Chapter Text
After Liu Qingge had left, Nie Zhuang was surprised to have another visitor.
Scribbling on a sheet of paper with his free hand, Nie Zhuang asked her.
=You got out of closed cultivation? Do you have a recital soon?=
Nie Zhuang belatedly thought that it was rather tactless of him to reveal that he hadn’t been paying attention to the going-ons of a member of his clan’s closest ally.
Fortunately, Lan Xuehuan was unlike her cousin, Lan Qiren, who would be more nitpicky about manners and things like this. While she was unmistakably Lan, she was also different from many of her clan. The pale greens of Qing Jing that she wore instead of blue testified to this. Lan Xuehuan was the only Lan that Nie Zhuang knew that would join another sect.
Nie Zhuang could still remember his shock when Sect Leader Nie had sent him a letter telling him to look after Sect Leader Lan’s niece who had decided to join Cang Qiong. Ten years later, Nie Zhuang was still surprised whenever he would see her outside of Qing Jing. Lan Xuehuan almost rivalled Xu Qingli in years spent in almost uninterrupted closed cultivation. Seven years. To Bai Zhan disciples, just a few months of closed cultivation was a punishment.
Liu Qingge’s punishment for punching Shen Qingqiu after Shen Qingqiu had used a ‘dirty trick’ on Nie Zhuang in the inter-peak competition mere hours ago was closed cultivation.
Nie Zhuang couldn’t imagine how they could do something so boring.
But Nie Zhuang was happy to see her. Lans weren’t that bad. In the few times that they had met to check on one another, Lan Xuehuan had been impeccably well-mannered like the rest of her clan. This was true even when she was thirteen and just starting as a junior disciple on Qing Jing.
Lan Xuehuan nodded her head in answer.
“I will be performing tomorrow.” She said quietly.
=Oh! That’s wonderful! I’m sure many of our visitors would love to hear it.=
Nie Zhuang scribbled in response, knowing how the crowds for recitals scheduled near the inter-peak competition would always be busier. At this time, many disciples had their family members and guests around.
The inter-peak competition of Cang Qiong was always open for outsiders to watch. The competition was in part intended to show the strength of their cultivators to the world.
Likewise, the recitals scheduled near the time of the inter-peak competition would display the excellence of Qing Jing. Shen Anwei, the Qing Jing Peak Lord, normally had Lan Xuehuan play around this time or towards the end of the season for senior recitals. Although she was almost always in closed cultivation, Lan Xuehuan was one of Qing Jing’s and Gusu Lan’s best performers.
“It would be to this humble disciple’s honor to represent Qing Jing at the recital.”
So humble. Nie Zhuang smiled. Like many people weren’t always wanting to hear her play for them. Nie Zhuang didn’t think that Lan Xuehuan knew that she had many fans amongst music connoisseurs in Cang Qiong. Even experts fought to buy information on when she would play and then tickets for the limited guaranteed seating. Senior recitals were open to everyone, even outside guests, but Lan Xuehuan’s performances were always packed.
Nie Zhuang noticed her examine his injuries and wrote.
=Don’t mind me. I just lost to Shen Qingqiu a few hours ago.= Nie Zhuang wrote before picking up another piece of paper that he had earlier wrote on to talk to Liu Qingge.
He pointed to the words that said =The jaw will heal in another couple weeks. The worst part is regrowing the teeth. It itches.=
Lan Xuehuan nodded. Her hands pulled out a generous stack of talismans from her qiankun pouch. Freezing talismans, Nie Zhuang recognized in glee.
Although he couldn’t move any part of his body that was aggressively bandaged by a Qian Cao disciple, Nie Zhuang’s chest rumbled in laughter.
=Liu Qingge had thought of the same thing when he had heard. Thank you, Lan Xuehuan, for the gift. This one will always be pleased to have more ice.=
As Liu Qingge had said when his friend had visited, Qian Cao never prescribed enough.
