QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead

Ni Ni chimes in alarm. "Host, please remember that it's important that no one finds out that Host isn't the original! That could cause the free trial to be terminated."

Xi Zirui isn't going to choose now, of all times, to tell Han Yu he transmigrated from a different world to this one, so Ni Ni could have saved the alarm bells for another time.

He does need to come up with something. Anything. 

The fierce look in Han Yu's eyes means business.

Tentatively, he lifts his palm off Xi Zirui's lips, but the grip of the whip around his neck remains, as does Han Yu's weight pinning him to the floor.

Xi Zirui isn't really complaining about either of those.

"Han Yu, it's me, it's your Shizun," Xi Zirui says, his voice raspy due to the tightness around his throat.

Some fleeting feeling flickers across Han Yu's eyes, and Xi Zirui finds he can breath easier, the grip of the whip around his neck having grown slacker. 

Xi Zirui sits up with a wheezing exhale and fans himself with Untold Sorrow, trying to get more air into his parched lungs.

Han Yu sits back on his heels and gives him a complicated look, his fingers still curled tight around the hilt of his whip. "Speak."

The tale Xi Zirui spins for him is lifted straight out of "Demonic Sect Leader, I'll make you fall in love with me."

Being the love interest, of course Hai Yaomei couldn't be completely evil. Parents wouldn't like that, but more importantly the Broadcaster's Association wouldn't like that, so the scriptwriters came up with a genius way to explain all his atrocities while still being able to more or less call him an evil anything.

It turns out all his bad actions were due to implanted false memories, which made him believe the righteous cultivation sects of Jianghu were responsible for his sad backstory.

Xi Zirui doesn't think copyright laws apply across the multiverse. 

"My disciple might find this hard to believe, but this master is ashamed of his past actions," Xi Zirui says, averting his eyes. "During my seclusion I was able to reach the root of my resentment, and found that it wasn't genuine. I've taken out my anger and bitterness on you and your shijie, and I deeply regret it."

Han Yu's hand falters on the whip's grip and it unravels completely from around Xi Zirui's neck. "What?"

Xi Zirui elaborates on his stupid excuse, on how he had terrible premonitions that Han Yu and his shijie would turn to the dark side and bring ruin to all of Jianghu, which is why he was cruel and unkind to them in the past.

"But Shizun was like that with everyone," Han Yu remarks.

Just once, Xi Zirui would like to meet one of these worlds' originals and ask them what the fuck were they hoping to accomplish by being such intractable assholes to everyone.

Xi Zirui sighs and it's not entirely faked. "Such was the weight of my resentment. This master will do his best to make amends with everyone he has wronged."

"Congratulations Host! Han Yu's admiration up by +2 points. Now at 14 of a possible 100 points." 

Slow and steady wins the race, isn't that what they say?

Han Yu still doesn't look entirely convinced but he doesn't attack Xi Zirui again, and lets go of him.

"This disciple apologizes for suspecting Shizun," he says lowering his eyes and clearing his throat.

The air of ascetic dignity suits him so well, as does the elegant fall of dark hair down his back and chest. There has always been an ethereal quality about Han Yu that is only emphasized by the understated elegance of his light robes, and the discreet jade ornaments he wears.

Xi Zirui could stare at him all day, but unfortunately, he's supposed to be an ascetic immortal cultivator himself.

"Go ready yourself for this journey, take all the equipment you think is necessary," Xi Zirui says, finally pulling his eyes away from Han Yu's sleek profile. 

Han Yu raises to his feet and bows to him before leaving the pavilion.

As soon as he's gone Xi Zirui lets his head fall into the low wooden table with a groan. 

"Ni Ni, were Han Yu and the original involved at all?" he asks.

"Answering Host: their relationship never overstepped the bounds of filial devotion on Han Yu's part and unwilling acquaintance on the original's."

And as Han Yu's current admiration shows, it's not even like he likes him.

It's fine, Xi Zirui can work with this, Han Yu didn't like him at first in the previous world either.

Besides, if there's one thing Xi Zirui knows about xianxia is that no disciple can resist their Shizun.

He's not above using that to his advantage if it means getting Han Yu back.

---

He inspects the original's pavilion, named the Pavilion of Heavenly Tribulations, which seems apt considering that's what Xi Zirui goes through on an almost daily basis.

Like all previous originals, this one likes his creature comforts too. His quarters are appointed with furniture of the highest quality, his robes are all so light-weight as to feel almost wet to the touch, and his collection of jade, silver and gold hairpins could rival any Imperial Concubine's.

Xi Zirui would know. He didn't see this much jade even back when he was Xi-fei.

"Master Xi isn't following the Dao very closely," he says running his fingers over tinkling hairpins inside a rosewood lacquered box. "He won't reach immortality like this."

Xi Zirui sits down at the original's vanity - and never has the word seemed more apt - and looks at himself in the gold mirror. 

He looks the same as he always has, with some of Xi-fei's grace due to the long hair cascading down his back, the upper half secured in a bun on top of his head. Two long strands of hair flow unbidden from his temples down to his navel.

The sheer length of hair and the billowy robes reminds him of Hai Yaomei, that idiot who failed at being a demonic cultivator.

He touches the small mole under his eye and wonders if it's meant to mark him for grief. 

"Ha Ha, Host shouldn't think such somber thoughts," Ni Ni says. "Host should prepare a travelling bag of his own clothes and weapons as well."

Ni Ni isn't nearly as subtle as she thinks, but Xi Zirui doesn't comment on it.

