Chapter Text
Huan definitely didn’t have the best life one could imagine. Not even a comfortable one.
A comfortably well-off family? Nope. She didn’t even know who her parents are. Financially independent and good at it? Ha, with what money? If she could survive on her own, she wouldn’t be working at a brothel— and since she was working in a brothel, one could imagine that her everyday life wasn’t very cozy, contrary to what spoilt and sheltered young masters thought.
Her life wasn’t one she’d wish upon anyone, except maybe the men that had shoved her into this kind of life in the first place. However, in the brothel, she had companions and friends who knew practically everything about her— she had both reliable older sisters and little sisters to guide and dote on. It was one of the few comforts she had, one of the things she had to focus on so she wouldn’t lose heart.
Eventually, a certain cultivator became one of those few comforts. Shen Qingqiu had looked intimidating and frankly a little mean, but it was quickly proved wrong when Huan witnessed and experienced firsthand how gentle he was with women. The women in the brothel weren’t exactly enthusiastic about serving the people that visit, but most of them were happy to spend time with Shen Qingqiu—because that’s exactly what it was. Just spending time together with him. Every now and then, Shen Qingqiu would stay overnight and simply sleep beside one or two of the women in a soft bed covered in a fluffy blanket, having shed a few layers of his robe for comfort.
The presence of Shen Qingqiu became a welcome addition to her life.
Said cultivator was also staring back at her in a lavish and oriented handheld mirror that looked expensive at first glance (definitely not something Shen Qingqiu had bought himself). A mirror she was holding herself. With her own hands.. which were more callused and slender than usual.
“Woah,” Huan let out, then promptly gasped at the soothing, deeper voice that just came out of her throat.
She kept her eyes on the mirror, making specific movements in front of it to make sure that it matched the reflection and it really was her moving. She did this again and again and may have looked ridiculous in the process, but this was really hard to believe, okay!?
And, yup, after a few minutes of looking strange, she could conclude that nothing was off, besides the fact that she currently looked exactly like Shen Qingqiu.
“Hmm,” Huan tilted her head, briefly marveling at the shiny, silky, long hair that fell as she did so. Cultivators sure were lucky. Too bad brothel workers or commoners probably shouldn’t try their hand in cultivating just to remain pretty and shiny like they did.
Huan cleared her—his?—throat. “Oh, A-Huan, you’re truly the prettiest flower of them all. Not even Li-jie could measure up to you..”
She internally giggled at her own humor, but she was temporarily distracted by how charming Shen Qingqiu actually looked in the reflection.
Donned with a relaxed and content face instead of an eternally cold one, along with a mild amiable tone of voice, Lord Shen could actually be a pretty cute guy! Good to know!
(Not that Huan didn’t already think he was cute.)
Her fun was interrupted by a few firm but polite knocks on the door. She gently placed the handheld mirror back on the desk’s surface, careful not to damage it, and walked towards the door.
She stopped.
Okay, Huan didn’t have the privilege to be educated or taught outside the irregular lessons Shen Qingqiu liked to hold in the brothel, but she knew how to analyze a situation.
Obviously, this predicament she was in.. it was probably a result of the freaky stuff cultivators often dealt with. It definitely wasn’t something that Shen Qingqiu would normally do, but perhaps he overlooked something in one of his short (short in immortal standards.. weeks without Shen Qingqiu was a long time!) missions and ended up in this mess. If she could guess, Shen Qingqiu was probably in her body right now. At least she hoped so. Otherwise, where else could he be? ...well. Best not to dwell on that thought.
So what could Huan do in this situation? Since she was wearing Shen Qingqiu’s face, inadvertently affecting him even if he wasn’t actually present, she had to be really think of what the next best actions would be..
With a new determination in her heart, Huan confidently walked towards the door and opened it. She was greeted by a decent-looking-enough disciple with straight hair. This boy kind of reminded him of Shen Qingqiu, actually. If he had held himself less confidently and was less elegant by a fair amount, that is. Must be one of his disciples.
Then, she must be in Qing Jing peak. She wasn’t very well-acquainted with how things worked in Cang Qiong, but she knew there were twelve peaks, with the sect master’s being the tallest. And of course, she knew that Shen Qingqiu resided in Qing Jing peak, so she already had her suspicions.
“Shizun.” He bowed as he greeted her, and sheesh, Huan couldn’t remember if she had ever been treated in such a way before. What situation would ever require someone to treat her with so much respect?
