Shen Yuan - Tumblr Posts

Hey, you know how in svsss Luo Binghe starts making wild assumptions once Shen Yuen starts treating him nicely? Does anyone else wonder if he was also making assumptions about the original Shen Jiu's relationship with Ning Yingying? Like what if he was just doting on her because she was one of the only girls there and Binghe assumed he was a pervy creep?

I mean the guy was a child-abusing prick, no doubt about that. But part of me hopes he wasn't as creepy as he seemed cause I think his character is interesting and I want to like him!

Hey, I just read the fourth book and it turns out I was spot on!!!

He really took one look at Ning Yingying and went all momma bear mode! If only he could've gotten over his jealousy and extended that energy to Luo Binghe!!!

Hey, you know how in svsss Luo Binghe starts making wild assumptions once Shen Yuen starts treating him nicely? Does anyone else wonder if he was also making assumptions about the original Shen Jiu's relationship with Ning Yingying? Like what if he was just doting on her because she was one of the only girls there and Binghe assumed he was a pervy creep?

I mean the guy was a child-abusing prick, no doubt about that. But part of me hopes he wasn't as creepy as he seemed cause I think his character is interesting and I want to like him!

Notecards Solve Everything (Bingqiu)

When the door swung open to reveal Luo Binghe, Shen Qingqiu froze. Not out of fear, mind you, but in confusion, because Luo Binghe stood there with a rumpled pile of papers. Several of them fall to the ground as he fumbled for one that was tucked in the middle.

"Um... Shizun...uh...I wanted to-" He continued to cut himself off as he sputtered nervously. A squeak escaped him as all the papers fluttered away from him.

Shen Qingqiu blinked as he stared at the mess of a protagonist. His heart warmed as the white-lotus slipped through the black-lotus shell. As he watched Binghe desperately try to compose himself, an extremely unflattering snort escaped him.

Luo Binghe paused, his eye wide as he watched his Shizun bend over in laughter. "Shizun...?"

Shen Qingqiu wheezed as he wiped away a stray tear. "Did you seriously write notes?" Binghe slowly shuffled the papers back into a pile, still not breaking his gaze. The tips of his ear burned a bit. "Here, let this master read them instead." As he makes a grabbing motion with his hand, Binghe bounds over and shoves the papers into his hand.

Part of Shen Qingqiu still thought that he should make a run for it, but curiosity kept him glued to his spot. He tried not to stare as the protagonist kneeled on the ground before him.

His heart broke as he read the notes.

In essence, all of the notes were endless rehashings of the question "Why?" and desperate pleas for forgiveness. The more that Shen Qingqiu turned the pages, the more Luo Binghe shrunk in on himself. Well, that was one way to guilt someone. Though none of it had to do with vengeance. Just a fear driven by insecurity. Shen Qingqiu thought that maybe his disciple wasn't gone just yet.

"Binghe," Shen Qingqiu started. Binghe jolted to attention, then his eyes watered as Shen Qingqiu's hand began to pet his head. Binghe whimpered and he nuzzled deeper in his hand. "Binghe, this master is sorry. He is foolish for hurting this disciple."

"Shizun," Binghe whined.

"Hush Binghe. Come here." Shen Qingqiu opened his arms and soon found them full of a teary eyed protagonist. He closed his arms around him, running a hand through the black curls. "It's okay. It's okay. I'm here."

To say that Liu Qingge startled Shen Qingqiu was an understatement. The sight of his shidi wobbling into his house, drenched in blood, nearly caused Shen Qingqiu to deviate right then and there. As Liu Qingge nearly tripped over the rugs, Shen Qingqiu tossed down his quill and hurried to catch him before he hit the ground. The younger landed in his arms making a sound that boarded between a huff and a groan.

"Liu-Shidi, what happened?" Shen Qingqiu gently lowered him down so that he could sit, leaning against the wall.

"There were more enemies than planned," Liu Qingge grumbled.

"An ambush?"

"Maybe."

Shen Qingqiu started to peel off the tattered robes off him and tossed them into a bloody pile. "Hold on, let me get some water." Getting a grunt in response, he left for the kitchen and poured water from a jar in a bowl. Tossing some rags over his arm, he returned back to his martial brother.

He laid the stuff out in front of him and dipped a rag into the water. Carefully avoiding the open wounds, he cleaned the area surrounding them.

"What were you fighting?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Well I need to know if there's a chance of there being poison."

"There's not. Don't worry."

Shen Qingqiu frowned at him before deciding it'd be useless to push more. Once he was free from blood splatter, Shen Qingqiu pressed his hands against the wounds, pushing qi into them to speed up the healing.

"This shidi's burdened you again."

Shen Qingqiu blinked. What?

"This shidi's supposed to be stronger than this. Yet shixiong is always to care for me."

Was it not you that always had to save this shixiong's ass though?

"This shixiong's happy to help though."

"You shouldn't have too."

Liu Qingge balled his hands into tight fists, his brow furrowing. A sigh escaped Shen Qingqiu and he cupped the fists in his hand. Rubbing his thumps along the knuckles, he gave his shidi a small smile.

"You don't have to be strong all the time." Shen Qingqiu pressed a kiss to his fists. "And being injured doesn't make you weak."

Liu Qingge still didn't meet his gaze so Shen Qingqiu pulled him up and over to the bed. He sat and arranged his partner so that his head was resting in his lap.

"Plus this shixiong loves to pamper his shidi." This got Liu Qingge's ear to burn a deep red. With a grunt, the younger buried his face into his robes as Shen Qingqiu pet his hair.

