Chapter Text
Shen Yuan was blinking hard.
Just a few moments ago, he had been sitting in front of a screen - one with a cursed tap open; Proud Immortal Demon Way’s concluding chapter, and the comment section filled with brainless fans praising Great Master Airplane’s mediocre work.
But… he remembered it was dark when his body suddenly weakened… When he passed out.
So why was it bright now?
“Young Master, you must get up now,” a voice spoke in a gentle tone. “Your mother has given birth to your little sister. Don’t you want to meet her?”
…Huh?
Once his eyes were able to focus, he found himself lying in an unfamiliar bed - and an unfamiliar bedroom altogether.
“Young Master, is it a little early for you?” the voice asked with a chuckle, and when Shen Yuan turned to look who it came from, he saw a woman he didn’t know. “This servant will help you dress, then.”
Without a warning, she picked him up, holding him like a child as she walked to a different corner of the room, opening a dresser.
The clothes she started taking out were ridiculously small!
Woman, who are you going to dress up with that?! And since when do I have servants?! And why are you holding me so close?!
Realisation only struck him when she put him down on the floor.
Shen Yuan stared up at her; either this maid was a giant, or he was… a child!
His head snapped down, and he lifted his hands to see tiny hands with tiny fingers. His eyes darted to his legs; terribly short, his feet small!
I– I’M A CHILD?!
Was this a weird memory he was reliving?! Couldn’t be, no, he’d remember the room, and he’d remember this woman…!
The servant saw his confusion, but proceeded to change his clothes for him, unbothered by his attempts to stop her, too strong and used to unruly kids to let him. “Now, now, Young Master, what is with you today? These last few days, you were so eager to meet your sister, and now you’re being difficult?”
“Who are you?!” Shen Yuan finally got out, his voice just a squeak.
“Oh, are you really having that much of a hard time waking up?” the servant asked, picking him up and rubbing his back a little. “This servant is so sorry, but your mother would really love to see you. You have to be good and stop crying, yes?”
To his surprise, there really were tears flowing down his face, which the woman brushed away for him. Despite his memories and all, his emotional control hadn’t caught up to his self yet.
What is even going on...?! Where am I?!
Once his hair had been brushed, the servant carried him out of the room, and Shen Yuan’s eyes widened in shock as they walked the long corridors of what could only be a palace.
“Young Master truly is behaving weird today,” the adult noted with a smile. “Promise you will be good when you see your mother. She’s had a rough night.”
But Shen Yuan didn’t hear any of what she was saying. Something was terribly wrong.
He didn’t recognise a single thing about this place. He didn’t recognise anyone passing by - and something about their appearance was weird, too!
His head turned whenever some other servant passed by, but he couldn’t see them for long enough to tell what was bothering him so much. Finally, he got the idea to maybe take a closer look at the woman carrying him, and then it struck him.
Pointy ears? Weirdly coloured eyes? Naturally sharp nails? Wasn't this how cultivation novels described...
Demons…?!
Just when he thought it, the servant knocked on a large set of doors. Shen Yuan was immediately captivated by the intricate carvings, the drapes of thin fabric hanging to the sides, and the gems dangling down.
He almost managed to reach a chain of those sparkling stones, but failed when they entered the room.
“This servant brought your son,” the woman said in a respectful tone.
“A-Yuan…”
Redirecting his gaze from the door where he had last seen the gems to the direction from which that new voice came, his eyes widened once more.
There, drawn curtains revealed a woman lying on a large bed.
His next words came out on instinct. “Mama…”
The second that woman smiled at him, tears started flowing again, and he didn’t know why; he didn’t know if it was because he knew this wasn’t his mother or because he could still smell some blood in the air and ended up worrying about this person his body recognised as family.
The little boy faintly registered being put down on the bed, and he just crawled over to her, cuddling up and crying into her shoulder.
“He’s been this emotional since I woke him up, my Lady,” the servant explained.
A soft hand gently caressed his back. “Have you been that worried, A-Yuan?”
But the boy couldn’t answer, only sob.
He knew he was an adult trapped in a child’s body, but mind and shell hadn’t caught up to each other yet, and as soon as he felt the slightest emotion, it started spilling out of him en masse; He was confused and a bit scared. His thoughts ran wild, and he couldn’t make sense of them.
“A-Yuan, look at your mother,” the woman coaxed softly.
Sniffling, he obeyed.
“Mama is alright… A-Yuan is alright, too,” she smiled, caressing his face a bit. “There is nothing to cry about…”
The little boy sat up, brushing his tears away and putting on a brave face.
She’s right. I have to keep calm, I don’t even know her! What am I doing, cuddling up to her?!
“There…” the woman said, seeing he had sobered a bit. “And can A-Yuan give me a big smile, too?”
Feeling awkward, he looked to the side.
“A-Yuaaan…” his mother mused, moving her hand to turn his head back to her. “Mama wants to see your handsome smile.”
Something about this appeared to do the trick, and Shen Yuan couldn’t help but smile a bit.
The woman returned the expression at the sight. “What a sweet boy you are… I have no doubt you will be a wonderful big brother…”
At that, the boy looked up. “Well, yes!”
He already was! Shen Yuan had always doted on his little sister and made sure she was well taken care of!- No, wait… she wasn’t talking about the same sister… She wasn’t even the same mother… All of this was so confusing!
The woman let out a chuckle. “So eager… You’re making your mother happy…”
Giving the servant a small sign, a little bundle was carried over to the bed and laid in the mother’s arms.
“This here is your new sister…” she smiled, holding the baby in a way that let Shen Yuan see her properly. Little bells had been put on the fabrics wrapped around her, a red symbol on her forehead also caught his attention.
