Chapter Text
“What are you doing here?”
Shen Yuan flinches at the sound of the sharp, crisp and scathing tone of Shen Jiu and hastily turns around, trying to hide the double-horned tarantula-tailed cat behind his back and trying not to look extremely guilty.
Technically, he is not doing anything wrong. Shen Yuan is more or less always welcome at Cang Qiong Mountain, and he visits Qing Jing Peak every once in a while. He also has a free pass to see the enclosure of the exquisite collection of pocket-sized monsters Shen Jiu owns, thanks to Liu Qingge, whenever he wishes to.
However, it is indeed weird to visit the said monsters in the dead of the night. Especially when he has to attend the wedding of Shen Jiu and Liu Qingge the next day.
“Err…” Shen Yuan trails off, dropping the cat and scratching his neck. “Just checking on the cat? I heard its cries, and I assume it is hungry.”
Shen Jiu squints, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“Horned tarantula cats have a healthy appetite.”
“No, they don’t.” Shen Jiu frowns, and Shen Yuan inwardly curses.
Out of all the other Pride Immortal Demon Way characters, Shen Jiu is the one with the most brains and also the one who took a keen interest in such monsters. He is not the one to be fooled so easily with such frivolous lies. Especially not when it concerns monsters.
“Why are you awake so late?” Shen Yuan asks instead of answering and dodging the question. “Can it be that Peak Lord Shen is feeling nervous about tomorrow’s celebration?”
If this had been his first time meeting Shen Jiu, Shen Yuan would have run at the sight of him holding onto his skirts as he fled. However, after knowing and spending time with him after his rebirth and every once in a while when he visited Cang Qiong Mountain, they’ve both reached a degree of closeness. Shen Jiu, Shen Yuan has realised, has a prickly exterior and a little prickly interior. Still, his heart is mostly in the right place.
How he’d become such a vile man in the original work is anybody’s guess, but as far as Shen Yuan is concerned, the Shen Jiu he has come to know is a perfectly fine man whose biggest shortcoming is that he hounds Shen Yuan to desert that ‘demonic brat Luo Binghe’ every time they meet.
Shen Jiu tilts his head at the question, very aware that Shen Yuan is trying to redirect the conversation, but he humours him anyway. “Nervous? No. Not at all.”
Shen Yuan raises a brow, not quite believing him, and Shen Jiu rolls his eyes as he enters the enclosure and gently picks up the cat, putting it back in its cage.
“You are Liu Qingge’s closest friend.” Shen Jiu says quietly as he strokes the cat fur and shuts the cage door, his back towards Shen Yuan and expression, therefore, hidden. “You know what kind of man he is. If I have to go through every part of my shitty life again to end up where I am today, I would gladly do so over a hundred times.”
I really fucked over the story, did I not? Shen Yuan laments to himself. The scum villain has turned into a full-blown loverboy!
And yet, it’s such a sickeningly sweet sentiment that Shen Yuan’s heart squeezes a little despite himself. Completely unrelated to this sentiment, he thinks back to Binghe, waiting eagerly for him in the Demon Realm to return home quickly. He recalls a similar conversation they had, the same sentiments they’d shared that day. It makes him smile briefly.
“Then why are you up?” He pesters, and Shen Jiu lets out an aggrieved sigh as he turns to face Shen Yuan.
Not for the first time, Shen Yuan admires just how breathtakingly beautiful Shen Jiu is. Even with him up so late at night and wearing simple robes with his hair untied and dancing lightly in the wind, he looks every bit of a handsome, dignified peak lord.
It sometimes blows him away that he used to look like that not too long ago. Not that he looks bad now, but if he is being honest, it’s nowhere close to how stupidly gorgeous Shen Jiu is.
For a long moment, Shen Jiu doesn’t answer— only glances toward the trees, where the wind moves softly through leaves silvered by moonlight.
Then, shortly, he says, “Couldn’t sleep.”
Shen Yuan blinks, snapping out of his reverie. “That’s… not an answer.”
Shen Jiu clicks his tongue in displeasure. “Why are you so insistent?”
“The groom running around late at night before his wedding piques my curiosity.”
Shen Jiu rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything else, leaning against the cage and coolly regarding Shen Yuan.
“…You’re still thinking about tomorrow,” Shen Yuan remarks eventually, his tone light. “Even if you’re not nervous, I suppose it’s hard to rest before such a big day.”
“I have told you, I am not uncertain,” Shen Jiu answers sharply but without heat. “If anything, if there is one thing I am sure of, it is him.”
Have some shame! You are the scum villain! This is completely OOC!
Not letting his inner hysteria show, Shen Yuan lowers his eyes briefly and mumbles. “I am glad.”
Shen Jiu turns away from him slightly and crosses his arms. “…But.”
“But?”
He doesn’t respond and exhales, a troubled look brewing in his jade-green eyes. Shen Yuan waits with bated breath, knowing that what he is witnessing right now is monumental. One wrong move, one wrong word and Shen Jiu would go right back into his shell.
“There’s always a voice in my head.” Shen Jiu confesses at the end, his words matter of fact, but the slight tremble in it gives away his anxiety. “Quiet but persistent. That someone like me shouldn’t have someone like him. That eventually, he’ll open his eyes and see that he deserves better.”
Shen Yuan looks at him for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then he says calmly, “That’s nonsense.”
Shen Jiu raises an eyebrow. “Your rebuttal is quite stirring. Forgive me if I am not quite convinced by your grand declaration, though.”
Still an asshole, Shen Yuan thinks to himself and shakes his head before he says, “You know, I think everyone assumes you’re the sort of person who would dread a wedding.”
