Work Text:
Binngge dies a death worthy of a stallion novel protagonist, surrounded by his many wives on a bed with many pillows, women’s cries are heard all around his pale corpse while the rest of the world celebrates the death of a tyrant, a god, too powerful and evil for the cultivation world to handle.
To some, it is already too late. Binghe had taken many lives on his journey as a protagonist, he got his happy ending, but what happy ending lasts forever? Eternity laughs in the face of things as feeble as “happy endings” after all, not even Binghe was immortal.
Perhaps it’s for the best…
Binghe had thought his life was good, he had no regrets, he killed all who ridiculed him, took to bed every beauty who he so desired, he was both respected and feared …except-
It was a strange occurrence long ago when he was much younger than he is now. That he went to a world with a different him, a different happy ending to his… Why is it that that world intrigued him so? Why was he never able to let go of that sweet yet strange world filled with things beyond his wildest imagination, what did the other him have that he didn’t? He was weaker, less controlled, a crybaby!
What difference was there between the two of them, what did the other him do to end up with an ending happier than those in the romantic legends told across the lands?
BInghe found himself in a white space. Around him was a suffocating nothingness, an eerie lack of sound, unlike silence.
‘Is this the afterworld?’ A sound akin to a windchime rang in his ears, deafening compared to the previous silence. He turned around to find a semi-transparent glass like surface, floating.
The text on it was in an unfamiliar language and under it was a second, smaller, transparent surface with a white decorum around it with the word “yes” written on it.
‘A contract, perhaps?” He tried to decipher the unfamiliar characters written on it when a countdown appeared, the numbers, at least, were in written chinese.
5,4,3…
Binghe pressed his palm against the “yes”
The surface disappeared with another chiming sound.
“Congratulations on winning the achievements “Underdog story” and “Overpowered MC”! Your reward is in progress.”
Binghe was familiar with hearing Xinmo’s voice in his mind, so he knew this sound didn’t come from anywhere else. Yet how peculiar it was to hear a voice other than that in his mind like this…
He felt himself fall asleep, perhaps it was something akin to being transported to Meng Mo’s dream realm.
—-
“Wake up you rat!” He was greeted with a kick to the ribs.
‘Who would dare kick me?’ He opened his eyes and looked up. He was laying on the ground on straw, above him was a dead man, Ming Fan. He blinked for a while, he was sure he killed this scum long ago, so how was it that he was still alive, and he looked as he did as a young disciple of Qing Jing peak.
“Did you not hear me? Shizun has requested to see you, you didn’t show up to training!” Ming Fan exclaimed again, seemingly running out of patience.
“Ah- I see.” Binghe started to understand his current predicament, he had gone back in time to his disciple days.
“You see? I’m your senior brother where’s your apology for making me come all the way here to wake you?” Ming Fan kicked him again, Binghe was malnourished and his young body at this time had barely even formed a qi core, how could he avoid the kick of someone older and more well fed than him?
Binghe seethed as he got up, he bowed in respect to Ming Fan who could only laugh maliciously before taking his band of dogs away with him, after which he decided to go and greet him, it had been a long time after all…
—-
Shen Qingqiu, as poised as ever sitting in his room on a chair and- how did the other him do this? what could he have possibly done differently to change the man before him into the kind and benevolent shizun he had seen then.
Binghe began to hatch a plan, he would then call it, “ Woo shizun”. Childish as it may be, he was determined to change his life, to not have a harem, to not kill everyone on this god forsaken peak… but rather, to seduce his shizun. Perhaps this life would make him more evil than the last… who could really know?
“Luo Binghe, you did not show up to morning training, may I ask why that is?”
Binghe had forgotten what happened at this point in time. Why was he late again?
“My deepest apologies, Shizun, this disciple…” He trailed off, he was not sure what to say to gain his shizun’s good favour.
“This disciple was training late into the night yesterday and neglected to make sure he could wake up in the morning” He was sure this was bound to raise his standing in good favour
… except, he had forgotten how badly tempered his shizun was.
“You expect me to believe such a lie? You? Training?” Shen Qingqiu looked at him with an even fiercer glare.
“Shizun, this disciple does not dare lie, I was training in hopes of making you proud! Does Shizun really think so low of this disciple?”
Binghe remembered how much of a crybaby the other him seemed to be, maybe he too could win Shen Qingqiu’s heart that way.
Shen Qingqiu did indeed seem shocked, but he was by no way moved, Binghe supposed that his crybaby act would need time to start working it's charm.
“You dare cry in front of me? You bring shame to Qing Jing peak and all of its disciples. Get up and go do your training now, twice, as punishment.” Binghe thinks this is definitely less of a punishment than what his shizun would have given him before, perhaps it was indeed working.
He diligently did his training, if he wanted to woo his shizun he would need to be strong as to not appear weak to him.
And so, the days of training, crying, and clinging to his shizun’s thighs to gain his favour began.
Binghe would wake up early in the morning to train properly before training with the others with the fake cultivation manual from Shen Qingqiu, after which he would use all his connections, knowledge, and most importantly, blackmail to acquire power, weapons and… gifts?
That’s right- Binghe would bring a rare gift to Shen Qingqiu every chance he got, at first he was accused of stealing, and it took a lot of convincing performances to make his Shizun accept them, but as he did start accepting them, Binghe began to also understand him better.
Shen Qingqiu was a bitter man who never got the chance to cultivate at the recommended age, thus, he felt jealousy towards Luo Binghe, it was in his nature perhaps, or maybe that hatred was something nurtured into Shen Qingqiu.
Luo Binghe kept trying to give that damned Shen Qingqiu a chance to redeem himself and become the man Luo Binghe had seen all those years ago, he was starting to believe the man he had seen then was not Shen Qingqiu at all…
Allas, he was nothing if not persistent, and as the Immortal alliance drew near, Binghe had realised he had barely, if at all, gained the favour of Shen Qingqiu, and as he was pushed into the same bottomless pit full of pain and sorrow… Binghe realised, that the other him must have been some genius to have changed someone like Shen Qingqiu to become a kind man…
Perhaps- the other him was better in some way, and Bingge hated that.
He seethed, and seethed, in that endless pit he one again hated, and garnered that hatred... except this life, his hatred was very different, it was not born of sadness, disappointed and so on, no. It was born, of jealousy.