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It was around then that Luo Binghe decided it was about time that he finally took a look through Shen Qingqiu's memories. Before, he'd felt no need to look through the scum's mind- after all, surely the only things he would find would be his many horrible, murderous, lecherous acts. Why look for what had already been revealed so publicly? Not to mention that he was rather distracted with the man's physical body at the time as well. After, once Shen Qingqiu was revived, Luo Binghe once again found his attention on other things- mostly things like trying to get the man to walk and eat and not die. He could have looked through his memories at any point, really- he'd just somehow never gotten around to it.

Perhaps now was the time to do it. At this point, he was quite curious about his Shizun, and he thought that maybe there were some hints to how he should continue with this plan of his. Maybe he'd be able to pick up on common traits in the girls he used to leer at. At the very least, he'd get the satisfaction of knowing things Shen Qingqiu would have never wanted his most-hated disciple to know.

After all, everyone had secrets.

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Luo Binghe entered the man's dreamscape that very night, breaking into his mind with ease. And soon enough, he began to walk through the man's memories.

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It started with a memory of a young Shen Qingqiu, very young, likely only four or five years old, waddling after a group of taller children. They were all disheveled, dirty with clothes so old and ripped that they were worse than rags. Half of them stumbled as they walked. An older man he couldn't see shouted at them to walk faster, his voice harsh and loud. The young Shen Qingqiu flinched but sped up anyway, ignoring the way his stomach rumbled.

Luo Binghe was slightly surprised to see his old master looking so dirty and unkempt. But then again, he had been a slave before Qiu Haitang's family purchased him, right? This must have been before that happened, especially given the man's young age. The demon lord wondered how long it would be before he entered her household.

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Then, Shen Qingqiu was a little older, closer to nine years old now. He was sobbing while a blurry figure sat beside him, looking downward in a pitiful fashion. Shen Qingqiu cried about their dead parents and how they had no one else to take care of them. He cried about being sick, and he cried about how his brother was so distraught that he could do nothing but sit, unable to join his brother's tears. He cried about being hungry and cold, and to all eyes, he truly appeared to be a pitiful child.

He cried and cried and cried until people dropped small coins in front of him, passers-by having been moved by the distress of such an unfortunate child.

He cried until night fell and everyone went into their homes. Then, he wiped away his tears and grabbed the coins, pulling that blurry figure up with him.

"C'mon, it's time to head back."

The boy got up, and the pair of them made their way back to wherever it was they were headed.

Luo Binghe couldn't hold back a chuckle as he realized that, even at such a young age, Shen Qingqiu had always been a manipulator.

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Shen Qingqiu was fighting a group of older children, and though he had a few scrapes and bruises, he appeared to be winning. The young boy fought hard and dirty, throwing handfuls of dirt into his opponents eyes and shoving one combatant into another. He spat and kicked and tripped and- he even bit some of them! So that wasn't a new behavior, then.

In the end, the other boys were left rubbing their heads and arms and sitting/laying down in the street, Shen Qingqiu standing over them. He wiped away blood from his nose with his sleeve, glaring at each one in turn before literally spitting on the closest. Then, he turned around and left, walking a good distance away before he started limping.

He kept walking until he found that blurry figure again, at which point the limp magically disappeared again. Luo Binghe would have concluded that he was faking it, trying to look unfortunate again, except he noticed a slight wobble in every couple of steps. His leg did hurt, but he was good at hiding it.

"Xiao-Jiu!" the figure called out. "Where did you go? What happened?"

Xiao-Jiu? Yes, now that he was reminded, Qiu Haitang had said that Shen Qingqiu's name used to be Shen Jiu back when he was her fiancé. He wondered- what would the man do if he called him by that name?

"Hmph!" Shen Qingiqiu crossed his arms.

"Who'd you fight this time? I thought the others were in different parts of the city today."

"I wasn't fighting them, I was fighting some other idiots!" Shen Qingqiu huffed. "They thought they could pick on me because I look pitiful! Well, who's pitiful now?!"

The figure sighed.

"You're not pitiful, Xiao-Jiu," it said. "But you need to be careful. The last time you fought local kids, their parents complained to our masters. I don't want you getting punished."

"Who cares if they punish me?! What will they do, whip me again?"

"Yes."

"So what?" Shen Qingqiu scoffed. "They've done it before, and they'll do it again. I'm not gonna let some weak little babies beat me up so they don't tattle on me!"

He's been whipped, so it doesn't matter if he's whipped twice.

He's been tortured, so it doesn't matter if he's tortured twice.

What an interesting idea Shen Qingqiu had of pain.

"You could run."

