#narra writes

[lurkinginnernarrator]

a funny scenario would be all the peak lords about to enter into peak Lord summit, arriving separately, and walking in to see yqy commiting what looks to be a murder.

surely, if zhangmen-shixiong killed someone they deserved it. so, as good shidimen they all individually decide to help yqy cover up the murder without mentioning it to yqy himself. this leads to three different corpses being found, at least seven motives to kill, four murderers that miraculously showed up and and are caricatures of evil, two lovers that claim yqy was with them specifically the night of the murder, eight different 'eyewitnesses', and all the peak Lord unanimously arguing for yqy's innocence even though none of the evidence pointed to him (or anywhere really) anyway.

yqy isn't sure if he should feel concerned all his martial siblings felt the need to assert his innocence, or touched that they believed so ardently in said innocence.

mu qingfang is just gleefully doing autopsies in the background by the way

[lurkinginnernarrator]

Healer!Binghe au where he's a prodigy miracle-working healer who found his specialty after his rotation into the Qian Cao dual cultivation wards.

He's an amazing healer that has appointments booked out for months if not years, and public opinion of his services is sky high. A kind, attentive young man who's knowledgeable, with a healer's surety and gentleman's poise? What's not to love? And the perks of your incurable ailments never bothering you again after a session where it feels like you ascended to heaven yourself?

All this to say, Luo Binghe who gets to help people, find a place in the world, and perhaps comes into knowledge of his heritage a gentler way. Perhaps Mu Qingfang figuring it out and breaking the news, or Luo Binghe finding a half-demon half-human patient himself and discovering the signs of such a blood.

And then the fun part where you insert (heh) any other beloved svsss character into his loving care for any number of reason

SQQ: qi deviations, easily.

MQF hands him a date for an appointment and threatens to take away Shang Qinghua's stash of rare hallucinogenic herbs to make him take away QJP funding.

LQG? Deadly, deadly, sweaty sex pollen. Classic.

YQY: Easy. Complications from the whole Xuan Su business. Mu Qingfang decides to fight one big sword with another and transfers YQY's care to Cang Qiong's best.

SY, even though SQQ has already been covered, easy. System shenanigans, maybe he's trying to avoid the protagonist's sight so as not to die as a pathetic male side character! The protagonist halo keeps LBH from ever needing a healer who wasn't a beautiful nurse wife anyway, and maybe the protagonist would have some sort of scruple over killing a medic? So SY joins a program to study in one of Qian Cao's wards!

Please imagine Luo Binghe fighting his inner beast every day to not pounce on SY because he's the senior healer and it would be improper! More importantly, power imbalance! Luo Binghe would not incur the wrath of the internal Qian Cao ethics department. He's seen what they've done to Mu Qingfang.

[lurkinginnernarrator]

mu qingfang getting sent on a mission, all goes as normal, but the blunder of a disciple accidentally exposes mqf to a amnesia plant.

cue him coming back to Cang Qiong, not remembering how to fix himself. This poses an issue. It was the Qian Cao Peak Lord's job to fix such things. One would think that Cang Qiong would've had some sort of procedure for such things. Usually a head disicple knowledgeable enough to cure their Shizun.

Except it was too early in the reign of the Qing generation for the head disicple to be that skilled.

It was up to the other peak lords to cure Mu Qingfang, and restore his memories. The Peak Lord Hall is filled with commotion, each peak Lord drawing on the their specialties alone for ideas for a cure. The Zui Xian peak Lord declaring that since alcohol could take memories (as in blackout drunk) surely a brew could be made to restore memories.

Liu Qingge, the hunter of Bai Zhan, was sure that he could find some sort of animal.

So on with all the Peak Lords. With the exception of two. First and Second.

Yue Qingyuan was trained to be the leader of Cang Qiong, and in the ways of managing and exerting order over chaos. In some ways, he had to redirect the flood, instead of standing against. He allowed the other Peak Lords to run amok, chasing after cures.

It was the most involved they'd been since their earliest days of ascension.

And privately, he spoke to the one man who would know what to do.

"Qingqiu-shidi, I leave the matter of Mu Qingfang's memory to your care."

A curt nod, and it was done.

At the next peak Lord meeting, Mu Qingfang sat with an array of animal carcasses, vague contraptions, arrangements of sutras, questionable drinks, and strange substances.

The clamor of the different peak lords demanding that their martial brother try their cures was loud.

"This one has already recovered his memory."

Uproar sounded, for the quest for memory restoration had become quite a contest between the different peaks.

"Who?!"

