Shen Qingqiu's Competencies

[x_los]

 Shen Qingqiu constantly downplays his own role in the novel’s events and his own competencies. Despite knowing that Shen Qingqiu is lying outrageously about plot-important things like his sexuality (lying to himself, as much as to other characters and the narrative), readers sometimes miss how closely the narrative adheres to his PoV for much of the text. Further, they believe that’s the only think Shen Qingqiu’s deluded about. Don't trust the man who brought you “I am for sure straight, no question” if he tells you rice is white. Surprise, it's brown rice today. Shen Qingqiu’s tendency to habitually undersell himself leads to readings (and fic) that portray him as lazy or hapless; this is Shen Qingqiu’s self-assessment, and could hardly be less textually evident.

 

“But Erin, you just have a competence kink!” Of course I do. But like always, I also have carefully sourced textual evidence!

 

The easiest example of this pattern to illustrate is, I think, the ‘Sun and Moon Dew Flower Seed’ section (https://faelicy.tumblr.com/post/612157187532439552/chapter-30-the-snake-man-of-the-dew-lake). Shen Qingqiu, Gongyi Xiao and Shang Qinghua go on a mini-quest. Gongyi Xiao is young, but bar Luo Binghe, Gongyi Xiao is the acknowledged outstanding cultivator of the rising generation. I believe we’re supposed to read him as possessing substantial natural talent. Gongyi Xiao will have been training for roughly eight years. As a young gentleman and the head disciple of the wealthiest sect, his background was very likely privileged and included substantial preparation for his eventual role: it might be more accurate to say he’s been training all his life for this. 

 

Shen Qingqiu has landed in a body with strong cultivation and read the book, but comparatively, he lacks training and experience. If we presume Gongyi Xiao is of an age with Binghe, and that Shen Yuan died at about twenty, then Shen Qingqiu is roughly six years older than Gongyi Xiao. Shen Qingqiu has only been cultivating since his transmigration, so (since this incident occurs not long after the Immortal Alliance Conference) for about three years. During this time, Shen Qingqiu has also been responsible for managing a peak, overseeing and personally training Luo Binghe and his other students, etc. He has not been a student, expected and facilitated to focus chiefly on his own personal development. 

 

Shen Qingqiu takes lead in the caves. He illuminates the path for their party, figures out that the terrain prevents easy sword draws, responds to this issue by using talismans instead, and then manages to draw his sword by working with rather than against the limited space. He does all this while poor Gongyi Xiao falls behind and bangs his funny bone on a rock. Shen Qingqiu's in-the-moment decisions and preparation enable him to deal with these impediments, not Shen Jiu’s cultivation or body.

 

Further into the cave system, Shen Qingqiu grasps how the flower they’re seeking works, wades through the pool to obtain it it, and then casts a talisman-based diversion to locate and stun their opponent. Presumably he's importing a modern concept of dynamite fishing. Arguably, he’s leap-frogging on account of having access to modern knowledge that others don’t. But Shang Qinghua has access to the same material. Further, he and Gongyi Xiao have grown up in this faux-medieval setting, and grown up with cultivation. Accordingly they ought to know this environment, and thus respond to what it throws out, much better than Shen Qingqiu.

 

While Shen Qingqiu is thus occupied, Gongyi Xiao tries to spear the snake pursuing them (Zhuzhilang, hello!), fails and then has to yoyo his sword back. Shen Qingqiu figures out that the snake is harmless, tells them to spare it and gives the snake what it actually wanted all along: one of the magic ‘shrooms. Gongyi Xiao just flips the snake over. That’s his whole contribution.

 

Very interestingly, however, Shen Qingqiu downplays having purposefully dropped the mushroom in the narrative to the extent that in the moment,  it’s not clear what’s happened. We only realise that this occurred many, many chapters later. Part of this oblique treatment arrises from MXTX trying to conserve narrative tension, but another part derives from Shen Qingqiu’s habitual vagueness about his own actions—a character trait that MXTX frequently relies on, in him, to stage the book’s plot turns.

 

Another line in Chapter 30 tells us, in Shen Qingqiu’s PoV, that Luo Binghe always knows what Shen Qingqiu wants to do on a mission and anticipates him. This suggests that they think compatibly and work together well.  Canonically, Luo Binghe is not simply lucky, he’s clever and skilled, excellent at dealing with random plot bullshit. That’s his whole character and reason for existing. If Shen Qingqiu is on Luo Binghe’s wavelength and they find collaboration easy, it indicates that Shen Yuan's decisions and competencies are basically of a piece with Luo Binghe's, minus Luo Binghe’s demon blood and protagonist halo power ups. Shen Qingqiu’s own power ups would then be limited foreknowledge, and the double-edged sword of access to the System. For pure initiative, cunning and success rate, the 'can beat Shen Qingqiu in a fight' list is short, and 'better at night hunting without halo-reliance' list is shorter. And he's proficient in the arts (is that knowledge somehow located in Shen Jiu, or is it Shen Yaun?). Formative trauma-bonding aside, no wonder Luo Binghe is obsessed. Who in this universe is a more rewarding partner for him?

