ask Qin Wanyue why she didn’t want to talk about it, if Qin Wanrong is going to have to pick a spouse on her Ji Li too, who did Qin Wanyue pick, if she didn’t want to talk about it because she’s as afraid of another argument as he is.

Oh god. He’s actually going to cry.

Even though his roommate is chill, his dignity is still recovering from the truth or dare incident. Shen Yuan retreats to his home.

It’s lunch hour, and Shen Pingyang is out of the house delivering a freshly made lunch to Shen Xijun. Shen Yuan walks through the quiet apartment and flops facedown onto his childhood bed. It smells clean, and he remembers rolling around on it in pure excitement the day he and the Qin sisters confirmed each other as friends.

His hands fist the familiar blankets, and he starts to cry.

It’s mortifying, even though there is no one around to hear him sniffle or see his ruddy face. He’s fifteen years old! He’s technically even older, if he counts the years of memories from his past life. Not only that, he’s crying over friends he hasn’t even lost! Sure, they might not talk everyday, but they still eat at the same table every meal. They still gave him a qiankun pouch for his birthday this year.

But they didn’t wear the belt tassels he’d commissioned for them, the ones he’d personally collected the materials for. They hardly spend time together outside of class or homework related situations. They used to tell each other everything. Now he doesn’t even know something important like who Qin Wanyue’s fiance is, or something mundane like how Qin Wanrong is doing in her general class.

They’re not mean to him, or ignoring him. They’re just. Not as close as they used to be.

It’s nothing to cry over, he thinks as he sobs into the blankets. You never had friends in your past life except your siblings. You had, at most, acquaintances. You should be grateful for what you have now.

He has two friends. Friends he once thought of as his best friends but now he can’t even call them that in his head because if he finds out they think differently it’d be soulcrushing. So they're just friends.

[ User has more than two friends… ]

Can you fuck off?! I’m having a breakdown here!

The System’s interruption does remind him that there’s more to the world than his angst session. He needs to leave soon, or else he won’t make it to his next class on time.

Shen Yuan stands, wipes his face, and curses when more tears well anyway.

“Stop crying,” he hisses at himself. “What do you have to cry about? Luo Binghe is going through hell on Qing Jing and he didn’t cry after that first day. He’s being bullied and beaten every day and you’re crying over, what? Your friends not wanting to talk to you about their birthdays? Of course they fucking don’t! You argued with Qin-jie last time and probably stressed her out more about her Ji Li. Stop. Crying!”

He presses his palms into his eyes, breathing raggedly, until at last the tears stop. Then he splashes his face with water, dries off, and sprints to his upcoming class, where he absorbs nothing.

When he sees the Qin sisters at dinner, it’s like the tangled, strangling mass of emotions in his chest goes slack. He knows he’s staring throughout dinner, but he can’t bring himself to care. He only starts to feel again when Qin Wanrong quietly asks him if he needs something, and he asks if he can talk to her after dinner, and she agrees.

They go to one of the aesthetic courtyards, a small one with a drooping willow over an artificial pond. Nobody else is there, though that might not last. Shen Yuan has to speak quickly if he does not want their conversation ending up in the Palace gossip.

“Qin-mei,” he starts, and his throat closes up. He swallows, mentally chanting just do it, and meekly asks, “How are you doing?”

She blinks at him. “Fine? How… are you doing?”

“Um. Great.” He reconsiders. “No. I’m not great. I’ve been pretty stressed.”

“With what? Is Master Li giving you a lot of work?”

“No, not that.” Just do it. Just tell her you miss her. Fuck, that’s cheesy as hell. And she’s standing right in front of you. She’ll think you’re crazy.

Qin Wanrong’s eyebrows draw together in concern. “One of your other classes? The Little Palace Mistress?”

Okay, don’t say you miss her or Qin-jie. Back up. Ask about their birthdays again.

“What do you want for your birthday?” he blurts out.

The tension leaves Qin Wanrong’s face, and she huffs. “You made me worried! Are you really that stressed trying to figure out what I want? You’ve never asked before.”

“I know.” By unspoken agreement, he and the Qin sisters had always surprised each other with their gifts—bar that painting he did for Qin Wanrong the first year they were friends. “It’s just. Um. Neither you nor Qin-jie wore what I got you last year. Which is fine! I’d just like to know if jewelry or accessories are off the table.”

The tension returns to Qin Wanrong. She glances away from him, rocking on her heels, before she slowly replies, “Qin-jie liked it more than me. But then she told me the scales of iridescent rainbow fish can be used to store qi, ha, and now I like it a lot. I wish I could wear it more, but then people would ask where I got it.” 

The relief that floods Shen Yuan is comparable to morphine. “Really?”

“Truly.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Pause. “But why…?”

“Why can’t people know?” Qin Wanrong guesses. Shen Yuan nods. “Jiejie says It attracts attention when young ladies wear things not bought by their family. Our family would want to know, and they’re already—”

She cuts herself off, making an annoyed face. The relief leaves Shen Yuan dizzyingly fast, and before he can think it through he’s asking, “Are they pushing you to get engaged as well?”

This is when, with all the timing of the killer in a horror movie, Qin Wanyue enters the courtyard.

Shen Yuan flinches and stares, exactly like the victim in the horror movie. Qin Wanrong does the same thing. Qin Wanyue fast-walks over to them with the grace and presence of the grim fucking reaper, and seizes her sister by the arm.

She furiously whispers, not quietly enough, “Why are you alone with him?! People are going to talk!”

“We’re just talking!” Qin Wanrong protests.

“Hi, Qin-jie,” Shen Yuan says awkwardly. “I just wanted to speak with Qin-mei.”

Qin Wanyue huffs through her nose, and in a tempered tone, responds, “Hello, Shen-di. Apologies for interrupting. What did you want to talk to her about?”

Just do it. Ask. Her reaction will give you the answer. Or maybe she’ll be honest and you can talk and apologize for pushing her last year—

The argument flashes through his mind. The end of it, decisive and cold.

If you care about me, then don’t bring this up again.

“I was wondering if Qin-mei wanted anything specific for her birthday.” He’s not lying, but the words still feel ugly. “Does Qin-jie want anything specific?”

Qin Wanyue seems taken aback, but she shakes her head. “I trust Shen-di’s judgement.”

Well. Even if she did not wear the belt tassel, Qin Wanrong said she liked it. Shen Yuan would simply have to find something the sisters could actually use without drawing unwanted attention.

“Alright,” he says, and doesn’t feel any better than he had when the conversation started.

–

The gift Shen Yuan makes for Qin Wanrong is a pain to create, but she lights up when he shows her how it works. Which is a relief. He had been worried it was too simple a gift. In Shen Yuan’s past life, it was a thing fit for children, but here it is a novelty.

The pop-up birthday card is made of thick paper, decorated in brightly colored inks and petals from his velvet sacred lilies and leaves from his grand humming vine. The inks had been expensive, but they did not bring him nearly as much grief as figuring out the pop-up part.

