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Shen Qingqiu has to admit he’s somewhat shocked. When Yue Qingyuan had asked him to go “retrieve” their younger martial brother after he’d been gone too long, Shen Qingqiu thought that maybe Liu Qingge had finally gone and gotten himself killed. Not that he’d celebrate that! He loves the man in a deep brotherly way, he’s sweet despite being a strangely quiet jock! But it was bound to come, he reasoned, with Liu Qingge running off to fight this and that and kill anything he found on the way back. Maybe, Shen Qingqiu thinks, he was wrong. 50% wrong. Shidi clearly still went out and hunted everything he could, but finding him crouched in the brush in somewhat of a disarray was… not expected? And definitely not the prowling predator thing shidi always did when monitoring his prey.
Drawing closer now, Qingqiu traces the curve of the other man’s hunched back with his gaze until he can finally see over his shoulder. Ah? There is a journal laying open across his thighs, ink still drying as Qingge waits to continue writing. The younger man raises his head to watch something past the brushline, but Qingqiu keeps his gaze on the writing in the journal. Messier than his shidi’s usual writing, slanted to one side and smooshed as if written without looking, but still readable, the sections of notes broken up by complex drawings of animals- no, an animal, simply doing different things. Shidi is taking notes??
“Liu-shidi, I-” the scholar starts, though the sharp elbow directly to his thigh shuts him up before he can finish, or rather start speaking. It seems Qingge was counting on his reaction being his normal one of simply hissing a breath and gritting his teeth, because his shidi turns his attention back fully towards whatever beast he’s watching. What the hell is he- Oh, a crow. A raven? How does one tell those apart again?? It’s not some magical or dangerous beast… just a bird. “A crow?” he asks, quietly this time. The scholar drops into a crouch beside the warlord-turned-birdwatcher, ignoring how the hems of his robes splay across the dirt.
“Raven. Wedge-tail, its group is nearby.” Liu Qingge corrects in a surprisingly soft voice. So shidi can whisper. Astonishing. Truly, Shen Qingqiu is learning so many new things today.
“And why is shidi watching a simple raven?” Shen Qingqiu opens his fan as quietly as he can, still earning an irritated glance from the other, but at least the raven doesn’t seem to mind.
“....” the war lord simply narrows his eyes at him and Shen Qingqiu (foolishly) accepts that his shidi won’t be answering that. Really, he needs to stop expecting things, the man has already surprised him today. “Puzzle. Wanted to see if they could solve a puzzle I set up.” Oh! That’s…. Not like his shidi at all? Who is this strange man who looks startlingly like his handsome, battle-obsessed shidi, because this clearly is not Liu Qingge. Liu Qingge, warlord of Bai Zhan peak, setting up puzzles for birds ? Taking notes ?? Ridiculous! OOC! So incredibly OOC that if he were a transmigrator, he’d be kicked already!! How is this fair, system!?
“... I-”
“Shut up. This is the last one.” At least Qingge is still as brusque as ever. Last one? Has he done this before?? Oh the questions this raises, the scholar could explode! Is this character development!? Is this backstory!? System, do I get points for uncovering a side character’s hidden complexity!? Instead of exploding his questions towards his shidi, Qingqiu turns his attention over to the bird. It’s a common raven, he thinks, mostly because it’s written across the page Qingge is working on and it lacks any specific markings. So… just a normal bird. Beautiful though, even he can admit that a simple bird is breathtaking this close. Its sleek feathers and shiny black eye give it a mysterious quality many other birds lack. Okay, he clearly doesn’t see what Qingge sees in the bird! What can he say, he’s read a lot of fantasy books, they romanticize ravens!
Said beautiful bird is currently staring at the makeshift puzzle in front of it, an unnaturally smooth stick in its mouth. Shidi must have set it out for it. The bird stares, tapping the stick against the ground before it flies over to a nearby set of shrubs. Shidi starts scribbling on the page again, not looking away from the animal as it uses the stick to lever a small stone out from where it is wedged firmly between the crook between two shrub branches, snatching the food trapped there the moment it’s free. Huh! That was… interesting! What a smart bird! But why is shidi writing so much!?