"...Then...I suppose it's fine..."

He could tell that his shidi wasn't quite ready to accept the concern but it was good enough for now.

Shen Yuan knew his roommate always had trouble sleeping. The dorm that he and Shen Jiu shared was small. When there was only a meter between the beds, it was difficult to ignore. The restless shifting of sheets has become as common as the sounds of crickets chirping at night.

Tonight was no different. Once again Shen Jiu was floundering around in his bed, unable to fight of whatever nightmare plagued him. Shen Yuan glanced up from his phone, observing the restless male.

Somehow even in distress, Shen Jiu retained his regal appearance. Long, slender fingers gripped the sheets so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His cheeks shone has beads of sweats trickled down them.

What was new, though, was the glistening tears clinging to his lashes as if they were protesting against falling. Shen Yuan blinked dumbly before shutting his screen off.

"Shen Jiu?" he tried softly. The man didn't stir, only burying his face further into the pillow. "A-jiu..." Still nothing. Shen Yuan sighed and slipped out of his bed. As he approached, Shen Jiu's hand reached out and clutched blindly at his shirt. He smiled at the sight, placing a hand on his cheek and wiped a stray tear.

Shen Jiu's eyes flung open in shock and he flinched back a bit, shaking a couple tears free. Shen Yuan quickly hands up in an attempt to calm him. "Hey... It's just me..." Shen Jiu stared, eyes staring through him. "A-Jiu?" The glaze over his eyes slowly faded as he met Shen Yuan gaze.

"Ah- A-Yuan..." Shen Jiu heaves a shaky breath as he awkwardly sits up. "Did I wake you?"

"No. I wasn't asleep in the first place," Shen Yuan shook his head. "How are you feeling? Looked like a rough nightmare." Shen Jiu frowned and shrugged, resting against the wall.

"I'm fine."

Shen Yuan scoffed causing to Shen Jiu to give him a judgmental look. "'Fine' my ass." He plopped himself next to him and curled an arm around his shoulder, pressing his head into the crook of his neck. Shen Jiu froze for moment before melting into the embrace, twisting his arms around Shen Yuan's waist. With his other arm, Shen Yuan pulled out his phone and decided to play some random cat videos. Because what's a better way to cheer up your sad boyfriend than cats?

Shen Jiu huffs as a ginger cat tries to jump from a fridge to a table but ends up backflipping off several other surfaces. Shen Jiu's lips tip up in amusement. Shen Yuan grins at the smile and nuzzles his nose into his hair.

Shen Jiu hummed, then tilted his head up to capture Shen Yuan in a kiss. It was like a sharp bite as Shen Yuan squeaked and dropped the phone to wrap his other arm around his neck. Shen Jiu pushed further into the kiss, squeezing tighter as if he would disappear if he let go.

Shen Jiu finally broke the kiss to breath for air, Shen Yuan took the chance to speak. "Now how are you feeling?" Shen Jiu pouted at not being interrupted.

"...Better, I suppose." He looked away, face flushed, when Shen Yuan smiled brightly.

"Good. Now let's go to bed," Shen Yuan stated before tossing his phone the side and dragging both of them under the sheets.

"Wait- A-Yuan!" Shen Jiu protested, trying to sit back up but was held down by the arm draped over his neck.

"Nope! You need to sleep!" Shen Yuan gleefully argued and shifted Shen Jiu so that he was curled up against his chest. He finished argument by giving him one last kiss before propping his chin above his head. Shen Jiu grumbled in distaste before resigning himself to his fate and closing his eyes.

I'm watching Dr. house now and there's a scene where the patient is having a fucking hemorrhage and when the doctors notice he just says "It wasn't on purpose, sorry..." before passing out and I just wanted to say how this Shen Yuan behavior

As recompense for no season 2, I will slowly begin inserting scum villain characters into other various media

transmigrator! luo binghe and system! shen yuan au:

shen yuan refuses to take binghe’s b-points away as punishment—instead, he turns off his voice box until binghe apologises, which happens the moment the “audio off” toggle appears.

binghe calls shen yuan ‘a-yuan’ when he’s being cheeky and ‘yuan-ge’ when he wants more b-points to enable his shopaholic tendencies. shen yuan tried to shut down the system shopping function once but binghe just refused to do anything in the story until he got it back up.

(“i’m on strike,” he said, and listened as his adorable companion ranted for hours at him about the importance of maintaining the narrative and avoiding landmines. it all concluded with shen yuan believing he’s won by teaching his host about responsibility and luo binghe agreeing while browsing the new additions to the store)

whenever they end up in a sci-fi setting shen yuan has to drag binghe away from the android shops/factories. “i don’t need a body. it wouldn’t work. binghe, be good, you have a multiuniverse to save.”

they don’t talk about the tentacle monster. shen yuan has wiped it from the mission logs. luo binghe gets a -5 b-points notification whenever he utters the word ‘slime’ regardless of context.

there’s more i’ve thought up for this but i’m considering actually writing it so i’ll stop here for now. i just wanted all of you to consider the possibility. ponder with me. meditate on it, for those of such inclinations.

~ secret whispers

SQQ randomly speaking English but also speaking it when he's upset and Binghe either picks up a little or learns from SQH but one time when SQQ is upset Binghe trails after him like a lost puppy and wraps his arms around his waist and murmurs, "It's okay, I love you."