Admittedly, he got help from Wu Hao, which had been a shock. He’d been explaining what he was trying to make to Chen Ting, and Wu Hao, hovering nearby hopefully, had shown an interest. Apparently, when he’d been taking the same level talisman class as Shen Yuan, his end of year project had been talismans which could fold onto themselves. Not too special by itself, as it had been adapted from the standard sigils that allowed talismans to fly through the air and stick to the desired target.

But, Wu Hao continued after glancing at Chen Ting, if you made a talisman with seemingly innocuous symbols or brushstrokes on it, then had it fold a certain way so the ink lined up to create different characters or symbols…

Very sneaky. And genius. Shen Yuan was kind of mad this had never shown up in PIDW.

It ended up being a small project between the three of them; Shen Yuan and Wu Hao figuring out how to make the paper pop up repeatedly without tearing, and Chen Ting chatting with them and occasionally dropping lines that could be construed as flirting but could also not be, distracting Wu Hao as he frantically tried to ask Shen Yuan with his eyes if she meant it.

Shen Yuan was never going to hang out with just the two of them again. He didn’t quite feel like a third wheel, but he also did not want to stick his foot into whatever intricate courting ritual Chen Ting was enacting on poor Wu Hao.

Anyway, the pop-up card is a success, and Qin Wanrong is delighted by the score of woodland animals (her favorites) that rise up whenever she opens the card.

Figuring something out for Qin Wanyue is more difficult. He knows that she enjoys things like perfumes and nice clothes and accessories, but those are things he cannot gift her without people taking it as a declaration of intent or something. But she liked the practicality of his last gift, so he focuses on that.

Thus, on her sixteenth birthday he presents her with a basket of small gifts. Ground up and prepared giant thorny aster roots, dried leaves from Master Li’s sinister tree (taken with permission), a calligraphy brush made with wood from his duskwood sapling, and a handful of medicinal pills, among other things. He includes a note detailing what each one does.

He doesn’t think this is as good as what he got for Qin Wanrong, but Qin Wanyue seems pleased by it when he explains what each thing is. She seems especially happy with the medicinal pills, which are for, ahem, muscle cramps. Shen Xijun had suggested it to Shen Yuan when he was trying to fill the last bit of space in the basket.

The gifts don’t change the frequency with which they see each other or spend time with just the three of them, and Shen Yuan contents himself with that. It’s not like he expected the gifts to reverse time to how they used to be. It’s not like he hoped that he could mend their relationship with gifts instead of words because he’s too much of a coward to try actually communicating with them.

But the gifts don’t fracture their friendship further. At least they’re still friends.

Chapter Text

With the revelation that Wu Hao is actually quite creative and well-versed in talismans, Shen Yuan ropes him into his end of year talisman project. Which is the same talisman that he’s been trying to make all year, the one that’s meant to keep his friends safe in the Conference, the one whose invention will complete the Safe & Sound quest and net him 50 C-Points.

Wu Hao skims the scroll Shen Yuan had had Chen Ting check out, sighs, and recommends about a dozen more texts for Shen Yuan to read. Awful.

Even more awful, Chen Ting is roped into the project too because she’s the only one of them that can check out texts from the Junzi Library. Which means despite swearing off working with just the two of them, Shen Yuan finds himself witnessing Chen Ting and Wu Hao’s inscrutable flirting near daily.

At least it gets his mind off the Qin sisters.

Just before the project is due, the three of them finally get the talisman working. A relatively small amount of qi is funneled into the talisman to produce a powerful barrier around the user. It’s limited by the fact that it specifically binds to the person who activates it, so you cannot use it for another person.

Also, as they discover while testing, the barrier is skin-tight. Meaning clothes are not protected.

Shen Yuan is glad they decided to test it at his house. His dignity simply would not have survived otherwise (like his robes, which very much did not survive the qi blast Shen Yuan egged Chen Ting into throwing at him).

The talisman master is impressed by Shen Yuan’s showcase when he presents his talisman, and gives him recommendations on improving the talisman afterwards. Shen Yuan is sick and tired of working on this fucking talisman, but then the System chimes that the Safe & Sound Quest is only half complete, and if he wants his 50 C-Points he better optimize this talisman before the Conference.

Shen Yuan puts it off until next year.

Speaking of the new year, new disciples enter the sect. Thankfully, Shen Yuan does not have to worry about getting new roommates. As a belated birthday present, his mothers told him they’d partly pay for a two or three person room if he could arrange for his roommates to pay their half or third.

His current roommate, whose name he forgot forever ago and now he can’t ask what it is because that’d be too awkward but he really needs to relearn it, agrees when he offers them that deal. Shen Yuan isn’t sure who else to ask, so his roommate asks one of their friends about it, and that person agrees, so now they have a three person room. Thankfully, Shen Yuan’s new roommate is quiet as a mouse.

Moving all their junk out of their old room is akin to fighting a war of attrition. Shen Yuan and his roommate keep finding new shit in weird corners of their old room, sometimes finding the other person’s belongings in their half. Shen Yuan is not sure why his roommate has a necklace of animal teeth and snail shells, but he’s sure there’s some logical, cultivation-related reason for it. Even though he senses no qi in the necklace at all.

At this point, the general disciples of their year are graduating, moving to the capital in preparation for the Imperial Exams, returning home or elsewhere to find work, or staying in Huan Hua for research or employment reasons. It’s a bit startling to notice missing faces from the canteens and Liu Zhao Library.

Being a fourth year as a cultivation disciple, meanwhile, opens up his schedule. At least, it should theoretically, given he no longer has to take a class on talismans, but he reluctantly enrolls in independent study for talismans. There’s no way he’s optimizing his talisman without the review and constructive criticism of a master.

He also takes the next level of alchemy, which he likes because not only are they now working with a mix of biological materials and inorganic ones, but they actually get to make interesting potions. Classes include a lot of colorful smoke, filtration talismans, mildly toxic liquids, and an evacuation at least once a month. The instructor for that class keeps a tally on a hung scroll of how many times she’s been asked if a potion should be boiling/that color/have clumps/be moving on its own/etc.. By the end of the first month, it’s already halfway filled.

Basically, it’s Shen Yuan’s favorite class.

As for his least favorite class, thanks to Gongyi Xiao’s consistent tutoring, Shen Yuan passes and gets to take the next level of martial arts. Great. Even more complicated sword forms. Thankfully, this is the last required martial arts class he has to take, so he only has to suffer through one more year of scraping wins in spars and getting beat up.

Gongyi Xiao is happier about Shen Yuan passing than he is. The Head Disciple treats Shen Yuan to a meal in the Inner Palace, which, wow. The food here is almost as good as his mama’s. Shen Yuan devours it while amiably chatting with Gongyi Xiao, who at the end of the meal, offers to keep tutoring him. Obviously Shen Yuan agrees, though only after making sure it won’t inconvenience his Gongyi-shixiong.

Meanwhile, the next level of arrays is maddeningly boring. It goes in depth on the theory and mechanics of Huan Hua’s iconic arrays. Shen Yuan almost falls asleep every class period, which might be because it's his morning class and he stays up late reading novels, but if the arrays work, they work! He doesn’t care about which old man theorised what arrangement! Let him out!!