"Who's running?!" Shen Qingqiu yelled. "Like I need to run from them!"

"No, I know, you don't have to run. You're too good of a fighter. I'm not calling you a coward."

"Stupid Qi-ge!"

Ah. So this figure, whoever they were, was the mysterious 'Qi-ge' Shen Qingqiu had called out for when he was delirious with fever. It was a shame his face was so blurry- Luo Binghe wished he could tell who it was. For the memory of it to be so faded, though, it either must have been a long time since Shen Qingqiu had seen 'Qi-ge', or he was blocking him from his thoughts for whatever reason.

Regardless, this memory, though likely inconsequential to Shen Qingqiu himself, was rather interesting to the demon lord invading it.

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Now a little older again, Shen Qingqiu charged after the blurry figure, who decided to get involved with a rich youth trampling another child with his horse.

Shen Qingqiu stabbed the horse with some sharpened metal he'd altered.

And eventually, he'd been found out.

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Shen Qingqiu had been brought to a house, the home of someone with a good amount of money, based on appearances. He was roughly shoved into a tub full of scalding-hot water and manhandled so that the figures holding him could scrub him clean. Shen Qingqiu struggled against them, but his small body was thin with malnourishment, and he wasn't strong enough to fight back. Sure, he could hold his own against other children, but large, well-fed, burly men were an entirely different opponent.

Shen Qingqiu was washed thoroughly, the scrubbing so hard that the boy's skin quickly became irritated and red, the color only deepened by the too-hot water surrounding him. He let out a yelp as a comb was yanked through his hair without any regard for the knots, chunks of it getting ripped out with the motion.

It was needlessly brutal, especially for a child, and especially for being something as simple as a bath. They didn't even bother using oil or separating pieces to detangle Shen Qingqiu's hair.

Luo Binghe was surprised to find that, somehow, the baths he'd given Shen Qingqiu were far from the roughest he'd experienced.

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Qiu Haitang was delighted with the slave her brother had purchased.

In a different way, the brother was just as delighted.

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After that, Luo Binghe witnessed a long series of remembered beatings, which quickly made him realize something:

Qiu Haitang was completely unaware that her version of events was missing a crucial detail. She believed that her brother had kindly taken the slave in, treated him like a brother, and even betrothed his sister to him. She clearly believed that Shen Jiu had been treated with kindness and affection, that he was given a much better life than what he had living on the streets with his slavers.

She had no idea that her beloved brother had a secret wicked side, one that was well-hidden from her but painfully present for Shen Qingqiu.

The older boy sent another kick into Shen Qingqiu's stomach, making the boy gasp in pain. The younger boy glared, and yet, he did not move a muscle to defend himself or fight back.

The older boy raised his leg again but stopped as a voice called through the door.

"A-Luo! A-Luo!"

Luo Binghe somehow expected Ning Yingying to walk through the closed door. Instead, once Shen Qingqiu had been forced to his feet and brushed off, given a warning glare, a younger Qiu Haitang was allowed into the room.

"A-Luo! I was just looking for Xiao-Jiu!" she said brightly. "Oh, what happened? Xiao-Jiu, your cheek is bruised."

"I tripped earlier," Shen Qingqiu lied easily.

"Oh, you're so clumsy! Come here, I have some ointment in my room," Qiu Haitang told him. "Is it okay if I borrow him, A-Luo?"

"Of course," 'A-Luo' replied. "Why should I stop you from tending to your fiancé? Just make sure to bring him back later, since I want him to work on his writing."

"Okay!"

A-Luo.

A-Luo.

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Qiu Haitang believed her brother treated Shen Jiu as if he was family.

Her brother treated him like a whore.

Luo Binghe had, upon entering this memory, assumed that he was about to witness yet another beating that Shen Qingqiu experienced in his time at the Qiu estate. It certainly seemed like it, with the way that the man threw him onto the floor and pressed a foot into his back.

It seemed less like it when the foot lifted and he ordered Shen Qingqiu to strip his clothing off.

Luo Binghe expected Shen Qingqiu to resist, perhaps simply glare and not do it, remaining motionless. But though he did glare, his hands also began to undo his robes, perfectly steady and practiced. There was no shock in his face, nor disbelief- only disgust and hatred

As the scene continued to unfold, a tight ball of rage formed in Luo Binghe's chest. No one else should have ever been able to touch Shen Qingqiu- especially not this man and especially not like this. His fingers itched to cut him down right then and there, but he knew he couldn't. This was the past, and Qiu Haitang's brother was already dead- killed by Shen Qingqiu's own hand.

And by now, it was more than clear why exactly Shen Jiu had killed him.

