Chapter Text
Shen Yuan was already in a sour mood when the front door to the Warm Red Pavilion blasted off the hinges like some overzealous donghua hero entrance.
He had barely gotten any sleep last night, because some cultivator got into a fight with another patron (A-Jiu or Jiu-er depending on if the gossip came from the Jiejies or the Madam). It was the middle of the week and there were no big events near Yeohung that would lead to much traffic. It was supposed to be a break in the hellish nightmare of existence Shen Yuan had transmigrated into where he could sit down and read a book.
And maybe being a formerly spoiled second-gen rich twenty something now in a slightly better than street kid thirteen year old body hadn’t helped his attitude.
So Shen Yuan stomped right past Dan-jie and her pipa making a break for it and into the line of fire without really thinking through anything.
“Don’t cultivators know how to knock?” Shen Yuan snapped.
Both cultivators (Dan-jie’s client dressed in inner robes and the other one in slim fitting white and blue ones) turned towards him.
The one who wasn’t a client was… weirdly pretty for a man, but that didn’t stop his face from morphing into disgust which Shen Yuan didn’t realize wasn’t directed at him until he looked over at Dan-jie’s client like he was actually scum on his shoe. “A child?”
The client (who Shen Yuan was not going to call ‘A-Jiu’ out loud even if he looked younger than Shen Yuan before he’d died) looked like he might actually kill the other cultivator for that remark.
Shen Yuan just laughed, it was a rough, tired, caustic laugh, but it was enough to draw both their attention. He stared up at the pretty boy cultivator and held up the smelly bucket he’d been hauling around. “Wow, the stunning logic of Master Cultivators! Surely, I must be here to seduce Xiuzhe with my bucket full of inedible kitchen scraps I was planning on taking to the neighbor to feed their chickens until you broke the door.”
Shen Yuan scowled and gestured with the bucket. “Unless there’s some immediate danger of a ghost or demon eating half the jiejies, I don’t know why you think it’s okay to just charge in here and start yelling all sorts of rude things or beating up people who paid to be here!”
Not that he had any particular fondness for people who paid to be there, but Shen Yuan was unfortunately familiar with how buying out a contract worked even if he wasn’t doing the job of a courtesan. Madam Cao certainly wasn’t going to take the price of the door out of her own paycheck.
Pretty man cultivator’s eyebrows had been slowly descending downwards and seemed to be at their limit. “I was defending my shidi.”
Shen Yuan’s scowl did not improve. “Your ‘shidi’s’ virtue can be saved without breaking the door just dock his allowance.”
A-Jiu made a noise like he was choking and covered his face, turning slightly to the side. Pretty man cultivator seemed to go red, whether it was from that reaction or Shen Yuan it was unclear.
“You,” pretty man cultivator said, pointing at A-Jiu. “Ji-shidi told me what happened.”
What had apparently been amusement, slid off A-Jiu’s face immediately and if acid could come out of a human’s eyes, this guy would’ve managed it.
Whatever death threat he’d been about to sling was interrupted as another cultivator arrived. This one was in white and grey robes and at least looked more the part of an Immortal Master. If Shen Yuan wasn’t still so annoyed he might have revelled in the moment. As it was, he let out a long suffering sigh and turned around to finish chores that were probably going to include fixing the stupid fucking door and whatever else damage the cultivators did.
Why had there been four of them in two days? The closest sect was Cang Qiong Mountain and that was at least a two-day walk.
Thankfully they were gone by the time Shen Yuan had finished throwing inedible scraps to the neighbor’s chickens (payment was some eggs he took care carrying back). There was a jiejie gossip cluster going at full speed once he returned. Shen Yuan was very caught off guard by the details that one of the cultivators had been Yue Qingyuan which meant A-Jiu was probably Shen Qingqiu, pre-Peak Lord.
Once his transmigration memories cleared from the haze of his childhood brain, he had figured out he was in the Proud Immortal Demon Way universe—but Shen Yuan had never been entirely sure of when in the timeline he was beyond pre-Luo Binghe merging the realms.
A dull pain at the base of his skull drew his attention away. He looked up at Zhi-jie who was scowling in a way that Shen Yuan was certain his own face had done earlier.
“I’ve heard worse,” Shen Yuan pointed out, rubbing the back of his skull.
Zhi-jie, who Shen Yuan had still not successfully determined (though he had suspicions) if she was actually blood related to him (and what that relation would be or not), glared harder at him and looked like she might start tugging him by the ear. “Didi. Did I hear you confronted the Immortal Masters?”
Enough time had passed that while Shen Yuan’s annoyance hadn’t really wavered, his senses had returned enough to be slightly chagrined about it at least. “He broke the door.”