Shen Qingqiu sat smugly at Yue Qingyuan's side, idly playing at pointing out details of interest on the newest reports.

"This one delegated the matter to Qingqiu-shidi."

"It was nothing Zhangmen-shixiong, simply this one doing his duty."

Internally, Yue Qingyuan was amused.

[lurkinginnernarrator]

amnesia au:

yue qingyuan who doesn't remember the lingxi caves or anything beforehand. he wakes up to pain, unfamiliar faces that call themselves his martial family. they are kind to him, and certain faces twist in pity (and what he eventually recognizes as guilt) when they look at him.

he dreams.

all unfamiliar scenes, city streets from the perspective of the dirt and those among it, when all he had seen is the sprawling mass from above, soaring high among the whiteness of clouds.

he dreams of caves, of dampness and inhuman agony, of hearing the echoes of his own tortures bouncing back to him.

yue qingyuan does not know weakness. he experiences the shadow of it in his slumber, but it is as unfamiliar as the faces that his mind brings to the fore.

he understands what happened to him. his Shizun had sat him down and explained the folly that led him to the man he was today. the man he has come to respect had apologized for his own part in allowing his disciple to come to such a great price of folly out of desperation.

yue qingyuan knows that there was someone he wanted here at the sect with him, and logically he understood the price previous Yue Qingyuan was willing to pay. but that does not mean he feels any connection to it now.

out of respect for the sacrifices of his previous self, he does look. all he finds is ashes, and he lights incense for the lost and fallen.

he returns to the sect, and his life is what it always has been. he is Yue Qingyuan, heir to the sect leader, Head Disciple of Qiong Ding, the Xuan Su Sword, and his duty is to lead.

yet still, he dreams. in vivid colors, of a life alien to himself.

his deepest mind subjects him to a young face with large dark eyes, sparkling with an inner fire, caught to light like flint struck. a distant voice and a near warmth that called him "gege."

it is a type of love, a fierceness deep within that Yue Qingyuan understands to be the truth of his being. a family member. one that is now lost to him. he grieves memory, he grieves life.

he does not feel as if he has lost a piece of himself, like he did when Lao-shimei was lost, but he knows he should. And that is a special grief unto itself. that he could not understand the loss in the way it deserves.

and then, one day, a head disciple is chosen for Qing Jing. He's excited, this person is meant to be his second, and Yue Qingyuan looks forward to meeting them, to leading the sect together. of having someone who understands the weight of leadership alongside him. he harbors a secret desire that maybe they could even commiserate over such burdens.

Shen Qingqiu is not exactly what he expected from a Qing Jing head disciple, but Yue Qingyuan finds himself liking the man nonetheless. he's strong, possessive of the sect in the same way Yue Qingyuan was more privately, and his wickedly sharp intellect was a pleasure to watch. his issues with liu-shidi were understandable considering their opposing natures, but Yue Qingyuan saw how they would still work together for the strength of the sect.

Already he imagined late nights and sharp remarks made behind closed doors between peers, a confidence shared only by leaders of the foremost sect.

this all was shattered like cheap porcelain when he was shoved into a back garden, and Shen Qingqiu hissed a "what is wrong with you?! is this you merely shaking the abhorrent mud off your fine boots or do you truly not remember?!"

What?

[lurkinginnernarrator]

It had been a long shift for Shang Qinghua. A huge accident had happened on a main thoroughfare, and all the injured had been taken to the ER he worked at. And, wonderfully, the woman who usually handled such things with a grace no one else could manage, was away on maternity leave.

The team still reeling from the insane rush, prepared to endure the rest of their shifts.

"Nurse Shang, I have it handled here, you could tend to the quiet one that came in a little bit ago?" His coworker was looking at him with concern as she said this, her suggestion implicit with mercy. Damn, he must look terrible then.

"Of course, Nurse Hao." He gave her a weak smile, and went to the patient she had pointed out. Past and around him was the quiet focus of his fellow nurses, and the fear and misery of the patients.

In the midst of this was a placid looking young man, relaxed and patient in his chair. Shang Qinghua looked down at his clipboard. 'Shen Yuan,' twenty, chronic condition, his visit more of a precaution than anything.

Straightforward, thank anything good.

"Excuse me," Shang Qinghua said, his nurse voice manufactured to exude calmness, comfort and a sense that Shang Qinghua could help. "Shen Yuan?"

Running a hand through messy, thick black hair, and pushing his glasses back up on his nose, the young man nodded. "That's me," He then proceeded to rattle off his condition, the reason he was visiting, his concerns. An experienced one, then. Chronic illnesses tended to do that to people, inoculate them against the rush of adrenaline that a hospital visit usually brought.

