Chapter Text
It was late enough at night that everyone else had gone to bed. Shen Yuan, sixteen and suffering, was hunched over his math textbook, desperately attempting to beat some last minute formulas into his skull.
It was not going very well.
To be fair, that one was his own fault. A couple of months ago, he'd started reading a new stallion novel on Zhongdian, and it had taken over his entire life.
And it wasn’t even good!!
Proud Immortal Demon Way was trash of the highest order. It had a solid foundation: a super badass protagonist with a deeply tragic backstory, some really good monsters, and a worldbuilding that had actually started out pretty interesting. It was just that after the protagonist got powered up, the plot quickly drowned in paint-by-numbers wife plots and equally forgettable wives. It was a total waste of a good seed! Shen Yuan kept telling anyone who would listen in the comments and on the PIDW forums just how shitty the effort was, but of course most of the readers were happy to roll around in garbage.
Anyway, the upshot of it all was this: Shen Yuan, buried in notes at two in the morning. Half of the page he was currently working on was slowly devolving into doodles, too - a shrieking frost phoenix, a branch of flowering fanged heart lilies, Xin Mo with its dark, malicious energy floating off it like smoke, and, just at the edge of the paper, a single, staring eye, framed by an expressive eyebrow and thick, dark eyelashes.
Shen Yuan put his head in his hands, pressing up against his eyelids until he could see stars.
Ughhh.
(a comet burned ozone-blue across the sky above. a piece of it broke off and fell, wrong and warping, toward the ground below. velocity caught its edges and set it singing)
(somewhere else, there was an echo)
He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew, sunlight was stabbing him in the face. He was lying down, too, which was weird, because he didn’t remember going to bed, and the room he was in was too noisy to be -
Cautiously, Shen Yuan opened his eyes.
Everything was wrong.
He was in bed, which wasn’t bad, all things considered.
The problem was the location of the bed - in a room filled with other beds, and all around him a number of girls and young women were rising, clothes rustling, mumbling sleepily to each other as they - changed into?? Their daily attire???
Shen Yuan pulled the covers up over his face.
Don’t! Be! A creep!!
But also, more importantly, what the fuck! Had he sleepwalked into some kind of all-girl dorm? Would they let him live once they noticed he was here??
He was about to freak out in a grander (but silent!) fashion when a shadow fell over him.
"Don't think you can sleep in just because you're Shizun's favourite, Ning-shimei," a sweetly poisonous voice called from above.
It was very clearly addressed to him, but -
Ning-shimei???????
This was the moment when he looked down and realized that he was no longer in his own body.
He was smaller, for one. And his hair was longer. His hands were pretty dainty? And, well. Something was missing. And in addition. There were. Just a little bit, there were. Rising up against the fabric of the sleep robe he was wearing. There was. Boob.
What?
"Ning-shimei," the voice repeated, "come on."
Numbly, Shen Yuan pushed back the covers and sat up. The other girl, whatever her name was, was wearing pale robes and an annoyed expression. She looked like she was in her late teens, maybe.
"Apologies, shijie," Shen Yuan said, because he could follow context clues. His voice was high and sweet. When he swallowed, his throat felt different.
It was tomorrow. He had a strong feeling there would be no math test.
-
So clearly he had transmigrated into some kind of xianxia setting.
The thing was, Shen Yuan knew everything there was to know about transmigration stories. Waking up with, uh, it wasn't even that weird for the genre! At least he hadn't turned into a slime or a vending machine or something stupid like that. And he knew how to act in a situation like this! Just act like everything is fine and don't make a scene until you can figure out who you are and what kind of world you're in.
So he got dressed as well as he could without looking at himself too much. Then he followed the other girl outside, and tried to act normal.
More disciples - at least, Shen Yuan assumed they were disciples - milled about outside. A group of boys were clumped together by the side of a larger building, running through a series of what looked like martial arts. Their movements were kind of unsteady, their balance a bit off, but it was undeniable - this had to be some kind of cultivation sect!
Shen Yuan stared at them, excitement flaring in his gut. He was going to get to do that too, right? If this wasn't an equal opportunity xianxia world, he was going to be so mad about it.
Now that he was thinking about it, wasn't there something familiar about their uniforms, too? That particular combination of cool green and white -
It looked like -
"Qing Jing Peak?"
"What was that, Ning-shimei?" a voice behind him said.
Shen Yuan spun around. The boy in front of him was tall, and his hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. His robes were more elaborate than the others - could this be Qing Jing Peak's first disciple and most eager bully, Ming Fan?
And if that was the case -
Was this - the body he was currently in, was it -
Was this Ning Yingying???
That meant Shen Yuan hadn't just transmigrated into some random girl.
No! She was one of Luo Binghe's future wives! In the future, she was going to have to marry him and try not to get taken out by harem drama!
What's more, she wasn't just any other wife - she was going to be Luo Binghe's first sweetheart, Qing Jing Peak disciple Ning Yingying!
Ah, wait, no, that didn't feel right.
He was Ning Yingying.
…
He supposed it was okay to keep thinking of himself as Shen Yuan, though, at least when it was just in his head.
