(Something I wrote a while back, so putting it here too)
What if MBJ lost his memory due to an assassination attempt. He forgets any memory of SQH, only remembering the time before they met 🐭❄️ When he first opens his eyes to this stranger beside his bed, his first reaction is to send an ice spear through his ribs. Then later he's informed of how said stranger was actually his husband. MBJ is in disbelief. This cowardly unassuming human is his husband? Human? What did he ever see in him?? But even though he had mortally wounded his supposed husband, he still stays by his side, assuring him that soon he'll remember again.
But MBJ is already unimpressed by this thing that he's supposedly married. And as the days turns into months into a year, MBJ has had enough of this human that meddles in his affairs and acts as though he knows him. He hates how uncomfortable he makes him feel. He doesn't know him. He doesn't trust him. And so he treats him like the human trash that he is.
A year later, he banishes the human from his kingdom and remarries a demon from a high-ranking noble. The human, oddly enough, begs him to not marry this woman, consider remarrying someone else, anyone but her. He says that she's treacherous and please please choose someone else. He doesn't even beg to stay, instead pleading for MBJ'S safety❄️
Please Dawang listen to me.
However, MBJ does not appreciate being told what to do. So his pleas are ignored, his tongue ripped from his mouth, and the marriage goes on anyways. However, he should've know that a human that betrayed his own kind would be treacherous towards him too. Because on the night of his wedding, his new bride is almost killed by the human. He hides under the bed and tries to knife her. However MBJ reacts fast enough to spear this treacherous cowardly human through his heart.
His body, thrown to the frost wolves.
Years later, MBJ finds out this woman was loyal to his uncle and had planned revenge, so he kills her. For a moment he thinks about the human that was once his husband, before turning his attention to more useful topics. Even if he was right, he didn't really regret anything. He didn't need his unwanted human help or meddling.
Then many many years later, as he's being served some dishes, his eyes catches a small bowl of noodles. Nothing fancy, just plain broth with thick rice noodles. Nothing special at all. But suddenly he remembers something.
"Nononono Dawang I swear this is like the bestest noodles ever! The best I ever had! No one's ever made me such a nice bowl of noodles ever!"
And then it all comes flooding back.
The shock and pain of being killed by the man he loved shattered Shang Qinghua's soul. So badly that he never reincarnated. Mobei-jun however, did reincarnate. Year after year, lifetime after lifetime. Centuries pass, and civilizations rise and fall. Memory intact. Looking and looking.
But only he ever came back. Alone.
But maybe, the utter agony and the loneliness he went through were enough to pay off the crime he had committed. Ten thousand lifetimes alone atoning for the evil he did. Maybe in the end times, when the world was ending and he was in his last lifetime, the gods took pity on him.
While the world burned and turned to ash, in the midst of the chaos, screaming, and war, two men stood in the middle of it all.
Both dressed in clothes of ancient times, unbothered by the fires and bombings around them. The taller one in a black fur coat gently leaned forwards and bumped heads with the shorter smaller one. Tears were falling from his closed eyes, and yet, he was smiling. The shorter one laughed and twirled him around in a sort of dance, happy and unbothered.
And then, they both vanished.