Shen Qingqiu was relaxing away from his peak with a nice cup of tea beside him, a book in front of him. Surprisingly enough, this scenario was occurring in a brothel, which he had learned was the one the original Shen Qingqiu frequented in the past, with everything untouched from the last time 'he' had visited.

The madame who owned the brothel was a kind lady, unlike many brothel owners, or at least, unlike how owners of an establishment like that are normally portrayed, and treated her girls fairly. He learned that she would ask a customer to leave if they looked scumbaggy or dangerous, and she even scolded Shen Qingqiu for not visiting in years. (He apologised for that, she accepted. He told her that she'd forgotten in all the chaos that'd occurred over the years - even though he'd not gone because he thought that Shen Jiu's visits were to relieve his sexual frustration because he couldn't get Ning Yingying in his bed- he didn't mention this at all.)

He'd learned about Shen Qingqiu's position in the brothel as the unofficial adopted older brother of the workers by chance. He'd seen a girl being harassed by a greasy old man and had jumped to the protect her, because she looked to be barely older than his younger sister and well, why would he stand by and allow a girl to be harassed ever? Especially when he was powerful and much more strong in this body compared to in his original world. After the man had fled, thoroughly intimidated by the presence of a well-known immortal, the girl turned to look at him, the next thing he knew, she had gasped and muttered a "Qingqiu-ge." before gripping on to his wrist and starting to drag him towards the brothel, which is an area he liked to avoid.

After being 'reacquainted' with the girls and introduced to the very few that had started working there since the last time 'he' was there, they asked about how he had been over the years he hadn't been to visit, but the older ones all had knowing looks on their faces. "How is your little beast, Shen-gege?" The one who asked was called Mei Lan, who truly saw Shen Qingqiu as an older brother, based on what he'd learned about how she had been left on the street as a small child and was taken in by the brothel owner. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He unintentionally flushed red at the question and she smiled knowingly. "Are you sure about that, gege?" She teased, "I've heard a little something about a Luo Binghe who married his shizun."

One of the other girls faked a gasp, "Wasn't Jiu-ge's little beast called Luo Binghe?" Shen Qingqiu had almost forgotten what it was like to have a shithead little sister who loves to tease him. Now he apparently has 10. "No, there's no way our Qingqiu-ge could be married, not without inviting us." He looked away, embarrassed as he muttered, "We sort of uh, eloped." The madame gasped, almost sounding offended by that. "I'm sure your brother would have been horrified by that." Shen Qingqiu muttered under his breath about how Yue Qingyuan had acted exactly like a disapproving older brother, but allowed the girls to continue fussing over him and scolding him for various things.

He had started making scheduled visits to the brothel after that, continuing with the classes Shen Jiu had held in a room he'd found out was set aside for him only, and then spending time reading the books that Shen Jiu had liked to read or trying to recreate modern songs on the guqin which was also in the room. He'd just reached a particularly good scene in a novel that had made him choke in surprise. It featured two male cultivators who were horrible to their cultivation partners, who were females and much stronger than them, and the men had tried to get them to take each other out when suddenly the females turned on their partners and killed them. "Holy shit that just got so much better. Those dumbass men really thought they they could pit the girls against each other but they're much smarter than that. Alexa play mmm whatcha say."

He continued reading normally when he heard the opening of the song he'd just mentioned. He blinked at first, not quite processing what had just occurred, but then it hit him like a punch to the gut. "What the fuck- no, I'm just imagining it, surely." He shook his head, almost as if he was banishing the thought, and tried to continue reading, but the music didn't let up, so the thought came back to his mind. "System is this you?" He asked mentally and received no answer from the shitty system.

Fine. Be like that.

He put the book down and stared at the wall opposite him with narrowed eyes. "Siri play Dancing Queen." He requested hesitantly and when the iconic ABBA song started, he knew it was definitely the System's antics. He stood up abruptly and quickly put a bookmark of sorts in the page before putting it away (It may be a room for him exclusively but he wasn't going to leave it messy). He rushed down the wooden stairs and quickly said his goodbyes to the confused girls and when the madame had asked why he was leaving in such a hurry, he quickly explained that he had important business with one of his martial brothers which he had forgotten about. She only stopped him to go to the kitchen and bring out a container full of his favourite sweets. Shen Qingqiu almost cried at the display of kindness. After that, he rushed outside and mounted Xiu Ya, flying straight to An Ding peak.

One of the wandering An Ding disciples dropped the scrolls and books in her arms as he sped past her at a startlingly fast speed (he also heard an undignified screech of either shock or fear and he had to hide his amusement). He'd barely slowed down to a much less dangerous speed before jumping off Xiu Ya in front of Shang Qinghua's house, bursting through the door, making him shriek and startling Yue Qingyuan, who was apparently also there. "Sorry not sorry for startling you, but I just found out the greatest thing about you know what. Uhhhh. You know what? After you're done here, come to my peak." He then turned around, his robes swishing with him and promptly walked out, completely ignoring the bewildered Yue Qingyuan. Oh well. He'd apologise next time.

Shen Qingqiu knew that Shang Qinghua had entered his bamboo house from the sound of the door slamming against the wall. "Bro? What the fuck was that? Sect Leader was almost convinced that we're having an affair." At the double take that Shen Qingqiu had just done, the scolding he was about to give the older for slamming the door open dying before he could get a word out, he cackled. "I'm joking obviously, but he looked like a kicked puppy when he was watching the door after you left." Shen Qingqiu rolled his eyes, of course he did.

"Now, what is the new revelation that will change my life?"

"Okay, so I was reading, as I do, and these ladies just kill their abusive cultivation partners and go off together and I just do the basic bitch millennial thing and go 'Alexa play mmm whatcha say' and get this, it actually worked." Just as he said the phrase, the song started for both of them and Shang Qinghua keeled over as he started to cackle, ridiculously amused as the 'mmmm whatcha saaaaaay mmmmmmmm that you only meant weeelllllllllll well of course you did' resonated around his head.

"Mmm whatcha say will never die oh god it's been so long since I've heard this."

"And you know what might just be pretty amazing, System does it no matter what you say, like Siri."

"Hey Siri play that song about darkness being a friend."

It was silent for a moment, both males anticipating what was to come, but then 'Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again' and just like that they both lost it.

Ning Yingying was concerned when she approached her Shizun's bamboo house and heard two voices screaming words she couldn't understand. But then she noticed that one of the voices belonged to her shizun, and after a few moments listening in despite not understanding what was being said, she picked up that the other voice was her Shang-shishu. She was surprised that they were yelling at each other, but the concern and surprise melted away when she heard them laughing.

Instead of bothering her shizun, she smiled at his carefree attitude and left, trying to make sense of the words they had been screaming.

"Wake me up." That had been her shizun, her Shang-shishu's voice coming after.

"Wake me up inside!"

"Can't wake up."

"Wake me up inside!"

"Saaaaaavvvveeee meeeeeeeeeee!"

"Save me from the nooooooothing I've becooooome!"

She only shrugged and decided she'd ask her shizun what he was saying at another time, and she'd ask him the question she'd been mulling over later.

i'm sorta back????? I've been a little distracted whoops uuuh i'll try to write more during this quarantine but I still have classes for uni online and I'm still working

'essential worker' my ass I work in fast food why is that essential TT-TT