Chapter Text
When Shen Yuan woke up in the Fairy Emperor Shen Qingqiu’s body he had already cast a curse on the baby prince, Luo Binghe.
Shen Yuan wouldn’t have purposely cursed a baby! Who asked to transmigrate into this villain character? Shen Qingqiu was known as ‘Maleficent’ in this world (probably for no good reason) and was the emperor of the fairy race. He was regarded as the most powerful, darkest, fairy in the kingdom. No one even dared to utter his name lest he take offense and curse them. It was therefore inconceivable, that the Regent Emperor of the largest kingdom in the land, Yue Qingyuan, did not invite Shen Qingqiu to the ceremony to name the crown prince of the royal family - Luo Binghe.
Shen Qingqiu, of course, threw a tantrum about this and cursed baby Binghe to prick his finger on a spindle and fall into an eternal death when he turned twenty-one. At the Regent’s pleading, Shen Qingqiu had sneered and acquiesced, “Not death, then. The young Prince will fall into an eternal sleep from which he will never awaken...” He stared hard at Yue Qingyuan’s conflicted expression and hissed his next lines mockingly, “...without true loves’ kiss.”
And it was done.
The court magicians had tried reducing the curse to no avail. Shen Qingqiu immediately made his retreat into the enchanted bamboo forest. Between that time and returning to his bamboo hut he had somehow… left? Shen Yuan had suddenly taken over this body and almost panicked when he realized he was inhabiting the ultimate villain from the fairytale, ‘Sleeping Beauty’. His long curled horns were a dead give away.
But which version was he in? Sleeping Beauty had at least eight different tellings that he could recount off the top of his head. And each had a different ending for the evil fairy! He seemed to be in some high fantasy setting in China? Shen Qingqiu almost wept; Chinese novels almost never had merciful endings for the villain! He was doomed to be crushed under Sleeping Beauty’s white lotus halo!
After getting settled in his bamboo hut and finding out he had indeed cursed baby Binghe, the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ of this world, from his student Ming Fan(at least he assumed that was their relationship since the crow was constantly shouting, ‘Shizun!’), Shen Qingqiu had to force himself to breathe and figure out how to deal with the situation.
He felt a little bad about the whole thing. Obviously, he couldn’t be responsible for killing a child! He had to keep track of sleeping beauty before the plot comes for him. Going by the storyline… this should be the point at which Binghe is sent away by the emperor, correct? The royal court gets frightened by the evil fairy’s curse and the baby Sleeping Beauty is sent away to live in the forest with the good fairies. This doesn’t happen in all the versions of Sleeping Beauty but this storyline had become popularized in recent years which made Shen Qingqiu suspect that was the timeline they would follow. In any case, he should have at least an idea where Binghe is being kept to make sure he’s able to monitor how the plot develops.
He motioned to Ming Fan. “Ming Fan, go find out where the baby I cursed is being taken.”
Ming Fan looked confused, “Wouldn’t he stay in the palace, Shizun?”
Shen Qingqiu reclined on the bamboo bed in his hut and used a fan to hide his pondering expression. “This master senses that The Regent Emperor may do something rash to escape the curse. Perhaps even sending away the child…”
Ming Fan shook his head with a smug look, “Trying to escape Shizun’s curse? Pathetic. This student will diligently report where the Prince is taken, Shizun.” And with that, the young boy shifted into a crow and took off out of the hut’s windows.
Shen Qingqiu was alone now to think about his next move. Perhaps he should introduce himself to the good fairies? Something like, ‘Hello! I’m nice now, please help me break that pesky curse I put on the prince?’ But what if the plot prevents them from listening? Shen Qingqiu would be skewered to pieces after approaching them!
