Chapter Text
It had been a difficult time to begin with. An inter-peak disciple group went out on a mission, and not all members returned alive.
It was always easiest to try and find someone to blame rather than acknowledge that sometimes, things just happened. They can’t keep everyone alive.
In a room with both Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge, the eager ember of blame caught and flamed into aggression easily.
Qi Qingqi stared at where she was tapping her nails on the table. The sounds of the room washed over her.
Tap, tap, tap.
Liu Qingge was furious. It was mostly his disciples who were lost. The initial group was not mostly Bai Zhan.
Disquiet, or something like it, built in the back of her skull. Something felt off. Besides the obvious.
She looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the itch. Her eyes landed on Shen Qingqiu.
He’d only had a couple disciples on the mission. One went down.
Qi Qingqi watched him for a moment. He was on his feet, leaning over the table as he spat venom. Qi Qingi breathed in deeply and froze.
“And just what am I meant to say to get through to you? It goes in one ear and out the next! Liu Qingge, I told you your brats would need the-”
“Shen Qingqiu,” Qi Qingqi suddenly interrupted, frowning. “What’s that smell?”
Shen Qingqiu drew himself up in offence. “Pardon?”
Qi Qingqi’s eyes were hard flint. “The smell. The distressed omega smell.”
Shen Qingqiu colored, and swiftly covered his face with his fan. He took a moment to breathe in. “I don’t smell anything of the sort,” he claimed.
More peak lords were sniffing the air since Qi Qingqi’s outburst, trying to identify what she had. It was Wei Qingwei, the closest to Shen Qingqiu at the time, who seconded her conclusion. “Oh! Yes, that’s, ah… Unpleasant. Who…?”
The disquiet she felt was quickly building into fury. “Shen Qingqiu, the smell is coming from you. Explain yourself.”
Shen Qingqiu frowned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Yue Qingyuan spoke up, clearly gearing up to diffuse the situation. “Qi-shimei, please calm down. I’m sure we-”
In a rare show of disrespect, Liu Qingge cut Yue Qingyuan off, slamming his fist into the table. “So while my disciples were out there dying, you were off harassing omegas?!”
“I haven’t done anything!” Shen Qingqiu snarled.
Qi Qingqi could’ve laughed. What was the point of denying something they could all smell themselves? Now that she was paying attention, the smell was really quite strong. Qi Qingqi couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it sooner. “Don’t fuck around, Shen Qingqiu, who is it? Let’s let them tell us what you’ve been up to!”
“There is no one else!” Shen Qingqiu made a convincing show of being incensed. “I don’t smell like anyone else, no one scented me, I’m not carrying any strange scents!
“Do you think you can deny the smell? Shen Qingqiu, we all have working noses!”
“That’s enough.” Yue Qingyuan’s voice rang decisively through the room. “Liu-shidi, Qi-shimei, I appreciate your concerns, but accusations like this can’t be made indelicately. Even if you were right, would you drag the omega here to air their situation publicly?”
Qi Qingqi frowned. That was a good point, but she was worried about where Yue Qingyuan was going with this…
“I’ll sort things out with Qingqiu-shidi in private.”
Qi Qingqi could feel her face screw up mutinously. There it was. Regardless of the circumstances, Shen Qingqiu would get off without so much as a slap on the wrist.
Even so, how come Shen Qingqiu was staring at Yue Qingyuan with such an offended expression? What right did he have to look betrayed? Nothing would happen to him anyways.
She felt the frustration of it long after the meeting had ended. It wasn’t fair. There was someone being hurt here, and Yue Qingyuan wouldn’t interfere, and what good was being a peak lord of one of the great sects if she still couldn’t help anyone?!
She made up her mind. If Yue Qingyuan wouldn’t do anything, she’d take matters into her own hands.
“You’re doing what?” Liu Qingge frowned at the fabric clutched in Qi Qingqi’s hands. It was the kind of white silk used for suicide by hanging—the kind you’d send to someone whose duty it became to kill themselves.
“He’s gone too far this time, Liu-shidi. If we let this go, we’ll be betraying everything Cang Qiong stands for. We’re supposed to protect the weak.”
Liu Qingge considered her words. “If we’re going to do something about Shen Qingqiu, we should do it straightforwardly. This seems underhanded.”
“It seems pretty straightforward to me.” Qi Qingqi held up the silk as if in demonstration. “You can hardly send a more straightforward message than this. ‘I won’t have a packmate that abuses omegas.’ That’s all.”
Liu Qingge pondered for a moment longer, then nodded and took the silk.
“I mean… maybe there really is another explanation. I trust Zhangmen-shixiong’s judgement.” Wei Qingwei had looked more and more uncomfortable as Qi Qingqi explained herself.
Qi Qingqi resisted the urge to stamp her foot like a child. “When it comes to Shen Qingqiu?”