Qin Wanyue, who sits next to him in class, is far more interested in the subject than he is. He can’t help but feel like she’s judging him whenever they do the homework together and he doesn’t know the answer to a question.

Lastly, his favorite part of this new year is the increased responsibility Master Li has given him. Due to Master Li often being out of the Palace to help with Conference preparations, a different master has taken over the biology classes. Master Li had privately told Shen Yuan that he did not trust the other master to not go on a tangent about birds every opportunity he got, so Shen Yuan was tasked with attending whatever biology classes he could to keep the new master on topic.

Admittedly, Shen Yuan lets the master go on a tangent every now and then. It’s actually quite interesting! But most of the time he coaxes the new master back on topic. And then asks about whatever species the man was gearing up to talk about after class.

A side effect of basically being the teacher’s assistant is the new disciples asking him for help. His ear becomes trained for the words, “Shen-shixiong!” Whether in or out of class, he’ll turn to find some shidimei waiting for his attention, and as soon as they have it they pepper him with questions.

He’s happy to teach his fellow teenagers, but secretly his favorites are the younger disciples. Sure, these eight to ten year olds probably got into the sect through bribery, but now that he’s their shixiong and not their age he doesn’t want to scam them anymore. Instead, he gets to act like a wise senior, and his payment is the pride he feels when they do well on their homework and tests. And then they bounce up to him afterward going, “Shen-shixiong, Shen-shixiong, look how well I did!”

Absolutely adorable.

They are the only thing that make him hesitate when Gongyi Xiao tells him after one of their sessions that Shen Yuan has been selected for a mission.

–

After being assured that his shidimei would be fine for the duration of the mission, Shen Yuan properly grins and thanks Gongyi Xiao, and boasts to the nearby Hou Lianhua that he’s been chosen! Finally!!

“I hope you get eaten,” is Hou Lianhua's response. Gongyi Xiao splutters.

Shen Yuan, who had a growth spurt a couple months ago that put him a centimeter taller than the Little Palace Mistress, says, “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you from down there.”

He dodges the kick she aims at his ankle. And the following whip lash. And then flees as Gongyi Xiao distracts her.

He’s too giddy to contemplate revenge. A mission! He can finally do real cultivator stuff! And once he finishes it, he’ll have access to the Shop after all these years! And Master Li will take him along to catch monsters!

It’s too much excitement. He hardly sleeps that night.

The information he was given is that in the closest city, yes the one the Qin sisters are from, someone has died of mysterious circumstances. Zhu Tao. The cousin of a Huan Hua cultivator, apparently. It happened just that morning, so they have not yet determined the cause of death. Shen Yuan was probably chosen to help figure that out.

Only a couple of other disciples were chosen for the Hunt, all of them older than Shen Yuan, and they have one senior cultivator supervising and helping their group. They meet at the Palace’s western gate after breakfast the next day and exchange introductions.

Master Zhu is vaguely familiar to Shen Yuan, but he can’t place where he’s seen the man before. Maybe they crossed paths in the Palace before? He puts it out of his mind as they trek to the city. He’s more distracted by the fact that Master Zhu is the Huan Hua cultivator the deceased person is related to, which, isn't that a conflict of interest??

They arrive at the Zhu family estate just before lunch, and are welcomed by servants and seated for food. Master Zhu’s father, a truly elderly man, is the head of the household, and he greets their group politely. He sits at the head of the table with his two wives on one side, and his guests on the other. Master Zhu sits right next to him on the guest side.

“Our home is open to you,” Senior Zhu tells them over a rich vegetarian meal. His entire demeanor is somber. “If you must see Zhu Tao, he has been moved to the morgue.”

“This master will see if there are any clues on the body,” Master Zhu says. "Father, who of the household saw the scene or may know relevant information?”

Senior Zhu thinks for a minute before giving several names. Master Zhu assigns each of the disciples a person to find and question. Shen Yuan thinks it's pretty suspect that Master Zhu is going to look at the body alone, and he also has some complaints about the body being moved, but he keeps his mouth shut.

After lunch, the disciples are set loose to question people. Shen Yuan finds Zhu Tao’s personal servant where Senior Zhu said he would be, and gets more details about the death from the man.

Zhu Tao was found dead in his bedroom by the servant in the early morning. There was no sign of forced entry, nor any sign of anyone having entered the room during the night. The entire estate is warded against demons by Master Zhu’s efforts, so it couldn’t have been anything demonic slipping in. Nothing was taken from the room. Zhu Tao was in bed, and had no visible injuries.

The servant clearly grows uncomfortable after that last question, so Shen Yuan asks to be taken to Zhu Tao’s quarters. The man obliges, leading Shen Yuan deeper into the estate and lingering by the door as Shen Yuan looks around.

There’s a sitting room and the actual bedroom, both of which Shen Yuan pokes around in. The latticed windows are perfectly intact, and there’s no scrapes on any doorframes. His mind jumps to the multitude of demons and demonic creatures that could achieve this, but double-checking with his own talisman reveals no traces of demonic qi. His next guess is ghosts or the undead, but the talisman he makes for that detects no excess yin energy.

Weird. And very intriguing.

As he’s looking under the bed in the bedroom, he hears hushed voices from the sitting room. Thinking it’s one of his fellow disciples who’ve also come to investigate the room, he calls, “What’s going on?”

The voices quiet. Then the servant says, “Shen-xiuzhe, a young master of the house is merely stopping by to check on the investigation.”

Oh. Shen Yuan gets off his knees and goes back to the sitting room. He immediately wants to retreat and crawl under the bed he was just checking. The young master is a teenage boy around Shen Yuan’s age, and his features are so fine that Shen Yuan’s face warms and his guts twist. In shame! Because his disheveled state must be an eyesore to such a well put together person!

“Gongzi, this is Shen-xiuzhe, a disciple cultivator from Huan Hua,” the servant introduces. “Shen-xiuzhe, this servant presents Zhu Ruwen, son of Master Zhu.”

The young master’s eyes widen. “Shen-xiuzhe? Are you Shen Yuan?”

Shen Yuan stops trying to surreptitiously straighten his robes and blinks at Zhu Ruwen. “Yes? Apologies, do I know you?”

If Zhu Ruwen knows Shen Yuan from Palace gossip somehow, Shen Yuan might have to change the intact state of those latticed windows. He’s pretty sure his cultivation is good enough that it’d hardly hurt if he hurled himself through them.

“Shen-xiuzhe does not remember this one,” Zhu Ruwen says, not in an upset way, just stating facts. Shen Yuan cautiously nods. “It has been some years. We met during one of the Qin family’s celebratory dinners, just before their daughters’ entry to your sect.”

The memory hits Shen Yuan like an eighteen wheeler. His jaw drops. “Zhu Ruwen?!”

Suddenly, the vague familiarity of Master Zhu makes sense. And he could have guessed that this was that Zhu Family. But how could Shen Yuan have realized this young master was Zhu Ruwen when the other teen looks so different? So– so—!

Zhu Ruwen smiles, eyes curving slightly, and Shen Yuan wants to die. “Ah, now you recall. I am pleased to know Shen-xiuzhe has not forgotten this one entirely.”

