Chapter Text
Shang Hua has to admit, dying sucks . In particular, electrocution as a way to go, also sucks. Hard. But what really fucking sucks so much ass , is transmigrating without so much as a you can you up, BB!
Hello? Could he get some help here? Like seriously, WTF!
Going from ratty hoodie and shorts to ass length hair and robes ? 0/10, no notes.
The man that used to be Airplane Shooting Toward The Sky wakes in the middle of a meeting with a bunch of Xianxia looking types. A quick glance at his hands shows that he’s expertly holding a writing brush. In front of him is traditional ink in an inkstone.
His hands are bigger than they used to be, and turning them over, Airplane finds strange calluses. Neatly trimmed nails (Airplane is a nail biter) make him shake his head.
“Does Shang Shidi have something to add?” Someone says from across the table.
Airplane looks around, waiting for Shang Shidi to answer. After a moment, it occurs to him that Shang shidi… might possibly be… him . Airplane is starting to get a baaad feeling, okay?
The man next to him, a burly dude with two swords strapped to his back, pokes Airplane with a thick finger. “Well, Shang Shidi?”
Who the fuck? Airplane swallows hard. “Uhhhh. I. I’m good. I don’t. Have anything to…say.” he hunches unconsciously, looking at the table.
When nobody says anything, Airplane risks a glance around. What is happening? He accidentally makes eye contact with a severe looking young man across from him. Severe and fucking hot , holy shit. Actually, everyone looks pretty young, but the dude glaring at him is by far the hottest. Where the fuck is he, even? That would be super helpful!
The man at the head of the table clears his throat, and Airplane snaps his head around. “Shang Shidi, is there no way that Peak Lord Shen’s budget allows for replacing the older guqins?”
The rest of the people around the table start muttering, and Airplane’s eyes catch on the dude sitting across and to the left. He looks like a boy band member, complete with beauty mark and flawlessly back hair in a painful looking high ponytail.
Boy Band crosses his arms over his chest and glares up the table at Super Hot Guy. “If Shen Qingqiu gets to replace musical instruments, then I want new dummies for my peak. The ones on Bai Zhan are falling apart.”
Oh, what the fuck, Airplane thinks. This is too fucking familiar. Granted, familiar from like, three hundred thousand words ago, but still! Bai Zhan peak is from his freaking webnovel , which makes-
Huh.
That means that Boy Band is Liu FUCKING Qingge , and Hot Dude up the table is Shen Freaking Qingqiu , Scum Villain.
Airplane is going to die, no question.
It’s probably what makes him blurt, “If Liu Qingge actually stayed on his peak and supervised his disciples, the dummies could be more easily repaired. And, uh, I’m no expert, but, um. How is Shen Qingqiu supposed to run a peak where the Four Arts are like, super important, with no working guqins?”
The silence that fills the room feels heavy and awkward as fuck . Hot Dude-Shen Qingqiu- narrows his eyes and turns his full attention to Airplane Shooting Toward The Sky. Oh, shit .
“Shang Shidi,” Shen Qingqiu drawls coldly. “What a remarkable change of position. Just moments ago, you assured me that there was no room at all for changes in the budget. Do you care to explain your change of heart?”
Something cold touches his shoulder, and Airplane glances to the right. Burly Guy next to him is grinning but prodding him with the flat part of a blade. Airplane -is he Shang Qinghua ???-- makes a noise that sounds like eep ! He flinches away. Burly Dude laughs, resheathing his sword.
“Well,” Wei Qingwei says cheerfully. “He’s not possessed!”
He is! Airplane mentally screeches! He IS possessed, thank you!!! He swallows hard and hesitantly makes eye contact with the Scum Villain. “My bad, uh, Shen Shixiong. I um. Misspoke?” Under the table, he digs his nails into his palms. They’re sweaty and kind of gross.
Shen Qingqiu snaps open a fan that in modern times would cost more than Airplane’s rent. The silk is dyed a beautiful teal and someone has painted a mountain range on it. Blocking his mouth from view, he eyes Airplane coldly. “I will expect an updated budget from Shang Shidi within a week.”
