Thread by @pseudonymoose12

#svsss mamajiu finds a stray
---
Shen Jiu was not good with children, of that much he was sure. Children were loud, whiny, and messy. They tend to leave a trail of troubles at their wake and he really did not want to deal with any of that.

He knows that children also steer clear of him when they could. His own disciples were fortunately smart enough to stay out of his way when needed, lest they want to be the recipients of his ire. It also helped that he looked essentially unapproachable.

So why did this one kid keep on following him?

He had first encountered the boy during one of his trips down the mountain. After another pointless and draining Peak Lord meeting, Shen Jiu wanted to get away from it all.

Where he would have usually headed straight to the Warm Red Pavilion to meet with all the kind women

who would happily ply him with sweets and play him some music, be a listening ear to him ranting about how boorish and bullheaded some of the other peak lords could be, Shen Jiu instead found himself walking to the very outskirts of the city.

It was nice and quiet for he was far away from all the hustle and bustle. Certain that he no one was there to see, Shen Jiu leaned against the trunk of an old tree and sighed as he slid down into a sit.

The action was so unlike him, but little did he care because he was

alone...

Or maybe not so alone as he thought.

There, not even a few feet away from where he sat, was a child probably no more than five winters old. He was dressed in ill-fitting thread bare robes that was slipping off his bony shoulders. Sunken cheeks and guileless eyes.

(For a moment, Shen Jiu thought he was brought back to the past, looking at a mirror of his younger self when he was nothing more that a worthless little gutter rat, trying to survive life on the streets--)

So unguarded, he wasn't able to pick up the presence of the young boy. Shen Jiu wanted to berate himself for his uncharacteristic carelessness but instead chose to drive away the little intruder.

"Go away."

The boy did not go away. He just...stared at him. If it were any other person, they might have found it unnerving. But for Shen Jiu, he only found it irritating.

He just wanted to be alone. Was that too much to ask?

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Shen Jiu reached for his qiankun pouch and took a steamed bun. He then tossed it at the direction of the boy.

He had expected the child to scramble after the food, catch it, then scurry away. But the little urchin did none of that. He simply watched it fall on the ground.

What a waste. Shen Jiu was prepared to chastise him but before he could, the younger took a hesitant step towards

The soiled steamed bun and bent down to retrieve it. Tiny hands gingerly peeled off the soiled bits and broke the bun in half. Timidly, he approached and held out one half (the bigger and objectively cleaner half) to him.

Shen Jiu narrowed his eyes. Cant this kid take a hint?

"I don't want that. That's yours now."

Hand still outstretched with the offered half, the kid looked so terribly lost as if the very idea of something being his was hard to grasp.

Shen Jiu sighed.

Fine. Anything to make him leave him alone sooner, he supposed.

He plucked out the halved bun from the tiny hand and took a bite. The kid's eyes brightened and then plopped himself down on the ground right in front of him. He too then began nibble his food.

Good thing his...companion(?) did not talk, too busy eating. If Shen Jiu closed his eyes, he could even pretend the child wasn't there...

It was peaceful at least.

---

He did not plan on coming back to the edge of the city where the old tree was a few days after his last visit, really he didn't.

It was just that he really enjoyed the view there. That was it. And if it so happened that the very same kid was there waiting, then that was merely

a coincidence.

---

Shen Jiu unknowingly formed a new routine. Whenever he goes down the mountain, he tries to find time to come by that old tree.

As always, the kid was there. Still dressed in shoddy robes and hair unkempt, all skin and bones no matter how much he tried to encourage the

younger boy to eat.

It was...admittedly nice though, to be with someone who did not look at him judgmentally or scamper away from him in fear. The boy had no regard for him or his station, only ever waiting patiently for him to come back to their tree, share food, and just...be.

He even started teaching the boy how to read and write simple characters. He never spoke. But Shen Jiu could see the way he absorbed information like a sponge, mind as sharp as a tack.