“Rest well, Nie Zhuang.” She said.
‘Nie-shidi’ would be too awkward for him because she was younger and someone he had known since they were young. But ‘Nie-gongzi’ was his cousin so Nie Zhuang had asked her to just call him by name after she had become a senior disciple.
Fortunately, Lan Xuehuan had not minded. There were many rules of Gusu Lan that she would not compromise on, but perhaps she had relented on this one because of how many Nies she knew as a Lan. They were the only Nie and Lan in Cang Qiong right now, but it would still be easier to call a Nie by name even if etiquette wasn’t so agreeable.
Nie Zhuang happily applied a freezing charm to his sore jaw. Painkillers had numbed away the pain, but the sand tornado thing that Shen Qingqiu had done in the fight had made his jaw feel so wrong. Not that Nie Zhuang had agreed with Liu Qingge’s response to that ‘unfair tactic’. The referee had approved of the technique. Shen Qingqiu was also a spiritual cultivator.
Nie Zhuang privately thought that it was more unfair for Liu Qingge to suddenly punch the winner of a fair battle just because he had disagreed. It could be because although Liu Qingge was his friend and a member of the Nie Clan like him, Nie Zhuang had more exposure to the rigid nature and rules of the Lan Clan in thanks to Sect Leader Nie’s request for Nie Zhuang to occasionally look out for the little Lan back in her junior disciple days. Nie Zhuang was always grateful that Sect Leader Nie had asked him and not Liu Qingge. It was probably because Sect Leader Nie had not wanted to bother the newly made Bai Zhan head disciple back then, but that would have been a disaster.
Thinking about his injuries, Nie Zhuang hoped that Shen Qingqiu wouldn’t take too much offense to Liu Qingge. Even more so than before, the An Generation Peak Lords were beginning to watch and evaluate the Qing generation. It wouldn’t be so good if the animosity between successors grew as the Peak Lords were preparing for Ascension. Nie Zhuang wouldn’t wish for things to go wrong for his oft-times impulsive friend. Liu Qingge was his best friend on the mountain.
=I wish you the best performance.= Nie Zhuang wrote. He would still try to attend, but his injuries would probably prevent him from making the trip to Qing Jing. Maybe he could sell the seat to someone else. Lan Xuehuan always prepared a seat for him since their clans were allies. She used to have done so for Liu Qingge too – out of polite courtesy because Liu Qingge’s mother was a Nie – but Liu Qingge had never been interested. Since Lan Xuehuan’s performances were one of the few senior recitals that were so packed that guaranteed seating close to the stage came with ticket prices, it was a waste to give it to a person who was never interested.
“Thank you.” Lan Xuehuan said. They talked a bit more before she excused herself and left. Lans didn’t gossip so Nie Zhuang would only tell her important things that she had missed whenever she left closed cultivation.
Nie Zhuang wondered if she would return to closed cultivation after the recital like she had been doing for the past seven years. As a Bai Zhan physical cultivator, Nie Zhuang always wondered what she was doing in closed cultivation for so long.
-
Lan Xi, courtesy name Lan Xuehuan, nearly sighed as she left Qian Cao after checking on her Nie counterpart. Her skin itched. She felt like staying in closed cultivation again. But this time, when she had returned to Ku Xing to sit under a yin-rich waterfall, Lan Xuehuan merely thought of the world, people, and timeline.
She had once felt like this before. Back when she was twelve, she had nearly gotten a qi deviation when she had learned that she was in Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System instead of Modao Zushi. Hearing the words ‘Liu Qingge became a head disciple at Cang Qiong’ had nearly made her drop her chopsticks. The System warned her for ‘un-Gusu Lan-like behavior’ so she hadn’t, but the rest of the conversation about Nie Zhuang, Liu Qingge, and Cang Qiong among the Nie Sect members had been enlightening and almost too much for her poor heart to bear.