Maybe it's something SQQ whispers to him when he thinks he's asleep. His English is shaky and awkward, but the way SQQ's brows unfurrow and his mouth gapes, his hardened eyes turning into something soft and tender and disbelieving makes Binghe nervous in a way he hasn't been in a while. "Say that again," he demands.

"I looooove you," Binghe says. SQQ turns around in his arms and locks his fingers together behind Binghe's neck, his eyes sparkling.

"Again!"

"I love you!"

SQQ makes a strangled little noise, his eyes fluttering shut as his cheeks flush with delight. "Silly little protagonist," he mutters, indignation in his tone, directly contrasting the pleased look on his face. "Do you even know what you're saying?"

"Shizuuun, this disciple isn't smart enough to understand," Binghe whines. Shen Qingqiu nips at his bottom lip in reproach.

"Binghe shouldn't use words he doesn't understand, then!" He scolds, finally switching back to Chinese.

"But Shizun tells them to his Binghe every night," Binghe pouts. Shen Qingqiu flushes, sputtering.

He huffs, "What am I going to do with you," before pressing a shy kiss to his husband's lips. "I love you too, silly thing."

Binghe melts. He knew, of course, that his husband loved him, but to whisper it to him every night in his hometown's language? "Again!" He insists, mirroring SQQ'S actions from earlier.

SQQ purses his lips into a fierce, yet horribly endearing glare. "Shameless!" Yet he still indulges his sticky disciple.

Bonus: now Binghe occasionally asks for English translations from SQH. SQH glimpses one of the scrolls Binghe handed him and immediately throws it at his protagonist son. "I am NOT translating your dirty talk!!!"

Headcanon that Shen Yuan was hotter than Shen Qingqiu, actually.

Like yeah SQQ being a cultivator gave him a boost to enough attributes + being in a stallion novel where everyone is either unrealistic hot or dog's butt ugly got the Shen Qingqiu body extra points, and he wasn't bad looking to begin with. Plus not being ill is vastly more important to the new Shen Qingqiu than those extra hotness points (Without a Cure notwithstanding). But part of the reason why he's kind of like, meh, at least I'm not hideous or anything, is because Shen Yuan's original body was a knock out.

I also like him as chronically ill, and, as many people know, beauty standards and sustained suffering are not as incompatible as they should be. Shen Yuan was conventionally attractive in part because conventional beauty standards seem to want everyone slowly dying all the time. But even setting that aside, the man had flawless bone structure, an appealing figure, captivating eyes, and the kind of voice that stopped people in their tracks.

All of which was a contributing factor to his antisocial lifestyle, actually. Despite the fact that Shen Yuan does enjoy company and requires a certain baseline of social enrichment for his enclosure, his internalized homophobia and closeting did not play well with overtures from interested parties (regardless of gender). The only way to minimize the odds of him being asked out on dates was to essentially become a shut-in, especially since even Shen Yuan can only make so many excuses before he himself starts to notice that he's going to a lot of effort to avoid specifically that avenue of socialization. Far better to just remove himself from any risk of it, and then vocally lament that oh no he's just too much of a nerd to get anywhere with women!

Anyway this largely doesn't matter much outside of sheer comedy potential for any situation where SY gets his old body/life back. Like imagine a reveal scenario where the System is going to transport them back to their old lives.

Shang Qinghua: well bro I guess this is gonna be the ultimate test of love, right?

Shen Yuan: what do you mean?

Shang Qinghua: our husbands are gonna see what we looked like back before we were glorious cultivators! they're going to have to track us down in our mundane, kinda shitty pre-transmigration lives! it's gonna be at least a little embarrassing, right?

Shen Yuan: *gets his old body back*

Shang Qinghua, normal human with average looks: ...

Shen Yuan, exemplary 11/10: ?

Shang Qinghua: what. the fuck?? bro what the fuck why are you hot???

Shen Yuan: don't make it weird

Shang Qinghua: make it weird??? why were you sitting at home reading my shitty novel when you could have been out there building your own harem???

Shen Yuan: stop exaggerating

Shang Qinghua: oh my god you've always been like this. this is it, isn't it? it wasn't even brain damage from the transmigration or something--

Shen Yuan: hey

Shang Qinghua: --you've just always been completely unaware, haven't you? every time I wrote a beautiful woman who didn't know her own appeal you'd be jumping down my throat--

Shen Yuan: because that's a stupid trope--!

Shang Qinghua: --JUMPING DOWN MY THROAT EXACTLY LIKE THAT but this whole time THIS WHOLE TIME it wasn't even a glow-up issue, you've just been that, personified, yourself--

Shen Yuan: look I know I'm not ugly but I'm not I'm hardly that good-looking

Shang Qinghua: YOU ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO CRITICIZE THAT TROPE AGAIN! oh my god. how many broken hearts did you leave behind when you died?!

Shen Yuan: none, I wasn't even seeing anyone--

Shang Qinghua: yeah full offense but I am nottt taking your word for that. I bet you had a harem you didn't know about in this lifetime too. I bet you had a fan club, like an anime prince

Shen Yuan: *mumbling*

Shang Qinghua: what was that?

Shen Yuan: I said... only in high school...

Shang Qinghua: oh my god

Shen Yuan: it wasn't a big deal!