The Sleeping Beauty in this story was male so perhaps there was a princess he could fall in love with? Shen Qingqiu would take it upon himself to find the princess and direct her to the Prince so that they would be able to kiss and break the curse. In the original, it was the evil fairy who pushed Sleeping Beauty to prick their finger on an enchanted spindle. The Kingdom would have burned all their spindles so if Shen Qingqiu didn’t do any of that and also (for good measure) set up the protagonist with the Princess, Binghe should be fine? He may even be grateful enough to have found his princess that he wouldn’t kill the evil fairy!
With a plan in mind, Shen Qingqiu began to feel that as far as transmigrations go, this wasn’t too bad! He commanded magic which was very cool and he lived in an enchanted bamboo forest filled with all sort of monsters and creatures to study. He was a king of a peaceful fairy race and could essentially spend the rest of his days lazily playing and having fun in his domain!
Too bad the original hadn’t seen such a nice opportunity right in front of him.
_-_*_-_
Binghe was being raised by three fairies who, frankly, did a pitiful job with the child. Two of them seemed to think they were giving the prince some form of isolated training before facing Shen Qingqiu in twenty-one years while the other was often so absent-minded that he would casually watch as baby Binghe crawled towards a cliff before coming to the realization and hastily collecting the human back up. Shen Qingqiu didn’t want to spy on them but how was he supposed to leave a baby alone in this environment and go to sleep at night!?
It was obvious that all three fairies had no clue how to take care of a human child.
Chief among them was Liu Qingge who, upon their first day with the child, placed the baby on the ground with a comically large sword beside him and barked, “Get up and grab your sword, Human. This teacher will train you.”
Shen Qingqiu almost face-palmed.
The second fairy, Liu Mingyan wasn’t much better, she stared at the flailing baby as it started to cry and turned to Liu Qingge, stating, “The little human is mocking you, brother, allow this one to punish him.”
Shang Qinghua at least had some clue, He hastily bent down to pick up the child and asked, “Are you two insane? Baby humans can’t understand anything, they need love and attention, and food…”
The concepts looked foreign to the Liu siblings. Liu Qingge cleared his throat, perhaps realizing he’d done something foolish and asked, “... what food?”
“Um… milk, I think? And they need to be burped, and changed.”
“Changed?” Liu Mingyan asked with a frown.
“Yeah, babies can’t really control their bladder, y’know?”
Mingyan looked disgusted, she sniffed and stated, “Shang-Shishu can take care of that.”
Shang Qinghua looked like he wanted to argue but was too intimidated by the other two to put up much of a fight.
Shen Qingqiu shook his head in disbelief. At this rate the protagonist was going to die of neglect instead! This was good news for the original but… he couldn’t just ignore Binghe and leave him to suffer the ‘good’ fairies ineptitude! After all, he was a very cute baby.
“Make sure to deliver flower nectar to the residence. Do it secretly.” He instructed Ming Fan. At least then, the baby would have something to eat.
Ming Fan frowned but didn’t argue. Shizun was acting very weird lately… since when did he care so much about humans?! But it wasn’t his place to question his Shizun so he dutifully watched as the next few months Shen Qingqiu casually used his magic to keep the child safe and the three fairies adjusted to what it actually meant to take care of a human.
The fairies weren’t completely inept and eventually caught on to how to take care of the child. At that point, Shen Qingqiu retreated deeper into the forest to wait for the next plot point. He’d order Ming Fan to stay back and report any new developments.
_-_*_-_
Almost fifteen years later (although it felt like a blink of an eye for an immortal like Shen Qingqiu) Ming Fan reported to Shen Qingqiu that Binghe had begun cultivating. Shen Qingqiu was excited! This was the point when Sleeping Beauty would begin his training and would thus explore the outside world. He could now meet his true love, the princess!
It would only help Binghe in the future if he were to introduce the young couple right now, Shen Qingqiu reasoned. There was still no sign of the princess but Shen Qingqiu knew where to look. Yue Qingyuan had engaged the crown prince to the neighboring kingdoms’ princess, who else could be the fated partner?