“Great,” Airplane agrees weakly. What the hell did he just agree to?!
Thankfully, the guy at the head of the table, wait, that must be the Sect Leader, Yue Qingyuan, moves the meeting along. “Let us address a different concern. It has come to my attention that medical supplies are being diverted from certain peaks.” Yue Qingyuan looks supremely disappointed by this.
“Excuse me?” Someone says from down the table and Airplane searches for who’s speaking.
A young man with pale eyes and a thin mustache leans over the table, and Airplane immediately realises three things all at once.
- This is Mu Qingfang, the most famous doctor in the entire Jianghu, because Airplane said so.
- Mu Qingfang has no idea supplies were going missing. This was all part of PIDW’s backstory, part of the drafts that were lost before he started publishing. In the novel, this was never brought to Mu Qingfang’s attention and the discrepancy caused a huge rift between him and Shen Qingqiu.
Oh, no Airplane thinks.
- Shang Qinghua, the OG version, is the one who was causing all these petty issues. See, Shen Qingqiu was the smartest guy in the sect. He had to be- as the Scum Villain, right? For years he was riding OG Qinghua’s ass about being a traitor, except everyone hated Shen Qingqiu, so nobody believed him, not even Yue Qingyuan.
The medical supplies were the last in a long line of issues that made Shen Qingqiu absolutely lose any hope of being accepted here. After this, he gave up any pretense at trying to fit in, and retreated to his own peak, running it with an iron fist.
“Fuck,” Airplane mutters, rubbing a hand roughly over his face. The back of his neck prickles, and he just knows the Scum Villain is watching him. Airplane has been here for like, fifteen minutes and he’s already so tired. What the hell, he thinks, mentally throwing his hands in the air. “This is my fault,” he says. “I screwed up Shen Shixiong’s paperwork.” He forces himself to meet Shen Qingqiu’s very pretty , very angry eyes. “I’m sorry for messing it up. Mu Qingfang had nothing to do with it. He would never intentionally withhold medical care from anyone .”
“Shang Shixiong is correct about that,” Mu Qingfang says, icily, flipping two needles over the back of his knuckles, while he glares hard at Airplane. Hoo shit, he’s super pissed! To Shen Qingqiu, Mu Qingfang says, “If Shixiong has time after the meeting, I would like a few minutes of his time. I will make sure that he gets what he needs.”
Airplane cringes in his seat again. Yes, okay, it looks like he’s being super sus! HE didn’t actually DO any of this bad shit! Fuck! This is awful! Like, has OG Qinghua fucked anything ELSE up that Airplane needs to fix?
While the meeting drags on, Airplane checks his sleeves, and sure enough he’s got a stash of paper there. It takes a few minutes to figure out the brush and ink thing, and his writing isn‘t anything to call home about, but he starts making a list.
For safety’s sake he writes it in pinyin, ink splattering as he tries to capture his racing thoughts.
By this point, the original Shang Qinghua was deeply involved with the ice demon Mobei Jun, and interfering with Cang Qiong sect in small ways that would become huge issues over time. Isolating Shen Qingqiu for one. Making him feel like no one would be on his side, ever, and so when Liu Qingge dies from a qi deviation, everyone thinks that Shen Qingqiu killed him.
Also, it completely distracted Shen Qingqiu from being able to convince anyone that Shang Qinghua really was a traitor.
Airplane needs to find out if Luo Binghe has been accepted as a disciple yet. Fuck. It might already be too late, he thinks morosely. He continues writing down plot points from this era until the meeting is over.
Unfortunately, after Yue Qingyuan dismisses the meeting, he fixes Shang Qinghua with dark eyes. “Shang Shidi. May I impose on you for a few minutes?”
Shit. “Um, sure,” Airplane stammers, gathering his things and shoving them into his qiankun sleeves. That is so weird. He loves it. He needs to figure out exactly how much shit he can stuff in there.
Actually, he needs to figure out what OG Qinghua was keeping in there.
He keeps his head down and follows Yue Qingyuan out of the meeting hall and then out of the building. They cross through a meditation area, following a pebbled walkway to another building just next door.