...The boy would do well on Qing Jing, he thinks.

The boy showed him the work he had done,

Little chest puffed up in pride and a smile quirking at his lips. Shen Jiu could see that some of his strokes were still messy, but they could work on that.

Shen Jiu haltingly reached out and tentatively gave the boy a pat on the head.

The child's smile grew brighter

---

Shen Jiu had never been more sure in his life of what he must do. He wanted to take the boy under his wing, bring him to the peak - teach him, nurture him, call him his own.

The feeling was new and scary...but Shen Jiu wanted to embrace it.

So down the mountain he went to

look for the boy, only he wasn't by their tree...

Does Shen Jiu find the boy? (Choose carefully)

Shen Jiu did not find the boy...instead, the boy found him.

He had felt a light tug at the edge of his sleeve and when he had turned, the child was there, looking up at him with tired eyes.

So great was Shen Jiu's relief that he didn't question how he had missed him when he had been searching the very area for almost half a shichen.

Shen Jiu knelt down to be at eye level with the child. Once upon a time, he would have hesitated to give out affection. But for some

reason, the younger made it easy. Especially when he smiled back at him at every awkward head pat, at every - although a bit stilted at times - word of encouragement.

So as he gently tucked away stray strands of the boy's messy hair behind his ear, Shen Jiu was unsettled

with the way he looked so...sad.

"I was looking for you. Did you go run off to play?"

He shook his head. What should have been a simple action seemed to have taken a lot of effort.

Shen Jiu grew concerned.

"Do you want to sit down? I brought a couple of new books with me today. We could-"

"Here."

Shen Jiu blinked in surprise. This was the first time he had ever heard the child speak since their first meeting.

Voice small and brittle, he spoke again with much difficulty, "Was...always here. Can't leave. Never leave..."

"What do you mean? I don't understand."

"Was...alone. Cold," The child refused to meet his gaze as he wrung his bony wrist, a nervous gesture,

"Was scary...dark. A-Always dark..." He started to tremble, "N-No breathe...dark."

Ice-cold dread formed in the pit of Shen Jiu's stomach as his mind frantically tried to make sense of what the boy was saying, of what it meant.

Finally, as if a puppet with its strings cut off,

The boy's knees buckled and he stumbled into Shen Jiu's arms. Alarmed, Shen Jiu checked him over and his fears were confirmed.

He had no pulse.

"...Was alone...then wasn't alone," he whispered onto Shen Jiu's robes, "Was found...was...happy. Waited someone to find."

Shen Jiu felt his throat closing up.

"Want to stay. Don't want to...to..."

"It's alright. Go, if you must."

Slowly, the boy looked up to him once more with a tired yet hopeful expression, "I go?No...forget me?"

"I would never forget you."

The child wrapped his too thin arms around his neck and Shen Jiu reciprocated the embrace. He closed his eyes tightly, willing to keep the tears at bay.

It felt warm.

He'll miss this.

When Shen Jiu opened his eyes, he was alone. He never even got the boy's name...

It was just him, the sound of rustling leaves, and a promise.

---

The Qing Jing Peak Lord was often seen going down the mountain. Many continue to speculate the reasons as to why.

Majority still believe him to be immoral; going into brothels to indulge himself. Some are of the opinion that he's seeing someone, a lover perhaps, in secret.

Whatever others thought, Shen Jiu paid them no mind. He never did and never will.

Once he reached the outskirts of the city and spots the old tree, he sits under its shade. He takes out a steamed bun from his qiankun pouch and breaks it in half.

//End

Basically the boy SJ meets was a ghost all along. His final resting place was by the old tree, waiting for someone to come find him before moving on. Ghost baby tried to stay as long as he could for SJ because he made him happy.

SJ saw the signs, but his mind probably chose to ignore them because ghost baby made him happy as well (was about to adopt and give him a name too)... :')

(If you all chose 'no', however, this would have been an entirely different story 🙃)