The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System fan fiction

Minghua and Changying are too dashing! I’m in looooooveeeeeeeee~ Congratulations to Mei Lin for escaping marriage to an idiot! I feel sorry for the Wang and Fuyi though, and I hope Wang’s friendship with Mei Lin’s father won’t get too affected.

Thank you for the Easter egg ~

 

Jinghe knows Wang Zhengchen well. They will talk it over and then it will be 'bros before hoes' again.

 

EASTER EGG

Spoiler

ATDSVT
***
After a very enlightening conversation with Wang Zhengchen, Mei Lin's two new fiances brought up the subject of a full body checkup for her and her father.

While Wang Zhengchen was breaking the news to his now heartbroken son, Siye, that he was being assigned only the rank of Count, specifically because of what he did to the Wang's BFF and his daughter, the physical examinations were proceeding.

Gao Jinghe was not happy at all, to find out that the real reason his daughter had so many persistent skin problems and assumed birthmarks weren't really allergies,or birthmarks.

She had been poisoned in the womb.

This same poison must have been what really killed her mother after their son was born, rather than childbed fever.

If the poison were allowed to run its course, it would destroy her body further. Already she was unable to cultivate, but it would eventually start affecting her internal organs and her veins too, causing her to waste away in a horribly slow, miserable death.

As it was, the very clear difference between the resources held by big sects and the resources held by wealthy, influential mortals was revealed to be a chasm as big as the Cang Mountain Range.

For mortals and even most sects, crippling was permanent. The breaking of bones was considered a terrible thing and bones broken had a chance of ruining cultivation thoroughly because they could never heal to the required strength to support a cultivator.

The kind of 'incapable of walking' crippling that Gao Jinghe had, was considered to be life ruining everywhere. Just as the poison that Mei Lin had suffered was also life ruining everywhere.

Everywhere except in Cang Qiong, that was.

Gao Jinghe was the first to be healed, as his wounds were the most traumatic. In addition, there was the delicious bonus of the purple, unsightly looks on the faces of the elders who had gone against him, lending even more savor to the affair.

Naturally, the next thing to be done was the healing of Mei Lin.

Of course, the two sons and the Wang had exited the room only to bear witness to the miracle.

The first thing that Gao Jinghe asked Guo Minghua for, as his father-in-law, to be done right after he would be done healing Mei Lin... was for him to heal his friend, Wang Zhengchen.

Naturally, Wang Zhengchen was touched. As expected of his friend, really generous.

Of course he had completely pragmatic reasons to ask Minghua for that favor.

A healed Wang Zhengchen would never have to give that brat, Siye, the time of day, much less any chance to scheme for a bigger inheritance.

As Mei Lin stared at her own reflection in the exquisite, rare silver and glass mirror that her fiance was holding in front of her, she could only marvel at the changes.

This.... She had never known that she could be beautiful, like an immortal. But that was exactly what she was seeing in front of her.

After learning why his father had arrived to basically crush all his hopes and dreams of being the next Wang, by taking him completely off the list of sons with any claim to that inheritance and removing him from the line of succession to any other properties, Siye was buried in bitterness and self recriminations.

His father truly valued that girl more than him, to the point he was rejected because of her? That was so unfair! He could only blame both Miss Nihuang for seducing him and Miss Mei Lin for being more loved by his father than he himself ever was.

Fuyi, as the loyal, nonquestioning and sensible son, had savored the sight of his older brother losing everything he had hoped for. With one less competitor, he could advance to the top three candidates to become the next Wang.

Of course this pair of sons and the recently arrived Wang who had lectured the elder boy, were stunned to come out and find Guo Minghua healing the father and daughter.

The fact that he has never been able to help Jinghe's injuries heal had always been a thorn in the side of Wang Zhengchen. Now that his friend was healed, he could only be both envious he hadn't been able to help his friend more and stunned to find out his friend's daughter was really a beauty under the skin problems she had earlier.

Siye had a simple plan. Because his fiancee adored him, she could help him get back his inheritance once he sweet talked her into it. Given she loved him, he had an immense amount of expectation that she would ensure the return of everything he had lost.

Except he was very wrong and she no longer wishes to speak with him.

Siye who had come to beg for Mei Lin' s forgiveness and lure her into taking him back as her fiance in order to regain his position, could only gape as the woman he had thought of as disgusting, became exquisitely beautiful and enticing right before his eyes.

It was fairly obvious that Miss Nihuang couldn't take the sudden change in their circumstances.

First, the prospective father-in-law declared he considers her less talented and less beautiful cousin to be his treasured daughter-in-law, making it clear that he doesn't even put her in his eyes. Then her cousin is picked up by a gorgeous pair of cultivators who are both from higher ranking sects than the one she is entering. Then if that wasn't bad enough, they fixed up her cousin's skin and her cousin is suddenly a female immortal?!

These circumstances, all she wants to do is rage quit!

Unfortunately for her and her Elders whose faces have now been dragged into the mud by these people, they are still required to come up with a conclusion to smooth over their perfidy in trying to steal an engagement.

Naturally, their expressions do not look healthy anymore, looking more like the recently dead as Jinghe, now fully recovered, actually thanks them for breaking the engagement so that his daughter got a better pair of spouses and got him healed of his crippling injuries to boot.

Now he can compete with their candidates for the place as the family head again, isn't that great?

The elders want to vomit blood right about now but all they can do is wobble away unsteadily, cursing him in their heart of hearts.

 

I didn't even know what perfidy was before...
Thank you for the Eggs, Shizun~

No more slaughtering? Blood, guts, body parts, faeces everywhere?

 

Aw~ i agree wang-er
It kinda is addicting to "bully" those who react as much as those three owo.
But someone who looks at you like you've hung the sun, moon and stars and indulges your quirks (more like kinks) is veeeery charming.

Thanks for the uploads @Gav I've been fed and no longer am starving

 

EASTER EGG

Spoiler

ATDSVT
***
In general, there are three spheres of influence. The mortal, secular world ruled by the Emperor, the Jianghu, and the realm of immortals and demons.

