sy who transmigrates as a mundane animal and cultivates until he can live on cqms and then chooses to follow around the love interest of your choice
i am VERY tempted to say he transmigrates as a hen because of all the motherhening he does lmaooo
Chicken Yuan was one almost cooked that one time but he was able to fight the cook his rudimentary cultivation qi by turning his feathers into deadly blades!! Thus CQM discovered the wonder that was that chicken, and after assessing their cultivation-- very far away from the kitchen of course-- it was agreed to let it be. So Chicken Yuan is allowed to sit at lessons (even though it can't answer questions, it eventually learns to move a brush with its qi, so it can communicate clearly with the other disciples!
Everyone is very excited about this phenomena, so Chicken Yuan doesn't stay at one peak but takes lessons at all of them and spends time with the head disciples. Yue Qingyuan is very fond of it, but Shen Qingqiu HATES it. Food should stay food, not become intelligent! He tries to kill it one time but Chicken Yuan defends himself and squawks away. Chicken Yuan is very fond of Liu Qingge, who will try to teach him some combat techniques, though most of the time he'll just bring it over to the platform demonstrations so the chicken can learn from watching. Having found out the chicken's presence is very calming, Mu Qingfang recommends Liu Qingge to take it with him when he meditates, so chicken and man become meditation pals!
Absorbing the energy from the Ling Xi Caves allows Chicken Yuan to cultivate its core and, after some months of doing that, it's able to develop a human voice!!! Chicken Yuan asks its martial siblings to call him Shen Yuan and it specifies that it considers himself a male, despite being a hen. CQMS is just wildly overjoyed they have their own talking chicken, and are excited to see where Shen Yuan's cultivation will take him.
Shen Qingqiu continues to hate the chicken, SPECIALLY because it stole his name JUST to annoy him (pls, who do you think you are, the center of the universe??), Yue Qingyuan invites Shen Yuan over to have tea and converse, specially about Shen Yuan's knowledge and how it managed to cultivate his core. Mu Qingfang along with the peak lord responsible for this kind of stuff (mxtx when are you going to give us more cqm lore) invite Shen Yuan over for tests and examinations, since this kind of event needs to be studied and documented.
The younger disciples LOVE Shen Yuan the Chicken. They pick him up and take him everywhere, for their classes as well as their leisure activities.
Now you're wondering, since Chicken Yuan is a hen, shouldn't he be laying eggs? Well, he DOES!!! And he's mortified about it, but what can you do? At least he's contributing to the sect's food reserves in some way!! He can't wait until he gets a human form and is able to control his cycle. This happens some years later, coincidentally when the Qing generation ascends!
The Peak Lords are able to see his human form for the first time, when Shen Yuan emerges from the Ling Xi Caves after half a year of closed door seclusion. They were expecting it to have a, well, an aviary appearance, but aside from his hair looking slightly featherish, his appearance is that of a handsome, pretty young man!
Shen Yuan was found in the Qing Jing Peak pen, so he's technically a Qing Jing Peak disciples that answers to Shen Qingqiu, but in reality he has such a good relationship with the newly ascended Sect Leader that he can do as he wishes and Zhangmen-shixiong will have no choice but to pacify both parties.
Itching for a chance to get out and roam the world, Shen Yuan takes up mission after mission; he's not mush interested in romance, though he loves spending time with his martial siblings! Except that fucking traitor Shang Qinghua, who he never tried to get along with. Fate would have it that they go on a mission together with Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge and Shang Qinghua lets out some modern slang that will clue Chicken Yuan to his identity, so they'll soon get to talk about PIDW and everything that's happening.
Of course, Shang Qinghua will start calling him Chicken-bro, and Shen Yuan will try to pick at his eyes every. single. time.
Their newfound acquaintance makes Shen Qingqiu even more suspicious and annoyed at the existence of the chicken cultivator, but it's not like he can accuse them of anything (yet).
Fun fact! Shen Yuan can turn into a chicken in the middle of a fight, which really shocks his opponents! Instead of leaves, he uses his own feathers as deadly weapons. He also fashioned a fan out of them, though he does have normal fans, a collection that started when his dear Liu-shixiong gifted him one.
Qi Qingqi has complicated feelings about Chicken Yuan. She allowed him to cross the Rainbow Bridge up until it revealed himself as a male, at which point she interrogated him thoroughly to make sure he wasn't interested in harassing her disciples. Shen Yuan had to insist that even if he considered himself a male, he was biologically a hen, so his inclinations were... ehem, that of a female- OR SOMETHING in between.
So Qi Qingqi knows the chicken is gay and thus allows him to visit her peak.
Lastly: Shen Yuan will show up at Cang Qiong Mountain’s recruitment trial, bat his eyes at the sect leader, and poach Luo Binghe from Shen Qingqiu. There are two wolves batling inside Yue Qingyuan, the one that wants to give Shen Qingqiu everything and the one that's a reasonable man who knows Shen Yuan is the best choice. Using his wifebeam and his feathery charm, as well as a look that says "are you really going to allow him to keep doing that? Aren't you worry he's cultivating bad karma for himself?" (they've already had that conversation), Shen Yuan manages to stir Yue Qingyuan to the correct choice.