Wei Qingwei grimaced. “Even so, I’m sure he’d act if Shen-shixiong was doing something this severe.”
“Unless he’s convinced himself that Shen Qingqiu didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You’ve convinced yourself that he did.”
Qi Qingqi gave him a frustrated look. “Wei-shixiong, be reasonable! Give me one, just one alternative explanation for what we all smelled in there.”
Wei Qingwei threw up his hands. “Maybe he was comforting a distressed omega! We can’t be certain he was the source of the distress, right?”
“Does that really sound like Shen Qingqiu to you?”
“Eh… Shimei, I really don’t know him that well.” Wei Qingwei sighed. “If you convince Zhangmen-shixiong to scent it—or Mu-shidi, actually—I’ll scent it too. They’re the most levelheaded among us.”
“Shijie!” Mu Qingfang exclaimed, shocked.
“Mu-shidi, please.”
“It’s cruel.”
“It’s necessary!” Qi Qingqi insisted, “We are peak lords of Cang Qiong. We are the leaders of the most powerful sect in our territory. That comes with responsibility. There’s no greater authority to stop him, no one else to curb his behavior.”
“There is a greater authority. There’s Zhangmen-shixiong.” Even as he said this, Mu Qingfang looked unconvinced of his own words. Qi Qingqi pressed the advantage.
“And who is above him? Zhangmen-shixiong is compromised when it comes to Shen Qingqiu, you know that. It comes down to us. As a doctor, your duty is to prevent harm. There is someone else being hurt here, a real omega being abused by one of our sect siblings. If a patient comes in with a gangrenous arm, do you refuse to remove it, even though it’s already lost? Or do you cut out the rot?”
Mu Qingfang said nothing at that, simply looking with trepidation at the already miserable-smelling silk. Qi Qingqi took his hand and pressed the silk into it. His fingers reluctantly curled around the fabric.
“Well?” Qi Qingqi held the silk out to Wei Qingwei.
He sighed and took it.
“No! Nope, nuh uh, absolutely not.” Shang Qinghua looked alarmed.
“Come on! Have a spine for once in your life!”
Shang Qinghua laughed nervously. “Nope, not happening. I am not rejecting Shen-shixiong from the pack with hanging silk, what the fuck? Has shimei really thought this through?”
“Of course I have. I’ve been thinking about this over and over since the meeting. And the more I think about him, about what he’s done, the angrier I get.” Qi Qingqi’s voice was low and unyielding. “I’m not letting this slide. And you are not going to refuse just because you think Shen Qingqiu is scary.”
“It’s not about that!” Shang Qinghua yelped, “I mean, maybe a bit… But! That’s not the point! Shimei, I really don’t think he’s the type to…” He trailed off under Qi Qingqi’s withering glare.
Qi Qingqi held out the fabric. “Scent it,” she commanded.
“No! I won’t!”
Qi Qingqi slammed her fist onto Shang Qinghua’s desk. “Shang Qinghua!”
“Qi-shimei, please, this is a bad idea! You really, really shouldn’t go through with this,” Shang Qinghua grimaced.
Qi Qingqi stared at him. Really? This is where he’d refuse to budge? Shang Qinghua was scummier than she’d thought. She scoffed and turned on her heel.
When Qi Qingqi finally found an opportunity to slip into Shen Qingqiu’s house while he was away, it was with a length of silk scented angrily by eight total peak lords in her hands. There were a couple holdouts, but eight out of eleven is not a bad rate. Given Shen Qingqiu’s general unwillingness to socialize with his packmates, it should be more than enough to sever his pack bond. Even Qi Qingqi hated handling it, and she could feel that it wasn’t directed at her. She rubbed it over everything she could find that looked like it could hold a scent, then left it draped over his work desk where he couldn’t possibly miss it.
Task achieved, Qi Qingqi left to go bathe over and over, scrubbing the scent out of her skin.
The moment Shen Qingqiu opened the door, it hit him. Like someone reached inside him to wring out his intestines. For a moment, all he could do was close the door and breathe.
So this was retaliation for the meeting yesterday, presumably. Fine, what did he care? They’re always disdainful of him, scents souring when he gets close. He was used to it. He refused to let it run him out of his own house.
Decisively, he stepped into the main room. There was no better way to say it: it stank. It stank of rejection and disdain, sharp and potent. Shen Qingqiu found himself instinctively holding his breath and forced himself to stop.
It smelled like-
Qi-ge, hurry up and come back!
Shen Qingqiu shook his head as if that could rid him of the thought. What a stupid thing to think about.
But really, that’s what it was, wasn’t it? They were abandoning him. They’d had enough, so forget centuries of tradition, forget no-martial-sibling-left-behind, he was just so unbearable that he couldn’t even nominally be in their pack. Forget how pack rejection can kill omegas, too; that wasn’t important at all.