“Ahem,” she awkwardly said, her body lax in a way that she knew Shen Qingqiu would never hold himself, but if she tried to be as elegant or lofty as Shen Qingqiu, it really wouldn’t have worked out! She shouldn’t even dare to consider trying to masquerade around as Shen Qingqiu!
“Shizun..?” The young man stood straight again, looking at her with a slightly questioning gaze. Though, the curiosity was quickly slashed out and he went back to being respectful. “A–apologies, but Shizun had asked this Ming Fan– ah, this disciple, to remind him of the peak lord meeting–“
“Riiight. Well. Listen here, Ming Fan,” Huan said, ignoring the highly bewildered look on the frozen disciple, “could you take me to your sect master? I’ll explain.”
After a surprisingly quick trip to a different peak (and resolutely refusing Ming Fan’s suggestion to go via a flying sword), Huan was greeted by odd looks from a large group of seemingly powerful people. She wondered what she did wrong, since all she had done at this point was enter the room.
“Zhangmen-shibo,” Ming Fan nervously greeted, “Shiz– ah, Miss Huan is here.”
Yue Qingyuan—Huan knew his name, everyone knew the Xuan Su sword—stared. “Pardon?”
“This is.. Miss Huan,” the poor head disciple gestured to the figure beside him.
Huan gave a little wave with a polite smile, but apparently doing that was also a wrong choice, since one of the powerful cultivators looking at her grew flustered.
“What?” A male peak lord with a fair face said, bewildered.
“This is not Shizun,” Ming Fan hastily clarified, “this disciple isn’t sure, but Miss Huan said that.. she and my Shizun must have switched bodies somehow.”
“Oh?” A beautiful female peak lord leaned in, resting her arms on the table as she intently stared at Huan, who tried not to be too obvious with her nervous shifting. “Hello, Miss Huan.”
Instinctively, the non-immortal quickly moved to be as respectful as possible. She bowed. “Greetings!”
“Shizu– ah! Miss Huan!” Ming Fan hastily said, grabbing onto her forearm to stop her from bowing before abruptly retracting his hand as if it had burned him. His eyes snapped to the forearm he had just touched before it looked back at his own hand, almost terrified. “I’m sorry for disrespecting.. wait..”
Poor boy, he looked terribly conflicted. He was probably thinking he should stop his shizun from lowering himself like this, but he couldn’t possibly order his shizun around like this, but also, this isn’t even shizun at all!?
Huan couldn’t help lightly laugh at his misery (and she may have heard a choke and a few odd noises from the group of cultivators— someone probably choked on his tea or something) before waving it off. “You’re so cute. I’m not your Shizun. Really, I’m actually a commoner, so this is what I ought to be doing.”
The tall sect master looked tense. Odd. “You needn’t act like that.”
Huan furrowed her brows. “The only difference is that I’m in A-Jiu’s body.” She shook her head, and conceded, “But alright. I guess it’s probably weird looking at me right now.”
The beautiful woman from earlier whistled. “Weird, indeed. You don’t even know.”
“Qi-shimei,” a shorter man huffed.
“A-Jiu?” The fair faced man echoed with the bewildered look that had never seemed to falter ever since she got here. He was a bit too aggressive for her taste.
Wait. A pretty and aggressive man..
Ah!
“You must be Immortal Master Liu!” Huan snapped her fingers. Then promptly jumped at the noise she herself had created. That snap turned out a lot louder than she expected. Were cultivator bodies greater in every aspect or what?
“I don’t know any Huan.”
“Understandable. You don’t know me, but you’re really loud, so I know you,” she shrugged. The fact he was well known as the War God for his amazing prowess in battle and unreal strength also helped, though she thought that was a given already, so she didn’t feel the need to mention it.
Ming Fan twitched at Huan’s casual language, before gulping and relaxing himself. It made sense that this ‘Miss Huan’ would not be very familiar with the unspoken etiquette between cultivators and the very specific and cold way Shen Qingqiu acted around his martial uncles and aunts. As a commoner, there was no way she could ever see it for herself. Besides, his martial uncles and aunts had decided to just play along with her casual demeanor, so it wasn’t exactly a bad thing… and the sect leader himself reassured her…
In hindsight, it wasn’t a big deal. But as the head disciple and the disciple who most likely knew his shizun the best (Ning Yingying may be pampered and favored by shizun, but she never had to be familiar with his behavior to please him like Ming Fan diligently tried to be), he knew this would be a big deal to Shen Qingqiu. For his estranged—hostile at worst—martial siblings to bear witness of such expressiveness from his face...
