Chapter Text
The child is in a cage.
The child is in a cage and the woman standing by the cauldron clucks as she goes about her work. She’s not sure he’ll be alive much longer so it’s impertinent that she’s quick with this next experiment. It can only occur during a blood moon and she’s waited far too long for this night just for that little weakling to give up on her.
It groans and cries when she prods at it so she knows it’s not dead.
“Eye of newt, and tongue of dog…” She hums to herself as she throws the ingredients into the cauldron and infuses the brew with demonic qi. She was an elderly looking woman, long white hair that made her look like a fairy— if fairies were evil. Her thin face had barely a wrinkle on it, but her age was told through haunting black eyes that stared into the depths of the soul. She could learn a lot of a man just by seeing his eyes. She’d always had a distaste for men…
“Mi’lady we’ve retrieved the last ingredient… newborn babe, still fresh!” Cheered a disgusting toad-like creature that gambled down the winding black stairs. The creature was a dark green and brown color, with a pointed face and large eyes. Black miasma seemed to follow the creature wherever it went.
“Finally. I’ve been waiting! Throw it in the cauldron already!” She snapped, not even batting an eye at the murdered babe. The body clanged against the metal cauldron with a splash and thud. The child screamed but nothing her underlings couldn’t handle.
Madam Feng chortled as the child cried again when the toad-like creature snarled, baring a row of sharp teeth.
“Let's eat it mi’lady! Just one bite!” He grumbled when she hit him with her staff.
“Not now, Zeyuan-Jun. That’s our last ingredient for the spell. Should it lose an arm or two, who knows if we can continue this experiment!” Madam Feng scolded. Zeyuan-Jun grumbled and trotted off into the dark corridors beyond the main room. The child didn’t dare to look beyond, afraid he might see something more scary than the toad demon lord.
The child wore nothing but a loin cloth, a few years old now but still old enough to toddle on his feet and understand the horrors to an extent that Madam Feng couldn’t help but admit… It was a little satisfying to hear those screams. If only for dramatic effects.
She laughed, now that the child was scared to silence again and looked up through the large window of the temple. The moonlight was almost upon them, at its highest point where it would beam down on her potion and create a mixture that would rival even immortality itself!
Madam Feng cackled, slotting on some glasses and leather gloves before she carefully threw in one more ingredient: blood of a Nine Torments Fox! It sizzled as it splashed into the mixture and suddenly the cauldron’s contents turned black. The smell was one of death and gore. She breathed in deeply and chortled.
“You smell that? I shall have it succeed this time!” She grins and then walks to the cage. There’s a small screech as the metal opens and the terrified thing tries to shrink against the metal walls. “Come here, you!” She snatches the thing’s arm and yanks, pulling, almost dragging, the child over to a table that was all too familiar with its many straps and ropes that would hold him in place.
The child screamed again, and it distracted Madam Feng from her wards breaking. The thing kicked her and writhed like she’d electrocuted him. She hadn’t done such a thing of course, that was only every other month during the dry months, when the lightning was easier to catch.
“Why you— Stay still!” She slapped the kid, hard. It finally stopped screaming, struck dumb by the open palmed blow. By the time the kid realized it, she’d already slapped a talisman on his chest and tied him down, paralyzed and scared. ”I will never understand why people have these things as anything but pets. Such work! Such toil! And for what? Dirty loin cloths and screaming? Pathetic.” She spat.
“Milady!” Shouted Zeyuan-Jun, but it wasn’t followed by anything else as she ladled the concoction into a glass bottle.
“What is it now, Zeyuan-Jun? I’m busy!” She growled but again there was no answer.
“Halt! Stop what you’re doing.” A voice the child had never heard before rang clear like a bell. It was so unlike the world around them that the child had known all his life: this room and the one room with the bed; that he thought for a moment he was dreaming.
He couldn’t see a thing where he laid, and the child tried to struggle but the talisman meant it was no use. There were many footfalls and something splashed against the floor that made Madam Feng screech like a banshee.