“Hm. A simple puzzle, it solved it quite easily though.” he breaks the silence, though still keeps his voice down. Qingge glances at him out of the corner of his eye and looks down to his page finally as he starts to draw.
“Simple? Not for a bird.” the warlord scoffs; “It used tools . Picked up a stick and could think of potential ways to use it.” Oh! Well, when you put it like that, it does sound impressive for a bird. Do birds use tools? How? What qualifies a tool?? “All of them have solved the puzzles I set up.”
“Since shidi has finished his observations, then let us head back to the mountain. He can regale me with his findings while we fly.” the scholar says as he stands, brushing the dirt off his robes. Qingge stands stiffly, stiffer than normal. How long was he crouched in the bushes? The younger man doesn’t hesitate to take his sword out and hop on, only pausing to offer Shen Qingqiu his hand. “Oh! Thank you, shidi.” Qingqiu is at least gracious enough to take it and huddle up close to his shidi, tucking his fan away into his belt. “So, what was shidi looking for in those birds?” he only speaks up again once they’re in the air and away from the raven. The warlord tucks his journal into his belt and makes sure it’s secure.
“Imagination. The ability to pick up an unassuming object and think of how to use it.”
“Is that what shidi found?”
“....I knew they could already. Yeah. Saw them making hooks out of sticks.”
“Is that why shidi stayed to test them?” Shen Qingqiu ducks his chin over the other man’s shoulder to avoid being whipped in the face with his hair when they finally speed up.
“Yeah. Saw them making hooks.” Qingge nods, though keeps his face tilted away. If he were a fool, Shen Qingqiu would think he could feel his shidi’s neck heat a bit.
“Why were they making them?”
“Catch grubs in the ground.” Oh!
“Fascinating. Shidi is more observant than this shixiong initially gave him credit for.” the pat he gives the younger man’s shoulder is reassuring, he hopes. “Perhaps tell Zhangmen-shixiong next time.” He won’t.
Shen Qingqiu is already getting sick of this. After hearing about his little excursion to get the warlord last time, Zhangmen-shixiong clearly thought it was a good idea to send him again! Wasn’t it fine when Liu Qingge disappeared into the ether before!? And in the dead of night this time! Yue Qingyuan, let your Shen-shidi sleep!! But NO, he’s stuck flying out towards the last place they knew Qingge was going to find him. He had a creeping suspicion why his shidi was gone so long every time he left.
This time, he’s genuinely surprised to see that Liu Qingge has made camp. He only realizes that’s who it is because the telltale flutter of white robes and the glimmer of the gems and beads on his shidi’s belt, all hanging from a nearby tree as if needing to dry in the breeze. He lands as quietly as possible. Is Qingge asleep? No, he’s not laying on the ground anywhere here. The man is sitting off towards the far edge of his makeshift ‘camp’ and Shen Qingqiu almost chokes. Or coughs up blood. He doesn’t really know which, just that seeing his shidi has driven a pang into his chest and closed his throat.
The warlord sits in the near silence in his under robes, the thin silken ones that are normally buried under many other layers, his under clothes, the silk crumpled and wrinkled, his hair flowing free down his back, softly ruffled and maybe only slightly tangled. Shidi was asleep before… Whatever it is here caught his eye. He looks…. Delicate like this. Sleep rumpled, unfurled and tired, even facing away from Shen Qingqiu. He knows the warlord’s princely face would be beautifully framed by his gently fluffed hair, but would his expression be lax from sleepiness? Would his brows be knit as he forces himself to stay awake?
“Sh.” the other snips back at him the moment he takes a step. Right. Forced to use his cultivation, Shen Qingqiu walks soundlessly to his shidi and kneels beside him. The breeze rustles the grass around them and the scholar can spot a group of large beasts off in the distance, all gathered around what looks like a watering hole.
“Shidi made camp to watch them?” Really, Qingge needs to learn to send them notes, Zhangmen-shixiong is going to be unbearable if he knows Shen Qingqiu can easily bring Liu Qingge back to the mountain. He’s not here to fetch your shidis, Yue Qingyuan!
