Chapter Text
If anyone were to ask Shen Yuan, 'Proud Immortal Demon Way' was utter trash. In fact, it was such a trashfire, he deemed it appropriate to stay at least 10 feet away from any physical copy he'd ever encountered (except the ones in his bookshelf at home).
But! And for this he was thankful, if anything this horrible book of papapa and foreseeable 'plottwists' that only ever ended in more teenage-wet-dream-papapa sequences, had accomplished, it had in fact started a whole new fandom of interesting fanfictions.
Yes, he personally prefered original works, but really, anything anyone had to add could just make it a better general experience. Well, if one was able to filter out the 50% of the fanfictions that were simply more badly written papapa.
Long story short, the moment Shen Yuan opened his eyes – after what he had thought to be an extremely bad episode of his always present illness acting up – to another pair of eyes blinking back at him, he was absolutely aware he was either hallucinating or fucked.
Nevermind, in any case he was fucked.
Further proved by the small helpless whail that escaped his lips instead of a decent sentence.
Life as an infant was terribly annoying and boring.
Annoying because he couldn't do anything by himself, boring because there really wasn't anything interesting to waste his time with. While his infant hands seemed to have fun whirrling around some plushy toy, his 20 year old brain was utterly bored.
Well at least he could listen in on some gossip, maids weren't all that held back when they thought the small baby in the room couldn't understand them.
To top it off, his older brother would visit him almost daily.
Shen Yuan had the absolute luck – well thank you very much, whoever got him stuck here – to drag his illness over with him. It felt like some kind of sick joke, especially since him being frail and sickly held everyone back from actually announcing another child being born to the family. Because, again thank you very much, it seems he was born into royalty.
And not any royalty, considering his older brothers name was Shen Jiu.
Well, thank fuck, he had been transmigrated into some non existent OC in one of 'Proud Immortal Demon Ways' fanfictions! Well, if he had thought he was fucked before, he was most definitely fucked now.
Well at least in the future, since Shen Jiu seemed oddly content with just watching him for a while whenever he visited, a weird – and surely ooc!! - blush creeping up his cheeks whenever Shen Yuans small hands would grab onto his fingers. What was this? What, what? Was the allmighty feared Shen Qingqiu of this work actually... actually a brocon? Well, that needed further testing! Bye bye to boredom, hello Gege!
Like this a few years passed by and Shen Yuan was finally able to articulate himself and use the toilet. Two rather big accomplishments after being rendered absolutely useless for a few years whilst being mentally aware of his state.
Well, at least he could say he had now mastered the ways of having his Jiu-ge answer his every beg and call, even if he would complain about it. But hey, this was the way of the tsundere! Ha! The haughty Shen Qingqiu was actually a tsundere.
His existence was still more or less concealed from the public eye, the current king of the Qing Jing kingdom had summoned his two sons over to make sure to keep it that way.
Shen Yuan didn't really listen, he wasn't that interested to be known really. His body was still frail, causing not only his brother but also all available maids to be incredibly fussy when it came to him. Thus the king decided to not announce his second son, since well, there probably would be murder attempts. Two candidates for the thrown never were too well received.
Not that he cared much, he didn't want the crown, especially not since he knew at some point Luo Binghe would come around and just burn the whole kingdom down. He might aswell enjoy his life until then. The only good news were his father explaining that he was at an age to start cultivating.
Ah! The sweet scent of xianxia in this absolutely not even remotely xianxia oriented setting! Whoever wrote this, he would love to take them and shake them heavily.
What! Was! The! Need! Of! Cultivation! In! A! Royal! AU!
God! How was that even going to work? Was one person ruling until they died, while being fucking immortal a thing?! It made no sense!
Well, he might aswell just take it, considering his health. Well, thanks for this absolute bullshit of a canonical worldbuilding author, appreciated but also really not!
Thus began Shen Yuans rise to become a cultivator!
Or honestly not really, while training cultivation and learning proper ettiquette did take up a lot of his time – and admittedly, maybe he had also roamed through the entirety of the royal library by the age he was 8 – life became utterly boring again.
Sure, his brother would tend to him as usual – always making a face like he didn't want to, but you can't fool your brother, gege – as would his brothers closest aide, a young boy named Yue Qi, things were boring.
So, Shen Yuan decided to do what any 8 year old with the brain of someone in his 20s would do, argue with his brother. Not the kind of conflict argument, but the kind of 'Jiu-ge please, noone outside even knows I exist, how could I ever help manage the country if I don't even know how our people are living' argument no child would ever start.
And at some point, a few months in, his brother finally relented, but only under the note that Yue Qi should always be at his side, ready to help his sick little brother. Who really wasn't all that sick anymore, thank you very much!
But who cared! Yue Qi was kinda gullible in a good way, so Shen Yuan happily agreed. He was gonna shake hands on this before his Gege realized the amount of bullshit he had served him!