Ning Yingying, clapping her hands: "Shidi, you are fortunate to have Chicken Shizun as your teacher!"
Luo Binghe, not having a clue what she's talking about: Chicken Shizun...?
linguang-jun cut out mobei-jun's when he was young, but it was on the back of his knee so mbj just assumed it was to cripple him.
airplane wrote mbj not having a soulmate so he doesn't suspect the ink wash mountain behind his knee is mbj. thinking about it mostly makes him tired because it could be anyone
dude DUDE!!! the drama this would create!!
i imagine mbj's worldview would be bleaker than in canon bc even if it plays out the same, he would always think there wasn't a chance for him because he isn't destined to have a soulmate, why sqh does. i can't decide if mbj would cling harder to sqh (in that aloof cat way of his) or if he would try to push him away qwq until post-canon when linguang-jun attacks sqh post-ascension ceremony and by chance gets a look at sqh's soulmark (sqh's pant leg ripped idk) and he's like all villain monologue "HAHAHA now i'll kill you and make him suffer double because you're his soulmate!!!" but then mbj appears and kicks his ass and moshang have a stilted dysfunctional heartfelt moment of "oh- oh- we are soulmates??? hahaha don't worry my king it doesn't have to mean anything-" ".........you don't want it to be?!" "i didn't say-OF COURSE i want. ah. but my king OW OW MY LEG" and then mbj loads him in the cart and at home he makes him noddles, but the difference from canon is that HERE they're gonna have sex sooner since the soulmate thingy, once identified by the two parties, dual cultivation allows them to boost their cultivation!!! and mbj wants to get stronger, you know? and sqh wants mbj to gets stronger too. it's not like he wants to fuck mbj hahahaha "you don't want to?!" "eh, ah, of- of course i want my king, who wouldn't!?" they do have sex that first time but they take longer for the next. because they're stupid.
they are terrible at communicating. not even soulmate identifying marks would help them
Hey there! I saw you describe Cang Qiong Mountain Chronicles as "a censored version of SVSSS where half the plot got changed, transmigration doesn't exist, nuance was flattened down and the gay got buried in subtext" and I wanted to ask you about which parts of the plot where changed
I read the new extra, I know about "no transmigration" and I heard that there were no gay stuff, but I never read the new version myself because I assumed there is no translation yet. So I wanted to ask if you read it and know about specific changes in the plot? Or maybe at least where can I read the new novel?
I know you don't think highly of the new novel but personally I'm dying to read it so I can finally put the new extra in the context where it belongs lol
Hello! Let me warn you that I'm talking about what I've inferred from what's circulated in English fandom so far, which are the CQMC summary and the homecoming extra. I haven't read the revised novel, I didn't found a digital copy anywhere last time I looked. So everything I've said so far is what I've come to understand from analyzing the repercussions some of the known revisions have in the overall themes and plot of the novel. I would also like to read a translation of CQMC so I can make an informed comparison. Alas, I can only speculate.
Those major changes —transmigration plot rewritten as a comma induced "real" dream or whatever, no explicit gay relationships, the System putting SY in SJ's body "by mistake", LBH knowing all along his shizun has been replaced, the System revealed to be an ancestral spirit formed by LBH's past lives, PIDW not being created by SQH, who only received divine inspiration —rewrite into a new context SO. MANY. THINGS.
(rant incoming sorry)
Who is SY without his struggle with queerness?!?! With grief, with repression?? Who is SJ without his unrepentant and bullheaded self-destructive behavior that'll have him rather fight til the end that die in silence??? And with YQY still out there?? Who is LBH without his trauma and his very complicated relationship with SQQ??? Like there's a part of the novel that just pop up in my mind every time I have to think about the fact that mxtx decided to have him "know all along":
That meant that Shizun would only have chosen Luo Binghe for this match if he really did firmly believe he would win!
Thus did Student Luo Binghe’s colorful imagination successfully activate the Massive Fog of Misunderstandings System.
No one had ever believed in him like this. If only because he’d been entrusted with something so vitally important, he absolutely had to win and make everyone see!
ch.2 mission
Like what happened with this hmm?? How did MXTX reworked the "Massive Fog of Misunderstandings System", if LBH is supposed to know from the beginning? He is an all-knowing overpowered being... At the age of 13-14???
What happened to post abyss LBH, whose mindset was about trying to impress/win back shizun like he'd done in the past while simultaneously being angry and heartbroken?
Emotionally LBH would feel like a slightly different character just with this one detail removed or changed. He's less human and more perfect and godlike now 😒 It simplifies bingqiu's conflicts and misunderstandings, eliminating some of the internal tension that is a key element of the entire story.
