Thread by @bingjiuwus

#liujiu divorce EXTRA: CHOOSE YOUR OWN SUFFERING (ADVENTURE)

*

"Ge, thank you so much for being here."

Mingyan beamed at Liu Qingge the moment she saw him in the hotel lobby. She hurried over in a sapphire blue gown and smoothed over the lapels of his suit, fussing over him.

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"It's alright." LQG smiled at his meimei. "Where else would I be tonight."

"Oh, ge..." Her expression softened. "Hualing and I are both really happy you made it. Really."

"Uh huh." He reached out mockingly to muss her perfect do, only for Mingyan to dodge out of harm's reach.

"Hey!"

"Kidding, kidding." LQG laughed. "My baby sister's getting married, and - " He raised his brow. "To a supermodel. How the hell did you pull that off?"

"Oh fuck off, ge!" Mingyan punched him on the arm.

They bantered back and forth for a bit while guests entered the ballroom for Mingyan and her fiancée Sha Hualing's lavish engagement party. SHL was a model who had just booked a campaign for Dior and regularly appeared on magazine covers.

Somewhere, somehow, his little sister had snagged her for her own - but considering how hard Mingyan worked - and her future position as the CEO of Liu Industries - they made a good pairing. Though LQG hadn't spent much time with SHL, he'd seen how she made his sister laugh.

Mingyan, so usually taciturn and reserved around outsiders, lit up around the other woman and became her most charming, witty self, the kind usually only their family got to see.

It was. Well. Good. To know his meimei was happy, that she'd found her soulmate, that she had someone looking after her when she overworked herself or decided to sleep over at the office, that despite SHL's own busy schedule she always made time for her soon-to-be wife.

LQG was a total clod with social media, but even he'd seen on Weibo and clips on his phone of SHL gushing over her "CEO rockstar girlfriend", how happy she was to be getting married to Mingyan and picking out the furniture for their new house together, even slyly giving off hints

about potential baby names...

It was a lot to take sometimes. Mingyan had always been there for him, so of course LQG was happy for her.

He was paying for their honeymoon to Venice after all, even though the brides could do it themselves - it was the thought that counted. When he and Shen Jiu - when it had been his time, Mingyan had still just been in college, and the bulk of her allowance went to her studies.

Even so, she'd saved up and bought them something they actually ended up using - a deluxe washer and dryer combination that was perfect for getting the sweat and stains out of LQG's dirty uniforms.

Not that he was the one doing the laundry, he just knew they'd be pressed clean and smell brand new in his duffel bag the morning after. But -

But the point was -

- it wasn't about him anymore.

"I'm happy for you too," LQG finally told Mingyan, when all the guests had arrived and the party was in full swing. "Really."

*

Life for LQG was easy. Really.

It had been three years since his divorce, and as far as everyone else saw it, he had come out the victor. He had divorced a cheating gold digger who hadn't been content with his money alone, and only a few months after that won gold at the Olympics - won _multiple_ golds.

He was China's golden son, the pride of his own illustrious family - and now that he was single, potential in-laws - and he had interviews and sponsorship deals crawling out of the pipes.

Everyone had wanted a taste of him. Everyone had wanted him.

Everyone but the one who mattered.

Instead of accepting his hard-earned glory with a gruff smile and mutter of thanks towards his coaches, his family, his team, LQG had just gone silent.

He'd worked years for this occasion, and after the medal ceremony, the thousands of well-wishers cheering him at the airport and his father's own murmured approval as he just squeezed LQG on the shoulder while holding back tears - all of it left him feeling hollow.

What he wanted, what he'd _really_ wanted back then was...

Was...

He didn't have a right to it anymore.

No matter how long he clung to his old feelings, to the memory of his husband wrapped around him like an octopus on cold winter nights, none of his longing and nostalgia and heartbreak meant SJ was coming back into life.

No unexpected popups at a cafe where they'd ordered the same drink, no SJ secretly watching him from the back of a press conference, so accidental crashing-into during his midnight runs when his apartment was too big and empty and cold for one, and he just couldn't sleep.

No "actually, it was my fault, I wasn't thinking straight that day".

No "I swear I'll never see him again for the rest of my life".

And no, no, no "Qingge, I forgive you. Really, it's okay now".

His husband was gone. Signed the divorce papers without once explaining himself, without telling LQG what the papers had seen that day was a mistake, that he hadn't known Luo Binghe when he was a rich showoff fuerdai like today,

but just a poor brat down on his luck like himself, that truly, that was it, that was it, that was it...

(SJ had said as much to him during their first and final confrontation. But LQG had been tired, frustrated, _angry_. Hadn't listened. He'd listen now. He knew it.)

He rubbed at his eyes and tried to gather his strength before he stepped into that noisy ballroom and became not only Mingyan's older brother, but Liu Qingge, Olympic champion and running superstar.