“My A-Yuan is a clever boy… I wonder if he can guess her name.”
His mother smiled at him, knowing the challenge to be hard for a child a little older than two.
But the boy knew.
“...Hualing.”
The two women’s eyes widened, they gave each other a look, and then stared at the child who had perfectly guessed the newborn’s name.
“Were you told?”
He shook his head. He didn’t need to be told. In that moment, he had figured out where exactly he was.
But why am I Sha Hualling’s brother…?
He didn’t even know she had one! And even if she did, he didn’t exactly want to be him! What was going on here?!
But before he could get into his feelings again and start crying, another knock could be heard on the door, and a different, this time male voice, spoke up. “My Lady, your husband.”
Without leaving much time to react, the doors opened once more, and in stepped yet another person he had never seen before, but now knew who it was; Jiuchong-jun, Sha Hualing’s– no, their father.
“Ah, I see I have been informed last,” the man noted, and Shen Yuan couldn’t tell if he was just playing or actually a little insulted. The servant quickly left the room.
Walking up to the bed, Jiuchong-jun had his eyes on the little bundle.
“Bells,” he just said, leaning over to take the baby from the mother - not forcefully - and hold it himself. “So it’s Hualing, then.”
With her hands free again, the woman put one on her son’s back. “Beautiful, isn’t she, my Lord?”
“Babies are terribly ugly,” the demon sighed, looking at the boy on the bed, then. “All non-adults are.”
If he were his actual age, Shen Yuan would have reacted differently, but in this tiny body facing a whole Demon Lord who was apparently also his father, he couldn’t help but look down, a little frightened.
Seeing that, Jiuchong-jun let out an amused chuckle. “Not attacking me today?”
“A-Yuan has a bit of a weird mood at the moment,” his mother sighed. “But he’s alright. After all, he was still able to guess your daughter’s name, my Lord.”
“Do you like it?” the man asked, ignoring the implication of his son being impressive. “The name came to me after my last battle. Although the enemy was weak and barely worth noting, I did take home a beautiful blade - one of a kind! Remember? I showed you last week. There was a sword-tassel on it, wasn’t there? Do you remember the bells?”
Of course, I don’t remember the bells! I wasn't even there!
“You played a little with them and said how much you liked the sound,” he continued, smiling. “So, if she ends up hating her name, it will be your fault since I chose it because of you.”
…DO YOU SEE HOW SMALL I AM? IF I WEREN’T AN ADULT, THIS TYPE OF JOKE WOULD SERIOUSLY BE MESSING WITH A CHILD MY SIZE!
But even though he was an adult in his mind, his body hadn’t mastered the necessary poker face yet to back it up.
“Ah, there it is,” Jiuchong-jun let out, handing the little girl back to her mother. “There is that little fire in you…”
And there was that bad emotional control again, as if he even had the slightest chance, Shen Yuan’s short little legs carried him to his father, running up to viciously attack him - which really only meant he jumped at him and was caught by the adult.
But just a few seconds into the attack, the Demon Lord threw his son back on the bed, slowly walking around it to get closer to where he had landed.
Shen Yuan, having taken no damage, charged at him again.
This time, Jiuchong-jun entertained him a little more, letting him bite and claw the bracers on his forearms, occasionally pushing him back. The mother watched, a tad tense yet not interfering.
But eventually, when the Demon Lord had had enough, he picked his son up, turned his face and bit his ear - enough so that it pierced the skin and drew some blood, forcing a little yelp out of the child who soon began to cry a little.
After just a short moment, he let go and leaned back. “A-Yuan, do you know why I did this?”
Sniffling, the child held his ear. Because you’re a psycho or something!
“If you attack me, I will eventually attack back,” he explained without needing to hear his child’s guess first. “And I’m doing this now, because when you get older and stronger, it’s important that you know this lesson already. By heart.”
…Fair enough, but why would I fight a Demon Lord?! I’m not crazy!
After a quick brush through his son’s hair, Jiuchong-jun put him back down on the bed, letting the pouting kid crawl up to his mother.
His next words were addressed to her, then. “I will be back later, hm?”
The mother of two smiled faintly as she watched him leave. “I will be here, my Lord.”
Once he had left, the woman let out a deep breath, smiling at her daughter, who was still in her arms, but talking to her son, who was crying and cuddling up to her again. “He doesn’t mean it in a bad way, A-Yuan. He’s just making sure he won’t have to hurt you in the future. You’ll understand when your little sister grows up and starts biting.”
Shen Yuan actually understood that perfectly well, but he was just a child who was crying about the pain he felt.
“A-Yuan,” his mother mused again. “Can’t you give your mother another smile?”
***
At the end of that day – he had napped a few times on his mother's bed, eaten his meals, and played just a little while his mother was nursing his sister – Shen Yuan was lying in his bed again, staring at the ceiling. This was the first moment he truly felt like himself again... For some reason, his body had its own mind sometimes; with those emotional outbursts and reactions to people he technically shouldn't know, but now recognised as his parents, he had been left confused.
But now he was Shen Yuan again.
No. Not exactly. The name really was Sha Yuan now, wasn’t it?
Why… WHY was he that brat’s older brother? What was he doing in the world of Proud Immortal Demon Way?! What did he do to deserve getting thrown into this badly written stallion novel?
There was more…
If Sha Yuan had never been mentioned in that damn book, did this mean he had been killed off at some point? Not even important enough to do it on-screen? Was he just another bit of cannon fodder?
But most importantly…
What should he do about Luo Binghe?