“They could’ve broken you, idiot,” she said and then smacked him in the back of the head again.
“They scared Dan-jie!” Shen Yuan protested, dodging to avoid any more errant smacks.
“Because DanDan has sense, you—” Zhi-jie put both her palms on each side of Shen Yuan’s face and squeezed just hard enough to hurt and then drew him into a hug that felt more like a straight jacket. “Idiot!” she hissed again. “Next time, stay away.”
Shen Yuan grunted and after a flick to his ear muttered, “Yes, jiejie.”
The hug softened a bit after that and he felt kind of guilty for worrying her. It wasn’t like it was going to come up again. He had plenty of other things to worry about.
***
It was three days later when Shen Yuan watched a figure flying on a sword slowly circle and then land right near the pile of wet sheets Shen Yuan had been laundering by the river.
He hadn’t gotten a name of the Pretty Man Cultivator from the jiejies but he was the last one Shen Yuan expected to see if he saw any of them again.
“Xiuzhe,” Shen Yuan said, moderately politely. He didn’t bow since he was already kneeling while he was doing the illustrious work of getting stains out of brothel bedding.
The cultivator’s jaw shifted and he tossed a small pouch by Shen Yuan’s feet. “For the inconvenience and… door.”
Shen Yuan stared at the pouch and then back up at the cultivator. “You’ll want to give that to Madam Cao,” he said. If he got caught with a random purse, she’d likely think he stole it.
“Can’t you?”
Geez, this guy. Shen Yuan tilted his head and stared up at him. He was really all looks and no brains apparently. “I don’t handle the coin.”
He probably could have if he traded on his business experience from his first life (and if anyone would trust a kid with that), but Shen Yuan would also have embezzled and gotten him and Zhi-jie out of there.
The cultivator huffed in annoyance and picked up his purse. He opened it up and tossed Shen Yuan a heavy coin that was probably more than Zhi-jie made in a week. Shen Yuan’s hand automatically closed around it but then he thought better of it and tossed it back. “I don’t handle that either. I’m thirteen.”
Not that… that made a difference in some places, but as strict as Madam Cao was, she hadn’t insisted that Shen Yuan do anything other than the grunt work he’d been given. He couldn’t confirm but was pretty sure Zhi-jie had something to do that too. There wasn’t anyone else his age privately entertaining customers either at least.
The cultivator’s face started turning red again. Shen Yuan was fairly certain steam would start coming out his ears if he kept teasing. It was kind of funny.
“I don’t need your money, Master…”
“Liu Qingge,” said… the War God of Bai Zhan apparently.
Shen Yuan boggled at him, almost dropping the stone he’d been using to smash plant ash. Surely the epitome of masculinity didn’t look like that. If you put this Liu Qingge in the right outfit, he could pass for the highest ranked courtesan. That was not what a master elite fighter should look like!
“Your name?” Liu Qingge prompted, with a raised eyebrow.
“Zhan Yuan,” Shen Yuan said.
“Why doesn’t Zhan Yuan need money?” Liu Qingge asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
He had a beauty mark under his left eye and his muscles were… well they were apparent now that they were slightly flexed, but they weren’t as bulky at Shen Yuan expected. Maybe since he was still young and not a peak lord? Probably not a war god yet.
“Why does Master Liu want to give this one money?” Shen Yuan asked back. He didn’t think, based on the overheard disparaging comments about his fellow disciple visiting a brothel and that damaging their reputation etc etc, that it was for a nefarious purpose.
Liu Qingge cleared his throat. “It was not my intention to cause a scene or scare anyone.”
Shen Yuan barely caught himself from laughing. “You’re apologizing?”
“Making amends,” Liu Qingge said with a shrug.
“Okay,” Shen Yuan said, still feeling pretty amused by the situation. “But save the money; I can’t use that anyway.”
“Why not?”
Shen Yuan blinked up at him and shifted on his knees. It was probably too late to stand up at this point, but also probably rude to go back to his chores. “Does Master Liu understand how brothel contracts work?”
The red was back. It was definitely embarrassment. “No.”
Shen Yuan decided that going back to pounding laundry was better than breaking into laughter so he turned back to the plant ash he was slapping into what he was pretending was a mystery stain. “Any money this one gets has to be earned from the brothel to go to buying out their contract.”
He was pretty sure that was to keep him from stealing from patrons rather than stopping him from panhandling or something, but either way it kept Shen Yuan from doing much of value or having much hope of getting out of this place any time soon. Not that he would’ve left without Zhi-jie. She’d pretty much raised him (and he’d been a weird kid).
