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Chapter Text

Shen Yuan was already in a sour mood when the front door to the Warm Red Pavilion blasted off the hinges like some overzealous donghua hero entrance. 

He had barely gotten any sleep last night, because some cultivator got into a fight with another patron (A-Jiu or Jiu-er depending on if the gossip came from the Jiejies or the Madam). It was the middle of the week and there were no big events near Yeohung that would lead to much traffic. It was supposed to be a break in the hellish nightmare of existence Shen Yuan had transmigrated into where he could sit down and read a book. 

And maybe being a formerly spoiled second-gen rich twenty something now in a slightly better than street kid thirteen year old body hadn’t helped his attitude. 

So Shen Yuan stomped right past Dan-jie and her pipa making a break for it and into the line of fire without really thinking through anything.

“Don’t cultivators know how to knock?” Shen Yuan snapped. 

Both cultivators (Dan-jie’s client dressed in inner robes and the other one in slim fitting white and blue ones) turned towards him. 

The one who wasn’t a client was… weirdly pretty for a man, but that didn’t stop his face from morphing into disgust which Shen Yuan didn’t realize wasn’t directed at him until he looked over at Dan-jie’s client like he was actually scum on his shoe. “A child?”

The client (who Shen Yuan was not going to call ‘A-Jiu’ out loud even if he looked younger than Shen Yuan before he’d died) looked like he might actually kill the other cultivator for that remark.

Shen Yuan just laughed, it was a rough, tired, caustic laugh, but it was enough to draw both their attention. He stared up at the pretty boy cultivator and held up the smelly bucket he’d been hauling around. “Wow, the stunning logic of Master Cultivators! Surely, I must be here to seduce Xiuzhe with my bucket full of inedible kitchen scraps I was planning on taking to the neighbor to feed their chickens until you broke the door.” 

Shen Yuan scowled and gestured with the bucket. “Unless there’s some immediate danger of a ghost or demon eating half the jiejies, I don’t know why you think it’s okay to just charge in here and start yelling all sorts of rude things or beating up people who paid to be here!” 

Not that he had any particular fondness for people who paid to be there, but Shen Yuan was unfortunately familiar with how buying out a contract worked even if he wasn’t doing the job of a courtesan. Madam Cao certainly wasn’t going to take the price of the door out of her own paycheck. 

Pretty man cultivator’s eyebrows had been slowly descending downwards and seemed to be at their limit. “I was defending my shidi.” 

Shen Yuan’s scowl did not improve. “Your ‘shidi’s’ virtue can be saved without breaking the door just dock his allowance.”

A-Jiu made a noise like he was choking and covered his face, turning slightly to the side. Pretty man cultivator seemed to go red, whether it was from that reaction or Shen Yuan it was unclear. 

“You,” pretty man cultivator said, pointing at A-Jiu. “Ji-shidi told me what happened.” 

What had apparently been amusement, slid off A-Jiu’s face immediately and if acid could come out of a human’s eyes, this guy would’ve managed it. 

Whatever death threat he’d been about to sling was interrupted as another cultivator arrived. This one was in white and grey robes and at least looked more the part of an Immortal Master. If Shen Yuan wasn’t still so annoyed he might have revelled in the moment. As it was, he let out a long suffering sigh and turned around to finish chores that were probably going to include fixing the stupid fucking door and whatever else damage the cultivators did.

Why had there been four of them in two days? The closest sect was Cang Qiong Mountain and that was at least a two-day walk. 

Thankfully they were gone by the time Shen Yuan had finished throwing inedible scraps to the neighbor’s chickens (payment was some eggs he took care carrying back). There was a jiejie gossip cluster going at full speed once he returned. Shen Yuan was very caught off guard by the details that one of the cultivators had been Yue Qingyuan which meant A-Jiu was probably Shen Qingqiu, pre-Peak Lord. 

Once his transmigration memories cleared from the haze of his childhood brain, he had figured out he was in the Proud Immortal Demon Way universe—but Shen Yuan had never been entirely sure of when in the timeline he was beyond pre-Luo Binghe merging the realms. 

A dull pain at the base of his skull drew his attention away. He looked up at Zhi-jie who was scowling in a way that Shen Yuan was certain his own face had done earlier.

“I’ve heard worse,” Shen Yuan pointed out, rubbing the back of his skull.

Zhi-jie, who Shen Yuan had still not successfully determined (though he had suspicions) if she was actually blood related to him (and what that relation would be or not), glared harder at him and looked like she might start tugging him by the ear. “Didi. Did I hear you confronted the Immortal Masters?” 

Enough time had passed that while Shen Yuan’s annoyance hadn’t really wavered, his senses had returned enough to be slightly chagrined about it at least. “He broke the door.”

“They could’ve broken you, idiot,” she said and then smacked him in the back of the head again.

“They scared Dan-jie!” Shen Yuan protested, dodging to avoid any more errant smacks. 

“Because DanDan has sense, you—” Zhi-jie put both her palms on each side of Shen Yuan’s face and squeezed just hard enough to hurt and then drew him into a hug that felt more like a straight jacket. “Idiot!” she hissed again. “Next time, stay away.” 

Shen Yuan grunted and after a flick to his ear muttered, “Yes, jiejie.” 

The hug softened a bit after that and he felt kind of guilty for worrying her. It wasn’t like it was going to come up again. He had plenty of other things to worry about.

***

It was three days later when Shen Yuan watched a figure flying on a sword slowly circle and then land right near the pile of wet sheets Shen Yuan had been laundering by the river. 

He hadn’t gotten a name of the Pretty Man Cultivator from the jiejies but he was the last one Shen Yuan expected to see if he saw any of them again.

“Xiuzhe,” Shen Yuan said, moderately politely. He didn’t bow since he was already kneeling while he was doing the illustrious work of getting stains out of brothel bedding. 

The cultivator’s jaw shifted and he tossed a small pouch by Shen Yuan’s feet. “For the inconvenience and… door.” 

Shen Yuan stared at the pouch and then back up at the cultivator. “You’ll want to give that to Madam Cao,” he said. If he got caught with a random purse, she’d likely think he stole it. 

“Can’t you?” 

Geez, this guy. Shen Yuan tilted his head and stared up at him. He was really all looks and no brains apparently. “I don’t handle the coin.” 

He probably could have if he traded on his business experience from his first life (and if anyone would trust a kid with that), but Shen Yuan would also have embezzled and gotten him and Zhi-jie out of there.

The cultivator huffed in annoyance and picked up his purse. He opened it up and tossed Shen Yuan a heavy coin that was probably more than Zhi-jie made in a week. Shen Yuan’s hand automatically closed around it but then he thought better of it and tossed it back. “I don’t handle that either. I’m thirteen.”

Not that… that made a difference in some places, but as strict as Madam Cao was, she hadn’t insisted that Shen Yuan do anything other than the grunt work he’d been given. He couldn’t confirm but was pretty sure Zhi-jie had something to do that too. There wasn’t anyone else his age privately entertaining customers either at least. 

The cultivator’s face started turning red again. Shen Yuan was fairly certain steam would start coming out his ears if he kept teasing. It was kind of funny.

“I don’t need your money, Master…” 

“Liu Qingge,” said… the War God of Bai Zhan apparently. 

Shen Yuan boggled at him, almost dropping the stone he’d been using to smash plant ash. Surely the epitome of masculinity didn’t look like that. If you put this Liu Qingge in the right outfit, he could pass for the highest ranked courtesan. That was not what a master elite fighter should look like!

“Your name?” Liu Qingge prompted, with a raised eyebrow.

“Zhan Yuan,” Shen Yuan said. 

“Why doesn’t Zhan Yuan need money?” Liu Qingge asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

He had a beauty mark under his left eye and his muscles were… well they were apparent now that they were slightly flexed, but they weren’t as bulky at Shen Yuan expected. Maybe since he was still young and not a peak lord? Probably not a war god yet. 

“Why does Master Liu want to give this one money?” Shen Yuan asked back. He didn’t think, based on the overheard disparaging comments about his fellow disciple visiting a brothel and that damaging their reputation etc etc, that it was for a nefarious purpose. 

Liu Qingge cleared his throat. “It was not my intention to cause a scene or scare anyone.”

Shen Yuan barely caught himself from laughing. “You’re apologizing?”

“Making amends,” Liu Qingge said with a shrug. 

“Okay,” Shen Yuan said, still feeling pretty amused by the situation. “But save the money; I can’t use that anyway.” 

“Why not?”

Shen Yuan blinked up at him and shifted on his knees. It was probably too late to stand up at this point, but also probably rude to go back to his chores. “Does Master Liu understand how brothel contracts work?”

The red was back. It was definitely embarrassment. “No.”

Shen Yuan decided that going back to pounding laundry was better than breaking into laughter so he turned back to the plant ash he was slapping into what he was pretending was a mystery stain. “Any money this one gets has to be earned from the brothel to go to buying out their contract.”

He was pretty sure that was to keep him from stealing from patrons rather than stopping him from panhandling or something, but either way it kept Shen Yuan from doing much of value or having much hope of getting out of this place any time soon. Not that he would’ve left without Zhi-jie. She’d pretty much raised him (and he’d been a weird kid). 

The grunt Liu Qingge made didn’t sound particularly pleased with Shen Yuan’s explanation, but hey try living it.

“Do you want anything else?” Liu Qingge asked after a moment.

Shen Yuan slapped the stone into the sheet a few more times, while he thought about it. If he’d transmigrated into a rich heir or even a moderately well-off one, he would’ve definitely tried to learn cultivation. He’d been so busy surviving and trying to avoid any of the particulars of his living situation that there’d been no chance to even dream of doing so.

Shen Yuan looked up at him. “A cultivation manual?”

Liu Qingge’s eyebrows rose, but he nodded. Then he turned back around and walked away without saying anything else.

***

Shen Yuan always tried to spend as much time outside as he possibly could when the weather wasn’t miserable. It helped that a lot of chores the brothel workers couldn’t do required him to leave anyway. It wasn’t even just avoiding the goings on and creepy eyes of the (mostly) men patronizing the brothel. It was the overall olfactory swamp of perfumes from constant incense being burnt to cover any other smells.

Cracking a window was not nearly enough.   

So he was outside again, taking plenty of time on his way back from an errand in the center of town, when Liu Qingge showed up.

It had been a few days since he’d last seen him and Liu Qingge had dropped the purse off at the front room. Shen Yuan was fairly certain that Liu Qingge had given more than was required for the door, but Madam Cao didn’t admit as much—Dan-jie hadn’t lost wages at least.

“Here,” the master cultivator said and then literally threw a book at Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan was glad he wasn’t carrying anything delicate, but he also would’ve been fine losing out on some eggs for the book that landed in his palms. An actual cultivation manual.  

He had no idea how much this cost, but knew it wasn’t something he could feasibly acquire from a bookshop. His hands felt like they were vibrating just touching the cover. Shen Yuan hadn’t really thought Liu Qingge would bring him one, but now that he was holding it, a million different scenarios popped into his head.

He could ditch the brothel before he got of age and become a rogue cultivator, traveling the world and all without breaking doors!

“Give me your wrist,” Liu Qingge said, only a hairsbreadth away from Shen Yuan.

He hadn’t noticed the guy move and startled a little but then stuck his hand out for him. Shen Yuan watched as Liu Qingge frowned in concentration and felt a little like bubbles were crawling up the veins in his wrist. 

Liu Qingge nodded once and then dropped Shen Yuan’s wrist. “Cang Qiong Mountain Sect is having admissions trials in six months. You won’t learn much on your own from the book, but you should try out.”

Shen Yuan rubbed his wrist into his side to get rid of the strange feeling still ghosting through him and tried to process that. “Uh… I don’t—why?” 

“To become a cultivator,” Liu Qingge said, slowly like Shen Yuan was the one that was stupid.

Shen Yuan laughed. “No. I mean… why are you asking me?”

“Your base is decent,” Liu Qingge said, “and you have interest.” He nodded again. “And spirit.”

If he’d known yelling at an important person would get him practically an invitation to a sect, Shen Yuan would’ve tried it sooner. He was early enough he could be a fully realized cultivator before Luo Binghe destroyed the sect.

“Six months?” Shen Yuan asked, unable to keep from smiling.

“Mn,” Liu Qingge said, a small smile returned as he nodded. Then he turned away again, hopping onto his sword, Cheng Luan, and flew off. 

“Shit, that was cool,” Shen Yuan said under his breath. He was so giddy he almost forgot to dirty up the manual before he brought it inside. Another castoff book wouldn’t be looked twice at, but anything that might be worth something wouldn’t be smart to bring into the brothel.

***

Shen Yuan spent almost every free minute he had going over the cultivation manual he’d gotten from Liu Qingge. It was hard to decipher on his own, but he’d gotten enough out of it to grasp at least a basic understanding of meditating to build and then strengthen his core. He didn’t need to practice dirt digging at least.

Shen Yuan didn’t actually have his own room, but Zhi-jie worked so much that she was rarely in the one they shared. It took her a solid two months to figure out what Shen Yuan was doing. 

“You’d have to get in,” Zhi-jie said, taking out a few coins from the stash she kept hidden in a loose floorboard. “Once you’re in, they wouldn’t be able to do anything about the contract, but if you fail it’d be… don’t fail.”

She pressed the small coins into Shen Yuan’s hands. “Hire a ride there. I hear the test is physical and walking for two days will ruin your chances.”

“I thought you might be mad,” Shen Yuan said, as his hands closed around the coins. It was enough to hire a ride on a small cart going that way already at least, but more than he’d had to himself in…ever. He knew Zhi-jie’s stash wasn’t big enough to toss it around like this. 

Zhi-jie scoffed and flicked his ear. “Didi, you are too smart to get stuck here and… you’re too pretty.” She stroked a hand over his hair in a more tender affection than he was used to from her. Zhi-jie claimed to be only his sister (and sometimes not even confirming a biological one), but Shen Yuan always had doubts at times like this. “You’re getting older. I don’t want Madam getting any ideas about pricing you out.” 

Shen Yuan also did not want her getting those ideas. “Are you going to be okay?” 

Zhi-jie flicked his ear again, lighter this time. “Master Chen likes me quite a bit and has the means for a concubine. He hasn’t asked yet, but if I know you’re settled I think I’ll let him buy my contract.”  

A concubine for a rich merchant was a better position than Zhi-jie was currently in, but Shen Yuan still frowned. If he’d been a little older maybe he could have earned money in a way that wouldn’t leave her to that fate. 

“Don’t make that face, Didi,” Zhi-jie scolded. “I know you stick your nose in books, but life isn’t a story. This is a good opportunity for both of us.” She frowned and tapped lightly at his chin. “You should try and play more instruments too. A-Jiu’s peak teaches scholarly arts.” 

Shen Yuan was not going to be choosy, but he certainly wasn’t going to gun for Qing Jing Peak considering how its future (or at this point maybe current) Peak Lord was going to become a vicious tyrant to most of his disciples, one in particular in a few years. 

Bai Zhan Peak would be cool. Liu Qingge was… weird, but also refreshing in how straightforward he was. Shen Yuan still struggled with the bullshit formality rules that hindered people from saying what they meant all the time. 

He was already passable at the guqin and asking Dan-jie for pipa lessons probably wouldn’t hurt. He still had four months after all. 

“I’ll work on my calligraphy too,” Shen Yuan promised. 

Zhi-jie’s face was so fond as she flicked his ear again. “You better!”

***

“Stop scowling, Yuan-er,” Dan-jie said absently. “It’ll ruin your performance.”

“I’m practicing not performing,” Shen Yuan pointed out, still frowning in concentration. 

She might have had a point. He tried to smooth out his face but could feel the scowl come back into place as he made another attempt at playing the song she’d given him. He didn’t know why it was so much more frustrating to play the liuqin than the pipa—they were the same number of strings! 

Dan-jie sighed, like the weight of the world was on her shoulders for spending her free time tutoring a useless boy. If she hadn’t followed it up with tweaking his nose and adjusting his hands again, he might have been offended. 

“You need to relax,” Dan-jie murmured. “You’re tensing up and expecting a mistake.”

“It’s too light,” Shen Yuan objected. It might have been the eighteenth time he’d said so, but who was counting?

“Ugh, fine,” Dan-jie said throwing her arms up into the air. She took the liuqin from him and handed him the pipa. “Zhizhi should sell you for spare parts,” she said without any heat.

“I don’t think I’d make her that much,” Shen Yuan retorted and revelled in not only her responding inelegant snort but the way that the larger instrument felt so much more comfortable in his hands. 

She’d been convinced it would swamp him and kept pushing the liuqin on him, but the willow wood was too light in his hand. He kept feeling like it might fly away from him if he moved too much. He was smug as the music he’d been attempting earlier came much more easily now. 

“Spare parts,” Dan-jie said again, pressing her index finger against his forehead with a tiny shove.

Shen Yuan settled for practicing the piece again until he could play it to completion and Dan-jie didn’t seem to have a ton of corrections so he figured that meant he was getting it. It didn’t sound horrible at least. The nauseating reverb twang when he first started was thankfully an uncommon occurrence. It would probably be a while until he attempted playing the erhu again. 

There was a light knock on the door and the pleasant air that had settled on the room was shifted as Dan-jie frowned and went to the door. “What do you want? I’m trying to culture Yuan-er.” 

“A truly difficult task,” the voice agreed. He couldn’t quite determine which one of his jiejies it was. “A-Jiu is asking for you.”

Dan-jie shifted on her feet. “Me specifically?”

“I think he felt bad about last time,” the voice said. 

Shen Yuan could already tell where this was going. In his politest and most cultured affectation he said, “Dan-jie can go.” He held her pipa out to her. “This uncultured boy has plenty of other things to practice.”

The disbelieving snort behind the door narrowed down the suspects of the jiejie talking, but Shen Yuan was focused on Dan-jie’s wry but grateful smile as she took the pipa from him. “Tell Zhi-jie I was an accomplished tutor.”

“Mn,” Shen Yuan said, getting up from his kneeling position. “Lie to Zhi-jie, got it.”  

“Don’t even joke,” Dan-jie said, laughing as she ushered him outside of her room so she could get ready. 

Kang-jie had a raised eyebrow as he exited, solving the mystery voice. She shook her head at him like he was more trouble than he was worth and walked away.

Shen Yuan made his way towards the small garden that probably shouldn’t have been referred to as a courtyard and decided to try meditating for a bit. Zhi-jie was resting since she was meeting Master Chen later and he didn’t want to go back to the room and interrupt her sleep.

The actual cultivation techniques surrounding meditation made it a little easier than without. Making his brain go silent was a strenuous task, but if he was focused purely on locating and flowing with the energies in his own body he could do it pretty passably. Or at least he thought so. There wasn’t anyone to check yet.

Based on where the sun was, Shen Yuan was fairly certain he’d been meditating for at least an hour before he was interrupted. A gentle hand squeezed his shoulder and he looked up to see Dan-jie smiling at him. “Have you met A-Jiu?”

Shen Yuan glanced behind her, but no Shen Qingqiu seemed to be lurking which was a relief. “Briefly,” Shen Yuan said. He wouldn’t say ‘met’ was an appropriate summary. There hadn’t really been an introductions when he’d been screaming at two future peak lords.

“He wants to hear you play,” she said and then at Shen Yuan’s concerned frown she waved her hand. “Aiyah, I thought you knew already with how much you eavesdrop—A-Jiu only likes to rest. We were talking and I mentioned teaching you so he wanted to hear. You don’t even have to lie to Zhi-jie.”

Shen Yuan hadn’t been worried for that reason, but that last statement did do something to calm his nerves. Dan-jie wouldn’t suggest anything that could bring harm if there was even a chance Zhi-jie would find out about it.

Shen Yuan couldn’t think of a good excuse to get out of it and figured Shen Qingqiu would say something scathing about his manners before he even got to play and then that would be that.

The last time Shen Yuan had seen A-Jiu he’d been underdressed. Now he was perfectly put together like the peerless leader of Qing Jing Peak. His robes were so nice Shen Yuan wondered if he’d gotten promoted from Head Disciple in the last few months.

He did attempt not-shitty manners. Something about the hard stare and the robes gave him bad nerves and even worse when Shen Qingqiu’s attention sharpened as Shen Yuan started to play.

He only got two notes in before the future scum villain clucked his tongue. “Posture.”

“What?” Shen Yuan said—there went the attempt at manners. 

The look he received in response was withering. Dan-jie didn’t seem phased. “Straighten up your back, Yuan-er.”

Shen Yuan’s lips twisted. He felt like when Dan-jie told him not to scowl. It was performative more than any actual help in improving his music, but he did try and straighten up. It meant he had to tilt the pipa a little to see the strings easier but then that was corrected and it was a good few more minutes of adjustments before Shen Yuan was even able to play the damn thing. 

He got a few lines into the song he’d been practicing earlier when Shen Qingqiu stopped him again. “Dan-jie said your guqin skills are more passable.”

“I said he was very good,” Dan-jie said, giving ‘A-Jiu’ a toothless glare that he chuckled at.

It was so weird. 

The room they were in had a few instruments so Shen Yuan was herded over to the guqin with the words ‘more passable’ running through his brain as he sat down. No more critiques on his posture at least before he started playing. He was able to get through three quarters of a song this time before he was stopped. 

“Practice the pipa with music more remedial until you are used to the hold,” Shen Qingqiu said. “You don't seem to be tone deaf, so that’s likely the issue.”

“That’s a compliment, Yuan-er,” Dan-jie said, her eyes crinkling in amusement at his expense. “And I told you it was too big for you.”

“The liuqin feels like trying to play a feather,” Shen Yuan objected before he could think better of it. 

“It would be wiser to invest your time learning the pipa rather than an unrefined version of one,” 
‘A-Jiu’ said in what sounded like agreement.

Shen Yuan did not look smug. He did not broadcast ‘ha! I told you so’ through his expression at Dan-jie. Because Shen Yuan stared down at the guqin to hide his face.