“Seal the room.” A cold voice snapped and the room charged with energy. The boy still could not move. Where was Madam Feng? Was this a trick again? Like that time she told him to run free just to let her dogs catch him? Was this the same?
“Shifu, I cannot detect her energy, there’s too much miasma.”
“Shifu, the toad-lord has fled.”
“Very well. Search the room. This master will—“
The child struggled again and suddenly the room went silent. Has he passed out? Had he— A face. A face was looking down at him coldly.
“Not one of you thought to look for survivors?” The cold voice was the last thing he heard, feeling the paralytic talisman ripped from his nude and injured body. The child fell into a very deep sleep.
—
The child is a small little thing. Dirty. Smelly. Young. Gods— he is younger than when Shen Jiu was left on the streets. Something in his stomach settles and he pulls off his warm outer layer. It’s the middle of winter for the love of the gods! The fact that this kid hadn’t lost his limbs to frostbite suggests he might have some potential after all.
“Shifu, there are no other survivors. It seems there are a few corpses in the next room. Some are missing several organs. She was likely harvesting them for demonic cultivation practices.”
“Of course she was. You saw the woman. Crazy bitch.”
A few students gasped at the curse their Shifu let out but it was dropped as the man whirled around with a swath of robes held to his chest and the barest hint of black hair peeking out the top by his shoulder.
“Not a word.” He snarled, back to his cold demeanor, a placid mask that had for just a very short second slipped, was back in place.
The mission was declared too unsafe for a simple group of students to handle and with their new little hostage to care for, the students found themselves struggling to keep up with their peak lord as he flew straight like an arrow to Qian Cao.
“Report to your sect leader and then rest. Do not say anything unnecessary.” Ordered Shen Jiu, who hadn’t set down his bundle in his arms since he’d found the child in the mansion. The bundle hadn’t moved either, it barely breathed.
“Yes Shifu.” The older boys saluted and left their Shifu to his business with Mu-Shidi.
—
He was in a cage.
He was in a cage and the woman was growling at him and spitting insults. It was cold. It was so so so cold that he thought he might lose a finger or a couple toes. He cried but it only got him in more trouble.
Shen Yuan wanted his mommy. But he didn’t remember who that was. He wanted someone to save him. But he didn’t think it was realistic. He somehow knew that he’d transmigrated but… he was a child now and… things didn’t really make much sense. He was just… it was so cold .
Shen Yuan wanted to go home to his mommy and his bed and to his Er-ge and and Da-ge.
Shen Yuan wanted to cry. But… What if that lady came back? What if she hurt him again? Or made him do… do those scary things again? He didn’t want—
A warmth surrounded him, someone’s voice… soft and gentle whispers. A hand on his back. Arms around him. Something… Someone safe…
—
“Why isn’t he waking?” Demanded Shen Qingqiu.
“I don’t know.” Answered Mu Qingfang. They've done this song and dance a few times now. The men would face off at the end of the small child’s cot in the reserved room of Qian Cao. Often this room was used for Peak Lords, never for a patient such as this, not one so small.
“What do you know?” Shen Qingqiu spits, and it's Mu Qingfang’s sign that he’s free now to leave as the peak lord returns to the child’s side. Despite his prickly aura, it's clear that he’s concerned. They all are. But Mu Qingfang also thinks this might be the youngest patient he’s had other than straight up babies.
Mu Qingfang exits the room with a sigh and goes about the rest of his rounds, until he’s blessed with the shocking presence of his Sect Leader waiting at his desk.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Is Shen Qingqiu alright? His disciples reported he came straight here…”
“Ah, this sect leader is so thoughtful of his peak lords,” Mu Qingfang hummed, raising a brow at the man. They both knew how he was about Shen Qingqiu. More importantly they both knew how Shen Qingqiu felt about him. He was not about to invite an argument in that little boy’s room after a major traumatic… life? event? They didn’t even know the circumstances. “Peak Lord Shen is completely fine. Although the patient he brought with him is rather… dire at the moment. Hasn’t woken up at all.”