“Mhm,” Shen Yuan manages.

“How fortunate that fate would let us meet again. Although, the circumstances are hardly ideal.” Zhu Ruwen’s smile fades. “Have you found anything?”

“Not yet,” Shen Yuan replies apologetically, grabbing onto the topic with both hands like a drowning man would a life rope. “I’ve only confirmed what we already know. No sign of demonic involvement, nor any signs of forced entry. Additionally, I checked for spirits or ghosts, but there is nothing indicating any were present. Ideally I’d check Zhu Tao’s body next to determine the cause of death, but your father took over that duty.”

Zhu Ruwen sighs. “Understandable. Although my grandfather may have welcomed you warmly, Zhu Tao was his favorite nephew. He would be upset if any disrespect was shown to him post-mortem. In fact, I am surprised you were allowed in his rooms at all.”

At this, the servant bows, yet his voice is steady as he says, “Apologies, young master, however I wish for Zhu Tao-gongzi to be able to rest in peace. He was a gentleman undeserving of such an abrupt death.”

“I’m not upset. I agree.” Zhu Ruwen turns back to Shen Yuan. “Zhu Tao and I were not close, however he was kind to me. If Shen-xiuzhe has further questions or requires any help, I am here to assist.”

Shen Yuan almost waves him off, but logic stops him. Having another member of the household involved might complicate things, but Zhu Ruwen seems more open than Master Zhu. Yes, there’s a small possibility Zhu Ruwen somehow had a hand in the death, anything is possible at this point and the Qin sisters didn’t like him, but it’d be better to have him close by in that case so he can’t cause any other trouble.

But god. Can Shen Yuan tolerate being in his presence for longer? Being face-to-face with such an objectively attractive person his age is making him extremely self-conscious.

Ahh, Shen Yuan needs to say something, the servant is starting to look uncomfortable with the silence.

He decides fuck it and hurriedly asks, “Do either of you know if Zhu Tao had any enemies? People who might want him dead?”

Zhu Ruwen gestures for the servant to speak first. The man says thoughtfully, “Zhu Tao-gongzi was amiable and polite. I never overheard or saw him have any strong disagreements. Although he did haggle aggressively when purchasing goods.”

“Indeed. Zhu Tao mostly kept to himself,” Zhu Ruwen agrees.

That eliminates the most obvious possibility. The lack of visible injuries on the body had already put doubt on the "revenge kill" theory. If the killing was done out of spite, the kill should've been gorey.

Shen Yuan asks, “Did he do a lot of shopping?”

“No, however when he did purchase items, they were often expensive, functional items with a history,” the servant replies.

“Such as?”

“That candle holder.” The servant points at an ornate, wrought candle holder on a writing desk. “It belonged to an imperial prince several generations ago. Zhu Tao-gongzi paid a fair sum for it.”

“I once spoke to Zhu Tao about one of his purchases,” Zhu Ruwen adds. “He’d bought a set of antique writing brushes from a traveling merchant. The merchant claimed the brushes had been crafted and used by a now-ascended Cang Qiong cultivator.”

“I see,” Shen Yuan says slowly, mentally paging through new possibilities. “Yet none of these valuable items were stolen?”

The servant shakes his head. “After Zhu Tao was discovered, the entire household did an inventory. Nothing was missing or misplaced.”

Shen Yuan glances around the room, but no clue magically jumps out at him. “I have a few ideas, but I would like to see if any of the other disciples have discovered anything. Could you take me back to the dining room?”

“Of course, Shen-xiuzhe.” The servant leads the way back.

Zhu Ruwen follows, keeping pace with Shen Yuan. Anticipation coils in Shen Yuan, and sure enough, Zhu Ruwen eventually speaks.

“Why did Shen-xiuzhe claim he wanted to see this one again, only to decline my invitation?”

“What?” Shen Yuan’s utterly baffled tone makes the other boy tilt his head. “I never declined anything. I asked my mama, Shen Pingyang, to reach out to your father a couple of days after the party, and he told her that you refused to see me.”

Surprise, then understanding, then anger. Zhu Ruwen clicks his tongue in a distinctly annoyed manner and says viciously, “I should have known.”

He doesn’t elaborate. Shen Yuan doesn’t need him to; he’s put the pieces together in his head already.

–

The other disciples have no new information, except for one of them, who says a maid heard strange noises down the hall from Zhu Tao’s a few hours before his body was found.

“What kind of noises?” Shen Yuan asks.

His shijie responds, “Apparently it sounded like wood scraping. Like the sound made when heavy furniture is being moved. But when she checked the hall, she found nothing amiss.”

Shen Yuan shares what he’s learned as well, but nobody knows what it could mean. While they wait for Master Zhu to return, Shen Yuan flicks his fan open and closed, deep in thought. Zhu Ruwen sits on the armrest of the chair Shen Yuan has claimed, making stilted small talk with the other disciples. They keep talking to him despite his short responses. Shen Yuan can only assume it's due to his pretty privilege.

Eventually, Master Zhu finds them. The first thing he says is, “Ruwen, do not sit like that.”

Zhu Ruwen silently slides off the armrest.

Master Zhu speaks to the disciples next. “Zhu Tao is perfectly whole. No exterior injuries, and the doctor did not identify any internal injuries or signs of poison. However, he was entirely drained of qi.”

“Entirely?” A shixiong asks. “No spiritual, yin, or yang energy?”

“This master was about to expound on that,” Master Zhu snaps, and the shixiong ducks his head. “As I was saying, Zhu Tao’s spiritual veins have been drained. Were it only his yang energy depleted, I would think it was a succubus or hulijing. But there were no traces of demonic qi in or on him.”

Shen Yuan eliminates several possibilities from his mind. The list he’s left with is very short, yet…

His shixiongjie fill Master Zhu in on what they’ve learned, and Master Zhu’s expression grows stormier with each fact. After thinking it over, he addresses Shen Yuan.

“Disciple Shen. Any ideas?”

Shen Yuan startles, and finds everyone looking at him expectantly. Except for Zhu Ruwen, who is staring at his father with the implacable stillness of a glacier.

“I know of a few organisms that fit the criteria established,” Shen Yuan says hesitantly. “However, none of them could have possibly been present. The vampiric lamp hopper is only found in the Endless Abyss. The smiling fox only appears on moonless nights. And—”

“If it cannot be any of those, then don’t waste time talking about them.”

Shen Yuan flinches. Zhu Ruwen smiles, and it is full of teeth. “Father, did you not teach this Ruwen that interrupting others was improper?”

“Don’t get smart with me.” Master Zhu exhales sharply and shakes his head. “Nevermind. If no plant or animal did this, we must assume it was a person. Someone must have cursed Zhu Tao.”

That is what Shen Yuan had been thinking as well. Except for the fact that as far as they know, nobody had a grudge against him. So it must be someone with a vendetta against the family.

“Until we discover who, we will take preventative measures.”