Once inside, Airplane sees that this is the Sect Leader’s freestanding office. Okay. So. He’s probably not about to get killed.
Yue Qingyuan extends a hand toward the tea table. There are kneeling cushions around it, and Airplane sinks down onto one, trying to fix his robes so he doesn’t just fall over. At least he doesn’t feel too hot, a fact he’s grateful for, given he’s currently wearing like seven layers.
He waits in excruciating silence while the Sect Leader fixes tea. Wait, didn’t he write that Yue Shixiong sucks at making tea?
When Yue Qingyuan brings back a tea service, Airplane hesitates and offers to pour. Yue Shixion gives him an even look, and just pours for them both. Okay, stepping in shit again, got it.
“Shidi. I am concerned about this vendetta you have against Peak Lord Shen.” Yue Qingyuan says calmly.
Airplane blinks, remembers he’s supposed to take a drink, does so, and then nearly chokes to death. He coughs, thinking the whole time, holy fuck! Why! So! Bitter! Once he’s breathing again, he wheezes, “I don’t-This one doesn’t have a problem with Shen Shixiong! I swear! It was like, an honest mistake!”
Yue Qingyuan sets his cup down and looks like Airplane’s dad--disappointed. “Shang Shidi. You know my opinion that our Martial Family is supposed to be just that-family.”
Uh? Airplane doesn’t know that, but okay!
“As such, we should be taking care of each other, not going out of our way to make other’s life more difficult.” Yue Shixiong leans forward. “Shen Qingqiu’s life is difficult enough already. Do not make it worse .”
“I won’t!” Airplane yelps, as the atmosphere becomes suffocating. Maybe groveling will help? Can’t hurt, surely! “Look, I haven’t been sleeping great, and you know what? I really haven't felt like myself, you know, migraines and what not. I feel super bad about screwing up Shen Shixiong’s budget, and I promise , I will make it right.” He bites his lip and meets Yue Qingyuan’s eyes.
To his shock , Yue Qingyuan smiles. “I am glad that Shang Shidi has seen the errors of his actions and will strive to do better.” He sits back, and exhales heavily.
Frowning, Airplane blurts, “That’s it ? What’s…what’s my… you know…punishment?”
Yue Qingyuan gives him a confused blink. Did Airplane really make him this dumb? “If you know you are wrong, and are already working to correct your mistakes, why should I punish you?”
It leaves Airplane speechless, and kind of on the brink of tears. Forgiveness? Just like that? “Yue Shixiong is too good to this one,” he manages, blinking rapidly at the table to hold back these weird tears.
“Shidi.” Yue Qingyuan says gently. “Isn’t that what family does for each other?”
Airplane-the new and improved Shang Qinghua- says, “I wouldn’t know.” His family sure didn’t!
*
He leaves the Sect Leader as soon as he’s able, and Airplane just starts walking. This body feels like it has it’s own muscle memory, and he has to consciously stop himself from drawing his sword several times.
Yeah. The sword that he has no fucking idea how to use.
It’s great!
So he walks across what Airplane knows is Qiong Ding peak. For the first time in years he’s thinking about Cang Qiong, dredging his memory for the maps he used to keep in his head, specifically, how to get back to Shang Qinghua’s An Ding peak.
He recalls kind of fudging the whole Rainbow bridge thing, picturing a kind of Eldritch Horror of a bridge with exits and entrance ramps like a highway, but that’s not what he sees when he arrives at the Qiong Ding bridge connection.
It starts here, and more than a little awed, Airplane steps out onto beams of light and starts walking. The bridge must have some kind of hand-wavy distance shortening thing built into it, because when he begins crossing the next peak over -Qing Jing?- it’s kilometers away, but yet he crosses the bridge in less than five minutes.
Okay, Airplane thinks. That was fucking cool! The bridge turns into a neat walkway and he continues following it. Now and again disciples in teal and white greet him politely. “Shang Shishu.”