He was instructed to play a little more, while Dan-jie started giving Shen Qingqiu a shoulder massage. It would’ve seemed inappropriate and awkward, but rather than giving a creep vibe, Shen Qingqiu just honestly seemed to relax. That only lasted about a half an hour before Shen Yuan was dismissed probably so he could get out of the robes and ‘rest’ or whatever—but Shen Qingqiu made a couple of notes about Shen Yuan’s finger placement during one of the songs and it was admittedly decent advice.

He realized later, so was the pipa hold. It took him another few days to be comfortable holding it correctly while playing, but trying something less challenging made it easier.

He had another month until he could go to the entrance trials, but Shen Yuan thought maybe Qing Jing Peak wouldn’t be too bad after all. 

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan was fully aware that there were demons lurking in dangerous places in this world, but so far he couldn’t imagine them being as evil as the humans he’d encountered. 

He’d never know if Master Chen truly wanted Zhi-jie enough to buy out her contract, because she’d been assaulted and stabbed outside the town square on her way back from a visit to him. She’d died slowly, hours without help from anyone in the village. They didn’t want to dirty themselves and she was too far away from the Warm Red Pavillon to make it home on her own. 

Shen Yuan found out for sure that Zhi-jie was Zhan Yuan’s birth mother after she died and her burial expenses got added to his own contract. Madam Cao acted like selling it (and him) to a high-end brothel in Chung Ju Valley was an act of kindness. His minor skills in instruments and reading made him a marketable asset for more than a potential cultivator. 

Shen Yuan was fourteen when he missed the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect trials to start training as a courtesan.

At first he’d been as optimistic as he could be full of the unrestrained and complicated grief surrounding his fucked up situation. The Merry Lotus Blossom was a much higher end brothel than the Warm Red Pavilion—instead of grunt work chores, a lot of the training revolved around things that would help his cultivation studies. 

And the Merry Lotus Blossom was not far from the Jue Di Gorge, setting of the future Immortal Alliance Conference. It had been another goal he could work towards, until Shen Yuan realized that the Chung Ju Valley was nowhere near any major cultivation sect. The closest was Huan Hua Palace and they didn't have ‘open’ trials and were still too far to walk to.

His only real shot was training enough to be a rogue cultivator. That meant he’d need to escape, which also meant he needed money. There was no way he was going to be able to buy out his contract with simple entertainment value of playing the guqin, pipa, reading poetry, or pouring tea. A few times he tried to steel himself and consider just getting it over with and accepting that he was ‘pretty’ in a bid to get out of there sooner, but he kept getting sick thinking about it. 

Fu Wei was kind to him and thankfully a favorite of the house so she had some influence with the owner and the Madam. She ‘reassured’ Shen Yuan that nothing would happen until he was at least sixteen. 

That was only reassuring until sixteen was coming far too fast and Shen Yuan was getting way too much interest when he was on the floor. He had mostly gotten used to the face paint and finicky ways to do his hair, but the open leering was enough to make him reconsider how much experience he needed before he tried to make it on his own.

While Shen Yuan didn’t particularly miss the backbreaking chores he’d done—as someone who had enjoyed lazing about and had hoped his transmigration would include time for that, he needed another way to keep up his musculature. 

And as nice as the Merry Lotus Blossom was, it still had the same overpowering smell of incense all day. So even though the sun would ‘ruin his complexion’ — Shen Yuan made any effort to go outside. Not only to get some exercise, but to make it commonplace that he would leave and come back so that when he left for good, it wouldn’t be noticeable too quickly. 

The one benefit to playing the floor was that Shen Yuan had started to get tips. He was able to hide some of them the same way his… the same way Zhi-jie used to. He almost had enough for a sword. Not a spiritual weapon, of course, but enough to get him started at least.

Shen Yuan was a couple of weeks out from being able to afford the sword he had his eye on, but was fairly certain the blacksmith was more amused than annoyed by his constant visits to see that it was still there. 

He was toying with potential names for his sword (so far An Jing Zhi was winning) when he passed a scuffling group of boys in an alley. There was a cluster of them and clearly they were ganging up on someone younger, based on the higher pitched cries from beneath the pile.

“You can’t save everyone,” Shen Yuan told himself under his breath. “You don’t even have a sword yet. You’re still a kid too. Keep walking. You need to survive.”

Shen Yuan hadn’t even made it more than a few steps past the alley before he sighed in resignation and turned back towards the little shithead bullies. “Hey!” he said, channeling his pissed off younger self and remembering how he’d scared off cultivators.

A couple of the boys turned towards him. They were… not that much younger than him actually. His clothing wasn’t as fine as he wore on the floor either, so Shen Yuan had to put a lot of aura into his intimidating glare to make any impact. “You want to get moving or should I get a guard?”

Vague enough at least to make a couple of them reconsider their ruffian activities. Shen Yuan was well groomed and wearing clean clothes so that at least put him ahead of most of the street kids. It didn’t take much longer for them to decide it wasn’t worth the trouble, with some despondent grumbling. 

“So sorry to take away your violent outlet, little sociopaths,” Shen Yuan muttered under his breath. He approached the poor kid they were beating on and felt terrible he’d even considered leaving him to his fate. The kid was so small. Shen Yuan crouched down, a few steps away from him so he didn’t feel blocked in. “Hi,” he said, gently.

The kid was curled up into a ball and still had his arms covering his face but one small eye peeked out to stare at Shen Yuan. 

“Did they break anything?” Shen Yuan asked. It probably wouldn’t have been hard to with how small the kid was.

The kid shook his head, lowering his arms just slightly. His voice was soft and had a tiny squeak to it. “Than—thank you, Gongzi.” 

Shen Yuan’s heart clenched. What kind of asshole would beat up on a little bun like this? “Ah, none of that. I’m no lordling. My name is Zhan Yuan,” he said. “Are you sure nothing is broken?” 

The little kid nodded, a little too hard and started uncurling himself. He brushed back a flop of dirty hair and bowed also a little too drastically. “This lowly one thanks Zhan Yuan for saving him.”

“Okay, no kowtowing until I’m sure you don't have a concussion, at least,” Shen Yuan said, moving forward enough to grab the kid’s shoulders. They were bony and he doubted the kid had seen a meal recently. It would’ve been stupid to ask if the kid had any parents or relatives, but on the off chance… “Where do you live? I can take you there and we’ll get you checked out.”

It was immediately clear by the pathetic look on the kid’s face that Shen Yuan’s initial assumption had been correct. “I…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Shen Yuan said, quickly. He helped the kid up. “Come on, I’ll take you back with me.”

He could at least get the kid a meal in him and maybe at least one night sleeping off the streets. He was scrawny and young enough that maybe Shen Yuan could swing him some grunt work at the brothel without danger of it being anything else. At least until he could think of something better. There were orphanages that he heard weren’t the worst a few cities over.  

“What’s your name anyway?” Shen Yuan asked, as the kid stuck to his side, tiny fingers clutching at his sleeve as they walked.

“Luo Binghe,” the tiny little sheep said.

Shen Yuan barely managed not to trip on himself. Well. Okay then. That was… 

“Nice to meet you, Luo Binghe,” Shen Yuan said, with all the grace he’d learned from his courtesan training of hiding his freak outs behind a ‘customer service’ smile. 

Luo Binghe, current protagonist going through a real shitty backstory that wasn’t going to get much better, smiled back up at him and it was like the sun coming out above the clouds. Blinding, really. The protagonist halo really glowed. 

***

Reading PIDW, Luo Binghe had always seemed cool, but Shen Yuan hadn’t realized that little Luo Binghe was adorable. This worked both to Shen Yuan’s favor and against him. The little sheep was so cute that the kitchen staff and jiejies were perfectly fine with Shen Yuan getting him some real food, a bath, and clothes that were way too big for his skinny little frame. 

Fu Wei was also charmed and so she helped Shen Yuan adjust his smallest pair of robes to sort of fit Luo Binghe, since the clothes the kid came with were pretty much unsalvageable. It helped that she knew how to sew. Shen Yuan had advanced a lot of skills in his training but embroidery was not one of them. 

The overwhelming shyness seemed to disappear almost immediately after Luo Binghe was cleaned up and had some food in him. Shen Yuan was inundated with a thousand questions about every boring thing in his room. And of course, because the little sheep was so freaking cute—Shen Yuan answered each one of them. 

“Yuan-er,” Fu Wei said, coming into his room and interrupting Luo Binghe’s interrogation about Shen Yuan’s painting supplies. “Cui Shui is occupied already, but Lord Feng is downstairs and you know he’ll expect the guqin.”

Shen Yuan sighed. “I’ll be down in fifteen,” he said. She smiled at him and gave Luo Binghe an appreciative nose wrinkle before closing the door behind her.

“Binghe can rest in here while I’m downstairs,” Shen Yuan told him, while he reached for the stupid face paints and hair accessories he needed to slap on to be downstairs presentable. 

“Could Binghe watch Yuan-ge play?” Luo Binghe asked, eyes full of bright effervescence. It was so effective it might have worked on him.

“No,” Shen Yuan said. “You’re… too young to go downstairs.” He was not going to add additional trauma to the already shitty backstory the protagonist had. 

Luo Binghe, cleaned up, had an extremely effective pout. 

Shen Yuan laughed and gave in to the urge to pat the fluffy bundle of now clean hair on his head. “I’ll play for you later, okay?” 

That seemed agreeable based on how quickly Luo Binghe nodded. 

Shen Yuan had better luck applying his face paint than he did managing his hair. He couldn’t be assed with the intricate exhausting ways he needed to braid it most of the time, but Lord Feng was a high paying client and considering Shen Yuan had snuck an orphaned protagonist into the brothel, he was trying to be a good employee otherwise. 

“I can help,” Luo Binghe offered shyly, moments before Shen Yuan was ready to throw his hairbrush at the wall. 

Shen Yuan still had enough time to hassle one of the jiejies if Luo Binghe didn’t manage it so he indulged him and sat patiently while the protagonist easily brushed through and braided his hair around a few hair pins. 

“Binghe has hidden talents,” Shen Yuan said, impressed. 

“I used to do it for my mother,” Luo Binghe said, quietly. “She didn’t wear her hair like this, but…”

“I’m sure she’d be very proud of you,” Shen Yuan said, trying not to let any misplaced emotion ruin his face paint. Zhi-jie wasn’t really his mother—he’d had one in his first life and Zhi-jie… well she used to do his hair. He missed her, but any overwhelming sadness wasn’t appropriate, especially compared to what Luo Binghe was going through. 

He tried not to think about it and briefly gave Luo Binghe a gentle squeeze on the shoulder and pat on the fluffy head again before he had to head downstairs. 

Shen Yuan didn't mind playing the guqin. It took a lot of concentration and since he wasn’t ‘officially’ on the floor yet, he didn't have to act coquettish while he played. He could look at the strings and pretend he couldn’t feel eyes on him while he did so. After a while he’d lose himself to the music itself, calmly strumming and feeling the vibrations of the chords. The novel never detailed the cultivation techniques enough to know if the four arts were taught in accordance with cultivation specifically or just enhanced it—but Shen Yuan wondered if there was something to that and if it was taught on Qing Jing Peak. 

He felt like he almost understood how to curve the energy into the chords, but not enough to do much more than make the song a little nicer sounding. There was probably a trick to it, but he’d read that cultivation manual back to front and nothing specific was designated about instruments or music. 

Shen Yuan’s tips were more than decent that night on their own, but Lord Feng specifically placed a heavy gold coin into his palm and insisted he play again the next time he was visiting. His hand didn’t linger and he wasn’t leering so Shen Yuan thought maybe he really liked the music. After all, he was a handsome rich lord, why did he even need to visit a brothel for the other part of the entertainment offered?

***

Shen Yuan still couldn’t understand how anyone could hate white lotus Luo Binghe. The kid was tooth-rottingly sweet and barely underfoot. He was even more industrious than Shen Yuan had been at the Warm Red Pavilion. Shen Yuan wasn’t sure if it was protagonist powers or growing up with a washerwoman as a mother, but he certainly put Shen Yuan’s laundry skills to shame. 

It was nice having company too. Shen Yuan was used to sleeping alone now but the emptiness of his room without someone else existing around it had carved out a loneliness he hadn’t realized he had until Luo Binghe started cheerfully filling it. 

“Yuan-ge is so brave!” Luo Binghe said, while Shen Yuan finished telling him about the time he’d met Liu Qingge (he decided for Luo Binghe’s sake to leave out the Shen Qingqiu part of it). 

“Yuan-ge was very stupid,” Shen Yuan said with a snort. “I was lucky that Master Liu was so nice about it.”

He wished he’d remembered when exactly Liu Qingge died in PIDW. Although Shen Yuan wasn’t sure he could really warn the guy in a way that wouldn’t sound insane. Especially not being a fellow disciple. A random courtesan sending a letter that held vague foretelling of his murder probably wouldn’t go over well. 

Shen Yuan traced his fingers over the fraying, well-loved cultivation manual. Cang Qiong Mountain Sect entrance exams were coming up again soon. Luo Binghe would probably have to make his way towards them. It was such a long trip. Shen Yuan knew he’d be fine. Luo Binghe was the protagonist and he was destined to join the sect. But even though he’d filled out a little over the last two weeks of eating regular meals, Shen Yuan never would have guessed Luo Binghe was ten or eleven with how thin he still was. 

Not to mention the abuse waiting for him there. Maybe Shen Yuan could encourage him to try and lure the attention of a different peak lord at least. Liu Qingge probably would respect him if he threw a dirt clod at him or something. Then maybe Luo Binghe could prevent his murder. It was a win-win!

“Yuan-ge should become a cultivator,” Luo Binghe said, very seriously. He had ink on his face from the tiny bit of calligraphy Shen Yuan had let him practice with while he worked on his own.  Shen Yuan fought a laugh as he wiped what he could off with his thumb and then reached for a cloth for Luo Binghe to clean off the rest of it. 

“I’m probably too old now,” Shen Yuan said, while Luo Binghe scrubbed at his own face.

Not to mention while Shen Yuan's guqin playing had gotten better tips, it had also gotten him a lot more attention recently. It would be more difficult to skip out on his contract without buying it out now. 

Luo Binghe looked like he was about to argue with that, but there was a soft knock on the door. Luo Binghe had become Shen Yuan’s personal valet for his small room and hopped up to check to see who it was. 

“Ah the tiny body guard,” said Cui Shui with a huffed laugh. “Might this jiejie see the venerable Yuan-er?”

Luo Binghe narrowed his eyes at her and Shen Yuan rose up to open the door all the way before he said anything that might be misconstrued as rude. “Don’t tease Binghe,” Shen Yuan said, to an unapologetic Cui Shui. 

“I will tease who I like, Yuan-er. Now,” she said, imperiously holding a slew of purple flowers with tiny glittery flecks on each petal wrapped in thick waxy paper, “tell me why this Starlight Violets bouquet was delivered for you and not me?” 

“Keep them,” Shen Yuan said, only taking half a second to regret not giving the flowers a closer look first. They were really pretty but he didn’t remember them having any unique attribute beyond that. 

“You didn’t even ask who they were from,” Cui Shui said, frowning. “Lord Feng sent them.”

“Keep them,” Shen Yuan repeated and shoved them towards her so she’d step back from his room. “They’ll go better in your room anyway. If he asks, I’m allergic.”

“Yuan-er!” Cui Shui started to say, but was cut off when Luo Binghe slid the door closed. He could still hear her mumbling behind it, but she didn’t try to get back in.

There were very astute little eyes staring up at him when Shen Yuan took a step back from the door. He cleared his throat and adjusted his sleeves. 

“Is Yuan-ge allergic?” Luo Binghe asked.

“No idea,” Shen Yuan said and then flopped onto a pillow on the floor. “I don’t like boring flowers.” 

He had completely forgotten that he’d turned sixteen a couple of days ago. Zhi-jie used to remind him of his birthdays. They would get some crummy second-day little pastry from the bakery and sit outside to celebrate.

“What is a not-boring flower?” Luo Binghe asked, cautiously, sitting on the floor next to Shen Yuan’s pillow. 

“Hm,” Shen Yuan thought about it, glad to have a distraction. “Catalyst Azaleas. They explode though, so probably wouldn’t make a good bouquet.”  

Luo Binghe giggled and Shen Yuan forgot the creeping dread crawling up his spine. 

***

Shen Yuan was staring at a bestiary. A really nice bestiary that was in his hands, in his room, not in a store somewhere where the bookshop keeper would scream at him for touching. 

“I may have mentioned flowers weren’t the way to your good favor,” Fu Wei said, apologetically. 

This was an expensive gift. This was an expensive gift Shen Yuan liked. If Lord Feng wasn’t pushing thirty and a man (and Shen Yuan had more of a choice), it might have been effective. 

“Any chance he just really likes my guqin playing?” Shen Yuan asked.   

Fu Wei sighed. “He did ask about your other talents. I mentioned you knew some poetry and were improving on painting.” 

Shen Yuan was silent long enough that Fu Wei reached out and stroked his hair. It shouldn’t have made his eyes sting, but it did. “A-Yuan,” she said, softly. “He’s not a bad first choice. He’s patient and kind and not terrible looking.” 

“Mn,” Shen Yuan said, staring at the book in hands. He had the sudden urge to throw it out the window. 

Fu Wei was much more physically affectionate than Zhi-jie had been. She never once flicked his ear. He kind of wanted her to right now. Instead she pulled him into a hug and stroked his hair, letting him rest against her shoulder. “He wants to have tea tomorrow afternoon at his private courtyard.” 

Shen Yuan snorted but there wasn’t much humor to it. “Just tea?”

“Just tea,” Fu Wei said, gently. “He’s… the last time he was interested in someone, he took his time to get to know them. And his status and interest is enough to put off anyone else for a while. Please consider it.”

“Okay, jiejie,” Shen Yuan said, automatically. 

Lord Feng really only wanted tea. Shen Yuan was hopeful that his comparatively abhorrent manners and his visual appearance out in actual daylight would deter the man, but Lord Feng only seemed more interested. He asked questions about the bestiary and mentioned he’d had some training in cultivation when he was younger—it was apparently the thing to do for young lords. He hadn’t had much luck with it, however, so it was more like a card trick now.

He invited Shen Yuan back another day to play the guqin, with specific music he was interested in hearing. The sheet music was new so it was nice to focus on that and Shen Yuan almost didn’t remember why he was there. Until the end of his visit when Lord Feng pushed his lips against the corner of Shen Yuan’s mouth. There was a numbness to his limbs that he hated himself for later. Shen Yuan should’ve pushed him away or jerked back or something, but he just… let it happen. 

There was a third option between fight or flight. Freeze. Shen Yuan felt like a coward. 

***

Cang Qiong Mountain Sect trials were soon. If he left now he would make it in time. He could go with Luo Binghe and maybe—he was probably too old for admittance but maybe they had some kind of grunt work he could do there. Or… or something. 

He could try and then… if it didn’t work he could leave. All he’d need was the sword he was already going to get. Shen Yuan had enough money for it now. Hell, with the gifts he’d gotten from Lord Feng, he had enough for the sword and some extra for transportation. They could ride a crappy carriage halfway there or rent a horse for part of the trip. 

It was late the night he finally floated the idea to Luo Binghe. Shen Yuan hadn’t been completely sure the kid was awake or not. He was so small he took up no room at all in the bed, but so sticky he always ended up tucked into Shen Yuan’s back or neck by the time morning came around. 

“Does Yuan-ge know what the test is like?” Luo Binghe asked quietly—after his enthusiastic agreement was shushed down so they didn’t wake up half the brothel. 

“Mn,” Shen Yuan said, carding his fingers through Luo Binghe’s fluffy hair without thinking. “You climb up the steps. There’s a lot of them and then you dig holes when you get up there.”

“Dig holes?” Luo Binghe asked, pushing his head up to encourage Shen Yuan to scratch his scalp and stroke him like a clingy cat. If he could’ve purred, Shen Yuan would bet he’d be doing it now. 

“It’s supposed to show your endurance and determination I guess,” Shen Yuan said, frowning. It had kind of been a bullshit explanation in the novel, but it was better than some of the other sects which required expensive offerings to even be considered. Without any connections it was impossible for someone like Luo Binghe or Zhan Yuan to have a chance at a cultivation sect that didn’t dig.

“Do they let you use a shovel?” Luo Binghe asked.

Shen Yuan laughed quietly. “You know what, I don’t know. Maybe? That’s a good idea. Industrious. They can pick the ones who bring their own tools.” 

“They’ll pick Yuan-ge,” Luo Binghe said, sounding completely convinced.

“Maybe,” Shen Yuan said, planning for the potential disappointment. He would’ve noticed when he was reading if his given name was even vaguely mentioned as a Cang Qiong Mountain Sect disciple. Unnamed extra didn't sound so bad though. 

He’d kind of grown attached to the little sheep that was falling asleep next to him. Maybe he could quietly influence the plot so that Luo Binghe’s life didn't have to be that hard. 

Chapter Text

Luo Binghe was doing extra chores for pittance of actual coin and Shen Yuan had finished up a long finger tiring session of playing down on the main floor when he passed Fu Wei crying in the Canna Room. 

“Fu-jie?” Shen Yuan asked, coming in quietly. 

She turned away from him, covering her face. “Ah, A-Yuan, give me a moment.” 

He sank down next to her and put an arm over her shoulder. Her protests died very shortly and then she turned into his arms and sobbed violently into his neck. Her fingers clung onto his robes and they stayed like that for several minutes. 

“I’m sorry,” Fu Wei finally said, wiping her eyes. “I… I received some news.”

“What happened?”

Fu Wei shook her head, staring at the hands that were now clasped at her knees. “Wan Ling. She—she left before her contract was up. I… I was hoping she’d get farther, but they caught her.”

“They’re bringing her back?” Shen Yuan asked, trying to ignore the dread at the thought of it. Had Wan Ling even been popular enough for them to send people after her? 