"Ning-shimei?" Ming Fan said. Somehow it felt like he was hanging off Shen Yuan's arm even if he was standing a few steps away.
Fuck.
Shen Yuan made himself smile. "Yes, shixiong?"
Ming Fan turned pink. Shen Yuan quietly cursed himself - he'd forgotten, but Ming Fan would have a crush on Ning Yingying by this point, wouldn't he?
"Are you busy later?" Ming Fan asked, oozing … well, not charm, exactly, but definitely something. "Some of us are going to the Tranquil Pond after lessons."
"Ah, apologies, shixiong," Shen Yuan bullshitted sadly. "Yingying needs to put in some extra practice on the guqin. You know how Shizun is…"
Ming Fan made a face, but didn't push it.
Ha! Having that scum villain for a shizun is good for that much, at least.
Although, if he was in Ning Yingying's body, and Shen Qingqiu was…
Shen Yuan fought back the rest of that thought with a shudder.
He didn't dwell on it. Instead, he followed Ming Fan to breakfast and smiled and nodded like he was listening when Ming Fan talked.
There were a lot of things to think about!
Primarily, Luo Binghe.
What would it be like to meet him? How would the little white lotus look?
Would he - if Shen Yuan was -
He would definitely marry Ning Yingying. That was just a law of the universe - if there was a pretty girl in Luo Binghe’s path, he would marry her. Them. And if Shen Yuan was Ning Yingying now, that meant Luo Binghe would definitely -
“Ning-shimei,” Ming Fan said, “are you sure you’re-?”
“Yes!” Shen Yuan said, loudly enough to startle him and also, to be honest, himself. Embarrassed, he took a few more bites from his bowl - some kind of leafy green vegetable he didn’t recognise, with a bitter-sweet flavour that was unlike anything he’d eaten back home. Was it PIDW local? He turned that thought over as he finished eating (what were the Cang Qiong supply lines like, anyway? Did they have contracts with local farms? What were the trade routes - ).
Then he followed Ming Fan to class, which turned out to be … music. Shen Yuan had never touched a guqin in his life, but apparently Ning-shimei had. As long as he didn't think about it too hard, the muscle memory seemed to work … not at a hundred percent, but enough to not make a fool out of himself.
That left plenty of time to think about other things, of course.
Anyway, if he was going to be one of Luo Binghe's wives (and what girl wouldn’t want to marry Luo Binghe!), he was going to do it the best he possibly could. He'd read all of Proud Immortal Demon Way and knew all the wife pitfalls, even if Airplane Shooting Toward the Sky didn't think of it that way.
If given the choice, he would maybe have gone with a different wife than Ning Yingying. The childhood friends/first love stuff was fine, but he wasn't really a bubbly person by nature.
And besides, the way she kept getting Luo Binghe in trouble was annoying.
Actually, now that he was standing here in her shoes, it was worse. The thought of adding to Binghe's problems when he already had so many of them made him feel sick.
None of that! He was just going to have to find a way to take the heat off him. Play it smarter.
The first thing to do … was to locate the protagonist. After the music lesson ended, Shen Yuan went off to look for him.
He found him by a small building that had to be - Shen Yuan swallowed a spark of outrage - the woodshed.
Luo Binghe was running through his forms. His hair looked soft and shiny in the sunlight, his eyes bright and intent, brow furrowed in concentration. It was a really striking image. Shen Yuan felt like he'd run headfirst into a brick wall.
"Binghe!" he called out. He hadn't meant to, but looking at a protagonist even half as incredible as Binghe, who wouldn't call out?
Binghe stopped mid-movement to look at him. Shen Yuan felt his face grow hot.
Ah … it was a little embarrassing after all, wasn't it?
"Ning-shijie," Binghe said, head bowed. So polite! And so shy!
"Don't let shijie interrupt," Shen Yuan said, mustering as much "sweet older sister" into his voice as he could. "I'm only curious to see how Binghe's practice has been coming along. Would Binghe mind showing me some cultivation forms?"
"Of course, shijie," Binghe said, flushing pink, and immediately started running through the motions. Adorable! It was almost too much!
Although … it quickly became clear that something was not quite right with Binghe's form. Shen Yuan frowned, considering. Binghe didn't look hurt, but who could say what kind of shape he'd be in under the robes. Ming Fan and his cronies might not be there yet, but Shen Qingqiu was definitely smart enough to know how to hit where it wouldn't be seen.
But it was also -
Something about the way he held himself. Shen Yuan hadn't even tried practicing his cultivation yet (he had so many moves to try out??), but it had to be the muscle memory again somehow, because looking at the way Binghe's arms were moving was -
Unsettling.
He had gotten a wrong manual, Shen Yuan remembered. Fuck.
"Stop," he said.
Binghe stopped, giving Shen Yuan an expectant look.
"Binghe, can you show me your cultivation manual?" Shen Yuan asked.
Binghe did.
Shen Yuan leafed through it. He couldn't tell how much of it was right or wrong, obviously. He'd barely been in this body for a day, and he didn't really have an understanding of any of this.
