Chapter Text
“Huh?!?” He screamed. He tugged at his scalp, his fingers getting caught in the knotted hair. He retreated his hands and looked down at them. Pale, shaking, dirty, scratched and small, oh so small. His eyes trail downwards towards the thread-bare robes that ended halfway down his forearm. He looked further down, just the same covered his legs.
“Why are you yelling?” A sleep-addled voice grumbled to his right; Shen Yuan turned to follow the voice. Lying next to him, a young boy with similarly thread-bare robes. Knotted dark brown hair was dusted with the dirt they were laying on. The boy turned his head towards Shen Yuan and revealed his phoenix eyes that were rounded by youth, soft cheeks hallowed by hunger. His pink slips were chapped and split. His pupils were a deep brown that showed more golden hues in the sun.
Shen Yuan doubled over, clutching his stomach and vomited onto the dusty ground between his feet.
No fucking way. This can't be happening. Shen-Fucking-Jiu?
This is too much. Isn't this the scum villain that bullied a literal child and threw him into the endless abyss just because he was jealous? And I’m supposed to die for him?? Although. He's quite cute…wait! No! Stay focused.
“A-Yuan?” Shen Jiu pushed himself up on his hands, his sharp features creasing with a thinly veiled concern. The Systems horrid voice echoed in his head again,
[Good luck Host!]
Shen Yuan clutched his head, fucking piece of shit system, no volume control.
“A-Yuan? What’s wrong?” Shen Jiu fully sat up and grabbed onto Shen Yuan's arm.
“I…I’m fine,” Shen Yuan tried to start but quickly shut his mouth as he felt another wave of nausea rise.
“I knew you shouldn’t have drunk that water, idiot.” Shen Jiu huffed, but his grip on his sleeve didn't let up.
Shen Yuan observed where he and Shen Jiu were sitting. It was an alleyway that seemed to head to a main road due to the amount of people passing by. The sun was not yet high enough to reach into the alleyway. Shrouding the alley in shadows. The ground was covered in dirt, however the small part where he and Shen Jiu sat was covered in a thin blanket. Most of their privacy came from a few stacked crates that hid them from the main road.
System, where are we in the plot?
Shen Yuan asked and waited for an answer…none came.
Of course, that hack of an author's world would have a hack system.
Unable to figure out how old they are from appearances, not that it’d help, Shen yuan thought bitterly. He'd have no clue where the plot even starts, the background of Shen Qingqiu was never spoken about even in passing. He sighed inwardly. Right, so he’s going in blind..no biggie, right?
“A-Yuan?” Shen Jiu poked sharply into Shen Yuan’s side, “Were you listening?”
“H-huh?...oh yes yes. I understand…Jiu-di..” Shen Yuan felt a shiver travel down his spine, calling such an intimidating future immortal master so intimately felt like poking a hornet's nest.
“Jiu-di? That's a new one” Shen Jiu reached up and placed the back of his hand to Shen Yuan's forehead.
“Y-yeah, I thought it was time for a change.”
Shen Jiu tutted as he pulled his hand away, “you have a fever, why are you always getting sick over little things like this huh?” Shen Jiu stood up and dusted off his robes, although it was more of a statement than actually functional, “I’ll try to get more medicine, although Doctor Fu kicked us out last time…” Shen Jie turned to leave.
Shen Yuan doesn't know what came over him, maybe it was the residual feelings of the body's OG Inhabitant? A deep fear blossomed in his chest at being left alone, no. Of Shen Jiu being alone.
Shen Yuan scrambled upwards, grasping at Shen Jiu's clothes-"Wait! Don’t go! Jiu-di”
Shen Jiu quickly scrambled to stabilize Shen Yuan by grabbing both his shoulders.
“A-Yuan, A-Yuan, it's okay. I'll be back soon.” Shen Jiu’s voice had a rare soft tone. Shen Jiu guided Shen Yuan back down onto the blanket. Without waiting for a response, Shen Jiu turned and rushed out of the alleyway.
Now sitting alone in their alleyway, Shen Yuan feels his cheeks flush with embarrassment, what the fuck was that?!
Sighing, Shen Yuan took this moment to think about his situation. Proud Immortal Demon’s Way was a web novel set in a cultivation setting with western culture sprinkled with not a care of the sanctity of the genre. Not to mention it had the secondary genders: alpha, omega, and betas. In the beginning of the novel, when Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky was still a respectable author, he expanded upon the mechanisms of the endo-types. The everyday person was a beta. While genetics can play a part in depicting what endo-type a person presents as, it's mostly nurture over nature.