 

In Chapter 30, we see that Shen Qingqiu isn't 'just' genre savvy. In and of himself, he’s highly capable. Aspects of his performance here, like his body's trained reaction time, are based on his corporeal inheritance from Shen Jiu. But every good ‘cultivator’ decision here is pure Shen Yuan, and he has significantly less experience than Gongyi Xiao (who is, again, the brightest talent in the rising generation, Luo Binghe excepted). The actual results speak: Shen Qingqiu is better at this shit than he implies by a significant margin. He spends this sequence rolling his eyes at this hapless kid (who is significantly more experienced than he himself actually is), so you don’t notice he’s a badass. It’s telling that after this, Gongyi Xiao is convinced that Shen Qingqiu is a good cultivator, teacher and man, and is highly reluctant to believe ill of him (even when everyone Gongyi Xiao knows and trusts starts talking shit about Shen Qingqiu). Shen Qingqiu sometimes get stuck in paralysing loops of thought, but does manage to break out of them (provided they’re not about something really tricky, like ‘how my own dick works’), only to throw himself on any passing sword while saying “it’s no big deal guys, I’m like, really self-serving, so this doesn't cou—”

 

Cut to: Luo Binghe, radiating annoyance like a Karen at the back of a customer service line. 

 

‘Lazy’ also feels like something Shen Qingqiu says of himself rather than something the text bears out. At every opportunity Shen Qingqiu gets to be idle or to skive out of the narrative, he does: the exact opposite. but On the page, Shen Qingqiu casually, retrospectively admits that he’s read Qing Jing Peak's entire library. After the fact, we discover that he’s done a lot of martial training with Bai Zhan. He takes my students from well-drilled nervous wrecks to confident, chill youths. Severely chronically ill and depressed, Shen Qingqiu heads to the epicentre of a plague. Without-a-cure makes this choice particularly risky for him, given that cultivation is in some respects disease-resistance, and his has a bad habit of flickering out. But here he is, and having heard as much, here’s Luo ‘what the fuck are you doing here?’ Binghe. 

 

Liu Qingge is a good tank in Jinlan City, but he sucks ass at dealing with the locals and figuring out the problem. (Liu Qingge out here no masking in public like I WILL SIMPLY EAT CORONA!! bruv. Bossman. You will not.) All the ‘soft skills’ stuff Shen Qingqiu does here is very valuable. 

 

After escaping the Water Prison, Shen Qingqiu breaks his cover and risks his actual life because: Ning Yingying might get a hangnail from punching Little Palace Mistress? Then Shen Qingqiu no sooner wakes up from his dirt nap than he comes to the aid of a captured adult Liu Mingyan (by himself, without backup), frees all the would-be sword sacrifices, and kicks Sha Hualing's ass (admittedly using the power boost from his ‘shroom body). He only gets captured himself due to Luo Binghe’s protagonist halo and his own gay panic: an undefeatable combo, for this walk-in closet of a man.

Luo Binghe’s entire plan to capture snakenapped Plantzun is based on knowing Shen Qingqiu is Like This. He relies on Shen Qingqiu slipping away from his captor (and he does, beautifully). He expects that Shen Qingqiu will hear that his sect is in danger, and run back to intervene. Sure enough, Luo Binghe only has to sit there 'come to Daddy' foot-tapping for maybe 3 days before Shen Qingqiu hops into his open arms. This whole plot  arc hinges on Shen Qingqiu being a massive liar, and on Luo Binghe’s “sure, Jan.”

 

Shen Yuan didn't have a Niche to slide into in the real world, and was potentially frustrated about that. But even as a reader, he does the most. He does not seem to come with an off-switch. Cucumber is a voluble, 'expert-ranked' super anti-fan, who's left so many comments he’s earned that forum banner. He’s so dedicated that after spending a couple decades in this world, Shen Qingqiu remembers exactly who Peerless Cucumber is. Can we trust that Shen Yuan was doing ‘nothing’ with his old life, having see his ‘nothing’ here? Given that his “I’m fine” is “I basically didn't eat for three years, except for some snacks once, just to punk Shang Qinghua.” The room is on fire, small dog. Additionally, if Shen Yuan died somewhere between eighteen and twenty five in real life—that’s a really transitional period. He was a wee babby. Who even knows what direction his life was going in?

 

 

A huge chunk of what we know about Shen Qingqiu, we learn via a ‘gradual reveal’ retcon recolouring mechanism MXTX seems particularly attached to. This is how we come to know the bulk of what we know about Luo Binghe’s disciple period, for example. We never hear, at the time, that Shen Qingqiu sword-drilled anyone, but later we learn Luo Binghe used to trip a lot. At some point you have to pause and go, “wait were you doing a full teaching load? And reading through the library? And going out on these missions you you mention with Binghe? …are you an adjunct, Shen Qingqiu? Nod if you are being held against your will. Blink twice if you are not eligible for tenure.” We’re similarly reliant on others to tell us about Shen Qingqiu’s post-Abyss depression.

 

In this vein, it’s also worth mentioning that Shen Qingqiu is very, very into competence on Binghe. When Binghe is coming into himself at the Immortal Alliance Conference, he takes a moment to fanboy. There’s a weird, tiny exchange where Binghe smiles in the Jinlan public confrontation scene, and Shen Qingqiu can't help smiling back. It's an odd ’I like you so much'/'definitely do me' moment, where Shen Qingqiu seems really seems into Binghe As Manipulator of these Changing Circumstances. Shen Qingqiu's even really kind of rapturous when he's shit-scared of Binghe, when he's rhapsodising about what an amazing actor BingGe is, and how he can convince anyone of anything. He’s like Richard III courting Anne on xianxia speed. It’s evil, and sexy, and oh nooooo, he could definitely engineer my downfall—

 

I could see Shen Qingqiu as having been deeply into BingGe's competence, and rapt every time BingGe does a badass plan, but then like... why is the stage for my BingGe so shit? Why is Poirot being asked to solve the mystery of ‘who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?’ Maybe Shen Qingqiu thought this vengeance arc was the hottest thing he'd ever seen (repressed). Now he's got to live it, and he's stuck going “…is it hot? or is this just terror? if I could process my thoughts and feel my own feelings, I might know!” Competence porn can kill.