It was bittersweet to think that the prince was growing up. Throughout the years, Shen Qingqiu had become fond of the protagonist who sometimes needed help out of weird situations with the fairies. At one point, Liu Qingqe had insisted that Binghe needed ‘survival’ training and had left a 10-year-old Binghe alone in the forest. Shen Qingqiu had used rice to coax a starving Binghe back to his cabin, all the while remaining hidden. When Binghe was twelve, Liu Mingyan had become concerned that the human child showed no signs of flying and to ‘help things along’ she had thrown him off a cliff before her brother and Shang Qinghua could explain that humans couldn’t fly. Shen Qingqiu had used his magic to catch Binghe on a tree branch.
When Binghe was fourteen, he had grown more willful and purposely escaped his guardians to venture further into the enchanted bamboo grove, seemingly searching for something. It was in those expeditions that Shen Qingqiu would secretly follow him to make sure that no monsters or fae kidnapped the beautiful protagonist.
And now at fifteen… Binghe will need to begin cultivation training.
Shen Qingqiu had to construct the perfect ‘First meeting’ between Binghe and his Princess-to-be, a human cultivator named Ning Yingying. He already had a plan in place - Liu Qingge, as the fairy with the most combat experience, was in charge of teaching Binghe in cultivation. Fortunately, the original Shen Qingqiu had trained beside the other fairies and he knew Liu Qinge’s personality enough to know that this basically meant Binghe was given a tattered old cultivation manual while Liu Qingge left to fight some monsters. Shen Qingqiu kept careful track of which part of the manual Binghe was practicing each day. Today, he would start playing the guqin to learn how to channel cultivation into the notes of the instrument to make the notes strong and powerful. Shen Qingqiu and sent Ming Fan to retrieve Ning Yingying into the enchanted forest by stealing one of her jade hair ornaments. The princess immediately gave chase to the crow, and ended up lost in the forest near the lake where Luo Binghe set up his guqin to practice.
Shen Qingqiu could imagine it now! Binghe would play an enchanting melody that would peak the female lead’s interest. She would follow the music to meet Luo Binghe who’s naturally sweet disposition wouldn’t allow him to abandon a girl in trouble. He would help her out of the forest and, in the process, the young couple would experience that ‘spark’ that was common in fairytales which would make them fall madly in love with each other.
Shen Qingqiu smiled at the fantasy but his smile wavered when Binghe actually started playing.
…
….
Binghe! What sort of playing is this?? Don’t just smash the strings!
… perhaps it was too much to expect someone’s first time playing the guqin to sound refined but, dammit, this was the protagonist! Wasn’t there supposed to be some reliable ‘hidden talent’ halo around them? Shen Qingqiu was banking on the plot making up for any inexperience on Binghe’s part in order to facilitate the first meeting. At this rate, Ning Yingying was actually going to be repelled by the music rather than enamored!
Well then, it was up to Shen Qingqiu to help things along. He was hidden in the forest just out of site from both Luo Binghe and Ning Yingying. He summoned his own guqin out of the air and cast a spell on it so that whatever music came from it would sound as if it came out of Luo Binghe’s own instrument.
Then, he began to play.
Binghe played for a few more minutes more before he stopped and looked at his guqin incredulously as it continued to play a perfect, beautiful melody. What the …? Was his instrument enchanted to play by itself? A thought occurred to him and he almost rushed to stand before he heard a friendly voice behind him.
“You’re playing is beautiful.”
Binghe turned and warily regarded the girl in front of him. Humans generally didn’t wonder into the forest and the few humans his age Binghe had encountered before weren’t very nice… Binghe slowly nodded to acknowledge the compliment and turned back to inspect his instrument. He had a feeling that something or someone had enchanted it. Perhaps because his playing was so atrocious? They had wanted to help? Binghe felt a warm flush appear on his neck, partly from embarrassment but also from… a warm feeling.
The girl behind him didn’t look miffed at being ignored, instead she ran around to get back into his line of site and gave him a small bow, “This one’s name is Ning Yingying.” She had a small blush on her face, “And you are…?”