He would also absolutely never admit to the fact that him trying to argue something out with his 12 year old brother would often turn into either a draw or his loss.
Nope, he was 8 years old alright. Nothing to see here.
Shen Yuan had about everything planned out.
Cultivation had also helped him to get his memories into check so he had an inkling what kind of fanfiction this was.
He may or may not have flipped through it online. The writing style may or may not have reminded him a little too much of Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, but the plot had actually been kind of decent.
If one would ignore all the gayness in this fanfiction. And the mpreg. Why had he read it again? Ah, right, power shennanigans in the background, right, there had been some good stuff. Well, he had absolutely ignored the papapa scenes. In fact, he had skipped them as fast as he had skipped the originals so his innocent eyes were safe!
Long story short, the only bigger change of this story had been the fact that Luo Binghe didn't even care about his partners genders - and the overall setting was obviously some kind of weird xianxia mess. The tearjerking tale of a long lost son to the throne of the past demon sovereign, clawing his way back up, loosing all innocence and having wives and husbands thrown at him left and right. This version hadn't really changed anything on that notion, unless anyone would realize that the harem cast had about doubled. So even more papapa. Well great. At least most harem members were there because they wanted to. Not because they loved Luo Binghe, no, it just really had its benefits to befriend the sole lord over all demon territory. And he was handsome so that was a plus aswell. Which then turned to the villain of the story, Shen Qingqiu, who really wasn't as much a villain as he was simply unwilling to marry Luo Binghe. But alas, Luo Binghe didn't want any of that so he took him by force and well kinda ruined his whole kingdom while doing so, thus his brother became the villain at least in the public eyes. And then more stuff happened, more papapa, some sad papapa, some angry papapa, and well end of the story. It honestly was almost more depressing than the original, considering - again - Luo Binghe didn't even find a single person that loved him for who he was. Not standingwise, but characterwise. A shame, considering Shen Yuan really liked his character. Not the slaughtering and torturing part. The rest was kinda nice. Maybe he should get a puppy-
Well, in any case, he had connected the dots after leaving the estate and roaming through the bustling streets together with Yue Qi. Of course noone had ever talked with him about possible matches in terms of marriage. It wasn't like he had a lot of choice, considering he was the second born son. He'd probably be married off somewhere, in any case, whatever match he would get, it would be political. But! Since Luo Binghe was going to burn this whole city down anyway, that really wasn't his problem at the moment.
Much more so the start of his long term plan to survive! With Jiu-ge and Qi-ge, he had grown fond of them both okay, he couldn't have his tsundere brother and gentle kind of idiot not blood-related brother die! Not that he had ever heard about a Yue Qi in the fanfiction, oh well, it hadn't really followed the villains childhood anyways, so he was probably an originally nameless cannon fodder character.
The plan was pretty easy.
Stage one, establish better relations with the common folk! Since his brother was the villain due to everyone thinking he was, Shen Yuan had the plan to just have everyone love Shen Jiu.
Okay, fine the plan sounded stupid because noone in this setting was even barely aware of the characteristics of a tsundere. But! He could at least help out the commoners and do them some good. Such as giving some of his pocket money to children living on the streets, helping out the elderly, handing out food and water for those who couldn't afford it, yada yada, he was doing his best okay! He had even once stopped some child slavery from happening! The Qing Jing kingdom had long since abandoned the usage of slaves, so he felt rather validated the night he had crawled around locked cages – a fussing Qi-ge ever present – opening them one by one.
Hell yeah! He was so cool!
Stage two, establish trading with the demon race. Well, in the 'original', Luo Binghe had been the one to establish such relations, but really, who would stop him? The territory demons inhabited was fruitful in its own ways, they could probably trade for goods that were still overpriced and absolutely unattainable for commoners. It was mostly obscure stuff, but some of it would be very much needed for specific types of medicine which- well it would really help out okay! And if Qing Jing already had demon relations, then maybe they wouldn't burn it down quite as ruthlessly as they did! Maybe. Well, that was something to consider once his brother had taken the throne. Still, he had to have his Jiu-ge accept the proposal. Well...another argument they'd have to have. Another battle to win!
Stage three was the most simple but also the worst. In case Luo Binghes arrival would catch them off guard, Shen Yuan had decided his brother just needed to be married. Married people were off limits right? Maybe? Ah... well the Luo Binghe in the novel had never encountered an unwilling married possible member of his harem so he wasn't really sure, but it was a plan okay! And this was where the plan also turned into the hardest to get through because well... his brother would always be the unwilling one! Gege please! Your little brother just wants to save you from ruining your life! Just get yourself a good match already! But it has to be someone who appreciated his gege! Absolutely! Shen Yuan was going to find the best match for his brother!
But alas, this also was probably stuff for the future, so Shen Yuan simply stuck with stage number one.