Fu Wei used her sleeves to wipe her eyes, an uncharacteristically ill mannered move for her, and let out a shaky little not-laugh. “They imprisoned her. She… she lasted four days.” 

“She’s—” Shen Yuan did not finish his sentence. 

“I tried to get her to stay,” Fu Wei said, squeezing her fists so tightly her knuckles were going white. “She didn’t have much left on her contract. A year of hard work at most and she would’ve been free.” 

“How’d they find her?” Shen Yuan asked. There was a weight settling in his throat that was traveling to the pit of his stomach. 

Fu Wei’s lips twisted. “There’s a line of credit the Merry Lotus Blossom takes out for any bounties. They’ve paid more for us to be here and we make more coin than most, so they don’t want anyone getting ideas of cutting out early.” 

Maybe Wan Ling didn’t disguise herself enough. Shen Yuan was genre savvy, he could think of a few different ways to conceal himself. They’d be looking for a graceful courtesan and Shen Yuan would gladly dirty himself up to look like anything but. It would be a relief, honestly. 

“That can’t work for everyone,” Shen Yuan said, mostly under his breath. 

“A-Yuan,” Fu Wei softly gasped. Concern flooded her features.  “You can’t.” 

“It’s a risk,” Shen Yuan said, hesitantly. He hadn’t told Fu Wei what he was thinking yet, but it wasn’t hard to figure out that Shen Yuan did not want to be here. 

“No, they have —” Fu Wei lifted herself up to standing and then went to the door, checking behind it before shutting it completely and touching the talisman that made the barrier for silence. “I don’t know how they do it, but I know they have blood samples. Wan Ling wasn’t a favorite, but their reputation was on the line. Their reputation is everything.” 

“I haven’t even—I’m not even on the books yet,” Shen Yuan argued. The dead weight in his stomach had risen to his chest again, rising higher until it felt like it was going to strangle him.

Fu Wei looked at him like he was drowning right in front of her and she couldn’t do anything. “I’m so sorry, A-Yuan, but you’re coveted. Even without Lord Feng’s interest, the Madam knows your talents and… that’s a resource they wouldn’t let go of.” 

“Where are the blood samples?” Shen Yuan asked. “What if I got them and destroyed them? They couldn’t follow me.”

Fu Wei frowned and paced a few short steps and back again. “The proprietor would have them. I don’t think the Madam would keep them here.” 

Their ‘proprietor’ was a very successful probably nobleman who kept his name out of the business but soaked up his investments at the exploitation of anyone working here. Shen Yuan had no idea who it actually was, but there was no doubt he’d have security at his estate. 

“How long… would it take me to earn enough to buy out my contract?” Shen Yuan asked, his voice thick. 

Fu Wei looked at him and her eyes started tearing up again, but they didn’t spill. “If Lord Feng likes you enough, maybe three years.” 

Nineteen was definitely too old for Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. 

So… survive three years and make it as a rogue cultivator. It was the old plan with some slight adjustments. It was fine. 

It was fine.

***

Shen Yuan found lying to patrons so much easier than lying to Luo Binghe. He was half convinced the kid was going to literally dig his heels in and try and physically drag Shen Yuan with him to Cang Qiong Mountain. It took a day and a half of Shen Yuan insisting that he didn’t want to be a cultivator actually and how nice his life was now to get Luo Binghe in a damn wagon headed towards the sect. 

Shen Yuan was worried he was going to have to White Fang him and throw rocks to get the kid to leave at one point. 

“I’m glad I met you,” Shen Yuan said, honestly. Whatever Luo Binghe’s response, it was muffled in his chest. He ruffled his fluffy hair one more time and then shoved him off with enough coin to get him safely there with a couple of night’s rest at an inn before he had to start his backstory. 

“I’ll be back!” Luo Binghe said, from the back of the wagon—determined and angry with tearstained cheeks.

Shen Yuan didn’t have to fake his smile as he waved. “I’ll see you when you’re a famous cultivator!” 

Hopefully that would be true. 

***

Shen Yuan was great at adapting. It was how he’d survived transmigration in the first place. He had never really wanted to put those skills into sex work, but he had three years to get through. He told himself that if he could survive reading a two-hundred and thirty-six pages of utter drivel to get to a plot point that had already been answered sixty chapters beforehand, he could survive anything. 

Lord Feng did like him and it was easier with each visit to accept that he mostly wanted company. He seemed to be investing in Shen Yuan, which the less he thought about, the more he was fine with it! 

He gifted Shen Yuan some cultivation scrolls, more bestiaries, an absurd amount of sheet music, and supplies for practicing painting. Thankfully he’d avoided any and all ‘dance’ based skills, because Shen Yuan was not going to have the face for it.

A few months after Luo Binghe left, Shen Yuan got a letter from Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. The careful scrawling (and slightly illegible) writing of Luo Binghe relaying his entrance into the sect and Qing Jing Peak (mixed feelings for Shen Yuan on that one) and the things he was learning so far surpassed every single gift Shen Yuan had received from Lord Feng. 

He wrote Luo Binghe back and lied about how things were, keeping it brief and trying to think of any advice he could give that might lessen the terrible bullying Luo Binghe was not mentioning but had to be experiencing. If only Airplane had given a reason as to why Shen Qingqiu was such a dickhead, maybe Shen Yuan could’ve used that background motivation to help Luo Binghe avoid setting him off. Shen Yuan hadn’t interacted with ‘A-Jiu’ that much but he remembered only hearing good things from the jiejies and his own meeting had been pretty okay. 

He settled for encouraging Luo Binghe to make friends with other peaks when he had the chance. Hopefully someone would notice if he was being treated like crap. 

Lighter from the letter, Shen Yuan let himself relax at his next meeting with Lord Feng, as they started discussing cultivation sects and Lord Feng’s own history. 

“Tian Yi Overlook is beautiful,” Lord Feng said, lounging in a very undignified fashion while he sipped at his tea. “I think I would’ve been very tired of the fasting, both of the heart and stomach.” 

“Your parents didn’t consider Huan Hua Palace?” Shen Yuan asked, sitting marginally better, mostly so he didn’t spill tea on himself. 

Lord Feng snorted, extremely undignified. “My father was not a man who thought bribery proved skill. If I’d been more talented, he might have made concessions.”

Shen Yuan frowned. “Wouldn’t training at a sect help your talent and skills?” 

“An argument I attempted,” Lord Feng said, tiredly.

“Cang Qiong Mountain Sect is open to anyone,” Shen Yuan said, though it was past the point for either of them to entertain the idea. “I have a friend who joined there.” 

His friend. Luo Binghe. A ridiculous notion that kept making him smile. 

“Don’t you have to dig in the dirt to get in?” Lord Feng’s face was mildly disgusted, but it softened when Shen Yuan laughed. “Yes, I realize I am a spoiled man, and that’s why I’m not a famous cultivator.” 

“My lord could be a not famous cultivator and keep clean fingernails,” Shen Yuan agreed, primly.

Lord Feng gave another undignified snort before lying back completely on his cushioned rug. He set his tea cup down on the table. “I’d like to take you to the Longan Festival next week.”

“I thought those grew further south,” Shen Yuan said, rather than answering. It wasn’t like he was going to say no, but saying yes felt performative in a way that was irritating today. 

“They do, but there’s never a bad excuse for a festival,” Lord Feng said, he eyed Shen Yuan from his prone position. “They have a fair amount of sweets and there are sword dancing performers this year.”

The sweets were a decent enough bribe. Shen Yuan still hadn’t been planning on saying no, but he definitely wasn’t going to say no with the implied option to stuff his face with sugared treats. “I wasn’t aware my lord had interest in sword dancing.”

“I do not,” Lord Feng said, his lips twitching as he looked up at Shen Yuan from dark eyelashes, “but I thought Zhan Yuan might enjoy it.”

“Then I shall have to attend,” Shen Yuan said, smiling. 

It wasn’t a bad festival. There were more decorations that included eyes of dragons rather than actual fruits associated with the name. Shen Yuan rarely got this far into the city and the vibrancy of it felt so much more authentic than the carefully constructed artistry of the brothel. The Merry Lotus Blossom was separate from everything—it gave it a sense of exclusivity that allowed overcharging higher ranked clientele. It was also isolating. 

Shen Yuan felt buoyant as they walked through the festival. Lord Feng pointing out different attractions and carefully blocking Shen Yuan from the constant threats of giggling children running around on sugar highs and nearly knocking into them. Lord Feng never got frustrated with them, but looked rueful and tried to avoid their latest stampede, as he mumbled something about being grateful his sister was providing heirs.

The sword dancers were actually really cool. Shen Yuan hadn’t realized how long they’d stayed watching them until Lord Feng informed him the fireworks were about to start. Chagrined, Shen Yuan had apologized, but Lord Feng had just shook his head fondly and waved him off. 

Fireworks in PIDW were… amazing. Shen Yuan hadn’t really had much interest in them in his first life, but here there was some sort of magic at work making them twist into unrealistic shapes only possible with drones—but so much more fluid. There were dancing dragons swooping around in explosions that turned into stars that turned into flowers. It was probably the coolest thing Shen Yuan had seen since he’d arrived here and he wasn’t even sure the detail of it had ever been in the actual novel.

Lord Feng had been free with his affections all night so Shen Yuan really shouldn’t have been surprised when he kissed him. He tried relaxing into the kiss, it was his job after all—but only managed a few seconds before his body felt rigid.

“Don’t apologize,” Lord Feng said, before Shen Yuan could get a word out. He lifted Shen Yuan’s hand to his lips and briefly kissed his knuckles. “I will ensure you get back home.”

There was an awkwardness on the carriage ride back to the brothel that Shen Yuan couldn’t manage to get past. He felt guilty. Zhi-jie did this for years to provide for him. It wasn’t a big deal. He liked Lord Feng. It could’ve been so much worse. 

“I…really enjoyed tonight,” Shen Yuan tried, lightly. 

“I’m glad,” Lord Feng said, and gently squeezed his hand. He didn’t try to kiss him again but something about the way he looked at Shen Yuan made it seem like he wanted to.

Shen Yuan should’ve been thankful he'd stopped when he did. 

He’d probably get tired of Shen Yuan soon enough, which… wasn’t good in the scheme of things. Shen Yuan actually enjoyed spending time with him and most of his wardrobe at this point was purchased by Lord Feng. He wasn’t going to do much better and had made zero headway on figuring out any other way out of his situation.

Logically, it made sense to move towards it. It made sense. 

***

Shen Yuan couldn’t bring himself to ask Fu Wei, but the other jiejies easily helped him find what he was looking for—Cui Shui was even helpful.

“No, Yuan-er. Not that one,” Cui Shui said, slapping Shen Yuan’s hand away from the tincture bottle. “That is too strong. You want one that is more subtle for your first time with a client.” 

Xie Fen nodded in agreement. “Bad or good, you want to know or it can be dangerous.”

“So the strong stuff is for when they’re… bad?” Shen Yuan guessed, feeling a little nauseated.

“Or you're just not in the mood,” Cui Shui said with a careless shrug. He wished he had her ease with all of this. “It can happen with clients. It can happen with normal lovers.” She pulled out a small bottle filled with pastel lilac colored powder. “This one is good. It’ll relax you and enhance your amorous drive, but won’t overwhelm you.”

It wasn’t surprising there were so many variants of stupid aphrodisiacs in this dumb fucking universe, but Shen Yuan was struggling with the reality of holding actual sex pollen in his hand. That he was going to take. Voluntarily.

It was better than the alternative. 

“How soon do I have to take it for it to… um, kick in?” Shen Yuan asked, feeling stupidly embarrassed and knowing he was blushing.

Xie Fen cooed at him and Cui Shui pinched his cheek which was humiliating to say the least. “Yuan-er! You can take as much as you want, but it’s not going to help if you can’t say it.”

Shen Yuan covered his face with his free hand and groaned. “Please just answer the question.”

“A nail bed’s worth an hour beforehand,” Cui Shui said, taking pity on him. “Don’t let him see you take it. Some men are… big babies about the need for a boost.” 

“They want to be the driving force of your passion,” Xie Fen agreed and when Shen Yuan dropped his hand she was rolling her eyes. “Like they’re not paying for it.” 

“They don’t want to think about the fact they’re paying for it, so they pretend,” Cui Shui said. She gestured to Shen Yuan, who was currently wearing expensive embroidered robes and several hair pins he’d been gifted. “Lord Feng is attractive and rich, he’d be spending money on courting just as well as he is on a flower.” 

“Why isn’t he courting?” Shen Yuan asked. He was absently rolling the little bottle of lilac powder in his hand. “He’s got to have options.” 

Lord Feng wasn’t old exactly, but he certainly was past when most nobles were looking into marriages. All Shen Yuan knew was that his sister helped manage the estate with her husband who was of a lower rank, so their children were set to be the heirs which seemed to suit Lord Feng fine. It didn’t mean he couldn’t or wouldn't want a marriage — it would be unseemly for him not to have one eventually. 

“Finding a wife with the level of skill you have at your age and with that face,” Cui Shui said and made an annoyed noise. “Impossible. You’re a prize, you wretch. If you’d been born to a noble house, I’m sure they’d be flaunting you at the Emperor’s harem.” 

“I don’t know if that’s better,” Shen Yuan muttered, staring at the stupid bottle again. He also thought she was exaggerating. Without face paint, he was fairly certain he’d look like most guys walking on the streets. 

Xie Fen patted his arm, gently. “It’s not so bad after the first time. You’ll get through it.” 

“Take two nail beds worth even and you’ll be asking for seconds,” Cui Shui said, smiling too wide. 

Shen Yuan reached for her hand to check the size of her nail beds against his own and ignored when she started laughing. 

***

A letter from Luo Binghe was always a welcome thing, even if they were sometimes months apart. One letter detailed an extremely familiar event, but the details were completely off. Shen Yuan realized when Luo Binghe started to describe the demon attack where he first met Sha Hualing that something had changed. Instead of Luo Binghe being thrown in to fight the last battle, Liu Qingge took it on. Shen Yuan was absolutely certain the Bai Zhan War God had been dead by now in the novel. 

A qi deviation was the best theory — Shen Qingqiu had taken advantage and murdered him, but apparently not in this timeline?

‘Liu-shishu keeps dropping off beast carcasses. I think he means it as a friendly gesture, but Shizun has mentioned regretting saving his life more than once and threatened to rectify it. Liu-shishu seemed to find that funny and laughed.

We made sure to avoid Shizun that week.’ 

Shen Yuan really hoped the ‘we’ meant Luo Binghe was doing better than canon in terms of making friends. Surely if one thing had changed, others might have too. Not that Shen Yuan had anything to do with it, but it was a weight off his mind not thinking of Luo Binghe going through the daily assault of abuse and bullying. 

For as many complex (and rarely higher than neutral) feelings as Shen Yuan had about his transmigration and current situation, he thought he got the better deal rather than living through what the original Luo Binghe had to. 

At least he thought that for a while.

It took some time, but eventually Shen Yuan didn’t need to use the powder for every visit with Lord Feng. Over the last year he’d become more comfortable and even able to enjoy himself during their more intimate visits. Lord Feng had enough money for exclusivity and it was a lot easier to pretend sometimes when it was only one person. A person Shen Yuan didn’t actually mind spending time with. 

He wasn’t sure when exactly in their various conversations about odd beasts, flora, and cultivation in general that Lord Feng suggested the idea of dual cultivation. 

Shen Yuan had been poking around at cultivation techniques as more of a hobby than anything else and had gotten a few more scrolls about it over the year from Lord Feng. He had been putting it to use and now able to apply it to his guqin and pipa playing. So nothing about the suggestion seemed really out of the norm. 

It took six months for Shen Yuan to understand how wrong he’d been.

Chapter Text

It was a good thing Lord Feng was patient, because the last few weeks Shen Yuan had felt ill more than he didn’t and had to spend a lot of time in his room sleeping it off. The last couple of times he’d pushed himself to make their appointment anyway he’d felt worse afterwards so Lord Feng ensured him it was important to rest. 

He quickly gained a surge of energy one night when chaos erupted in the brothel. Fu Wei was running to every door and begging for anyone to find a doctor, even the clients. 

Cui Shui had been hiding a pregnancy that was very far along, or at least Shen Yuan had been too ill to notice. Now she was in labor and it was going badly.  Fu Wei had tried calling on their regular physician, but could not make contact and the Madam was on business out of town trying to find new talent.

Cui Shui’s screams echoed throughout the brothel and considering how many silencing talismans were in the place. That was saying something. And there was blood. A lot of it.

Shen Yuan along with a few other jiejies tried to get a doctor from the bordering town and even went as far as into the center of the city, but none of them were willing to look in on a courtesan. None of them were willing to treat a whore, even if she was dying. No matter how fancy the establishment, the Merry Lotus Blossom was beneath them in the end. Disposable. 

Shen Yuan couldn’t help but think of Zhi-jie, dying in the street, with no one to help her.

He was seriously considering whether or not he was too ill to bodily drag one of the doctors back to the brothel and then threaten them to help Cui Shui when he saw something in the sky. There were a pair of men in flight on swords.

Shen Yuan yelled and waved, but they didn’t seem to notice him. So he grabbed the nearest thing he could find, a mealy roundish fruit, and threw it as hard as he could towards the swords to get their attention. 

It sailed through the air and somehow hit one of them directly in the head, knocking him off the sword in mid-flight. 

“Fuck—” Shen Yuan lost his shit for a second, worried he might have just murdered someone, before the second sword-flying cultivator helped the one he’d beaned get back on their sword. He didn't have much time for relief, because both cultivators turned in his direction and flew down where he was standing. They did not look thrilled.

“Sorry, I was trying to get your attention! Not—knock sorr—” Shen Yuan held his hands up and couldn’t help string his words together into nonsense, having no time for proper greetings that might help his desperate begging. “Please! We need your help, we have a medical emergency and none of the doctors here will treat it!”

“Why?” one of the cultivators asked, frowning.

Almost at the same time, the older one of them looked directly at Shen Yuan and asked, “Where?” 

Ironically, the one he’d knocked off his sword was the most helpful. 

Shen Yuan felt like he could breathe again and rattled off as much detail about where to go and what was wrong as he could manage—they'd get there far faster on sword than he would running back. He watched as they took off into the sky in the direction of the Merry Lotus Blossom.

By the time Shen Yuan caught up to them, very out of breath—Cui Shui and her new baby were fine.

“Truly there is no need to thank us,” the nice cultivator said to Fu Wei. “It was fated that we were nearby when this occurred.”

“Shizun, you were hit with a rotten piece of fruit,” the other one said, frowning. 

“Was it rotten?” the nice cultivator asked, seeming to notice Shen Yuan and direct the question to him.

“There’s a strong possibility,” Shen Yuan said, wheezing. He flattened himself to the floor and kowtowed in an apology that he had never once in his life had the urge to do before. 

“Please get up,” the nice cultivator said with a laugh. “You look ill yourself.”

Shen Yuan got to his feet, only a little shaky from the run and started to say, “I’m fin—”

But Fu Wei stepped in front of him and completely cut him off. 

“A-Yuan has been sick for a few weeks now, but the physician wasn’t sure why.” She cupped her hands and bowed deeply to the cultivators. “There are no words to express how grateful we are for Master Qingfang’s help and will gladly provide payment for any services already rendered, but if your honorable self would be willing as to—” 

“Please,” Master Qingfang said, gently. “It is fine. This was merely a small delay in our travels. We were on our way from collecting some medicinal herbs and the stop was no trouble.”

“It was a little bit of trouble,” Master Qingfang’s disciple muttered. 

Any objections Shen Yuan might have tried to make were pointless, because Fu Wei overwhelmed them with finding means for the cultivators to wash up and then focused solely on bullying Shen Yuan into a room for an examination.

“I’m just fatigued, Fu-jie,” Shen Yuan said, close enough to a hiss. She was fussing way too much and he was already horrified that he’d almost killed a nice noble cultivator.  

Fu Wei was sweet beyond measure, but the glare she was giving him reminded him so much of Zhi-jie it was hard to back down from. “You have been ‘just fatigued’ for almost two months, A-Yuan.”

“Bully,” Shen Yuan muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. It did not seem to phase her in the slightest. Fu Wei went back to fussing and probably rounding up tea and whatever else she could think of to pretend that the cultivators were guests and not… mild fruit related victims of entrapment.

Master Qingfang was definitely Mu Qingfang, which was… an abnormal kind of luck given Shen Yuan’s track record. Especially considering he really didn’t seem to care that Shen Yuan had nailed him with a piece of fruit. He even complimented Shen Yuan’s aim while he held his wrist to check his health.

“It’s not usually that good,” Shen Yuan said, more than a little embarrassed.

The sensation underneath his skin felt more like sea foam rising in the veins of his wrist—but not uncomfortably so, rather than the bubbled investigation he remembered from Liu Qingge. Shen Yuan was fascinated by it and almost distracted from his embarrassment until he noticed Mu Qingfang frowning. 

In no universe was a doctor frowning during an examination a good thing. 

Mu Qingfang still held Shen Yuan’s wrist loosely, before rising his gaze to Shen Yuan. There seemed to be a sort of assessing look in his eyes. “You’ve been developing your cultivation?”

“A little,” Shen Yuan said, wondering what that had to do with anything. He had a brief hysterical thought that maybe his magic fruit throw was a huge change of luck and he was about to be asked to join the sect. “Self-taught using a cultivation manual and scrolls mostly.” 

Mu Qingfang’s lips pursed into a very thin line. “Were these provided to you by a client?” 

“The scrolls,” Shen Yuan said with a nod, resisting the urge to mention how he’d gotten the Cultivation Manual. Implying Liu Qingge was a client would have only been funny if he’d been here and Shen Yuan could’ve seen if he still got flustered.  “Why do you ask?”

Mu Qingfang still looked very displeased, but it didn’t seem directed at Shen Yuan. His hand on Shen Yuan’s wrist briefly tightened and there was the feeling of light foam beneath his skin again. “Were you dual cultivating?” 

“Yes,” Shen Yuan said, carefully.