The System forced her to act like a ‘Lan’, but Lan Xuehuan couldn’t just ignore the ‘other half of this world’. Especially not the clearly ‘more important’ half with how the world and its power balance had heavily favored SVSSS over MDZS. Even the books in the Nie Sect Library, once she had been able to read them without qi deviating, had laid it out clearly. This was some sort of SVSSS-centric fanon crossover universe.
Lan Xuehuan needed to investigate it. She needed to know what sort of world it was that she was in.
That night, after her uncle had finished playing Cleansing for the Nie Sect Leader, Lan Xuehuan made up an excuse for the System and asked her uncle if she could join Cang Qiong.
Sect Leader Lan was surprised, but he readily let her go after she had answered a few questions.
Lan Xuehuan joined the next initiate trials of Cang Qiong. She kept her head down as she went through the Qing Jing junior disciple life as best as she could while still behaving as a Lan. She quickly figured out which alternate universe she could be in by the names of all the An Generation and Qing Generation Peak Lords.
When Shen Qingqiu had appeared later in the year – sixteen and fresh from Wu Yanzi’s clutches – Lan Xuehuan had already begun to think that it was fine to let everything play out while she focused on her own thing. Lan Xuehuan entered closed cultivation as soon as she became a senior disciple and was able to get permission to use a space near a Ku Xing yin-rich waterfall. She agreed to performing at least once a year in senior recitals. Sometimes, Lan Xuehuan would leave to do heavy research in Cang Qiong’s libraries. Sometimes, she would leave for more paper, ink, and supplies. But Lan Xuehuan told herself that she would not interfere with the plot. She would stay in closed cultivation until it was ten years after she had joined Cang Qiong. Normally, Lan Xuehuan let Shen Anwei choose her recital dates, but she had intentionally chosen the date of her senior recital this year to be the day after the inter-peak competition.
Lan Xuehuan cleaned up and left her cave the day before her recital. She joined the audience to watch the inter-peak competition. She watched everything play out. After Shen Qingqiu was knocked out by Liu Qingge, she subtly moved to go see the medical tent wherein Cheng Anshuo would treat Shen Qingqiu.
Shen Qingqiu stormed out of the tent as soon as he was conscious. It felt as if the world had suddenly stopped for her. For some reason, it had already been feeling slow, even ominous. But after seeing Shen Qingqiu so Shen Jiu, the world felt even more slow to her.
Yue Qingyuan saw Shen Qingqiu and tried to ask if he was alright. Shen Qingqiu barely held himself from yelling at the Qiong Ding successor in anger. Shen Qingqiu vanished, probably headed for Qing Jing to avoid everyone and all the stares.
Lan Xuehuan barely reminded herself to breathe.
Lan Xuehuan barely reminded herself to visit Nie Zhuang – something that she would habitually do after she had left closed cultivation. Her eyes read everything on the sheet of paper that Nie Zhuang had used to talk to Liu Qingge, not just the few sentences that Nie Zhuang had pointed to.
When Lan Xuehuan left Qian Cao, she immediately made her way back to Ku Xing to borrow a waterfall. There, under the cold waters and soothing sounds, Lan Xuehuan breathed, finding the slow steady tells of an incoming qi deviation soothe back to a tranquil, meditative state.
It was habit - twenty three years of self-control and being a Lan that saved her. Ironically, her second near-qi deviation would have been for the same reason as her first.
Lan Xuehuan closed her eyes, wondering how stupid and arrogant she had been. She had once again made a big misunderstanding of the world.
Shen Qingqiu was either going to be ‘possessed’ by his previous incarnation ‘Shen Yuan’ many decades into the future, or this world was some sort of SVSSS-centric franken-fanon crossover universe.
