Chapter Text
WEEK 0
Shen Jiu did not like Peak Lord meetings.
“Fucking hell,” he grumbled, as he mounted Xiu Ya. “Are they that incapable? Can’t they survive without each other for a few weeks?”
Shen Jiu especially did not like unprecedented meetings. Case and point: the emergency meeting that had been called just an hour ago. Seriously! It was as if the sect faced a new "emergency" every fucking month! He had made plans to depart the mountain, visit his brothel jiejies, get some much needed beauty sleep... but thanks to the incompetency of some assholes, he was now spending his afternoon with useless brutes. Probably fixing an issue that, no doubt, could have been avoided if the brutes listened to his advice in! the! first place!!! What a waste of time!!!
(And of course, that person would be there. That was always the worst part. Shen Jiu did not like wasting time, did not like being in a room of pig-headed men, and did not like having his plans interrupted. But more than any of that, he did not like that person.)
As he landed on Qiong Ding Peak, (another thing he didn.t like. That he had to come to his peak, had to chase him, as if he hadn’t spent his whole fucking life chasing–) Shen Jiu tucked Xiu Ya back into his sheath, and strolled in. Around him, the other Peak Lords begun to arrive as well, and he promptly ignored their existence, just as they ignored his. Strangely, that person wasn’t standing at the meeting hall gates to greet them like he usually would.
Good, Shen Jiu sneered, The less I have to see him, the better.
Head held high, he waltzed through the mahogany double doors, scanning the room for his seat. The seat of the second highest ranked Peak Lord was, of course, right beside the head of the table. Right beside that person's seat, which was currently... curiously... empty.
No. Wait. There was a small junior disciple sitting there. Most certainly not the Sect Leader of Cang Qiong Mountain. The junior disciple donned Qiong Ding Peak robes, and in his arms was cradling...
An infant.
Despite his high-level perfected poker face, Shen Jiu's jaw dropped.
In that moment, there was a gasp from behind him. The Peak Lords began rushing in, panicked. Distantly, he heard the roaring orders, something like “What’s the meaning of this?” and “How could this have happened?” But Shen Jiu wasn't listening, not really. He didn't even care that about the dumbfuck stupid expression he was probably wearing across his face. His eyes were transfixed, as if singlemindedly, on that person–
He only came back to himself in time to hear Mu Qingfang's diagnosis. “Pollen of Regression,” he said. He peered into the infant's mouth, using his qi as a light source. “It appears Sect Leader Yue has regressed into his infant form."
Shen Jiu wanted to laugh.
It was quiet for a long while as Mu Qingfang continued his explanations. Some of the Peak Lords began to take their seats. This did not include Shen Jiu, still frozen stock still at the entry way. He seemed to hang on to every word the doctor said, that the poison would not have any lasting effect, that Yue Qingyuan would slowly age over the course of the following weeks, that his body simply needed to reach the stage whereby his cultivation could absorb the poison which would take... four weeks.
The room went to shit.
“A whole month," one cried. "We don’t have a Sect leader for a whole month.”
“An Ding Peak cannot take on this extra paperwork–” another chimed in. "Who will handle the diplomatic meetings with–"
"If others find out, this could go horribly. Absolutely no one can speak of this incident until–"
“More importantly,” Shen Qingqiu tried.
No one seemed to listen.
Not for the first time, he found himself wishing that person was here. He'd always had a knack for handling others, a voice that made people want to listen. That person always managed to shut the Peak Lords up when the room was too noisy. That person was–
A child.
His Qi-ge had gone and gotten himself cursed into a fucking child.
It has been years since he had last referred to that person by that name, years since he had last let himself feel anything for that man other than bone-deep hatred and a sick sense of revenge, years of avoiding his gaze in every room, throwing out every gift he had dared to give, twisting every good intention into something bad. Years, and yet right now Shen Jiu couldn't deny what he felt; he was worried.
"More importantly," he tried again, and this time it worked. He cleared his throat, summoning up courage that did not exist. “Sect Leader Yue is in a vulnerable state," he explained. "I need not point out that there are no short few people who would like to take advantage of such a thing." He cast his gaze across the room. "Someone has to care for him, and it cannot be a junior disciple."
Immediately, each Peak Lord began producing their excuses. Some made sense. Bai Zhan wasn't a harmonious environment to raise a child; Qian Cao was far too overworked to be put on babysitting duty; Xian Shu forbade men and this was no exception; it was about what Shen Qingqiu expected.
“If no one else offers, then I can take him,” Shen Qingqiu tried.
Instantly, all the Peak Lords who had previously insisted they couldn’t take care of Sect Leader Yue, were free.
