Thread by @10thmusemoon

#moshang cockblocked by administrative duties
-
Shang Qinghua is going to throw up.

Mobei Jun is straddled above him, carefully peeling back his robes and running his hands over all his exposed skin.

Groping shamelessly at the softness of his stomach and chest and Shang Qinghua is so hard there is no way he doesn’t feel it. He definitely feels Mobei Jun pressing against his thigh.

Just as Shang Qinghua is tensing up, anticipating the tongue descending down his chest, there’s a thumping at his door.

Mobei Jun pauses for just a moment, long enough to meet his eyes in a question and receive a shake of a head for an answer.
“Not unless the peaks are on fire.”

Undeterred, his king continues his descent and at the first touch of that cold tongue against his nipple he-

-Is pushing Mobei Jun off the bed.

The emergency alarm bell system he set up, the one only the sect leader or his head disciple can activate is going crazy.

They are only meant to activate it at the most crucial of emergencies, ones that need An Ding Peak’s immediate all hands on sect attention. In the 30 years he has been peak lord, it has never gone off.

Until now.

Shoving on his robes, he looks over at his king apologetically and places a finger to his lips. “My king this- this is an emergency! Just stay here for a moment, just a moment and I’ll find out what it is.”

Mobei Jun simply slumps back against the floor, the tent in his pants still obvious and Shang Qinghua wants to cry at the sight of it.

The promise land was so close!!

Someone better be dying!!

Someone is not dying.

It’s worse than that.

Instead all of An Ding Peak is about to want to die and leave the sect in shambles and Shang Qinghua wouldn’t blame them.

It’s telling that his cute (terrifying) head disciple’s hand shoves through the crack in his door to yank at his sleeve.

“Promise shizun, promise me you won’t leave.”

That’s not good!!! Not good at all!!

The last time she made him promise not to bail on the sect an enterprising pair of senior Zui Xian Peak disciples had exploded several barrels of wine, lit a store house, two dorms, and a whole orchard on fire.

It had taken a full week to isolate the fires to a portion of the peak and finally put them out. An Ding disciples then spent three months of nonstop work reconstructing the lost buildings and helping salvage the orchard and take inventory of what was lost.

An even then, Shang Qinghua's emergency wards had not been rung! So somehow... this is worse. Wu Zhao's grip is threatening to tear at his robes and he tries to pat at her hand comfortingly.

Her expression only darkens.

"This...master promises. What is it, what's happen?"

It's worse than anything Shang Qinghua could have imagined.
After closing the door he's running back to his room to dig through his chest of items, there's- there has to be-

"Qinghua."

This will come in handy too and-

"Qinghua!"

Spinning to face his bed, Shang Qinghua's anxiety momentarily shuts down and his /whole/ brain shuts down.
Mobei Jun is /naked/.
On /his bed/.
Shang Qinghua wants to cry.

"My King, I...I cannot tell you how badly I want to stay, there is nothing /more/ I want to do-"

Mobei Jun's expression is akin to that of a prize winning luxury cat coming across dollar store kibble. There is a stilted, and quite frankly offended, air to the way he pulls together his clothes.

"Qinghua knows how to call this king."

Aaaahh he's moping!!

Even the summoned portal feels a little dejected in it's wobbliness.

-

An Ding Peak is at war.

Shang Qinghua has worked day in and day out, his disciples are dropping one by one in exhaustion and are one request away from murdering their off peak martial siblings.

There's been an infestation.

Blinking Silver Crawlers have been brought to the sect.

What was once a throwaway plot device to have Luo Binghe go on an Indiana Jones style quest to find an artifact in a lost library has become Cang Qiong Mountain Sect's nightmare.

Specifically /An Ding Peak's/ nightmare.

These Silverfish insects on steroids eat all sorts of organic materials. Paper, wood, glue, cloth, you name it! And to make matters worst, they blink in and out of existence and reproduce at a rapid rate.

They could be /anywhere/.

The are /everywhere/.

The thing is, this shouldn't have happened.

An Ding Peak has devised an extensive pest management system that has been integrated across all peaks and vendors. There isn't a single person that is exempt from participating in it, including the sect leader!