Binghe was always polite so he returned the bow and stated, “This one is Luo Binghe.”
“A-Lou, let’s be friends!”
Binghe raised an eyebrow. So familiar already? But he didn’t have time to protest, he had to find whoever… had just helped him with his playing. He bowed politely again.
“Binghe will take his leave. It was good meeting Ms. Ning Yingying.”
Before Ning Yingying could protest the distant form of address, he was already gone.
“...”
_-_*_-_
Binghe, what the hell!!!??
You just blew off a princess!
Is she not the true love you’re looking for? Why is the protagonist so picky?! Shen Qingqiu’s master plan was ruined and he had no idea why. Perhaps Binghe was just… too young? But what fifteen-year-old boy wouldn’t like talking to a young girl? Shen Qingqiu conveniently forgot his own youth which he spent more interested in reading about various harem protagonists than dating any girls.
Where had Binghe run off to so quickly? Just as he was about to go looking, he heard panting and stomping behind him as if someone had run up to him only to come to an abrupt halt. His shoulders stiffened and he suddenly wished that he had the ability that every other fairy seemed to have to just spread his wings and fly up out of there.
The evil fairy wasn’t supposed to meet the protagonist! Agh, Shen Qingqiu had royally screwed up.
“W-Who are you?”
Binghe’s voice sounded breathless and awed behind him. Shen Qingqiu doesn’t turn to face him and stayed silent trying to figure out an excuse.
“You’re… a fairy, aren’t you? Like my guardians.”
Shen Qingqiu opened his fan to hide behind and slowly turned to face the protagonist. Binghe sucked in a breath and spent a moment staring at his face before quickly averting his eyes to stare at the floor instead.
“In a sense, yes.” From journals and letters, Shen Qingqiu knew this body’s owner had spent his childhood learning beside Liu Qingge before their falling out. They weren’t so dissimilar.
Only… Shen Qingqiu was a dark fairy and the villain in this plot. He carefully moved to retreat from the protagonist but Binghe just followed, making up any steps Shen Qingqiu tried to put between them. Shen Qingqiu frowned wondering where in the world Ning Yingying had sulked off to. This was supposed to be a fated meeting between the main couple, dammit! What business does Binghe have meeting the villain?
“You’ve been looking after me.” Binghe accused in an almost distrustful manner.
Shen Qingqiu was too surprised to deny it. His actions had been flawless! How had Luo Binghe seen through things so clearly? “A-are you my fairy god-father?”
Shen Qingqiu almost fell over. This setting did have such things but… How does this king look like a fairy god-parent??!
“Don’t be ridiculous.” He waved his fan to cool down his heated face. Thankfully, this body’s face doesn’t easily show how flustered it was. “This one is a fairy that lives deep in the bamboo forest. How would he have time to care for you?”
Binghe looked confused, “But then why…?”
“...”
Binghe gulped, and plowed on determinedly, “Why has Master Fairy been so kind to me? Why have I been continuously saved by magic? T-This one has heard that dark fairies often choose favorite human children to spoil… and then when the children are grown, they spirit them away to devour.”
“Binghe!” Shen Qingqiu was aghast, “This fairy is not going to eat you.”
For some reason, that made Binghe frown. “Isn’t master fairy even a little tempted?”
“No!” Eating the protagonist was a sure way to get killed!
Binghe crossed his arms, almost looking offended.
Shen Qingqiu cleared his throat. “This fairy is the ruler of these woods. Small human children shouldn’t be wandering around.”
“You were helping me play my guqin.”
“...”
“Why?”
“... You weren’t very good at it.” Shen Qingqiu admitted.
Luo Binghe shrugged and kicked at the dirt. “Shizun doesn’t really teach me personally so…” Then he wrinkled his nose, thinking. “I don’t think Shizun even knows how to play the guqin himself.”
“He doesn’t.” Shen Qingqiu admitted with a sigh. But he was happy that Binghe had stopped with the scary questions. “Liu Qingge isn’t really the most… delicate of fairies. His cultivation method doesn’t include any of the arts.”