The grunt Liu Qingge made didn’t sound particularly pleased with Shen Yuan’s explanation, but hey try living it.
“Do you want anything else?” Liu Qingge asked after a moment.
Shen Yuan slapped the stone into the sheet a few more times, while he thought about it. If he’d transmigrated into a rich heir or even a moderately well-off one, he would’ve definitely tried to learn cultivation. He’d been so busy surviving and trying to avoid any of the particulars of his living situation that there’d been no chance to even dream of doing so.
Shen Yuan looked up at him. “A cultivation manual?”
Liu Qingge’s eyebrows rose, but he nodded. Then he turned back around and walked away without saying anything else.
***
Shen Yuan always tried to spend as much time outside as he possibly could when the weather wasn’t miserable. It helped that a lot of chores the brothel workers couldn’t do required him to leave anyway. It wasn’t even just avoiding the goings on and creepy eyes of the (mostly) men patronizing the brothel. It was the overall olfactory swamp of perfumes from constant incense being burnt to cover any other smells.
Cracking a window was not nearly enough.
So he was outside again, taking plenty of time on his way back from an errand in the center of town, when Liu Qingge showed up.
It had been a few days since he’d last seen him and Liu Qingge had dropped the purse off at the front room. Shen Yuan was fairly certain that Liu Qingge had given more than was required for the door, but Madam Cao didn’t admit as much—Dan-jie hadn’t lost wages at least.
“Here,” the master cultivator said and then literally threw a book at Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan was glad he wasn’t carrying anything delicate, but he also would’ve been fine losing out on some eggs for the book that landed in his palms. An actual cultivation manual.
He had no idea how much this cost, but knew it wasn’t something he could feasibly acquire from a bookshop. His hands felt like they were vibrating just touching the cover. Shen Yuan hadn’t really thought Liu Qingge would bring him one, but now that he was holding it, a million different scenarios popped into his head.
He could ditch the brothel before he got of age and become a rogue cultivator, traveling the world and all without breaking doors!
“Give me your wrist,” Liu Qingge said, only a hairsbreadth away from Shen Yuan.
He hadn’t noticed the guy move and startled a little but then stuck his hand out for him. Shen Yuan watched as Liu Qingge frowned in concentration and felt a little like bubbles were crawling up the veins in his wrist.
Liu Qingge nodded once and then dropped Shen Yuan’s wrist. “Cang Qiong Mountain Sect is having admissions trials in six months. You won’t learn much on your own from the book, but you should try out.”
Shen Yuan rubbed his wrist into his side to get rid of the strange feeling still ghosting through him and tried to process that. “Uh… I don’t—why?”
“To become a cultivator,” Liu Qingge said, slowly like Shen Yuan was the one that was stupid.
Shen Yuan laughed. “No. I mean… why are you asking me?”
“Your base is decent,” Liu Qingge said, “and you have interest.” He nodded again. “And spirit.”
If he’d known yelling at an important person would get him practically an invitation to a sect, Shen Yuan would’ve tried it sooner. He was early enough he could be a fully realized cultivator before Luo Binghe destroyed the sect.
“Six months?” Shen Yuan asked, unable to keep from smiling.
“Mn,” Liu Qingge said, a small smile returned as he nodded. Then he turned away again, hopping onto his sword, Cheng Luan, and flew off.
“Shit, that was cool,” Shen Yuan said under his breath. He was so giddy he almost forgot to dirty up the manual before he brought it inside. Another castoff book wouldn’t be looked twice at, but anything that might be worth something wouldn’t be smart to bring into the brothel.
***
Shen Yuan spent almost every free minute he had going over the cultivation manual he’d gotten from Liu Qingge. It was hard to decipher on his own, but he’d gotten enough out of it to grasp at least a basic understanding of meditating to build and then strengthen his core. He didn’t need to practice dirt digging at least.
Shen Yuan didn’t actually have his own room, but Zhi-jie worked so much that she was rarely in the one they shared. It took her a solid two months to figure out what Shen Yuan was doing.
“You’d have to get in,” Zhi-jie said, taking out a few coins from the stash she kept hidden in a loose floorboard. “Once you’re in, they wouldn’t be able to do anything about the contract, but if you fail it’d be… don’t fail.”
She pressed the small coins into Shen Yuan’s hands. “Hire a ride there. I hear the test is physical and walking for two days will ruin your chances.”
“I thought you might be mad,” Shen Yuan said, as his hands closed around the coins. It was enough to hire a ride on a small cart going that way already at least, but more than he’d had to himself in…ever. He knew Zhi-jie’s stash wasn’t big enough to toss it around like this.