“Mn. Rare. Elusive.” the other man grunts, voice still slightly gravelly from sleep. He didn’t want to let them get away without making some notes first. “They stop at watering holes for a week at a time.” So Qingge wanted to watch them when he had the chance here at a place he knew they’d stay. That’s… pretty smart! Good job shidi! This master is proud of your reasoning skills!
“What is shidi noting?” Shen Qingqiu finally sits. Are these animals nocturnal? Qingge doesn’t look like he’s slept in a short while…
“Anything. All behaviors.” Right, if they’re rare that makes sense.
“Why?”
“Incase I see them again. Want to know what to look for. Understand why they act that way.” Shidi is a thinker! It’s confirmed, his musclehead shidi does have intellectual curiosity!! He’d wonder why they never saw it, but clearly the war lord was too busy being intellectually curious elsewhere!! Be smart on the peaks, shidi! This master wants to see!! What would Zhangmen-shixiong say!? Does he know!? Ugh, Qingge, don’t be so mysterious!!
Shen Qingqiu is going to lose it! He’s going to have a meltdown!! Paperwork, student’s assignments, his own research, it’s all too much! Or, it feels like too much right now. He knows he has at least 4 hours until he’s supposed to hand off this paperwork to Yue Qingyuan, and the assignments are dictated by him, his research can wait until he has time as it always had. But it’s still a lot! Having responsibilities sucks! He rises and brushes his robes smooth. A snack will help right? Breaks are good for the mind! And escaping the stiflingly ‘you have to be working’ atmosphere of the library will definitely help him relax!
He’s almost fooled when he passes through the library, leaving his own private nook to find the way back outside. He swears he sees white tucked away in another nook when he passes, but Bai Zhan disciples don’t visit the library? Why would they come to Qing Jing, much less to read ?? His steps falter and head back to find said nook again, if only to confirm it’s a Bai Zhan disciple not bothering his disciples. The sprawl of red beads tells him at a glance that it isn’t a Bai Zhan disciple though.
Qingge sits hunched over a table, papers and journals sprawled in an array even Shen Qingqiu would call impressively messy. He writes slowly this time, unlike in all his journals, words carefully added to the page and spaced evenly, all centered around already dried diagrams and illustrations. His hands are deeply stained with ink, the scholar can tell. His fingers only looked like that the first few weeks on his own peak when he sat down for so long every week to work through the massive amount of backed up paperwork. Those stains aren’t coming out any time soon. Those pretty, calloused hands are going to be splattered black for at least a month. Not that Qingge seems to mind, if his controlled writing is any judge.
The robes he wears are simpler, the collar of these laid flat so the nape of- his neck!? Qingqiu thinks he may faint ! Not for propriety’s sake, but because his shidi can actually change his style! Simple robes, his hair pulled up in a bun, no fringe or bangs, he looks shockingly clean-cut. He looks nearly scholarly. How strange… How so very strange. There is no way his shidi was always like this. He clearly bent the story too much that Liu Qingge has academic interests and pursues them of his own volition to the point that he visits a library and works on some personal project.
A project that has suspiciously similar binding to the bestiaries Shen Qingqiu has browsed through within these same walls. Infact, the same binding. Is his shidi…. Making a bestiary? With his notes? Did he make all the bestiaries with that binding style?? Why would the man not tell him! They could have talked about the beasts and monsters of this realm together!! Shidi knew he was interested in beasts!! This is…
He looks the man over again, pausing in his mental tangent. This… isn’t how Liu Qingge presents himself to the world. The library is always empty at this hour during the week, normally Shen Qingqiu wouldn’t even be in there right now. He’s dressed down, nothing eye-catching besides the everpresent beads on his belt, his hair pulled up out of his face. It isn’t the image of a peak lord, much less the Bai Zhan peak lord, it’s the image of a man working on something he loves. A tinge of something runs down Shen Qingqiu’s spine, radiating out and growing into a pang of guilt in his chest. I wasn’t meant to see this… Qingge doesn’t have a space to work like this in the privacy of his own home. The least Shen Qingqiu can do, he reasons, is give him the privacy he wants here in the library.
The scholar turns on his heel and leaves as quickly and quietly as he can, determining that maybe zhangmen-shixiong can get his paperwork tomorrow.