But that was fine. He didn't need to. It was enough to know that the book was a deliberate play at sabotage! Of course none of it was to be trusted!
"Ah, Binghe," he said, all innocent, wide-eyed younger sister energy. He may not have experience, but he'd seen meimei at her sweetest! He could switch it up, even if Binghe was his shidi! After all, it wouldn't be too long until…
Well, anyway!
"It looks like this manual has some misprints," he said. "Why don't you share with me? We can meet tomorrow after dinner and practice secretly."
Binghe blinked at him, his huge eyes shining. Shen Yuan felt as though his chest might burst at the sight, like that scene in Alien .
"Ning-shijie is sure?"
Of course he was sure! It was important for the protagonist to become strong! And anyway, who wouldn't want to spend more time with Luo fucking Binghe??
"Yeah," he said. He smiled cutely. "Yingying loves spending time with Binghe!"
Binghe gave him a long, searching look. Maybe he was worried that Ning Yingying would get him into trouble again.
It was definitely not going to happen!
"Don't worry," Shen Yuan said. He took Binghe's hands and squeezed them reassuringly. "Shijie knows a place where we won't be interrupted."
It was a hidden cave at the back of the mountain. In Proud Immortal Demon Way, Luo Binghe had come across it by accident, falling through some bushes in an attempt to hide from Ming Fan; later, he had used it in part to meet with Liu Mingyan after her brother's death. It was the perfect place to go to practice in secret, and if Binghe got access to it a bit earlier, well, what harm could it do? The kid definitely needed to be able to get away from the rest of the peak sometimes.
"Thanking shijie," Binghe said quietly. Shen Yuan squeezed his hands again and smiled reassuringly.
"Don't thank me," he said. "It’s what anyone would do.”
Well.
If that was true, this wouldn’t be necessary, would it?
Shen Yuan made a face.
“It’s what anyone should do,” he said.
Thankfully, Binghe didn’t argue.
-
Shen Yuan was dreaming, which he only knew because the symbols on the buttons of the microwave didn’t make sense. There were too many of them, and they got weirdly squiggly when he turned his head.
Okay, whatever. He pulled down a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water, or at least something that was sort of like water. It had an opalescent sheen to it, and the taste was weirdly like … cotton candy?
Anyway, it wasn’t bad.
He walked out in the living room, because he was back home again, and back in his own body. It all looked exactly like it had before he’d woken up in Proud Immortal Demon Way, from the flat screen TV to the white leather three-seater couch to the leafy plants in the window.
All of it, except -
“Ning Yingying??”
Ning Yingying was on his couch, wearing his vintage NGE t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Her head swiveled toward him, and her eyes narrowed.
“Did you do this?” she asked.
“I - what?”
“Did you,” she repeated, gesturing furiously between the two of them, "do this?"
“The transmigration?” Shen Yuan asked, bewildered. “Obviously not??”
That wasn’t the formula, Ning-shimei!
“What do you mean, obviously?” Ning Yingying said. She made a face. “Your … bedroom” (here they both blushed) “is covered in paintings that show-”
“Okay.” Shen Yuan cut her off in an act of mercy to them both. “People can be fans of stuff! That doesn’t have to mean anything!”
“What do you mean, fans?” Ning Yingying asked, and then waved her hands again. “It doesn’t matter. You’re sure you didn’t do anything? And what’s all that stuff about?”
“I just woke up in your … world,” Shen Yuan said, feeling way too exposed. He wished he had something to hide behind. “And it’s a long story.”
“Shen Yuan,” Ning Yingying said, and wow, it was so weird hearing her say his name. “I woke up in your stupid body with its stupidly high centre of gravity and no core, and then I had to do calculations in your place. Tell me everything!”
Shen Yuan sat down next to her. Maybe this wasn't the kind of transmigration story where he got to stay. Maybe it was the kind of story where he was meant to set things on a different course and leave the real characters to do the rest.
He felt kind of heavy all of a sudden. It was a lot to put on a guy! He really couldn't mess this up, if that was the case. It was one thing when Binghe was just Luo Binghe the character (as if Luo Binghe could be just anything, even on the page!), but now that he'd met him for real…
He just couldn't let him down!
"Okay," he said. "You have to promise me that you'll do your best to help Binghe -"
"A-Luo?" Ning Yingying asked. "Why? Did something happen?"
"Would you like a glass of water?" Shen Yuan asked, a little desperately.
"I want you to answer my questions," Ning Yingying said. She was pouting a little.
Even with Shen Yuan's experience dealing with Meimei, it was devastating.
"I will," he said, already dreading it, "but it's a long answer, so please let me get you some water first."
"Fine," Ning Yingying said. "Isn't this a dream? Why would water help?"
It would make Shen Yuan feel better, that's what it would help! He said nothing, and went to get her a drink instead, thereby fulfilling the task of "making sure the guest has a drink" and "stealing some extra time to compose himself". Score!
Then he came back. He told her, as straightforwardly as he could, about Proud Immortal Demon Way and her role in it. He told her about Luo Binghe and how to best look out for him, just in case he woke up back in his old body.
Ning Yingying opened her mouth to speak.
Then he woke up.