Shang Qinghua: *frantically trying to see if he can find any trace of it on the internet now*

Ok, but Shen Jiu being Shen Yuan's father is so funny in a very tragic way. Shen Jiu is a ball of traumas and all types of issues and i truly believe there's not a single one that man doesn't have, so, you give him a baby!Shen Yuan, a little ball of life that depends on him for survival, cannot walk away from him and is culturally wired to pretty much love him and if not, to at the least respect him above all else, you cannot tell me that this man would be normal about him. Also, imagine Shen Jiu, who'd be the type of parent to project traumas the way only a mother could, having a child that looks like him but with a "sweeter" personality (which, by the way, is bullshit, they just have never seen that boy rip into a book he disliked but wouldn't stop reading) that has the effect on men Shen Yuan has, he'd lock that boy up in a tower to "cultivate" and consequently create a rumor about the Qing Jing's beauty who was so bewitching their peak lord father locked them in a tower because that's just his luck. Loving Shen Yuan wouldn't fix him, but it'd create a whole new set of issues that'd cancel out the other ones

“These are hands?! Then why do I still have talons? You have short blunt talons, don’t you?” He made a lunge for Shen Qingqiu’s hand, only for it to hide itself in one voluminous sleeve. The crane’s excited twittering and general clinginess would have been easier to bear, Shen Qingqiu thought, if he was still a bird. Unfortunately, Shen Yuan had managed to at least partly cultivate a human form. Which was a problem in an of itself.

More Crane Husband AU fluff

out of all the possible configurations of binghe and shen qingqiu i think my favorite has to be bing(ge)yuan bc yes yes something about bingge being denied the kind shizun that bingmei has and literally crossing universes to find his own is all pretty and stuff

...BUT mostly becuase there's no fucking way mr peerless cucumber himself shen yuan doesn't see what appears to be luo binghe, assumes he's a cosplayer (logical??) and absolutely RIP this stranger to SHREDS over the "inaccuaracies" of his "costume" and leave bingge in a mix of "how DARE you" and "his sickly demeanor and bitchy attitude have captivated me"

and honestly it's the funniest thing in the world to me

you know what sometimes you see a tweet and you know what you gotta do and now i'm thinking about the state of the internet post-death of airplane bro and his biggest (fan) hater

screenshot & individual images THAT I MADE under the cut (if u even care,,,,,)

(also you can retweet my masterpiece here if you dare)

Modern AU where Shen Yuan accidentally sugar-daddies everyone.

So for the purposes of this, Shen Yuan's family is basically $10 Bananas levels of cluelessly rich. Shen Yuan has almost never had to look at the prices of anything he wants. He and his siblings all get an allowance from the family's main account, which increases when they reach adulthood, and in the interest of fairness his parents made it all the same size. So Shen Yuan gets the same amount of money for his daily living expenses as his older brothers with their penthouse apartments and vacation homes and private jets, at least from the family account (since he doesn't work, he doesn't actually make as much as them in total because they earn more on top of their allowances).

And the thing is, Shen Yuan genuinely just lives a lot more humbly. He likes people but what would he do with a vacation house? Anything really nice would probably require him to fly to get out there, and he gets sick as hell on planes. Living in the central city is also not great for him, because the air pollution is so bad. Having a whole house to himself would also be ridiculous. So he has a reasonable apartment, in a reasonable area, and he splurges every so often on purchases that make him happy and take-out food that he likes, and of course he pays a cleaning service to come in twice a week. Most people assume he's comfortably middle class and has some tech job he does from home, but he's been getting a lot more than he's been spending in his monthly allowances for years now, and the figures are big.

Enter into this environment author Airplane and his trash novels. Novels, multiple, because in this AU there's no PIDW, and instead after some alternate PIDW prototype got popular in the harem genre, Airplane decided to churn out a series of copy-paste shorter stories rather than recycling the same subplots in one massively long epic.

Shen Yuan of course discovers Airplane's writing and becomes as obsessed with it as ever, except this time he notices that if there are delays between new stories, they seem to clear up faster whenever he throws some cash at the problem. And also that the drops in Airplane's writing quality coincide with times when Shen Yuan was having health issues and not keeping up with his VIP purchases. So, he works out that Airplane's probably doing the writing for the money, and that when Peerless Cucumber isn't paying the most for it, Airplane starts listening to the other buffoons in the comment section more to try and entice them to pay his bills instead.

Peerless Cucumber leaves a comment on one of Airplane's latest stories that kicks off the two of them actually chatting, and Shen Yuan eventually gets to the point of offering to fund all Airplane's writing, in exchange for Airplane not doing his crap sellout stuff to appeal to other readers anymore. Airplane thinks he's joking or maybe mocking him. Shen Yuan asks how much it would cost. Airplane fires off a ridiculous number. Shen Yuan doesn't even blink and wires him the first payment. Then he gets annoyed because Airplane leaves him on read for a while, but that's because Airplane is staring at his account balance in shock.

Of course, it's Airplane who starts referring to Peerless Cucumber as his sugar daddy. Shen Yuan is just like "based on your sex scenes I don't think anyone would pay you for that" and Airplane's all "but you WOULD pay for my sex scenes ^_~" and Shen Yuan's like "technically I am actually paying you not to write that shit" and so on. Usual banter. The quality of Airplane's writing improves dramatically, a lot of his readership drops off but he does get new readers and gradually builds up an even bigger fanbase than before, and so on, it all goes pretty well. He eventually writes a few things that take off to the point of getting physical publications and international translations. Technically Airplane no longer needs Shen Yuan to pay all of his bills by that point but he's not going to tell Shen Yuan that! The contract's still good as long as he keeps writing!

Then one of Airplane's online acquaintances runs into some financial trouble and asks for help.