Mu Qingfang dropped Shen Yuan’s wrist and shook his head. He finally met Shen Yuan’s eyes again. His gaze was hard and the friendly welcoming doctor visage had disappeared. “You have been used as a cauldron. Dual cultivation is a technique built on balance and partnership. What was done to you is… it has been damaging.”

Shen Yuan understood why he’d been so tired lately. He probably should have felt betrayed or at least surprised, but it mostly felt like a plot hole in his life had finally been explained. He’d never really given up on the rogue cultivator dream—even still occasionally checked the blacksmith, though his sword had long since been sold off. By his calculations he probably only had two years, maybe even less at his current rate before he could enact his plan. 

“Is it permanent?” Shen Yuan asked, his voice hollow.

Mu Qingfang sighed deeply and stared up at something invisible in the distance. “I can give you some suggestions on herbs and meditation techniques but I cannot promise anything.” He paused for a moment and tilted his head, reminding Shen Yuan of a curious bird more than anything else. “Geng Lim can clear your meridians if you’re amenable. Giving my disciple the practice will be payment enough. It would be ideal if you could find someone to do this for you at least bi-monthly. I’d recommend a proper sect, not a… freelancer.”

Shen Yuan took the proffered written instructions and thanked Mu Qingfang again. He let Geng Lim scowl at him while the young disciple, full of potential and a life ahead of him, sent strange energy cascading through Shen Yuan’s veins and cycling out in a way that alleviated some of the brain fog that was holding him down. It felt so different to what he'd been doing with Lord Feng. 

Shen Yuan even managed to meet Cui Shui’s baby and not be completely miserable. He told her the baby looked like a turnip and she’d been too tired and too happy to swat him. 

He lasted until the cultivators left before he broke. 

Shen Yuan threw every piece of useless bribery Lord Feng had given him either into the fireplace or out his small window. He got a good chunk of it destroyed before a few of the jiejies came in and practically tackled him. Shen Yuan at least tried not to hyperventilate while Fu Wei held him. He wasn’t really successful. 

***

Lord Feng was banned from the Merry Lotus Blossom, which accounted to absolutely nothing. 

He was a rich lordling and had plenty of other places to haunt and find another naive idiot to trick. He had enough means to do it several times if he felt like it. It was technically illegal, but who the hell was going to care? They couldn’t even find a doctor when Cui Shui was dying—no magistrate was going to give a shit that a fancy prostitute was taken advantage of by an esteemed member of society. 

It took almost half a year for Shen Yuan to recover physically—spiritually he had no idea how long it might take, but it didn’t look good. The Madam had been letting Fu Wei handle more and more of the operations and she was able to minimize how much debt was added to Shen Yuan’s contract while he took that break. Fu Wei even arranged for Shen Yuan to travel to Zhao Hua Monastery for treatments. 

It didn’t last forever, it couldn’t. So Shen Yuan had to start working again. Ironically, it was easier now. He just… didn’t care. There was plenty of powder and while he could mark each day off as another day closer to getting the fuck out of there… he had no plan and certainly no dreams as to what he was going to do afterwards. 

In a way it was like that stint he’d gotten into from his first life. Reading shitty web novels and escaping into other worlds with other people’s problems. He escaped into his own and distanced his brain so he didn’t feel like anything he did was actually him doing it. 

The father of Cui Shui’s baby actually stepped up and she became a concubine of a decent merchant house. She tried to keep in touch, but raising and a child and having an actual standing in society meant it dropped off fairly quickly.  Shen Yuan didn’t mind. It was the kind of ending Zhi-jie should’ve gotten. It wasn’t good enough for either of them, but he didn't have the capacity to hope for better anymore. 

The days, months, and then years passed by without much notice. Seasons and clients changed. Shen Yuan got better at things that made him popular downstairs. Calligraphy, painting, and music the most. 

He still got letters from Luo Binghe, but Shen Yuan was… not great at returning them now. He tried to force himself to respond to at least every other one, but he didn't have much to share and asking questions about how Luo Binghe’s training was going sometimes made him feel so bitter it was like acid crawling in his throat. He hated that feeling. He missed when the letters were a bright spot in his life.

Even if he hadn’t felt like that, it would’ve been difficult to find something to write about. Nothing of note really happened for years. The days and clients twined together into a nothingness he barely registered. 

Until one day, there was an announcement that the upcoming Immortal Alliance Conference would be hosted by the Huan Hua Palace, within walking distance of the Chung Ju Valley. 

Mu Qingfang had not only offered for Shen Yuan to keep in touch but had reached out himself a few times over the years (Shen Yuan was pretty sure part of it was curiosity more than concern — apparently his condition didn’t always get treated and the cauldron usually withered away and died). So Shen Yuan didn’t feel like he was overstepping when he reached out to the Qian Cao Peak Lord. 

Mu Qingfang happily sent back more information than Shen Yuan had been expecting on proper dual cultivation. Many of the jieies and a couple of the male courtesans already had some basic interest in cultivation, if only to extend their livelihoods and appearances. 

Shen Yuan only had six months to help them not make the same mistake he did. Teaching his fellow courtesans the techniques Mu Qingfang had detailed and some of the other cultivation techniques Shen Yuan now struggled to accomplish himself was engaging in a way the rest of his work was not. Unfortunately since it was taking away from spending time with clients, it also was racking up debt on his contract again—but he really didn’t care. 

By the time the conference was a little over a month away, a slew of random cultivators started streaming into the Merry Lotus Blossom asking for services. And now every courtesan that could offer them knew how to do so without damaging themselves.

Every courtesan but Shen Yuan, who didn’t participate and spent his time covering the floor with music and taking interested non-cultivator clients. 

***

By the time the conference was setting up, the brothel had something of a respectable reputation. Cultivators absolutely sucked at offering tips, but expected constant high-class entertainment. Probably to keep up the illusion they weren’t paying for sex. 

Fu Wei had been taking on more and more of the Madam’s duties and roped Shen Yuan into helping her balance the books—he could see that even if tips were bad, they were overall making a lot more profit than normal during this time of year. 

“A-Yuan should get credit for this,” Fu Wei told him one day while he was double checking his math. 

“I don’t want to be the new madam,” Shen Yuan said, finding enough energy to tease her. 

“I have been considering something else…” Fu Wei said, tapping her fingers against the table. She had smile lines around her eyes now—it made her less approachable to the clients, but Shen Yuan liked them personally. “If our profits keep increasing and I can get a visit with the proprietor—maybe we can open our own place. Hua Yue City has a constant stream of cultivators, ones that can afford dual cultivation services.” 

“They’d transfer contracts?” Shen Yuan asked. 

He didn’t really see the point. A lot of factors, but mostly no longer retaining Lord Feng as a client and the reason for that, meant Shen Yuan had been unable to buy out his contract at nineteen. He was twenty-three now.

Fu Wei shook her head and put a gentle hand on Shen Yuan’s shoulder. “I’ve been out of mine for a few years now and with credit to how much of this idea has been yours, it should be enough to finally get you bought out of yours.”

Shen Yuan had no idea that Fu Wei had chosen to stay here. It made sense objectively. She was the spine of the place at this point and cared too much about everyone here to leave—but thinking of opening another place felt… it didn’t really feel like anything. That had been Shen Yuan’s problem with most things for the last few years. 

“What would you need me for?”

Shen Yuan was too old for Fu Wei to lift her hand and stroke his hair like she was doing. He didn’t stop her. “I know you wanted more than this, A-Yuan. I wish you could have had it. We’re not close enough to any cultivation sects to establish a lasting market here, but if we went somewhere else—we’d have enough profit to make things better than they are.”

“I don’t want to be in charge of other people’s contracts,” Shen Yuan said. The idea turned his stomach. 

Fu Wei tapped her fingers against the table. “I think we could find a better way. I’m not sure what that is yet, but some of us like the work more than others. It’s certainly better than starving on the streets.” 

Shen Yuan tried for a moment to picture it and let his brain actually plan more than a few days ahead of time again. It was murky and hard to grasp at and definitely not what he wanted forever, but… “We’d need enough capital to own the brothel on our own.”

He still hadn’t figured out who the proprietor was, but Shen Yuan was certain that getting into business with him of his own volition would be as bad as having been forced into it.

Fu Wei nodded, thoughtfully. “It may take longer, but if we plan—I think we could do that.”

It felt… well maybe not nice, but certainly better, to have a goal again. Shen Yuan happily dropped any other client offers until the conference and spent his focus on their bookkeeping instead.

***

The Immortal Alliance Conference had been improperly described in PIDW. Shen Yuan knew it was big, but he had no idea how opulent the damn thing would be. The temporary viewing platforms and huge accommodation setups were visible from all the way down to Chung Ju Valley. Huan Hua Palace’s wealth was not exaggerated and the nights leading up to the conference were filled with cultivators and nobles rubbing elbows.

The constant expectation of entertainment to be provided and the Merry Lotus Blossom’s new reputation led to a desperate need for musicians and other entertainers. There was still a certain class that wouldn’t disparage themselves to openly visit a brothel (no matter how fancy), but there was a limited amount of people that weren’t in the trade and also accomplished in the arts. 

Ironically most of them were cultivators. 

Shen Yuan, with several others he worked with on the floor, accepted a hefty sum from Huan Hua Palace for a last-minute emergency entertainment request. All the highest levels of Senior Cultivators were mingling and showing face. It reminded Shen Yuan of the business parties he tried to avoid at any cost that his brothers were always being harangued into. Different clothes, but the same level of fake networking no matter the era or universe. 

Annoyingly, Shen Yuan had to buy new clothes. Most of his nicer items he’d destroyed or sold off already, wanting nothing to do with them—but since Fu Wei was pushing him to represent them at the gatherings, he had to be respectable looking. Or whatever constituted respectable in terms of calling a dressed up prostitute: a courtesan entertainer. 

Most of the other musicians from the brothel were younger and not doing other entertainments yet, so Shen Yuan acquiesced fairly easily if only to keep an eye on them. The vibe for entertaining at a fancy cultivator event was completely different than at the brothel—so much so that for the first time in years Shen Yuan felt himself relaxing as he played. 

Hours of playing left his fingers numb so eventually he had to hand off to someone else and take a break. Yi Huang nervously took over for him and fumbled the first few notes before Shen Yuan adjusted his fingers and gave him a reassuring pat on the back. “It’s background noise at this point,” he murmured to the younger courtesan. “Consider it practice and stop panicking.” 

Yi Huang nodded and gave him a brave smile before putting his entire focus on playing the guqin. Shen Yuan stayed only long enough to make sure he settled himself comfortably and then left the confines of the huge entertaining space. 

He decided to try and find where they were feeding the poor less fortunate servants (for himself and so he could tell the others with him) while he rubbed the sore joints of his fingers. It was dark outside, but the light of an excessive amount of night pearls from inside the entertainment space cast enough visibility to easily navigate.

The setup was almost its own city. Shen Yuan wondered how much money they’d wasted on this crap. 

“Zhan Yuan?” came a voice from behind him. He automatically tensed and drew his hands (now fists) to his sides before carefully turning.

He turned to find Mu Qingfang and another person who was dressed finely enough to be at least a senior cultivator. Shen Yuan tried not to exhale his relief as he bowed politely. “Master Qingfang. It is an honor to see you again.” 

Mu Qingfang nodded with a friendly smile and then addressed the man next to him. “Ah, Shang-shixiong will have to excuse me, while I catch up with an old friend.” 

Shen Yuan tried very hard to maintain an air of mystery and regal bearing. The guy who must’ve been Shang Qinghua nodded too many times and muttered something under his breath as he walked in the other direction. Probably busy plotting against the sect.

Shen Yuan stuck his hand out towards Mu Qingfang the second Shang Qinghua was a respectable distance. The Qian Cao Peak Lord laughed as he took Shen Yuan’s wrist. “My motivations are that obvious?”

“I assumed your medical curiosity needed to be sated,” Shen Yuan said, lips twitching. 

The thoughtful consideration on Mu Qingfang’s face as he checked Shen Yuan’s meridians only cracked once with a small frown. It was not even slightly unexpected. “You’ve recovered better than most,” Mu Qingfang said, not bothering to hide his disappointment.

Better than most still meant Shen Yuan’s cultivation was permanently fucked to do anything actually interesting. Flying on a sword was not in his future, even a far away one.

Shen Yuan was about to give him some generic thanks and try and change the subject, but Mu Qingfang frowned and gestured with his head for Shen Yuan to follow. “Your meridians could benefit from a more thorough clearing. The Zhao Hua Monastery’s treatments are… passable.” 

Shen Yuan gave into the urge to snort as he followed the man. A few more months and he could probably have his cycling done ‘in-house’ since some of the flowers were taking to cultivation a bit better than the others. “Qian Cao Peak should have some grace for the less talented medical cultivators.”

Mu Qingfang made a face at that and shrugged dismissively. “I have heard that the Merry Lotus Blossom has become a very popular destination during the conference.”

“Mn,” Shen Yuan said, folding his hands in his sleeves to keep massaging his sore fingers without notice. “The pretense helps even those not interested in dual cultivation.” He made sure they were charging the same amount—not like they couldn’t afford it.

Mu Qingfang chuckled instead of looking scandalized. “I will try and make it out to see myself. I hadn’t thought of collaborating with a brothel before, but it makes sense to tie two expertises together. There could be significant advancement for the medical benefits if done with forethought.”

Having his profession mentioned in a way that actually sounded respectable without sugarcoating what it was about was an interesting feeling. “I have a suspicion that idea may scandalize some of the other peak lords, Master Qingfang.”

The next chuckle was a little wry. “More than some, but from a pragmatic standpoint we see far too much damage that can be undone by those techniques to ignore it for proprieties sake.” 

Shen Yuan had another snarky comment loaded now that he had a willing audience for it, but it died in his throat when they approached who Mu Qingfang had wanted to use for a more thorough meridian cleansing. 

Liu Qingge didn’t look much different than he did the last time Shen Yuan had seen him. His imaginations of the Bai Zhan War God becoming bulkier and less delicately featured were completely off base. If anything the man looked even prettier now. Well, if he wasn’t scowling quite so much as Mu Qingfang started to explain his request. 

As verbose as Shen Yuan remembered, Liu Qingge silently held his hands out for Shen Yuan’s wrists and Shen Yuan had to fight the urge to start laughing as he surrendered them. 

He wasn’t offended and definitely not shocked that Liu Qingge didn’t recognize (or remember) him. Little Zhan Yuan at the Warm Red Pavilion had been much younger and didn’t have his years worth of training to maintain an elusive graceful poser aura. 

The bubbles he’d felt years ago were familiar, but they were lighter—more consistent as they cycled the energy through Shen Yuan’s busted spiritual veins. 

“I take it back,” Shen Yuan said when Liu Qingge had finished and dropped his wrists without ceremony. “Zhao Hua Monastery doesn’t deserve grace.” 

Mu Qingfang covered his soft laugh with his hand and gave Liu Qingge an encouraging pat on the back, saying something Shen Yuan was too distracted to focus on.

Shen Yuan rubbed his wrists, feeling the echo of what he’d been like before his meridians had been completely trashed. It was the best he’d felt in years. He knew it was probably temporary based on how much damage was done, but it was such a relief to remember even for a short moment. “Thank you, Master Liu.”

“You never showed up,” Liu Qingge said, the sour face directed completely at Shen Yuan now. 

Shen Yuan had to take a moment, because Liu Qingge had to mean something else. There was no way he’d remembered the loud kid he’d thrown a cultivation manual at, except why else was he glaring? 

“My life got complicated,” Shen Yuan said and his mouth twitched. “I’m surprised, Master Liu remembers me.”

Liu Qingge crossed his arms over his chest and scoffed. “I should’ve made the connection when Mu-shidi talked about getting knocked off his sword. Zhan Yuan is the only person I could think of that would throw a rotten piece of fruit at a Peak Lord.”

Shen Yuan really honestly thought he couldn’t feel embarrassment anymore, let alone be flustered. Wasn’t Liu Qingge the one that should’ve been blushing? At least it was only ambient lighting outside. “I wasn’t aiming to do that.”

“That’s less impressive then,” Liu Qingge said, dead serious.

Shen Yuan wasn’t sure if the noise he made was quite covered by a surreptitious cough into his hand. “Master Qingfang’s help was greatly appreciated even if the request of it was… less than um…” Fuck. Shen Yuan was good at this shit now! Why was he fumbling? “My name is attached to that story?” he asked Mu Qingfang who was watching them both with relaxed amusement.

“Of course not,” Mu Qingfang said. “I had no idea my martial brother had a previous introduction.”

“He yelled at me for breaking the brothel door when I confronted Shen Qingqiu years ago,” Liu Qingge said, briskly. “I was pretty sure he was going to throw a bucket of scraps at my head.”

Shen Yuan did not say that he may have considered it. He wasn’t thirteen anymore. He hadn’t been for almost a decade. 

“I can see why Master Liu isn’t mingling with the other senior cultivators,” Shen Yuan said, lightly trying to regain some of his face back. 

Liu Qingge didn’t seem bothered by the assumption and just made a disgruntled noise and crossed his arms over his chest. “This is a waste of time. They should have set up training grounds so the entrants could practice.”

“There are plenty of woods around here with dangers outside of the barrier circumference they’re setting up if you’re that interested.” 

Liu Qingge looked thoughtful. “What kinds of dangers?”

Shen Yuan managed, just barely, not to laugh. He tried to remember some of the things in the area and not where he’d learned them from. The bestiary might’ve been the only item he regretted getting rid of. “I’m sure there are unregulated demonic creatures that haven’t been cleared from Jue Di Gorge yet.”

Liu Qingge seemed to process that information and gave Shen Yuan a brisk nod before turning around walking off. There was at least a consistency there.

Shen Yuan turned bemused, to Mu Qingfang and made arrangements for him to visit the brothel either during or after the conference conclusion. Then he went to scrounge up food.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan performed on the guqin the next day and into the night as well, but didn’t run into any other famous Peak Lords (or at least any he would’ve recognized). He was pretty sure he saw Yue Qingyuan but the man was way too far away and Shen Yuan had never gotten a really clear look at him to confirm.

He knew that even with some changes in this timeline, Luo Binghe was probably here somewhere, but there was no way even a more popular junior disciple would be included in the current crowd Shen Yuan was catering to. He idled his attention a little as he played, far too familiar with the movement of this piece to really need to lock in. There probably wasn’t any way to try and sneak into the less refined cultivator lodging areas and see what Luo Binghe looked like at seventeen. His curiosity was killing him though—all he could mentally picture was still the tiny little bun that cheerfully ran around his life for such a short time.

Shen Yuan was so distracted that the voice of someone he had not expected to run into caught him before he noticed the man. His hand slipped in the middle of the piece he was playing and Shen Yuan looked up to see Lord Feng, mingling with a group of nobles and senior cultivators.

It felt exactly like being dropped into an ice bath. The freeing feeling from the day before when Liu Qingge had cleared his meridians was completely replaced with a frozen terror locking him into place.

Shen Yuan wanted to throw up. He wanted to melt into the floor. He settled for trying to steel himself to get up and out of there, but then he watched as Lord Feng laughed. He hadn’t noticed Shen Yuan, his attention was on a person barely old enough to be called an adult that was hanging off his arm.

Shen Yuan set aside his guqin, not even bothering to wave down someone to fill in. A couple of people seemed to notice as he stopped playing and stood, but by this point it was basically elevator music—the continued notes of other musicians were enough to make his abrupt departure not all that notable for long.

He found himself walking towards the cluster of well-off individuals until he was directly in front of Lord Feng.

There was a calculated concern hiding behind his placid expression. Shen Yuan wish he’d been better at noticing the nuances sooner. He continued to stare him down silently while the awkwardness shifted the jovial conversations that had been occurring into something uncomfortable.

Lord Feng cleared his throat and bent his head slightly. “Ah, Zhan Yuan. It has… been some time. I wasn’t aware you were playing tonight.”

“Hardly a surprise since you were never really interested in my musical talents,” Shen Yuan said, shortly. There was a dance and a cadence to this kind of conversation and he could not give two shits.

Lord Feng flicked his eyes around briefly at the surrounding people he’d been speaking and laughing with. He didn’t want to embarrass himself of course.

Shen Yuan had engaged in enough conversations with these types of people to keep his face pleasant and his tone light. That didn’t mean his words had to be. He shifted his focus to the young woman hanging off Lord Feng’s arm. “Do you have somewhere safe to go? If so, leave now and do that.”

The grip on the woman—the girl’s arm increased and Lord Feng was satisfyingly livid, glaring at Shen Yuan. “Is that a threat? In front of all these fine cultivators?”

Shen Yuan continued to ignore him and talked directly to the confused, slightly startled face of someone who looked so fucking young but still older than Shen Yuan had been then. “I will not imply anything about your background, but I would like to elucidate that Lord Feng has a lifetime ban from the Merry Lotus Blossom, a reputable established brothel in the area, due to his utilizing human cauldrons.”

The dramatic gasping around him was so ridiculous Shen Yuan wanted to laugh, but instead he very casually slid his gaze back towards Lord Feng who seemed to have lost all color in his face and was staring in absolute shock at the situation.

Now Shen Yuan laughed—it was cracked and sharp around the edges. “Were you assuming I might care about my reputation too much to make a scene?”

“You—” Lord Feng was still making his way through the moment, trying to gather a thought probably. He was… so much less than anything he’d ever thought of himself—of anything he’d made Shen Yuan think of him. No wonder Lord Feng tried to steal anything he could from the vulnerable and unsuspecting.

“Yes, me,” Shen Yuan said, not any louder than he’d said anything else but loud enough that the gossip around them would spike immediately. “The young whore you almost literally sucked the life out of.”

He smiled politely ignoring propriety still and refusing to bow since he'd gotten on his knees enough for that man and then turned around. He strode straight past his guqin to get the fuck out of there with as cool a stride as he could manage now that his impulsiveness was catching up to him.