Master Zhu assigns each of them a section of the estate to ward, and they disperse. Zhu Ruwen hangs back to speak with his father, a conversation Shen Yuan starts to eavesdrop on until he realizes it's Zhu Ruwen boldfacedly confronting Master Zhu on his lie from years ago, at which point Shen Yuan feels awful and leaves.

–

He runs into Senior Zhu while finishing up his section of the estate. The old man is flanked by attendants, and he only notices Shen Yuan when one of them whispers in his ear.

“Shen-xiuzhe?” Senior Zhu croaks.

Shen Yuan is surprised that the old man remembers his name. Or maybe the attendant told him. He bows respectfully. “Senior Zhu.”

“My son says you disciples have been warding the house.”

“En. This disciple has just finished here.”

Senior Zhu nods. Shen Yuan waits to be dismissed, but after a long moment, the old man says, “Nothing like this has ever happened to our family before. I told my foolish son that becoming a cultivator would only attract spirits and curses, and now look at what has happened. Putting ideas of magic in poor Zhu Tao’s head only for this to happen…”

Shen Yuan suddenly feels as uncomfortable as he had while listening to Master Zhu and Zhu Ruwen’s conversation. He scans the hall for an escape.

“Perhaps it is a punishment from our ancestors for letting the boy go so long without marrying. But Zhu Tao always looked so uncomfortable around women, I could not bear to force him… and my son already had children…”

A ceiling beam doesn’t conveniently collapse and provide an excuse to leave. Shen Yuan coughs awkwardly. “It is truly a tragedy, Senior Zhu. Rest assured, we will not let this happen to anyone else in your household.”

Senior Zhu’s glazed eyes focus on him. “I should hope not. Young man, have you ever seen anything like this?”

Shen Yuan should probably not tell him that this is his first ever mission. “These are strange circumstances to be sure, but not outside of the realm of possibility. We’re warding the house for those possibilities.”

“Hmm. Alright. This senior will see you and your fellows for dinner. I expect an update then.”

Senior Zhu leaves. Shen Yuan leans against a wall and sighs deeply.

Why couldn’t he have had an easy mission? Qin Wanyue’s had been relatively straightforward! But no, instead of tracking or discovering creatures in the wild, he’s stuck in some rich family’s estate with the weirdest death ever that apparently happened to one of the least deserving guys ever. The whole thing is upsetting.

Hey, System? Can I get a hint please?

[ Hints can be purchased from the Shop. ]

I hate you.

He hears someone approaching, and he stands up straight to greet them. Guilt twists in his chest when he sees its Zhu Ruwen.

Before he can say something like, I overheard your argument with your dad and it sounds like he’s super controlling and you guys have a fucked up relationship, Zhu Ruwen is sharply gesturing for him to follow. He also puts a finger to his lips in the apparently multi-universal sign for quiet.

Shen Yuan obeys. He’d totally die first in a horror movie, wouldn’t he?

Zhu Ruwen leads him into what seems like a storage closet, considering the random objects stacked in the space. He leaves the door just cracked enough for light to get through. This means that the lighting is very fucking ominous as Zhu Ruwen fixes his amber-brown eyes on Shen Yuan.

“Um.” Is it hot in here or is it just Shen Yuan?

“I stole the keys to the morgue from my father,” Zhu Ruwen says in a hushed tone. “It is as he said, there were no injuries. Zhu Tao looked as if he were asleep, except for his sickly pallor.”

Oh, okay, they’re in this enclosed, private space barely three feet apart because Zhu Ruwen is telling him that he secretly went to see a dead body. Shen Yuan immediately feels more at ease.

“Sickly pallor?” He asks.

“Yes.”

A pause. Shen Yuan elaborates, “Please elaborate.”

“He was pale as snow and looked as if he had not slept in days. He also appeared older, as if he had aged twenty years since I last saw him.”

“That would be a result of all his qi being drained.” Shen Yuan is lowkey annoyed he didn’t get to see the body himself to check the spiritual veins, but then he thinks for more than two seconds about seeing someone’s lifeless corpse and his annoyance vanishes. No thanks.

Apropos of nothing, Zhu Ruwen asks, “Why did my father specifically ask you for ideas?”

“Eh? Um, I guess because he thought I was the most knowledgeable on monsters?”

“Why?”

“I’m the personal assistant of Master Li Xuelong, a cultivator who specializes in beasts and plants.”

Zhu Ruwen visibly reconsiders him. Shen Yuan fights the urge to curl up in a ball on the ground and method act as a pillbug for the rest of his life.

“I understand,” Zhu Ruwen eventually says. “My father interrupted you. However, he is far less knowledgeable in the realm of beasts and demons than he is in the realm of trading secrets. What do all the beasts you thought of have in common?”

Shen Yuan finds steady footing for the first time in this conversation. “They drain qi from humans. Yin, yang, anything with spiritual energy, they consume all of it. It’s fascinating, really. Their diets are composed entirely of purely spiritual energy, so despite not being demonic they’re one of the biggest threats to cultivators. Which is what they usually go after, not mortals like Zhu Tao. But they’re rare, only living in certain areas throughout the Realms. Or they solely appear under certain conditions, like the smiling fox, of which there are only five written records! Isn’t that crazy?”

“En. So why would a qi-sucking creature target Zhu Tao?”

“It would have to be desperate and starving to target a mortal with no cultivation. But that doesn’t matter, because it couldn’t have been any of those beasts! There’s just zero way for any of them to have entered and exited Zhu Tao’s rooms without alerting anyone or leaving no trace of itself! The ones that could have can’t have been involved, either, because the conditions for their appearance weren’t met.” Shen Yuan groans. “So we’re back at square one.”

“What does square one mean?”

Fuck, he rambled so much he started using modern slang again. “We’re back where we started in the investigation.”

Zhu Ruwen shakes his head. “Shen-xiuzhe and his shixiongjie have eliminated some causes of death. That is an improvement. Does Shen-xiuzhe agree with my father and believe it to be a curse?”

As much as Shen Yuan hates to agree with Master Zhu; “That’s the only possibility left.”

They stew in that for a little bit. As he thinks over everything they’ve learned over the day, he absentmindedly notes that the closet is weirdly comfortable. Like he’s been in here a long time.

Zhu Ruwen breaks the silence first. “But Zhu Tao had no enemies. My father does, however if someone wished to hurt him they would have gone after someone else. Zhu Tao held no particular importance to father.”

Shen Yuan swallows the anxiety building in his throat. “What about your grandfather?”

“It’s possible. If someone just wanted to hurt my grandfather, targeting Zhu Tao would work.”

Shen Yuan picks up the uncertainty in the other’s voice. He guesses, “But why just kill Zhu Tao and do nothing else? Why not send a threatening letter to your grandfather, or otherwise claim the kill?”

Zhu Ruwen agrees, “Exactly.”

“And how could a curse just drain the entirety of someone’s qi?” Shen Yuan unconsciously takes out his fan, opening and closing it as he thinks and talks. “Qi has to go somewhere. The law of conservation still applies in this fuckass world. It couldn’t have gone into an item, because then someone would have had to extract the item from the room. And we know there were no extra items in the room because inventory was taken and nothing was amiss.”