And honestly? Shen Yuan had been doing great.
Sure, Shen Jiu had been fussing over him non stop, but he didn't even know how often Shen Yuan had left the royal compounds.
Yue Qi did, but he was also aware that Jiu-ge might suffer from a stroke if he ever found out, so he didn't tell him either.
And it would have all been absolutely fine, if Shen Yuan hadn't been taken into custody by Huan Hua officials after having helped a pregnant woman cross the Luo River that – oh so conventiently – ran through the border between Qing Jing and Huan Hua territory.
To put it bluntly, he was absolutely fucked.
His entire existence was still not even known to the public. He was only 9 years old! Have some mercy old guy on that throne! He really just wanted to help that woman, okay? She looked kinda nice, and she was bleeding really badly and she had been absolutely clear about how much she shouldn't be found! Okay?? He really just wanted to help! Might turn into a favor later!
Well, not that this held any interest for the imposing figure of the current ruler of the Huan Hua kingdom in front of him. At least Yue Qi was still there. Chained up. Well they were both chained up. Uh...
"So who is this little rat, that helped Huan Huas prisoner to escape?", oh god, he was so fucked. Nevermind running away later in his life, he was about to be executed! That woman was a prisoner?? Well she looked pretty damn well off for that! What about those expensive clothes! She had obviously been a cultivator, considering she hadn't been...well dead after loosing more blood in ten minutes than Shen Yuan had in his veins! Prisoner his ass! He probably helped some unwilling concubine to escape! Well he couldn't blame her, looking at that old fart. Wasn't cultivation supposed to keep you young?
"Uh... this ones name is Shen Yuan, second prince of the Qing Jing empire.", well he might aswell just spill it all. It was probably...maybe.... uh hopefully likely to help him not die on the spot. You couldn't just kill your neighboring countries prince, right? ....right?
Actually maybe he absolutely could. Who even knew Shen Yuan was here? Absolutely noone! Fuck, fuck, fuck! What if the original Shen Qingqiu also had a brother and he died exactly like this? That would absolutely explain the strained relationship between Huan Hua and Qing Jin!
He absolutely fucked up!
"Hm.", Lao Gongzhu gave him a testing glance, fingers almost cramping around his thrones armrests, "You do look like that little crown prince bastard, don't you." Shen Yuan could feel his brows furrow at the statement, inwardly insulting the man for apparently not knowing what a bastard actually was. The thing he did take notice of was Qi-ge huffing in displeasure right behind him. Well, fair enough, he was Jiu-ges closest friend in that regard, even Shen Yuan felt iffy about the insult thrown at his brother. Why was this grown geezer even insulting a child?!
"Very well then, throw them into the Waterprison for now. We can deal with things later."
And thus began Shen Yuans adventure of sitting still on a stone platform while he and Qi-ge were surrounded by absolutely efficient acid.
Wow, that sure was the best day out he ever had.
At least he wasn't alone.
What Shen Yuan didn't know at this point of time was, that the woman he had helped in fact had repayed his kindess already, sending an anonymous hint towards the royal estate, that a child had been arrested by Huan Hua officers, which had looked a lot like Shen Jiu.
This notice alone had sent the entire estate into an uproar, immediately seeking out the young crown prince, who was diligently following up his studies.
For a second there was peace, before Shen Jiu had jumped up, staring at the abundance of people in his private quarters. "So...where is Shen Yuan then?"
The silence was then once more broken by an even bigger uproar upon noone being able to find the second prince.
Shen Jiu – knowing the booksmart idiot that was his brother – didn't even doubt the truth of the letter. In fact, he would like to thank whoever had sent it, after he had his brother back.
The king and queen soon followed suit, alarming the entirety of the Cang Qiong range about the disappearance of the second prince.
Not much later, an entire army, lead by Qing Jing and Qiong Dings kings was sent out towards Huan Hua territory.
Afterall the most precious and well cared for sickly young prince of Qing Jing was being held captive.
It was day four down inside the waterprison, when Shen Yuan felt himself yanked up. A yelp escaped his lips, as a familliar grip around is wrist dragged him through the opened curtain of acid, Yue Qi just a step behind him.
The next thing he knew, Qi-ges cheek was painted red, after a loud smack had echoed through the empty halls ahead of them, Shen Yuans face pressed firmly against his older brothers chest.
Ah, well, yeah Jiu-ge was mad, wasn't he? Despite his fear of his older brothers anger, Shen Yuan felt himself melt into the hug.
These four days had drained him, if not physically, then even more so mentally. Honestly, he wasn't even sure if he could have held on, if Qi-ge hadn't been with him. Even more so, the sudden appearance of his brother made Shen Yuan feel the fatigue of his 9 year old body.
Yup, he was absolutely going to pass out any minute now. Feeling himself slump forward, he lost consciousness while everything around him turned a warm tone of black.