Shen Yuan made it out of the entertainment area and into the darkness where there was barely any light from the night pearls. Then he leaned his weight onto a tree and shook badly as he tried not to throw up.

It took him maybe an hour to finally calm down enough to seek out Yi Huang and the others. He had to ensure they would make it home all right before he left himself. Thankfully, Shen Yuan’s dedicated elegance in action meant his less than elegant words hadn’t caused enough for a scene to throw them all out.


He worried a little about the girl on Lord Feng’s arm, but couldn’t do more than he had and hoped it had been enough. He also hoped someone kicked the asshole straight into the gorge, but that was more of a fantasy than anything else.

Shen Yuan indulged himself in the mental image as he made his way back to the brothel and locked himself in his room for the rest of the night.

***

It was the last day before the conference. Shen Yuan neither dressed up nor made any pretend at playing again, but he did walk the ones who were to the edge of where the richer temporary lodging and entertainment was. It was almost nice, wearing no face paint, plainer robes, and his hair loosely braided. Shen Yuan was practically invisible for once. He hadn’t had much opportunity to go out like this in a while.

He didn’t relax completely, there was a buzzing sharpness that hadn’t left him since last night and he kept expecting to see Lord Feng nearby. He did let himself idle around the area, getting a view during the day of the final stages of preparation.

The barrier arrays had been drawn in completely and were starting to rise. The faint shimmer of the array field reflected fragmented rainbows as the sphere started to complete itself. It must’ve taken hundreds of cultivators to set up.

Fu Wei hadn’t been wrong about her idea of setting up near Huan Hua Palace. They definitely had the means to support a business long-term.

He briefly noted a few people coming up the path and stepped aside so they could pass. They were young and all dressed fairly plainly so he wasn’t paying much attention and was mostly watching the array finish closing. He registered that one of them that stopped near where he was, not continuing on with the others and briefly glanced over.

Shen Yuan didn’t get a detailed look at the young man next to him, because he vaguely registered that for the moment he didn’t seem like a threat, but then he spoke.

“Yuan-ge?”

Shen Yuan now knew what a literal double take felt like. His head spun around and he gave the white and pale green robed young man in front of him a better look. His little sheep had doubled in size and the mental disconnect rattled his brain a little. “Binghe?”

He didn’t get enough time to examine the differences because Shen Yuan lost all ability to breathe as all seventeen years of apparently still sticky Luo Binghe wrapped him in a suffocating hug.

Shen Yuan indulged for maybe five seconds before slapping Luo Binghe’s back and shoving him off. “That is not—you can’t greet people like that in public!”

Especially not someone who had openly called themselves a whore in front of maybe his seniors the night before!

“Apologies, Yuan-ge,” Luo Binghe said not sounding even remotely sorry based on the way he was beaming. “This one was excited to finally see you in person.”

It took a meteoric level of self control not to reach out and touch the fluffy, untangled and tamed hair that was pulled back. Luo Binghe was broader too. His face had the barest traces of baby fat which was honestly more than he’d had when Shen Yuan had first met him, a malnourished skinny little thing. He was taller than Shen Yuan now. Not by a significant amount, but still. It felt like yesterday Luo Binghe had only gone up to his chest.

“Yuan-ge?” Luo Binghe asked, his delight shifting into what seemed like nervousness.

“I’m taking it in,” Shen Yuan said, still staring. “You’re…” A thousand words came to mind and most of them were a variety of soppy adjectives describing the perfection of the protagonist—and they were all apparently true.

Shen Yuan shook his head, trying to regain his senses. He found himself smiling. The kid had grown up really well. “You look great. Like a real cultivator.”

If he’d thought the initial smile was bright, Shen Yuan had no idea. The smile that crossed Luo Binghe’s face now was actually blinding. Forget the fragmented rainbows off the arrays, Luo Binghe’s smile was the visual distraction.

“I wanted to come visit you, but…” Luo Binghe looked slightly abashed. “Only seniors are allowed into the city and neighboring areas.”

“That seems reasonable,” Shen Yuan said. He would’ve been more than indignant if a bunch of teenage cultivators had swanned into the brothel looking for an edge in the competition.

“How has Yuan-ge been?” Luo Binghe said, his eyes seeming to catalog whatever changes he was noticing in Shen Yuan too. It couldn’t have been nearly as dramatic and definitely not positive if it was. Shen Yuan hadn’t gotten much taller than the last time Luo Binghe had seen him and if anything he probably just looked more tired.

Luo Binghe’s voice was careful, not revealing whatever conclusion he’d come to as he looked over Shen Yuan. “You never write how you’re doing in letters.”

“Nothing I’m doing is very interesting,” Shen Yuan said, only half-forcing his smile. “I’d much rather hear about how Binghe has been.”

Luo Binghe didn’t seem pleased by that response, but he was amenable to being manipulated into talking about himself rather than Shen Yuan having to discuss any particulars about his own life. The only thing remotely interesting that occurred recently that Shen Yuan could have brought up he would rather set himself on fire than discuss dual cultivation with the little kid who used to cuddle up to him like a cat.

Most of what Luo Binghe shared was already decently documented in his letters, but Shen Yuan was able to get more details and specifics that might not have seemed worth writing down. He tried a few times to lead the conversation towards Luo Binghe’s studies and specifically how his teachers were treating him, but Luo Binghe kept finding a way to talk around it.

Shen Yuan might have thought he was trying to avoid those topics, but Luo Binghe’s talking around that was specifically targeted at trying to drive the conversation towards what Shen Yuan had been doing instead.

The only thing Shen Yuan could do was to talk about Cui Shui and her baby, but that had the unintended effect of leading into the story of Shen Yuan beaning a Peak Lord with old fruit which apparently was not an unknown story to most of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect.

“Yuan-ge is famous,” Luo Binghe said, brightly. “Mu-shishu loves telling that story.”

Shen Yuan groaned and put his hands over his face. “It sounds like Yuan-ge is infamous.” He dropped his hands. “You’re not allowed to tell anyone it was me. I don’t want my fruit throwing influencing your reputation.”

The face Luo Binghe made was a little hard to read but he acquiesced. “Was it rotten?”

“Probably,” Shen Yuan said, strained. He missed the sound of Luo Binghe’s laugh. “I was only trying to get their attention, but I wasn’t feeling well and it affected my aim.”

Immediately he knew that was the wrong thing to say. Luo Binghe looked like he might grab Shen Yuan’s wrists like Mu Qingfang was keen on. “Yuan-ge was ill?”

Shen Yuan took a half-step back, automatically hiding his hands in his sleeves as he defensively wrapped his fingers around his own wrists. “Binghe, it was years ago.”

He couldn’t bring himself to lie but he also was not going to share that particular truth. If he started talking about how everything had gone to hell then he’d never stop. And he wanted to enjoy looking at Luo Binghe, cultivator “Hey, let me see your sword!”

Luo Binghe grinned and happily showed off Zheng Yang. Shen Yuan thought it looked even cooler than he’d pictured and the conversation easily went off from there. Talking to Luo Binghe felt easy, natural, and like a habit he slid back into.

It stupidly felt too comfortable so by the time someone called out for, “A-Luo! Shizun is looking for you.” and Luo Binghe had to excuse himself with a promise to seek Shen Yuan out soon, Shen Yuan had completely forgotten that was probably going to be the last time he talked to him at all.

He hadn’t even… thought of some kind of warning he could have provided. Not even: ‘If your teacher looks angry during the conference while you’re over the edge of an ominous cliff just run sideways!’

Something at least. He hadn’t even thought to drop any sort of hint or suggestion in his last few letters.

Shen Yuan was miserable by the time he made it back to the Merry Lotus Blossom and even the overwhelming scent of incense couldn’t keep him from locking himself in his room for the next few days.

***

Shen Yuan spent the next few days sleeping and mindlessly painting in a way that felt more like expensive doodling. He had no idea nor did he want to find out how anything was progressing in the conference. He wanted it all to disappear so he could pretend everything was fine. He could pretend the conference would end swimmingly and he’d get a nice letter from Luo Binghe in a month talking about how well he’d done and how great his life was now.

Close to the end of the Immortal Alliance Conference, a loud panic downstairs alerted Shen Yuan to the fact that depressive disconnect was no longer an option.

At first Shen Yuan thought demons were flooding the brothel, but it was mostly injured cultivators and a frantic Mu Qingfang who decided to narrow in on Shen Yuan for assistance with the injured cultivators that couldn’t be moved. He left a couple of his disciples at the Merry Lotus Blossom to direct and help sorely under-skilled courtesans with basic healing maneuvers beyond dual cultivation. Then Mu Qingfang tried to fill Shen Yuan in as quickly as possible as they made their way back to Jue Di Gorge.

It was so frantic and panicked that Shen Yuan couldn’t even appreciate getting to ride on the back of sword on the way up there. He also didn’t register why he specifically was so urgently needed while the other courtesans that were making their way to the medical tents could be fine walking.

The medical tents were full. Shen Yuan was overwhelmed by the bleeding, crying, and general harried pace of medical cultivators shuffling between patients. He barely kept up with Mu Qingfang who led him deep into the tent towards an area that seemed to be initially used as storage. There was a small room, covered by a flap that had a medical cot in it and a very injured looking Liu Qingge.

The long weeping wound on the side of the Bai Zhan War God was chartreuse with little flecks of teal. A wound like that could only be created by a Luminous Dragon Tiger. Which could only be cured by dual cultivation.

Shen Yuan’s understanding and then panic must have shown on his face because Mu Qingfang quickly raised his hands. “I can find someone else to do it, but I cannot convince my stubborn shixiong to actually let someone treat him! I have already wasted much time attempting to do so, please knock some sense into him. Find anyone in Qian Cao robes after getting him to agree and we’ll send an appropriate cultivator.”

Shen Yuan felt himself nod, which was apparently enough for Mu Qingfang who then quickly left out of the flap behind them. He had plenty of injured people to deal with. He couldn’t waste his time on one who only needed a really big bandaid and a round of healing papapa.

There wasn’t much standing room as it was so Shen Yuan only needed to take a singular step forward to be next to the stone faced cultivator who was trying not to writhe in what had to be immense pain.

Liu Qingge stared at Shen Yuan for a brief second before recognition flashed behind his eyes. He clenched his fists and through gritted teeth just said, “No.”

“I’ll pretend I’m not offended,” Shen Yuan said, wondering how he was supposed to be convincing when Liu Qingge’s martial brother couldn’t. It wasn’t like he had an expertise in seduction. He’d never actually made an effort to attract a client and by the time they paid he was just—nice to them.

A brief look of confusion crossed Liu Qingge’s face before he looked a little red and huffed, clenching his fists even harder. “It isn’t personal. I already told Mu-shidi. I don’t—I don’t need that.”

“Why?” Shen Yuan asked, because well… he’d lived with the ‘death or sex’ question and it wasn’t a great thing to have to think about but the answer was pretty obvious.

“I can live through this pain. I won’t dishonor someone,” Liu Qingge said.

It was a good thing he had a massive wound, because Shen Yuan would’ve been tempted to smack him otherwise. “You can’t live through this actually and I am beyond certain we could find a volunteer.”

“What?” Liu Qingge’s face scrunched up in some kind of mix of anger and confusion.

“Do I need to find a reflective surface?” Shen Yuan asked, resting one hand on his hip. “You’re talking about dying or letting someone who is willing, volunteer to have sex with you.”

The mature master cultivator jutted his chin out and turned away from Shen Yuan.

“Fine,” Shen Yuan said tiredly. “What do I care? Die the stupidest death you possibly can. It’s your decision.”

He’d had a few extra years as it was. This was kind of an ignoble death in comparison, but it was his (stupid) decision.

“It isn’t a stupid death,” Liu Qingge muttered.

“Did you at least kill the Luminous Dragon Tiger?” Shen Yuan asked, wishing there was somewhere he could sit or lean against. It felt weird to hover over the War God’s deathbed.

“Of course,” Liu Qingge scoffed.

“Don’t act like that’s easy!” Shen Yuan protested. He was kind of annoyed that there was probably too much pain going on for him to pry for details. He barely saw anything good even being this close to a fairly dangerous territory. Let alone a rare beast like a Luminous Dragon Tiger! “They’ve been known to take down significantly large raiding parties in the southern plains.”

Liu Qingge scrunched his face and eyebrows again and stared up at Shen Yuan. “Demonic or human raiders?”

“Demonic,” Shen Yuan answered, trying not to look at the gaping wound open on Liu Qingge’s side.

“See, good death,” Liu Qingge said, like that was a reasonable statement.

Liu Qingge had a sister who would probably be really angry at him for dying. Up to the point where she would have joined a revenge mission on his behalf that ended up taking down the entire sect. Shen Yuan assumed his own meimei was cursing his name at his funeral for an equally stupid death—at least Shen Yuan hadn’t had a choice in the matter.

“There’s no such thing,” Shen Yuan said. “And I can tell you for a fact everyone you left behind is going to be really pissed and would rather you’d embarrassed yourself momentarily or… whatever your hangup actually is.”

“There has to be another treatment. It’s ridiculous,” Liu Qingge snapped.

Hard to argue with, honestly.

“Your qi is off balance due to the venomous nature of the saliva in the Luminous Dragon Tiger’s bite. If it was normal poison you could probably use a healing herb—a rare one, but still. But it’s not normal poison, it’s leeching into your meridians and turning your physical and spiritual energies against you.” He made a face. “I guess theoretically, so it could better digest you with its demonic and spiritual energy which doesn’t really make any sense but I didn’t make the thing.”

Liu Qingge was clearly in a lot of pain but he mostly looked put out. “Then why can’t normal cultivation balancing work?”

'Because Airplane was a hack’ wasn’t an appropriate response. “The Luminous Dragon Tiger is an omnivore. The only plants it eats are aphrodisiacs.”

“That is stupid.”

Shen Yuan rubbed the spot in the middle of his forehead where he’d long ago used to push up his glasses in times of great annoyance. “Plenty of shit is stupid and unfair, but you still have to figure out how to live through it.”

Liu Qingge’s breathing was harried and sounded raspy around the edges. He must’ve been in an incredible amount of pain.

Shen Yuan took his own, deep and steadying breath. “Would it help if I explained how it worked?”

“I know how it works,” Liu Qingge said, mulishly.

“Sex or dual cultivation?” Shen Yuan asked.

There was a moment of harried breathing in the silence and Liu Qingge’s jaw shifted, but the silence was as much of an answer as Shen Yuan was going to get.

“Right, so sex is a bullet list of things to stick into places. Dual cultivation is different — when you cleared my meridians you were using a form of it. It’s the same concept, just more localized.” He hovered his finger over the spots he wanted to direct attention to, making sure not to actually touch Liu Qingge. “Instead of circulating the qi flow within the spiritual veins, you’re accessing the center of yourself—in this case the lower dantian to cycle through the rest and purify your spiritual energy. The reason sex is involved is because you have to share someone’s essence as well as their qi so that yours can be purified and restored.”

“Bullet list?” Liu Qingge asked, making a contorted expression.

Shen Yuan briefly considered smacking him again. “Focus, Master Liu.”

“I don’t want to…” Liu Qingge started and then grimaced. “How am I supposed to even do that in this much pain?”

Shen Yuan wondered if Mu Qingfang had offered him any pain management and he’d refused—or if the medical cultivator wanted him to stay in pain so he’d give in. Either seemed likely.

“I have aphrodisiac powder on me, but I don’t know if that will interfere with the process or not,” Shen Yuan said. “It’s mild so probably not.”

“You have that on you?” Liu Qingge looked as confused as he had over the term ‘bullet list’

Shen Yuan sighed. “People pay me money to have sex. I understand not being in the mood when its necessary.”

“Why didn’t you show up to trials?” Liu Qingge asked, again. Now.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Shen Yuan said, flatly. “It was either die or…” He made a vague gesture that wasn’t really lewd but encompassed the big circle of nothing his life had ended up being. “I regret plenty of things. Surviving isn’t one of them.”

Liu Qingge closed his eyes and didn’t completely relax but he let his head fall against the back of the cot. “Fine.”

So begrudging to agree to have his life saved. Shen Yuan kept his scathing commentary mental. No point in saying something that might have him kill himself out of spite. “Do you have a preference? Men or women?”

Shen Yuan really didn’t think he’d have trouble with volunteers, so no point in limiting options. It would probably be better if they didn’t actually have to add another aphrodisiac to the process.

Liu Qingge opened his eyes again, looking uncomfortable and seeking in a way that Shen Yuan unfortunately perfectly understood.

“You’d be comfortable with me?” Shen Yuan asked, keeping his tone unaffected.

“As much as I can be in this situation,” Liu Qingge said, at least having the guts to meet Shen Yuan’s eyes during this conversation from hell.

“Right,” Shen Yuan said. Then he turned to the small stack of boxes that might have held medical supplies. There was a viscous liquid that was probably medical grade fantasy lube already set aside. He couldn't say Mu Qingfang wasn’t prepared. He grabbed that and some flat bandages.

Shen Yuan hadn’t thrown a lot of layers on in the harried panic earlier, so he only needed to ditch his pants before he climbed on top of the medical cot and hovered above Liu Qingge’s knees trying to figure out a good way not to make his wound worse. He carefully put the bandages over the worst of it—it didn’t even look like a bite mark—it was too big. “Did it claw and bite you?”

Liu Qingge looked down at the rip in his robes and now bandaged wound. “Used its fore claw to tear the muscle and then bit down, trying to get at my kidneys—I got my sword into the lower part of its skull before it could.”

Liu Qingge’s pants were already shredded so Shen Yuan didn’t have to do much other than loosen the ties that bound his waist. It was more angled than he’d been expecting, not exactly thin with how much muscle was wrapped around each individual abdominal, but there was defined V shape that cut into his hips.

“Do you need me to describe what I’m doing as I’m doing it?” Shen Yuan asked before he dug into the War God’s pants for his dick.

“I fought a lot of demons today,” Liu Qingge said instead.

Well. That seemed to be working, so Shen Yuan gestured for him to continue while he loosened Liu Qingge’s robes enough to release the War God’s other sword. It wasn’t what Shen Yuan would define as erect, but it wasn’t flaccid either.

“Tell me about them,” Shen Yuan asked, opening the medical unguent. The ‘room’ they were in was small enough that he could cover his left palm and a few of his righthand fingers and still place the container in reach if he needed more.

Liu Qingge grunted and shifted in his position when Shen Yuan wrapped his lubricated left palm around the base of his cock. He breathed out through his nose and continued talking. “A pack of Wood Crested Crows attacked when we first entered the array.”

“Murder,” Shen Yuan said, absentmindedly shoving his right hand behind himself so he could start easing himself open.

“What?”

“A group of crows is called a murder,” Shen Yuan said, sliding one finger around his rim before pushing past it and testing the slip of the medical ointment he’d covered it in.

Liu Qingge stared up at him. It was probably good given his objectively annoyed expression that he wasn’t looking down at where Shen Yuan had one hand between his own legs and one hand pumping the man’s dick.

“Does that matter?”

“It’s accurate," Shen Yuan said.

“Fine. A murder of—Wood Crested Crows attacked when we first entered the array.” Liu Qingge closed his eyes and huffed a breath as his cock started to firm up in Shen Yuan’s hand The storytelling seemed to relax him enough to respond to Shen Yuan’s practiced movements. “There were eight of them, maybe ten. It was difficult to tell with how their wings blended into the terrain.”

Wood Crested Crows were the size of a small child, but could still camouflage against most forested areas. “They came out of the trees?”

“Mn,” Liu Qingge said, clenching his fists tightly into the thin medical cot mattress. “Some also flew out from beneath, but I think they might have been at a lower elevation; not hiding in the brush.”

“You can touch me if you want,” Shen Yuan said, adding another finger to himself in a clinically efficient sort of way. He tried to be a little more artful with the hand job he was doing—thankfully he’d had a few days to rest his fingers from playing an instrument or this would’ve been a literal and figurative pain.

Liu Qingge’s hands were still fisted at his sides and he stared at a point in the middle of Shen Yuan’s torso.

“You don’t have to,” Shen Yuan added. “I’m only saying if you don’t want to break the cot I don’t mind if you put your hands on me. Also you said we, did you have other people fighting with you?”

Liu Qingge lifted a single tight fist and loosened it enough to rest weirdly gentle on Shen Yuan’s waist. “At first. Some cultivators from Tian Yi. One of them didn't avoid the… murder in time.”

It was so incredibly difficult given the situation to tell if Liu Qingge was making a joke, but based on the the subject matter Shen Yuan decided to err on the side of not.

“The others threw some fire talismans,” Liu Qingge said, breathing out hard and grunting when Shen Yuan flexed his fingers. He was pretty hard now but Shen Yuan still needed to stretch himself out a little more if he was going to manage this comfortably.

“Smart,” Shen Yuan said. “I mean, if they aimed correctly. Otherwise they might have set the forest on fire.”

Liu Qingge snorted at that and huffed out another breathy low noise that sent a surprising curl of interest into the lower region of Shen Yuan’s stomach. “They had decent aim. And then it was easy to send glares in their directions before cutting the crows’ heads off.”

“Easy,” Shen Yuan scoffed. “Smart more like. Sword glares probably had similar effects that the fire talismans did.” He could almost picture the waves of energy peeling off Cheng Luan before the sword itself sliced through the large creatures like there was no resistance.

Liu Qingge’s other hand also went to rest on Shen Yuan’s waist which was steadying even for how delicately he was holding both sides. “I don't know what happened to the other cultivators after that. We split off. Some younger disciples were trapped by a Bronze Boar Hound, so I went after it.”

“Hah, fuck,” Shen Yuan swore, slipping his fingers in a little too far and forgetting to twist them out in a maneuver that would stretch his entrance faster—instead he’d curled them and shot a flush of arousal through himself which had not been the goal.

“Are you all right?” Liu Qingge asked.