These three overlap in certain ways. For example, mortal governments are ruled by Emperors or kings who claim divine right, possibly through descent from this or that ancient immortal cultivator hero who purged demons, gained great fame and the worship of multitudes, the higher ups of the secular military may also have their own qinggong techniques. The Jianghu had its share of people who delved into Qi techniques and could possibly branch over into becoming an immortal cultivator if they had fortuitous encounters. And immortal cultivators could come from any walks of life, as long as they had acquired a Qi cultivation technique from a fortuitous encounter that allowed them to break their own limits, most of them retired from mortal life to cultivate.

In the millions of people in a city, one could find plenty of people studying qinggong, or who were involved in the Jianghu, but immortal cultivators were the one percent. As such, the oldest immortal sects were known to be incredibly choosy and wealthy.

The sudden influx of a large number of people of high rank and high amount of resources in the cultivation world would naturally cause quite a stir.

Previously, many beginning cultivators were from either established families who had a fortuitous encounter and managed to compile a working cultivation technique, commoners who had acquired a cultivation technique through a lucky find, military members who had gained their skills from family or fortuitous encounters with local masters or the Jianghu, which may as well be considered to have its own black market in terms of Qi-based martial arts techniques.

Since Qi techniques and cultivation were best acquired really early, anyone who started later than say, fifteen, was automatically assumed to be shit out of luck. The only thing that could counterbalance the late age would be ludicrous amounts of very expensive resources and a master who really valued them.

As such, most of the time if a farmer found anything they couldn't read or signs of a cultivation ruin, they went to the nearest person said to have ties to the Jianghu or cultivators and sold their find or their land for large amounts of quick cash.

Those items in turn were sold off at higher prices to those who could make use of them. In the current economy full of treasure hunters, finds like this tended to start up economic booms.

In short, the Empire was having a great time, and a flourishing economy with brand new resources popping up here and there, a massive hunt (for easter eggs that they didn't know were easter eggs) was ongoing. The optimism was high, the treasure hunting cultivators were cheerfully raiding every single ruin they came across and the vendors of all walks of life were making a mint by selling everything from food to supplies.

In the other side of the Cang Mountain range, other countries... weren't really having a good time. This was because one of the other countries bordered by the mountain range in question was attacking a third. And the third was losing. Oh, it was making the larger country fight for every square inch of land, but it was still losing.

 

EASTER EGGS

Spoiler

ATDSVT- Yang Dewei Arc
***
Wars are started by many things. Some are started by pride, some by honor, some by lust and some by greed. But in the end, what keeps a war going is the availability of supplies for the army.

In this case, the war that was going on between a certain pair of countries on the other side of the Cang Mountain Range had been started because the second largest of the four countries bordered by that mountain range had wanted to expand its land.

The smaller country, Lingyu Jie, had very fertile land. The larger country, Senlin Guo, had previously had a famine in one of its provinces. It was a nice excuse, right?

Yes, a very nice excuse. Certainly better than a previous 'emperor's blatant interest in the queen of the neighboring kingdom which was the reason for the expansion war of the kingdom several generations ago. (That emperor made her his consort, placing her over the rest of his other concubines the moment he took over their country.)

In truth, the Senlin Guo's ruling family, the Zhong clan, just really wanted to someday rival their much larger neighbor, the Empire, on the other side of the Cang Mountain range. All the small kingdom's ruling families liked to call themselves emperors, but they had no real qualifications. They each had a kingdom, and not an empire. As such, the Zhong family looked at the big picture, harboring ambitions of devouring all the countries on their side of those mountains, all the way to the sea.

Their assault on their neighboring country was a reaction to the Empire's successful conquest of the nomads' territory. Since the estimate of their officials was that the Empire would be quiet for at least three generations in order to digest the great amount of land it had devoured now, this was prime time to go around conquering their neighbors while the Empire concentrated on dividing up and assimilating that much land.

Spoiler

ATDSVT- Yang Dewei Arc
Senlin Guo's emperor, Zhong Feng, had assumed that the conquest of Lingyu Jie would be quickly completed. As such, he had set all seven of his sons to the task of expanding territory, giving each of them an army.

Each of his sons were extremely beautiful, as could be expected when they took after their imperial consort mothers. Of these seven princes, the most competitive and masterful were the fourth prince, Zhong Jing, and the seventh prince, Zhong XiCheng. The fourth prince had acquired his fifth brother, Zhong Tong as an ally. The eldest prince, Zhong Haotian, and the third prince, Tian Ye, were both mediocre. The second and sixth princes, Guangshun and Guanyuan, shared the same mother and were naturally allied. Other than the fifth prince, all the other princes harbored their own plans for the throne.

If the seven hadn't all been set out with armies to take over Lingyu Jie, perhaps the six factions led by six princes would have torn the country apart in vying for the crown.

As it was, Emperor Zhong Feng had stated unequivocally that whoever performed the most meritorious deed of conquest would take the position of crown prince. This statement upended the plans of the eldest prince, who had always assumed that position was his by right.

As a result, all seven princes were expanding the reach of their country, although not all of them chose to attack Lingyu Jie. After all, it wasn't the only Jie country that was available as a target.

In the past, the then-Prince Feng's small force had swallowed entire provinces from a Jie country that had been devastated by droughts and famines and other disasters to the point that its citizens actually fled from those lands to seek shelter in the mountain range. They eventually managed to make that land quite profitable, after crushing that Jie's capital city and getting rid of all the ruling Xie family members they could find.

While it was said that the last member of that family, princess Xie Yu had fled with the last commander, Long Zigui and the remnants of their imperial bodyguard to the mountains, no one had ever found them.... so the point was moot and the country had been administered by Zhong Feng ever since.

Spoiler

ATDSVT- Yang Dewei Arc
Lingyu Jie had held on to its independence with great tenacity.

Its King, Nangong Fa, had once been a warrior of great reknown, studying under a Jianghu sect leader. His sworn brother, Guan Yue, had adopted ten sons, and these ten sons formed the backbone of Lingyu Jie's defense as its ten great generals. King Nangong Fa had a daughter, Siqi, considered the fairest maiden in the country. He was naturally anxious for her safety and had repeatedly requested of his martial nephews to take her away with them if the country could no longer be defended.

Thus far, the people of Lingyu were still quite hopeful of eventual victory.

Of course the war was about to have an unpleasant interruption... for both sides. Several kinds of ferocious Beasts were migrating in search of food. Humans that weren't cultivators certainly counted as food.

While there were certainly many people skilled in Qinggong in both countries, the Jianghu of that area had plenty of sects and many members of the military on both sides were great warriors, the vast majority of the people were sitting ducks on a pond that was about to be invaded by piranhas.