“Oh,” Zhu Ruwen says, with actual inflection in his tone. Shen Yuan makes eye contact with him, and it suddenly clicks for him, too.

Forget method acting as a pill bug. Shen Yuan is going to figure out a legitimate way to turn into one, bury himself, and live out the rest of his days in the dirt.

In lieu of that being a viable option, he hides his flaming face behind his open fan. “I’m so stupid.”

“My father is the stupid one,” Zhu Ruwen replies dryly. “He has enough experience that he should have realized.”

Shen Yuan makes a muffled noise of pain. He got so caught up in the idea it might be a monster, or something else with actual intent, that he’d overlooked the answer staring them right in the face.

“I’m going to stay in this closet forever.”

“That is not a healthy mindset to have.”

Shen Yuan lowers his fan to give Zhu Ruwen a look of confusion. “What?”

Zhu Ruwen meets it with an honest to god smirk. “If you stay in this closet, how are we meant to show my father that we’re better than him?”

A tempting argument. Shen Yuan may not relate to having parental issues, but he is still a teenager, meaning he is biologically imbued with the need to stick it to authority figures. Especially ones who suck, like Master Zhu.

“Alright.” The spirit of teenage rebellion overpowers his shame, and he snaps his fan shut. “Let’s go find a cursed object.”

–

He should have known, or at least thought of, a cursed item being at fault as soon as Zhu Tao’s servant started talking about old, expensive antiques. It’s a timeless classic! Cursed amulet, cursed sword, cursed crown, you name it and a story’s probably featured it. The story of the very world he’s living in features one as the protagonist’s golden finger!

At least none of his friends are around to witness his stupidity.

Shen Yuan and Zhu Ruwen track down Zhu Tao’s servant and inquire about items Zhu Tao had recently bought. There are only two, both purchased in the last year and stored in a room close to his quarters.

The room is dark, its singular window covered. The servant takes the window covering down, revealing a room cramped with furniture, shelves, and chests.

“I thought you said Zhu Tao did not shop often,” Shen Yuan says in mild shock. There’s more stuff in here than his entire house, he thinks.

“He didn’t. Not compared to other members of the household,” the servant replies.

“This is not a lot of items, considering Zhu Tao was about my fathers age before he died,” Zhu Ruwen adds. “Zhu Tao had admirable restraint.”

Okay, rich people, rub it in.

The servant navigates the room, Shen Yuan right behind and Zhu Ruwen on his tail, and they stop in front of the first item. A set of porcelain teacups, complete with a teapot. It’s pretty and was allegedly crafted by a man who died shortly after making it. Sounds cursed!

Shen Yuan asks to use a nearby writing desk to make some detection talismans, which the servant only allows after glancing at Zhu Ruwen. Shen Yuan has never made a standard talisman more carefully in his life; a single ink stain on this desk would probably cost his mom’s monthly salary.

The talismans find no demonic qi, malicious intent, or in fact any energy. Shen Yuan and Zhu Ruwen exchange a mildly worried glance. If the other item also turns up blank, they’ll have to check every single item Zhu Tao has ever bought, which is too much labor for just one disciple. They’d have to bring their suspicion to Master Zhu, which means if they’re proven right Master Zhu could take credit for it.

Thankfully, they don’t have to worry about that, because as soon as Shen Yuan activates the second talisman for resentful energy the cinnabar ink turns black and the paper shrivels up.

“Yep,” Shen Yuan says, delicately peeling the talisman off the camphor cabinet. “That’s cursed.”

He’s actually not sure how, exactly, a whole ass cabinet could have moved from this room to Zhu Tao’s. The servant confirms that this furniture was not part of Zhu Tao’s normal room arrangement, which raises a whole host of questions.

Shen Yuan cautiously pokes the cabinet while the servant fetches Master Zhu. Zhu Ruwen watches from a safe distance, occasionally asking questions.

This proves to be the right course of action, as Shen Yuan, right in the middle of explaining what the law of conservation is and how that must mean the qi stolen from Zhu Tao should be stored somewhere in the item, opens the lowermost drawer and is blasted right off his feet.

When Shen Yuan’s vision clears, he’s met with Zhu Ruwen kneeling over him, shaking him and calling his name. He sounds like he’s shouting but from far away.

“Owww, what the shit,” Shen Yuan groans. He feels like a professional carpenter mistook his face for rough wood and vigorously went at it with sandpaper.

“Thank goodness,” Zhu Ruwen sighs, sitting back. “You’re conscious.”

“What happened?”

“When you opened the drawer, a burst of light hit you. You were unconscious for a few seconds. Your face is also very red.”

“Oh.” He sits up, and distantly feels something warm trickle over his lip.

“Your nose is bleeding.”

“Thanks, I didn’t notice,” he replies, more sarcastically than Zhu Ruwen deserves but he’s a bit off from being fucking flashbanged.

“You didn’t?” Zhu Ruwen sounds mildly alarmed again.

Shen Yuan waves a hand. “Sarcasm. Sorry. Do you have a cloth I could use?”

“I will go fetch one. Are you alright to be left alone?”

“Yes, don’t worry, it didn’t do too much to me. Would’ve been bad if a non-cultivator opened that drawer, though.” Already, the burning sensation is fading as he circulates his qi.

Zhu Ruwen darts out to grab a cloth, and Shen Yuan, with his head carefully tilted so he doesn’t drip blood, shuffles over to the cabinet. The bottom drawer hangs open, and he carefully touches it. Nothing happens.

He feels around the inside and discovers carvings on the sides of the drawer and the inside of the cabinet frame. As soon as Zhu Ruwen returns, very quickly might Shen Yuan add, he stuffs his nose and tilts his head down to take a proper look.

“Damn,” he says, impressed and horrified in equal measure.

“What?” Zhu Ruwen asks.

“There’s arrays carved on the inside.” A lot of them, too.

Before Shen Yuan can try to figure out what kind, the door flies open and Master Zhu storms in.

—

After a lot of shouting (mostly on Master Zhu’s end), defensive responses (mostly on Zhu Ruwen’s end), awkward hovering (on Shen Yuan, the servant, and the other disciples’ ends), and stern words (on Senior Zhu’s end when he was drawn to the commotion), they manage to piece together what happened.

Zhu Tao purchased this camphor cabinet from a merchant reselling furniture. He likely bought it because he had an interest in cultivation, and the arrays had attracted him. However, being untrained in cultivation and only having an interest in it, he did not realize the arrays were malicious.

How they work is after a set amount of time, the cabinet sucks up the qi of the last person to handle it. That qi is then stored in the array in the drawer, and when the drawer is opened, the array lines are broken, triggering an explosion of the collected qi.

For a mortal, the qi-sucking and qi-explosion are fatal. For a cultivator, it’s an easy enough phenomenon to notice and negate. They do just that once everyone calms down, scoring deactivating symbols around the array.

Most likely, the camphor cabinet was deliberately made as a trap for some poor mortal who wouldn’t have been able to stop the qi-draining from happening. Following that line of thought, the qi-explosion component would be to kill whoever tried to investigate the death. Some mortal must’ve really pissed off a mean cultivator.