They'd want autographs, photographs, a hello and a proposal, and in the circles _they_ ran, they'd want to know if he was single, still single, still looking for love, still heartbroken,

still not over that cheating bitch (he'd punched out more than one person for daring to say that to his face), still - still - still -

"My god," Mingyan said suddenly, cutting through the noise. "Is that Shen-ge?"

And wouldn't you even know it, but standing next to SHL in a dark green suit, and looking a little uncomfortable but smiling politely nonetheless was Shen Jiu.

_His_ Shen Jiu.

"How do they even know each other...?" Mingyan said under her breath, but it didn't matter.

LQG crossed the crowded floor already. He hadn't seen SJ since the day he'd moved out - he'd sold their apartment after, quit his civil servant job or relocated, LQG had never been able to find out which - and he was _here_.

Here now, and apparently friendly with SHL of all people.

How? LQG didn't give a fuck! He just wanted to talk to SJ, get something from the other man, _anything_ -

"Liu da-ge."

And then a deep voice and a figure all in black blocked him from reaching his ex-husband.

"Get out of my way - " LQG snapped, pushing the man aside -

Only for Luo Binghe to grab his arm right back. "_Hey_," he breathed in. "You're being incredibly rude right now. This is Hualing's engagement party.

Your sister's too, right? Don't mess it up for them by causing a scene."

Causing a scene, what the fuck. And it turned out _this_ bastard was SHL's friend? Fucking hell.

"Mind your own business," LQG snarled. "I didn't come here to talk to you, asshole."

"You didn't?" said LBH, continually blocking his view of SJ whenever LQG tried to get past him. "Well, turns out I have all the time in the world. Look, Liu da-ge.

Everyone's watching you freak out over nothing right now. So funny. Ha ha," he added flatly, his expression dead serious.

LQG cursed, stepping back. Much as he'd love to take a swing at LBH's face like he had before, once, the bastard was right. Keep agitating and he'd fuck this up for both Mingyan and Hualing.

"I'll remember this," he said, gritting his teeth. Fucking asshole! Why did he keep getting the better of LQG like this...

"Sure you will," LBH drawled. "Since you've done jack shit with that lofty memory of yours and all - "

"Binghe? Can you get me a drink?"

Both of them froze still as they heard that voice - as _LQG_ heard that voice for the first time in years, soft and low and a little fragile, delicate like SJ had never allowed himself to be outside their home, outside their bedroom.

He used to work kitten kisses up and down his husband's neck to hear him murmur in a sweet voice like that...

"Of course, Jiu-ge," LBH said. "Tell me what you want - "

It took only a moment for him to break concentration, and then LQG shoved him aside once and for all.

He saw how SJ turned to look at him - see _him_, how his eyes widened in shock and he dropped the empty champagne glass in his hand.

LQG couldn't help it. He grabbed him by the forearms, even as SJ breathed in sharply at his grip.

"A'Jiu," he said, finally, madly, breathlessly. "A'Jiu, you're here. How the hell did you get there? How do you know Hualing?" He shook his head. "Never mind, never mind. I just want to talk. Please, A'Jiu, just talk to me for a minute..."

"Jiu-ge - " LBH came up from behind, grabbed LQG by the shoulder, who stood his ground and refused to be moved. "I can get rid of this asshole for you if you want."

SJ gave the bastard a baleful look. "He's Hualing's future brother-in-law, are you serious? No, move away. _Stop touching him,_ Binghe." He closed his eyes in a grimace, brow crinkling just like before when LQG would forget to pick up oil on the way home from training.

"Let go, Qingge," he added softly, and it took altogether too long before LQG listened, still in a haze over SJ, over SJ being here and in front of _him_, at his little sister's fucking party and looking so...

Looking so...

"Alright," SJ mumbled. "We can talk." He bit his lip.

"Five minutes, Qingge. That's all I can do."

"Okay," LQG said. "That's more than enough, I swear. I promise."

SJ eyed him reluctantly. "Sure," he said under his breath. "Sure you do."

*

"It's been a while, huh."

Suddenly, in a private lounge room with SJ in front of him and everyone else locked out on the other side of the door, LQG found himself rudderless - palms sweating, heart beating like a drum in his chest.

What could he say? What didn't he _want_ to say?

_I love you. I love you so, so much. Please come back to me..._

Instead, _that_ was all that came out.

SJ coughed when he heard those words, looking mortified for LQG's sake. "I guess," he said. "It's been three years."

A fucking lifetime. "How have you been," LQG asked in a hurry. "What have you been doing, what are you _doing_ here."

SJ went stiff. "I had an invitation, Qingge," he said in a quiet voice. "From Hualing."