Was it fortunate or unfortunate that some sects of immortal cultivators were interested in the Beast migration? Such a Beast migration meant plentiful Beasts to hunt for their useful parts, cores and essences. It also tended to bring to light any ruins in the massive Beast tide's path, since so many moving monsters tended to tear up the ground, giving any cultivators a two for one deal.

Yang Dewei was one of those immortal cultivators. To be precise, he had decided to hit multiple birds with one stone- first, he would go over to the Cang mountain range to go deal with the bandits who were now rumored to be going around kidnapping beautiful, unmarried young maidens, then he would go over to see what kinds of Beasts were migrating and what interesting things he could acquire from this migration.

If the items that he could find there were interesting enough, he might bring them home by hook or by crook, by trade or, if the item was a Beast or Beast body-part, then by force.

 

MANGO CAKES

Spoiler

ATDSVT
***
The Cui Marquis Estate had been descended from the Imperial family from its founder's wife, a princess born to a concubine. This princess originally had the entirety of the Princess' estate to pass on to her descendants by her prince-consort (fuma) as well as a hereditary title. Sadly, after three generations, her descendant of that time decided to get involved in politics and suffered a significant loss which came with a demotion.

Several more generations later, the princess' descendants had dwindled down to two. A man who regularly did his duties at court as both Marquis and minor minister, and his younger sister by the name of Cui Jiahui.

Miss Cui Jiahui was quite beautiful and elegant. She carried herself with the pride and grace of a daughter of an established noble house. She was intelligent, loyal, loving, good-natured and she had been quite head over heels for a handsome young general.

Her closest friend was Miss Feng Fangfei.

This Miss Feng came from a minister's house. Minister Feng Tian Xiao had risen to his position through the exams, having worked hard to establish his household in their city. He had also married Yu Yao, the beautiful, but fierce daughter of a general who had rescued him from imprisonment at the hands of some brigands. It could be said their love story was the genderswapped version of the hero rescuing the beauty.

Well, anyway, it certainly was a very fertile marriage, since it produced both sons and daughters. The eldest, Feng Yi had already married the Jiang Merchant family's Miss Jing.

The second son, Feng Ci had also quickly married the Yu family's Miss Shu. It was clearly a love at first sight thing, since he followed her around like a puppy for weeks before she gave up and took him to see her father, Yu Shang.

Of course that left the two sisters Fangfei and Yu Heng.

Yu Heng quickly caught the attention of a dashing military officer who doted on her day and night. Her sister, on the other hand, everyone in her family was fairly sure if Fangfei had been a man, she would have been dashing and ruthless and would have married Jiahui herself.

Except they were both straight women who wanted children, so that option was right out.

When Miss Jiahui was kidnapped by the Beizi, it was Miss Fangfei who had rallied the troops, and gone to her maternal family, even pestered her younger sister's recently engaged fiance, Brigadier Meng Cong and his brother, Captain Meng Kang to send troops out to look for her dear friend.

Unfortunately they couldn't find her.

Jiahui's brother was quite willing to pull all the strings to look for her, he went to everyone who he could possibly ask for help, even lowering himself to personally look for help in the Jianghu... But the handsome young general who had been engaged to her?

He didn't care. He didn't exert any efforts to find her. He simply went and married another woman and took a concubine, besides.

When Jiahui was finally found and rescued from the Beizi, Fangfei burst into tears at the sight of her.

Her dearest friend had been mutilated. She couldn't find it out from her friend, of course, because part of her friend's tongue was gone.

From the words of a blinded woman who was in similar straits, the whole thing had happened because Jiahui had refused to be the Beizi's concubine.

She was an honorable girl and infatuated with her fiance, how could she possibly want to allow the Beizi to have his way?

Annoyed, the Beizi had her kidnapped and then took what he wanted from her anyway.

He chained her down and then had his way with her. Her tongue hadn't been cut by him, she had bitten it off when she had tried to die, but the Beizi had taken the tongue out of her mouth rather than let her choke to death on it.

The rest of her many injuries, though, the crippled arms and legs, those were all the Beizi's work.

Jiahui fought to keep her purity so she was crippled and when he had tired of playing with her body he had her stored away with his other surviving victims.

Fangfei had refused to leave her friend's side after that... other than for the hearing.

When the time for the hearing came, Fangfei was first in line to curse the Beizi and demand justice.

When Huang Enlai came to heal all the injured victims, repair their broken bodies, even restoring their missing body parts, Fangfei had been elated.

She had stayed by her friend's side, day and night. Sometimes she was joined by Jiahui's brother, sometimes surrounded by her own family, but always she was there to help look after her.

Fangfei had to be the one answering her questions, and informing her that her fiance, whom she treasured, had abandoned her immediately after she was taken, and then had gotten married.

Fangfei, Jiahui's brother and Enlai were thus there to console Jiahui for her heartbreak.

That was how she was the first to realize that Jiahui was in love with Huang Enlai.

To be fair, Enlai was a good man. A kind man. A gentle man. A hero who had saved and carefully tended Jiahui until she recovered.

Unfortunately he was also a man in high demand because many of the other women he had saved and rescued also wanted to marry him. Which meant that if Jiahui was going to marry him, she would only be one of his wives.

When she realized that, Fangfei tried to talk her out of it, but it was obvious that Jiahui had already made up her mind.

Enlai was more loyal and faithful than her own fiance. She wanted to be with him.

She wanted Enlai.

Fangfei broke three vases, four teacups, a tea service... and flipped a table.

Then she went to drag Enlai down to her eye level and threaten him that if he ever hurt Jiahui, she would murder him herself.

After leaving the bemused Enlai, she went to go and break shit.

That is to say, to wreck the household of Jiahui's former fiance, with extreme prejudice.

After impeaching the handsome young general in question, dragging him back down to the level of a commoner and then getting her brothers in law to suppress him, Fangfei finally felt better but resolved to look after Jiahui until she could be sure Jiahui would be taken care of properly.

She wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when she realized that Enlai genuinely was solicitously caring for Jiahui... But he was also solicitously looking after his other brides with the same care.