And if the System now has a clear identity, I wonder what parts of its lines were kept the same and which ones were changed, but even without altering them, it puts them in a new context. Its primary goal is not longer making a good and entertaining story out of a plothole filled novel, but making lbh happy 😐 As one of my discord friends once said:
Like with the system reveal. I sent that quote the other day about the system being the embodiment of the authors regrets - like I do truly think that was the original intention with the system
But like if we're being so fr with ourselves. From a doylist and largely in a Watsonian sense as well, the system is LITERALLY just there to be a plot device, right?
Svsss is a story about stories and the plot devices in them, and both the personalities of the systems, the things they do, and the actions they take, all tie into STORY plot devices
"what is the system/what is it's origins" are interesting questions! But they're questions that didn't NEED to be answered, at least not by the author. There's plenty of fanfics that throw their hats into the ring pertaining what the system is
So to have the author "reveal" what the system is, and for it to be bingzu or whatever his nickname is, it felt almost maligned with what it's original intentions were. Like it feels like a system reveal that's built on the backs of fanfics instead of what happens in the story itself. I mean, there's LITERALLY a line about how the system previously did work in the world of Harry Potter, what the fuck does that have to do with the happiness of binghe or whatever??
Also: The things SVSSS was parodying and deconstructing: BL tropes, transmigration novels, cartoonish villains; the Unfairness of the World that is the origin of most of the tragedies that happen in the novel: what happened to all of that? WHAT HAPPENED TO PAPAPA TO SAVE THE WORLD?!? How did Maigu Ridge went down in CQMC, if there's no GAY?!?!?
It feels like getting a CQL version of MDZS, which removes most of the moral conundrums to give you a squeaky clean tale where all the questions are answered and everything is either Good Good or Bad bad. And that's what I think until something else changes my mind
What do you think of the "Ning Yingying was sexually abused by Shen Jiu" allegations?
It's the only accusation aside from the abuse that is never explained/excused/disproven in the text, and people seem to believe it's false because Shen Jiu went to brothels for comfort and not sex. However, I think it's important to remember that technically, aside from the mission incident during the Airplane extras, none of the accusations against Shen Jiu are 100% false. Rather, they're missing context. He did murder Qiu Jianluo and the male servants, and he did burn down Qiu manor. What’s missing was the abuse he went through there. He likely did murder Liu Qingge. What’s missing is that he was tryinf to help, but accidently made it worse. With this track record, you would assume there is some missing context behind the sexual abuse allegations.
But Luo Binghe's abuse had no such context. Shen Jiu really just wanted him dead because of jealousy (unless you count Shen Jiu's backstory as the missing context). We don’t know enough about the sexual abuse allegations aside from that there was an incident on PIDW that made the readers demand his castration. This is confirmed by both Shen Yuan and Shang Qinghua. But Shang Qinghua might have just been rwithholding information, and he purposefully left out some info from PIDW, meaning there's no way for Shen Yuan to get more context. So what do you think?
(Additionally, people take Ning Yingying's comfort with Shen Yuan at the beginning of his transmigration and Shen Jiu's lack of predatory thoughts as more proof, which I think is fair, but we also don't know when the incident occurred, or when Shen Jiu supposedly developed "interest" in her.)
I talked about this some years ago (here) (here) but I want to rewrite it and add a more serious analysis.
First thing: I don't think Shen Jiu sexually assaulted Ning Yingying. I believe this was a rumour widely supported by Shen Jiu's reputation as a lecherous man who visited brothels and was only fond of his youngest female disciple, assumption to which Shen Jiu himself contributed and never corrected, by openly saying things like
"(…)They might be able to control everything else, but they can’t stop me from looking for women! If Shixiong finds it shameful, he should watch that mouth of Liu Qingge’s.”
Chapter 24: Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu
A Bai Zhan disciple, the one Shen Jiu beat up, knew about these visits, and with how things happened, one can assume he resentfully told everyone who wanted to hear about finding Shen Jiu at a brothel. After many years of that, anyone would believe that Shen Jiu indeed was a "deviant", his unpleasant personality not helping him at all to cultivate good favor among his sect siblings and disciples.
Now, imagine a Luo Binghe/Bingge post-Endless Abyss, bent on revenge against his abusive Shizun. Imagine that he's building the case against him, and he needs evidence that Shen Jiu is the worst of the worst. He needs to bring him down from his high mountain, literally, he needs to destroy his standing in the jianghu. He may remember how Shen Jiu treated Ning Yingying, how he was jealous of Luo Binghe and Ning Yingying's relationship and tried to push them away,
Furthermore, Shen Qingqiu had told Ning Yingying thousands of times to stay far away from Luo Binghe and that she wasn’t allowed to get involved with him. So why did he see them every day, whispering together before his eyes?