Shen Yuan nodded and cleared his throat. He shifted, placing the hand he’d been using to stretch himself out on the lower skin of Liu Qingge’s abdomen. He pressed up with the heel of his palm trying to find the spot where the residual energy felt the strongest so he could locate the lower dantian.

He hadn’t actually done this the correct way before—there was a lot of pressure to get it right “Yeah. I’m… yeah, how did you cut through the hide—the skin is pretty sturdy, right?”

“Same as the crows,” Liu Qingge said. “Softened it up with sword glares before striking.”

“Probably also vulnerable to fire,” Shen Yuan agreed. Once he felt the discordant shift of energies deep within Liu Qingge’s core, he positioned himself higher up his body and shifted slightly. “Can you—uh move a little,” Shen Yuan said.

Liu Qingge took direction well enough and moved down a bit so it was easier for Shen Yuan to angle himself. He used the palm still holding Liu Qingge’s dick to direct himself and started to ease down on it.

“I didn’t kill it—nhgh—before it howled,” Liu Qingge added, though a lot of that was said fighting a broken off moan.

“Well, I don’t see any melted body parts,” Shen Yuan said, slowly adjusting to the full feeling of a much deeper stretch to his insides. “I assume you dodged.”

“Mn.” Liu Qingge’s grip on Shen Yuan’s waist didn’t exactly tighten but it was a lot firmer. That helped and made it easier to sink down without worrying as much about balancing on Liu Qingge’s thighs without a steadier hold. “It took out a few trees, but no other injuries.”

Shen Yuan had to breathe very deliberately once he was fully seated. The heel of his palm was resting on Liu Qingge’s lower abdomen and he shifted it upwards while pulsing a small amount of his own qi channeled through that hand. “You—you can feel that, right?’

Liu Qingge nodded, though he’d closed his eyes at some point. He was… fuck he was really beautiful, with a flush literally cascading against his sharp cheekbones. Shen Yuan wasn’t sure how to handle that information at the moment.

“All right,” Shen Yuan said, “I’m… I’m going to start moving my hips and shifting the energy at the same time. I need you to try your best to balance it with your own energy towards me, but don’t worry about pushing yourself. We’re focused on you right now so we can purify the corrupted spiritual energies.”

Liu Qingge’s brow wrinkled and he nodded, eyes still closed. “I don’t know the name of the other thing I fought.”

Shen Yuan’s laugh was a little breathless. He lifted his hips up a few millimeters while he attuned himself to the flux of energies battling against the venom in Liu Qingge’s system. “Describe it?”

“The size of a very large bear,” Liu Qingge said, grunting a little and automatically moving his hands at Shen Yuan’s sides up and down to match the motion of Shen Yuan’s palm which had traveled up to the middle of his torso. “With feathers and a beak. It… nghh—it was wet.”

“Swamp Heron Bear,” Shen Yuan said, easily. He had to force himself not to mentally rant about how it was a very clear Dungeons and Dragons Owl Bear ripoff that was thrown into a subtropical wetland. “Not native to the area.”

“How do you know that?” Liu Qingge asked, staring up at him.

Shen Yuan shrugged his shoulders and rolled his hips again. “Books. I’ve never seen one.” He’d probably be dead if he had. He was no Liu Qingge.

Liu Qingge blinked at him and shook his head, frowning as his gaze shifted. “You’re—you feel blocked.”

Shen Yuan tried to follow where Liu Qingge was looking, it was near his sternum. “It should still work… we just have to — ahh.” Shen Yuan shifted his hips trying to grind down in the same gesture he was making with his hand and landed at a very distracting angle. He bit his lip and tried again.

“Fuck,” Shen Yuan said, frustrated and not at all upset about it if he didn't think too deeply.

“Is that hurting you?” Liu Qingge asked, a sweet amount of concern in his voice, but when Shen Yuan met his face he still looked steely and determined.

“Opposite,” Shen Yuan breathed, “hard to concentrate. I need to adapt and move around my energy blocks.”

Liu Qingge frowned and moved one of his hands from Shen Yuan’s waist to rest on the center of his chest. His thumb dipped over the fabric covering Shen Yuan’s sternum. “That’s a terrible way to do this.”

“What, are you the expert now?” Shen Yuan asked, shifting his hips—and then let out a noise that sounded a lot like gasping when the cluster of nerves hit the right angle inside him and ricocheted up his spine. Simultaneously there was an opening in his chest where Liu Qingge’s hand was resting.

The energy in Shen Yuan’s body felt floaty—it was so much easier to direct now.

Rather than looking smug, Liu Qingge was still frowning, his thumb rubbing small circles over Shen Yuan’s sternum and the hand at his waist holding steady. “Our qi won’t cycle if you’re working around a block.”

It would. It just would’ve been painful. Shen Yuan didn’t verbalize that. He nodded instead and decided not to ask anymore follow up fighting questions. Liu Qingge seemed comfortable enough with what they were doing. Maybe because it took concentration or maybe because it felt like a challenge doing it with Shen Yuan’s busted qi flow.

Usually busted anyway.

Now that his energy was flowing better, it was much harder for Shen Yuan not to notice the physical sensations. There was a growing warmth building up from the base of his groin and rising until his body felt flushed with it and it didn’t seem to be his qi. Shen Yuan breathed out and closed his eyes, trying to visualize only the discordant energy in Liu Qingge’s body.

It didn’t work. He could focus on it, but he also hear blood rushing in his ears and felt the rhythm they were working towards as he lifted his hips higher off Liu Qingge’s cock and then dropped back down again. He unconsciously was angling himself to feel that burst of pleasure at the base of his spine again.

It felt… really good. And not in the hazy way it did with powder. They were both reduced to a set of noises and inarticulate swearing. Well, the swearing was mostly Shen Yuan—Liu Qingge seemed to be content with deep, reverberating grunts as he thrust his hips upwards to match Shen Yuan’s downward roll of his own hips. It reached a point where focusing on cycling their energy was unnecessary—everything was working cohesively, instinctive.

Liu Qingge dropped the hand that was resting on Shen Yuan’s center and wrapped it around his achingly hard cock without any prompting and working it in tandem with their other movements. There was very little resistance or necessary instruction—it was a cataclysmic explosion of their energies intertwining as Shen Yuan came all over Liu Qingge’s stomach and automatically clenched down around the War God, also drawing out his climax.

Shen Yuan’s eyelashes were wet and he was dizzy, drowning in overstimulation as Liu Qingge’s hands framed his waist to steady him. “Are you all right?”

“Did it work?” Shen Yuan asked, not answering. He was having trouble getting a good measure of the conflicting energies—then realized it was because they weren’t conflicting anymore. “Ah, okay good.”

“Are you all right?” Liu Qingge repeated.

“Yeah,” Shen Yuan said, nodding. “I need a second.”

Liu Qingge waited three seconds before he awkwardly cleared his throat. “Was it bad?”

Shen Yuan laughed, shaky but sincere. “No. That is not the problem.”

He breathed out and looked down at the bandage covering Liu Qingge’s wound. He’d gotten fluids on it that could not have been good for healing. When he lifted the bandage off carefully, however, the wound was already starting to shift—the strange colors seeping out of it were turning to a normal worrisome human red.

“I should redo that bandage,” Shen Yuan said, wondering how he could regain sensation in his legs so he could at least slide off of the Peak Lord of Bai Zhan’s dick before he attempted any more first aid.

“It’s fine,” Liu Qingge said, still eyeing Shen Yuan like he was the one recovering from a demonic sex pollen bite.

“Mn, no I — hold on.” Shen Yuan had more strength in his arms currently so he braced his hands on the cot and used them to push off Liu Qingge. He tried to ignore the unfortunately familiar sensation of thick fluid slowly dripping out of him. It killed the mood a bit, but that was probably for the best.

It took another ten minutes at least to clean them both up, re-bandage Liu Qingge, and put their robes in some semblance of order. Shen Yuan had better luck personally with that last part, since Liu Qingge had the Captain Kirk treatment against most of the fabric that was meant to cover him.

It was pretty impossible not to still be touching with how little space there was in the room and how Shen Yuan still hadn’t managed to avoid at least leaning against the cot. He should probably give Liu Qingge’s some space and let Mu Qingfang know his martial brother wasn’t going to die.

A tentative, gentle hand traced the skin on Shen Yuan’s wrist and he let Liu Qingge pull it towards himself, his thumb pressing down on the pulse point. For a moment he thought maybe Liu Qingge wasn’t going to check anything, but then the bubble sensation occurred again — it kind of tickled, like a very gentle trickle from a stream.

“You never told me how you killed the Swamp Heron Bear,” Shen Yuan said, softly.

Liu Qingge glanced up from where he was staring at the thin skin on the inside of Shen Yuan’s wrist. “I stabbed it.”

Shen Yuan shoved his face into his own shoulder to try and muffle the laughter that wanted to rip out of him.

“It didn’t have any strong resistances,” Liu Qingge said. Then he huffed. “Why is that funny?”

“It’s resistance is being a giant fucking bear,” Shen Yuan said, almost gasping with laughter. “You can’t—you’re so casual with it. Did you even use a sword seal?”

“No,” Liu Qingge said, like that was an odd question. “I didn’t need to, it came right at me.”

Shen Yuan covered his face with his free hand, his other still resting lightly in Liu Qingge’s and smothered as much of the hysterical giggling as he could. It took him a solid minute to calm down.

“Is it always like that?” Liu Qingge asked, after patiently waiting for a quiet non-hysterical moment.

“I don’t think so,” Shen Yuan said, watching the motion of Liu Qingge’s thumb still making gentle circles on the inside of his wrist. “I haven’t… done it correctly before though, so maybe.”

Liu Qingge looked up at that. “I thought you had expertise?”

“I do,” Shen Yuan said, carefully. “More theoretical than practical for proper dual cultivation—I—it’s a long story.”

Liu Qingge seemed like he might ask a follow-up question, but then the tent flat opened. A disciple, wearing the same colors as Mu Qingfang raised their eyebrows and exclaimed at the sight of them. “Liu-shibo! You’re not dead!”

Shen Yuan covered his face again but made no headway to actually muffling his laughter, while Liu Qingge indignantly sputtered.

Chapter Text

The next few days were sobering. There were a lot of bodies and cleanup to take care of—also billing and collections. Mu Qingfang was easy to work with, but the clinical nature of taking toll on who was treated and accounting for price felt garish all things considered.

The practicality insisted on it, however. As much as he would have liked to have at least waved the fees for the cultivators who didn’t survive or the minor first aid some of the courtesans provided—every coin not put into their pockets meant more time on their contract. Coin was the lifeblood of anyone working here and more important than ever.

After experiencing actual dual cultivation and the subsequent effects it had on Shen Yuan’s qi, he was very much on board with Fu Wei’s plan. He wanted to act on it sooner rather than later and put this place behind him.

Shen Yuan did carefully zero out the charge for Liu Qingge’s treatment while he went over the rest of the numbers.

If Mu Qingfang noticed, he didn’t say anything, too engaged by Fu Wei’s ideas for a dual cultivation dedicated brothel to comment on it either way. He promised to share any of his medical connections at Huan Hua Palace as long as they shared their ‘results’ once they got going.

Shen Yuan waited until the cultivators had all gone to check the list of names they’d recorded of bodies found or known casualties. Luo Binghe wasn’t on it, but Shen Yuan knew that didn’t necessarily mean much. He stupidly held out a little hope for a new letter for another three months before knowing with an experienced certainty that fate wasn’t kind.

There was nothing he could do about it now. Shen Yuan had five years to survive himself and he was very used to putting painful thoughts aside to do so. So Shen Yuan focused on moving forward, especially since the amount of coin earned due to the tragedy of the conference was finally enough to buy himself out of his contract.

Shen Yuan watched as the piece of parchment which had held his life for the last eight years (and longer) burned. There was a tiny speck of blood he’d never remembered them taking—and as the entire thing burnt to ashes, a sprig of hope bloomed in his chest.

Shen Yuan had a future again.

That thought motivated him to put pressure on Fu Wei and they left much earlier than was probably smart. Shen Yuan had wanted out of there, but his arguments about riding the good word of mouth from before and after the conference did pay off. They started by renting a smaller place in Hua Yue City—a couple of jiejies who had also earned enough to buy out their contracts came along. It was a very small setup, but that worked to iron out how their business would work.

Shen Yuan was glad he had paid somewhat vague attention to his business classes in school so he could help with his family’s company—it wasn’t perfectly translatable but it gave him a lot of ideas that were apparently revolutionary.

Before a year passed Fu Wei and Shen Yuan were able to open the Twin Dahlia Garden—he had lost the fight on the name—a brothel dedicated to dual cultivation. The ‘brothel’ bit of it still soured them to some of their neighbors, but for the most part Shen Yuan felt they were actually respectable and not the kind of respectable the Merry Lotus Blossom claimed to be.

The hardest detail to work out ended up being the one that gave them the most success. There were no contracts. Instead, they let courtesans with the proper training rent their own space. There was a small percentage taken out of the rate for upkeep, but it wasn’t too much, because as some of the jiejies liked to fondly say—Fu Wei and Zhan Yuan were both suckers.

It didn’t matter. No one was there that didn’t have a choice to be and that made putting up with the cloying scent of incense all the easier. Once they were established, Shen Yuan stopped taking clients all together and only performed once a week to keep in practice on his music and to have a locked-in excuse when someone did try to request him for other services. For the most part his time was spent managing the administrative side of things, as well as the second part of their business that had kind of just cropped up naturally.

They weren’t an official academy and there was no ‘dual cultivation certificate’ even if Shen Yuan had suggested one as (mostly) a joke. There were, however, many courtesans who wanted to learn the proper techniques and bring them back to their own brothels. Because Shen Yuan didn’t give a shit about proprietary knowledge or profit, he was happy to share what they knew.

The more people who knew how to properly dual cultivate the less people there were to take advantage of and that was all he could hope for—it also paid enough for them to sponsor a couple of newer courtesans to train which kept them off the street and out of contracts.

It was a good life for what it was worth and Shen Yuan handled the bookkeeping so he knew how much that was exactly.

***

Shen Yuan was not deliriously happy but he was something else he hadn’t felt in a while. Smug. He was smug and he had forgotten how good it felt to be so. He loved proving idiots wrong.

“Should I take by that smile we do not actually have to close our doors today?” Fu Wei asked with her own (less smug more knowing) smile.

“I didn’t even have to spend two days at the hall of records this time,” Shen Yuan said, brightly.

The bullshit ‘zoning’ issue that had been concocted as another attempt to get under the skin of the Twin Dahlia Garden owners crashed and burned like the rest of them. For the most part, attempts to sabotage their business had tapered off, but since they were doing well, there had been a few more attempts recently. It wasn’t like they were stealing anyone else’s coin. Hua Yue City was ripe with rich patrons who could find their pleasures elsewhere. There were plenty of brothels for any kind of pocket in a city this grand.

Shen Yuan had countered each one of these attempts with the true golden finger weapon—the most stringent irritating bureaucracy he could find. It was very difficult to mess with someone who would read the full terms of service (or PIDW) purely out of spite.

“Minister Han came by earlier today,” Fu Wei mentioned, oh so casually, ruining his smug mood.

Shen Yuan grimaced. “Again?”

Minister Han had visited during one of the nights Shen Yuan performed in the entertainment lounge. The high ranking official had been unduly annoyed when his request for services hadn’t been catered to and something about him rubbed Shen Yuan the wrong way.

“Mn,” Fu Wei said. “Song Peng offered services, but the minister did not take to him.”

“Of course not, Song Peng offered. Where’s the enticement in that?” Shen Yuan rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was a shame they couldn’t risk banning the minister when he hadn’t actually done anything to earn it. Minister Han was too highly ranked to fuck with the way Shen Yuan wanted to, especially if as he hadn’t done anything overt.

“Do you truly believe that is the only reason he’s interested in you?” Fu Wei asked, raising an eyebrow.

Not this again. Shen Yuan rolled his eyes, happy for the freedom to do so. He didn’t have to be elegant or alluring and he definitely wasn’t. Excepting on nights he played downstairs, Shen Yuan was happy wearing commonplace boring robes, nothing on his face, and tying his hair in the world’s laziest braid. He could walk through the market with not a single look his way. It was freeing.

If he’d met Minister Han when he looked like this maybe this could’ve all been avoided. He wouldn’t have been irritated by the ‘no’ if he hadn’t asked the question in the first place.

Thankfully Shen Yuan was saved from another round of ‘but A-Yuan, you’re so pretty’ which never led anywhere good. Lai Wen, one of the jiejies who had come over from the Merry Lotus Blossom was waving him down. He went towards her, avoiding a couple of blushing cultivators dressed in Huan Hua Palace robes, diverting their gazes as he passed.

“Several Cang Qiong Mountain Sect members just arrived,” Lai Wen said.

Shen Yuan raised his eyebrows. “Master Qingfang?” he asked. He would’ve expected Mu Qingfang to have at least written ahead if he wanted to visit. Organizing a ‘tour’ for his level of inquiry would take a little bit of preparation.

Lai Wen shook her head. “No, I don’t recognize them, but they asked to speak to the owner of the establishment.”

“That is technically me,” Shen Yuan agreed, ignoring the completely disrespectful amusement glowing off Lai Wen’s face. Technically she was like his apprentice or disciple, but that did nothing for her shameless lack of manners.

“A-Wei cannot do all the face work, Shifu.”

Shen Yuan narrowed his eyes at her. “One of these days you’re going to call me that in a way that isn’t sarcastic.”

“Dreams are possible,” Lai Wen agreed. Little shit. She cheerfully waved him off as he headed to the front rooms.

It was too early for there to be a large crowd and only a couple of jiejies were currently on the floor, mostly tuning their instruments and talking to some more Huan Hua Palace cultivators that seemed to like… hanging out for some reason. Didn’t they know how big their own damn library was?

Shen Yuan only recognized one of the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect cultivators and had a lot of mixed feelings about it.

A-Jiu might have been kind in the Warm Red Pavilion, but Shen Qingqiu was Luo Binghe’s ‘Shizun’ and there were many reasons Shen Yuan had written treatises on how his vengeance plot should have also included castration.

Shen Yuan steeled himself to be the put-together business owner even if he currently wasn’t dressed like one and then ruined it immediately.

“Liu Mingyan?” Shen Yuan blurted, upon seeing his favorite of Luo Binghe’s wives.

Her eyebrows raised above her purple veil—because yeah why the fuck would Zhan Yuan know who she was. “Yes?”

He cleared his throat quickly. “Sorry, you—you look quite like your brother.” He fought the urge to spin around in the other direction to flee and bowed a little more deeply than normal at the cultivators accompanying an extremely pissy looking Shen Qingqiu. “It is this one’s honor to greet such esteemed master cultivators.”

Liu Mingyan was still staring at him, a little too intently. He tried to avoid her gaze and folded his hands into his sleeves. “Is Master Qingfang with you?” he asked, bullshitting and excuse for his lack of formality.

“No,” said the very amused looking and unfamiliar woman standing next to Liu Mingyan. “This master is Qi Qingqi, this is Immortal Master Shen Qingqiu, and these are our disciples Ming Fan and…” she smirked so lightly during her pause. “…Liu Mingyan.”

“This one is Zhan Yuan,” Shen Yuan said, bowing again. He suddenly wished he was dressed up for entertaining, it was easier to pretend he was refined then. His courtesan training always took disadvantage when he dressed down. “How can this one help the Immortal Masters of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect?”

“A brief look at your operations,” Qi Qingqi said. “Our shidi was very interested once he knew we were taking a mission near the area.”

A short scoffing noise released from the still infuriated looking Shen Qingqiu. He snapped his fan in a movement that startled the disciple behind him. Ming Fan had been desperately staring at his own feet the entire time, when he looked up his face was bright red and then he looked down again.

“Would some of you feel more comfortable waiting in the lounge?” Shen Yuan offered.

Liu Mingyan shook her head and Ming Fan looked pathetically at Shen Qingqiu who appeared deeply aggrieved and waved him off with his fan. The embarrassed disciple immediately made his way towards the seating area to hide himself in one of the corners. It was oddly endearing and Shen Yuan tried not to think of any future ant-related fate for the kid.

Qi Qingqi was staring at Shen Qingqiu with challenge in her eyes and it seemed like the Qing Jing Peak Lord would have hissed at her if given the opportunity. Instead he fanned himself. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Shen-shixiong seems uncomfortable with the setting,” Qi Qingqi said, still challenging and now adding a little smirk to it. “Are you certain you do not—”

“I am certain, Qi-shimei,” Shen Qingqiu snapped, the fan doing very little to hide the loathing in his eyes as he glared at her.

Shen Yuan held back a sigh and took them through the Twin Dahlia Garden as succinctly as possible. There were ten rooms available for rent, but nine of them were currently either in use or being cleaned so Shen Yuan gave them a glimpse into the one that was empty. It was a pretty basic setup. A bed, somewhere to sit, a place to have tea or play music if relaxation was needed and some silencing talismans. They had a couple of people currently renting who added more personal touches to the rooms, but they were in-house more than some of the others.

Liu Mingyan seemed to be the only one who had interest. She leaned forward a bit to peek into the room and glimpse back at a few others that were currently occupied. The two Peak Lords seemed to be busy engaged in some sort of silent bitch fight so Shen Yuan doubted they were paying much attention.

He spent more time in the larger area they used as a classroom. “It’s currently setup for tomorrow’s demonstration,” Shen Yuan said, gesturing to the row of medical cots. “Usually for the initial lectures there is more sitting room, but hands-on practice for the basic qi movement is safer if done observed the first time.”

Liu Mingyan looked even more interested and her eyebrows raised some more.

Shen Yuan cleared his throat. “For obvious reasons, everyone is clothed and the more specific physical applications are not done in a group setting.”

It was hard to tell with her veil, but she might have looked disappointed.

Qi Qingqi asked a few questions about hygiene and basic study points that were clearly prompted from Mu Qingfang. Shen Yuan showed her some of their materials and she seemed mildly interested in some of the herb drawers. “That is a significant amount of amorous plant-life.”