---

Xi Zirui goes around the pavilion shoving everything that looks even halfway useful into a rucksack, he'll figure out how to use them later.

It's almost nightfall and there are still no signs of his erstwhile disciple. Shouldn't she be back by now?

Now he's thinking it really is Bai Mi, she would ruin his plans, even indirectly.

"Ni Ni can tell Host, if he wants to," Ni Ni says, in annoying sing-song.

"I want to be surprised," Xi Zirui insists. Anyway it's not like there is a big cast of characters to choose from.

"It could always be Granny Ma," she says.

He snorts. "Wouldn't that be something," he says, stepping out of the floating courtyard and into the reception hall.

And coming face to face with Han Yu and his raised eyebrows. "Who was Shizun talking with?"

"Uhm, I was meditating," he says, with as much dignity as he can muster.

Thankfully, Han Yu isn't interested in pressing the issue. "Shizun, this disciple is worried that something might have happened to shijie, as she hasn't yet returned."

So he isn't the only one who noticed. 

"I've been worrying about her too," Xi Zirui says with a nod. "Do you know where she trains?"

"Where Shizun has always instructed us to train," Han Yu says, raising a questioning eyebrow at Xi Zirui. "The woods of Grief."

---

What kind of maniac makes children train somewhere called the Woods of Grief?

Han Yu and his shijie might be young adults now, but once upon a time they were small children who the original abandoned alone in the middle of these dark woods and told to fend for themselves.

It's no surprise that Han Yu is so frosty towards him.

According to Ni Ni the woods got their name due to the unusual number of hungry ghosts that roam it.

An unusual number of hungry ghosts being anything above  0.

The legend goes that where Heavenly Dragon sect is now located there used to be a village, whose villagers made a living from fishing in the lake and nearby river. 

The Dragon who ruled over the river disliked being disturbed by human boats, and warned them they were overfishing the waters.

The villagers ignored him, and tensions escalated.

Until it all culminated in the Dragon's lover, a human from said village, being executed for betraying the other humans to side with the Dragon.

Heartbroken, the Dragon left the river forever, but not before cursing it and all the humans who made their living from it, for generations to come.

And so the fish died, crops were poisoned and the village slowly withered.

It didn't take long for the dead to outnumber the living. Their tombs fell into disrepair, without anyone to observe the proper rituals their souls couldn't rest and reincarnate, and they returned as hungry ghosts to haunt the same place where they had died.

As cultivators, and followers of the Dao, it's expected that the Heavenly Dragon sect, so named because of that ancestral Dragon who cursed the waters and ruined the land, will handle any ghosts and demons making trouble for the righteous people of Jianghu.

The original apparently took this to mean leave two children alone to sort it out.

Han Yu moves through the dark woods with all the familiarity of someone who is long used to its treacherous paths. 

Xi Zirui follows the glow of his bright robes in the dimness of the dark forest, trying to keep pace with him even as his feet keep getting snagged on twisted, knotted roots and fallen branches.

Not very 'ethereal immortal cultivator' of him. 

Han Yu comes to a sudden stop a few paces ahead of him. He sees something on the ground and picks it up.

"What is it?" Xi Zirui asks, looking over his shoulder once he reaches him.

Han Yu turns around so Xi Zirui can see the white jade ornament in his open palm. "Shijie's jade ornament," he says, running his fingers over the fine jade. "It's the one Shizun gave us when he accepted us as disciples."

Now that Xi Zirui is paying attention, he notices that it's exactly the same as the one Han Yu wears pinned to his waist sash, down the the blue tassels. 

"Shijie would never leave it behind,"- he closes his hands around the ornament - "not if she had a choice."

What does it say about Han Yu and his shijie that they still value a gift given to them by such a callous master?

"Do you think Blood Crane might have taken her too?" Xi Zirui asks.

"It's a possibility," Han Yu says, with a shrug. "They might have come through this area of the Woods and walked in on shijie training."

Xi Zirui casts his eyes around the ground where Han Yu found her waist ornament. The dirt is undisturbed and there are no signs of struggle. 

Would she really have been taken without a fight? Apparently Su Xueyi chose her and Han Yu as Xi Zirui's disciples due to their low potential, but he has his doubts about the truth of that.

There's no world where he can imagine Han Yu being anything besides extraordinary.

And if he isn't yet, he and his shijie sure as hell will be by the time Xi Zirui is through with them.

"I think she's the one who walked in on them," Xi Zirui says taking the ornament from Han Yu and turning it around in his hand. "I think she left this behind because she knew someone would come looking for her, and this was the best clue she could leave in the time she had."

Han Yu nods. "I think Shizun is right, shijie is smart, she wouldn't have left herself be captured."

Xi Zirui loves the implication that Han Yu thinks his shijie is smarter than their sect leader.

In any case, he agrees. "Of course she is, both of my disciples are very smart."

"Congratulations Host! Han Yu's admiration up by +2 points. Now at 16 of a possible 100 points." 

The corner of Han Yu's lips ticks upwards by a fraction. More than the extra admiration, Xi Zirui chalks that up as a win.

That beginning of a smile vanishes when he sees something over Xi Zirui's shoulder that makes him throw himself over him, sending them both sprawling to the ground.

He braces one arm around Xi Zirui's neck to soften the impact, careful not to hurt him.

He shouldn't have bothered, Xi Zirui can't feel anything besides the closeness of their bodies.

"Shizun, stay still," Han Yu says, his warm breath tickling Xi Zirui's lips.