Thread by @zarasu333

#bingqiu #bingyuan
AU where Shen Yuan got into a wife plot, was saved and wooed by Bingge, married him and was then promptly forgotten and replaced with a new wife.
Now he spends his days as a beautiful but neglected and unloved concubine, quietly pining for his cold husband.

('Pining, sad concubine' is only one step away from 'beautiful, grieving widow' so Sy is really getting into the role.)
He really, genuinely loves Binghe, but his husband doesn't even spare him a single glance.

Also, the other wives keep trying to pull him into their schemes and intrigues, ugh. Don't they know that a neglected, scheming concubine is the biggest death flag there is? No, no, a tragic concubine might survive, but a tragic, scheming one? Never.

So he spends his days wearing beautiful robes, sitting on dainty little benches, looking out of windows and sighing. Or strolling through the garden, looking at the pond and sighing.
Or playing the qin and stopping to sigh now and then.

Just, a lot of sighing. And gazing yearningly at Binghe whenever he sees him walking through the hallways.
Binghe hasn't reacted to it yet, but Shen Yuan is sure that, eventually, the tragic concubine beam will be too strong to overlook.

Then, of course, everything goes to shit. Some of the wives collude to kill Binghe, and Shen Yuan arrives just in time to see one of them come at Binghe with a poisoned dagger.

Now, what use is it to look beautiful and tragic if Binghe isn't there to see and appreciate it?
So Shen Yuan goes between them and dies an ugly, painful death in Binghe's arms.

Then, he opens his eyes again, two years in the past and back to being a beautiful but neglected concubine.

Shen Yuan sighs.

But alas, he has become very, very good at being a tragic concubine. The food isn't bad either and he can spend a big part of his days reading trashy literature when he isn't busy sighing.

So he's determined to go right back to it.

And he would, if it wasn't for the fact that Binghe suddenly pops up everywhere he goes.

It's very hard being a beautiful, neglected concubine when his husband wants to have conversations with him all the time!

How is Shen Yuan supposed to look tragic if Binghe dotes on him all the time? At least he acknowledges how beautiful Shen Yuan looks, even if they still have to work on the tragic part.

(Unbeknownst to him, when Shen Yuan had lain dying in Binghe's arms, Binghe had looked at him and realised that he'd had someone who truly loved him right under his nose all this time. So of course, he searched for an artefact that turns back time.)

(And, being the protagonist, he managed this outlandish feat. When Shen Yuan had opened his eyes, back two years in the past, Binghe had as well, determined to win his beautiful, tragic concubine's heart.)

Obviously and shamelessly inspired by 'The Wife is First'.