Spoiler

ATDSVT
***
Wen Ming Jia, one of Qing Jing's many outer sect disciples, was orphaned some years back. His dear parents died, his grandparents were long dead, his elder sister married out to a good-natured, conscientious and reliable minor official by the surname Zhang*. This left him with only his youngest brother, Wen Xiyan, who relies on him for support.

Wen Xiyan has a difficult time dealing with people. He is shy, too easily intimidated, unskilled socially and prone to hiding himself when entangled in a confrontation. He tends to cling to his elder brother and sister and hide behind them whenever he meets new people and he takes a long time to become comfortable with new people. He dislikes to leave his home and feels afraid and ill at ease when he is out by himself. In modern terms, Wen Xiyan is a hikkikomori.

Xiyan has become skilled with three things- music, mathematics and painting.

As his elder brother, Wen Ming Jia naturally has to ensure his younger brother is taken cared of, not just right now, but also for his future.

Part of this is that he really needs to ensure his brother can make a living on his own, in case he himself dies. The life of a cultivator is not really peaceful, and rising in cultivation also means undergoing tribulations of varying kinds, as well as fighting things that can kill normal humans. Since he cannot risk leaving his little brother without support, this means a job or livelihood.

In truth, it was a veritable meat pie from heaven when free education was offered to the families of the outer sect disciples, since Xiyan proved to be skilled in mathematics.

Thus his first act was to go to the sect and ask around, to check if they have any jobs requiring calculations but not requiring interaction with people. Then, having spoken to the honorable An Ding peak lord, Shang Qinghua, and having gotten a part time job for his brother as an accountant who works at home, Wen Ming Jia then turned his mind to the second possible job.

Since Xiyan was skilled at painting, perhaps it would be best if Wen Ming Jia markets his brother's paintings for him.

...He does this by talking to some of the ladies from Xian Shu Peak, to ask if he can get them to use their contacts to sell his brother's paintings along the same route as they sell their own artworks. He knows some of them engage in large scale embroidery projects for cash, or paint and write poems to be sold in anthologies in their spare time.

If he knew that what they were actually selling was danmei novels and the other projects were just to cover up their main cash flow source, he would probably have been much more concerned.

***
*coincidentally, this man's sister married a decent fellow by the name of Feng and he was quickly hired to work under his brother-in-law. They lived quite happily together.

 

@Luen ~ @readerz ~
Our esteemed Fairy-author-sama would like some mtl quotes of Su Xiyan and Tian Lang Jun (LBH's parents)

 

I think Su Xiyan never appears. I'll try to work on it but it will take a couple of hours.

 

Fairy says thanks!

 

Thank you, your help is invaluable. I am actually planning to write the romance from Su Xiyan' s end, feel free to check the discord for my rough outline of EEEEEEVIIIIL.

 

Poor woman didn't get any lines period. Not even in the extras. From one extra talking about binghe's cousin past, while she was tianlanjun, they both treated the cousin like his was thin air even tho he was legit rite there and they just continued on with their PDA

 

then translate for me all the quotes written about her and all the quotes for Tian Lang Jun' s words please.

 

I wonder if Wen Xiyan is going to be bent...... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

After all, it's the Rotten Peak

 

Spoiler: AOGUANG'S HAREM ARC 1 #grabyourtissues

***
Years ago, Xue Jie, like most Jie, was only a small country. Bordered on all four sides by other countries, it could be said that its fall had been inevitable from the moment one of its neighbors had expansionist tendencies.

The Jiang family had been one of the 'good' families, with scholar officials in its lineage and a large number of shops as well as a thriving mercantile business. It has guards aplenty, both to protect the family estate as well as to protect their trading caravans and even their hired ships. The Jiang family had wealth enough to enjoy all the luxuries of life, its estate was beautiful and in the best taste.

Those on high have further to
fall. Thus It was predictable that when the city was falling under the enemy attack and there was chaos in the streets, the Jiang estate had been one of the rich plums targeted by thieves, ruffians, and invading soldiers alike.

The city had been a powderkeg. The elderly had been slaughtered, the sick had been killed off, many of the men who had been armed to defend the city had been slain. Infants had been slain or died by accident.

The slavers had a rich haul- the physically able men and women of the city, particularly the presentable ones, had their lives spared, but their lives were all they were allowed to keep.

Women, boys, both were violated by the eager soldiers of the invading army after they had captured the city. The survivors of this tragic fall would be sold off by the slavers as human merchandise- for whatever use the buyer could have for them.

***
Jiang Chengze had been the treasured youngest son of the Jiang family. His eldest brother, Chenfeng, was the pride of the family, handling the propagating of its financial resources, as well as its myriad guards. His second brother, Chenling, was a scholar official who had married a valiant woman from a general's family.

His parents had been proud of his brothers. Since those two prodigies had all the laurels, there had been nothing that Chengze had needed to undertake for the family. He, as the youngest, had been the idle, little treasured silkpants of the family since he had been small.

Ironically enough, it had been Chengze who had managed the greatest contribution to his family, when the city has been under attack.

Since his elder siblings were out of the city and could not get back in time to defend it, Chengze had managed to smuggle his parents and his sisters out of the estate with enough supplies to live on, when the city's gate had been broken down.

They hadn't seen him since.

The streets had been full of stampeding people all trying to go this way or that, to find a way out of the trap. The air had rung with screams, smoke had dyed the skies black, flames turned the city's waterways into streams of crimson, like blood. The blood that was being spilled aplenty, out on the streets.

Jiang Chengze had still, despite this disaster, managed to put together supply packs that could hold them to the next city's docks and his brother's ships, sending them off to safety.

His last words to his father and mother as he hustled them to the hidden emergency escape route leading out of the city was that he would be following after them with the next group of evacuating people. He had promised them he would catch up and meet them later in a safer location.

Who knew that they would not see him again after those words?

His mother was devastated. His father felt as if he had aged decades in a day. His brothers had done their best to find him but found nothing.

***
For as long as Jiang Chenfeng could remember, his little brother had relied on him.

Jiang Chenfeng had been born ten years before his youngest brother.

Just after Chengze was born, Chenfeng had been right beside their mother. It was into his arms that their mother had placed Chengze, it had been he who has carried Changze everywhere to see the limits of their small world.
Chenfeng had doted on all his siblings but had felt that Chengze had needed it more.

Now, little Chengze was missing and he was nowhere to be found.

To Chenfeng, this was unacceptable. However, he couldn't spare the manpower or the resources to try to look for him in this mess.