For example, if a child grew up in a family, or rather a pack as Airplane called them, full of leaders or domineering personalities (such as a noble family) The child is mostly going to present as an omega, to balance the pack dynamics.
Shen Yuan recalls that Shen Qingqiu was an alpha, and seeing where he started, it makes sense. Shen Yuan paused, wait, what did Shen Qingqiu’s twin present as? Did he follow his brother, or did he present as an omega to counterattack him?
Or… more likely…Shen Qingqiu’s twin never got to the presenting age. Shen Yuan recalled what Shen Jiu said earlier ‘you have a fever, why are you always getting sick over little things like this huh?’ So, this body was the same as his old body? He sighed, just my luck.
Shen Yuan assumed that the original soul in this body had died from this fever. This realization was enough to start to overturn Shen Yuan's opinion of the Scum Villain. He could tell from the brief interaction he had with Shen Jiu, that he cared deeply about his brother. He could only imagine how it would impact him if he succumbed to his illness so young and left Shen Jiu alone to fend for himself.
If he remembers correctly the presenting age was around 12-13 for male and 13-15 for females. So, seeing as he's not feeling any particular endo-type shenanigans at the moment (not that he'd know what it would feel like), he assumes that they are at least younger than 12.
Eventually, the chatter in his skull calmed down enough to feel like the silence was drowning him when he came to the realization.
He died.
No doubt about it, transmigrations like this only happen when someone dies.
His body was probably rotting on top of his computer, without anyone looking for him, he has no doubt he won't be found until his mail piles up and his corpse smells up the whole apartment complex. Ah, but there's no point in thinking about it now. He's stuck in this sex-ruined world, his only grounding element in this whole situation was Shen Jiu. His body relaxed against his will when he started to think about Shen Jiu. He could only hold it up to how much the original Shen Yuan trusted and looked up to Shen Jiu.
Shen Yuan turned upwards; the sun was nearly beaming down on him now. This alleyway was the Shen’s ‘home’ but it was clearly just a bunch of boxes put on top of each other, and they didn't even have a make-shift roof that would protect them from the sun! This would not stand! Shen Yuan stood up, albeit slowly afraid he was going to grow dizzy and fall over. But he couldn’t just sit here, under the summer sun, and wait for Shen Jiu to get back! The least he can do is try to build a better shelter for him to come back home to.
The materials laid around the alley were the aforementioned crates, planks, old buckets, not to mention the blanket he was laying on, but he feels the little comfort the blankets provide is better than using it to hide from the sun. He’d have to ask Shen Jiu to try to find more fabrics.
By the time the sun had moved a quarter more, Shen Yuan had gathered the crates into four points at the very end of the alley, using the spare planks as a sorry excuse for a roof. He'd love to use the blanket (If you can call it that) as a curtain. But it would cause him and Shen Jiu to sleep on the rocks. He would definitely give that up for privacy, however, he could not make that choice for Shen Jiu. Dusting it off as much as he could, as well as moving the rocks out of the inner room. Whether it made a difference or not was yet to be seen, Shen Yuan discarded the thought with the sentiment that it was the thought that counts.
By the time the sky was painted purple, Shen Yuan could hear shuffling coming closer to his new ‘house’. When he popped his head outside, he could recognize the rags Shen Jiu was wearing earlier. However, it didn’t escape his notice that he was clutching something to his chest and limping. Limping!?! Shen Yuan rushed out, meeting Shen Jiu half-way.
“Jiu-di?! What happened?” Shen yuan mimicked Shen Jiu’s movement from the morning and grabbed his shoulders. Shen Jiu straightened up like he wasn’t limping seconds earlier.
“I got a loaf of bread from Miss Zhao at the end of the street, and a water skin.” Shen Jiu said while shoving said items into Shen Yuan's hands. The items were bundled together in a cloth, which is way more exciting to have. Which was his original thought until the faint scent of bread reached his senses. Causing a sharp pain of hunger that almost brought him to his knees.
“You did this?” Shen Jiu’s question pulls him out of his thoughts.
“Mmh? Oh I thought I should put my hands to work while you're out working.” Shen Yuan pushes Shen Jiu inside.
“It's not much, but I cleaned out the rocks and stuff and added a roof, there wasn’t much else I could do about the blanket though.” Shen Yuan says as he muses about the small enclosure.