There are pest logs, sweeps, that are supposed to take place on each peak. Isolation procedures for new cargo brought up the mountains. There are specialized wards to deter insects that must be up kept!

Which means, /someone/ hasn't been doing their due diligence to follow procedures and reporting practices.

Shang Qinghua and this Hallmasters have started confiscating the An Ding Peak Welcome Knife that Wu Zhao gifts new disciples after their first year.

All it took was for a single incident of a disciple implying that It Wasn't That Serious for a sleep deprived group of An Ding workers to go stab happy.

Shang Qinghua doesn't blame them.

Zhangmen-shixiong, however, does.

Zhangmen-shixiong can stick his morals where the sun don't shine!!!!

By the end of the first week since the infestation was was reported, they've lost eight storehouses across five peaks!!! It has been, thankfully, mostly laundry houses, restock locations, and extra lumber.

But there have been sightings near the libraries, which is a disaster waiting to happen. Cang Qiong Mountain sect is a purveyor of knowledge, all sorts of rare texts exists across all the highly specialized peaks.

Everything from cultivation techniques to the last hundred years of farming history, to even the migration patterns of local fauna is stored in the libraries.

And An Ding Peak is responsible for all of it.

In theory, each peak should be responsible for managing the upkeep and care of their own libraries. In reality, no one in this sect can be trusted to wipe their asses without an An Ding disciple telling them how and then doing it themselves when it isn't done correctly.

There is a reason why disciples have to be nominated by Hall masters to even be considered for the head disciple position, and even then there is stress testing and back ups involved with a rigorous apprenticeship regiment.

That's also why the An Ding Peak Lords are Like That.

It's a certain type of personality that can be the head of customer service, housekeeping, construction, negotiation, and IT all in one. Definitely no one sane and ethical can succeed in the position.

It's one of the rare peaks where entitled nobles do not thrive and are actually at a disadvantage.

After so many years of this, it's not uncommon for the senior disciples to become cutthroat. Shang Qinghua sabotaged his way the top, and Wu Zhao has done the same.

That is the An Ding way.

So, it is not an exaggeration to say that Shang Qinghua is acting in the capacity likened to that of a war general.

Every morning he meets with his 12 Hall masters over giant map of all the peaks located in the An Ding meeting hall.

They go over where the infestation has been spotted, what wards have been up kept, and what tactics have been tried (and failed) to quarantine locations.

There's a daily report of the state of their disciples and the rising tensions among the other peaks who have clearly not been doing their part in the integrated pest management system.

And then, every evening Shang Qinghua summarizes this knowledge to the other peak lords who have, quite frankly, an obscene range of understanding of the severity of the situation.

Shang Qinghua wants to kill his martial siblings.

There is a meeting where Wei Qingwei, whose peak works mostly with inorganic materials, makes a joke about the pest logs and Liu Qingge comments implying that he didn't even know they existed.

And Shang Qinghua sees red and wishes Luo Binghe had actually burned the sect down.

Before he has time to leap over the table and die at the end of Liu Qingge's sword, sweet beautiful Qi Qingqi is chastising them until they are shamefaced and silent.

By the time he heads home at the end of each night,
Shang Qinghua is nothing more than a pile of tension headaches stacked a top one another and held together by a soggy noodle.

He is definitely, not in the mood to have rigorous demon sex with a Mobei Jun that keeps showing up in varying states of dress.

Despite how he desperately wants to! Despite how Mobei Jun looks increasingly dejected and pathetic each time he turns him down!

Don't blame this servant, my king! Little Airplane cannot shoot towards the sky when existence is a prison and life is an insect fueled nightmare, no matter how nice your tits look in that sheer robe!

When Mobei Jun shows up with nipple piercings Shang Qinghua turns around and leaves his house without a word. He's halfway to Qiong Ding Peak to resign when his head disciple catches him and drags him off to eat in the ADP communal cafeteria that has turned into a 24 hour spot.

Surrounded by his crying angry disciples cursing the other peaks to the high heavens, Shang Qinghua feels truly seen.