“Patient?”
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Shen Qingqiu’s voice was bland and annoyed. It matched the ire on his face when the two men turned to see him standing behind them.
“I was just worried that —“
“Well don’t. I’m fine. Not that it’s a cause of concern anyways. Don’t you have a mission that needs tending to?”
“I— Well. I heard you brought someone back?”
Mu Qingfang doesn’t shrink away from Shen Qingqiu’s unhappy glare. But it's a close call.
“It will be in my official report.”
“Xiao—“
“Good bye Zhangmen-shixiong.” Shen Qingqiu scoffed and whirled back around, a cup of water in his hand as he returned to the room at the end of the hall.
“Tell me you thought that would go better.” Mu Qingfang snorted, finally taking a seat at his desk. His sect leader stood tall above him, but not in a demeaning way.
“Ah… You know him…” He sighed. “What of this new charge? A disciple?”
“A child.”
And oh, was that look on his face something else. Mu Qingfang laughed a little on the inside as Yue Qingyuan’s face contorted in a weird mix of several emotions at once. Fear, worry, annoyance and most of all confusion.
“A child?”
“Mn. Hasn’t woken since he arrived three nights ago. Peak lord Shen seemed particularly… interested in his welfare.”
“Is that so…” Yue Qingyuan’s eyes looked back to where Shen Qingqiu had disappeared. ”Well. Let me know if there’s anything that can be done to help.”
“Of course, Zhangmen-shixiong.” He bowed, and the man excused himself.
Mu Qingfang sighed. Finally, he could get some paperwork done in peace.
—
Shen Yuan dreams of a tall tree where he can climb higher and higher. There’s barking coming from somewhere nearby and the terror is like a pit in his stomach. He’s so scared that he’s not really sure how his little body even got this high up the tree, but he’s too scared to look down now. He keeps climbing, even when his hands bleed, even when he can’t breathe. The tree shakes. He shakes. And then he’s falling.
Down…
Down…
Down…
It doesn’t seem to have a painful landing, he just keeps falling and falling for the longest time until suddenly the cold is chased away by warmth. The dogs’ baying has faded and he is laying in a field looking up at the sky. He never got to really see the sky… There were a few windows in the temple they kept him in, but other than a few glimpses he couldn’t afford to look at something so trivial when every day was a struggle.
Madam Feng kept him fed. But only enough to keep him alive. She kept him clothed, but really that meant the same soiled loincloth and sometimes a blanket on the colder nights. Overall… It was torture. And somehow he knew this but he still… it didn’t quite connect.
There were strange memories that he got sometimes. Usually when he was asleep or sitting in the cage Madam Feng kept him in. Memories of a world with things called cars and microwaves. Where he had short hair and brothers that kept him safe… of white rooms and walls and people who wore big blue or white masks over most of their faces. They would always be gentle but there was always this strange noise that would continue to ring out every few seconds. It was all.. very distant.
And there was this… box? Thing? That floated in his vision sometimes. It would have words written but Shen Yuan… didn’t really remember how to read them. He knew that, distantly, that he used to know. That it shouldn’t be so hard. But it was hard, and he didn’t have many chances to try and read it or practice.
Sometimes he even had a hard time understanding all the words that Madam Feng used. It was like he didn’t know anything at all, like his head was just… empty. Maybe he was. It felt like it. Maybe that’s why he’s always so cold.
It’s not very cold now though. It's… it’s warm here. He shivers.
Maybe I really died this time. He thinks. Maybe this is heaven?
Suddenly there’s a light, bright and burning ahead of him and he flinches away from it at first. It hurts his eyes. It feels like he’s falling again and then with a sudden deep breath— just before he crashes into the ground again— Shen Yuan jerks awake.
A pair of blank black eyes stare back at him from above. Without another thought, Shen Yuan screams. Madam Feng is back! She’s—
—
It’s the dead of night when Shen Jiu feels a thread of energy snap in the quiet hospital room. It’s been five days since he brought that child here. Even someone of his cultivation level wouldn’t have been able to pick out the thin thread of energy that lingered, but he definitely felt the thread snap just now.