He gives them nods, hoping that his face looks normal. Airplane has never nodded at someone in his life , what the hell. He still has no idea exactly where An Ding peak is- though he has an idea . Before, he used to lay on his bed and stare up at the ceiling, trying to imagine the Sect.
Escapism at it’s finest, Airplane remembers immersing himself in his imagination-mentally mapping out things like the Ling Xi caves, and Mu Qingfang’s healing pavilion. Like, Airplane could probably find Wei Qingwei’s forges or Shen Qingqiu’s bamboo house-
Shang Qinghua rounds a curve and a small house made from bamboo comes into view. “Oh, shit,” he mutters under his breath. He closes his eyes and rubs his forehead. Fuck! Yes! He forgot that the main walkway diverts past the Qing Jing Peak Lord’s residence. He also recalls how Peerless Cucumber, Mister Wiki himself, had bitched and moaned like it was his job, about it.
“ Why would there be a walkway that close to Shen Qingqiu’s house? Great master Airplane, didn’t you tell us in chapter 27 that Shen Qingqiu valued his privacy?! ”
All right, well, Airplane’s not going to panic or anything, he’s just gonna sneak right by the Scum Villain’s place and hope to hell he doesn’t get noticed. Picking up the pace, Airplane keeps his eyes on the horizon. “Maybe he’s not home yet,” he mutters.
“Shang Shidi seems in a hurry .” Shen Qingqiu’s voice is dripping ice. Also, it’s coming from behind him which is just terrifying.
Airplane restlessly flicks his thumbnail against his middle finger nail and forces himself to turn around. “Aha…Hello, Shen Shixiong. How’s it going?”
Shen Qingqiu is in the same robes from the meeting. Outer robes of dark green over inner robes of light green with the closest layer to his skin being crisp white. He’s looking at Airplane from over his fan, and his green eyes are already narrowed.
“Why are his eyes green?” Airplane wonders. “I swear they were black.”
Frowning, Shen Qingqiu says, “Excuse me?” He sounds offended and Airplane realises way too late that he’s pissed off the Scum Villain.
“Shit! I mean, sorry! I was, um, thinking out loud?” Airplane scrambles. Fuck, is he sweating? Isn’t he a cultivator? He’s supposed to be able to regulate that sort of thing. He thought. Anyway! “I’m just heading back to, um, An Ding peak. You know. Where, um. I live.”
Now Shen Qingqiu looks at him like he thinks Airplane’s an idiot. Which, fair. But he would like to see Jiu-ge over there do any better, given the circumstances! Shen Qingqiu takes two very threatening steps forward.
Airplane squeaks and hops back a few steps.
“Oh, now Shang Shidi is… afraid of me?” Shen Qingqiu says slowly. “Fascinating.” He advances another step.
Fuck, that shouldn’t be hot except, Airplane has always like guys that are a little mean. He swallows hard and leans into his character development. “Shen Shixiong would never harm one of his martial siblings,” Airplane Shooting Toward The Sky says firmly. “So it’s not that I’m afraid of Shen Shixiong exactly…” Green eyes meet his, and a little bit of the truth comes out in spite of Airplane’s best efforts. “It’s just been a really hard day, okay? Like, bad bad.”
He only died, transmigrated (apparently into his own fucking book !) and had to play his new role cold as fucking ice. Then he had to frantically backpedal a bunch of sketchy shit the OG did, and got a Disappointed Dad lecture from Yue Da-ge.
“I really just want to go home ,” Airplane tells his Scum Villain. He shakes his head. “It’s just…I don’t even know where that is anymore, man.” Wishing for pockets, so he could shove his hands into them, he turns back to his original direction. “Listen, I-I’ll fix the budget thing, okay? Give me like a week.”
He does eventually find An Ding peak. All it takes is a little disciple in yellow who discovers him on-was it Qian Cao?- who yells “Shizun!” and then starts talking a mile a minute.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he says and the kid shuts up.
The boy, a teenager maybe around fifteen, swallows and says, “Forgiveness Shizun. Yu Shishu sent an urgent message that the foaling barns on Ling You peak have collapsed.”