By the fourth week, when cultivation manuals start to be devoured and the usual laundry services have come to a stall, the rest of the sect wakes up to the reality of the issue.

An Ding Peak almost wishes they hadn't.

Everyone has /solutions/.

Everyone is /so creative./

Some solutions are tame, if ineffective. Qian Cao disciples, sick of having their bandages devoured, start leaving out sticky traps in the hopes of deterring and capturing the insects. Which would be fine!!!

If not for the Blinking part of Blinking Silver Crawlers.

The bastards get caught in the trap, blink out of existence and back next to it, then /eat/ the glue trap. Mu Qingfang looks especially embarrassed at this development and all Shang Qinghua can do about is pat his favorite shidi on the back in sympathy.

And then there are the idiots.

Zhangmen-shixiong, the coward, can't even tell Shang Qinghua himself what happens. Instead, he sends his head disciple who he /knows/ Shang Qinghua's head disciple has a soft spot for with the message.

In an attempt to make the environment inhospitable to the insects, Qiong Ding Peak disciples teamed up with the beast peak and Zui Xian peak to develop an /alcohol based/ pesticide.

It's highly flammable.

The lose food stores on two peaks to the flames, not the insects.

When they dispatch An Ding disciples to control the fires, Shang Qinghua has to hold back his head disciple from going with them.

To avoid a public execution, he steals her away to the noodle stall at the base of the mountain where they drown their sorrows in food and alcohol.

Shang Qinghua is absolutely shit faced when Mobei Jun arrives that night. He isn't even /trying/ to seduce him, this time.

He's wearing his normal opened court robes when Shang Qinghua bursts into tears and buries his face in that beautiful chest. The cold does wonders for his headache and alcohol induced flush. Claws gently card through his hair as Mobei Jun holds him until he falls asleep.

A week later, Mobei Jun shows up with his chest heaving and flushed, clearly under the effects of an aphrodisiac of some sort.

Shang Qinghua, having predicted this, grabs the all purpose healing spray he made and douses Mobei Jun until he portals away with all the dignity of a wet cat.

Head pressed against his table, Shang Qinghua wonders what his life has become.

The next day, after the morning meeting with the hallmasters, Shang Qinghua receives news that Shen Qingqiu has returned to the peak and flies over to immediately. Cucumber bro has been gone for the majority of this nightmare and he needs his insights /immediately/.

He's barely touched down on Qing Jing Peak when he sees the tell tale signs of disciples running around with their head's cut off.

"Shishu! Shang-shishu! Wait!"

"Is it a library?"

"No but-"

"Later then!"

He's barely touched down in front of the Bamboo House when a chill starts going down his spine. The screens have been gone, eaten through by their tiny nightmares.

"Uhhh, Cucumber -bro?"

The door is partly open and their is the sound of movements coming from inside the house.

Normally, all these would be enough to warn Shang Qinghua away from entering. The last thing he needs is to be dragged into their exhibition kink and yet-

An ominous feeling has come over him.

"Bro?" Cracking open the door further, his heart drops out of his chest.

The Bamboo house has been ransacked. Or better yet, invaded.

The shelves that once held an assortment of scrolls are empty, the infrastructure of it barely standing. The low table they used to eat at is half gone, walls that once had tapestries hanging are empty.

And in the middle of it all, is the remains of a cargo box. Noticeably missing the bright green approval mark of An Ding's containment and isolation procedures. Shen Qingqiu rounds a corner and his frantic eyes tell Shang Qinghua everything he needs to know.

"YOU!"

"Airplane- it's not- wait! WAIT!"

Shang Qinghua excels at surviving, he has a healthy appreciation for not doing anything that puts him at risk. Especially when a certain protagonist is involved.

However.

There comes a time in every man's life when he has to throw self preservation to the wind and let instincts, a drive for vengeance, take over.

This is that time for Shang Qinghua.

He has spent the better part of two months fighting for his life to keep the peaks standing. And he knows, he /knows/ how this is going to play out once everyone finds out.

Yue Qingyuan, OG simp for Shen Qingqiu, will not even give him a slap on the wrist.

