Shen Nyan's taile

Exploring the peak

He carefully made sure that Shen Qingqiu was gone. He was finally alone. With that, Shen Yuan sprinted to the shelf and squeezed his way behind it. He wiggled out of the hole and took a moment to smell the fresh air.

He had an objective today, well, a few objectives. He needed to know when Luo Binghe would be arriving at Qing Jing, and he needed to prepare things.

For example, if he could sneak a proper cultivation manual to Luo Binghe from the start, staying at the peak would be a lot more bearable for the little protagonist.

He's not quite sure how he'll do it as a beast, but he needs to find out when the next selection is held and where Shen Qingqiu keeps the cultivation manuals for disciplines.

He probably can't find out those things today, so he should just explore the peak. It's good to get familiar with the surroundings. God this would be alot easier if he was human or at least humane.

He sighed internally before starting to run. He didn't know when Shen Qingqiu would be back, so he had to be quick on his feet. It also didn't help that although the system said that he had reached adulthood, he was clearly smaller than what moon coons usually are.

He doesn't necessarily have to worry about anyone seeing him since the disciples of Qing Jing Peak know him as their teacher's cat, but it would be bad if the word got out to Shen Qingqiu that he had been running around the peak.

For some reason, Shen Qingqiu didn't seem to like it when Shen Yuan interacted with the disciples. It's probably because he's a beast. So he tries to stay out of sight.

Apparently, there's not much going on at the peak. The disciples are practicing cultivation, playing instruments, or reading books. A few are doing chores.

Shen Yuan sneaks his way over to the library, going in through a conveniently slightly open window.

However, it didn't go exactly as he planned. When he entered the library, there's one big problem: how is he supposed to get any of the books down without attracting attention?

But that's not even the worst thing. Ming Fan is here! The main orchestrator of Luo Binghe's bullying and the head disciple.

It's fine; he can just stay away from the boy. He came here trying to find out the date, so there's no reason for him to get near Shen Qingqiu's head disciple.

Now, which text could tell him which year and month it is? If he learned that, he could figure out when Luo Binghe is arriving since the point of time was vaguely mentioned.

He looked at the shelves filled with different texts but was unable to figure out which one he should try to get. This won't get him anywhere; he should just leave and explore more of the mountain.

But just as he was about to hop out, something grabbed him from behind, holding him by the ribbon on his neck. Which is, first of all, rude and secondly, very uncomfortable.

He turned around, and of course, out of all the people that it could've been, it's Ming Fan, one of the only characters that can match up to Shen Qingqiu's cruelty in the novel.

Ming Fan has pretty short hair compared to the other people on Qing Jing Peak; it's still long enough to go into a ponytail.

Ming Fan adjusts the way he is holding Shen Yuan so that he's holding the blood moon mainecoon from its armpits, which is still very uncomfortable.

"What is Shìzūn's cat doing here?" A happy expression spread across Ming Fan's face as he peeked around curiously before being disappointed. "Strange, what are you doing here alone? I should take you back. Shìzūn would be glad."

No, no, no, no, no, that's not good. If Shen Qingqiu finds out that he has been sneaking out, he'll find the hole, and all the hard work is for nothing!

Shen Yuan struggles and wiggles in Ming Fan's hand, trying to free himself, but his efforts don't amount to much since Ming Fan only shifts Shen Yuan in a way that normal people hold cats, one hand under and the other under the front paws.

Eventually, he bites down on Ming Fan's arm, which seems to surprise him, and he accidentally drops Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan sprints to the window the moment he hits the ground and jumps out, not even looking at what's below.

He crashes into something, and a surprised yelp comes from the person under him. It's Ning Yingying. Honestly, why is he meeting all the important side characters right now? Surely it's not just a coincidence that once he escapes from Ming Fan, Shen Yuan crashes into Ning Yingying.

Ning Yingying manages to catch Shen Yuan and looks at him with wide-eyed astonishment. "Jing, what are you doing here?" She laughed lightly and patted Shen Yuan's fur. Ning Yingying smiled. "Shìzūn will worry if you're not home when he returns."

She stops for a moment and silently tilts her head. "How did you get out here in the first place? Did Shìzūn let you wander? That's odd; you're always by his side nowadays."

He started wiggling again. Ning Yingying will probably also try to take him back to her Shìzūn, and then Shen Yuan's hard work will be ruined once more.

She did let go of him more willingly than Ming Fan; she just smiled and set him on the ground. "I trust that you'll find your way home. Be safe, little one!" She yelled after him once Shen Yuan had started sprinting.

He only stopped running once Ning Yingying was out of sight. He had come here to make progress but only ended up failing and almost exposing his secrets.

What if either Ming Fan or Ning Yingying tells Shen Qingqiu about the interaction? He sighed and laid down on the grass for a moment. This is exhousting.
It had been a while, he should get back.

So Shen Yuan sprinted over to the bamboo house and wiggled himself inside. The rest of the time was yet again spent trying to get himself as clean as possible before Shen Qingqiu comes back.

Once he was pretty sure that he was clean, he collapsed on his bed. Well, it's Shen Qingqiu's bed, but who cares?
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(Honestly wasn't even planning on writing this but I was bored and felt like having Shen Yuan and Ming Fan interact so this is what you get.)