"I know," said LQG. "But how do you two _know_ each other? I had no idea..."

"I'm - I'm her manager," SJ said, crossing his arms.

LQG's mouth dropped open. "Since when?"

"For a year and a half now." His husband refused to look at him, staring at some fancy bar glasses on a shelf instead. "I used to be her assistant, actually, but it turned out I know how to organize her schedule better than anyone thought.

I manage her career now. It's not bad work." His voice softened. "I like it."

No wonder LQG hadn't been able to find him at his old workplace no matter how many people he asked. "Is that why you quit?"

SJ flinched, before turning to face him. "I didn't _quit_, Qingge," he said.

"I was fucking _fired_."

"What?" LQG stared. "What do you mean by that?"

SJ looked frustrated beyond belief. "The whole country thought I was fucking cheating on you," he said in a heated voice, hands shaking as he spoke. "I was just a civil servant, Qingge, I used to approve fucking permits for a living. You think my managers wanted paparazzi waiting

outside our building, waiting for me and harassing everyone else? You think they wanted _me_ hanging around and giving everyone else a bad name?" He was hysterical. "I got fired three days after you left me, Qingge. Don't forget that."

"I didn't - " LQG began, but stopped.

He hadn't thought about that. Thought about what the scandal would have done to SJ's own career, his workplace. He had always viewed SJ's job as his sweet little whim, something he did to keep himself busy so he didn't have to spend the whole day at home,

though LQG would have gladly indulged him in his housewife dreams. He had never -

"I really liked that job," SJ said. "Too bad."

He wiped one damp cheek with his sleeve. LQG didn't know what to say - sorry? Let me make it up to you, cut a check for you?

Instead, he just croaked, "The apartment - you sold it?"

"Yeah," SJ sniffled. "Sorry, did you want your cut?"

"No! No, it's fine." It had been a three bedroom apartment in a nice neighbourhood, new and comfortable but nothing special.

LQG had paid for most of it, but let SJ make the down payment as his share of the mortgage - he had insisted on it, on "earning" his name on the shared deed to the place.

If SJ had made profit on that place - if he had a nest egg to himself, then - then good.

Good.

Time was running out. LQG still had an endless army of questions, but he had to get to the most important one or he knew he'd regret it for the rest of his life.

"And," he swallowed. "You came with Luo Binghe."

"Yeah." SJ's face softened, almost confirming his worst fears.

"Binghe and Hualing have been friends since school. Their families used to work together. When I lost my job, he helped me get a job as her assistant at first. I wasn't doing anything then, just sitting at home and feeling sorry for myself - I mean," he cut himself off.

"It kept me busy. Grounded. And I liked it, being on my feet and meeting new people. Then Hualing made me her manager, and now I'm busy all the time." He smiled, wan and wry. "Tonight was actually the first time I got to relax in a long time. Funny."

"You knew I'd be here," LQG breathed in.

"I knew Hualing was going to marry Mingyan, yes," SJ said. "They're both good kids. Mingyan was always a sweetheart. I really hope this marriage works out for the two of them."

That wasn't what he meant and they both knew it. "A'Jiu..."

"I knew," SJ said. "Of course I knew, Mingyan'd want you to be here, so you'd be here. So what, Qingge?"

So what indeed. What did LQG want to know from his husband who had practically been in hiding the past three years, who had cut off their red string in every way possible,

and yet at his little sister's engagement party, came despite knowing he'd be there, despite knowing _Liu Qingge would be there and want to talk to him_ -

"I," LQG swallowed, throat parched with anxiety and fear. "I have to know. Please, A'Jiu, be honest, tell me the truth -

"Are you and Luo Binghe together?"

Something tweaked in SJ's expression, something he couldn't grasp or understand. His husband bit his lip and clenched his hands, as if on the edge of spitting out something he wouldn't be able to take back.

Finally he managed in a small voice, "Is that what you really want to know, Qingge?"

"Yes," LQG said. "More than anything."

SJ hesitated. "Idiot," he mumbled. "You're such an idiot. Qingge.

"The two of us..." He pursed his mouth. "Binghe and I...

CHOOSE 1 FOR THE BINGJIU ENDING

CHOOSE 2 FOR THE POTENTIAL

END OF PART I... dun dun dun?!?!

So yes, since this is a "kick LQG while he's down" AU, this extra will have THREE ENDINGS depending on which poll answer you choose.

The first choice will lead to either a bingjiu ending or a potential liujiu/or not ending.

GOOD NEWS - all three endings WILL be written out. Your poll answer depends on which one you'd like to see first! After all, I've got RL and other writing to do, so it might take a while to see all three endings 😅

But come on. Either way, we like to see LQG suffer, don't we? Make your first vote and tell me what you think!!

*potential liujiu ending I don't get why it cut off like that 😭

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