“We’ve been working on some counteragents to conditions that require dual cultivation,” Shen Yuan said. “It’s been slow going, but we’ve made some progress.”

Or at least he had. No one else was as interested in finding a way to avoid the always active minefield that was sex-pollen plants in the PIDW universe.

Shen Qingqiu flipped his fan down with a snap that was much less loud than the last few times he’d done it. “A cure for aphrodisiacs that does not include dual cultivation?”

To be fair, sometimes the cure was only regular sex, but Shen Yuan did not say that. “That is the hope.”

Qi Qingqi frowned thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t that put you out of business?”

“If we discover a panacea maybe,” Shen Yuan said, maybe sounding a little too hopeful about the idea. No way was Airplane that kind. He cleared his throat. “Master Qingfang and I have discussed this in depth and while I agree there are many medical practicalities to dual cultivation, I think there are too many flora and fauna in this realm that causes a lack of choice for the one affected.”

“Hm,” Qi Qingqi said, as if that had never occurred to her.

Shen Qingqiu shot her a disgusted look and Shen Yuan managed to smother his own—it wouldn’t have been as sharp anyway. He was used to people having no consideration for the lack of consent in the world, especially in a brothel.

“How do you collect them?” Liu Mingyan asked.

“Carefully,” Shen Yuan said. He thought she might have smiled based on the way her eyes gleamed but it was hard to tell. He smiled back anyway. “Ah, with Bai Lu forest nearby there are plenty of plants and herbs to collect of every nature. I enjoy gathering for our general garden in my off-time so it’s not much trouble once I know what to look for.”

Shen Qingqiu’s frostiness seemed to thaw a little after that and Shen Yuan showed a few other areas that really didn’t mean much beyond ‘oh hey look we have a nice little courtyard’ and ‘please don’t notice how terrible my carpentry work is—I swear we hired someone to fix it’ and the like. He ended the tour with an offer of tea at the lounge and surprisingly Qi Qingqi took him up on that.

Liu Mingyan seemed to flock towards where Ming Fan was still hiding himself and Shen Yuan lit a candle in his heart for the poor bastard based on some of her probing questions. He’d thought he was going to lose her when they passed the shelf of reference material and yellow books (mostly the latter) and her eyes had grown comically large over her veil.

“Does Master Shen not want tea?” Shen Yuan asked as he noticed Shen Qingqiu still hanging back.

“Zhi-jie would have been proud of what you’ve accomplished,” Shen Qingqiu said, softly like he hadn’t landed a sword directly through Shen Yuan with that ambush.

Shen Yuan nodded and did not think about how Zhi-jie would have preferred his accomplishments were related to pretty much anything else. “I—I’m sure she would have appreciated you remembering her,” Shen Yuan said, his voice rougher than he wanted.

Thankfully, the Peak Lord had some mercy and nodded at that before going to rejoin his group. Shen Yuan waved someone down to serve them tea and then went to the back where they kept the papers. In a stroke of luck for once, no one was there.

He rested his head against the wall and breathed out. The smell of incense was less strong in this room and if he moved his nose close enough, there was still a woody, earthy scent from the planks they used to build it. He tried to breathe in papers and parchment and carefully bury any feelings or thoughts that threatened to rise unbidden.

***

Shen Yuan was not expecting to see any cultivators from Cang Qiong Mountain Sect anytime soon after that visit. Their missions wouldn’t usually have them cross paths, especially since the city was in Huan Hua Palace territory.

It was only a week later, in the middle of trying to decide which market stall he wanted to browse, when a frustrated sharp call of Shen Yuan’s name caught his attention and there was a surprise hand on his shoulder.

It was probably a good thing that Liu Qingge’s reflexes were so fast, because Shen Yuan had already drawn the knife he carried and was millimeters from stabbing into an abdomen he was far too familiar with.

Shen Yuan stared up at the man, who had one hand on his wrist with the knife and one hand still on Shen Yuan’s shoulder, looking irritable.

“You need to grip your blade differently, you’ll sprain your thumb with that hold.”

Shen Yuan opened his mouth. Then he closed it again.

Liu Qingge went as far as tilting Shen Yuan’s wrist to show what he meant and then Shen Yuan snapped out of it. He took a step back and drew his hands away, getting out of Liu Qingge’s grip. His heart was racing in a very bad way. “Waving is generally a better way to get someone’s attention.”

“I was behind you,” Liu Qingge said and added, “I didn’t realize I’d startle you.”

Shen Yuan realized he hadn’t put his knife away. He tucked it back into his sleeve and tried to regain a tiny bit of poise. “I’m glad Master Liu was quick enough that I didn’t stab him.”

“It was a fair attempt,” Liu Qingge offered. He shifted on his feet suddenly looking awkward. “You—you moved.”

“You generally have to when you try to stab someone,” Shen Yuan said, trying to understand anything that was going on in that pretty head. Maybe he was embarrassed about their dual cultivation? That didn’t really explain why he was here. “I am surprised to see you in Hua Yue City. Are you joining up with your sister and the other cultivators?”

“No,” Liu Qingge said. “They returned two days ago. It was how I found out you moved.”

“I —” Shen Yuan closed his mouth again. He blinked furiously and tried to process that. “You were looking for me?”

Liu Qingge nodded. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You weren’t in Chung Ju Valley.”

“I moved,” Shen Yuan said, stupidly. “I suppose you know that… ah, why were you looking for me?”

For some reason that seemed to make the man more irritated. He looked like he’d swallowed a raw lemon recently. “You didn’t charge me for services.”

Shen Yuan hadn’t really thought that would be notable and if it was, he assumed it would’ve come up a year ago. He also realized they were in the middle of a very crowded market and had made enough of a scene to have gossipy lurkers.

“I’d rather not have this conversation outside,” Shen Yuan said. “Would you like tea or—um tea?” He finished, realizing he didn’t actually have anything else. His tea selection was pretty poor too. “The rooms I’m renting are nearby.”

Liu Qingge nodded, maybe slightly less sour-faced than before. He was silent as he followed Shen Yuan and it felt like Shen Yuan had a bodyguard. If Shen Yuan had been dressed nicer it might not have felt as strange, but he hadn’t even braided his hair this morning. It was tied back low and barely to the point of societally appropriate.

Thankfully his rooms were close and he didn’t have to pass too many people to get to them. He toed his shoes off and didn’t check to see if Liu Qingge found the very obvious table and cushions while he went to the small kitchen to make some tea. It was stabilizing to sort through the leaves and boil water.

“You don’t live in the brothel?” Liu Qingge asked.

“No,” Shen Yuan said. Fu Wei had kept a space there and theoretically if she needed to travel, Shen Yuan would probably stay in them so at least one of them were at the Twin Dahlia Garden. “I like my own space. It's not much but I don’t have to constantly smell incense,” Shen Yuan said, picking out and tossing aside a few suspect looking tea leaves before he steeped the rest of them.

“At some point I might build a small cottage or something in the woods. Really truly fulfill my dream of being a wise old quest giver,” Shen Yuan said, and then realized he was rambling. He cleared his throat and sorted through his cups. He had to have at least one set that matched without chips in it.

That had been too optimistic based on how few pieces of tableware he actually owned. Shen Yuan frowned and grabbed a couple of teacups, making sure to put the not chipped one down in front his guest. He brought the tea over and had to resist pouring it immediately. He needed something to occupy his hands, so he settled for tracing the handle of his chipped cup. “It needs another minute to two,” he said.

Liu Qingge nodded, seemingly fine with the long stretch of awkward silence. When the tea was finally done, Shen Yuan gave him a generous pour and was glad to have something focus on once his own filled cup was in his hands.

“Why didn’t your charge for services?” Liu Qingge asked.

“It didn’t really feel appropriate,” Shen Yuan said, thankful the awkward silence had given him enough time to mull over what his answer would be. If he’d blurted out ‘because I liked it’ in the street he might have died.

The unconstrained annoyed confusion was back on Liu Qingge’s face. It was fondly familiar. “Why not?”

Shen Yuan covered his soft laugh with a sip and shrugged. “It sorted out my qi issues.” He frowned. “Well, I mean it did for a bit. Longer than anything else has.”

“How long does it last?” Liu Qingge asked, his eyes flicking to Shen Yuan’s wrists.

“Mmm, it lasted about four months, I think.”

Liu Qingge’s eyes flicked back up to meet Shen Yuan’s. “You haven’t repeated it?”

Shen Yuan shifted in his seat and took another sip of tea. He was glad he’d let it steep long enough. Having watery crap tea right now would’ve added another layer of hell to this conversation.

“I don’t usually—I haven’t taken any clients since I’ve had a say in the matter. I teach now mostly.”

Liu Qingge looked horrified. “I—why would you force yourself to—”

Shen Yuan put his cup down and put his hands up. “You were dying!” Okay no, that was not the comforting thing to say based on Liu Qingge’s face. “I mean—you were being a stubborn ass and I didn’t want your death on my conscience but I didn’t have to force myself.”

Liu Qingge’s fists were gripped where they rested on the table. Shen Yuan was pretty sure if he had been actually holding the table, the wood would have cracked. “Then why didn’t you charge me?”

Shen Yuan rubbed his temple. He had no idea how to say this without it going sideways, but he had no idea what else to say to get Liu Qingge to stop asking follow-up questions. He let out a long breath of air and looked away from him—it would be impossible to get this out while looking at that beauty mark.

“That’s the first time I’ve actually enjoyed sex. I didn’t want to taint it.”

There was awkward silence again, which was to be expected. Shen Yuan spent it counting the water damage spots on the wall nearest to his kitchen.

“I don’t understand your profession,” Liu Qingge finally said. When Shen Yuan turned back to him, he looked frustrated but he was staring down at his fists. “I… enjoyed it too. I thought that was normal.”

Shen Yuan felt his lips turn up. “It’s supposed to be for the one paying for it. That’s kind of the whole point.”

“I didn’t pay for it,” Liu Qingge said, lifting his head to make pointed eye contact again.

Shen Yuan felt pinned in place by it and wasn’t sure how to manage that other than shifting in his seat again. “You assumed you did. That’s…fine.” Shen Yuan took another sip of his tea. It was a little lukewarm now but still palatable. “I’m not upset. I knew you thought it was a transaction.” Some visiting cultivators liked to call it a ‘medical expense’—Fu Wei thought that was endlessly funny.

“I don’t want to take advantage of your kindness,” Liu Qingge said, earnest and a lot less angry looking. It warmed something in Shen Yuan’s chest.

“You weren’t,” Shen Yuan said. He couldn't help the way his lips twitched. “You also definitely didn’t dishonor me if that was what you’re worried about.”

Unsurprisingly Liu Qingge didn’t seem to find that funny. He frowned. “Your qi damage. That was from incorrect dual cultivation, wasn’t it?”

Shen Yuan put his teacup down and pulled his hands to his lap so it wasn’t obvious they were shaking. He didn’t think he managed it very well. “You can ask Master Qingfang for details if you want.”

“He’s not going to share your medical history,” Liu Qingge scoffed.

That was almost funny. Shen Yuan took a shaky breath, staring down at his hands—palms flat on his thighs and not trembling if he pressed them down hard enough. “My first… client groomed me to be a human cauldron. It’s why—it’s one of the reasons I never made it out for the entrance exams.”

“That is despicable,” Liu Qingge said, his voice heated. When Shen Yuan looked up at him he looked so pissed his nostrils were flaring. Ah, he hadn’t actually seen Liu Qingge angry before—that was interesting.

There was a knee-jerk urge to reassure Liu Qingge that it was actually fine and not that bad, but Shen Yuan swallowed it and merely nodded.

“Did they arrest them?” Liu Qingge asked.

Shen Yuan felt like laughing. He shook his head. “Why would they?”

It seemed to be difficult for Liu Qingge to come to terms with that. Shen Yuan might’ve been sympathetic if he hadn’t had to live through it. After a moment of angry glaring at the table, he finally took a sip of tea and then made a disgusted face. “It’s cold.”

Shen Yuan slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter.

“You can use a heating talisman to keep it warm,” Liu Qingge said, defensive and then his mouth twisted. “Can you? Let me see your wrist.” He held his hand out for it.

Shen Yuan gave him the one that had been covering his mouth, noticing Liu Qingge’s eyes briefly glance up to his uncovered smile before focusing on his outstretched hand. Shen Yuan watched as Liu Qingge stared down at the veins. His thumb brushed over the skin briefly and then that very familiar smooth bubble feeling bloomed.

“I should clear your meridians again,” he said.

“If only that were as effective as dual cultivating,” Shen Yuan said with a sigh. A faint hint of pink covered the highest part of Liu Qingge’s cheekbones and Shen Yuan had to fight another laugh. “Don’t worry I’m not—”

“I could do that too,” Liu Qingge said. His hand was still on Shen Yuan’s wrist. “If that was what you wanted.”

“No, I—” Shen Yuan felt his own flush coming on and wondered how he could still be flustered so badly considering the man had literally come inside of him. “I know it helps, but I’ll never recover enough to really be a real cultivator and I don’t… I mean I’d rather do that if it was for the normal reasons people do.”

He’d consigned himself to the fact that he probably never would, but it wasn’t a bad thought. Shen Yuan had a kind of peace the last year without sex. He might have missed the affection part of it, but that had never been sincere.

“What are the normal reasons?” Liu Qingge asked. His thumb was rubbing circles against the thin skin of Shen Yuan’s wrist now. And his stare was very pointed. He probably wasn’t doing it intentionally but being that pretty was making everything feel so much more heated than it should’ve been.

“Liking someone,” Shen Yuan said, quietly. “For company not—just physical connections.”

There was another long silence. Liu Qingge did not drop his wrist. Instead he moved around the table and held his other hand out for Shen Yuan’s free wrist. Shen Yuan gave it to him, silently watching as Liu Qingge started concentrating again. The feeling was similar to the last time, except Shen Yuan was more aware of the little hiccups in his spiritual veins as Liu Qingge cycled his energy through them. It felt like each pass smoothed them out a little—not as effectively as the dual cultivation had, but enough that Shen Yuan felt lighter. It was like relieving a pressure headache he’d had so long he’d stopped noticing it until it was gone.

Liu Qingge gently lowered and then released Shen Yuan’s wrists so they softly landed on his legs.

Shen Yuan was trying to come up with something pithy to say, maybe about how Liu Qingge was much better than the Huan Hua Palace cultivators Shen Yuan had been using to do that, but then the Bai Zhan War God stood up.

Shen Yuan also stood up, though he wasn’t sure how gracefully.

“Can I—” Liu Qingge rubbed the back of his neck and didn’t quite meet Shen Yuan’s eyes. “Can I call on you again?”

“Don’t surprise me in the street, but otherwise, sure,” Shen Yuan said.

Liu Qingge nodded and then walked towards the door. Shen Yuan thought he was going to walk away without another word but then he walked back to Shen Yuan and bowed shortly. “Thank you for the tea.”

“It was cold,” Shen Yuan reminded him, smiling a little.

Liu Qingge made a barely audible grunt. Then he leaned forward and brushed his lips against Shen Yuan’s cheek. His own cheeks looked pinker and he turned back towards the door, exiting far faster than was really necessary.

Shen Yuan stared at the door for quite a while afterwards, still smiling.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan had experience with extravagant gifts that pretended to be courting gifts. He did not have experience with Liu Qingge.

The next morning, when he left his rooms to head to the Twin Dahlia Garden, there was some kind of strange creature outside of it. He could not identify it, but it was now living on his shelf. It was black and mostly fuzzy (though the fur? hair? texture was strange) and seemed to like jujubes. He was suspicious it was a soot sprite ripoff, so he called it Ghibli. There were a couple of times he was sure he’d seen its eyes, but he couldn’t confirm it.

The next day, after lecturing some students on how they had to actually focus on cycling their energy and not only mess around to consider it dual cultivation, Liu Qingge was waiting for him in the lounge.

“You didn’t break any doors did you?” Shen Yuan asked, lips twitching.

Liu Qingge shook his head. “The woman at the front said you were free now.”

Shen Yuan glanced at the small sort of reception area they’d set up by the front entrance. Lai Wen was making absurdly dirty gestures where Liu Qingge couldn’t see. Shen Yuan tried very hard to ignore her, even with how descriptive her movements were getting.

“I’m free,” he agreed, walking a little faster than necessary until they were outside.

“Why the knife?” Liu Qingge asked, tapping at Shen Yuan’s sleeve at the right spot.

“Why are you asking?” Shen Yuan couldn’t believe he’d figured out where it was. It was a different spot than before and pretty well hidden.

“I thought you’d like swords,” he said with a shrug.

Shen Yuan glanced at the famous Cheng Luan, currently sheathed at Liu Qingge’s hip. It looked innocuous at the moment—not a powerful spirit sword that had felled many a demon and beast. The tassel was a little frayed. “I do like swords. They aren’t really practical.”

“Why?”

Shen Yuan snorted. “I have never had the opportunity to train with one. Having one only for show seems stupid.”

“I can train you,” Liu Qingge offered. “I know forms that don’t require spiritual weapons.”

Shen Yuan looked at him sideways, stopping their walk to—actually he had no idea where they were going. “Don’t you have an entire peak that needs training?”

Liu Qingge scoffed dismissively. “They can manage. They’ll either challenge me when I get back or never learn anything.”

“I don't know if I want to agree to your teaching methodology,” Shen Yuan said with a laugh.

“I’d… I can show you differently,” Liu Qingge said, a little frustrated. “They have each other to work against. There’s no point in me walking them through step-by-step. They’ll never learn to adapt that way.”

They probably would if they had a fundamental understanding of the basics, but Shen Yuan kept that to himself. It was a little hypocritical to critique however they taught in the Sect when he’d never actually seen it.

There was probably a big difference between what Shen Yuan taught and everything in a cultivation sect anyway.

“I don't have a sword,” Shen Yuan said.

“I’ll get you one. There’s a weapons shop a block from here.”

Shen Yuan debated telling him he could buy it himself, but he was pretty sure peak lords made a lot more money than he did, so he relented. That seemed to please Liu Qingge at least.

The actual sword training was informative but not quite as romantic of an outing as Shen Yuan had assumed Liu Qingge was going for. He felt that way a lot over the next couple of weeks.

***

“A-Yuan,” Lai Wen said, tapping at his temple to grab his attention. “Shifu!”

Shen Yuan batted her hand away. “What?”

“You were drifting off again,” Lai Wen said, looking at him suspiciously.

“Its called thinking, Lai Wen should try it sometime.” He was still looking over the same line of a letter that was more administrative than anything else. He probably could’ve passed it off to Lai Wen.

“Thinking about Master Liu?” Lai Wen guessed. She laughed the moment Shen Yuan’s face started to feel hot. “I thought you weren’t taking any clients.”

“He’s not a client!” Shen Yuan swatted her arm and refocused on the paper in front of him so he didn’t have to look at her. “I don’t know what he is.”

“Is he courting you?” her voice was too keen. He did not want to talk about this with her, but he also didn’t want to talk about this with Fu Wei. There was really no winning in this situation.

“I…think so?” Shen Yuan looked up at her and realized he did want to talk to someone about this.

Liu Qingge had gone off for a Night Hunt for a few days but said he'd be back after—not to his peak, but back in the city (when Shen Yuan asked if he had to go back to his peak anytime soon, Liu Qingge had scoffed and then didn’t elaborate). Over the last couple of weeks he’d also escorted Shen Yuan to the least romantic outings ever—even if they were really fun. There was more sword practice than anything else, but Liu Qingge did let Shen Yuan show him around the city a bit and stop at some of the restaurants he’d discovered over the last year.

Liu Qingge wasn’t the best conversationalist (unless the topic was killing monsters) or foodie, but he was good company. They’d discussed his upcoming Night Hunt and what beasts he might encounter, going so far as Shen Yuan dragging him to look at bestiaries in the bookshop.

“He hasn’t tried to hold my hand or — he kissed my cheek once?” Shen Yuan wasn’t sure if Liu Qingge was trying to respect his boundaries or wasn’t interested in that aspect of things. He might have broached the topic but Shen Yuan wasn't sure if he was interested in those things either — except the more time he spent with Liu Qingge, the more he was starting to think he might be.

“Both of your faces are a waste,” Lai Wen said, scowling. “A waste! Why look that pretty and do nothing with it?”

“I have done plenty with it,” Shen Yuan retorted. “This the first time I might… want to do something with it.”

He at least wanted to try kissing him. On the lips. Both of their lips this time. Shen Yuan didn’t know how to initiate that. None of his previous experience involved making the first move! Or… any move really.

“Have you ever seduced someone, Shifu?” Lai Wen asked him, carefully.

She could not read his mind. He knew that, but had to reassure himself at the moment. “You and I worked in the same brothel.”

“Mn,” Lai Wen agreed. “And I never saw you approach a client. You played the guqin and the pipa, painted pretty pictures, and they came to you.”

“That’s…” Shen Yuan blinked and folded his hands in his sleeves. “Is that not how we all do it?”

“A waste,” Lai Wen said again, this time more irate. “How are you teaching here?”

“I’m not teaching you how to make a sales pitch — the clients come to us!” Shen Yuan might have helped explain the benefits and particulars of what they were doing when the Huan Hua Palace representatives came by, but he didn’t lure anyone in. They didn’t need to. It was a service deeply needed in this ‘fuck or die’ hellscape of a setting.

“I can’t even look at you!” Lai Wen exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. She stormed out of the room. She hadn't even given him any advice. What was the point of sharing if he was only going to get insulted and more confused?

He gave a brief consideration to talking to Fu Wei about it, but didn’t really trust her advice after many ‘it could be worse’ pep talks over the years. He had gotten enough mileage out of ‘it could be worse’ and thought maybe it being better was finally due.

***

Shen Yuan was playing the guqin in the lounge when Liu Qingge returned. This wouldn’t normally have caused any kind of issue, except Liu Qingge came into the lounge bleeding from several places, with tears in his sleeves that were wafting steam.