Luckily for everyone, and unluckily for Shen Yuan, he’d been the one to open the drawer and get a face full of fuck-you. So at least there were no more fatalities!

The promised dinner never happens, as Master Zhu arranges transport for the cursed item and Zhu Ruwen escorts Shen Yuan to his family’s medicine cabinet. They’re rich enough to have an herbalist on call, who first applies some salve to Shen Yuan’s qi burns and then suffers as Shen Yuan asks them about various medicinal herbs and poultices.

The herbalist escapes the conversation eventually by recommending a few manuals to Shen Yuan, who at that point has mercy and lets him go. Afterward, Shen Yuan sits on some steps in the front courtyard of the Zhu estate as the final arrangements are made.

Zhu Ruwen squats down next to him, and they sit in silence for a minute. Sunset is well underway, and servants scurry along the edges of the commotion to light lanterns.

“Why don’t the Qin sisters like you?” Shen Yuan asks. A bit blunt, but he doesn’t think Zhu Ruwen will mind. Plus, he’s been wondering about it the whole day.

Zhu Ruwen’s brows furrow, but not in an angry way. More contemplative and sad. “We used to be friends, when we were small. However, after the first time my father suggested a marriage between myself and Qin Wanyue, and Master Qin refused, he stopped taking me to see them. I can only assume Master Qin told them about my father’s request, and they became uncomfortable spending time with me.”

Shen Yuan wants to be surprised by this turn of events. He isn’t. He vows to put fleas in Master Qin’s bed. Not even any fancy, xianxia-specific fleas. Just normal fleas to irritate the guy.

“Qin Wanyue and Qin Wanrong thought you had a crush on Qin Wanyue, and you were the one proposing the marriage.”

“My father must have phrased it like that to appeal to Master Qin’s sentimental side.” Zhu Ruwen crosses his arms on his knees. “I did, though. I used to think Qin Wanyue was beautiful and intelligent. I still do, but I no longer hold romantic feelings toward her. It would be pointless, anyway. She’s already picked a spouse.”

Shen Yuan can’t stop the question from flying out of his mouth. “Do you know who it is?”

Zhu Ruwen nods. “Her spouse is the heir to a successful medicine house in the capital. I do not remember his name, but I do know he and Qin Wanyue have never met in person. The matching was arranged entirely through letters.”

It should be some huge epiphany or relief, to finally know. He may not have a name, but at least Shen Yuan has an idea.

But the thing is, he already had an idea. He knew it would be some young man of good status and blood. He knew he’d be unable to do anything to change Qin Wanyue’s fate because she didn’t want him to, and who was he to make such an important choice for a woman? That would not be feminist of him. Also, wouldn’t he be a bad friend, getting all up in his friend’s business when she explicitly told him not to?

So nothing really shifts in Shen Yuan’s world upon learning this. He just goes, “Oh,” and wonders if Qin Wanyue would be upset to know he was talking to Zhu Ruwen so casually.

After another stretch of silence, Shen Yuan quietly says, “She is beautiful and intelligent. Any man would be lucky to have her.”

In his past life, he thought all of Luo Binghe’s wives were lucky to have him. And he does still think Qin Wanyue is lucky to get to marry the protagonist of the world. But the protagonist of the world shouldn’t take his wives for granted. Qin Wanyue is, as mentioned, beautiful and intelligent. Most of Luo Binghe’s to-be-wives are. But Qin Wanyue is also one of the first friends Shen Yuan made in this life, and he knows what her favorite colors used to be, and what poems she thinks are tacky, and how hard she works to excel in her classes, and he misses her.

“Shen-xiuzhe?” Zhu Ruwen’s voice makes him blink hard, clearing away any blurriness in his vision. “Would you like to be friends?”

Shen Yuan blinks again. Zhu Ruwen glances at him, then away, then back again. His fingers tangle in the cloth of his robes.

“Um,” Shen Yuan says, not out of true hesitation, just pure surprise.

“You can say no.” Zhu Ruwen sounds a little bit like he’ll go stare broodily out a window cursing humanity if Shen Yuan says no.

The mental image makes Shen Yuan smile, and he leans closer to Zhu Ruwen despite how it makes some part of his hindbrain light up in TOO CLOSE alerts. “Yeah, let’s be friends. I’ll write to you when I get back to the sect.”

And for the first time today, Zhu Ruwen smiles with genuine joy. It’s a stark contrast to a face that’s been mostly stoic the entire day.

Shen Yuan leans back, face warm, and hopes some distance will kill the part of his hindbrain that’s urging him to make a break for the hills.

—

Thankfully, he doesn’t go into fight or flight mode whenever he gets a letter from Zhu Ruwen. He does smile, though, which he didn’t even notice until someone pointed it out to him once, at which point he declared that it was of course normal to be happy when hearing from a friend. Then he sped-walked away.

Not ran. It is important to specify he walked at an above average pace, but did not run. Because there was nothing embarrassing to run away from.

Anyways, he gets to know Zhu Ruwen well over the weeks they exchange letters. He also gets to learn of the aftermath of the Zhu estate mission.

It turns out Master Zhu had wanted Huan Hua disciples to help solve the case of his cousin’s death because he wanted to prove to his father, Senior Zhu, that cultivation is a righteous path to follow. Shen Yuan’s help in solving the case would have proven that to Senior Zhu, were it not for the fact that Zhu Tao had died trying to mess with the spiritual, which eroded Senior Zhu’s opinion on all cultivation-related things even further.

Zhu Ruwen has neat handwriting, but it scrawled in his eagerness as he described how his grandfather had scolded Master Zhu and limited his business in the jianghu. Shen Yuan still isn’t quite clear on what Master Zhu’s business had been, probably something to do with trading information, but it clearly isn’t necessary for the Zhu family’s financial wellbeing. Zhu Ruwen isn't unhappy about being slightly less rich, so Shen Yuan feels no guilt over how that mission went.

No, the worst part of concluding the mission happened right after, when Shen Yuan tried to open the System Shop.

[ Permission denied! ]

“What do you mean, permission denied?! I successfully completed a mission!”

[ User did. But the Shop is only accessible after a Night Hunt  (ᵕ,– ᴗ –,) ]

Shen Yuan stared at the text box. The text slowly disappeared, character by character, the textbox shrinking in on itself. Eventually all the text was gone and the box was only a sliver of a rectangle.

Ten seconds ticked by. Then, dot by dot;

[ … ]

Shen Yuan lunged. “I’LL RIP YOUR FUCKING POWER CORD OUT YOU CHEAT!”

Not his finest moment. After threatening every single one of the System’s circuits and processors, as well as cursing it for generations to come, he’d frantically searched for Master Li to ask if the man was also going to ruin Shen Yuan’s life through a technicality.

Unfortunately, Master Li was still out of the Palace helping with Conference arrangements. Until today.

As soon as Shen Yuan gets the summons to Master Li’s office, he ditches his alchemy homework and runs over. He stops just outside to straighten his robes and smooth down his hair, then knocks.

“Enter.”

