Fandom: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Shen Qingqiu was slowly waking up, unable to tell what had caused him to wake up at such an early hour of the day, other maybe than the weird apprehensive feeling in his guts. He couldn't tell where it was coming from, as nothing came to his mind to be a possible reason.

He then felt strong arms snaking more tightly around his waist, making him look down towards his husband, feeling a little better at the sight of him. He tried calming himself down a little bit by slowly brushing his finger through the dark locks, watching the peaceful face of the man sleeping next to him.

Yet, as he was ready to try and go back to sleep, a mechanical voice was heard in the silence of the night, making him jump a little.

[System Error: Please wait for end of analysis...]

"What do you mean "System error"!?" Loudly thought Shen Qingqiu towards the annoying System, wondering what it had in store for him this time. While the immortal was having an internal crisis with the System, yet again, the sudden jump and him getting tense again had managed to wake the Demon Lord, "Shizun?" he sleepily called out to his husband.

[The System has detected activity from the original host, please wait for the System to load and get ready for a transfer back out of "Proud Immortal Demon Way".]

Shen Qingqiu was confused about what the System was talking about, feeling himself starting to panic at the thought of being transferred back. Wasn't he dead?! To what was he supposed to transfer back to if his body was dead?!

On the other side of the bed, upon not receiving any response from his Shizun and feeling his rising panic, Luo Binghe was starting to worry, wide awake now. "Is something wrong Shizun?" he asked, worry filling his voice as he detached himself from around his waist, probing himself on his elbow to look at him better.

[30 seconds left until transfer: 30... 29... 28...]

The Peak Lord started to panic, even more, looking back down at his husband, understanding there was no changing what the System was going to do. He couldn't keep up the usual poise expression he had, looking back down at a worried Luo Binghe.

He suddenly pushed him back down, getting half atop of him, cupping his face with his trembling hands. "Binghe!" he suddenly called out to him, searching for what to say in the little time he had left here. "This Shizun cherish you a lot" he suddenly said, the man in front of him frowning slightly.

Normally he would have loved hearing those words coming from his Shizun, yet at the moment his guts were telling him something was wrong. He called out again to him, only to be shushed by a thumb gently placing itself on his lips.

[19... 18... 17...]

"This master is really proud of his husband and loves him with all his heart" he then added, feeling like this was an important thing to say right now. He pressed his thumb down a little more firmly, keeping the man from interrupting him.

"Listen to me, I don't have the time to explain, but know that this Shizun would never voluntarily run away from you" he quickly said, feeling the Demon Lord suddenly tense underneath him.

[9... 8... 7...]

He felt so powerless against the cruel situation the System had suddenly thrown him into. He could feel the side of his eyes watering, trying to keep in check the tears that were most likely coming.

There was too little time to say all the thing he should probably have said more often to Luo Binghe, and all he could do was kiss him in an attempt to make all those feeling go through it. He was kissing him as if his life was depending on it, knowing it would be the last one.

[2... 1... The System is starting the transfer]

The last things he felt with that kiss were gentle and shaky hands holding him and warm tears slowly touching his fingers.

Then everything was black.

The next things he was able to register were the beeping noises from machines and some faint voices talking somewhere close to where he was laying. These voices sounded familiar, yet he felt like it had been years since the last time he had heard them. He then tried forcing his eyes open, only managing to do so after a while, squinting as he wasn't able to see who were close to him.

What was going on right now? Was a curse placed on him to have his eyesight this bad? What were all those beeping noises? And why was the room so bright? He was nearly waiting for the System to suddenly give him an update about what was happening, even mentally calling for it. Then, things slowly came back to his mind.

He wasn't Shen Qingqiu from Proud Immortal Demon Way anymore.

He was Shen Yuan, from the real world.

He frowned slightly at that thought, closing his eyes as he tried to sit up, finally catching the attention of the people in the room. Only then he was able to tell who these voices belong to: his family.

He sat through a lecturing of how much worries he had brought upon them and how he should take better care of himself because of his condition. He didn't interrupt, only nodding, yes-ing and understood-ing what he was told, despite not really listening to what he was being told. Everything felt like a dream. He was still processing the fact that he was now back in his body.

It was the same thing throughout the hours it took for doctors to check on him, weighing whether or not he should stay in the hospital for longer. It was decided that they would keep him one more night to make sure everything was alright.

Only when he was alone did he finally sort of came back to himself, piecing back together the pieces of information he had gotten through the day.

For one, he wasn't dead, which he supposed was good news? He didn't die while chocking on some cheap noodles, but had somehow managed to hit his head after the shock from the last chapter of Proud Immortal Demon Way.

Good thing his little sister had planned, or rather was asked by their mother, to go and check on how her big brother was doing. If it wasn't for that visit, maybe things would have been worst than they were now.

He also learned that he had been out for a couple of weeks now, not really managing to get a number, though it was enough for him. He wasn't sure how to feel about the fact that he had been out for a couple of weeks, it had felt like years for him.

Yet, the most disturbing thing was hoe he felt after learning all of this. He should have been relieved to be back and somewhat maybe alright, yet he couldn't feel like that. His heart was aching for something else, for a home that he wasn't sure anymore if it all had been real or not.

Early in his adventure into Proud Immortal Demon Way, he would probably have been delighted to be brought back here, so he wouldn't need to walk on eggshell and risk his life all the time. Sure, there were numerous reasons for him to prefer the Qing Jing Peak Lord, but not running into a certain death if he wasn't playing his card right wasn't really the greatest either.

But now?