The only justice that will be served here will be at Shang Qinghua's hand.

And so.

Shang Qinghua tackles Shen Qingqiu.

For two immortal cultivators, their screeches are more suited to an elementary school's play ground.

The stars have aligned for Shang Qinghua. He is /not/ immediately murdered by the protagonist.

And so he bleeds every second of life dry to pull at Shen Qingqiu's hair and use that god forsaken fan to punctuate each of his words.

"HOW! COULD! YOU!"

It's not a question, not at all.

"I didn't know!!! We had to leave so quickly!"

"WE! HAVE! PROCEDURES!"

“Airplane! Stop! Stop- DID YOU JUST BITE ME?!”

He did.

He’s not proud of it.

But also he kind of is.

The moment he feels the threatening aura of death enter the peak, Shang Qinghua calls in his escape vehicle.

“My KING!”

Mobei Jun, who has grown progressive desperate for Shang Qinghua’s attention, doesn’t hesitate to rip open a portal to him.

Throwing Shen Qingqiu’s fan back at him, he points two fingers to his own eyes and then back at the other transmigrator.

“We’re not done here!”

And steps through the chilling portal back to his room where he proceeds to curse Shen Qingqiu to all heaven and hell.

Mobei Jun, now used to these tirades, waits patiently on the bed for Shang Qinghua to run out of steam. When an appropriate stopping point presents itself, he shrugs off the top layer of his robe and opens holds out his open arms.

Like a moth to the flame, Shang Qinghua immediately changes course to end up in Mobei Jun’s arms. The northern kings forced him to lay down and holds him gently, though just tight enough to apply a comforting pressure.

It’s not long before Shang Qinghua’s insults sputter out and he’s simply laying, face deep, against Mobei Jun’s sternum. Enjoying the moment, the demon runs tiny circles into Shang Qinghua’s lower back until he relaxed further.

“Junshang might kill me.”

That was nice while it lasted.

Exhaling, Mobei Jun tries to keep the fear from his voice. “/Why?/“

“I bit Shen Qingqiu during our fight.”

Ears twitching, Mobei Jun’s anxiety wars with his jealousy. “Did you break skin?”

Shang Qinghua lifts his head enough to rest his chin in the muscles of his chest. The offended huffs of air give him an answer before Shang Qinghua can verbalize it. “I’m mad, not stupid.”

Mobei Jun hums in the affirmative and they lay wrapped up in each other a little longer.

When the emperor of the demon realm does Not come bursting through the door, he decides to push his luck and kiss and bite at the line of Shang Qinghua’s throat until he’s squirming with interest.

“Mo-Mobei!” Shang Qinghua’s heart is beating like a war drum through the artery in his neck, and together with his panting breaths, it’s the sweetest song Mobei Jun has ever heard.

Gaining in confidence, he slowly worms a clawed hand between the yellow robes of An Ding Peak to massage and pinch at Shang Qinghua’s chest, relishing at how arches into the touch. That same hand starts untying his lover’s belt when Shang Qinghua completely stills.

“No, absolutely not.” Immediately l, he retracts his hand and raise his gaze to Shang Qinghua’s panic stricken face.

Afraid he’s done something wrong he also stills. “Shang Qinghua…”

“Not in My /home!/“

But Shang Qinghua’s gaze isn’t focused on Mobei Jun, instead it’s trained on the opposite wall.

Shang Qinghua is going to Qi deviate.

His leisure has has even more wards against pests than any of the libraries still standing. The only way this, this abomination he created, could have made its way in is if he brought it.

From Shen Qingqiu’s infested home.

Scrambling, he tries to pull himself from Mobei Jun’s arms. He can’t- he can’t let this live!! There is too much at stake in his /home/ for the sake of both the cultivation and demon realm.

Strong arms only tighten further and he is now flaying to get free.

“My Jing, let-LET GO!! I have- I have to Kill it!! Before blinks away and it too late-“

It’s teleporting!
In his struggle, he misses the way Mobei Jun’s pupils, which had been pleasant orbs of black only moments before, snap to the tiniest sliver of darkness.

