Thread by @undeadbiscuit

throwing out a #sangyao endgame concept that incorporates several of my favorite modern au ideas.

meng shi never told jin guangshan she was pregnant because she has heard The Rumors of what happens to his side-pieces who did. no one's ever been able to prove he had anything to

do with the disappearances, but she's not taking chances and quickly finds herself a new place to live as soon as she realizes she wants to go through with the pregnancy.

it's not an easy life, but she and little a-yao are getting by fairly well for themselves.

until they're tracked down.

meng shi ends up dead, meng yao ends up in the foster system, desperately keeping his head down because he knows that as a witness, he's a loose end to be tied up.

and also because he wants revenge, and he has to make it to adulthood if he's

ever going to succeed at getting it.

through hard work, several scholarships, and a lot of painful frugality, he gets through university with a double major and a little bit of money in his pocket.

he's done research on his father and his father's family, however, and he

realizes he's never going to get close enough to their social circle to do any damage without an in.

for all their wealth, the only member of the family who actually supports any charities is the legitimate son, who seems to have an interest in art museums and public gardens.

(meng yao suspects it has something to do with the son's new girlfriend, but he's not complaining. an in is an in.)

he's been observing one of the art museums for a week, trying to figure out if he can parlay his accounting degree into a job, when he notices a young man

struggling to keep his balance between the crutches holding him up and the box on his hip.

meng yao would have gone to help him anyway, probably, but he notices the employee badge and, well then.

the stranger thanks him profusely and offers to buy him lunch at the museum

cafe, which is surprisingly generous as the box isn't exactly heavy and the cafe isn't exactly cheap.

maybe he's found his in.

and when the stranger introduces himself as nie huaisang, a name meng yao knows from the press releases as *the* top conservationist in the region and

someone who gets invited to almost as many business functions and galas as the museum director himself, meng yao *knows* he's found his in.