Liu Mingyan used to beta read for Airplane back when he wrote fanfiction (she was like thirteen, Airplane was unaware because internet and hey free beta), and it seems her family has hit a rough patch. She wants tips on how to go pro, but Airplane explains that it was extremely difficult and he mostly lucked out by finding a single wealthy backer. Mingyan wonders if the same guy would be interested in her writing, Airplane sadly thinks not because Mingyan exclusively writes kinky danmei erotica and Peerless Cucumber seems pretty firmly in the closet still and also generally prefers plotty and world-building heavy stuff.

But like, Airplane has definitely gotten a vibe off of Cucumber-bro, and Mingyan's gorgeous older brother does video streams of himself doing cool martial arts and swordsmanship stuff. So he asks her permission and when she gives it, he recommends Liu Qingge's videos to Shen Yuan, being sure to mention that the guy in question can't really afford to keep up with his hobbies and oh what a shame it would be if he had to stop making art like that.

Haha, Airplane, you're not subtle.

Even so, Shen Yuan watches the videos and immediately agrees that Liu Qingge is beauty in motion, and that it would be criminal to deprive the world of more videos of his sword. Swordsmanship! That is the, the art of, martial arts! Definitely. He clicks the donate button, reasoning out that he'll just send a donation about the size of his usual monthly payments to Airplane and call it his good deed for the day.

Liu Qingge is very confused by this new follower from nowhere who suddenly dumped a little over a month's rent into his account. One thing leads to another, with Mingyan and Airplane conspiring to try and get Shen Yuan as a permanent patron, and then Liu Qingge being let in on it. Except that Airplane keeps referring to Shen Yuan as his sugar daddy, and well... it's not like Liu Qingge doesn't ever get 'those' kinds of comments on his videos. At first he's embarrassed, then offended, then mortified that his own younger sister is apparently setting him up to make premium private videos for what he assumes is some old pervert who is going to want him to do untoward things.

However, their options are pretty bleak at the moment, and Liu Qingge worries that if he doesn't do this then Mingyan might. She even mentions something to the effect of having planned to offer herself, and only didn't because she wasn't this "sugar daddy" guy's type!

Teeth clenched, Liu Qingge asks Airplane stiltedly for advice on how to... appeal, to this wealthy benefactor.

In the end though it's not nearly as bad as Liu Qingge feared. He winds up doing more videos in costumes and cosplay, which ought to have been an untenable expense, but Peerless Cucumber always ends up covering the cost of whatever he invests in plus extra. Sometimes he sends Liu Qingge stuff with a request to wear it, but so far it's just been like, badass warrior-themed or historical costumes. Nothing overtly pervy. He does some LARPing, he makes enough to start doing horseback archery again, convinces some of his good-looking peers from various clubs to spar with him, and ultimately the most risque videos he ends up doing are the ones where he demonstrates how to put on certain kinds of gear. He still locks those ones behind paid subscribers only, mostly because he feels like he's doing something illicit now, even if he used to show more skin on his older videos any time he took his shirt off.

Peerless Cucumber doesn't leave creepy comments, either. In fact he seems genuinely nice and supportive, it's hard not to like him, and so even once his situation levels out Liu Qingge decides there's not really much need to stop making videos for him. (He maybe even gets a little giddy thrill over... well, sometimes he finds it all a bit... just when he thinks about Peerless Cucumber watching him demonstrate his physical prowess and finding that alone worth... ANYWAY--)

So that goes on for a while, before Yue Qi enters the scene.

Yue Qi is the childhood friend of one of Shen Yuan's older brothers (Shen bros!) and Shen Jiu owes him a big favor for something that he won't talk about. At least he won't talk to Shen Yuan about it. But Yue Qi is also not the type to ask for help, and Shen Jiu is very bad at offering it, so when Shen Jiu gets word that Yue Qi is having some difficulties making ends meet, he tells Shen Yuan to act as the middle man. Go offer Qi-ge money, he knows you're nice he'll just accept it, and then Shen Jiu will pay the actual bill.

Well it turns out that Yue Qi doesn't just accept it, of course he sees right through it, and gently but firmly tells Shen Yuan that he's not interested in burdening Shen Jiu further than he already has. Etc, etc, stoic stiff upper lips and no proper communication all around. Shen Yuan panics because it's not working and he's also genuinely worried about Yue Qi by now, so he tries to figure out how to make it compelling and basically blurts that, well, see, the thing is that sometimes he pays men to entertain him. You know. To like. Do things, for him. So. He could also pay Yue Qi? To do something for him?

Yue Qi gets the wrong idea entirely, and at first is like, oh, no, A'Yuan, you shouldn't be paying people for that! These things should just happen organically! But Shen Yuan is very adamant that he believes in compensating people for what they do for him, it's not like he can't afford to, and it gets awkward but Yue Qi is like well he does have health problems. It's perhaps difficult for him to meet people. So then he starts worrying about Shen Yuan and all these strange men he's apparently paying for "entertainment". Does his brother know about this?

No of course Shen Jiu doesn't know! He'd hate it, and Shen Yuan doesn't want to hear about how he's doing everything wrong with his life again!

Then Shen Yuan mentions that his prior house cleaning service up and quit on him (they didn't), and if Yue Qi would like to earn fair compensation he could just come over sometimes to help instead, and Shen Yuan would pay him just to tidy up and hang out for a few hours! Which Yue Qi thinks is a fantastic idea, actually, even if Shen Yuan is only doing this because of his brother, this will give Yue Qi a chance to keep an eye on him and his so-called entertainers. Even if he sort of... ends up also being one?