Chapter 24: Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu
With how expressive and clear Shen Jiu is about his hatred and resentment towards people, what sort of conclusion, adding all the context of his own life at Qing Jing Peak and the rumours about Shen Jiu's lecherous behavior, whould you think Bingge make? It would even be easy to persuade Ning Yingying into believing that was what was happening, what with she being naive and not knowing any more than Bingge does about Shen Jiu's opinion on women, and the mysterious incident that Airplane vaguely mentioned,
Shang Qinghua thought for a while. “I vaguely remember you. Weren’t you especially vicious in one of those threads that was demanding I castrate the villain? It was when you, ahem, when the original Shen Qingqiu wanted to do…to Ning Yingying…”
Chapter 5: Bai Lu
When Shen Jiu "wanted to" do something but seemed to not succeed in doing it, as proved by Shen Yuan's initial words on Ning Yingying,
This young shimei inspired some complicated feelings in Shen Qingqiu. This was because he had designs on Ning Yingying—ah, no, more like the original Shen Qingqiu had designs on Ning Yingying.
Shen Qingqiu’s character settings were stuck on “shady hypocrite.” Since on the surface he looked pure-hearted, free of desire, and immune to wicked temptations, then beneath that surface he had to be immoral, shameless, scummy, and despicable. He was a teacher, but he harbored filthy intentions toward his obedient and cheerful disciple. He tried to carry them out several times in the story, and he very nearly succeeded.
One can, however, imagine the result of daring to try to get a taste of the male lead’s woman!
Chapter 1: Scum
There were seemingly various incidents in which Shen Jiu "tried" to do something to Ning Yingying, but no definitive attempt was ever mentioned, so regardless of the truth, I don't think anything happened. Why is that? Because Shen Jiu's relationship to women is that of emotional and physical comfort, not sexual. It would be EASIER for him if it was; he's only letting others assume he's engaging in sex at the brothels because it's more bearable to his sense of pride than admitting what he perceives as a shameful weakness.
Though Shen Qingqiu was unpopular among his peers, it wasn’t to the extent of being kicked out of the communal sleeping quarters.
He just loathed being in close quarters with those of the same sex.
All those years, whenever one of his beatings from Qiu Jianluo was over, or whenever he had a premonition of another beating, he had crawled to Qiu Haitang’s room and remained there, quivering. As Qiu Jianluo was unwilling to let his sister see the side of him that was perverse and lunatic, that had been the only place where Shen Jiu could hide.
And even longer ago, there had been some girl in their group, their big sis. But after she reached a certain age, that big sis had been sold to a withered old man to be his second wife. Afterward, they’d left that city, so they’d never seen her again.
Liking women wasn’t the least bit shameful, but treating women like saviors, cowering within their embrace and seeking courage from them…even without anyone saying it, Shen Qingqiu knew that was horrendously shameful. So even if it meant his death, he would never tell anyone, least of all Yue Qingyuan.
Chapter 24: Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu
"Liking women wasn't shameful", I think the implication is clear that he doesn't like women. If he did, he would smoothly wrap those "shameful feelings" with sexual desire and comfort himself with the thought that it wasn't shameful at all to pursue women. Furthermore, Yue Qingyuan in the same scene mentions that “Lusting after women damages one’s cultivation,” and I don't think Shen Jiu is interested in doing that to himself, with how preoccupied he is throughout all his backstory with surpassing others and attaining Full Core Formation.
Within the new generation of peak lords, Yue Qingyuan had naturally attained Core Formation first. Qi Qingqi and Liu Qingge had followed practically on his heels, breaking through at the same time. An Ding Peak’s Shang Qinghua, with his mediocre background, had barely managed to keep up—but even he had achieved official ascension.
However, the more anxious Shen Qingqiu grew, the more stuck he became, until he was suspended in place and unable to progress. He was racked with stress and anxiety. It was like he was swallowing a hundred kilos of tobacco every day; it smoldered within his head and stomach, stoking his flames of rage and irritation until they erupted.
Chapter 24: Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu
Here he doesn't mention WHEN he'd attained Core Formation, and is comparing himself to his martial siblings in regards to this. By the time Shen Yuan transmigrates, it's state that Shen Jiu's body had achieved Mid Core Formation, so he was halfway there but comparatively behind his peers, and this was something that stressed him to the point of qi deviation (side note: SY!Shen Qingqiu managed to get to Core Formation by the end of the Immortal Alliance Conference). This is all to reiterate that he wouldn't deliberately do something to push his own progress back (regardless of whether lust does cause damage or not, this was the assumption held by Cang Qiong Mountain and its disciples).
Shen Jiu and Ning Yingying's closeness could be easily misconstrued. In the flashback sequence, we can see how childishly affectionate she is with him, and how Shen Jiu calms down around her.
Shen Jiu humphed, his air sullen and spiteful. He seemed about to say something when Ning Yingying clambered up.
“Shizun, Shizun,” she called, flinging her arms around Shen Jiu’s waist. “Will Yingying get a shimei or a shidi?”
When Shen Jiu looked at her, his face relaxed somewhat.
