What if Shen Yuan was supposed to be the head disciple instead of Shen Jiu?
Imagine with me: Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan join the sect together. Both of them had a late start to cultivation, but they manage to claw their way to the top. Shen Yuan is always just a bit better than Shen Jiu, and while Shen Jiu is surrounded by unsavoury rumours and unsettling whispers, Shen Yuan is beloved by all.
The two of them are attached at the hip. Always. Shen Jiu is jealous of his brother, which is very obvious. Shen Yuan thinks it's cute and absolutely refuses to let that get between them. Shen Jiu is secretly glad about that, absolutely loves that despite everything Shen Yuan will always chose him above anything else.
And then, just a week before the ascension ceremony, Shen Yuan doesn't return from his night hunt. Everybody else managed to, but not Shen Yuan. Nobody knows where he is.
Shen Yuan is declared dead.
The ascension ceremony still happens. A grieving, angry Shen Jiu is promoted to peak lord despite his protests. The other peak lords hate that they ended up with Shen Jiu instead of Shen Yuan. Shen Jiu despises that they're so willing to declare his brother dead.
He wanted to be as good as Yuan-ge, yes, but he never wanted to take his place. Especially not like this!
Shen Jiu keeps looking for traces of his brother. He doesn't tell anyone. He doesn't show his anger and fear and grief to anyone either. There's rumours that Shen Jiu killed his twin to take his place. Shen Jiu's reaction to that, angry and violent in a way he hasn't been since just after they joined the sect, does nothing to quell those rumours.
Things progress as they did in PIDW. Shen Jiu becomes colder, angrier, lashes out more and more. Luo Binghe joins. Shen Jiu doesn't care for him, not in the least. The abyss happens.
And somewhere during those five years, Luo Binghe finds a man who looks identical to his angry, abusive Shizun. The man smiles warmly in a way Shizun never did and seems excited when Luo Binghe tells him he looks like a human. "That must be A-Jiu! He's doing well, then? How about his health? Is he eating properly? Is he happy? Oh, you have to tell me everything about him! I haven't seen my little brother in years…"
And it turns out that this man, Shen Yuan, was supposed to become peak lord instead of Shen Qingqiu. Right until he fell into the endless abyss shortly before the ceremony. He shows Luo Binghe how to survive, and at some point they fall in love. Together, they finally manage to leave the abyss.
Luo Binghe never tells him that he hates his Shizun, just that he learned under Shen Qingqiu. He doesn't burn down the world or even the sect that abandoned him. Instead, he comes back in front of everyone.
He tells them that, actually, he wasn't dead. He fell into the abyss that day, yes, but he survived. And he found someone else who survived there, namely his new husband.
He brings out Shen Yuan, and he revels in the pain and panic and absolute despair on Shen Qingqiu's face.
He doesn't need to ruin the man's reputation. Everyone is right back to comparing him with his brother and finding him lacking anyways. He doesn't need to destroy everything he loves, either. The only thing Shen Qingqiu truly loved more than himself is already Luo Binghe's. And Shen Qingqiu will always be scared of his kind, wonderful brother finding out how he pushed his own disciple, Shen Yuan's husband, into the abyss with his own hands. Being able to hang that over Shen Qingqiu's head is torment enough.
Unbeknownst to the two of them, Shen Yuan can tell. He saw the look of panic on his didi's face, noticed how Lou Binghe always refused to mention his relationship with his Shizun and connected the dots.
But as always when Shen Jiu did something wrong, Shen Yuan decided that, well, that's his brother. And in the end, that will always be more important than whatever crime he's committed.
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