Ming Fan quietly exhaled, deciding not to intervene. Judging from the way Miss Huan had referred to his Shen Qingqiu, she and Shizun were close, right? It would all turn out just fine.
Liu Qingge looked indignant, so Huan hastily continued, “I mean no disrespect, though. Sir. Sorry.”
She winced when Liu Qingge only gaped in reply. Cultivators of the Great Four Sects were weird. How was she doing everything wrong? Or was she the weird one?
“An apology comes out of Shen Qingqiu’s mouth!” A peak lord jested, snickering. She was tall and looked fit even under the many fancy layers of robes. Her hair, unlike her martial siblings, were haphazardly free from any ties yet it didn’t make her any less lofty. Her posture was relaxed and rather improper as well.
She was very beautiful, in a way that was different from Liu Qingge and the purple clad immortal lady. Perhaps closer to handsome. Strangely, Huan thought that the picture would be complete with a bottle of wine in her hand.
“Shen-shixiong to you,” another said. “Be respectful in front of a guest.”
“Oh, please,” she rolled her eyes.
“It wasn’t even Shen-shixiong himself saying it,” a meek-looking peak lord pointed out.
Yue Qingyuan, for the first time since she had entered the room, looked stern and even a little upset. He simply cleared his throat, and the rest of the peak lords quiet down and right themselves in their respective seats.
Huan glanced at him. Whew. That was kind of cool.
“Excuse me,” she fiddled with her hands. And took a moment to admire how clean Shen Qingqiu’s nails were before focusing on the more important matters. “I’d like to go to where A-Jiu, ahem, Shen Qingqiu is. Probably where I live.”
“I see,” Yue Qingyuan replied, standing from his seat. “This one can accompany you.”
“The sect leader of Cang Qiong accompanying me?” Huan raised her hands. “Whoa. No need, thanks.”
“Ah, but..”
“Don’t worry,” ‘Qi-shimei’ rested her chin on her palm, looking at Huan straight on with her beautiful sharp eyes that almost kind of intimidated her. She spoke in a dry tone, “The sect master of Cang Qiong is not always so generous. Otherwise, it would be a wonder how this sect still stands. It’s only because you hold Shen Qingqiu’s appearance.”
“I do wonder how this predicament between you two came to be,” another peak lord spoke up. He looked gentle and smart. He had been the one to scold the handsome woman. Huan guessed he was a doctor, maybe.
“Must have been careless during a mission,” Liu Qingge huffed, crossing his arms.
Okay, rude. Huan already knew he was straight forward and blunt from the way he so boldly broke into a busy brothel, but she couldn’t have guessed someone so righteous would partake in talking behind someone’s back. Did he even know this was what it was—gossiping? Perhaps it was only honesty. Either way, it kind of irked her to hear such words being spoken about her best friend.
Yet she kept it in and settled for clenching her fists, partially hidden by Shen Qingqiu’s long green robes.
These were still respected and revered cultivators after all. It was best not to do anything that might be foolish while bearing a body that wasn’t her own.
“Anyway,” she started, earning the attention of multiple peak lords, but not all of them—some had never even looked away from the paperwork they were currently doing, ever since she came in the room. “Since it’ll be troublesome for the sect master to escort me, can’t we have someone bring Shen Qingqiu here instead?”
“This one truly doesn’t mind..”
“Let us save some face, zhangmen-shixiong,” a male peak lord with wavy hair sighed, speaking with an exasperated tone, but respectfully. “I’ll have my head disciple find him. You said your name was Huan, correct? What’s your full name?”
Huan shifted. She never had parents to name her; she had only gotten the name ‘Huan’ from a kind seller who thought she was similar to someone she had known in the past. She was never adopted into any household either, only having the brothel for half of her life.
“Uhm..”
“Why do we need someone to fetch him? Can’t he go here himself?” Liu Qingge frowned.
“Immortal master, my body isn’t one of a cultivator’s..” Huan sheepishly said, somehow embarrassed to say it amongst so many admired cultivators. “As I said before, I’m only a commoner. No spiritual talent in me either. It may take Shen Qingqiu days to get here with my untrained body.. sorry.”