Chapter 24: Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu
And early in the same chapter we are told from SY!Shen Qingqiu's POV that "Ning Yingying was really quite similar to Qiu Haitang in her youth". And since Qiu Haitang had been his safe haven at the Qiu State, one can conclude Ning Yingying played a similar role.
A final point to connect all this is that Bingge clearly states that his revenge is for himself, not for what Shen Jiu allegedly did to others.
Luo Binghe smiled. “Today, the humiliation this disciple once suffered will be returned one hundredfold. For injuring my hands and feet, I’ll tear off your limbs and grind them to dust.”
—Proud Immortal Demon Way, selected passage number two.
Chapter 1: Scum
"The humiliation THIS DISCIPLE suffered". If Ning Yingying is his precious childhood friend and Shen Jiu had truly done something heinous to her, Airplane would have written that. Much like in MDZS, MXTX writes all this rumours and assumptions around a character and shows us how people run along with them without ever confirming if they're true, and putting whatever they already know (Shen Jiu being close to Ning Yingying, him visiting brothels, his other crimes) in a confirmation bias cycle that never gets disproved, since Shen Jiu's other charges piled up against him —killing Qiu Jianluo and the men at Qiu State, abusing disciples, antagonizing Liu Qingge and threatening to kill him one day— get "proved" to be true by the circumstances surrounding it— and, again, it doesn't help that Shen Jiu is never willing to defend himself.
Now, to recap!
>SJ feels safe around women and girls from early childhood and consistently searches their company during his disciples days and after becoming a Peak Lord. This is an open secret that everyone at CQMS is likely aware of.
>SJ doesn't get along with his martial siblings, antagonizes and starts fights with LQG.
>After becoming a Peak Lord, he only treats well his young female disciple, with whom he seems very close; male disciples are either lackeys or targets of abuse. Conclusion: SJ hates men, favors women, specially favors his naive, childish female disciple
>LQG dies and SJ is the main suspect
>Bingge comes back and accuses SJ of
Qiu household massacre, murder of Qiu Jianluo >>backed by a witness, Qiu Haitang, who reveals Shen Jiu's status as a former slave, and since she's of higher status than him, it gives her leverage. She was also backed by HHP and Bingge, who offered up more charges
>LQG's murder, likely backed by Liu Mingyan, who is also of high status and well-liked
>"Having filthy intentions" towards Ning Yingying, backed by Bingge and NYY herself, after whatever incident happened that created the misunderstanding SJ wanted to do something to her in the first place
>Abusing his disciples, Luo Binghe in particular, to which Bingge and NYY would have been witnesses, and the Old Palace Master, since it's said he investigated Shen Qingqiu for the trial
Amongst this myriad of accusations and witnesses and an accused so unpleasant and unwilling to defend himself, who would bother to question if one of them was true or not? It doesn't help that Airplane axed Shen Jiu's backstory and never posted it, so the crumbs he'd left along the way to build up this complicated villain were never shown to the readers, and that's where Shen Yuan's assumption comes from. The incident in question was never explained.
Shang Qinghua embarked on an impassioned explanation of his artistic concept. “I had a lot of ideas for the character of Shen Qingqiu. I had hoped to portray him as a well-rounded, three-dimensional character; he’s scum, he’s wretched, but he has reason to be scum, as well as a not-scummy side. But the readers didn’t really buy it. As soon as I inserted signs of his development, they started griping in the reviews. So, I saw the winds weren’t blowing the right way and immediately turned him into a tropey and wretched asshole(...)"
Chapter 14: House Arrest
yqy who breaks down in tears at seeing SJ at the fall IAC and sobs like his chest is going to break open about how he thought sj was dead
i fear YQY is too emotionally constipated to burst into tears so we'd have to add a little plot device to make it happen! Maybe after they are done with Wu Yanzi and are making their way out of the barriers, the flower pollen YQY inhaled by accident earlier in the day catches up to him and he faints. Later he's told it's called the Hidden Depths Blue Lotus, but at the moment the only thing Shen Jiu knows is that Yue Qi is sobbing in his arms, clinging to him desperately and spilling sect secrets by explaining everything that happen to him, that he was locked inside a cave and was too late to save him and here, Shen Jiu can have his sword and end his life if he thinks it's not enough. He knows it isn't, it will never repair the damage of his mistakes but please, please Xiao-Jiu, will you allow me to keep calling you that?
Shen Jiu... doesn't know what to do, except say,
".............I TOLD you not to be reckless, you idiot Qi-ge!"
which makes Yue Qingyuan cry harder. Everyone thinks they are long lost childhood sweethearts reunited at last.
de-aged YQY thinking he and SJ have been kidnapped by cultivators to be cut up for parts or worse and starts biting people find his Xiao-jiu
sj is gonna have so many mixed feelings, among which will emerge triumphant the "STAY AWAY FROM MY QI-GE" one, minus stone throwing. not that he's voicing it out loud of course, he mainly glares and says that, since he's the most knowledgeable about this kind of stuff, and the de-facto leader when zhangmen-shixiong is compromised, it should fall to him to take care of the sect leader. everyone is distrustful but can't complain much, tho mqf does insist on visiting daily to evaluate yqy's condition.
by the way all that time yqy had been unconscious, sj put him on his own bed and spent most of the night awake at his bedside. he does fall asleep at some point and wakes up to mini yqy trying to tie him up before running away, but sj manages to restrain him, and that's when the biting starts.