Master Li’s office is as tidy as ever. Bookshelves lined with texts, preserved plants, and (donated!) taxidermy. The man himself is cleaning his glasses. Not with a glasses cleaning cloth, because if those existed Shen Yuan would have another paragraph full of curse words for Airplane, but a standard cleaning talisman.

Shen Yuan bows, down and back up. “Disciple Shen welcomes Master Li back to the Palace.”

“This master thanks his disciple. How has Disciple Shen fared?”

It all comes out of him. “Master Li, this disciple successfully completed a mission several weeks ago. I know you said I wasn’t allowed to help you with capturing beasts for the Conference until I’d gone on a Night Hunt, but isn’t this close enough?! Master Li, please, can this disciple join you on your outings now?”

He jerks into a sharp bow, and when a second goes by without a response, he hurriedly adds, “This disciple will not be in the way! Even if you must place this disciple on the side and not allow him close, just seeing the monsters and how the masters capture it would be an amazing learning experience! It is all this disciple wants!”

“Disciple Shen, calm down. Stand properly.”

Shen Yuan rises from his bow to see Master Li pinching the bridge of his nose. Master Li sighs, and moves his hand away so he can put his glasses back on.

He says, “I was informed of your mission. You did well.”

The hope the System had cruelly destroyed begins to stir. “Thank you!”

“Although it does not count as a Night Hunt…” Li Xuelong’s team is focused on catching the highest level monsters for the Conference. He would like to keep his disciple close to him, but given the boy’s poor martial ability it would not be the wisest decision. Yet he cannot refuse Disciple Shen any longer. He can tell the boy is one more refusal away from deciding that his true calling is as a wandering cultivator who will only be known to the jianghu as the insane Huan Hua-dropout that risks life and limb for a decent glimpse at dangerous monsters.

“This master can see if other teams would be amenable to hosting his disciple,” he decides. “However, if Shen Yuan is to participate in beast wrangling for the Conference, he must understand the consequences.”

“I do!” Shen Yuan quickly lowers his voice. “I mean, this disciple does, Master Li.”

He’s definitely going to fall behind on schoolwork and have to miss some classes, but it’ll be totally worth it to finally see the creatures he’s read about for years. Plants are great and all, but it's the animals that he’s most interested in. He’s ready to do makeup work and classes if it means he’ll get to see a thorny hopping mouse in person! Or an obsidian ox. Or any of the things he put on the list he gave Master Li, or even anything else, really!

Master Li hums. “Alright. Expect another summons within the week.”

That crushed hope blooms into pure joy in Shen Yuan. Wow, is the sun shining brighter now? Was the lacquered wood furniture always so shiny? He feels like he could run twenty laps around the training field and even do his practice with Gongyi Xiao afterward. Even the thought of Hou Lianhua doesn’t dampen his mood.

“Thank you,” he says, empathetic and far too serious for someone who's literally just been granted extra work to do on top of his already sizable schoolwork. “Master Li is the best master this disciple could have asked for.”

Master Li sighs again. “Dismissed, Disciple Shen.”

Shen Yuan practically skips out. As soon as he’s far enough away, he falls to his knees like a sports player who’s just scored a pivotal point in the last five seconds of a game and shouts, “YES! SUCK ON IT, SYSTEM!”

The textbox appears immediately. [ Why is the User bringing this System into this? (߹𖥦߹) ]

“Because Master Li is cooler than you and you can go suck on your technicalities!”

[ Σ(lliдﾟﾉ)ﾉ This System has been here for you for years! It is cooler than Li Xuelong! ]

“Not anymore!” Shen Yuan crows.

[ …Li Xuelong is quite cool. Hmph (¬_¬)  Why is User celebrating so much anyway? A number of Quests have been closed to him due to this decision. ]

Shen Yuan waves a hand dismissively. “Just make new ones.”

[ This System can do that, but the aforementioned Quests were actually premade ones worth quite a lot of points. The Quests this System can make for this new path will not be worth nearly as much. ]

Sounds like a scam to Shen Yuan. “Why not?”

[ Those Quests were all related to the User’s participation in the Immortal Alliance Conference. Since User is no longer participating– ]

“Hold on!” Shen Yuan tries to grab the textbox, but like every time he’s tried, his hands just go through it and he gets pins and needles in his hands. He hardly notices this time through his sudden distress. “What do you mean, no longer participating?”

The textbox dips. [ The consequences Li Xuelong spoke of were not just the stress of the added work. Because Shen Yuan is directly assisting in Conference preparation, and even learning how to defeat the monsters that will be in the Conference, he cannot be a participant. That would clearly be unfair to other participants. ]

The textbox lingers until he finishes reading before erasing and replacing the text. [ Li Xuelong likely thought this would be obvious to a bright student like Shen Yuan, and that Shen Yuan had already weighed his choices. But it seems User’s fixation blinded him… ]

Not participating in the Conference. Shen Yuan can’t participate in the most pivotal plot point in all of PIDW?!

He slumps to the ground. “System, just fucking kill me. Strike me down right now. My life is nothing but a series of mistakes that needs to be ended.”

[ User, please calm down… ]

As Shen Yuan’s shoulders shake in silent sobs, some students across the hall glance at each other and decide, actually, they don’t want to deal with whatever breakdown their shidi is having. But they know who does!

Five minutes later, Shen Yuan’s moping session is thoroughly derailed by his youngest biology class tutees clinging to him and crying that if he’s crying, they’re going to cry, too, and also who made him cry and what’s their address and can he please come eat with them in the canteen there’s a new dessert that he needs to test for them!

The distraction works until Shen Yuan thinks about how many of his tutees may be selected as participants and fucking die in the Conference. Then he has to try not to cry into the new dessert bun.

His biology tutees frantically whisper amongst each other and shepherd him to some unknown location. Seriously, he just lets them, he would totally die first in a horror movie. But his little students wouldn’t do that to him. They’re so cute and precious and if anything happens to them because he’s not there he’s literally never going to forgive himself.

Someone forces a book into his hands. It’s the terrible romance novel one of his tutees saw him reading while he waited for them to arrive for their session. He’d thrown it over his shoulder when they’d arrived, but now here it was. In his hands with his tutees’ expectant faces surrounding him.

“Shen-shixiong,” one of them says plaintively, “My jiejie really likes this book but I don’t get what’s so good about it. Can you explain it to me?”

Never let it be said that Shen Yuan is not a hater. He was born one, and he literally died one in his past life.

Upon hearing that someone had the audacity to actually like this book, and like it enough to recommend it to one of his dear students, a good 50% of Shen Yuan’s despondency is immediately replaced with anger.

He sits up straight and says fiercely, “He-shimei, you should never read this book. None of you should! The plot is completely nonsensical, and the romance is so dry it should be considered a fire hazard. The main lead has as much personality as a rock—”

The longer Shen Yuan rants about the book, the more animated he becomes. His students exchange triumphant grins and subtle highfives (a gesture their Shen-shixiong taught them). They’re so good at comforting their shixiong. They’re going to get a good grade in shixiong-comforting, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

Hopefully whatever was bothering their Shen-shixiong will be resolved quickly.