“Shang! Qinghua!”

A furious blast of cold air goes through the room, Shang Qinghua flinches and draws into his king’s chest for protection from the sting of it.

A light tapping sound is heard and Shang Qinghua watches as a portal drops the lifeless bodies of /four/ Blinking Silver Crawlers in the middle of his floor.

“/this/ is the plague you face?” The disdain, no the loathing, bleeds in Mobei Jun’s voice.

“The great Cang Qiong sect brought to their knees by Starlit Nuisances?”

Shang Qinghua shakes from where his eyes remained glued to the immovable pile of insects. “What- no, no these are Blinking Silver Crawlers.”

An offended sniff. “Qinghua doubts this King?”

“What! No, no my king of course not!” Rushing to placate Mobei Jun involves a lot of soft petting of his hair and face. “But, uh, what do you mean by Starlit Nuisances.”

“They’re children’s playthings.”

They are, apparently, the Northern demon equivalent of rollie pollies.

Shang Qinghua has no choice but to lay there , mouth ajar, while his beautiful king explains that the menace of archivists in the south are nothing more than barometers for demon children’s qi.

His cousins from his mother’s tribe would predict where they would blink to next and open a portal to drop them at another location. While the the ice demons from his father’s side would create elaborate mazes to watch them escape out of them.

There is also, apparently, a specific temperature that will kill them instantly. Children would take turns freezing them at colder and colder temperatures until the loser would reach that temperature and kill it.

Morbid but well…demons.

Mobei Jun, quite smugly, informed him that he had been the best at all these games, having always been in perfect control of his qi.

Shang Qinghua nodded along and praised him despite remembering quite vividly the times he had frozen things unintentionally in their youth.

But also, hmm…..

Slowly, a plan starts to formulate in his mind and the more he thinks on it, the more feasible it becomes. Shang Qinghua feels a satisfied smile stretch across his face.

Sliding his hands down that firm chest, pausing a moment for a nice long grope, Shang Qinghua pulls in closer as he dips his fingers beneath Mobei Jun’s belt.

“My king,” he whispers, “tell me more about your qi control.”

Right before the peak lord meeting is set to start, Shang Qinghua gets one last kiss in and leaves behind a happily purring and disheveled Mobei Jun in his bed. Despite the obvious strain in his legs, there is a spring in his step and he feels the lightest he has in years s

Not even Luo Binghe’s glowering face just outside the door is enough to deter his mood.

Well, mostly.

“Shang-shishu.”

!!!!!!!

So he’s not dying anytime soon! Cucumber must feel /really/ guilty. Perfect!

Elated, he grins back at the demon emperor whose life he’s about to ruin and bounces his head in the imitation of a nod.

“ Luo-shizhi! So good to see you!”

When he steps into the meeting, all his sect sibling look various degrees of exhausted.

Shen Qingqiu, he notices, has already pulled out his fan to hide behind. A quick glance over at Yue Qingyuan’s smiling, and tired, face tells him everything he needs to know about whether the truth has been revealed.

Perfect!!!

Discretely, he sends a hand signal to the An Ding disciples in charge of cater this meeting and waits for them to sign back the affirmative. The leading disciple approaches him with an aid of nervousness and says, loud enough for everyone to hear:

“Ah, this disciple regrets to inform shizun that the kitchen in charge of the meal did tonight was also infested and, well, there will be no food for tonight’s meeting.”

The downcast look of embarrassment deserves a Golden Rooster!! He loves his little scammers!

Paying attention to the discontent grumble of his martial siblings, Shang Qinghua squeezes his disciples shoulder with one hand and taps a pattern against it with his fingers.

His disciple nods silently.

“This shizun understands, there’s nothing to be done about it! It’s a good thing all peak lords practice inedia.”

They do, but everyone prefers to eat when stressed! The deep sighs around him seem to agree.

“Take the rest of the evening off and go get some rest, if the work schedule is correct I’m certain the disciples beneath you are all on their 15th hour of work cleaning this mess.”

They’re not, Shang Qinghua’s work schedule for disciples have become so elaborate to ensure no one was dropping like flies anymore.