Zhi-jie scoffed and flicked his ear. “Didi, you are too smart to get stuck here and… you’re too pretty.” She stroked a hand over his hair in a more tender affection than he was used to from her. Zhi-jie claimed to be only his sister (and sometimes not even confirming a biological one), but Shen Yuan always had doubts at times like this. “You’re getting older. I don’t want Madam getting any ideas about pricing you out.”
Shen Yuan also did not want her getting those ideas. “Are you going to be okay?”
Zhi-jie flicked his ear again, lighter this time. “Master Chen likes me quite a bit and has the means for a concubine. He hasn’t asked yet, but if I know you’re settled I think I’ll let him buy my contract.”
A concubine for a rich merchant was a better position than Zhi-jie was currently in, but Shen Yuan still frowned. If he’d been a little older maybe he could have earned money in a way that wouldn’t leave her to that fate.
“Don’t make that face, Didi,” Zhi-jie scolded. “I know you stick your nose in books, but life isn’t a story. This is a good opportunity for both of us.” She frowned and tapped lightly at his chin. “You should try and play more instruments too. A-Jiu’s peak teaches scholarly arts.”
Shen Yuan was not going to be choosy, but he certainly wasn’t going to gun for Qing Jing Peak considering how its future (or at this point maybe current) Peak Lord was going to become a vicious tyrant to most of his disciples, one in particular in a few years.
Bai Zhan Peak would be cool. Liu Qingge was… weird, but also refreshing in how straightforward he was. Shen Yuan still struggled with the bullshit formality rules that hindered people from saying what they meant all the time.
He was already passable at the guqin and asking Dan-jie for pipa lessons probably wouldn’t hurt. He still had four months after all.
“I’ll work on my calligraphy too,” Shen Yuan promised.
Zhi-jie’s face was so fond as she flicked his ear again. “You better!”
***
“Stop scowling, Yuan-er,” Dan-jie said absently. “It’ll ruin your performance.”
“I’m practicing not performing,” Shen Yuan pointed out, still frowning in concentration.
She might have had a point. He tried to smooth out his face but could feel the scowl come back into place as he made another attempt at playing the song she’d given him. He didn’t know why it was so much more frustrating to play the liuqin than the pipa—they were the same number of strings!
Dan-jie sighed, like the weight of the world was on her shoulders for spending her free time tutoring a useless boy. If she hadn’t followed it up with tweaking his nose and adjusting his hands again, he might have been offended.
“You need to relax,” Dan-jie murmured. “You’re tensing up and expecting a mistake.”
“It’s too light,” Shen Yuan objected. It might have been the eighteenth time he’d said so, but who was counting?
“Ugh, fine,” Dan-jie said throwing her arms up into the air. She took the liuqin from him and handed him the pipa. “Zhizhi should sell you for spare parts,” she said without any heat.
“I don’t think I’d make her that much,” Shen Yuan retorted and revelled in not only her responding inelegant snort but the way that the larger instrument felt so much more comfortable in his hands.
She’d been convinced it would swamp him and kept pushing the liuqin on him, but the willow wood was too light in his hand. He kept feeling like it might fly away from him if he moved too much. He was smug as the music he’d been attempting earlier came much more easily now.
“Spare parts,” Dan-jie said again, pressing her index finger against his forehead with a tiny shove.
Shen Yuan settled for practicing the piece again until he could play it to completion and Dan-jie didn’t seem to have a ton of corrections so he figured that meant he was getting it. It didn’t sound horrible at least. The nauseating reverb twang when he first started was thankfully an uncommon occurrence. It would probably be a while until he attempted playing the erhu again.
There was a light knock on the door and the pleasant air that had settled on the room was shifted as Dan-jie frowned and went to the door. “What do you want? I’m trying to culture Yuan-er.”
“A truly difficult task,” the voice agreed. He couldn’t quite determine which one of his jiejies it was. “A-Jiu is asking for you.”
Dan-jie shifted on her feet. “Me specifically?”
“I think he felt bad about last time,” the voice said.
Shen Yuan could already tell where this was going. In his politest and most cultured affectation he said, “Dan-jie can go.” He held her pipa out to her. “This uncultured boy has plenty of other things to practice.”
The disbelieving snort behind the door narrowed down the suspects of the jiejie talking, but Shen Yuan was focused on Dan-jie’s wry but grateful smile as she took the pipa from him. “Tell Zhi-jie I was an accomplished tutor.”
“Mn,” Shen Yuan said, getting up from his kneeling position. “Lie to Zhi-jie, got it.”
“Don’t even joke,” Dan-jie said, laughing as she ushered him outside of her room so she could get ready.
