Chapter Text
Books, movies, love tales — people often ascribe greater significance to first meetings than they really have. In real life those are just regular days — or, well, at least not purely focused on the meeting itself.
The first time Shang Qinghua met his fellow transmigrator in this world was indeed a significant day. An immortal alliance conference. Ruined, by all means. He himself took a part in making it so. What he didn't know back then it's that his lover from the previous life was now a Qing Jing Peak lord. For some unknown reason the fate itself (or that System) decided that he was a suitable candidate to replace Shen Qingqiu. He's done his job poorly, almost right away giving out that he was not who he pretended he was. The irony of it, that Xiang Fei based Shen Jiu's character on him. Were they identical? No, of course not. But this sharp tongue and short temper really did stir something in him. Well, maybe call him a masochist, for all he cares, it might be true.
When he knew this transmigrator was his Shen Yuan — he was really glad, but also afraid to lose him.
Their first meeting in the previous life happened on a normal day. He has chosen and applied to a classic literature class for a semester and here he was, sweating, getting late to lessons, and dropping his belongings on the floor in front of the whole class. His classmates probably thought him stupid and pathetic. At least the teacher knew he was a good student. But then, the final project was needed to finish the course successfully. Of course he got paired with the guy from an obviously wealthy family, who dressed up to the nines and never talked to anyone in the class. This guy was Shen Yuan. When he explained that his old laptop had died, Shen Yuan invited him to his home. Apparently he lived alone in the damn huge apartment, cleaned and stocked weekly by service workers. He sat him on the sofa, put his own laptop in front of him and ordered delicious food. They discussed movies, books, and online novels. They had fun together. This scenario repeated a few times in the next few weeks as they were getting their project ready. At one of these gatherings he looked through an open door to the bedroom and noticed a PIDW poster, so he asked about it. Apparently Shen Yuan was a fan of his new novel he posted online. It was funny, but he didn’t tell him that he was the author. After the project was done, they went on friend-dates. Shen Yuan was charming and he was rich, and for some reason he was spoiling Xiang Fei rotten. Why would he treat a friend that way Xiang Fei didn’t understand, at least until one moment at the movie theatre Shen Yuan didn’t reach for his hand and kissed him on the lips. Then he understood. All these weeks spent with Shen Yuan he was happy, so they started dating.
And everything was good, until the System appeared, and nothing was good anymore.