Not that this would kill him. How ridiculous. It’s nothing he shouldn’t have seen coming, so it’s absurd that it’s affecting him this much already.
Shen Qingqiu had, at some point, started to breathe shallowly. Again, he forced himself to stop.
He nearly stumbled as he searched for the source of the smell, choking on it all the way. Really, where was it coming from?! It felt like it was everywhere, pressing down on him from all sides. Did they all come in together to hold a “we hate Shen Qingqiu” party?!
Shen Qingqiu strangled a miserable keen before it could leave his throat. A heavy weight had settled in his chest, and it felt like he was breathing around a rock. Still, he tried his best to follow the scent to where it was strongest. If it was something he could toss, he could start airing his house out.
It wasn’t long before he found it. It was clear they intended for him to find it, or they wouldn’t have used hanging silk.
Ah, so they wanted this to kill him.
What did he even do this time! He tried, it wasn’t his fault they lost disciples on that mission! If they had listened to him in the first place, they might not have!
And then Qi Qingqi had- what, invented something to get mad at? What distressed omega? The only distressed omega in that room had been him!
And the way Yue Qingyuan had looked at him, like he’d really-
Like he agreed with them.
Yue Qi was dead. The one person in his life who’d really tolerated him was already gone. The one person who’d tolerated everyone, even useless louts who only dragged him down, couldn’t tolerate him at all. No doubt he’d find himself much better off without Shen Qingqiu if he just died one day.
He’d politely try to shed a tear. Pretend he didn’t understand what happened.
Move on.
Shen Qingqiu’s scent had started to overwhelm the room, mingling with the scent already there. Gods, he hated his scent. Couldn’t even keep a nest without any good scents to put in it.
Right now, it was cloyingly sweet, but with a strong undertone of rot. It was the smell of a rejection heat.
Oh. This really would kill him. What a stupid way to die.
He picked up the white silk. How pathetic, that this is the closest he’s ever gotten to having his packmates’ scents for his nest.
Unable to resist the haze any longer, he curled around it and cried out.
Liu Qingge was only skulking around Qing Jing because it still felt unnatural to send a message like that and just leave it to be found. So when he’d learned that Shen Qingqiu had returned to his peak after Qi Qingqi had left the silk there, he’d gone to wait for Shen Qingqiu to react. If Shen Qingqiu wanted to pick a fight about it, Liu Qingge would be there.
But it had been more than one shichen now and still nothing.
So Liu Qingge figured he might as well go confront him directly.
Or that was the plan, before he got sidetracked with something more important to confront him about. Steps away from the slightly-open front door he was hit with an extremely distinct smell—not just the mixed scent that Liu Qingge expected, but the same omega scent they’d noticed in the meeting. The smell of distress was stronger and sharper now. That alone would be enough for Liu Qingge to interfere.
But it was the smell of heat that made Liu Qingge’s blood run cold.
That was it; Shen Qingqiu had crossed the line seven bad turns ago. Fuck chain of command, fuck ‘messages’, Liu Qingge would solve this right here and now.
It’s with red in his vision that Liu Qingge drew his sword and flew down the hallway, a bellowed “SHEN QINGQIU!” the only advance warning he gave before bursting through the doors of Shen Qingqiu’s bedroom. He whirled as he scanned the room, ready to drag Shen Qingqiu off of his victim, but the plan fell short when he failed to find anyone in the room but Shen Qingqiu himself, oddly huddled in a corner.
The source of the smell had to be nearby, though. “Where are they?” Liu Qingge barked, advancing on Shen Qingqiu sword first.
Shen Qingqiu flinched hard, and a horrible hissing yowl sprung from his throat. It stopped Liu Qingge dead in his tracks. Slowly, he processed what he was actually seeing in bits and pieces.
Shen Qingqiu was curled up in the corner on the ground. His sword was out and held defensively between them, but it was shaking terribly, because Shen Qingqiu’s whole body was trembling. His face was wet with tears smeared across his face, and as he watched, more welled up in his eyes. He blinked them away rapidly as they came. His other hand clutched some sort of white fabric to his chest. He looked disheveled, his hair a mess. He looked as pale as a ghost. There was blood underneath his fingernails.
Liu Qingge breathed in. Distressed omega. Heat. Eight aggressively hostile scents.
“I’ll kill you,” Shen Qingqiu rasped. His voice sounded like he’d gargled with gravel. “I’ll kill you if you touch me, I’ll claw out your eyes. I’ll take us both down. Get away from me, get OUT!”
The air was thick with turbulent qi, Liu Qingge realized suddenly. Shen Qingqiu was going to qi deviate. He took a step forward without thinking. The qi spiked dangerously.
Without another word, he turned around and left the way he came. Back through the halls until he was gulping down lungfuls of fresh air outside.
His sword was still unsheathed. Belatedly, he put it away. Then he collapsed to his knees with the enormity of what he’d realized.
What did they just do to him?