He and Chenling first had to take the rest of his family to a country that would not be in danger of being taken over, and the best choice he could think of was the Empire.

Chenling's wife and her family had been able to rally the troops that remained, but they were little more than a fragment of the resistance. The rest of the country had its own troubles. The other armies' and their generals had their own cities to defend and their small city wasn't anywhere near as important as the capital, so once the city had been lost, the commanding general on that border had quickly given it up to regroup somewhere else.

This was a decision that he regretted for many years. Even though he had managed to gain a foothold in the Empire and rebuild their Jiang family into a wealthy powerhouse, by the time he returned with his connections to search for his brother, the trail had long gone cold.

Little Chengze had vanished, as a bubble into thin air and there was nothing Chenfeng had been able to do, to find him or track down who had captured him.

***
Current Day...
***
The beaded curtains over Chengze's bed swayed violently.

Chengze moaned as he was being pounded into, quite vigorously, by his client. His gaze blurred and his insides tightened around the thick hardness inside that was sending continuing pulses of pleasure up his spine.

He was practically folded in half, impaled thoroughly, over and over again as the bed shook.

He came hard and violently again and again under those skilled hands, and his client panted as he spilled his seed deep inside of his body.

Chengze whimpered weakly as his client pulled away from him.

Chengze could only lay limp as if he was boneless, while the shimmering beaded curtains slowed to a stop.

His client surveyed his weakly trembling form with deep satisfaction, noting the flush on his cheeks, the dazed look in his eyes, the red marks on his flesh, the fingermarks on his thighs, the tight ring of muscle that had swollen pink, dripping slick white fluid, having been 'loved' countless times that night. A sultry, enticing sight.

Idly, his client slipped fingers inside of him to play, just a bit, the slickness of the sounds was deliciously obscene.

Chengze whimpered weakly as the client stroked and played with his rosy jade stem, possessively milking it of the last drops he could spill.

Then his client leaned down to kiss him. "As usual, you are a treasure."

Idly, the client slipped that slick hand into his own discarded robes, pulling out a single long golden token from an inner pocket, before he worked Chenggze's ring of muscle open again, until he could slip the long golden token of 'affection' inside of his body until just the tip of the thin, rounded gold bar could be seen, peeking from that place of desire.

"Just a tip." He kissed Chengze deeply. "I will be back."

Chengze could only lay helplessly in bed until his body had recovered.

***
It took Jiang Chengze quite some time to recover, during which his little maidservant had cleaned him up, wiping away the white fluid with a warm damp cloth which she continually washed clean in a porcelain basin full of scented water.

She helped him to remove the long, thin, rounded golden bar from his chrysanthemum as he gasped at the sensation as it slid out of him, and then helped him up to sit in a drawn bath full of warm water.

As she washed his long, silky dark hair in scented soaps and oils, he closed his eyes and could only remember the past.

On that day, he had sent his parents to safety through the tunnel that he used to visit new brothels outside the city. That tunnel lead to a ferry. The ferry took passengers to the next city.

This little maid was one of the people with him when his group had been trying to escape.

They had not made it to the tunnel's entrance within the city, and as such were captured and eventually chained with many other people from the good families.

Some foolish young mistresses, masters and young misses, even former wives or concubines of the good families had tried to use their identities to chastise or browbeat the invading soldiers who had captured them.

Before Chengze's very eyes, those women and men who had tried such a thing were struck and stripped, pushed down and taken, over and over again, their bodies used for the relief of the soldiers who had captured them.

Chengze had been too terrified to do more than shiver in terror and his eyes teared up preemptively in fear whenever the men had gazed in his direction, so he had remained untouched, incapable of escaping from the sound of the screams of the former nobles who had become 'meat toilets.'

After a degrading and cursory examination, he was classified as 'virgin, high class goods' and was marked down as for sale to a high class brothel that could afford such a luxury.

This little maid had also been one of the few people, fellow citizens from his home city, who had been sold on the same block as he had been.

They had to eat what rations they were given, as slaves. The good food that Chengze remembered eating had been replaced by drab rations, but he wasn't foolish enough to allow himself to sicken from starvation. Nothing good happened to anyone foolish enough to lower their own value on the block. If the slavers caught anyone lowering their own value, it was like a red flag to a bull- those slavers would try to get that value out of their bodies one way or the other.

He shared his rations when he could spare them- every single slave that survived was another slave who could keep their captors' eyes off him for much longer.

In the end, when he had been sold on the block to a high class brothel, that brothel had cleaned him up, ensured his body recovered from his ordeal in the slavers' caravan, dressed him up presentably... and then auctioned off his virginity to the highest bidder for much, much more than what they paid to acquire him.

After that, they had tested him to see what training they would have to give him to maximize their profits.

His skills with painting, poems and calligraphy were acceptable, his skill at weiqi was abysmal. His skills with musical instruments were up to par. Thus they assigned him to be an entertainer, a courtesan who earned his living primarily with the five arts rather than with his body.

Of course, in those days, that didn't exempt him from being taken by a client or a group of clients if the price was high enough, as he had discovered after he and a group of other entertainers, musicians, chanteuses and dancers of both genders were retained for the hosting of celebrations by people who could afford to pour money like wine.

First, they had entertained the guests with their music, their singing and their dancing. Then, the entertainers became the entertainment.

The male and female beauties who had danced, sung and served the guests the wine, coaxing them to feast, became the feast's desserts.

The guest of honor had slid his hands inside Chengze's clothes, fondled him and groped his pale flesh. Chengze had been pushed down and taken over and over again, first by the guest of honor, then after him by other guests. His skin was licked, his legs were pulled open, his most private parts fondled and he was made to serve them in every single way they desired him to do so. With his mouth, with his hands... everything. No part of his body remained untouched.

He wasn't the only one, of course.

Some of his fellow entertainers, both male and female had been taken over and over.

One male beauty writhed as he was being taken and ridden by a pair of the guests, his pale skin slick with sweat, his silken dark hair concealed nothing. A beautiful woman had to serve three eagerly thrusting men with her lush, pink mouth, her chrysanthemum and her dripping flower hole. And that was only what could be discerned at a glance.