He stands from the small table where he’d been drinking tea and reading paperwork to hover over the small child. He must be three or four, just from how small he is. He grimaces at the furrowed look on the boy's face. He reaches for the boy’s wrist, lifting the sleeve of the spare robes Qian Cao had given him. They’d had to get them from the maternity ward, so they should have been too small but they fit perfectly.
Shen Jiu feels the child’s meridians and examines that damaged spirit root once again, as if he hasn’t done this every day. But this one… this child… No one had even said he was missing, no one had been looking. No one… no one was going to come for him. And with his sickly stature he’d never survive on the streets. What could he say? Something about this kid… It was like a deep scar that someone was pressing. He should have left the boy. He knows it will cause a stir. But…
Well, he certainly dares those who are feeling courageous to challenge his choices.
Suddenly the boy bursts to life so suddenly that it shocks Shen Jiu, his face placid and blank in response to his sudden shock. The boy is shaking and then gets one look at him and lets out the loudest shriek of terror that Shen Jiu has heard since… since back then. In the Qiu manor during punishments.
Mu Qingfang materializes beside him immediately, but neither of the cultivators can calm the boy who screams and cries until they are forced to back away and let the boy jump out of the bed and stumble until he can curl up under the bed with his back to the wall.
“I didn’t do anything.” Shen Jiu says when Mu Qingfang opens his mouth. He knows what others think of him but he really didn’t do anything. He wouldn’t have someone assume that he had. Not now that half of the hospital unit’s workers were flustered and trying not to linger by the doors.
“I never said that Shen-shixiong did.” Soothed Mu Qingfang. Shen Jiu huffed and tucked his hands into his sleeves.
“I have no idea why he’s so scared.”
Mu Qingfang sighed and knelt down on the floor, settling into the lotus position and humming as he tried to think. It wasn’t really surprising to have someone react this way when they woke up somewhere new after a major trauma. At least with the commotion they were able to tell that the child was not particularly hurt to the point that he was incapacitated.
“Children can be a tricky beast. I believe that patience is all we can do for now. Was there anything from the scene that suggested how long he was there?”
“No. There wasn’t even… No. Nothing.” Shen Jiu shook his head and stayed standing as he watched the doctor curiously.
“I see…” Mu Qingfang reached into his qiankun pouch and pulled out a small handful of something wrapped in wax paper. “Well, as it happens, I have a little experience with… tricky patients.” Shen Jiu ignores the pointed look he gets. Mu Qingfang sets the coin-sized wrapped ball on the floor just barely under the bed, in sight of the child. Shen Jiu scoffs when he realizes that it's rock candy. He sits on the bed facing Mu Qingfang as they try to wait the child out.
Who will move first?
The charmer?
Or the snake?
—
Shen Yuan watches, heart battering in his chest and curled in his safe little corner. He makes himself small, closes his eyes and remembers how Madam Feng would reward him when he successfully finished an experiment. She’d let him sleep in the bed in the other room sometimes, if he was really tired. But usually he was just thrown a fruit or hunk of bread to gnaw at. He’d never seen that… weird little thing the man put out.
He kind of wanted to touch it, to see if it was safe. Maybe… Maybe he could have it? But no… that doesn’t make sense… he’s not allowed to have things.
At least… not with Madam Feng.
He looks again between the feet by the bed and the lap of the man a little farther away. There is the soft murmur of voices but he doesn’t really know what they’re saying. They look relaxed though, which is something that Madam Feng never was. There was always something he did wrong, something that she was upset about. Something to make fun of and pick and prod at.
He waited a long time, and finally when the man that sat on the bed stood up something in his voice rang clear like a bell— just like back then. That voice—
Safe.
Warm.
Gentle.
The voice belonged to the feet at the end of the bed, they looked like they were about to leave. To leave him with this other man—
Shen Yuan didn’t want that. He didn’t think before he acted, wriggling forward a little until his body was close to the edge of the bed.
