Chapter Text
The newly risen demon lord Luo Binghe was sitting down to breakfast in his palace. It had been someone else’s palace yesterday, and Luo Binghe was still wearing robes stained with their blood. But with all the slaughter he had worked up an appetite, so he accepted the breakfast tray from the shaking hands of a servant.
Being a heavenly demon granted him immunity to most poisons, but he was still careful to inspect all the food. The congee was obviously sub-par, but one couldn’t expect much of demons attempting to make human food for possibly the first time.
The tea, on the other hand…
Even as he smelled it, he knew the tea was good quality and well-brewed. The aroma was familiar in a way that made Binghe remember bamboo leaves rustling in the wind, the water fountain in the pond by Shizun’s house, and warm quiet mornings full of joy in simple things.
Binghe brought the teacup to his lips and inhaled the scented steam, sighing as he did. The first sip was even better. He thought of Shizun, before Shizun had turned to hatred and cast Binghe into the abyss. A Shizun that had loved and cared for Binghe. The Shizun he had loved and cared for in turn.
Binghe blinked and he was in the bamboo house, Shizun sitting across from him, fanning himself. Shizun, insisting that Binghe drink the tea, smiling fondly. Sunlight brightening his eyes and caressing pale cheeks with the faintest flush. Bringing out the highlights of Shizun’s long dark hair.
Binghe blinked again, and the vision was replaced by the gray stone wall of his palace and the table with the breakfast tray faintly smeared with blood.
“Fetch me the one who made this tea,” Binghe commanded to the trembling demon that had brought the tray. Binghe had brought several servants from Mobei-jun’s northern palace to serve him after he had conquered this one. But he hadn’t known them long, and hadn’t taken any special interest in their skills or names.
The demon that had brought his breakfast rushed out, clearly eager to seize the excuse to escape his bloodthirsty lord. Binghe smiled wryly to himself as he finished the tea and congee. Having escaped the abyss and then soundly defeated Mobei-jun, King of the Northern Desert, he was as terrifying to demons as to cultivators, now.
Well, terrifying he might be, but he would build a power base and become unstoppable. And then once he had, perhaps he could make Shizun an offer the man couldn’t refuse. Or he could stabilize things here, then rejoin the cultivation world in disguise and rise through the ranks there to impress Shizun instead. There were many possibilities, but he had time to decide.
As his spoon scraped the bowl of the last of the congee, two servants brought a third into the room.
She was a petite yet busty flower demon, with delicate pink petal lips and impossibly purple eyes. Haitang flowers bloomed in her hair, interwoven with the dark strands.
She was attractive in the same way as so many women Binghe came across on his journeys - and each of them tended to throw themselves at him, sooner or later. But Binghe wasn’t interested in any of them. He knew what he wanted, and Shizun would be the one and only in his heart. Now and always.
She was pale under his studying gaze, and the other servants shoved her forward as if to make a shield of her. Since both were far bigger in size, the effect was almost comical. But after a moment under his scrutiny, she puffed herself up and pushed her shoulders back to look him in the face.
“Is there a problem with the tea I made, my lord?” She asked with a delicate and feminine voice.
“No problem at all,” Binghe said with a smile that made all three servants shrink back. “I liked it, actually. I have an opening for a personal attendant, and I think you’ll suit. You’ll be seeing to all my needs.” His last personal servant had attempted to poison him, hence the regular breakfast inspection. The poison had no effect, and having to find a replacement was annoying, but killing the demon had left an opening for this tea-brewer. So perhaps it was fortunate in the end.
“Ah-all your needs, my lord?” She said, turning a very bright red.
Binghe scowled. And there it was, just as expected. Why were all these women so sex-crazed?
“Not like that,” Binghe said. “Don’t get any ideas. My heart is promised to my one and only.”
But actually, the flower demon looked relieved at this. Perhaps she wouldn’t be like the others, and Binghe would be able to keep having good tea without fending off any advances. He could only hope.
“What’s your name,” he asked, as her fellow servants abandoned her and she hovered alone and uncertain in the doorway.
“Shan Yuan,” she replied.
You see, it began like this.
Shen Yuan and Shang Qinghua had plans of growing the Sun and Moon Dew Flower before Binghe made it out of the abyss. Then Shen Yuan, as Shen Qingqiu, would fake his death, giving Luo Binghe the catharsis he deserved after his traitorous teacher had betrayed him.
Shen Yuan would survive in the mushroom body, and live the peaceful life of a wandering cultivator for the rest of his days, without being turned into a human stick. And Shang Qinghua would continue to serve Mobei-jun, who he was hopelessly in love with, but if that ever went awry he’d have a mushroom body as well. And then Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan would adventure together as loveless bachelor bros.
A big wrench was thrown into these grand plans when Luo Binghe emerged from the abyss early, beat up Mobei-jun, and began conquering large swathes of the demon realm.
Shang Qinghua had gone to Shen Yuan in a panic and from there they’d hatched a desperate scheme to buy time until they could go back to plan A.
First came the genderswapping pendant from Wife Plot #121. That wife had faked being a man and fought by Luo Binghe’s side, before being revealed and seduced and married into the harem.
Then came what Shen Yuan referred to as the The Tramp Stamp. From Wife Plot #63, it was a seal placed on the small of the back that made a human look like a demon. Wife #63 had used it to great dramatic effect for all kinds of shenanigans until she was caught, but Luo Binghe forgave her deception and into the harem she went.
Shang Qinghua acquired the pendant and helped Shen Yuan paint on The Tramp Stamp and Shen Yuan’s disguise was complete. Between the two Shen Yuan was unrecognizably altered and could go anywhere anonymously - in the demon realm at least.
But Shen Yuan needed to maintain The Tramp Stamp, keep up with developments in the Sun and Moon Dew Flower’s growth, and keep an eye on the movements of Luo Binghe himself. So Shang Qinghua got Shen Yuan a menial job at Mobei-jun’s palace, as a front so that they could meet up frequently in private without attracting suspicion.
But somehow Shen Yuan offended Mobei-jun, who personally assigned him to Luo Binghe’s servant entourage when Luo Binghe left to conquer the Western Plains. With no valid excuse to resist, Shen Yuan was shifted to the new palace, and then managed to catch Luo Binghe’s eye as well.
So Shen Yuan smiled at Luo Binghe, told him the name Shan Yuan, and panicked. Hard.
This was NOT going according to plan.