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The Empress was an elusive being; everybody knew of her but most had only ever seen her from afar. The Emperor was known to be a possessive man, jealously guarding his wife from the eyes of everyone else, and it was said that only his most trusted generals had ever had the honor of seeing the Empress without her veil.
There were many theories about her, since so little was known to begin with. One day the Emperor, after rejecting several offers of marriage, had simply announced his upcoming wedding, and that had been it.
Some said she was a princess from a far away kingdom in the human realm and that the Emperor had stolen her away from her intended; others said she was a beautiful cultivator from the Emperor’s original sect and he’d whisked her away before he burned it to the ground.
She was, of course, neither.
The Empress was Shen Jiu, who after having been captured and tortured by Luo Binghe, always resisting an apology for their tumultuous time as teacher and disciple and said disciple’s subsequent time in the Endless Abyss, had been healed and cleaned up and taken to Luo Binghe’s chambers.
Luo Binghe hadn’t been able to break Shen Jiu that far with his usual torture methods, so he intended to break him in a different way by marrying him.
Instead, Shen Jiu broke him.
He went through the wedding without a word of refusal, but afterwards, when Luo Binghe had tried to touch him, he’d cried.
Luo Binghe, who’d never thought his former shizun was even capable of crying, had quickly let go of him in shock and hadn’t touched him any further. Later that night, after he forced Shen Jiu to drink tea laced with a sleep inducing herb, he entered his dreams and pushed through the mental barriers in Shen Jiu’s mind, uncovering the whole truth.
His need for revenge was put aside. Instead, he wanted to make things right.
“Just let me leave,” Shen Jiu had asked tiredly the next day. “You’ll never have to see me again.”
But Luo Binghe couldn’t do that. He really, really couldn’t let Shen Jiu go anymore. His Empress, even if in name only.
So he stayed.
Luo Binghe razed Cang Qiong Mountain to the ground and furthered his conquest of the Three Realms, and Shen Jiu stayed tucked away in his Palace, hidden from view.
His husband, the Emperor, doted on him as much as he could, desperate to earn his shizun’s approval and make him want to stay for him; Shen Jiu didn’t know when things changed for him, but eventually they did.
Eventually, he stopped being resigned and started wanting instead, and when he did, he allowed Luo Binghe to seduce him, though with a condition: there would be no one else, or he would leave. Luo Binghe was quick to accept.
Still, staying idle and hidden from view wasn’t Shen Jiu’s style, and soon his skin started to itch with the urge to do something else. Something for Luo Binghe.
“Absolutely not,” was Luo Binghe’s reply when he first suggested spying for him.
“And why not?” he demanded, silently planning how he would kick Luo Binghe out of bed that night and make him sleep on the floor.
“It’s too dangerous,” Luo Binghe said, pulling Shen Jiu into his lap and placing a large hand on his lower back. “If anyone found out the Empress was spying–“
“No one knows who the Empress is,” Shen Jiu cut in. “So how would they find out? Besides, are you saying I’m not competent enough to stay out of sight and hide my tracks? Are you forgetting who your teacher was?”
It wasn’t an easily won argument, but Shen Jiu was able to eventually coax Luo Binghe into allowing him to spy for him, traveling freely through the realms in disguise.
It was freeing, in a way he’d never felt before, being just another face in the crowd but knowing he had a home to go back to and a husband who would go to him the minute he felt something off with his blood.
When Shen Jiu uncovered an assassination attempt against himself, Luo Binghe was quick to see the value of his work.
When he uncovered an organized attempt at a coup d’état, Luo Binghe took them away for a few days for an impromptu honeymoon and left Mobei Jun and Sha Hualing to deal with it.
So yes, Shen Jiu was the Empire’s Spymaster and very good at what he did, except…
Except, for the first time in seven years, he’d been caught.
He wasn’t sure how it happened; maybe he’d gotten lax in his years as a spy, maybe he hadn’t been hidden as the Empress as well as he’d thought, or maybe he’d simply been unlucky; but one minute he’d been sitting at a brothel, half listening to the girls play pipa whilst keeping an ear out for the conversation happening at the next table, where a group of demons from the Scarlet Hair Tribe sat, and the next minute he was waking up in a dark and humid cell, with his hands and feet bound by what surely was Immortal Binding Cable.
“You’re awake”, a voice said, followed by the sound of echoing footsteps sounding closer to him, “good.”
The demon that came into view was tall, ugly and had the signature scarlet colored hair marking him as a member of the Scarlet Hair Tribe.
This Tribe was old and well known; they were loud and boisterous, constantly on the hunt for new territories to conquer in their side of the demon realm, but they’d been quiet for too long, so Shen Jiu had decided to venture into their territory.
