Chapter Text
Shen Yuan sniffed before wrinkling his nose, stepping away from the corpse of the man who had tried to grab him. There was still blood on his claws, crimson and tacky and reeking. Carefully, he stepped over the body so he could wash it off at the nearby riverbank. He was about to meet the protagonist, Luo Binghe, after all! Shen Yuan couldn't scare him!
Kneeling down, he washed his hands off in the murky water, then splashed off his face for good measure. As he did, Shen Yuan tried to focus, focus, focus until he could feel all of the demonic features slipping back under his skin. Black claws turned into soft white nails, pointed ears became rounded, and sharp teeth filed down into nubs. A quick check over and Shen Yuan was pleased, even if his core felt itchy and his senses muffled from the change.
It would be easier this way.
Stepping away from the water, Shen Yuan took one final look at the slaver. He'd already raided his pockets for anything useful, the few bits of copper stuffed into the thin brown robes he had on. No one would miss a disgusting pig like this, so no need to bother trying to hide him. Wild animals would come and take care of him in time, anyway.
After picking his way out of the forest and back onto the dirt road once more, Shen Yuan took a deep inhale. The slightly spiced scent- it was still close! Luo Binghe was still nearby!
Shen Yuan walked down the dirt road for a long time, the shadow of Baiyinan City falling over him as he approached. The main walls were still a sichen's walk away, but already there was the smattering of run down clay and thatch huts on the city's outskirts. He didn't meet anyone on the road, it was the middle of the day and the poor folks here were likely all working, but he still whipped his head back and forth as he kept tasting the air.
A fluffy head of brown hair, barely held back by a thin string, bobbed nearby. A small boy kneeling halfway in the chilly water, a shirt worth more than his life in his hand, which he was scrubbing in the river. Shen Yuan watched him for a few moments, confirming with the System that was him, before he made his way over.
"Hey!"
The boy flinched, whipping around, pulling the half clean robe from the water and further soaking himself. Big brown eyes stared at Shen Yuan with suspicion, which stabbed the transmigator in the heart- poor little thing! He was so young and already having to guard himself!
Shen Yuan squat down next to him when he was close enough, eagerly drinking in the scene: Luo Binghe, maybe about four years old, already working himself to the bone in a vain attempt to do anything to help his poor mother. He felt himself smile, which made Luo Binghe inch away from him.
"What are you doing?" He asked, even though he knew the answer. Shen Yuan had been the one to call out, after all.
"... laundry." Luo Binghe said, still tense.
"Mn. My name is Luo Yuan." Shen Yuan lied, as he stared the other boy. The boy with curly hair and star filled brown eyes that matched his own. "Do you want to split a pork bun with me?"
The Unnamed Washerwoman actually did have a name, it turned out. Since this was a fully fleshed out world, now, not a trope filled novel. Her name was Lai Ying, and she was maybe in her late thirties. This era was rough, so time hadn't been kind to her. While not old by modern standards, she was getting up there in age for a poor, single, sickly woman. A shame, since she would have been rather pretty if she had ever had the chance to be properly fed.
Lai Ying knew something was wrong with him, but Luo Yuan always stuck to Binghe's side and kept him safe during the day, so she said less about it. She had still opened up her home to him, after all, and watered down the already thin rations even further to offer him a few bites of food in the morning and at night.
Luo Yuan only found the dull and ragged kitchen knife at his throat after he started sneaking extra money into the little hidey hole under the floorboard. Him 'finding' rabbits, birds, and other small animals to supplement their poor diet had been tolerated before this. He had been helping hang the laundry to dry, Luo Binghe down by the river. Lai Ying loomed over him, but even as he stared into her face, she just looked scared. Her hand was trembling where she gripped the knife's worn handle.
"What do you want with him?"
Luo Yuan glanced at where Binghe would be, half hidden by tall reeds. They didn't have long to do this.
"Xiao-he is my brother. My blood brother."
The woman took a stuttering breath and shook harder.
"... but only by half. He's not like me." A half truth. A half lie. He tried not to feel insulted when Lai Ying let out a relieved noise.
Luo Yuan continued to mess with the robe he was trying to hang, pretending as if the knife wasn't still pressed against his neck.
"I just want to be with him. He's all I have, now. I won't hurt him." Luo Yuan finished his fiddling, looking back up at the woman and offering her the smallest smile he could. "Or you."
Lai Ying must have found some sort of answer in his eyes, as she silently cursed and removed her hand. She didn't say anything else, just turned and quickly walked back to the sad little hovel the three of them lived in. Luo Yuan watched her go, then turned back the laundry he still needed to hang.
It was never brought up again.
After Shen Yuan died, he had woken back up.
A lot of that he could skip over. Transmigration stories were familiar enough, and since becoming Luo Yuan he had worked to compartmentalize a lot of his feelings. He couldn't mourn himself and what he could have been if he never thought about it.
A System error had him waking up as a child instead of whatever canon character it failed to shove his wayward soul inside of. A rounding error, something that Luo Yuan knew damn well was not supposed to exist. A boy who had died long before the story was ever supposed to take place, so unremarkable his grave hadn't even had a marker.