Kang-jie had a raised eyebrow as he exited, solving the mystery voice. She shook her head at him like he was more trouble than he was worth and walked away.
Shen Yuan made his way towards the small garden that probably shouldn’t have been referred to as a courtyard and decided to try meditating for a bit. Zhi-jie was resting since she was meeting Master Chen later and he didn’t want to go back to the room and interrupt her sleep.
The actual cultivation techniques surrounding meditation made it a little easier than without. Making his brain go silent was a strenuous task, but if he was focused purely on locating and flowing with the energies in his own body he could do it pretty passably. Or at least he thought so. There wasn’t anyone to check yet.
Based on where the sun was, Shen Yuan was fairly certain he’d been meditating for at least an hour before he was interrupted. A gentle hand squeezed his shoulder and he looked up to see Dan-jie smiling at him. “Have you met A-Jiu?”
Shen Yuan glanced behind her, but no Shen Qingqiu seemed to be lurking which was a relief. “Briefly,” Shen Yuan said. He wouldn’t say ‘met’ was an appropriate summary. There hadn’t really been an introductions when he’d been screaming at two future peak lords.
“He wants to hear you play,” she said and then at Shen Yuan’s concerned frown she waved her hand. “Aiyah, I thought you knew already with how much you eavesdrop—A-Jiu only likes to rest. We were talking and I mentioned teaching you so he wanted to hear. You don’t even have to lie to Zhi-jie.”
Shen Yuan hadn’t been worried for that reason, but that last statement did do something to calm his nerves. Dan-jie wouldn’t suggest anything that could bring harm if there was even a chance Zhi-jie would find out about it.
Shen Yuan couldn’t think of a good excuse to get out of it and figured Shen Qingqiu would say something scathing about his manners before he even got to play and then that would be that.
The last time Shen Yuan had seen A-Jiu he’d been underdressed. Now he was perfectly put together like the peerless leader of Qing Jing Peak. His robes were so nice Shen Yuan wondered if he’d gotten promoted from Head Disciple in the last few months.
He did attempt not-shitty manners. Something about the hard stare and the robes gave him bad nerves and even worse when Shen Qingqiu’s attention sharpened as Shen Yuan started to play.
He only got two notes in before the future scum villain clucked his tongue. “Posture.”
“What?” Shen Yuan said—there went the attempt at manners.
The look he received in response was withering. Dan-jie didn’t seem phased. “Straighten up your back, Yuan-er.”
Shen Yuan’s lips twisted. He felt like when Dan-jie told him not to scowl. It was performative more than any actual help in improving his music, but he did try and straighten up. It meant he had to tilt the pipa a little to see the strings easier but then that was corrected and it was a good few more minutes of adjustments before Shen Yuan was even able to play the damn thing.
He got a few lines into the song he’d been practicing earlier when Shen Qingqiu stopped him again. “Dan-jie said your guqin skills are more passable.”
“I said he was very good,” Dan-jie said, giving ‘A-Jiu’ a toothless glare that he chuckled at.
It was so weird.
The room they were in had a few instruments so Shen Yuan was herded over to the guqin with the words ‘more passable’ running through his brain as he sat down. No more critiques on his posture at least before he started playing. He was able to get through three quarters of a song this time before he was stopped.
“Practice the pipa with music more remedial until you are used to the hold,” Shen Qingqiu said. “You don't seem to be tone deaf, so that’s likely the issue.”
“That’s a compliment, Yuan-er,” Dan-jie said, her eyes crinkling in amusement at his expense. “And I told you it was too big for you.”
“The liuqin feels like trying to play a feather,” Shen Yuan objected before he could think better of it.
“It would be wiser to invest your time learning the pipa rather than an unrefined version of one,” ‘A-Jiu’ said in what sounded like agreement.
Shen Yuan did not look smug. He did not broadcast ‘ha! I told you so’ through his expression at Dan-jie. Because Shen Yuan stared down at the guqin to hide his face.
He was instructed to play a little more, while Dan-jie started giving Shen Qingqiu a shoulder massage. It would’ve seemed inappropriate and awkward, but rather than giving a creep vibe, Shen Qingqiu just honestly seemed to relax. That only lasted about a half an hour before Shen Yuan was dismissed probably so he could get out of the robes and ‘rest’ or whatever—but Shen Qingqiu made a couple of notes about Shen Yuan’s finger placement during one of the songs and it was admittedly decent advice.
He realized later, so was the pipa hold. It took him another few days to be comfortable holding it correctly while playing, but trying something less challenging made it easier.
He had another month until he could go to the entrance trials, but Shen Yuan thought maybe Qing Jing Peak wouldn’t be too bad after all.