The discordant key in the middle of the song Shen Yuan was playing made most of the room wince. He murmured an apology and waved behind himself so that someone could take over (filing away the disappointed groans for later when he needed his ego boosted) and rose to meet the other man.

Liu Qingge was currently brushing off the concerned attentions of a Huan Hua Palace cultivator who was ‘interning’ with them at the moment. He had a familiar frown on a sharply set jaw and definitely looked annoyed but not necessarily in pain.

Given how he’d been when actively dying, Shen Yuan didn’t take that at face value. He told the Huan Hua Palace cultivator that he’d handle it and grabbed Liu Qingge’s uninjured wrist to drag him into the empty training room since that’s where they kept the most first aid.

Liu Qingge still looked annoyed but at least followed directions, sitting down on a cot. It was dark and Shen Yuan fumbled with some charmed flint for a brief moment before the lanterns lit up on their own. He glanced behind himself and saw Liu Qingge holding up his hand—he must’ve used qi to activate them.

Shen Yuan smothered the spark of jealousy at that and focused on getting some bandages and healing salve.

“It’s only flesh wounds,” Liu Qingge said.

Shen Yuan resisted the urge to flick his forehead. “Ripping an arm off is technically a flesh wound.” He focused on cleaning up the cut on Liu Qingge’s forehead, tracing his fingers over the man’s hairline to make sure he didn’t miss anything deeper and trying not to smile when it seemed to fluster him a little.

There were what looked like acid burns on Liu Qingge’s arms, but a gentle touch was what got under his skin? It was… cute.

“Is your robe going to stick if I take it off?” Shen Yuan asked, his hand on Liu Qingge’s belt.

“Doubtful,” Liu Qingge said, his face very obviously flushed now. Shen Yuan no longer felt bitter about easy the lights were to put on because it was much more apparent how flustered Liu Qingge under them.

After undoing his belt, Shen Yuan very slowly and methodically unlaced his bracers and then removed the top layers of his robes so they hung around his waist. He had not really been thinking through much other than making sure he could see the burns well enough to assess and treat them. Liu Qingge was objectively beautiful but Shen Yuan hadn’t ever actually seen him uncovered like this—the last time it was similar there’d been a gaping wound covering half his torso. It was… definitely better without it.

“There’s a scar,” Shen Yuan said, absently, as he noticed a faint line traversing under Liu Qingge’s ribcage and down the side of his abdomen.

“Not much of one,” Liu Qingge said, his voice stiff. “I didn’t—the mist didn’t hit me there.”

“Right,” Shen Yuan said and then walked around to see if there was anything on his back. Nope. There were just tight, well-formed back muscles and some stray hair that had come loose from Liu Qingge’s ponytail.

Shen Yuan tried to keep his head down as he carefully applied healing salve to the burns on Liu Qingge’s biceps and forearms. “You said mist did this? Did you run into a Mist Jaguar?”

“Mn,” Liu Qingge said, a thread of deep irritation in his tone. “It turned into a puddle once I finally killed it.”

“That must be why reports of what they look like are so varied,” Shen Yuan said, humming thoughtfully as he moved to Liu Qingge’s other side. Thinking of the Mist Jaguar was a nice distraction that made him feel less… whatever this feeling was.

It would probably be hard to get all the details from a Mist Jaguar while actively fighting it—from what Shen Yuan had read they were close to normal jaguars but teal in color and their eyes were pure liquid. The mist they formed into while engaging with other predators burned like acid. Since they were primarily located in the highest elevation near Bai Lu Mountain, an actual decent writer would’ve connected it to the acid water in the Water Prison.

Liu Qingge still looked bothered.

“Do you need some pain reliever?” Shen Yuan asked, rolling out a bandage to wrap the treated wounds in.

Liu Qingge scoffed. “No. I’m—I couldn’t bring back its carcass. The only thing left were the strange eyes.”

“Did you pick them up?” Shen Yuan asked, unable to keep the interest out of his voice.

Liu Qingge raised an eyebrow and reached into a pouch near his waist. He pulled out two perfect eye sized spheres that looked like pale blue marbles—except the crystalized swirls looked closer to a wave in the ocean. Shen Yuan’s fingers reached out for them before he realized what he was doing and then he went back to bandaging, feeling silly. Except once he’d finished bandaging Liu Qingge, he was still holding out the cool eyeballs.

“Here,” Liu Qingge said, shoving them at Shen Yuan.

They didn’t feel like eyeballs—or to be fair what Shen Yuan assumed eyeballs felt like. They were almost weightless and touching the edges made the liquid inside shift. He lifted them up to one of the lanterns, examining the way the light changed the shades of blue within the spheres. “This is so much better than an illustration,” he murmured.

The only thing that would’ve topped it would’ve been to see the creature alive and moving. He wondered if the eyes held the magic that let them shift into mist or if because it was amphibious they helped it see underwater better.

It took Shen Yuan a little too long to realize he’d drifted off and had forgotten Liu Qingge was half naked on a medical cot staring at him. He turned and grinned sheepishly holding them back out to him. They were probably worth something or good for some cultivation technique his sect would be interested in. “Thank you for indulging my curiosity.”

Liu Qingge looked more thoughtful than annoyed. He folded Shen Yuan’s fingers back over the orbs. “They’re for you.”

Shen Yuan wasn’t sure what to make of that—he remembered reading about Liu Qingge’s dead beast deliveries to Qing Jing Peak in a few of Luo Binghe’s letters. Either these were (an admittedly effective) courting gift and he’d also been courting Shen Qingqiu of all people, or it was a quirk of Liu Qingge to give out Night Hunt trophies normally.

“I feel greedy keeping both of them,” Shen Yuan said, but was already mentally planning where to display them on his little shelves. He really hoped Ghibli didn’t want to eat them. The thing had grown tiny horns recently and they were cute but also looked suspiciously like the material of the bookends Shen Yuan could no longer locate.

Liu Qingge’s mouth twisted. “It’s insufficient. I didn’t know it would turn into a puddle. I wanted to get you the entire creature.”

Shen Yuan felt a little giddy at the idea, even if he should probably not encourage Liu Qingge to drop off random demonic dead creatures at his doorstep. His rooms were not nearly large enough to store them.

He felt the urge to show gratitude in the way he usually did for a pleasant gift, but then thought of all the times he’d faked the gratitude (or had been nowhere near as enthusiastic about it as the client had wanted) and decided against it.

Liu Qingge had also seemed to finally notice that he was practically topless and went about correcting that. His flush spread from his high cheekbones to his ears.

“You’re very cute,” Shen Yuan said, enjoying the blustering Liu Qingge did in response to that. He even made a mistake getting his robes on and put an arm through a top layer without the bottom before. He had to start over to fix it.

“Don’t—that—don’t just say things like that,” Liu Qingge said, getting himself sorted.

“Master Liu shouldn’t be cute then and this one won’t point it out,” Shen Yuan countered, and the choked noise he got in response was absolutely worth it.

Liu Qingge finished putting on his robes with such force that Shen Yuan was surprised they didn’t rip. “Hmph.”

Shen Yuan put the Mist Jaguar eyeballs into his own pouch for safekeeping and thought about the order of events that led to him having them. “Did you… come straight from your Night Hunt to deliver these?”

Liu Qingge looked at him like that was obvious. “I wanted to hear you play.”

Shen Yuan’s was certain the noise he made was related to a laugh at least. Liu Qingge had decided to not treat his injuries and come all the way here to deliver a unique gift and hear Shen Yuan play the guqin? Couldn’t he have just asked? “Ah… uh what did you think?”

Liu Qingge shrugged. “I don’t have an ear for it, but it was nice.”

Shen Yuan stared at him for a moment, still sitting up on the cot. He took one step forward and then stopped. He couldn’t—he could not kiss Liu Qingge in the dual cultivation training room. “I should probably go back and finish my set… if you’d like to stay. One of the attendants can get you something to eat?”

Liu Qingge’s lips curved up a little and Shen Yuan bit his own lip to keep from returning the smile—too afraid of what his own would look like.

***

Shen Yuan knew that Liu Qingge had to go back to his peak at some point. There was no way he could dither about in Hua Yue City (and in Shen Yuan’s company) forever.

So he invited Liu Qingge up to his rented rooms soon after his Night Hunt, on the flimsy excuse of showing how Ghibli was doing (and was slightly horrified to find out that Liu Qingge had meant him to eat it and not keep it as a pet).

“Is it bigger?” Liu Qingge asked, poking his finger towards Ghibli who shuffled away from the touch and leaned against one of the books on the shelves.

So far none of Shen Yuan’s books had gone missing so he allowed it to continue free roaming. He supposed he’d need a bird cage or something equivalent to a kennel if anything valuable disappeared.

“A tiny bit. Ghibli grew horns,” Shen Yuan said, moving his own finger towards Ghibli to touch the little nubs. The tiny creature nuzzled into his finger before shuffling back again and winding into itself in the way Shen Yuan had noticed it did before napping. Or at least what Shen Yuan presumed was it sleeping. He still hadn’t gotten confirmation on any eyes beneath all the rough black fur.

“You named it,” Liu Qingge’s face was doing some interesting twisting.

“I think it’s a him,” Shen Yuan said, tapping his finger against his chin. “No way to be certain right now.”

Liu Qingge made a tiny tch noise that was tinged with amusement. He seemed to make that noise a lot.

“Did you… would you like to sit?” Shen Yuan suggested. Showing off Ghibli had distracted him but it was a flimsy excuse and he didn’t want to lose his nerve by suggesting subpar tea again (he really needed to take the time to get some slightly better hosting supplies).

Liu Qingge nodded and then took one of the few seats in Shen Yuan’s small living quarters. Shen Yuan sat next to him and by function of the seating being basically a loveseat, their legs brushed against each other.

Liu Qingge looked thoughtful and like he might say something, but then his jaw shifted and he tapped his fingers against his knee.

Shen Yuan wished he could control the times he impulsively pushed himself into bravery (no matter how stupid it was). He pushed a loose strand of hair behind his own ear and sighed. Lai Wen was right. Shen Yuan had no idea how to actually initiate this on his own. For his own reasons.

“I should check in at Bai Zhan soon,” Liu Qingge said. “There are plenty of Night Hunts in this area if you… you could go with me once you feel more comfortable with your sword work.”

Shen Yuan tried to smother the self-deprecating laugh that was crawling out of his chest. “Ah… hah, no I don’t think I’ll be at the Bai Zhan War God’s level any time soon. I wouldn’t want to slow you down.”

“You wouldn’t,” Liu Qingge said and then frowned. “Or I wouldn’t mind.”

Shen Yuan exhaled. Fuck it. “I’d really like to kiss you before you leave, but only if you’d actually like to—”

Liu Qingge was sitting closely enough that he only really needed to lean a little in Shen Yuan’s direction to put his mouth over Shen Yuan’s own. It was a firmer press than the one to his cheek had been. Paired with Liu Qingge’s hand resting on Shen Yuan’s knee, he felt a tingle run through both points of contact that bloomed outwards.

Shen Yuan pushed into the kiss with no real thought to it and cupped his hands around Liu Qingge’s face to draw him in. He narrowly avoided the urge to climb onto the other man’s lap, but gave into the temptation to deepen the kiss itself and trace his tongue across the seam of Liu Qingge’s mouth, until it opened.

A satisfied noise and Liu Qingge’s other hand coming around to rest on the small of Shen Yuan’s back was the response before they were both pressing against each other. Shen Yuan sort of ended up half in Liu Qingge’s lap anyway, but he was more focused on the way Liu Qingge lightly bit his lower lip, before sliding his tongue against his own.

Desire wasn’t a rush sweeping over Shen Yuan—it was a slow build, curling in layers from each point of contact his body had against Liu Qingge’s own. It was an uncomplicated pulsing that left him a little more than breathless as his fingers skimmed against the planes of Liu Qingge’s jaw and then slid down to rest against his chest.

Liu Qingge didn’t pull back, but he moved his head to the side between one kiss and what was going to be another. His face was very flushed, but Shen Yuan was certain he could not judge at the moment.

“We don’t…” Liu Qingge shifted a little, in a way that combined with the way he wasn’t meeting Shen Yuan’s gaze made it seem like he was trying to hide the obvious fact that he’d gotten an erection. An impossible feat considering Shen Yuan was almost sitting on it. “We don’t need to do anything else.”

“What if I wanted to?” Shen Yuan asked, keeping himself still so he wasn’t moving towards or away from him.

Liu Qingge turned his head back. His face was really far too close to Shen Yuan’s own to read his expression, but his nose briefly brushed against Shen Yuan’s. “I’d… like your company.”

A grin stretched Shen Yuan’s already sore lips and he only had to move a little to be completely on Liu Qingge’s lap as he went in to kiss him again. His hands focused on trying to get Liu Qingge’s robes loose.

It was nearly impossible (especially with how neither of them would stop sliding their lips together now that they’d started) to get either of them sufficiently naked from this position, but Shen Yuan had made do with worse. His palm wrapped around and loosed Liu Qingge’s dick from his robes and he had a fair view of the man’s chest again. Shen Yuan only stopped kissing him long enough to concentrate on Liu Qingge’s reactions. He squeezed with moderate pressure around the base of Liu Qingge’s cock with one hand, earning a breathy moan.

Then he continued the trail on the broad stretch of Liu Qingge’s now bared chest to brush over his pectoral and then flick his thumb across the dusky brown nipple. The way Liu Qingge’s hips jerked almost dislodged Shen Yuan off his lap. He laughed, barely steadying himself in time.

Liu Qingge’s hands had automatically gone to Shen Yuan’s waist, there was a contemplative frown on his face. Then one of Liu Qingge’s hands shifted to the front of Shen Yuan’s robes (which were more rumpled than open at this point) and he mirrored the way Shen Yuan had pulled out his own cock.

Shen Yuan had to lift up on his knees a little to angle them both together—there was something in the midst of all of it that was even more invigorating than the slide of their dicks rubbing off on each other. The simplest feeling of their knuckles kept brushing against each other as they moved. It made Shen Yuan bite his lip and lean forward more so he could press his forehead into Liu Qingge’s bare shoulder.

He wasn’t used to how good this felt—and focusing on how good it felt rather than trying to lose himself in a haze of distraction until it was over. Liu Qingge’s little huffs of breath and understated grunts of pleasure were now directly pointed at Shen Yuan’s ear. He turned his head and muffled his own moan into Liu Qingge’s neck as they slotted against each other.

“I’m—I don’t know if I can focus,” Liu Qingge said, breathless and sounding slightly embarrassed. His dick twitched in Shen Yuan’s hand and against his own where they were holding them.

“You seem pretty focused,” Shen Yuan murmured into the tight muscle on Liu Qingge’s neck that he wasn’t sure a normal person even possessed.

“On, qi cycling—the—do we have to do it a certain—”

Shen Yuan pushed back so he could meet Liu Qingge’s eyes. He was still slightly lifted up in this position and only now realizing that all his weight was pretty much pressing down on Liu Qingge’s lap without much complaint. He wondered if the war god even noticed.

“We’re not dual cultivating,” Shen Yuan said. He very much did not want to feel like this was work at the moment. “I don’t have—damn,” he laughed at himself when he realized. He was a terrible fucking host and seductress. “I don’t have anything to use for it anyway.”

Shen Yuan stared down at Liu Qingge trying to decipher what that eyebrow furrow meant when he was distracted by the molten heat in the other man’s eyes. He quickly decided that the fumbling, however hot, wasn't good enough.

“Let’s go to the bed,” Shen Yuan suggested. “I’d actually like to take your clothes off this time.”

He had plenty of experience witnessing Liu Qingge’s strength over the past month or so, but still made an embarrassing squeak when the Bai Zhan War God easily stood, lifting Shen Yuan with one arm and taking them both behind the privacy screen to his bed.

Shen Yuan was surprised to note how much he actually liked manhandling in this situation as Liu Qingge laid him back onto the bed and started very quickly disrobing him. It was difficult, but not impossible for Shen Yuan to help Liu Qingge do the same and then they were both very naked on his bed.

Liu Qingge’s weight on top of him was solid, firm, and definitely distracting. All Shen Yuan could do was blindly grind his hips upwards as his lips were caught for another furious kissing session.

It was still so amateurish, but so fucking arousing. The pressure of his dick rubbing against that perfect V where Liu Qingge’s hip met his abs was intoxicating. Then frustratingly it was gone. Liu Qingge raised himself up on his forearms in a way that flexed his biceps distractingly.

“Can I try something?”

Shen Yuan nodded. He didn’t think Liu Qingge had much experience in the matter, but the man kissed well enough that he was willing to try almost anything. It was… such a strange feeling to focus on himself in this situation. Shen Yuan felt selfish and wondered if he should shift positions so Liu Qingge could fuck his thighs or something.

He was not expecting for Liu Qingge to slide down Shen Yuan’s body and then rest back on his own legs to stare down Shen Yuan’s throbbing erection like it was the next beast he had to defeat.

“Tell—let me know if anything isn’t good,” Liu Qingge said, staring up from Shen Yuan’s dick.

Shen Yuan didn’t trust his own voice so he merely nodded again.

That seemed good enough, because Liu Qingge (with that steely determined look) rested his thumb against the head of Shen Yuan’s cock and then pressed a kiss to the tip of it.

Shen Yuan bit his lip, trying to keep still and be patient, because he really wanted to see where Liu Qingge was going with this. The focus Liu Qingge had as he spread his fingers and gripped Shen Yuan’s dick before sliding his hand down was intense. Then Liu Qingge pressed another kiss to the tip of Shen Yuan’s cock before opening his mouth around it and flicking his tongue against the slit in a very similar way he’d been doing in Shen Yuan’s mouth earlier.

“Ahhh, fuck,” Shen Yuan said, unable to bite his lip hard enough to keep from the rasped moan from escaping.

This was a blow job. He hadn’t had many but he’d had a few. Sometimes when clients wanted to pretend they weren’t paying for it, they also tried to reciprocate, which ended up being more work for Shen Yuan to act like he cared. He’d envied the jiejies ability to fake an orgasm more than once.

It should not have been as hot as it was, especially since Liu Qingge’s determination made his face look angry. He opened his mouth wider and took half the length of Shen Yuan’s cock in—it didn't seem deep enough to make him choke but he groaned around it and the vibrations sent an arousal so thick it overwhelmed Shen Yuan to the point where his gasping noises started to sound needy.

Then Liu Qingge swallowed down around Shen Yuan’s cock, enough so that he definitely felt the back of the other man’s throat.

“Hold—fuck—hold me down or I’m going to choke you,” Shen Yuan managed. He didn’t realize how difficult it was not to impulsively thrust his hips up from this position.

There was no arguing with the fact that Liu Qingge could take direction. He used one hand (one!!) to hold Shen Yuan’s hips in place and then started to move, sweeping his tongue against the base of Shen Yuan’s cock before he pulled off for air.

Maybe Liu Qingge had more experience than he thought. Shen Yuan shelved that thought and focused on the sensation brimming through him as Liu Qingge swallowed down again, this time sucking as he took on more length.

Shen Yuan, now certain he wasn’t going to lose control and choke the man, brought his fingers across the impossibly high cheekbones that seemed to get more prominent with Liu Qingge hollowing out his cheeks. Liu Qingge’s lips were red and wet, and his eyelashes were so dark as he looked up from them, completely focused with the same determination from earlier on the way Shen Yuan was looking back at him.

It was too much. It was concentrated electricity that didn’t exist in this universe making little fissures of pleasure up every one of Shen Yuan’s nerves. He wished he’d undone Liu Qingge’s hair earlier so he could run his fingers through it but had to settle for basically petting him like a cat while he writhed in the man’s hold.

Shen Yuan finally came like it was punched out of him. He hadn’t even been able to give a warning, too busy making the kind of loud moaning wanton noises he used to hear (fake, fake, fake) through the walls.

“—sorry—I—shit-ahnh…that’s good,” Shen Yuan said, as Liu Qingge somehow still had his mouth wrapped around his dick and was suckling it through the aftermath. Shen Yuan was still petting him when Liu Qingge finally let go, his mouth coming off with a lewd wet pop.

Shen Yuan’s brain was fried and he couldn’t do the mental calculations as to which way to move to reciprocate. It turned out, as Shen Yuan found out when Liu Qingge rose up high enough to lean over and kiss him again—Shen Yuan didn’t need to.

“You… came from that?” Shen Yuan said, breathless in disbelief.

“Mn,” Liu Qingge said, articulately, dropping small kisses down Shen Yuan’s jawline. He indulged for a few more moments, going as far to finally undo Liu Qingge’s ponytail and run his fingers through the long hair. It was softer than he’d expected and definitely less sweaty than Shen Yuan’s own at the moment.

“That was all good in case you were wondering,” Shen Yuan said, feeling so lightheaded and embarrassed that he turned to hide his own face. He ignored the indulgent amused huff against his own neck. “How—”

Shen Yuan cut himself off, unable to complete the thought of—how the fuck was that so good when Shen Yuan was supposed to be the professional? Maybe Liu Qingge had a lot more experience with the non-dual cultivating side of sex than he’d assumed.

“I… read up on it,” Liu Qingge said, sounding of all things embarrassed. “I wanted to make sure if you wanted to that it was… good.”

Shen Yuan turned his head again, faced with more affection than heat from Liu Qingge’s stare.

He was fairly certain he was in deep, deep trouble.

“How long until your next Night Hunt?” Shen Yuan asked, barely resisting the urge to press his lips against the soft bow of Liu Qingge’s mouth.

He was glad he didn’t, because he would’ve missed the way Liu Qingge smiled. Not a small, pleasant thing, but wide, broad and happy. “A month… maybe two if there’s sect business I put off.” His happy smile twisted into resignation. “There’s probably sect business I’ve put off.”

Shen Yuan laughed, his heart brimming with affection. “I’ll make time to join you when you’re done.”

Liu Qingge’s smile returned and Shen Yuan’s chest did a funny sort of flip.

Yeah. He was in trouble.