“This isn’t very hospitable,” Shen Jiu commented, trying to sound as regal as he could even from his position on the dirty ground.
His veil had been removed, and he felt far more exposed than he ever had before; he wasn’t used to being seen without his veil by anyone other than his husband or his two generals.
“Does the Emperor’s little spy feel uncomfortable with his accommodations?” the demon taunted, letting out a bark of laughter. “That’s too bad, I have a feeling you’ll be staying here for a long time.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Shen Jiu replied coolly. The minute Luo Binghe realized something was wrong he would track him and–
“Oh I would,” the demon said, his smirk becoming wider. “No one has ever managed to capture the Emperor’s Spymaster before, but now that we have… what use does the Emperor still have for you?”
Shen Jiu stayed silent at that.
Sometimes it was hard to believe Luo Binghe had any use for him at all. The little disciple whose mistreatment he’d turned a blind eye to for years had grown into a powerful Heavenly Demon Emperor and had ultimately chosen to have Shen Jiu by his side.
But until when would that last? When would he decide he’d had enough? When would he realize he could do better?
(Had he already? Was that why he hadn’t come to rescue him yet? After all, he had surely been captured a while ago..?)
It was a terrible feeling; he'd come close to being captured during the past few years, but not only had he always managed to escape, he'd always been sure Luo Binghe would be there to rescue him if he didn't.
It'd been a long time since he'd thought of the possibility that no one would be coming back for him.
"Cat got your tongue?" the demon taunted again, further emboldened by Shen Jiu's silence.
"No, but I'm about to get yours," a voice from behind the demon said, and before Shen Jiu knew it, the demon's tongue had been swiftly cut off and his abdomen had been sliced open, and Luo Binghe was breaking open the lock in Shen Jiu's cage, rushing to his side.
Luo Binghe looked far angrier than Shen Jiu had ever seen him, far angrier than he'd ever looked back when he refused to show an ounce of emotion during their torture sessions, and Shen Jiu startled when he realized he was angry for him.
"I came as soon as I realized," Luo Binghe said, cutting him free from the Immortal Binding Cables. "Are you alright?"
"I am," he said, and it was true – he'd doubted Luo Binghe would come looking for him, but he shouldn't have. He'd never given him a reason to.
His spiritual energy slowly restarted its circulation, still a little slow but significantly better since he and Luo Binghe had started dual cultivating, and he filled his husband in on what he'd overheard at the brothel.
"Another inferior demon clan trying to plot against me," Luo Binghe commented, disdainfully. "And even worse, they dare kidnap my Empress. I'll make them pay."
Before Luo Binghe could try to open a portal with Xin Mo and convince Shen Jiu to leave without him, they heard a door open somewhere close to them, and another scarlet haired demon showed up.
The demon froze at the sight in front of him, but before he could turn back and tattle to the rest of his tribe, Shen Jiu had already closed the distance between them and pounced on him.
"Let's make them pay," Shen Jiu said, kicking the demon to the ground and then kicking him in the head again for good measure.
When he looked back at Luo Binghe, he was already next to him, leaning in for a kiss.
"I like this side of you," Luo Binghe said, barely restraining himself.
"You can show me how much when we go back home," Shen Jiu murmured, finding it hard to step away from Luo Binghe.
Luo Binghe intended to, and he made good on that promise.
Getting rid of the entire Scarlet Hair Tribe was easy, and easier even with Shen Jiu by his side. They'd never fought together before, definitely not during their time together at the sect and also not during their marriage, though they sparred together infrequently, but they still managed to move gracefully around each other, seamlessly fighting together as though they'd done it all their lives.
In the end, the secret of the Spymaster's identity died along with the last of the Scarlet Hair Tribe.
"Whenever you go off on one of your spying trips," Luo Binghe confessed later that day, when they were both naked and spent on their bed, with Luo Binghe lazily tracing his fingers over Shen Jiu's spine, "I always worry something will happen and I won't know in time. And when you come back safe and sound, I always think to myself that next time I won't let you go. And I think that even if you would want to leave me after that, it'd be fine; I wouldn't let you."
Shen Jiu hummed, but otherwise stayed silent, letting himself be lulled by the fingers on his back and Luo Binghe's deep voice.
"But today, seeing you..." Luo Binghe continued, "even if I still want to keep you away from danger, it reminded me you're far from defenseless."
"I wouldn't say that," Shen Jiu murmured. "If you hadn't shown up today..."
"You would have found a way," Luo Binghe said confidently.
"I would," Shen Jiu agreed, pensively. But, "I still like knowing you'll come back for me, though."
That someone would, went unsaid.
"I always will," Luo Binghe said, and it was a promise he definitely intended to keep.