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Someone came knocking at the door to the room Shen Jiu was locked in. The voice, belonging to that 'Qi-ge' again, told Shen Jiu that he was going to break him out and help him escape.

And for some reason, Shen Jiu lied and said that his legs were broken, that he couldn't possibly escape like that.

Except Luo Binghe could tell that his legs, even if bruised and battered, were not broken. He didn't understand the point of the lie at first- why wouldn't he have taken any opportunity to escape from this, especially as someone so concerned with saving his own hide? But then he realized that Shen Jiu had dragged himself to the door- the locked door- and considering the fact that breaking through locks and escaping with someone so heavily injured, all without anybody noticing, was practically impossible.

Shen Jiu blamed the person on the other side of the door for the state he was in, and he received an apology that he didn't accept.

Shen Jiu's anger was cut off by shock when 'Qi-ge' declared that he would be leaving to join a cultivation sect. The purpose was to train so he could save Shen Jiu from the situation he was in, but Luo Binghe could tell that Shen Qingqiu felt betrayed at being left behind.

Then he requested to peek at the figure through the crack in the door, something that Luo Binghe wouldn't have expected. Well, he supposed that Shen Qingqiu was still a child at this point, and even if he was badly-mannered and rude, a child still sought out comfort sometimes.

Some time after 'Qi-ge' left, Luo Binghe watched Shen Jiu cry silently.

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And then came Shen Qingqiu's memory of burning down the Qiu estate.

It started with Shen Jiu asking to be allowed to study cultivation under what Luo Binghe knew to be a con artist, something distastefully repeated by 'A-Luo'. And also something that Shen Jiu apparently couldn't see, either because he was still a little naive (doubtful) or because he really was just so desperate to leave this place.

The argument escalated as the man mocked Shen Jiu's dreams of becoming an immortal master, kicking him to the floor and lecturing him about being grateful for the life he had lived in the Qiu household. Luo Binghe had to admit that he probably would have laughed at such words if he had been the one in this situation. After all, it was hard to be grateful for someone who taught, fed, and clothed you when they also beat you.

Of anyone, the demon lord would know.

"I'm a human! Why should I be grateful toward a beast?"

Those words echoed through Luo Binghe's mind, similarities being far too familiar for him to not notice.

'A-Luo' was a beast. Luo Binghe was a beast. Really, the irony was almost laughable from his perspective.

Shen Jiu was thrown into a wall with a painful crash, knocking a sword down with him. Within moments, the sword was drawn, and Luo Binghe watched his young Shizun tremble in fear, holding a weapon he didn't even seem to know how to use properly. 'A-Luo' approached him again, threatening him with more violence.

"Stay away!"

Afraid, Shen Jiu did, in fact, use the sword, and a confusing flurry of motion went by as guards stormed into the room, and Shen Jiu, now even more afraid and panicked than before, killed them along with their master, Qiu Haitang's brother being stabbed so many times that his corpse eventually became unrecognizable.

Luo Binghe followed him out of the room as he continued his killing spree, ignoring the horrified screams of his future wife as he instead focused on the gleeful smile that had taken over Shen Jiu's face. It was an expression familiar to him- because it was the same one he'd worn when destroying his old sect, the same one he'd worn torturing his old master, and the same one he still wore whenever some bit of cruelty on his part made Shen Qingqiu react in a particularly amusing way.

He was getting his revenge, and he was enjoying every moment of it.

Luo Binghe continued to watch as Shen Jiu set the estate on fire, dragging an unconscious Qiu Haitang out of the flames and allowing most of the female servants to escape if they could. Or maybe he just hadn't noticed them, as they didn't try to stop him. Even still, the blood of many lives stained his hands and clothes, splattered across his face and his blade.

The person who appeared was an older man, one who questioned the little bit of mercy Shen Jiu had given to the Qiu's. Luo Binghe couldn't help but agree- if he was to get revenge on someone, he would do it thoroughly (and he did), making sure not a single person remained alive unless he wanted to torture them first. Apparently, Shen Jiu did have some attachment to Qiu Haitang, at least, or else she would have surely suffocated from the smoke.

He could tell that Shen Jiu was enraged at the reminder that he was past the best age for cultivation, that his potential would always be stunted by not having a chance at a proper start. In the back of his mind, Luo Binghe wondered- if his Shizun was as strong as he was with such a disadvantage, how strong would he have been if he had started cultivating sooner?

"Who are you waiting for?"

Luo Binghe could see that Shen Jiu was crying, but this older man didn't seem to notice or care.

"No more waiting."

Shen Jiu went with him.

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… BingGe totally would have already looked at his memories, realistically speaking, but a plot device is gonna plot device…

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