“But you know how to? And you know Shizun? So maybe Master Fairy wants to teach me this cultivation method?” Binghe asked hopefully.
Binghe does a villain look like a master to you? Shen Qingqiu wanted to protest but Binghe continued before he could deny it, “After all, if you're not my Fairy God-father, you’d have to be a teacher, correct? Otherwise, why else would an older man like yourself be stalking me…” Binghe trailed off muttering to himself.
But!!
That wasn’t fair! Everything Shen Qingqiu did was for the sake of escaping the shitty plot!
Shen Qingqiu sighed, not wanting to explain the intricacies of a storyline to a fairy-tale character. He had one student, what was a couple more? Shen Qingqiu cleared his throat and offered, “If Binghe wants some help perfecting his instrument, this fairy can only agree.” Maybe this would work out better. If Shen Qingqiu took on some of the burden of training up the protagonist, perhaps he could withstand his misfortune later on.
Luo Binghe’s beautiful face lit up in an eager smile. The protagonist excitedly ran closer looking as if he wanted to put his arms around Shen Qingqiu but didn’t dare be too forward.
Shen Qingqiu smiled, patting the child’s head as a concession. Binghe happily pressed his skull more firmly against his palm. Poor prince , Shen Qingqiu could only sigh inwardly, with only those three idiots for company, Luo Binghe probably did not get much in terms of physical affection. That sort of stuff was important for humans!
“Sh-Shizun!” Binghe tested out the word as if it were new and not something he’d called Liu Qingge countless times. Shen Qingqiu could only laugh.
“Is ‘Shizun’ such a flimsy title that you’d give it to anyone?” he scolded Binghe, “Be respectful to Liu Qingge.”
“But if Shizun is the one who’s actually going to teach me, then only Shizun can have that title.”
Well… there was nothing Shen Qingqiu could say to that, right? If Liu Qingge wanted his student back he’d just have to put in the effort. Now that it was like this, Shen Qingqiu would diligently teach the Binghe everything he knew, or at least everything the original goods had taught this body.
“Binghe… this master shouldn’t be talking to you. If others were to hear…”
“I know.” Binghe said, surprising Shen Qingqiu, “That’s why Shizun always looks after me in secret, right? Don’t worry, your student won’t talk about our meetings with anyone else.”
Shen Qingqiu opened his mouth to deny ‘looking after’ anybody but finally just shrugged and said, “Then let’s get started on the guqin.”
_-_*_-_
Time flew by and Shen Qingqiu continued to teach Luo Binghe right under the 3 fairies’ noses. All of them just assumed Binghe was practicing cultivation privately in the forest and Binghe didn’t deny it.
Under the villain’s tutelage, Binghe flourished making it look as if private cultivation was doing a world of good for Luo Binghe. Often, Liu Qingge would feel out Binghe’s growing meridians with a thoughtful frown. He’d grudgingly praise Binghe with a muttered ‘you’re doing fine’ and then watch him all the more intently as Binghe left once again to train in the forest.
Ming Fan had not taken kindly to having a new student hanging around, but after almost five years of his Shizun’s new ‘kind mood’ he could only grudgingly accept Luo Binghe as a daily part of Shen Qingqiu’s life.
“Shizun is being so nice to humans…” He muttered loud enough for Shen Qingqiu to frown at him. “Has Shizun forgotten what sort of monsters they are?”
This setting wasn’t as simple as a fairy tale would lead you to believe. Although, as a dark fairy, Shen Qingqiu should be considered evil, only humans really thought so. The original was actually a very well-regarded leader for fairy-kind who generally distrusted humans after years of enmity between the races. The ‘good’ fairies were outliers in this. Although they technically should serve under Shen Qingqiu, they were a different breed of magical beings that were raised in cities alongside humans. Shen Qingqiu’s followers were the magical forest-dwelling folk.