Now it felt like something important was missing. Many important things were missing.

He tried pushing away these feelings and this aching feeling, trying to figure out what he was going to do now that he was back in the real world. He decided to go to sleep, thinking that doing so wouldn't be such a bad idea, despite his body having been doing just that for many weeks.

He dreamed of a certain peaceful bamboo house until he woke up the next morning.

The next day, everything went by rather quickly. He had doctors check on him again, only to agree he could be left out of the hospital. Of course, he would need to go back for check-ups and follow-ups, just to make sure everything would stay good, but they didn't need him to stay there right now.

He was dropped off at his apartment, not without his mother yet again lecturing him on how he needed to eat better, get rid of the mess that had most likely caused him to fall and also left him some actual food and not instant noddles. He would lie if he was saying that the idea of eating instant noodle sounded just as good as it did before, although he would need to actually learn how to cook if he wanted to eat actual food. Yet nothing would be able to compare with Luo Binghe foods.

Looking around, he realised some of his stuff had been cleaned up a little, though it was still a mess in there. He tried to ignore the mess, putting everything in the pantry and refrigerator to keep his mind busy. He then went to his room, which was even more of a mess than the rest.

He didn't know what to do now, everything was back to something he wasn't used to anymore. He had passed probably more than two decades and a half in Proud Immortal Demon Way, with a job and lifestyle more than different to this one. Everything was so different from what he was now used to.

The nagging thought of it maybe being all a dream came back to him, making him frown as he felt uneasy about that possible reality. What was he supposed to do then if all this had really been a dream? He couldn't just toss to the side his memory and all of his feelings.

He took in a shaky breath when he realised he was getting upset about this idea, trying to calm down. No. He, somehow, knew it wasn't just a product of his dream and imagination, it would have been too elaborated to be so, and everything was too real for it to be that.

Once he managed to regain his calm, he decided to try something he was very much familiar with within this world: Proud Immortal Demon Way, the original novel. It shouldn't have any update after the last chapter, but it was one of the only things he found to help him get back into being Shen Yuan and not Shen Qingqiu.

He was half surprised upon seeing a forum room dedicated to announcing Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky death. He was still a little taken aback, not expecting for him to really be dead, yet it was also not too much of a surprise when he was thinking about it. After all, he had thought all this time that he was dead too.

Despite the relationship that could still see better improvement, he had warmed up to the man in the last years. He decided to pay his respect in the forum, leaving out any animosity he ever had toward the novel. His user handle was rather known and many thought he wasn't being genuine in his respect, some even stipulating he was probably happy to hear the new. He ended up closing the window, not in the mindset to deal with people thinking what he was writing wasn't truthful or even happy about it. He always had been genuine in his comments.

With this start, the day started to pass in a weird mix of fast, yet as if the time wasn't really going forwards.

He also realised rather quickly that some things had stick from when he was Shen Qingqiu, while other things he was fine with in the past were now bothering him.

For a first, he was missing the weight of a folding fan, feeling rather weird now that he didn't have one at hand all the time. He actually ended up buying one to help this feeling of missing something in his hands, taking back old habits, at least if he could call them that. He tried not being out with it in public, as not to stand out too much while using it the way he did before. Still, its weight in his hoodie was a reassuring one in a way.

Another thing he noticed was how the silence and the loneliness were bothering him. Shen Yuan was an introvert, having never really made friend with anyone in the past. He wasn't even close to his family, not that he was on bad terms either, but mostly due to shutting himself in most of the time. Being alone had always been fine by him in the past. If he needed interaction he would go out a little or reach out to people online. Loneliness had never really been there despite often being alone.

But now? Now he was missing the presence of Luo Binghe around him at all time. He was missing him calling out to him, even if it was simply to call "Shizun" for no reason. He was missing the warmth and safe feeling he would bring to him at night. He was simply missing this crybaby that had become his husband.

The city noise he was so used to in the past was now annoying, all the people going about there day was too much for him who had lived far away from populations for so long. And even then, the biggest city he had visited were not as populated as where he was now.

There was also technology that was making life easier, yet it nearly felt easier to live in PIDW. Or maybe it was because Luo Binghe was around?

He was missing the good meals his husband would do, himself barely making anything close to tasting good. Maybe with time he would get better at simple things. It would never top Luo Binghe loved filled food, but it could still try to bring back good memories.

He was also missing Shen Qingqiu body. Everything seemed so much harder than it was before he came back on earth. For a first, he couldn't go anywhere without his glasses, or he wouldn't see anything, a large downgrade from the Peak Lord perfect vision. His strength and endurance were not as good either, some things were now harder to do than before. Not to help, his health wasn't so good and he was more prompt to get sick if he wasn't careful, which had been something he wasn't good at in the past. He was probably the exact opposite of Shen Qingqiu.

At some point, he was even getting close to missing the System voice nagging him to do quest all the time. It had been somewhere in the background, ready to come at him all those years and now it was radio silence and it would never come back.

He wasn't able to get away from the feeling of a hole in him, missing some key things to himself to really feel like himself. Nothing was satisfying and living the way he did before wasn't motivating either. It would sometime bring him to tears he was trying to keep in when going to sleep, when the weight of everything he was missing would come back crashing on him. He had lived through so much worst when back in Proud Immortal Demon Way, yet this was somehow feeling worst.

He even hoped once that he had forgotten all about it, maybe then the wants for Luo Binghe at his side and his longing for a home he couldn't go back to wouldn't be this strong. The idea had been dismissed quite rapidly, he still preferred being able to remember.

Maybe time would help.