Shen Yuan keeps everything above board, though his apartment always seems perfectly clean and he overpays way too much (Shen Jiu is still footing this bill after all), and Yue Qi starts to think maybe he actually is being paid for intimacy. Of a sort that they're maybe still working up to? Shen Yuan usually has a very thin face after all. He's kind of got two minds about this prospect. On the one hand, he's got his situationship with Shen Jiu, so dating his brother would be absurd. But on the other hand, it's not actually dating, and he does like Shen Yuan, and maybe if they can be good company for each other then Yue Qi won't feel so depressed and Shen Yuan won't need to hire strange men so often.

Meanwhile it's come to Shen Yuan's attention, perhaps through an offhand comment he read online somewhere, that people who are struggling financially often also struggle to "treat themselves". Because even when they have enough money to be comfortable there's often the looming specter of deprivation, and etc, so he figures he should start buying some of his dependents more treats and things. Since they might not buy them for themselves? And also he's enjoying doing this but shhh no he isn't, it's a huge hassle, he's only doing it out of basic moral decency, etc.

So like, Airplane starts getting little things that he'd put on some public wish lists, clearly sent by Peerless Cucumber. And he tells Mingyan to make a list for Liu Qingge too, and sure enough, Liu Qingge (bewildered, slightly flustered) tries to figure out what he's supposed to do with an album from a band he likes and some high-end leather polish. Ultimately settles on playing the music and wearing his nicest leather in his next video. Yue Qi starts arriving at Shen Yuan's place to be plied with his favorite coffees and to have scented candles awkwardly foisted onto him (Shen Yuan does not know what Yue Qi likes in gifts) (he buys these presents himself they're not out of Shen Jiu's pocket).

So finally Shen Yuan's parents start to notice that he's been spending a lot more than usual, and start to worry that he's either been taken in by a scam artist or is secretly dating a gold digger or has developed a drug addiction or something. But asking things directly like normal people is basically illegal in the Shen family, so they decide to hire a private investigator.

Enter Luo Binghe, a young man of humble background who is struggling to make ends meet after the untimely death of his adoptive mother, and is using his P.I. job and his online cooking videos to help pay his way through school (scholarship student). Usually his cases are more like, cyberstalking someone to find out if they're cheating on their spouse, or helping someone planning a lawsuit accumulate evidence on their corrupt employer, or other things like that. When he gets the Shen Yuan case, the idea that the Shen family's son is paying for "company" is well within his list of probable answers.

Though this one is a little... peculiar?

Mostly because Binghe can't find evidence of Shen Yuan actually getting what he would, presumably, be paying for. At first Luo Binghe just goes through the online paper trails, using the info that the Shen parents give him to figure out that Shen Yuan is paying Airplane and Swordmaster Liu (*cough*) what seem to be exorbitant prices just for trashy fiction and cosplay videos. He assumes this is a cover, that someone's actually delivering drugs or going over for "private meetings" or at least actually sending dirty videos as well, but even when he pays for Liu Qingge's VIP access it's just tutorials and such. Neither of these guys are even on any of the sites that are more lenient towards hosting explicit content. Luo Binghe's aware that kinks aren't always obviously sexual, but people don't usually pay through the nose for the kind of content they can easily find for free all over the place, either.

He digs a little more but keeps coming up empty on evidence to clarify which of the many vices the Shen family's son is actually indulging in. Which is a problem because that's the information they're paying him to find out. Plus his curiosity kind of piques as he reads Shen Yuan's seemingly quite invested comments on Airplane's writing and Liu Qingge's videos, looking to see if there's any kind of clandestine code or pattern. But near as he can tell, whatever else Shen Yuan might be getting out of these arrangements, he does genuinely like the stories and videos too? Well. Sometimes. Sometimes he's actually scathingly vitriolic towards Airplane's writing.

Luo Binghe decides that surveilling Shen Yuan himself is probably the way to go. That gets more complicated in court cases, but since the Shen parents just wants to know what's going on and aren't planning on prosecuting their son for anything, it doesn't matter as much if Luo Binghe gets information in sneaky or underhanded ways.

So, Binghe uses the account he created to access Liu Qingge's videos to chat with Shen Yuan a few times, and then recommends his own cooking channel. Shen Yuan doesn't seem too interested in cooking, so Luo Binghe makes sure to include a video that has an image of himself in his recommendation, and then films a few new videos of himself cooking with his shirtsleeves rolled up to three quarters and a few more buttons than usual unbuttoned, adopting a more flirty persona than he typically does for his shows. He takes his cues from some of Liu Qingge's more popular videos for how to be enticing bait.

It takes a few videos, but eventually Shen Yuan comments. Luo Binghe latches onto the chance to start talking to him, playing up a persona of a vulnerable young man with little means who is trying hard to make it through school, etc, and sure enough Shen Yuan seems interested. Well, most predatory people like vulnerable targets, don't they?

However... Shen Yuan just sends him a chunk of money.

Luo Binghe is confused.

Isn't he supposed to ask for something or create some kind of expectation of repayment first? But, maybe this is his approach to handling new targets. Maybe he's just trying to lull Binghe into a false sense of complacency, before he starts indicating what he wants from all of this. Luo Binghe makes sure to move the money Shen Yuan sends him into a separate account, so that if the Shen parents get angry about it then he can return it as a gesture of good faith.

But Shen Yuan just keeps sending supportive comments and donations. Eventually he leaves a comment that eludes to how badly he'd like to taste Binghe's cooking, and Binghe is like finally, but when he implies that they could perhaps meet in person and Luo Binghe could thank him for his support by making him something, Shen Yuan backs off.