But the guilty looks of the peak lords around him means /they/ don’t know that.

Reaching into his bag, he pulls out a jade ring stamped with his seal. “Take this to head disciple Wu and inform her to start emergency Gold procedures for tomorrow morning. Any non-essential disciple is having a late start, and we’ll follow up with the rest later.”

The gasp his disciple lets out before running off is enough to draw everyone’s attention to him. “Yes shizun, right away!”

Whatever they think is happening is almost certainly wrong.

Emergency Gold Code, as An Ding disciples know, simply means “shizun is about to spoil you lavishly so be good and be quiet.”

It was only partially made up so Shang Qinghua could bribe his disciples into cooperating when infront of non An Ding ears.

The other part was an excuse to embezzle-ahem- appropriately distribute sect funds to spoil himself and his disciples. Shang Qinghua may no longer be broke but he’ll never forget what it was like to be the little guy being pushed around!

(Though in some ways he still is.)

Yue Qingyuan’s kindly, yet punchable, face is trained on him when he turns around. “Is everything alright, Shang-shidi?”

Humming, Shang Qinghua goes to his seat and only winces slightly at having to kneel. Maybe they were too enthusiastic earlier.

“There’s been a development in the case.”

The despair in the room is palpable, the last development in the case involved losing two laundry storehouses and a year’s worth of supply of talisman paper. Sealant glue and corks devoured, they also lost a storehouse of wine.

“An Ding Peak has lost five storehouses, three of which provide food for the sect.”

The haven’t.

Airplane always thought it was a dumb oversight to have the supply guy and money guy be the same person.

Yeah he wrote it in, and it’s served him and the OG nicely, but logistically, it makes no sense.

“So we will continue rationing procedures until the sect’s quarantine is over.”

Hesitant, Qi Qingqi asks, “Shang-shixiong, will the procedures….worsen?”

Looking around the room, he catches the grimaces of several peak lords who were not vigilant in following the pest management system. It is not a coincidence that their food rationing has been more on the bland side of things.

Those that did exceptionally well, and proved to be helpful and decent to the An Ding disciples during this time, have ended up with what is considered a more normal delivery of food. On the down low, of course.

Qi-shimei owes Liu Mingyan her fucking life.

With a genial smile, he says. “No shimei, things will continue as they have been.” Relief washes over her and she nods a thanks.

Liu Qingge, who has been bound to the peak until the quarantine lifts, pipes up. “When can we leave?”

Which is just what Shang Qinghua needed.

Bai Zhan has been hit especially hard by the flavorless food rationing, a slowdown in repairs, the peak quarantines, and the suddenly stab happy An Ding disciples.

Wu Zhao has received no less than 6 marriage proposals. She only stabbed four of them too!

So when Shang Qinghua replies, “Soon, shidi.” He is amongst the most eager to sit up at attention.

Ever their fearless leader, Yue Qingyuan is the one to ask, “Is An Ding Peak close to solving this matter?”

From what his sources say, the Qiong Ding head disciple started sulking after the second proposal. Oh young love!

Shang Qinghua’s smile and tone stay warm, as if nothing can touch him in this moment.

“Yes, zhangmen-shixiong,” he he pauses for dramatic effect, just long enough to let the peak lords work themselves up. “After finding out the infestation started with Shen-shixiong on Qing Jing Peak, we found the solution shortly after.”

The man in question fans himself faster, eyes darting from peak lord to peak lord who have immediately gone silent. Even Yue Qingyuan’s face looks irritated and strained.

“This is a good reminder that the isolation and containment procedures for new cargo brought to the sect must always be followed. Especially before leaving the item unattended.”

And there goes any plausible excuse.

The room erupts into chaos.

Peak lords are sprinting over their tables to surround Shen Qingqiu, who keeps frantically looking over at Shang Qinghua and Yue Qingyuan.

The sect leader, in all his exhausted glory, remains seated with his eyes close, alternating inhaling and exhaling deeply.