Demonic Cultivators had stolen demon bones to use for some nefarious ritual, waving a life giving artifact around as they chanted and spilled blood on the array they had carefully crafted. Only, the dormant blood parasites deep inside of the bones had woken up instead of whatever they wanted to summon.
Luo Yuan doesn't really remember much of it. Agony, for one, and screaming. So much screaming. Then he was sitting naked in a pile of blood that wasn't his own as the bodies around him twitched and cooled.
He didn't cry about it. Luo Yuan placed any feelings about it deep inside of a box and buried that box where he would never have to deal with it; right next to the box that held his feelings about his old life.
Full demon, half Heavenly. Luo Yuan wasn't even an NPC, but instead something that was supposed to be stay dead and gone. Just a speck in his father's life, meant to fully round out a named character's backstory in this living world. The System hadn't explained it very well, even seemed a bit confused on what to do with him.
So Luo Yuan decided the best course of action was to seek out his half brother, the very protagonist of this world.
A shame he was physically seven.
Luo Yuan holds Binghe close when they find their mother. The woman had been getting sicker and sicker for a while, even the extra nutrition and coin he brought not enough to help her. The System had not allowed Luo Yuan to fully drag them out of poverty, so he was forced to watch her slow decline despite knowing the ending.
Luo Binghe presses against his side, crying big, fat, tears as he clings to Luo Yuan.
Luo Yuan sniffs and wipes his own face. It still hurts, even though he knew it was coming. In the end he'd grown to care about her, too.
He's the one who handles her funeral rights, makes sure Lai Ying's body is taken care of so her spirit can rest. Luo Yuan is the older brother, after all, so he has to look out for the sweet kid boy under his care. The boy who now only had Luo Yuan as his family.
They can't stay in this city. The plot won't allow them. Packing what few belongings they have, Luo Yuan takes a ten-year-old Luo Binghe's hand and they both leave behind the only life one of them have ever known. Far, far, in the distance, so far that Luo Yuan can not hope to see them, there is a mountain where Luo Binghe will suffer.
A golden thread, offered by the System, leads them there.
The morning of the Disciple Selection is hot and sweltering. They had only arrived the night before, bare feet throbbing and coated in dust. Luo Yuan had found them a covered-enough spot in some brush by the road to rest. Binghe is sullen, picking at his nails, while Luo Yuan sits behind him and does his best to tame his mass of curly brown hair into something sensible.
"Hurry up and eat. You'll need all your strength today, didi." A fresh pork bun, specially bought just for Luo Binghe, still sits in his hands. The younger boy seems more interested in holding it than eating, despite how hungry he must be. Money had been tighter than normal for a while, now. The System hadn't wanted this to be easy for either of them.
"I don't want to leave you behind, gege." It's an argument that Luo Binghe has been using for the last two months, a scab he refuses to stop picking. Luo Yuan takes a subtle glance at the System timer as it ticks ominously down.
"You're not, Xiao-he. I'm just too old to Cultivate." And a full blooded demon, which he keeps to himself. No matter how good his suppression was, Cang Qiong's alarms would go off before he even made it to Heaven's Eternal Stairway. "I'll stay right here in town, so you better visit and tell me everything you've been learning."
"Gege...." Binghe turned to face him, his big doe eyes already starting to water. Lethal! Not fair!
"Don't cry." Luo Yuan started to scrub his half-brother's face with his sleeve, doing his best to clean him up with the provided waterworks. Binghe's lower lip only wobbled, so Luo Yuan knew he had to pull out the big guns. Sighing softly, he leaned back and looked down. "Binghe... remember what A'niang wanted?"
This had his brother tense up, squeezing the bun hard enough it almost split.
"She.... she wanted us to come try out."
"She did. I'm fifteen now, so I'm not allowed. But you're the perfect age to Cultivate, Binghe! You're going to get into the Sect, then become super famous and rich for us both." Luo Yuan grinned, trying to lighten the mood, then reached out and pinched one of Binghe's cheeks. The boy scrunched up his face and slapped his hand away, making Luo Yuan laugh. "So eat up! Next time I see you, you better be in disciple robes!"
Binghe still didn't look too convinced, but he did start eating. Before long, Luo Yuan was sending him off to officially sign up with the dozens of other kids his age. He didn't need help, which was great! Luo Yuan had worked had to teach his little brother how to write, read, and basic arithmetic. Harder when they were on the road for the last couple of years and had no materials, but he thinks he had done a good job.
When it's time to start up the steps, the first unofficial test, Luo Binghe turns and offers a determined nod paired with a timid smile.
Luo Yuan watches his brother's back until he's just a speck, then sighs and turns to head into town. The System cheers and awards him some points, but he ignores it in favor of finding a place to hunker down. He's homeless and a stranger, but this town sees enough foot traffic that hopefully no one will bother paying him much mind.
Luo Binghe was counting on him stay close, after all.