“—leave. Clearly I’m not of any—“ Shen Yuan heard the word ‘leave’ and panicked. Before he even realized what he was doing he had already latched a small chubby hand on the man’s ankle.
Shit.
Shit shit shit! He was definitely in trouble! The room went completely silent. He snatches his hand back and snags the weird bundle at the same time, before retreating back into the dark cubby underneath the bed. He can feel the tears bubbling up in his eyes again and holds his breath.
“Perhaps our little friend here would say otherwise.” The stranger said, the one that sat on the floor. He placed a new bundle in the same place that the first was in. “You know, as a kid I used to love rock candies, have you had them, Shen Qingqiu?”
“I—“
There was a pause before the feet shifted back to where they were before, no longer leaving. No longer abandoning him…
Safe.
For now.
“I have.” The voice, Shen Qingqiu, answers. The man holds up another bundle to the pair of feet, or the owner of said feet anyways. Shen Yuan watches with rapt attention as the man opens one of the paper bundles in his own hand after handing off a piece of the candy to Shen Qingqiu. Shen Yuan looks at the hard ball in his hands. He unwraps it.
A distant memory blooms in the edges of his mind like ink bleeding into parchment. Candy. Can-Dee. Rock… Candy? Did he ever have such a thing? Before?
Did it taste like rocks?
He opened the paper and looked at the candy and looked back up at the man who placed it in his mouth. He smiled after he did so. Huh. Was it tasty? Was it.. was it food?
Shen Yuan felt himself salivate as his tummy gurgled a little with hunger. He licked the candy. Sugar bursts on his tongue, sweet and sticky and he finds himself gobbling up the candy, sucking on it and contemplating how hard it is, but it seems to start to… disappear? Melt? In his mouth.
He blinks a few times, before his eyes grow wide. Could he… was he allowed to…
He looked back at the other candy on the floor. Was he allowed to have that one too? Could he…? But he didn’t get permission… in fact he stole this one. Who’s to say they won’t try to grab him when he tries to take another?
“Greedy little creature!” Madam Feng’s voice crowed in his mind.
Shen Yuan’s smile died instantly, sucking on the candy with more anxiety than comfort once more.
“If you’d like another, this one will let you.” The stranger said, patting the floor where the second candy was sitting. Shen Yuan watched him carefully. He couldn’t quite see the man’s face, just the bottom portion. He had a bit of a mustache, with long black hair and clean white robes. He had a necklace of some kind with eyeglasses attached to the string. His voice was clinical and almost friendly but something about it still had him on edge.
That clear bell-like voice rang out again. “He should come out and eat some real food.” Shen Yuan didn’t know that was an option. Real food? Like… fruit? Or that… that white stuff that Madam Feng forced him to eat when he fell ill last winter?
“Hmm… when he’s ready. Let’s not rush him, Shen Qingqiu.”
“I am merely concerned for his well-being, Mu Qingfang.” Snapped the clear bell voice. Shen Qingqiu. Shen. Like him? He was Shen too.
Were they related?
Shen Yuan’s eyes shone with wonder at the man’s feet.
Mu Qingfang, the stranger, hummed to himself and took back to murmuring with Shen Qingqiu. Shen Yuan watched and was careful before he began to inch closer again. He had permission… Didn’t he? He said… He said…
Shen Qingqiu shifted on his feet. Shen Yuan started to worry that if he didn’t come out the man would leave. And then he’d be alone again. And what about Madam Feng? Would she jump out and catch him the moment he came out? Those blank black eyes came back to the forefront, but the more he thought of it— the more the blank eyes he saw when he woke up seemed more steeley than blank and all knowing.
“Perhaps I could have someone retrieve some congee.” Mu Qingfang agreed, shifting on the hard floor. Shen Yuan shifted too, the floor wasn't as comfortable as the bed, but it felt familiar and safer.