It was not Grand Unified Theory of Shen Qingqiu Part 2. It might be Part 1, but it might also not be. It might be some unreleased alternate version. It might also be countless alternate versions of different fanfictions put together. It might be a whole new world. The premise of her original thoughts was wrong. She once again had no idea of what sort of world it was that she was in. The System wasn’t going to do anything more than remind her to act as a Lan either. It would neither tell her what Halo she might have or what the Plot may be.
Lan Xuehuan felt lost for a moment. Should she wait another decade – many more decades – until she could see if Part 1 or canon would play out and Shen Qingqiu would either be someone regressed or transmigrated into his body? Was there some sort of benefit to that? Some sort of warning? What should she do as an insignificant character in the story – helpless to the many powers above and around her?
Lan Xuehuan meditated. She practiced her senior recital pieces. It felt odd to her – the sounds of her guqin and xiao – so she moved to a place that she once had found even more musical to her.
Lan Xuehuan stopped in her tracks when she had found Shen Qingqiu.
Shen Qingqiu. A scum-villain destined to either be tortured to death by the world, or ‘possessed’ by a transmigrator and ‘loved’. There were happy endings, but most involved suffering before reaching the end. Several involved him giving in first, him changing for others first, him being forced to as if there were no choices allowed to him. A slave to people who didn’t deserve it, to the world, to even outsiders of the world. A person who had to do almost everything by himself because very rarely would someone offer him a free, untainted kindness.
But Lan Xuehuan remembered the Shen Qingqiu she had known from her junior disciple days. Three years was not so short. Since Shen Qingqiu’s health and cultivation was unstable, Shen Anwei had isolated his newly named successor in his home at first. Lan Xuehuan imagined that the Qian Cao Peak Lord was healing Shen Qingqiu and Shen Anwei was teaching the smart Shen Qingqiu all the basics in an intense crash course first. After all, later, when Shen Qingqiu began joining their classes, she could understand how people could mistake a slave as a spoiled rich master. Had Lan Xuehuan not known better, Lan Xuehuan could have been fooled too.
Shen Anwei was righteous and kind, but Qing Jing wasn’t free from bullies and other negative things. The Peak was centered around scholars so it naturally had an elitist feel even if Cang Qiong was famous for accepting everyone from all backgrounds. Qing Jing wasn’t the exception, even if there were more children from noble, cultivator, or scholarly backgrounds.
Lan Xuehuan remembered Shen Qingqiu though – his cold demeanor and sharp remarks that didn’t win him any favor. It was worsened by the fact that he had seemed to be Shen Anwei’s ‘favorite’. Shen Anwei had given him more attention than all the countless other people who were ‘better’ than the junior disciple who was barely passable in sword, cultivation, and the Four Arts. Come to think of it, he wasn’t always Shen Qingqiu. In this world, Shen Jiu had to work hard for the name and title.
Shen Jiu had to catch up to his peers and even surpass them. It was made more difficult when everyone didn’t like him and Shen Jiu had made no effort to change that.
But Lan Xuehuan, who had often been the one to sit next to him or be his partner in group projects, knew just how hard Shen Jiu had worked to become the head disciple Shen Qingqiu. Lan Xuehuan remembered everything even if she had tried not to. Lan Xuehuan remembered Shen Qingqiu, the ‘Shen Qingqiu’ that she had thought was going to be killed, replaced, or become ‘something else’ with no memories of his own of their shared time.
Before she could grieve in anticipation, await whatever fate Shen Qingqiu would befall, Lan Xuehuan had taken a step back first. She decided to distance herself first and return after he was who he would remain. Lan Xuehuan had a lot that she had wanted to do anyways. She had temporarily set it aside to investigate Cang Qiong, but she had never forgotten what she had been doing before she had heard the name of the sect. Seven years would pass by quickly. It had.
But now, Lan Xuehuan had begun to question all her thoughts and choices again. She was wrong – even if Grand Unified Theory of Shen Qingqiu had played out and Shen Qingqiu had New Game Plus-ed into the present. She was wrong even if Shen Yuan had directly transmigrated into Shen Qingqiu right now.
