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[WIP] Sidequest (6/21)
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Shen Yuan & Shen Jiu & Yue Qingyuan
Summary: A Shen twins AU. When a botched ritual traps Yue Qingyuan into a dream made of his own memories, it’s up to Shen Yuan and his brother to dive into his mind to find him - and, maybe, reconcile with their shared past in the process.
Content Notes: Canon-typical child abuse and assorted backstory traumas.
I had so much trouble with this one, but you know? It’s alright.
***
Yue Qi, floating in robes too big for him, too rich for his thin frame and flea-bitten face, bowed three times before his Master.
Tian Gong’s Cang Qiong’s Sect Leader, Qiong Ding Peak Lord Su Yintao, the Jian Xi sword - his face wasn’t a blur, the first person aside from the twins to be granted that honour - was an unassuming man, surprisingly small and soft in appearance, with warm brown eyes and a kindly face that belied the ruthlessness with which he conducted the Sect’s daily affairs. In the three years Shen Yuan had spend in Cang Qiong, two of them as one of Yin Yinjun’s personal disciples, he had never seen the man smile, nor seen him frown: his face was a mirror, reflecting whatever people wanted to see in it but giving nothing out. As he formally accepted his newest disciple, it was impossible to guess what was going on in his mind.
What’s with this memory, though? You need to show us earlier, earlier! There had been no reason, of course, for Proud Immortal Demon Way to ever dig into these characters’ backstories - you could hardly milk any fanservice out of them so goodbye, complexity - but Shen Yuan had been curious ever since he’d figured out whose tragic past he’d been unceremoniously dumped into. Cang Qiong took in disciples from any walk of life, but that didn’t mean they took in just anyone. He and Shen Jiu had cheerfully skipped over the normal recruitment procedure by virtue of Yue Qingyuan, Cang Qiong’s young hero, vouching for them, but this was his chance to learn how Yue Qi himself had done it, armed with nothing but a few back alley tricks and his own steely determination! Dream, don’t leave me hanging!
But there was nothing more to this memory. They’d merely stumbled upon a freeze frame bonus, a screenshot hanging in the back of Yue Qingyuan’s mind, tinted with hope and fear in equal amounts. Shen Yuan’s face fell; Shen Jiu snorted at his dismay, a small, inelegant sound Shen Yuan hadn’t heard in a long time.
“What did you expect? We’re not here to sight-see.”
Bro. Don’t harsh my squee.
The twins stepped out of the room, only to find themselves walking right back in, on a scene all too similar to the one they’d just witnessed.
Su Yintao sat reading at his desk, his posture slack, almost indolent. Across from him, Yue Qi stood at attention, waiting to be acknowledged or dismissed. He had grown taller since the last memory, had lost the unnatural leanness that came from only eating one meal a day, had lost the dirt under his nails and the reflexive hunch in his shoulders when talking to an adult. His uniform fit him now, and fit him well: put him among the wealthy young masters, the second and third sons who came to the Sect with proper gifts for their teachers, and you could not have told him apart, though there was still a hint of street rat to the way he held himself, a readiness to fight or flee.
After what seemed like a long time, Su Yintao paused in his reading (Shen Yuan sneaked a peek, irrepressibly curious, and almost fell down when he caught a glimpse of banned-on-Qing Jing The Demon Lord’s Daughter. Shen Jiu’s face scrunched up in disgust.) and looked at his disciple. He stared, pensively, like you’d stare at a mildly interesting piece of furniture; Shen Yuan silently applauded Yue Qi for not squirming under that gaze.
“You have been doing well since you joined us,” Su Yintao commented without inflection. When Yue Qi immediately made to deflect the compliment, the Sect Leader waved the politeness away.
“It’s to your teachers’ credit that you rose so quickly,” he said, “but there’s no need to downplay your own accomplishments either. You’re a hard worker, and your seniors speak well of your character. Though you’ve had no upbringing to speak of, it’s clear you can be taught.” He leaned back, and for a moment turned the full weight of his attention on his student, his focus intense and disquieting. His fingers drummed on the table. Finally, with casual, calculated disinterest, he went back to his book. “Have you heard of the situation in Shanding?”
Yue Qi shook his head. Unsurprised, Su Yintao kept going:
“They’re facing a strange epidemic - some sort of dancing sickness spreading among the women. Left to their own devices, the diseased will keep dancing, for days on end, until they collapse of exhaustion. Some have been successfully restrained, only to start dancing again as soon as they were freed. These past few months, four girls have danced themselves to death.”
Here Su Yintao paused, waiting for an answer. Yue Qi, who had been listening attentively, a slight frown marring his brow, tentatively offered:
“Could that be - Wu Mo?”