Enough to the point that Shen Yuan anticipated all the questions, and knew where to walk to the necessary tests.

Since Shang Qinghua didn't have anymore official dialogue he needed, they were left in silence.

"So..." Shang Qinghua blurted, "You come here often?"

Maybe he should resign. What type of question was that?! Stupid double-shift no sleep and 600mgs of caffeine brain! If his instructor could see him now the man would probably revoke his degree immediately. Shang Qinghua felt like laughing hysterically and also bursting into tears.

How does he recover from this?!

The thin shoulders of the poor man trembled. Fuck! Was he going to cry?! Shang Qinghua barely remembered the section on how to soothe patients!

A laugh sounded through the shining white hallways.

"Not here, usually." Shen Yuan chuckled. "The private hospital I usually use is under construction for a new wing."

"I've never had a nurse ask me that before." He mused, looking at Shang Qinghua like he was a particularly interesting guinea pig, fat and round and squeaking.

"I'm very creative?" Shang Qinghua offered.

He's not crying! A win! No crying patient. Good job Nurse Shang! With the danger passed, Shang Qinghua felt like crying. Where was his shock blanket?

"A, a private hospital? You're kidding right? What I would give to land a job in some place like that..." Shang Qinghua exclaimed, wistfully imagining what a day evaluating some rich eighty-year olds stomach ache was caused by would look like. If he had to deal with one more kid that ate billiard chalk because the parents thought they were safe like crayons...

"I imagine the way to get hired is to send in an application." Drawled the frail looking man, the hospital lights not lending his pale skin any favors.

"Ah, haha, yeah, you're probably right..." Shang Qinghua laughed sheepishly.

"You said you're creative? What do you do when not nursing?" Shen Yuan inquired, throwing Shang Qinghua a bone to help continue the conversation.

"I write!"

"What do you write?"

"Oh... Just some short stories online... It's kinda embarrassing actually." Shang Qinghua said timorously.

Short, as if! More than a million words! More than two hundred women written to appeal to the masses! And to the rich with kinks! Shang Qinghua was actually quite accomplished! No normal author could stand to use the words 'bounce' and 'bosom' as often as he! He was fearless! Adventuring into kinks like humanity exploring the depths of the sea!

But he could'nt start marketing his down spiralling stallion novel to a random patient. The nurse practitioner would have a talk with him for sure, if she found out.

"Oh, so fiction? Not poetry or something?" Shen Yuan asked politely.

"Ah, I've never really had the knack for poetry."

"I've never really been gifted at creative forms of writing either."

"Oh but you do write?" Shang Qinghua asked, his voice going embarrassingly high at the end. God, he needed sleep.

"Mostly analyses, criticisms and the like. I work as a book critic occasionally." Shen Yuan answered affably.

He raised his phone, pointing at it. "I'm finishing a critical analysis of an ongoing novel currently." He sighed. "It's not a very good novel."

He tapped the 'post button' on his screen, Shang Qinghua able to make out the frankly absurd blocks of organized text.

The phone in his pocket made the characteristic 'ding' associated with the website he used to host PIDW.

Haha, that's just a coincidence, right?

Shen Yuan's eyes narrowed. Shang Qinghua timidly looked down to the notification on his phone.

Peerless Cucumber had replied to the latest chapter.

[lurkinginnernarrator]

au I was synthesizing: mocumplane au shang qinghua as a prince, and shen yuan as a noble's son who was bored and decided to become a retainer for sqh, eventually becoming sqh's personal knight because of nepotism, politics, and promotions sy finding out that his charge, the prince, is flirting with a rival kingdom's lord (mbj) and mbj tries to kidnap sqh, and a high speed chase ensues, with shen yuan chasing after mbj, engaging in a fight on horseback, and swinging sqh up into his saddle and riding off into the distance mbj looking at both of them riding away: 'both. both is good.'

cue some lighthearted espionage and politics, shenanigans and hijinks

[lurkinginnernarrator]

au where instead of getting sealed into the lingxi caves for a year, yqy gets punted down into the endless abyss by his scum shizun.

maybe then him and demonic cultivator sj who's hunting for rare thingies meet again over the crackling shifting stones of the endless abyss

[lurkinginnernarrator]

sj!sqq stumbling into the peak Lord meeting beaten to hell. as he unsteadily makes his way to yqy, he murmurs one 'gege' before blacking out. send tweet