Shen Jiu didn’t deserve to be left alone – not in the past, not ever again.
Even if ‘Shen Jiu’ was to die, Lan Xuehuan should have stayed with him until the end.
That was what Lan Xuehuan was realizing in the flicker of an angry hurt within the man’s narrowed eyes. Shen Qingqiu looked aloof like he had mastered the peerless cold immortal master persona in the years that they had not seen each other, but Lan Xuehuan could see the tension underneath all the robes.
A cold breeze rustled through the bamboo grove. Shen Qingqiu looked like he was going to say something spiteful and walk away from the clearing. Lan Xuehuan called him before he could leave.
“Shen-shixiong.” She called, her voice loud in the quiet grove. A flicker of light in her peripheral vision told her that her System had almost warned her for raising her voice. It, too, was unused to her raising her voice above a certain decibel around someone. In the past, Lan Xuehuan had unintentionally broken so many rules and activated the System’s punishment for each one. For a long time now, Lan Xuehuan had decided to just act like Lan Wangji would in the future if things still played out like they would in MDZS and her cousin, Lan Qingheng, would have children. It was easier to live in isolation and silence. More than half the rules involved there being another person.
Her voice wasn’t that loud – sharp but barely louder than a normal person’s – but in the secluded clearing surrounded by bamboo, it might as well have been a shout.
Shen Qingqiu stiffened from where he was already beginning to make his move to turn.
“What is it.” Shen Qingqiu spat out. His voice was sharper and angrier than what his aloof persona allowed.
Lan Xuehuan went through all the things that she could say. In the end, she could only be honest as a Lan. It had been years since Lan Xuehuan had been punished by the System, but she was not interested in being punished again, especially not now at such a critical time. Even if she knew that her next words would not be well-received as other words may be, Lan Xuehuan decided to be honest.
“This shimei cannot tell you the reason why she had gone into closed cultivation for so long, but this shimei is sorry that she had if only because she had left you.” Lan Xuehuan said with a bow. “Please forgive this shimei and let this shimei repay you.”
Shen Qingqiu stiffened again – more visibly. He looked like he was going to break his fan in anger.
“And why do you think that this shixiong cares if you had left him?” Shen Qingqiu asked acerbically. “This shixiong could care less about some shimei entering closed cultivation for years without a word. Lan-shimei can do whatever she wants. This shixiong needs no apology, favor, or gift.” Shen Qingqiu spat. “Lan-shimei is thinking too much. It is not like Lan-shimei to think so highly of herself.”
Lan Xuehuan didn’t flinch. Instead, she nodded, raising her head to look at him in the eyes. “This shimei knows her faults but would still entreat Shen-shixiong for mercy and forgiveness because she thinks even more highly of Shen-shixiong. Shixiong does not deserve a shimei who will come and go without a word. Shixiong deserves better.” Lan Xuehuan said in all sincerity. “Shen-shixiong deserves the world.” She declared, watching as Shen Qingqiu’s eyes widened for a moment. “This shimei agrees that she must think highly of herself to matter to such a shixiong, but this shimei will still plea for mercy and forgiveness, for an opportunity to make up for her past and show her sincerity in the present. Whatever shixiong wants, this shimei will do.”
“Lans do not lie.” Shen Qingqiu said shakily. His fan was now closed. He held his fan defensively to himself as if she was doing more blows to him with words than she ever could with a sword. It was his shield, but ineffective against the strength of her words.
Lan Xuehuan nodded her head.
“Yes, and this shimei will not lie.” She replied, holding her hand to her chest. “If shixiong wants to use a truth pollen on this shimei, then this shimei is willing to let him.”
“You…” Shen Qingqiu began before biting off his words. He was silent for a long time, thinking something furiously to himself. Finally, after a long time, Shen Qingqiu said. “Lan-shimei said that this shixiong deserves a shimei who will not come and go without a word.”