“Ah,” Ming Fan blurted out, perking up as he joined the conversation once again. He briefly bowed. “This disciple can take on the task to find his shizun!”
“Alright.”
The beautiful peak lord who was referred to as ‘Qi-shimei’ smiled gently as she said her next words passive aggressively, “No need to apologize, Huan, our Qingge is rather dull.”
“Qi Qingqi!”
“A-Jiu!” Huan eagerly greeted, immediately making her pace faster to reach Shen Qingqiu like she always did whenever he visited.
However, instead of his usual indifferent look, the peak lord froze at the sight of her, rather uncomfortable. Next to him, Ming Fan seemed to be trying to make one with the ground, not moving an inch.
Her excited steps staggered to a slow pace upon noticing. She tilted her head. “What’s wrong?”
“Huan,” Shen Qingqiu hissed angrily, maybe hurriedly, furrowing his—her—brows and glaring at her with her pretty brown doe eyes.
Huan was taken aback at the sight of Shen Qingqiu’s infamous ice cold glare on her face instead of his.
Shen Qingqiu, in Huan’s body, styled his hair similar to the way he usually did; the upper half of the hair was neatly tied. She did not have an expensive or legitimate hair crown like he did, so he decorated it with a simple and prim flower clip she forgot she even had. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t really achieve the immortal and lofty look he always had in his rightful body.
Her gaze moved downward, and she noted that her best friend managed to find one of her most modest robes. Although, from what she had seen, it probably still looked improper compared to the multiple thick, flowing layers of the members of the great sect. Her robes had a casual floral look too, instead of the plain professional uniforms of the disciples and lords.
She looked back up at him and replied, “A-Jiu. What’s wrong?”
“Behave yourself!” Shen Qingqiu berated.
Huan pouted, making herself smaller. “But I don’t even know what I’m doing wrong.”
The Qing Jing peak lord grew red from the secondhand embarrassment– except, could it even be considered secondhand, when it was done with his body? Shameless!
Huan most likely didn’t realized what kind of picture she made currently, since as a woman surrounded by other brothel workers, this type of behavior was the norm and it was always received with normal reactions. Or, possibly, she knew and she was doing this just to tease Shen Qingqiu.
It was okay when she acted coquettish in her own body, but it was most definitely not when she was wearing his face!
The lord Shen of Qing Jing peak did not pout, flutter his eyelashes, fiddle with his fair hands, nor did he act like– like this! He was never dressed down like this in public either, not even in the comfort of the space he had made within the brothel! Huan did not even bother to attempt his usual hair style, letting his long hair loose..
And could she stop smiling with his face!?
Utterly shameless!
A peak lord loudly cleared his throat. Shen Qingqiu didn’t move to face his martial siblings.. or even look at Huan, out of sheer embarrassment and rage. Who knows what humiliation his closest friend had unknowingly subjected him to during the time he was stuck in the brothel.
“Well,” Shang Qinghua politely started, but Shen Qingqiu could see the tiniest bit of amusement he was getting from this situation. He continued, “Now that we have both parties in the same place, we should start finding the way to reverse this, right?”
No one replied, most of them only staring at Huan in Shen Qingqiu’s body.
The An Ding peak lord’s lip twitched. “Guys.”
The tactician finally broke under their very meaningful stares.
“Why are you all gathered here anyway?” The Qing Jing peak lord asked, his voice calm but obviously filled with vitriol. “Only Jun-shidi could possibly help with this problem. The others may attend to their own peaks and its problems.”
Translation: mind your own business!
“All of us are here because we were all in a meeting,” Yue Qingyuan said apologetically. Uselessly. “Apologies for the unnecessary commotion, Qingqiu-shidi. We will continue the meeting as normal and leave you and Jun-shidi to fix this..”
“You’re going to have a meeting without me, the tactician?” Shen Qingqiu narrowed his eyes. Slightly satisfied at the sect leader’s ashamed look, he huffed. “Very well.”
He gave Huan and his shidi a meaning look before sharply turning back around, the pair of hurried footsteps following shortly after. A few moments after, Shen Qingqiu could also hear Ming Fan’s late reaction, the young man scrambling to catch up.
He made sure to avoid any crowded places on the way, to avoid Huan causing any.. misunderstandings with her casual behavior.