Shen Jiu sat at the furthest point, with the sun setting and the roof in place, the small room was almost completely dark. Shen Yuan sat next to him, cuddling up as much as his thin face would allow. He placed the small bundle on his lap and pulled out the bread. It was by no means fresh, but food is food when you're a child living on the streets. Shen Yuan split the bread 40/60, using the cover of the darkness to hand Shen Jiu the larger piece.
“I ate already,” Shen Jiu said demurely, trying to put the piece of bread back into Shen Yuans hands.
“I can't eat much with this fever anyways, I’ll just throw it all up again.” Shen Yuan shrugged and ignored Shen Jiu’s extended bread. They ate the bread in silence, occasionally sharing the water skin. Shen Yuan couldn't help the shiver that crawled up his back. He couldn’t name the feeling that caused it but he assumed he was just happy to see his brother eating something.
After they were done Shen Yuan asked, “So did anything exciting happen out there?” Shen Yuan looked down at Shen Jiu’s legs, itching to help but not knowing how to.
“Mmh I met a stupid boy.” Shen Jiu sniffed
“Oh? What's his name?” Shen Yuan's hand landed on one of Shen Jiu’s legs. Shen Jiu hissed,
“Watch your hands, A-Yuan!”
“So, you are hurt! I knew it!”
“It doesn't matter!”
“Yes, it does! What happens if it gets worse huh?? Then we’ll both be sitting here rotting!” Shen Yuan pushed Shen Jiu’s pant leg up, even in the dark he could see the contrast of deep bruises against pale skin.
Shen Jiu yelped.
Shen Yuan lightly caressed the skin, applying soft pressure where the bruises were lighter.
“Mmh…hah” Shen Jiu quickly slapped a hand to his mouth as if that would take back his whimper. For once Shen Yuan was cursing this darkness, he would have bet money that Shen Jiu was blushing. He wanted to see it so bad!
Shen Yuan decided to save Shen Jiu some face and ignore his slip.
“Feel better?” Shen Yuan removed his hands slowly, his fingers tracing downwards before withdrawing completely.
Shen Jiu’s silence is a telltale that he's embarrassed, his sharp tongue quiet for once.
“So... about the boy you met?” Shen Yuan retreated back to Shen Jiu’s side, laying his head on his shoulder. His body heat warming him and distracting him from the dizziness from the fever and the ache of hunger.
“Ahem, yes his name was Yue Qi” Shen Jiu followed Shen Yuan lead and relaxed into Shen Yuan's head. Shen Yuan could feel his whole-body tense.
Yue Qi? As in Yue Qingyuan? He comes into the story this early?
“A-Yuan?” Shen Jiu pokes his side.
“O-oh, yeah? Why did you call him stupid?”
“Well, that idiot keeps trying to save the other kids when he can’t even take care of himself,” Shen Jiu huffed.
“He’s an idiot,” Shen Jiu said again, this time sounding distant. Well, I suppose their relationship didn’t start up on bad terms. No matter what Shen Jiu said, his character wouldn’t be beneath cursing him out if he really thought poorly of Yue Qi.
“Mmhm~?” Shen Yuan hummed in a teasing tone, Shen Jiu pushed him lightly, “Shut up! Go to sleep!” He huffed and turned around, curled up on the blanket and faced the wall.
Would Shen Jiu replace him with Yue Qi? Shen Yuan shook his head, that’s ridiculous even if they were close PIDW, I am his twin! No closer you can get then that.
Still…wait what am I thinking about? Shen Yuan slapped both of his cheeks. I’ve known this guy for one day and here I am acting like an overeager dog trying to prove its worthy of its owner's love. It has to be the OG good’s influence for sure.
Shen Yuan sighed, still, he’s just a child. I have to protect him from this scum systems blackening plot! If Shen Qingqiu isn’t blackened, then Luo Binghe isn’t blackened, which basically just uproots the entire story. Not that it was any good anyways.
Right. Shen Yuan thinks with finality. No doubt my Jiu-di’s pride won’t allow me to be so open about it, so I’ll protect him from the shadows. Be something he can rely on consciously or not.
With that settled, Shen Yuan followed Shen Jiu onto the blanket. He curled himself up against his back, wrapping his arms around Shen Jiu’s waist. He frowned as he felt the bones in his ribs stab his arms. His grip tightened unconsciously.
“Let up, will you? it feels like you’re trying to squeeze me to death.” Shen Jiu hissed under his breath.
Shen Yuan's grip loosened, and he rubbed the skin there in a wordless apology.
“Good night, Jiu-di”
“…Good night, A-Yuan.”