Airplane presses his lips together. He doesn’t even go here! Whatever, even a dumb twink millenial can fix this. “Do we have teams assigned to go and fix stuff on other peaks?”
The kid blinks. “Shizun?”
Okay, Airplane has no patience for this! “Teams. Of workers.” He says slowly. “Like Team 1 takes care of repairs on Bai Zhan peak, Team 2 does Qiong Ding.” He waves a hand carelessly. “Like that.”
“...Should I tell Da-Shixiong to…make teams?” The kid asks nervously.
Hmm. Who is the head disciple anyway. When Airplane was plotting out PIDW he did a rough mapping of all the important people on the peaks, so a lot of peak lords, and-oh. Airplane bites his lip to keep from cackling. He left like four peaks unnamed!! Oh my god, he thinks, dying inside. He has no idea of who the peak lords are for those peaks, either.
“Let's go back to my office,” Airplane says and gestures for the kid to lead the way.
It’s a good thing he found a tour guide, because Qian Cao has so many bridge connections, holy crap.
An Ding peak is populated by people who look they are stressed and super tired. Airplane relates! The disciple leading him around takes him to his home? Office? Airplane isn’t sure. “Please find the head disciple and send them to me at once,” Airplane says, and enters the house.
He feels a tingle crossing the threshold, so he supposed OG Qinghua wasn’t a complete idiot. Airplane wanders around, checking things out. There’s a tea table in the front room, next to a small kitchen. Down the hallway there’s a-oh, he keeps his office here. All right.
The main bedroom feels utterly void of any personality when Airplane enters. Looking about, he finds hair crowns and silver pins on a small vanity table. The bed is pushed against the far wall and is neatly made with a -Airplane grimaces. A ceramic pillow.
Gross, he thinks. Surely someone can find some feathers for him, right? It occurs to Airplane that since he’s in the body of a cultivator, he should have a golden core, right? Qi and all that?
Airplane closes his eyes and breathes. His mind tends to race, but again, this body is familiar with itself, and he becomes aware of the energy traveling through his-meridians? He follows the path of it until it reaches a small ball of power in his lower abdomen.
His dantian.
Concentrating on that , Airplane feels his golden core spinning. Oddly, it doesn’t feel weird or anything, it feels like something he always had and just kind of forgot about.
And that’s the weird bit.
Shortly after that, someone knocks on his door and then enters.
That’s annoying, Airplane thinks, walking back through the house to the front where a disciple in his late teens is waiting.
“Dai Zhen greets Shizun.”
With one look, Airplane understands immediately that this disciple is a bit of a sleaze. His face is forgettable, the first sign. His pulled back hair is on the greasy side, and he’s got a bit of a spotty face. All of that plus the fact that Dai Zhen is giving off car salesman vibes is giving him the ick.
“You will knock and wait for me to call you in,” Shang Qinghua tells Dai Zhen, and the kid looks confused like this is the first time he’s been called out about anything.
“Yes, Shizun.” Dai Zhen says, but his eyes look angry.
Interesting! Now that Airplane’s had some time to think about it, he’s pretty sure this cannon fodder head disciple was working hand in glove with the OG Qinghua in his schemes. No time like the present to change things up! “I need a report of all our current…projects,” he says, clasping his hands behind his back.
Dai Zhen opens his mouth and then closes it.
“Now.” Airplane says firmly, and looks at his head disciple expectantly.
“I-” Frowning, Dai Zhen tries again. “ All of them, Shizun?”
Airplane tilts his head. On the one hand, he feels kind of bad for this dude, since the Original Goods was the one to get him involved in everyone’s business. On the other hand… “Did I stutter?” It comes out like steel, and Airplane marvels at such a scary voice! He did that!
Caught off guard, Dai Zhen stammers, “If Shizun…yes, of course, Shizun. If this disciple might use a brush, and paper?”
The artist formerly known as Airplane frowns. Shang Qinghua says, “Yeah, we need to start carrying that stuff with us.” Taking a chance, he puts a hand in his sleeve, thinking about what he wants, and it emerges with a well worn brush and several sheets of rice paper. “Get started,” Shang Qinghua says. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”