And the world. But Lan Xuehuan nodded her head. “This shimei has.”
“Then stay.” Shen Qingqiu said, seemingly equilibrating himself with that. Barely. “Lan-shimei is not allowed to leave this shixiong without a word. Not to closed cultivation, not to Gusu Lan, not to the world.”
He was asking a Lan with dozens of rules on filial piety to potentially choose him over her clan. He was asking her to potentially give up her best access to strength and her freedoms. Wise and self-preserving, Shen Qingqiu was giving her a way to promise without full and real commitment, afraid that it would be too much to ask for more. He was already anticipating that she would refuse or break her promises if he asked for more.
But Lan Xuehuan promised, “If Shen-shixiong would allow this humble one five years to prepare, this one would even vow to give him all her loyalty in this life.”
Shen Qingqiu nearly dropped his fan. “You…” He hissed. “Somewhere, somehow you are lying.” He fanned himself, looking like he was getting worked up again. “Lan-shimei must have found a way to lie without lying.” He said but couldn’t stop the hint of him being pleased from entering his agitated tone. “I just know it.” Shen Qingqiu hissed without a single weight to his accusations. “Fine.” Shen Qingqiu sneered. “This shixiong will have mercy and forgiveness on his shimei. This shixiong will allow his shimei an opportunity to make up for her past and prove her sincerity. This shixiong will not forgive his shimei a second time.”
Undeterred by his intentionally cold tone and words, the false sneer and glare in his expression, Lan Xuehuan bowed. “This shimei thanks her kind shixiong.”
“Me? Kind?” Shen Qingqiu murmured and laughed in disbelief before he could suppress it. He then shook his head. “No matter. This shixiong will decide how Lan-shimei would repay him.”
“Yes, Shen-shixiong.”
Shen-shixiong’s fan fluttered, pleased again. “Then this shixiong will see you after the recital.” Shen Qingqiu said before leaving, letting her have the bamboo grove.
Lan Xuehuan stared as she watched him leave. Besides the ones who would talk to her after the recital, Lan Xuehuan had never paid attention to her audience in the senior recitals before. It was always nerve-wracking to perform in front of so many peers, high-class expert individuals, and immortal masters when she only had her past life as an orchestra kid and hobby musician and this current life in comparison. It was hard to tell which senior cultivators were old because aging stopped after core formation, but Lan Xuehuan knew that some of the people in the audience were centuries old. And she was playing music for them.
Had it not been for the threat of the System, Lan Xuehuan would not be able to do it. The stage fright alone would have killed her. She was more used to hiding in her basement or a sea of kids.
But had Shen Qingqiu been watching her senior recitals?
Lan Xuehuan felt horrible again.
She sat down on a large, polished rock that many senior disciples used as a platform for sitting, meditating, or performing. She took out her best xiao and then returned it. She took out an old erhu that she had once crafted a long time ago in a class with Shen Qingqiu.
She played different songs than her senior recital pieces. They felt just right. Lan Xuehuan nearly hugged her erhu as she began a new composition from the sounds in her heart. She apologized. She pleaded. She promised and hugged a boy in her melody in liberating joy from his forgiveness.
Lan Xuehuan couldn’t say or even think her plans because the System could hear and react to her thoughts, but she was going to do it. Destroy the System connected to her or at least seal it. Begin countermeasures against transmigration and anything else that might take this Shen Qingqiu away.
After many years – almost her whole life – of experimenting and studying qi, the human body and soul, and talismans, she was almost close to finishing it.
Five years was the maximum. Lan Xuehuan had promised that she would do it. Since it was only a promise, but not something that had truly broken a rule yet, the System had only warned her, but it would not be a lie when the five year deadline was up.
Lan Xuehuan would break the chains of the System and give all her loyalty in this life to Shen Qingqiu. No System, no rules, no plot or person would stop her. She would stay and help him live the best life.