The only really villainous thing the original had done was curse the baby prince.
Weird.
Perhaps he was just in a bad mood that day? Obviously, he had really wanted to attend that stupid party.
“Come now, Ming Fan.” Shen Qingqiu consoled the crow, “The humans have been incredibly cordial in recent years. Emperor Yue Qingyuan has been respectful of our borders.”
This was true. Despite Maleficent having cursed the human prince, Regent Emperor Yue Qingyuan had issued strict orders that no fairy should be harmed as revenge for the royal family. He never made any attempt to get rid of Shen Qingqiu by sending soldiers into the forest, nor did he try to reason with the Fairy King.
Shen Qingqiu found it admirable. This really was an exemplary Regent Emperor.
The crow didn’t think so. Ming Fan snorted and muttered, “As it should be. That scum shouldn’t be provoking Shizun any more than he already has…” Then Ming Fan’s expression fell and he glanced at Shen Qingqiu apologetically, “Ah, forgive me, Shizun. This student was angry and spoke carelessly, please don’t mind it.”
Hm? Shen Qingqiu frowned wondering what Yue Qingyuan had done to ‘provoke’ him? Could it have been more than just not inviting him to a party? These feudal chinese settings were always so complicated…
_-_*_-_
It was when Luo Binghe turned seventeen that his guardians told him about his true lineage as a prince. It was world-altering to think he had been some… what? Hidden royal? Binghe couldn’t believe it. He shook his head saying, “But shouldn’t a prince be raised a certain way? In the palace?” Perhaps this was a plot by the regent emperor? A way to get rid of the legitimate line?
“Well, that’s certainly true.” Shang Qinghua explained, nervously. “But you were sent away for your own protection. You see...erm… it’s a little…”
“You were cursed to die when you were a child.” Liu Qingge cut in without any preamble. Shang Qinghua sent him a small glare but he only rolled his eyes and held in his rebuke.
Seeing Luo Binghe’s aghast expression, Shang Qinghua elaborated, “There was a curse put on you when you were a child. It dictates that on the day of your coronation when you turn twenty-one, you’ll prick your finger on a spinning wheel and fall into an eternal sleep. ” he glared at Liu Qingge again, “ not death.” Shang Qinghua looked at Binghe encouragingly, “There is hope though, if you were to have true love’s kiss, then the spell will be broken.”
“Fortunately, a bride has already been picked out for you.” Liu Mingyan said, also trying to sound hopeful. “If anything happens, of course you’ll be wed and your bride can kiss you awake. Right, brother?”
Liu Qingge did not respond. There was no need to since everyone knew he wasn’t really someone you believed in ‘true love’. As far as he was concerned, Luo Binghe had been given a death sentence. Maybe, just maybe, killing the one who placed the curse, Shen Qingqiu, before the prince turned twenty one could save him.
Being some sort of hidden prince wasn’t nearly as shocking as finding out he was engaged. Binghe immediately stood up from the table they had all gathered at in their little cabin. “No!”
His guardians were shocked. Liu Mingyan consoled, “Don’t worry, little human, you’ll return to the palace soon enough and your three fairy subjects will accompany you.”
“I’m not getting married.”
The three fairies looked at each other in consternation. If this was a normal prince, their stance would be firm. After all, a prince’s duty was to marry for the betterment of the kingdom. But this prince was different. If he didn’t accept his marriage whole-heartedly, how was he supposed to receive ‘true love’s kiss’?
Shang Qinghua was the first to clear his throat and wave the prince’s statement away, “Well, in any case, we can’t really make hasty decisions until you at least meet your bride, right? Right. For now, our prince needs to begin a royal education so he can ascend the throne when the time comes.”
“Your training will be doubled from now on.” Liu Qingge warned.
“And you’ll need to learn the scholarly arts and be taught how to run a kingdom.” Liu Mingyan nodded.
Luo Binghe agreed slowly. After a moment, he asked, “Who was it that cursed me?”