Things eventually progress to the point where Luo Binghe, who is a totally normal person treating this like a totally normal job still thank you very much, is basically camping out in the bushes in front of Shen Yuan's apartment building. At some point he conscripts the aid of his weird cousin (finding his birth family was how he got into this business initially), and then almost immediately regrets it because Shen Yuan helps get Zhuzhi Lang a job doing landscaping for his building.

Why would he want Zhuzhi Lang close but not Binghe? Binghe is much handsomer! He'd make an excellent target for seduction! >:(

Anyway eventually Yue Qi catches Luo Binghe lurking around like a creeper and is like, finally, I have caught one of these suspicious men, whilst Binghe is like oh so he does have a lover, well this guy sucks and is clearly not good enough for him, and they both try and chase one another off and Shen Yuan comes home to a heated passive-aggressive-politeness war being waged in front of his apartment. Eventually he realizes the misunderstanding and calls everyone together (zoom conference? in-person meet-up?) to clarify that he is not paying any of them for "special favors", that was just Airplane being deranged about his sense of humor, and then he has no idea what to do when the prevailing response seems to be disappointment.

the only way shen yuan as shen jiu's biological child works for me is if yue qingyuan is the other parent. the only thing shen jiu would like more than abortions is keeping yue qingyuan bound to him forever through child support payments.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but: in Scum Villain, Shen Qingqiu never actually kills another human being, does he? He kills the Skinner Demon, but that's the only fatality I can think of that he committed with his own two hands. Most of the rest of the fights he gets in for the rest of the series, he ends by getting away. Even the Old Palace Master gets done in by the QingSi, not by Shen Qingqiu.

which leads me to ponder: I've seen jokes and fics before about Shen Qingqiu falling prey to a Virginity Detector, but what if Shen Qingqiu post-transmigration accidentally stumbles on some kind of weird PIDW plot device plant or critter that can tell whether you've ever killed a man?

because I think Yue Qingyuan would be very confused. Qiu Haitang too.

Ghostfire Shen Yuan loyally following the lonely, undying, forgotten Luo Binghe from the original outline.

They never even met.

Shen Yuan had died long before Luo Binghe’s story was set to start. Abandoned by his System, he was left wandering the realms, searching for anything to latch onto, anything to stave off the darkness encroaching on his consciousness whenever he stopped. He keeps himself entertained with little jokes and references that will never reach anyone. At least back home, there were other people on the opposite side of his screen reacting, seeing. Paying attention.

He never would have thought he’d miss the times he was perceived by others. He’d give anything, though. Anything.

He stumbles upon the protagonist as he’s ascending the stairs of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect for the first time. Dressed in rags and heaving with the effort, Luo Binghe is exactly as Shen Yuan had pictured: a little bun, soft and kind and so very brave.

The excitement wears off soon enough. When the tea ceremony is held, Shen Yuan watches, hopelessly trying to stop the cup from hitting Binghe’s head. He lunges at Shen Jiu; let him be identified and exorcised, at least he would have done something with himself, however useless. It doesn’t work. Of course not—nothing can come between Luo Binghe and his fate.

Shen Yuan thinks about leaving. Many times. But every time he considers the possibility of going back to wandering the world, or just passing on… Well. There’s still a lot to see, isn’t there? It will get better. It will.

Only, it doesn’t. Not really.

There’s no harem; there’s no warm comfort offered to Luo Binghe by a sympathetic beauty, no wedding celebrations, no moments of gentle companionship, however brief, however superficial. There’s no camaraderie with the demons underlings, his generals, his allies; it’s all casual cruelty and dismissals, before it’s violence and subjugation.

There’s no joy. There’s no hope. There’s no ‘better’.

Something is wrong, that’s clear. Something is wrong, and Shen Yuan has no one to blame.

This is clearly not the Proud Immortal Demon Way he knows.

Centuries later, when Luo Binghe begs for the heavens to allow him to die, Shen Yuan hears. When Luo Binghe rages against the passage of time, alone in the wreckage of his palace, left behind by everyone he’d ever known, Shen Yuan accompanies him. When Luo Binghe lies down in the Holy Mausoleum and refuses to get up, Shen Yuan waits until he opens his eyes again and leaves the palace.

They end up in a hidden realm so filled with Yin Energy that Shen Yuan can channel it to manipulate his form into that of his former body. It’s not detectable by the living, but it’s there. He feels stronger, too. He can walk, float, fly, interact with what few other ghosts they encounter.

Still, Luo Binghe cannot see him.

Luo Binghe doesn’t talk much. Well, that makes sense, he was never in the habit of talking to himself, but still. It’s lonely.

They end up in a town where a diviner takes one look at Luo Binghe and offers him a free reading. Shen Yuan can’t enter her tent, so he waits outside.

She tells Luo Binghe of the little hanger-on he’s got. A powerful one, too, though he’s still getting used to his powers. He’s been here for a long time, she says. Since he was a child. He comes from far away—farther than even the most distant star.

Luo Binghe begins talking to him. Shen Yuan isn’t sure why, but he’s not complaining!

Luo Binghe also begins meditating again, trying to soothe the damage done by Xin Mo over the centuries. For every meal, he places a few fruits across from him on a plate he’d made himself, which he eats only after finishing his own dish. He makes space by his side whenever he walks on a narrow road. He stops at every landmark and tells stories about them, always starting the same way.

“Do you remember when…” becomes Shen Yuan’s favourite phrase.