Other beauties had their private parts fondled by guests, the womens' snowy bosoms hanging out of their now widely opened gowns, and the male entertainers' jade stems stroked to dusky hardness in full view while those guests had a drinking game. Some of the guests laughed and wagered on how many orgasms could be wrung from the entertainment, even as their playthings mewled and gasped and writhed.

The air was redolent of sex, perfume and heady incense. The moans, mewls, whimpers and gasps filled the room.

There had been a few more incidents of those events, but none after his client had staked a claim on him.

***
Jiang Chengze had met his client a year, maybe two or three? after his arrival at the brothel which had purchased him at the age of seventeen.

His client was stubborn and had very clear rules.

Sex for money, no one under the age of eighteen, the courtesan had to be scrupulously clean, the courtesan had to let him heal them before anything else. There would be no crying, no making a mess, no hanging themselves, no scheming and no acting pitiful.

Chengze didn't know why people didn't just comply with the rules. If the client wanted something, he would ask for it.

Compared to those feasts he was supposed to help entertain the guests wherein he had become the 'entertainment', his client's rules were clear, straightforward and concise. He made no hidden deals or bargains, he didn't have secret agendas unlike those men who had hired them to be playthings instead of singers and musicians.

And yet, despite those same clear rules, his client was consistently faced with desperate schemers who tried to portray themselves as white lotuses, pure, pitiful, noble, virtuous and chaste or at least innocent, in need of rescue.

Chengze was very clear about what life was like in the brothel, by now.

Everyone had their own sad story.

Some people had been sold to the brothel as children by families who could not feed them. Some, like Chengze himself, had been sold to the brothel by slavers after the fall of their families from a great height. These were fellow former nobles or people from formerly influential merchant or scholarly families who had lost everything because of invasions, or traitors or scheming competitors or because their own schemes offended the ruler of their land and they were stripped of everything and then sold off.

Still others were simply picked off the streets and sold by slavers to the brothel to make a quick string of copper cash.

Some others were sold to the brothel by members of their own families trying to get rid of them in order to claim an inheritance.

Everyone had their problems, everyone wanted to be bought out of the brothels.

This client had made it perfectly clear that he didn't want to be bothered by people with ulterior motives and yet Chengze's fellow courtesans still attempted the tried and tested 'cool, clean, pure, virtuous' act or the 'pitiful flower in need of shelter' act.

Neither of them worked. Neither did the, 'I have fallen for you, please have pity on me' act that so many courtesans played in hopes that their clients would buy them out to be concubines.

Chengze had obediently treated this as a financial transaction from beginning to end. His client wanted sex. To be precise, beforehand, he would describe to Chengze what he wanted done and tell him what remuneration he would be getting for it.

Since this client didn't demand any exhibitionism, he didn't demand to share Chengze's body with guests, he didn't demand any acts Chengze was uncomfortable with or inflict any pain, Jiang Chengze was quite willing to play along and do whatever he was asked.

***
It was a fact that every courtesan in the brothel wanted to have the ideal 'courtship' where their clients shelled out the copper cash, silver or golden taels to see them and get the courtesans to entertain them without any sex being involved until after those clients gave them money, clothes, nice things.

It was a fact that the courtesans in the brothels all hoped to hook big clients.

It was a fact that they hoped to be bought out.

It was also a fact that the biggest appeal they had to their clients was the veneer of education including poetry, painting, music, the elegance and grace of their movements..and their skill at listening.

The best courtesans could discuss court gossip, or listen sympathetically as their clients spoke of what bothered them, then soothe their clients with poetry or pretty words, flatter them, feed their egos.

As a result, those skills and tactics that could hook young masters or sons from this or that family, and even some officials into long 'relationships' that had to be paid for, and many a man had been ruined financially by the need to keep visiting a lover who was a courtesan. Those lovers dropped them like hot roasted hazelnuts when they no longer had the money to be useful.

But they didn't work on Chengze's client. He wanted everything up front, and had no interest in playing along or allowing anyone to compromise him emotionally.

As a result, many beauties who had hoped to hook him and be bought out by him were offended by his straightforward approach and he was offended by their attempts to take advantage of him.

It was a case of mutually harming each other.

***
Chengze's client had several fetishes.

For one, he always had a fondness for dressing Chengze up in robes made of silks, satins and brocades. Robes fit for the leisure hours of nobles of high rank or scholar officials, or even princes. Some of those robes had similar cuts to those of actual formal clothing. All of them were fashionable and resembled the clothes the influential scholars, officials and royal family wore, while still being unmistakably different from palace robes or uniforms.

Chengze had always been fond of beautiful jewels and fine clothes.

His client always let Chengze keep those robes and the jewelry besides. Chengze never rejected them.

Once he had dressed Chengze up, sliding ornaments and coronets into his hair with a proprietary air, he pushed Chengze down and utterly ruined his clothing.

Sometimes, he enjoyed bending Chengze over a table stocked with dishes and snacks, parting his elegant robes and milking Chengze over and over again into fine porcelain tea cups or sake cups until they were full of white fluid.

The table was bought by his client. The tea services and the wine cups and bottles had been bought by his client. Those also were given to Chengze.

His client also enjoyed sliding his hand into Chengze's robe, loosening his sash, and then toying with Chengze's jade stem, stroking it to hardness and bringing Chengze to orgasm.

Sometimes he liked pushing Chengze down on the floor, on the narrow beds, in an alcove bed or on a long table, taking Chengze's jade stem into his mouth, drinking his 'cream' straight from the source.

His client had given him the beds.

Other times he liked to make Chengze spill all over furniture or other objects, in particular, he enjoyed bending Chengze over his own writing tables and utterly ruining the poems on top.

His client had been the one to gift Chengze the writing tables, the inkstones, the brushes, and the other writing materials.

His client also made Chengze come all over the zither he was playing. The music was ruined. The zither wasn't ruined, but it was certainly stained.

The zithers in question and the jade flutes he slid into Chengze's body with the mouthpiece's end sticking out, all were gifted to Chengze.

He was sometimes interested in tying Chengze up so he could toy with his body for the better part of an entire day, wherein Chengze felt only pleasure.

He also liked taking Chengze over and over again in many positions, vigorously thrusting into his tight body and savoring every shiver, shudder, every movement of his hips and every sound he could coax out of Chengze while making Chengze climax over and over again, all but wringing him dry.

In short, Chengze knew that every single time that his client was going to visit, he was going to come over and over again until his client was satisfied.