"where's xiao-jiu, where are you keeping him!?"
sj is surprised because in their youth the biter had been him.
"zhangmen-shixiong- QI-GE, CALM DOWN ALREADY"
it takes a lot of convincing, qi-ge questioning sj about stuff only the two of them would know. eventually qi-ge stares at him and realizes the similarities between the xiao-jiu from his mind and this man. he doesn't fully understand what's happening, it could all be a lie, who knows what tricks cultivators have up their sleeves, maybe they can even read minds and this man is but an impersonator. however, if he pretends that he trusts this "grown up xiao-jiu", he can find sooner what's ACTUALLY going on.
the funny thing is that sj is fully aware of this because that's exactly what he'd do in the same situation. it brings back memories, he is feelings way too soft inside. he doesn't want to feel like that, he wants to smash something and run away to the brothel to sleep the afternoon away, but "yue qi" needs him- even if yue qingyuan betrayed him, he'll always be there for his qi-ge.
Do you think Bingge truly fell in love with Shen Yuan within that short amount of time, or that he was in love with Shen Jiu?
I personally think it was neither; Instead, I think he was attracted to Bingmei's life and thought that if he had Shen Yuan, he'd have that life. But ultimately, because he knows rationally that that's not how it works, he gives up. What do you think?
answering this a million years later ;_; sorry anon!!!
I don't think Bingge fell in love; I read his reaction as him having an awakening of sorts- a two parts phenomenon: On one hand, he discovered that he CRAVED to be treated like Bingmei was/is. On the other, he also discovered that the IdeaTM of himself having sex with the kind and loving Shen Qingqiu didn't disgust him; in fact, he was very much into it.
You can see that in his first "real" encounter with Shen Qingqiu in the showndown extra he shows nothing but revulsion; he doesn't want Shen Qingqiu close, he doesn't want Shen Qingqiu to touch him.
Luo Binghe’s throat bobbed, and his teeth were clenched so tightly that they seemed about to break, but he still furiously spat out a word from between them: “Leave!”
(...)
Unexpectedly, Luo Binghe’s lips thinned, and he violently shoved him away.
Contrast his self-assured and arrogant attitude in the punishment protocol with how aggressive he behaves here-- he's vulnerable, a "wounded leopard" trying to protect himself from his former abuser turned torture victim (who he possibly killed in his original world but is somehow whole and walking and healthy here???).
As Shen Qingqiu spoke, his palm pressed against Luo Binghe’s back. Luo Binghe’s face went rigid. From behind him flowed a warm, ceaseless stream of spiritual energy; wave after wave of it was sent into his body.
But as he's a smart man currently at the mercy of his abusive shizun (or so he believes for some hours), he bides his time, analyses the situation.
Luo Binghe remained silent, his lips pressed tightly together. Once Shen Qingqiu lowered his head, Luo Binghe’s line of sight focused on his pale nape, his gaze unfathomable as a frigid wariness circulated within him.
But still he can't control his reaction at seeing an alive Ming Fan
Luo Binghe sent Ming Fan a sideways glance, and an expression of extreme loathing mixed with disbelief flashed in the depths of Luo Binghe’s eyes. The look was bone-piercingly cold.
Or when Shen Qingqiu tries to clean his wounds
Then [Shen Qingqiu] picked out a selection of bottles from the medicine chest Mu Qingfang had issued to him before turning around, reaching out to undo Luo Binghe’s clothes.
Luo Binghe abruptly caught his hand.
The force of this grip was tremendous. Shen Qingqiu frowned, but he couldn’t use his other hand to smack Luo Binghe’s forehead. He lowered his voice to say, “Stop being difficult. Let me see your wound.”
Still Luo Binghe refused to release his hand.
There's no part of him that's comfortable around Shen Qingqiu; Bingge, who could allegedly hide poison behind a sweet smile, can't control his reactions in this situation. This goes to show how deeply affected he is by being around them. It also demonstrate how absolutely delusional it is to think he could fall in love with his abusers, in my opinion. (you'd need tons and tons of character development, possibly 100k words or more)
As that energy slowly flowed into Luo Binghe’s meridians, Shen Qingqiu felt his stiff muscles gradually relax. He quietly sighed with relief, then reached out, intending to pull Luo Binghe into his arms.
Once again, Luo Binghe struggled free.
Now that Shen Qingqiu had been shoved away a second time, he tossed aside the towel in his right hand and said helplessly, “What’s wrong with you now?”
Luo Binghe’s eyes overflowed with a wary guardedness.