As the shouts escalate, Shang Qinghua makes his way over to sit next to the first character he ever made for PIDW. The conscious effort he's making to not go defend his favored shidi reminds Shang Qinghua why he liked him so much.

"Zhangmen-shixiong."

"Yes, shidi?"

"I have some demands."

Ah!

A sigh so deep from the man who has the weight of hundreds of lives on his shoulders. Shang Qinghua has been fielding all the intersect complaints but Qiong Ding Peak received all the ones coming from the outside.

The quarantine of a great sect is no small deal, especially one was vast as Cang Qiong who's various specialties impact all manner of day to day lives.

"Of course, please inform this shixiong how he can help."

He had drafted his list of demands between refractory periods, blissed out and dazed from Mobei Jun's attention, he had let nearly every thought make it onto the list. Even the petty ones.

Especially the petty ones.

"The contractor that will be managing the removal of the infestation must be paid out of Shen Qingqiu's personal stipend."

Given that he was rich from his husband's side as well, this wasn't the real punishment.

"Of course, what else?"

"Shen-shixiong must remain on the peaks to oversee the reconstruction and the contractors."

At that, the sect leader finally opens his eyes. Thick eye brows climbing high on his face.

"How long is that expected to take?"

Technically, Mobei Jun could probably take care of it in about 2-3 weeks times if he worked diligently. But the small army of demon children that they will be contracting out to will not have that attention span. The rebuilding efforts will take some time too.

"Three to four months at minimum."

Yue Qingyuan does nothing to hide the pleased little smile that brings him. A quarter of the year with the Qing Jing peak lord in house, communicating constantly with Qiong Ding on the state of the recovery.

"This shidi will also be on vacation during that time."

The smile drops.

Shang Qinghua does everything possible to look into Yue Qingyuan's very soul and communicate how absolutely non-negotiable this is.

"Y-yes, that can be arranged. Is there more?"

/There is./

The sounds of Cucumber trying, and failing, to defend himself in the background is such a sweet sound to hear during their negotiation. That Luo Binghe hasn't come in storming to save him is telling of the quality of the silencing talismans that An Ding has built around this room

The other demands they agree on are as follow:
1) QJP's non-essential requisitions will be de-prioritized for the duration of the recovery period.

2) Shen Qingqiu will also handle the paperwork involved with overseeing the recovery, as well as any other relevant issues that arise during SQH's absence

3) An Ding Peak disciples will have mandatory rest days every week where no non-essential work will be conducted. No off peak labor will be done during these days.

4) Shen Qingqiu will also be in charge of coordinating the transcription and reproduction of lost library materials, on all peaks.

The Qing Jing Peak lord will be kept so busy, as busy as Shang Qinghua has been, that he's almost certain Luo Binghe will be facing Mobei Jun's recent, sexiled, fate.

And none of these issues can be fixed with heavenly demon blood or demonic qi!

Cucumber bro's dejected face as they leave the sect leader's office to finalized the agreement is delicious. Shang Qinghua is committing it to memory and determined to make it worse.

Shang Qinghua entwines his fingers together and brings his hands to stretch above his head. "I'm so ready for this vacation!"

The half assed grunt he receives is all the conversation he needs.

"Yeah! I'm even going to start this new novel I've been planning."

The crack in his neck is almost audible with how quickly he snaps to turn to face Shang Qinghua.

"Yeah!? Ab-about what?"

He hums, dithering a little to draw out the suspense. "An action story, fantasy or I guess real world in this case?"

So that's what sparkling anime eyes look like on a human face!

Cucumber bro's a little breathless when he says, "Do-do you need a beta reader?"

Putting a hand on his shoulder he says, "Thanks bro!" and when that excited little expression reaches it's peak he says, "But Liu Mingyan already agreed to. My King!"

The black rift appears and out walks his king, hickey still on full display.

God he loves him!

These next few months are going to be amazing and he's not going to be able to walk for most of them if he has anything to say about it.

He only feels a little bad at the fate he's leaving his favorite daughter to experience.

Luo Binghe is going to be /so/ jealous at how much Cucumber bro is going to pester her.

But well, that's not his problem any more, is it?

/end/

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