“Perhaps.” Sniffed Shen Qingqiu. The man’s feet suddenly began to move and Shen Yuan wriggled forward again when they left his sight, watery eyes panicked. He forgot about the stranger who could now see him clearer, his eyes were latched to those green robes.
“Ah, it seems you have an admirer.” Mu Qingfang hummed.
Shen Qingqiu turned around, with the sound of shuffling papers. Shen Yuan tried to lean further to see his face but he couldn’t quite see it without peeking out from under the bed frame.
“So it seems.” Shen Qingqiu said.
Shen Yuan bit his lip and tried to be brave as those feet paused and then began to move to the other side of the room. He followed him with his eyes until the feet stopped short of the bed, right in front of him.
“Interesting.” Mu Qingfang muttered, meeting Shen Yuan’s eye for the first time. The man’s eyes were brown, and looked… kind? If that was possible? They seemed to glimmer with something… other there.
“Ridiculous.” Shen Qingqiu quips. “If I were expecting to get a warm meal, certainly I would not be hiding under beds.” He said.
Shen Yuan thought about it. He could eat before going back? They’d really let him have something? And it would be warm? Really?
Shen Yuan bit his lip harder and tasted blood.
“Perhaps Shen-shixiong has not— Oh?” Mu Qingfang sounded annoyed but he stopped short. Shen Yuan wriggled out from under the bed, still curling in on himself and making himself small.
“Well then. There we go.” Shen Qingqiu seemed to sound happy.
He made him happy? By coming out? Really?
Shen Yuan looked up nervously and then cringed away from that blank faced man. His voice certainly didn’t match his face.
“I’ll fetch some congee, hm? Would you like that?” Asked Mu Qingfang.
Shen Yuan blinked at the man. What was that? Was it the warm food? Would it.. taste okay? His mouth still salivated from the candy.
“Answer him, if you wish to eat.” Shen Qingqiu said suddenly when the silence stretched too thin.
“I-I…” Shen Yuan’s voice was more of a whisper, hoarse and squeaky. When words failed he nodded sheepishly at the man. Mu Qingfang smiled warmly.
“And what do we call you?” Mu Qingfang asked.
Shen Yuan looked up at the green robed man beside him again, trying to look for a cue to follow. Very subtly, so small that Shen Yuan almost missed it— Shen Qingqiu nodded.
“Sh… Shen Y-Yuan…”
“Ah… very good. And is A’Yuan feeling alright?”
Shen Yuan shrank in on himself a little and looked back to Shen Qingqiu again, inching closer to the green robed man. If he moved any closer then he’d be almost touching the ethereal man.
“Well?” Shen Qingqiu asked. Shen Yuan flinched when the man turned to face him, afraid he’d move away, Shen Yuan grabbed onto the pant leg of the man anxiously.
Shen Yuan hunched his shoulders. He didn’t really know the answer. He wasn’t… he didn’t have any fingers or toes missing? A-and he wasn’t bleeding so… he… was fine?
“Ah,” Mu Qingfang seemed to read his mind and then reworded his question “Let me rephrase, is A’Yuan hurting right now?”
Shen Yuan looked down at himself and thought for a moment. He was covered in white robes that were warm and soft. He didn’t really… feel hurt? How much hurt was enough to tell someone about? Madam Feng had never asked him this kind of question before.
“…No?” He said, but it came out like a question.
“Are you asking him?” Shen Qingqiu asked. He hadn’t pulled his leg back from the child.
“No…” He answers again, feeling his eyes water. Maybe they wouldn’t let him have the warm food if he answered wrong. What if he did answer wrong already? Would they send him back? He hunched his shoulders higher and grabbed a second hand onto the man’s pant leg. “I-I-I—“ He stuttered, lip wobbling as he tried to remember how to form the right words to apologize. He didn’t know what to do, he couldn’t— he felt like he couldn’t breathe—
“I’ll give you a moment.” Mu Qingfang disappeared but the tears were already falling and he was left alone with the safe man. The safe man huffed and suddenly the pants were pulled from his grasp but it was too blurry to see as the tears began to fall faster. He couldn’t stop— he couldn’t catch his breath— he couldn’t—
“Alright, alright.” That clear soft voice said and then he was being held and it was warm and safe and—
Safe. It was safe. Shen Yuan’s sobs grew louder as he buried himself in the man’s arms. He couldn’t see but he could feel a hard chest, strong arms and the vibration of someone’s voice speaking. The voice wasn’t nice, and it wasn’t very warm… but it rang true and honest. It wouldn’t hurt him. It wouldn’t hide things. It was… it was safe.