That and his client would leave some kind of gift. His entire room, including the silver mirror, now resembled the room of a prince or a scholar minister, because his client liked an exquisite stage for debauching Chengze.

***
Jiang Chengze would think that his client has more money than sense, if it weren't for the fact that his fellow courtesans of both genders are continually displaying their lack of sense.

When a client says he has rules, the rules have to be obeyed. Chengze had told them this when they asked him how he won his client's favor but apparently they either didn't believe him or they're foolishly imagining that his client is in love with him.

Chengze really wished they displayed more logic and less opera troupe level drama.

Alas, they have apparently been obsessing over the fact his client gives him gifts at each visit. It isn't like his client is the only one to give gifts to their courtesan, it is just that his client can afford more than theirs, or is more willing to spend, than theirs.

Nevertheless, his fellow courtesans clearly choose to believe that he has some kind of hold on his client's heart instead. One or two keep insisting that he has some kind of leverage over his client, another pair keep insisting he has a way to his client's heart and isn't sharing.

Chengze feels rather bitter about the fact that he is the butt of their discontent. It isn't his fault they haven't obeyed the client's rules when they had the chance.

Upset by his excellent luck, his fellow courtesans start trying to tear him down in hopes they would remove a rival.

Thefts didn't work. The items returned to their owner. Leaving trash in his path also didn't work and only made enemies among the wait staff who were the ones who had to take the trash away.

Finally, matters came to a head when a particularly foolish courtesan tried to poison Chengze.

That was right this morning, and his client had seemingly spoken to the madame about such matters.

***
So now, here Chengze was, taking a relaxing bath (in a tub that his client had given him) and feeling quite confused.

How had his client arrived so quickly after he was poisoned? What arrangements had his client made with the madam? What did he mean when he said he would be back? Back, when?

Traditionally, the brothels could allow their courtesans and prostitutes to buy themselves free or allowed others to buy them free.

However it was also traditional for the brothels to charge the prostitutes and courtesans for every single object that they wore or used that came from the brothel. Their food, cosmetics, clothing, jewelry, their rooms and the room's furnishings- all of these were considered the brothel's property and all of it had to be paid for. Furniture and rooms counted as rentals.

The only things they could count as theirs were the gifts from their clients.

However, every robe, every piece of jewelry, every piece of ceramic and every piece of furniture that his client had given him, his client had made clear could not be sold off. They were for Chengze's use, and for Chengze to have, but they were never to be sold. Not even to redeem his freedom.

To that end, Chengze had become the highest earner of this brothel, and had been reserved exclusively by his client so he couldn't be rented out to anyone else.. But at the same time he could only rely on the gold bar tips his client tended to give him, as future funds.

His client had been generous. The beautiful picture screens, the intricately patterned carpets and silk beddings, the immaculately clean room, his own personal chef and even his own little maidservant bought from a slave market- all of these and more, every carved and inlaid chest, every cabinet, every shelf, every scroll, even the ceramic items right down to the incense burners were from his client and all of them were high quality enough to be found in the best households of royal family members in the capital of his former homeland.

And Chengze could sell none of the material goods to buy his own freedom.

In addition, his value having risen so high, the price to redeem him had probably risen sky high to accompany it.

None of these things endeared Chengze to his fellow courtesans or the lower ranked prostitutes.

The courtesans had been offended when his client hadn't been intrigued by their skills in the four arts and when he hadn't felt pity for their circumstances. They had been offended that their overtures, their attempts to gain his attention had been ignored. They were offended that their hard won, polished skills which had hooked them other clients, didn't work on him.

Chengze's client didn't care about court gossip. He didn't want to speak of what bothered him. He didn't want their flattery. He didn't want or need his ego fed.

Chengze had succeeded where they had failed and they had no idea why.

More to the point, Chengze was being looked after very well. Was this not the long courtship that every courtesan aspired to? Those were definitely the kind of gifts they wish they were being given, and Chengze was receiving them.

Naturally, they were both bitter and envious and felt that he didn't deserve what they thought was pampering and affection.

Where they had to rent out their rooms, instruments, game boards and furniture, he only had to rent out the room because the furnishings were all from his client. Where they had to pay off their clothing and jewelry, Chengze's was all from his client. Where they had to make do with what the brothel could give them in terms of cleaners and servants, Chengze had his own staff, from his client.

Indeed, the other courtesans wanted to flip tables and break ceramics, except if they did, the cost of the tables, ceramics and ruined carpeting or decor would be added to their outstanding tabs.

 

......*wipes blood from laptop screen*

More pleasure, please?

Wonder if Chengze would finally reunite with his family after all these years?

 

The Heroine's Tale
aka
How I Met Your Father, Xianxia Style
***
Su Xiyan had a problem. Or rather, she had a... predicament she wasn't sure how to handle.

She had met a very handsome young man. Older than her, she was fairly sure, but she was uncertain how old he actually was, since cultivation tended to slow down the aging process.

He had long dark hair, and gorgeous eyes that she could drown in. His features would put one in mind of an exquisite work of art. To put it simply, he reminded one of the saying 'skin like snow over jade bones'. He was carefree and elegant, he had the most beautiful smile she had ever seen, and the way he spoke to her... just his voice was enough to make her feel warm from head to toe.

She was very much attracted to him. Unfortunately, her master had been turning men away from their door for quite some time now and she was sure that no matter how attractive she found this man, her master would object to him too.

***
Some people just click together.

It isn't just physical attraction, not the shape of a beautiful body, the beguiling scent, elegant fashions, refined bearing or graceful movements.

Some people are meant for each other. Some people, when meeting each other, find themselves engrossed in each other, as if they had returned home. As if they found in each other, a piece of themselves that was missing. A piece that they didn't know had been missing until they found it in that person, but it was a piece they could no longer live without.

That was how it was like for Su Xiyan when she had met Tian Lang Jun.

More than anything else, Su Xiyan learned, that she wanted to travel the world with him, side by side, hand in hand. Two birds sharing a wing, two trees whose branches were intertwined.

 

Spoiler: CHEN WANYONG ARC

ATDSVT
***
Chen Wanyong had eventually reconciled himself with having to squire Xian Shu peak girls around to every single event.

Despite the Xian Shu peak lord's grumbling, it had been agreed that they could do worse in terms of chaperone.

