Svsss thing where SQQ gets hit with a truth serum thing except it doesn't just make him say the truth it also means that he has to express himself truthfully. Like no more pretending that the pain of cultivation that SQQ never got quite used to is fine. No more masking his instinctive reactions when Shen Qingqiu is near any men. No more holding his tongue and hiding the truth behind a cold demeanor. The worst thing is SQQ isn't aware that he's spilling the secrets he so desperately wished to keep. He doesn't even register saying anything. All he knows is that his martial siblings are acting weird over something. He was afflicted after one of his brothel visits (Some guy wanted more natural reactions from one of the staff members and slipped something into the teapot, which SQQ ended up drinking some of before he left. He stopped by MQF because he had a little fever while coming back and it was a little strange and sudden)
MQF says that the serum will last for about a week and a half. Everyone is so confused--Liu Qingge asks if MQF is sure that being truthful is the only side effect because of the massive change in SQQ's demeanor. When MQF confirms it for the third time the other PLs are just kinda stunned at all of this lore dropping. LQG confronting SQQ after the diagnosis only to watch SQQ flinch and bristle. "I do not go to the brothel to bed women! I haven't touched a lady like that, ever!" and LQG is about to dismiss it as a bad lie before he realizes that right now SQQ can't lie.
If Shen Qingqiu hasn't been going to brothels to sleep with women then what has he been going for?
Mu Qingfang doing a follow up checkup and questioning Shen Qingqiu about pain and for the first time ever Shen Qingqiu says something like "Nothing more than the usual pain." and MQF's like "usual pain?" and SQQ absentmindedly explains about how his meridians have been forcefully stretched open and just circling the Qi within is painful for him. MQF also can't help but notice the way Shen Qingqiu shrinks away from him slightly and how his body naturally rejects all foreign qi as a defensive mechanism.
Yue Qingyuan giving SQQ a gift and SQQ snapping at him. "I don't want your guilt ridden gifts. How can you have the nerve to abandon me and then act like all is well when you find out that the boy you left to rot is alive?!" Yue Qingyuan opens his mouth to say something but Shen Qingqiu keeps going. "You left me, and the worst part is that you won't even tell me why. Why you didn't come back. Why you didn't send anyone. Why you let me cling to a false hope for years!" and then Shen Qingqiu smacks whatever object Yue Qingyuan was offering him to the ground and turns around, stomping off.
Qi Qingqi badgering Shen Qingqiu about sending Ning Yingying to her instead of keeping NYY surrounded by men and SQQ just glares at her venomously and says "I will not be sending my daughter away." and QQQ (She wasn't there for LQG's little confrontation.) accuses SQQ of having a child with one of the brothel prostitutes and SQQ loses his shit on her.
Wei Qingwei is even called to test for possession (even though MQF says that it's just a truth serum), and while he's there he notices how Xiu Ya seems to be well cared for and he says as much. SQQ's like "I have to do that much for a blade that I'm not worth" and WQW goes quiet before explaining that the blade chose him so SQQ is obviously worth it.
mmm idk where I was going with this, this is kind of sloppy xd... runs off to go frolic in the grass and eat pollen