Shen Yuan immediately perked up. A 5-chapter detour in the speed-racing saga that was Proud Immortal Demon Way, Wu Mo had been a powerful demoness, with arrogance and cunning only matched by her exceptional sex drive; a succubus by any other name, she loved nothing more than to prey on young, unmarried women, feasting on their dreams and lost potential. She was, of course, destined to live out the rest of her days in Luo Binghe’s harem, a replacement for Sha Hualing after the disastrous concubines’ war plotline had turned a lot of readers against her. Yet who could have predicted it? Wu Mo had been reviled by fans and haters alike, rescuing Sha Hualing from her imminent scrapping - such were the whims of fame on the Zhongdian forums.
“Most likely,” Su Yintao agreed.
“Then we need to send help before more lives are lost.”
The Sect Leader hmmed thoughtfully, though his eyes never left his book.
“Shanding is a small village, but it has never been poor. Their leader, Mu-zhenzhang, is a canny negotiator, and manages to bring in quite a profit every year. Of course, they didn’t get there on their own. When we gave them lease of the land,” he said, which was polite speak for we’re bigger and stronger and could have kicked them out whenever, “when we offered them protection against incursions from the Demon Realm, it was with the understanding that they would pay us back in kind - as they did, for many years. Yet it seems with their newfound prosperity, these old bonds have become a burden to them. They haven’t send us anything this year.” Finally, he looked up at Yue Qi, and asked with deadly precision: “They have not kept their end of the bargain, so why should we keep ours?”
“That’s - it’s been a hard year for crops, and the northwestern plains were the most heavily touched by the bloodworm infestation that spread from the borderlands last summer. Rather than seeing us as a burden, they probably needed every resource they had just to make it through.”
“Probably isn’t much to stake our reputation on.”
“Yet if we don’t help,” Yue Qi argued, a man sensing a trap yet charging boldly ahead, “won’t others think we can only be counted on when things are going well?”
“Yet if we do help, won’t others think they’re free to stiff us as well?”
“Yet if we don’t help, won’t other Sects think us so pressed for money we can’t afford to be generous?”
“Yet if we do help, won’t other Sects think us easily taken advantage of?”
Yue Qi stayed quiet, lips pressed into a thin line, eyes casting for an answer. Su Yintao watched him carefully, offering nothing. Eventually, he turned his gaze away.
“Kindness has its place,” he said, “but it’s never a good idea to be so kind as to appear stupid.”
A faint blush crept over Yue Qi’s cheeks. Though his face showed very little, he wrung his hands nervously, small, jittery twitches that betrayed his inner turmoil. Finally, he asked in a small voice:
“Are such opinions really so important that we need to mind them?”
“Yue Qi. You’re not stupid. But if you are to learn, you need to learn to listen first - to your head, not your heart. You gain nothing by stubbornly charging ahead.”
Yue Qi drew a sharp, pained breath. Then he gave a proper bow, accepting the criticism.
“Then Shifu, please instruct me.”
Su Yintao snapped his book shut, let out a long, impatient breath - that had to have been on purpose, fucking asshole - and calmly explained, in a cool, dispassionate tone, the delicate art of getting concessions out of desperate people before you moved to help, all things to be expected from the future leader of the most powerful Sect in the Jianghu. Talk about righteousness all you wanted, but this was a political position first of all, and when it came to politics, the righteous got the worst end of any deal. Shen Yuan steeled himself and did not turn around, though he desperately wanted to know what kind of face Shen Jiu was making, hearing all of this.
“Daughters may not be as valuable as sons,” the Sect Leader concluded, “but no-one wants to send their daughters to marry into a demon-plagued village. If they’re not desperate enough for negotiations yet, they will be soon enough. At the end of it, Shanding will have their help, and the Sect will have its way.”
Yue Qi was silent for a long time, looking for all the world like he’d swallowed something foul.
“I understand,” he finally said. “But,” he added in a whisper, “I still think I would simply help.”
Su Yintao gave no acknowledgment that he’d heard. Now wholly disinterested in the conversation, he waved his disciple away and returned to his book, the removal of his approval as loud and clear as if he’d voiced it. Yue Qi bowed and left the office. He really was a quick study: he had learned, in a year, to hide what he couldn’t afford to let show. Still, Shen Yuan thought this one had stung him. Shen Jiu had noticed, too: there was a small satisfied smirk on his face Shen Yuan loathed to see.
“So, Cang Qiong’s shining star isn’t so perfect after all.”
Shen Yuan didn’t have the heart to answer. His mind kept casting back to the old days, to the kids who had clung to Qi-ge for protection and looked down on him at the same time, who would lie to his face about how much they’d earned, when they’d last eaten, how cold it was at night, Qi-ge - only to mock him behind his back for giving up what little he had. He and Shen Jiu had had a long list of small, petty revenges in store for these kids. Looking back now, it just made him sad.
This world wasn’t kind. The three of them knew it better than most. Someone as soft-hearted as Yue Qingyuan was just destined to be ground down over and over again. What was the point of getting attached to a character like that? Who could take that kind of heartache? But he’d gone and gotten attached anyway.
***