At least Wanyong respected them. Plus, he was a loyal ally, an inner sect disciple of one of their own peak lords and wealthy enough to support several wives to boot.

Wanyong had been forced to accept that no matter how much he wanted to correct people, plenty of women claimed to want him, many of the men wanted to be him and many parents really hated him as the ostensible reason that their daughters didn't want to marry the men they chose for them.

Wanyong had finally managed to make enough of an impression that most people didn't bother him for something he didn't do. However, 'most' did not mean 'all'.

***
While Aoguang had a tongue so poisonous that he could make people cough blood just by talking, and most of the time the buns and meatbuns didn't really bother to change their manners, it was a fact that Shifu has insisted on teaching them how to look after their prospective spouses.

While this was only intended to be used for their respective spouses, it was also a fact that the skills used in dealing with a spouse and making them comfortable were also useful with dealing with other people.

That... was the root of their problems.

A lot of problems, actually.

Apparently, the skills Shifu had insisted they learn made them the dream lovers of many, many people.

Thanks to the diligence and tenderness with which they treated their sisters, constantly witnessed by everyone around, both Zhou Hui and Zhao Fu had gotten the well deserved reputation of being ideal gentlemen. Their sisters' acquaintances were all head over heels for them and their gossip only furthered this.

The pair's noble bearings, their refined and elegant appearances, their beauty and cultivation, all these things combined to get them a reputation of being perfect marriage material, as clean as ice and as pure as jade.

While Zhou Hui had stated clearly that he would only marry someone he chose, Zhao Fu had other conditions. Specifically the spouse or concubine candidates would have to meet the requirements of all his sisters, their parents and his Shifu.

However the fact that they weren't looking to accept any offered marriages for the time being meant that they were swamped with offers and invitations which they barely even looked at.

Zhu Liang's propriety, his elegant mannerisms and his displayed listening skills, his fine clothing and jewels -because Shifu always insisted on getting them the best- in combination with his genuine love for poetry had gotten him a famed name in the poetry circles.

That would have been perfectly fine if it was just the scholars who had been interested in him, but there were myriad women who also liked poems.

Because poetry was one of the ways to be remembered in popular culture, it was used in both the civil service and courtships... and Zhu Liang had several centuries and countries' worth of poems to draw from.

It didn't take more than a few slip ups in quoting from the poetry books Shifu had given him before he was the reluctant focus of people's attention.

And then there was Ma Kong, whose tragic unrequited love for Miss Dong Mei had become fodder for people's writing countless romances.

He had unintentionally acquired the reputation of being the romantic hero who had his heart broken and needed it to be healed.

That was exactly the kind of thing that got him swamped by invitations to parties or occasions wherein people wanted to introduce him to their daughters or sisters- because those daughters and sisters wanted to steal his heart away and heal him. Because sooooo romantic.

It was exactly the kind of love story that had people swooning, with the added scandal that Miss Dong Mei was in love with Miss Changying.

Anyone who scoffed at Miss Dong Mei's equally unrequited love for a fellow woman was quickly shown Miss Changying.

After seeing Miss Changying, the now stunned and flushed women no longer questioned why Dong Mei was in love with a fellow female.

And thus, the sexual identity crisis spread even further.

***
One of the problems that Wanyong was dealing with was that his reputation as a ladykiller had risen to new and completely unacceptable heights.

Heights that made him very uncomfortable.

One reason for his discomfort was that people tended to compare themselves or others against him as a standard. Sometimes the comparison was positive, sometimes the comparison was negative.

Over the weeks since the Xian Shu fujoshi club had taken to dragging him around (elegantly!) on dates, his life had become hopelessly entangled and eventful.

He had to talk to far too many concerned parents and explain their girls were still virgins and nothing untoward had happened.

He had to punch out many men who insulted the girls with him and insisted they were loose or such similar stupid assumptions.

He had to fight men who were enraged that the girls they had set their eyes on didn't want them.

He had to deal with women who claimed they were with him who were complete strangers to him.

He had to deal with the men in their lives who believed those women.

This dealing tended to involve a lot more punching than he was happy with.

In short, Wanyong was having plenty of exercise and plenty of reasons to try out new fighting techniques. Except they were all reasons he didn't want.

***
It wasn't as if Wanyong didn't understand why he was being annoyed by these matters.

Every straight man dreamed, harbored wishes or had idle thoughts of having a harem of exquisite beauties. Every straight man who hadn't been raised by ascetics longed to have a flower on each arm.

Xian Shu peak had myriad exquisite beauties. It was a fact that all of the disciples of that peak were beautiful, each in their own way, and even the outer sect disciple ladies could turn many heads at a glance.

It was so well known that even the Cang Qiong girls who weren't in Xian Shu, girls from other peaks, were immediately assumed to be from Xian Shu because of their flower-like looks.

As a direct result of this pile up of misunderstandings, poor Wanyong had aggregated the hatred of every man who had ever had hopes of dating their sect's beauties.

Well, every man who hadn't already been dating them.

But given that a lot of those lucky men were also from their sect -and were likely dungeoneers- that still left Wanyong carrying the brunt of discontent of everyone not actually from their sect who aspired to the hearts of Xian Shu beauties.

This was further compounded by the completely unfounded claims of complete strangers that they had been dating him.

What the hell.

Seriously, What. The. Hell.

 

ATDSVT- A DOG'S LIFE-1001 NIGHTS
***


***
Luo Binghe's soft, fluffy little tail fanned the air frantically as Shizun carried him in his arms, and petted his back in a constant rhythm.

So warm. So kind. This incomparably assuring, incomparably comforting feeling made him feel warm and full of sweetness from the top of his (currently furry) head to his (currently tiny, padded) toes.

His dark eyes were wide and watery, and his (currently tiny) pink tongue flickered in and out to lick at gentle jade fingers.

Binghe had discovered to his glee that Shizun had no problem letting him pad in and out of his lap when he was seated and actively encouraged Luo Binghe to lay quietly in his lap with more caresses.

The instinctive resentment in his heart that drove him to wreak vengeance on every single 'Shen Qingqiu' had slowly drained away over their travels.

That cruel past seemed so distant whenever he was being held like this, as if the injustices he had been dealt in those years were being buried under sugar sand and candy cotton. The justice in his heart was tilting towards Shizun as if Shizun was his owner- the only owner who he wanted to have.