Shen Jiu bit his bitter lip. The audacity! he thought. The nerve!!! These fools, who treated their Sect Leader like a burden, treated his safety like a joke, as if Qi-ge wasn't the best thing that ever happened to them! Those fools thought Shen Jiu was the one unfit to care for him!? Shen Jiu, who would never let Qi-ge be hurt. Who never had, all those years ago with the slavers, and certainly wouldn't now! How dare they suggest he wasn't fit to care for a child!? As if he was secretly plotting some scheme against Sect Leader Yue! As if he were some villain, some sort of abuser, like Qiu Jianluo, or like Wu Yanzi!!!
Shen Jiu took one look at his own hands.
...How dare they be right?
In the end, it was settled after Wei Qingwei offered to babysit him. Everyone sighed their sighs of relief, as if he was some sort of martyr, putting himself in the way of the evil Shen Qingqiu and the helpless Yue Qingyuan. Shen Jiu had wanted to say something, had looked at the room full of Peak Lords, all glaring in his direction, and had known there was no point. No one would take his side. Not even Qi-ge took his side anymore, and he was the only who always... There was no use thinking of it now. It had been a long, long time since anyone had ever supported him; Shen Jiu should be used to it.
Good riddance, he thought. The less I have to see him, the better.
WEEK 1
In case you didn't hear the first time, Shen Jiu did not like meetings.
He was going to rage. He was going to pull his hair out, and scream. One meeting every sixty days was already enough. Why were they having two meetings within a week!? Can’t the Peak Lords, ostensibly the smartest men in all of cultivation society, figure it out themselves!???
(Another, more honest part of him, was worried. Had something gone wrong? Had Qi-ge gotten hurt? He fretted, Was he being taken care of, being read to, being spoiled with sweets? Qi-ge liked sweets, but he always gave his away, that soft-hearted fool– But Shen Jiu ignored that honest part of himself, because Shen Jiu was not an honest person.)
The moment he walked into the Peak Lord room, he wanted to walk right back out.
Because in the Sect Leader’s chair, with his tiny legs unable to touch the floor, a little ball of messy hair and wide brown eyes stared back at him. Qi-ge, that was Qi-ge staring back at him, his best friend, his first love, once upon a time the boy who was his whole entire world–
“Xiao Jiu,” the boy said.
His voice was so… high. He was so small. So, ah screw it, So cute!!!
“Xiao Jiu,” the boy said again, lip beginning to wobble. In an instant, he was jumping out of his chair, bawling “Xiao Jiu! Xiao Jiu! Xiao Jiu!”
And without thinking, Shen Jiu did what was absolutely uncharacteristic– he opened his arms wide and scooped Qi-ge up.
The whole room stilled.
Qi-ge bawled into his shoulder, no doubt getting snot all over his luxury robes. “Xiao Jiu…” he whined again, and it was so pitiful he had to laugh, patting the boy’s head.
“Xiao Jiu, Xiao Jiu, is that the only thing you know how to say?”
“Xiao Jiu!” he said again, as if on cue. He began to pull, squeezing at Shen Jiu’s cheek, “Where were you!? I wasss.. was so– hic–”
“Shhh, Xiao Jiu is here now.” He carded his fingers through the curls, walking to his seat. “Now, what’s the agenda of this meeting?”
Someone vaguely mutters, “You’re holding the agenda…”
Wei Qingwei clears his throat. “The Sect Leader was wailing non-stop. This one offered food, clothing, toys, but nothing stopped him. He kept calling for–”
“Pardon,” Shen Jiu deadpanned, and tried to summon the most scathing, bitchy tone he could, “You called an emergency meeting because you couldn’t parent a crying kid?”
“Shen Qingqiu,” he spoke gravely. “He cried for 9 hours straight, until his throat went dry, screaming and pleading for his Xiao Jiu.”
Shen Qingqiu froze.
He looked down at the angel in his arms. “...You were such a brat?”
“Sorry,” he mumbled, burying into his arms. “I couldn’t… couldn’t find Xiao Jiu so…”
Ah. He somehwat understood. Judging from his body, this Qi-ge must be what, five or six? That was around the age they started getting really co-dependent. Showering, sleeping, eating, they did it all together, never separated.
Of course, suddenly being alone would be terrifying.
(If it was 5-year-old Xiao Jiu who’d ended up suddenly alone, he would’ve mauled every disciple on Wan Jian Peak until they gave back his Qi-ge.)
“It’s okay. So long as Qi-ge promises to behave now.”
The child pulled back to look at him. “I promise,” he mumbled, “As long as they don’t take Xiao Jiu away..”
At that, Shen Jiu looked up at all the Peak Lords, as if to communicate: I fucking told you so.
With a sigh, the Peak Lords relented, and Wei Qingqei begged, “Please. Take him.”
And he took him. Xiao Jiu took Qi-ge, the way it rightfully should be.