What if, after the conference and the reforging of Zheng Yang and the making of the sword mound, Shen Qingqiu gets drunk? I mean, super drunk. Stumbling around drunk. Needs help getting home drunk. And since Binghe isn't around, it falls, naturally, to Ning Yingying to assist.
As she supports her shizun's drunk self back up to the bamboo house, Yingying can't help but worry. Her Shizun has never gotten drunk like this before; and though he isn't saying much, his usually stoic face is twisting in unusually open displays of emotion. It was...unsettling.
But it was also an opportunity.
"Shizun," Yingying starts quietly. "Shizun, lately..."
"Mm?" Shen Qingqiu turns his head to look at her. At the same time he stumbles, and Yingying has to quickly correct his balance. "Ah, careful, careful!"
Yingying feels the urge to smile. Her silly Shizun...
"Yingying wonders if Shizun will do her a favor?"
The words take a visible moment to register. When they do, Yingying feels warmed that her Shizun’s first response was worry.
"Is Yingying in trouble? Is someone daring to trouble my disciple?"
Yingying nods, mustering up all her daring. "Shizun has been, yes."
She watches his face closely, waiting only long enough for his face to twist in confusion before barreling forward. "Shizun has been grieving- no, Shizun, don't deny it. I have seen it. More than that, though, Shizun has been withdrawn and will not confide in even this Yingying. What is wrong, Shizun?"
Her shizun tries to deflect, but Yingying expected that. In a way she couldn't have when her Shizun was sober, she maneuvers him into a verbal corner, waits for him to make a mistake, then stikes.
"Shizun, what happened at the conference?"
It was strange to see Shen Qingqiu so open with his emotions. She almost didn't recognize the shapes his brows took or the curve of his mouth like this.
"....Shizun looks so miserable. Was it really that bad?"
".......worse than you could imagine," he pauses, glances to the side. Something flicks through his eyes- Surprise? Outrage? Exasperation??- before focusing back on her. ".....if you truly wish to know, then it's best we speak elsewhere."
Yingying gets the hint. They continue to the bamboo house.
Once she's settled Shizun in on a seat, she takes the seat across, not daring to make tea lest Shizun changes his mind.
He purses his lips. "Yingting must promise to speak of this with no one-...."
-and for the next half-hour Yingying hears of the conference from her Shizun's perspective. The chaos, the fighting, and also- also-
Oh, A-Luo...he must have been so scared.
Shizun seems to agree. There's this far off look in his eyes as he explains how A-Luo begged and pleaded. He spares no detail of the confrontation, telling Yingying exactly what he did. What he said. Giving himself no excuses to hide behind as his eyes mist and stare somewhere past her head.
Yingying doesn't need to hear his reasoning. She can guess why he did what he did. However, she still asks him anyway. She just...needed to know for sure.
"They would have killed him, Yingying. A Heavenly Demon, discovered at the sight of an invasion in progress?" He shakes his head. "There is nothing so hated amongst the four cultivation clans as one with his blood. The Abyss is hell, but atleast he would live and come out of it stronger. Death is not something so easily beaten."
"I only regret," He continues. "That I said such terrible things to him before pushing him in." He deflated, hunching in on himself. "Undoubtedly, Binghe hates this master now; and while I know I deserve it, it is a hard pill to swallow."
Yingying blinks, silently reeling. She's barely processed any of that before she's blurting out, "Then why say it at all? Shizun is not usually one to say what he doesn't mean."
"This Master panicked. Binghe has always been so sticky. He needed a way to cut ties, otherwise..."
Oh. Otherwise A-Luo would just come right back.
Yingying understands now. Shizun...really had tried his best for A-Luo, hadn't he?
That said, "Shizun must know that A-Luo could never hate him."
Resignation lined his entire body. "You more than anyone must know that Binghe, while a sweet child, gives back exactly what is given to him." Which...yes, that is true. But still-! "If he returns, it will be to return the harm I've done to him ten times over." Shizun sighs, "But that's alright. This Master will accept whatever he plans to do with me."
She can see that, in this, Shizun is resolute.
Does it really have to be like this? When her shidi returns, will she really have to watch the two people she loves suffer and fight?
No. "Shizun should find a way to save A-Luo."
Shen Qingqiu watches her with confused eyes, but she is sure. Determined. It...almost seems to fill him with a new light.
"Remind me of this conversation tomorrow."
A month later, they have a plan, and it's simple: Shizun will find an item or spell that will allow he and Binghe to switch bodies. While Yingying is helping A-Luo readjust to the human realm and hiding that he's taken over Shen Qingqiu's body, Shizun will navigate A-Luo's safely out of the Abyss and return it to Binghe as soon as possible! This way, all debts are paid, and A-Luo won't be left to stew in suffering in a pit designed specifically just for that!
(And while Shizun is gone, Yingying can secretly dissolve the entire misunderstanding! A win-win!)
Yes, a simple, foolproof plan. Nothing could possibly go wrong!
System: (+^ + "I sense an opportunity."
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