At least three people who should be dead are alive, and, more shocking of it all, the shizun who previously shunned him, had him whipped and doing manual labor and tried to kill him several times, is suddenly a very, VERY different person. Over and over, in just a few hours, Bingge experiments Protective and Caring Shizun bodily shielding him from harm, passing him spiritual energy to heal him, no matter how disagreeable and cold the disciple is acting. This is literally everything Bingge wanted in his life, whether he knew it or not: to be unconditionally loved and cared for, the same way the washerwoman loved him. As a fresh Qing Jing Peak disciple, he likely wished to be acknowledged by Shen Qingqiu; not because he wanted him carnally, but because as I've said before, Bingge has a Severe Case of Daddy Issues in regards to Shen Qingqiu; think of the Monster and Frankenstein and multiply it by five.
Shen Qingqiu placed the fan on the table. “Have no fear,” he consoled him. “Since this master has spoken his piece, he won’t come bothering you for some time. If the Bai Zhan Peak disciples come to gang up on you again, you can hit back. As long as you don’t kill them, it’ll be fine; there’s no need to accommodate them. This would also save Qing Jing Peak some face.”
The more Luo Binghe listened, the odder the expression in his eyes became. As if testing the waters, he said the word: “Shizun?”
“Mm?” Shen Qingqiu cocked his head. Both his tone and expression brimmed with one hundred and twenty percent warm indulgence—a promise to grant whatever request Luo Binghe might have.
Luo Binghe withdrew his gaze, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Nothing. I just wanted to try…saying it.”
This exchange right here is SO telling, so powerfully evocative. What it means to Bingge to say that word and get a warm reply; to be so blatantly indulged. The parent who always hated you did a 180º personality swap and became everything you ever needed in a teacher, a parent, a master.
(...) He slowly turned his head and smiled at him before saying sweetly, “Shizun?”
“Mm?”
“Shizun.”
“Mm.”
It was as if this was Luo Binghe’s very first time using such a novel term of address; he repeated it again and again without pause. Every time he did, he received an answer, and he grew increasingly addicted to it until Shen Qingqiu couldn’t take it anymore.
Sadly, his epiphany stays buried in his subconscious, probably until the end of the extra, and his immediate reaction is that he's found something fun to play with. He's not the young Luo Binghe who would later become Bingmei; Bingge doesn't give out his heart as readily as Bingmei did. He's dark and twisted and he's become an abuser on his own.
A dark and sinister curve tugged his lips upward.
The silent smile on “Luo Binghe’s” face grew wider and wider.
As if he’d discovered some amusing plaything, his eyes began to shine with an excitement, one that seemed to hold the slightest hint of cruelty.
This word choice is hauntingly reminiscent of Qiu Jianluo, btw.
Later, he'll do a throughout investigation of Shen Qingqiu's memories, find Regret of Chunshan on Liu Mingyan's desk, and go about seducing Shen Qingqiu in the manner he knows from experience and from what he likely read in the book. This is the part where I say he's having a sexual awakening.
Luo Binghe was waiting for him within the Bamboo House. The moment he entered, he felt a gaze shoot over him, boiling and burning.
(...)
He was looking Shen Qingqiu up and down as if he’d never seen him before; it was like he was trying to scrape off a layer of Shen Qingqiu’s skin with his eyes.
But, again, he goes about it in a very Bingge way-- his forwardness gradually becomes forcefulness, specially after Shen Qingqiu finds out which Luo Binghe is on top of him. I guess Bingge behaves like that because that's his usual modus operandi, and because of what he read in RoC. And all through that, Bingge is also acting maliciously. He knows he's an impostor playacting a role. He knows he's in someone else's place. And he. Goes about it like That. Because, well... he's Bingge.
“Luo Binghe” took this powerful surge of spiritual energy head-on, but he remained utterly unaffected. With a cold laugh, he encircled Shen Qingqiu’s right wrist with one hand while continuing to press down on his nape with the other. Then he skillfully flipped them over, rolling them onto the bed together. Looking down at Shen Qingqiu from overhead, he smiled brightly. “What’s wrong, Shizun? Don’t you love me very much? So why aren’t you willing to give in to me?”
This is a strange situation and he's going to have sex about it because that's what he usually does, it's the only thing that makes sense to him. He's taking out his daddy issues on the wrong Shizun because of his unresolved trauma. Instead of looking inside his heart to understand why he feels what he feels, he tries to have sex with Shen Qingqiu pretending to be Bingmei, and when Shen Qingqiu discovers his identity, he still tries to rape him. He is, after all, the Zhongdian stallion novel male lead, with a head "full of vulgar thoughts" (bingmei on the contrary is a gentleman. fight me). The only thing that stopped him was Bingmei showing up.
“Luo Binghe” lowered his body further and said, his voice chilly yet colored by a hint of provocation, “It’s fine if you don’t want to say. We have plenty of time—enough for me to slowly ‘find out.’”