“It’s been a rough week for all of us.” He says against Shen Yuan’s head, but it's softer than before, not so biting and edged. “Shen Yuan did a good job. No more hiding under beds, alright?” Shen Yuan sniffled and tried to swallow his tears, trying to make sure he heard correctly.
A good job? Him? He did??
Another sob burst out of him, shaking his little body. He clung desperately to the safe man and fisted his fingers in that expensive robe. It could have been the cheapest cotton and he’d still do the same, too young to understand value, too scared to care.
“D-d-d-don— don’t s-s-send me B—“ He sobbed again, trying to talk but it was hard with the sobs that forced him to gasp for air and whimper as his chest hurt like there was a hole where his heart was supposed to be. “B-B-back..!” He begged.
A big hand slid down his back, a little rough but firm and warm. It didn’t go away, it held the child close and then he was being lifted and sat on the bed. Only when he managed to let go of the man’s robes did Shen Qingqiu pull back and Shen Yuan hid his face in his hands. If he didn’t look at the man’s face then he could pretend that the man cared for him, that he might listen. That it wouldn’t be like last time.
“And where would I send you? Hm? That wretched place?”
Shen Yuan nodded as he cried, fighting down the urge to crawl back under the bed and hide.
“Do you want to go back?”
“No!” He sobbed, curling in on himself. When he was loud like this Madam Feng would hit him with her cane or throw things at him like big books through the cage bars.
“Then you don’t have to.”
What?
That was… possible? But…
But what did that mean? Did he… was he going on the streets? Was there a place he was allowed to live? Or would they… would they just let the demons eat him?! L-li-like the toad demon had asked?!
“D-do-do-don’t feed m-m-m-me to th-the dem-m-mons!”
“I highly doubt that they would want someone so scrawny. There’s not even meat on your bones for a dog.” Shen Qingqiu said, voice still neutral, face still stony.
“B-bu-but—“
“Trust me. I’ve seen lots of demons. They don’t like the scrawny ones.”
“R-r-really?” He looked down over his hands to look at the man.
Shen Qingqiu was standing in front of him, half bent over so they were making eye contact. This close, Shen Yuan could definitely see how different his dark eyes were compared to those of Madam Feng. Shen Qingqiu’s eyes were a steel, almost gray color, dark and intelligent. Nothing like the blank abysmal eyes of Madam Feng.
“Really.” He confirmed, reaching forward with a big hand. At first Shen Yuan flinched, but tried not to show how scared he was, lip wobbling as the man paused before tucking a few hairs behind his ear. “Now, if you are going to be calm, we can clean you up. Look at these nice robes they gave you, you’ve been rolling on the floor in them, they’re all dirty now. Tsk.”
Shen Yuan watched carefully as Shen Qingqiu began to preen his hair and brought over a wash basin to clean his fingers and face. He didn’t remember the last time someone was so careful and gentle with him. He wondered if this man was a figment of his imagination, a hazy daydream? Maybe he would wake up soon, back in that room. Maybe this was just a dream and Madam Feng was running an experiment on him in his sleep again?
If this was a dream— he never wanted to wake up again.
“Much better.” Shen Qingqiu finally said, patting at his robes and wiping away some spots and smears of dirt off his pant legs. “Now that you have calmed down, I have a few questions for you. What do you know of that woman, the one that kept you?”
Shen Yuan shuddered at the very thought and was grateful that the man sat beside him on the bed. He didn’t seem to mind when Shen Yuan thoughtlessly grabbed onto his sleeve. “Madam Feng is not nice.” He mumbled.