One night, Luo Binghe sighs and looks across the table. Shen Yuan places himself so that he’s in Luo Binghe’s focus.

“What is it, Binghe?”

Luo Binghe doesn’t answer him, of course. Still, it feels like a conversation, when he says:

“I wish I knew your name.”

Shen Yuan frets. He’s been trying to manipulate the physical world, but he never got the hang of it. He’d tried drawing in sand, with water, just pushing things off shelves. And yet, nothing.

“I’m sorry, I wish—” he tries, but Luo Binghe is already talking again.

“I wonder if we ever crossed paths when you were alive.” He’s expressed this thought more than once. Shen Yuan never likes to think about how they’ve missed each other, how they’d been set up for failure from the start. “I wonder if we would have been friends.”

Shen Yuan scoffs. Of course not. Him and the protagonist? No way.

But—those cold star eyes, blindly searching for him, trying to land on him… They make him want to say, I would have liked that.

He reaches a hand out to touch Luo Binghe’s forhead. He’s taken to doing it whenever Luo Binghe broods, or makes a silly joke Shen Yuan wishes he didn’t find funny. It’s soothing.

He wishes Binghe could feel it.

When his finger touches the demon mark, it blazes. Luo Binghe gasps, that heavy gaze settling on Shen Yuan’s face.

Shen Yuan startles, and jumps away.

“No! Wait!”

Shen Yuan hesitates. Luo Binghe is looking around himself, eyes begging for even a wisp of Shen Yuan’s shadow.

He can’t deny Luo Binghe this.

He can’t deny himself this.

He reaches out again. This time, he cups Luo Binghe’s cheeks. When those eyes clear of panic and widen in awe, he whispers, softly, “Shen Yuan. My name is Shen Yuan.”

Luo Binghe looks like he’s been handed a treasure so precious he’s afraid to touch it. He hesitates, raising his hands in careful starts and stops, before taking Shen Yuan’s face in them, gently caressing the soft, cold skin of his face. His eyes dance with the haste he takes in memorising Shen Yuan’s features.

Then, he smiles. Helpless and weak and so, so precious. Shen Yuan has not seen hope so bright in Luo Binghe’s face since that fateful day on Cang Qiong Mountain.

“Hello, Shen Yuan.”

Every shen brothers au looks like this to me

Fox demon sy au, except more demon and less uwu.

After dying due to expired food, SY wakes up as a fox demon with a natural affinity to poisons and poisoning. He is unamused at the irony, thanks, but at the same time... he IS kind of in some chaotic demon realm adjacent like place and needs all the help he can get, so ... thanks?

His transmigration even came with a subspace for drying and preserving herbs and ingredients, and an encyclopedic manual of all the possible tinctures, ingredients, and handling procedures installed into his brain.

Pretty adequate, although the subspace can only take medicinal ingredients and can't be used for growing/raising ingredients, and the manual is so massive SY feels like it will take decades to read. (Spoilers: it does take decades to read)

Cool, SY thinks, I can be a wandering apothecary and stuff - but of course things don't turn out like that, because why wouldn't this world be full of poisonous plants that require... um ... *alternative* methods of healing.

After the fifth time someone tries to force SY to cure someone with papapa, he says fk it and, unable to escape in more conventional ways, he poisons his way out of the demon lord's castle.

SY is also beginning to understand which world he's been transmigrated to and is cursing a "Master Airplane" under his breath nonstop as he stomps angrily away from rando demon lord's territory, almost no guilt in his heart because the dude and his vassals eat people and are *assholes*.

SY starts using the direct method (aka poison) in refusing persistent inquisitors that want help he's unwilling to give (whether it's papapa or just a matter of principle) and slowly becomes known more for poisoning than cures. Doesn't help that SY has evolved from death-poisons to poisons that would make you wish you were dead.

Soon SY is known as a fox who would rather kill you than speak to you.

At first SY feels upset about this, because after all that work curing people, killing people is what he's known for? But eventually he's like, whatever gets people to stop bothering me~.

After decades, SY has embraced getting his way with his pretty face and poisonings, becoming a bit of a naughty foxy, and is enjoying his life away from the plot and with much less harrassment by the demons.

He's gained the title of Poisonous Shoutao (longevity peach), and his reputation as a venomous fox demon who could cure whatever ails you but would rather poison you has grown far and wide (as well as his foxy bewitching ways as he gloats over poisoning you).

SY has a long list of admirers and haters alike, including those grateful for his healing and those who want revenge for his poisonings, but what good demon *doesn't* have an enemy or 20?

And then one of his haters sets him up to be the scapegoat of a rash of poisonings in some human communities, and suddenly SY is the target of some pony-tailed pretty boy head disciple from Cang Qiong with a mole, who hasn't realized that the Poisonous Shoutao is outside of his capabilities... after paralyzing the boy, SY thinks about just ending the kid but... well, SY has used his pretty face to sway others before, but this is the first time he's been swayed by a pretty face.

B-besides, it's probably better to avoid making enemies of Cang Qiong, no matter where in the plot they are right now! So SY just teases the kid until the kid's practically steaming (out of anger? or...), reveals he's NOT the culprit, and disappears into the night with a faint scent of nightshade lingering behind.

Expecting it all to be done and dusted after that, SY is surprised to find out that the pretty boy now has a vendetta against him and has sworn to take him down.

Cue cat-and-mouse interactions all over the two realms with a poisonous (and slightly flirty) fox demon chased by a serious (but easily flustered - at least when it comes to a certain fox) young cultivator.