Shen Jiu lifts an eyebrow. “And what do you think?”
“I think,” Shen Yuan says, choosing his words carefully, “you’re not afraid of being married. You’re afraid of being… seen. But Liu Qingge sees you.”
The way Shen Jiu’s mouth twists and silence prevails, Shen Yuan knows he has hit the bullseye. Pulling himself to his full height and trying to sound and look just as dignified as the Qing Jing peak lord, Shen Yuan clears his throat and says, “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, actually. I was surprised when I first heard that you two were to marry. Forgive me, peak lord Shen, but I, too, wondered why Liu Qingge loved you.”
Shen Jiu looks half offended, half amused by Shen Yuan’s guts, but before he can reply, Shen Yuan hastily continues,
“But within the time I was recovering here, I saw why he loves you. The way you love him. It’s not dramatic. It’s not poetic. But it’s steady. Fierce. You’d tear down the heavens if they tried to take him from you. That kind of love… it’s rare. Liu Qingge isn’t stupid. He didn’t choose you by accident.
“You didn’t trick him. You didn’t trap him. You were just yourself. And he stayed. That’s not a mistake. That’s love.”
A silence stretches between them— not heavy, but thoughtful. Shen Jiu’s eyes lower slightly, and for a brief moment, his expression softens in a way that would vanish if you blinked too quickly.
Just like that, Shen Yuan knows he has knocked this conversation out of the park.
What a shame the system has been vanquished, he thinks to himself. I would have surely gained some B points right now if it’d still been here.
Then, abruptly, Shen Jiu frowns and asks, “What exactly are you doing out here with one of my monsters, anyway? And don’t you dare lie to me?”
You should be thanking me, not interrogating me!
“Ah… Ah. Yes. Alright. I actually wanted the horn from the tarantula-tailed cat. I noticed it a few days ago— it was close to shedding. If you harvest one during the first night of moulting, it can be sharpened and infused with spiritual energy and be used as an extraordinary weapon by cultivators. And the remaining part of the horn…”
Shen Yuan trails off, looking embarrassed and avoiding eye contact. Shen Jiu smirks, suddenly remembering something.
“The remaining part of the horn can be ground into fine powder. It is believed by some demons that sprinkling some powder on a newly wedded couple brings them harmony and good fortune.”
“Yes.” Shen Yuan admits, still looking like he wishes the earth would open up and swallow him whole, a sight Shen Jiu greatly enjoys.
He lets Shen Yuan squirm for a long while before saying languidly, “I’d nearly forgotten that. How touching that you didn’t.”
“It is only proper that I wish you both well.” Shen Yuan coughs. “Everyone does that.”
“Ah yes, that is why you are making such painstaking efforts in the middle of the night.”
Before Shen Yuan can protest, Shen Jiu shakes his head, and a rare smile flashes on his lips for the smallest moment.
“You should go back to sleep. I assume you already have the horn with you since I didn’t see it on the cat.”
Deciding that he has embarrassed himself enough for the night, Shen Yuan nods and hastily leaves as an amused Shen Jiu follows him.
He walks at a distance, enjoying the cool night breeze, letting the conversation he just had wash over him and calm down his worrying mind.
He watches Shen Yuan’s silhouette disappear down the path, sleeves swaying, posture loose with that irritating calm he always wears like an armour.
Still too gentle for this world. Still too foolish to know it.
Shen Jiu’s first impression of Shen Yuan was that he was a conniving two-faced snake who had stolen everything from him. It changed when Shen Yuan knelt down before him, when Shen Yuan complimented his skills and knowledge, attended his lectures, and said that he had never been half as knowledgeable as he was.
He is too gentle.
Too foolish, Shen Jiu thinks.
And yet—
Shen Jiu exhales. The overgrown grass brushes against his knee as it sways in the breeze. He glances down at his feet, then up at the pale rim of the moon above the trees. Somewhere, Liu Qingge is fast asleep, twitching ever so slightly as he does when he sleeps. Or perhaps he is as wide awake as Shen Jiu is, marvelling at the way his life turned out.
Because Shen Jiu is very much awake. Not out of nervousness now, but out of a quiet wonder. One that takes his breath away.
He thinks of the years that led here— the shame, the hunger, the blood in the snow. The bitterness that filled him so completely he thought there was no room left for anything else.
And perhaps it might have been so. He might have ceased to exist altogether, dying a death so tragic that no one would have even mourned his absence. And he would have died without seeing this night.
But that didn’t happen.
He got another chance. Another chance to try. Once more.
He thinks of Shen Yuan kneeling the first time they met. Thinks of him tonight, awkward and sincere, mumbling nonsense about good luck charms like some overgrown disciple who never learned where to put his heart.
It should be irritating. It is irritating.
But in the quiet of the night, Shen Jiu feels something settle in his chest. Not peace— he doesn’t believe in peace. But something adjacent. Something that tastes like the beginning of it.
So it ends like this between him and the man who stole his life: not with a sword, or a curse, or a scream.
Instead, it ends with a promise of a new beginning. Where the gentle Shen Yuan wishes him a good future and the stone-cold Shen Jiu silently promises him a lifetime of protection.
Two men, once trapped inside the same skin, now stand side by side.
Once alone in a void of misery and frustration, Shen Jiu now finds himself looking forward to each day with a hopeful heart. A heart that has room for many people to care for and nurture.
“I suppose,” Shen Jiu murmurs to the moon, “this life isn’t so unbearable after all.”
With that, he breathes in the night and lets it feel like home.