“Then why not take a look behind you?”
The curve on “Luo Binghe’s” lips froze.
(...)
“Luo Binghe” wore an expression of incredible disappointment. “You couldn’t have returned a little earlier or a little later?” he asked contemptuously. “You just had to choose a time like this—”
So yeah, I don't think he fell in love. He's definitely having some Feelings, specially in regards to his own life and what he believed about himself, which worsen as he watches bingqiu being all lovey-dovey before his own eyes.
“Excuse me. I’m still here. Could you not leave me hanging?”
The original Luo Binghe was used to forever being at the center of everyone’s attention. Watching this duo jump on each other at first sight, thoroughly ignoring his existence and being all cloying and disgusting, filled him with an unspeakable irritation.
(my god he's so emotionally immature and childish pfffffff) He also calls Bingmei useless for not being an all-conquering emperor with an overflowing harem... Like.
Luo Binghe was unwilling to destroy the Bamboo House; he jumped out the door and yelled, “Come out here!”
The original flavor humphed. “Perfect—I wasn’t able to let loose inside that run-down little house!”
He is toxic masculinity incarnate, with all the mental health issues that come with it. So you see, that this encounter, from Bingge's pov, is more about confronting something about Himself than his relationship with Shen Qingqiu, which in the originally story was always doomed to a bad end thanks to Shen Jiu's sparkling personality.
The original Luo Binghe narrowly avoided several waves of attacks and squinted a little. He seemed angry, but not enough to express his emotions further, only pursing his mouth.
Suddenly, he said, “With technique that bad, what’s so good about him anyway?”
When this line came out of nowhere, Shen Qingqiu’s hand trembled a little. But he forced it down and continued attacking.
Unfortunately, Bing-ge refused to restrain himself. “Shizun, you’ve already experienced my prowess. Since we’re the same person, why not come with me? I’ll definitely give you more pleasure than he could.”
"Why does he get to be loved when he's weaker and less skilled at sex than me??" He does not get it. But like I've repeated a few times already, he goes about it in a very Bingge way: trying to take Shen Qingqiu with him. But that wouldn't solve anything, because what he actually wants is Bingmei's life from the moment Shen Yuan appeared.
So no, he wasn't meant to fall in love with Shen Qingqiu, he didn't fall in love here though he DID find he wanted to fuck Shen Qingqiu. But most importantly, he found out how unhappy he is in his original world! :DDDDD
Svsss prompt: Shen Jiu: What did that demon ask of you?
Shang Qinghua: Take responsibility for making him my bride?
"How in the world did Shang-shidi manage to make a demon his bride? This shixiong fails to understand, would you kindly explain?" This is said in the sweetly venomous tones of someone who just knows they're being lied to.
Shang Qinghua is so, so fucked.
But here comes his knight in shining armor, Yue-shixiong! But before he can appeal to him on his knees and cry pathetically that he's being bullied, Shen Qingqiu beats him to the punch.
"Shang-shidi says he's betrothed to a demon now. What do you plan to do about this, Yue-shixiong?" Snaps fan.
Shang Qinghua gives the convoluted explanation that he accidentally performed a mating ritual that turned him into Mobei-jun's groom, so they have to get married now. If he doesn't, he'll explode in two months.
"I'm in favor of letting it run its course," Shen Qingqiu says callously.
"Shen-shixiong, why do you wish ill upon me, ah? Have I done anything to you!?
"You're the one who's brought trouble to our door!"
"Shang-shidi, Shen-shidi, please calm down."
Shang Qinghua is crying inside. Haha, he's dead, he's worse than dead! Useless as a spy, colluding with demons--- Wait, what do they mean, this will allow for a future alliance? HUH!?
Of course, Yue Qingyuan knows that the current generation wouldn't hear of something like this, that Huan Hua Palace nor the other sects would agree to such an union; in this timeline, Yue Qingyuan is haunted by how the human cultivators, including him, ambushed and sealed Tianlang-jun in an unfair fight, so he's been looking into all the information about the Demon Realm, searching for a way to avoid this kind of conflicts in the future. He's very interested in an alliance, and since he's going to be the Sect Leader, this is something actionable that he can put in motion in the future. So they keep it secret, to Shen Qingqiu's protests. It takes convincing, Yue Qingyuan has to explain it to him over and over; when Shang Qinghua offers him a way to improve his cultivation and get his golden core, using an elixir that can only be found in the Mobei Clan's catacombs (he's bullshitting at 10000 mph), Shen Qingqiu... grudgingly relents. He's not going to pass up that opportunity, since he's behind everyone else cultivation wise, he's eager to get ahead.
Mobei-Jun will have a lot to win from this alliance too, like trade opportunities for the Demon Realm, since CQMS is very rich and has resources, and the three disciples can easily make arrangements for that.
The moment Shang Qinghua has to explain all this to Mobei-jun though. Priceless. Like they have to make this work, but HOW will Shang Qinghua convince to meet with the others is hilarious.