“Speak up.” He tsked.
“M-madam Feng is n-not nice!” He said louder, and looked around like she might pop out of the closet and say ‘Gotcha!’.
“How so? What did she do?”
“She’d… She’d y-yell and hit… When Shen Yuan is bad.” Shen Yuan looked at his feet that hung off the bed. His fist tightened on the man’s sleeve. “She’d… there were a lot of sleeping people…” He explained, to the best of his ability. The people were always sleeping, never squirming and crying like he was. Sometimes they were a little red too, sometimes they were really pale. Sometimes their fingers would be blue. She was always mad when they were blue.
“Hm… Does Shen Yuan know how long he lived with Madam Feng?”
Shen Yuan paused. “Forever?” He asked, but then cleared his throat. “F-forever.” He repeated, before Shen Qingqiu could ask if he was asking him a question or answering it.
“What about Shen Yuan’s parents?”
“Don’t know. Always Madam Feng… She likes to try new things a lot. Shen Yuan has to try new things too.”
“Like what?”
“L-like… the… weird drinks. A-and the paper things.” He explained, trying to make a gesture with one hand about the ways that she would stick yellow papers to him and stuff. One time she’d even rewarded him with a piece of bread after she’d slapped something on him and his whole body disappeared. He’d been violently ill afterwards but it had been worth it for the food. “And… And the ex… ex-pairs… mens…? I don’t like those. She has these ropes that… that… a-and they would… get me stuck on the table?”
“You mean, experiments?” Shen Yuan nodded, and didn’t see the way Shen Qingqiu’s face grew blacker and blacker with each thing he told him. They were interrupted by Mu Qingfang coming back, a bowl of congee on a tray.
“That’s good, thank you for telling me. Now you must eat, or you won’t have much strength.” Shen Qingqiu said, standing from the bed. Shen Yuan’s fists tightened on his sleeve.
He didn’t know what to say but it must have been written on his face because Shen Qingqiu pulled his sleeve free and sighed. “I’ve got paperwork to do now, eat up.”
Shen Yuan’s eyes turned glassy before Shen Qingqiu settled at the table across the room, instead of leaving. He blinked a few times before he realized he was not being left behind.
Oh.
Good.
That was good.
And Shen Yuan was good too!
And now he could eat? He could have this congee stuff? He looked at the bowl of rice porridge and recalled the horrible watery white stuff that Madam Feng fed him one time. It had made him throw up.
“Have you tried congee before?” Asked Mu Qingfang, who might actually be a mind reader. Shen Yuan wasn’t sure if he was actually just saying his ideas out loud.
“Can I eat it?” He asks. Mu Qingfang nods and so, even though he’s not sure if it will taste good, he lifts the spoon to his lips. His eyebrows raise and his eyes catch the light slightly.
“How is it?”
“Good!”
Mu Qingfang laughs as the boy starts to inhale the food. “Not too fast! You’ll be sick!” He says jovially as he watches the boy. Shen Qingqiu doesn’t look up from his papers where he writes his findings about this Madam Feng character.
Shen Yuan feels warm inside and out. By the time the bowl is empty he’s so sleepy that he almost misses his mouth with the last bite. With a warm meal in his belly and the reassurance that Shen Qingqiu isn’t leaving him, he starts to doze off just as someone takes the tray and pulls the blankets up on his lap.
“Rest now, A’Yuan.” Says Mu Qingfang. Shen Yuan falls asleep staring at the green robed man. For the first time in his life as he remembers it, he’s falling asleep feeling safe and warm.
—
Shen Qingqiu was feeling angry. No, angry wasn’t the word. Furious. Distraught, maybe.
This woman, Madam Feng, was getting higher and higher on his shit list as the day went on. Once the boy is asleep, he dares to step out of the room and turns to Mu Qingfang with a dark look.
“I’ll be back. I must submit my report.” He said.
If you asked Mu Qingfang it would seem that he was marching off to war.
“Of course, Shen-shixiong.”