Shen twins + Shang twins au where the transmigrators have to communicate through increasingly absurd methods to avoid suspicion
Listen, I just feel there is no way the originals would let their brothers be alone with each other. OG!Shang Qinghua (I’ll come up with better names later) wouldn’t want his brother to ruin their carefully crafted reputation by associating with people as widely gossiped about as the Shen twins and Shen Jiu would think Airplane!Shang Qinghua super suspicious because “no one’s that pathetic, it has to be an act”
They also both would be very alarmed that someone wanted to talk with their brothers alone and not allow it on principle.
So the transmigrators have to A. Confirm the other is a transmigrator and B. Find out what the others changed all without their brothers getting suspicious.
Shen Qingqiu tries to be subtle, and Shang Qinghua if he’s ever read a book titled “proud immortal demon way but Shang Qinghua is so caught off guard (he thought he’d have to ask) that he starts choking, making a massive scene but at least confirming they were both transmigrators
Shang Qinghua tries to pass notes in English but neither of them are fluent anymore and they see each other so rarely that it takes months for Shen Yuan to communicate he had no idea what that note said and for them to agree to using pinyin instead.
They then switch to hiding notes on the others peak in specific places but Shen Jiu finds one and becomes determined to crack the code and find out what it says so Shen Yuan panics and tells Shang Qinghua they have to stop because if he got enough notes Shen Jiu could definitely figure it out.
They try meeting in the middle of the night but both of their siblings follow them so neither of them actually go to the meeting spot.
Things get easier when their brothers are peak lords but they also get busier. They can interact now but there are disciples everywhere and theres never a time they are both free and seperated from their brothers for more than a few minutes at a time. Shen Yuan to talk in code but Airplane doesn’t catch on so Shen Yuan straight up tells Airplane to request a day off to go on a trip on a day Shen Yuan was also off.
By the time they finally get a full conversation alone it’s been multiple years and they barely know anything about each other, not even IDs have been exchanged. They spend the whole time telling each other what they had already done and have no time to actually plan anything.
They start writing letters in pinyin because Shen Qingqiu doesn’t have the time to decipher unknown languages as a peak lord. But this time OG! Shang Qinghua finds out and gets highly suspicious.
OG! Shang Qinghua asks Shen Jiu if he knew why their brothers were writing letters in unknown languages and they end up teaming up to try and find out
The transmigrators are so horrified when they see their brothers being friendly towards each other they actually agree to stop writing to each other if it meant their brothers wouldn’t become friends. It’s to late. The consequences of the OG’s becoming friends are dire for not only the other peak lords but for the cultivation world as a whole.
