Chapter Text
1: Silly Transmigrator, Systems are for Kids!
Shen Yuan woke up with a headache. It wasn't particularly uncommon, he was genuinely terrible at remembering to hydrate, but this was another level of The Worst™️. His head ached like rods had been driven through his skull and left there to pulse in time with his heartbeat, and the rest of his body ached like he'd been caught up in a landslide. All in all, Shen Yuan wasn't pleased about opening his eyes, but thankfully it was dark.
Actually... it was more than dark. Even with light-blocking curtains over his windows, there'd still be some ambient light around the edges, or coming in from the hallway where the sun shone. But there was nothing here, no light at all, it was completely and utter black. His head throbbed again and he groaned. Alright then, time to not think about anything for a while.
Shen Yuan wasn't sure how much time passed, but as his head gradually stopped hurting, he noticed more and more things in that absolute darkness. The first thing he noticed was that he wasn't on his bed anymore. The second thing he noticed was that he was, in fact, laying on stone. The third thing he noticed was a near-silent trickle of water, not too far away. It echoed just right to make him think there might be a corridor or something in the stone that lead to the water. So, he followed the sound.
It was a bit more difficult than he expected, especially because the second he stood up his head hit the low ceiling of the place and also his legs gave out. It reminded him a little of the feeling of staying in bed too long, not allowed to walk, and his muscles atrophied from disuse. So he crawled.
It was better this way, he thought to himself, in between the vague pulses of headache left over from where his head hit the ceiling, crawling was steadier than walking, and he'd hate to hit his head again.
After another indeterminable amount of time, Shen Yuan made it to the water! It was little more than a slow drip off a low stalactite, but the rock it dripped from, and where the water dripped down to below glowed a little. Just enough to see the little cave he'd crawled to and how it opened up from the area he'd travelled away from. Despite knowing he should probably find this whole situation to be eerie and upsetting, Shen Yuan was surprisingly alright with it. He found water, a little bit of light, and the water itself didn't glow so that boded well for him.
So, he sat there, cross-legged, and let the water drip onto his palms to pool in his hands. Time passed, or at least Shen Yuan assumed it did. All he had was the drip drip of water into his hands. The part of this that surprised him was at how patient he felt, sitting there with only a bit of glowing rock and water for entertainment...
Something came up from behind him, but it didn't feel threatening at all. Slithering across rock and stone like a snake, a quiet little susurration behind him and then around him until finally, a weight lay on his knee. Shen Yuan looked down impassively, feeling somewhat detached in general, as if his mind were just floating.
"Just a little guy, vibing." Shen Yuan said after a long minute of looking at the creature. It was genuinely ugly, what he could see of it. A swollen looking face, bloated seemingly from having been rubbed raw with its crawling, and as if someone had tried to smudge a human's face to seem more serpentine. It was long and winding, like a snake, and there were odd divots along the creature's sides and further down that almost looked like arms or limbs were grotesquely trapped beneath skin, except there were no bones there that couldn't move and coil like a snake's body. The skin was coarse and dry and scales were spread over it in patches...
But there was something sort of cute, in a pathetic way, how the creature so clearly longed for companionship. Enough to put his head on Shen Yuan's knee and look up at him with desperately shining eyes. They were far too bright to be trapped in such a creature, too intelligent.
Without thinking, Shen Yuan's body moved on it's own. Just as time hadn't seemed relevant, this felt like a given. As if of course Shen Yuan would cut his finger on his own teeth and let the blood drop into the mouth of the creature. A certain sort of sensation occurred after that, like he could pinpoint where the blood in the creature's body was. As if he suddenly had some power over that body...
Another action without thought happened as a similar-but-not sensation brushed up against that blood he'd fed the creature, and it guided him through something of a dance, almost. Even though he and the creature on his knee were still, that new sense of his felt like he was being held by the hand and led on a winding path until blocks were found, and then guidance from Shen Yuan could be given, to open and clear those blockades.
There was no light, no creaking of bones or the like, but within one blink of the eye to the next, a change had occurred. A young man perhaps around fifteen or sixteen, with overly long, black hair appeared before him, head on his knee and bright golden eyes looking up at him. They seemed watery, and Shen Yuan was afraid the boy would cry, so he grasped the boy's face in his hands, and rubbed his thumbs underneath his eyes, to wipe away tears that hadn't yet been shed.
"See now? Much better," Shen Yuan said softly, as if he'd meant to change the snake creature into a boy on purpose.
"How–" The snake boy rasped before coughing, and Shen Yuan put his hands out to cup more water.
"I don't know," He replied simply, "It seemed to just... happen."
"You just happened to get out of–" The boy seemed alarmed, but was cut off with a dry cough. Shen Yuan silently poured the bit of water he'd collected into the boy's mouth, allowing him to drink from his hands.
"Seems like." Shen Yuan shrugged, and the boy looked at him and seemed to sigh with his eyes.
"Junshang, I–"
"What's this nonsense, mhn?" Shen Yuan teased gently, returning one of his hands to catch water, and the other to pat the boy's hair, suddenly feeling old comparatively. Especially with the way the boy looked up at him, it made him feel like he was staring down a young child who desperately wanted affection. So he patted the boy's hair, and gave him water to drink, until the boy sat up and looked Shen Yuan in the eyes, having gained the necessary control over himself to do so.
"Junshang, we should really look into this. If it's a trap like before–"
Shen Yuan held up a hand to cut him off and looked away to the side, suddenly very aware that the boy had no clothes. And even though his own were ragged and torn, he had at least a layer or two to spare. So Shen Yuan took his outer robe off (and just when did he wear traditional robes like this, huh?) placing it across the boy's shoulders.
"Even if it is a trap," Shen Yuan had no idea what he was talking about, but it seemed like the sort of thing to say at an unknown scenario, "We have no choice but to weather it. Do you know the way out, boy?"
The boy blinked slowly at him, his gold eyes and slit pupils making him look like a cat who'd found someone very stupid and was trying to figure out if they liked the person or not for it. "Junshang, since when do you call me boy?"
"Then what should I call you?" Shen Yuan carefully sidestepped the question, not really sure what he was supposed to know and what he wasn't. The longer this went on, and the more he moved his body, it seemed like he wasn't quite himself. Not as Shen Yuan, that is. This body was recovering at such a quick rate, he was inclined to call haxx about it in his head.
"Nephew," the boy replied slowly, watching him, "Or my name."
"... And what is that again?"
"Zhuzhi-lang." The boy said softly, looking heartbroken about answering.
"There, there, Xizhi-lang," Shen Yuan replied immediately and smiling as encouragingly as he could, following it up with head pats again, "It's alright."
Somehow, that worked, and Zhuzhi-lang didn't complain after that, except to say that they would have to find a new way out, that would accommodate the both of them and their legs, rather than the route he'd taken in as a snake.
Shen Yuan, of course, thought that was a good idea, and went searching as best he could with Zhuzhi-lang, subtly asking whatever questions he could think of, about this nephew of his...
The more the thought about it, and the more he moved about, the more certain he was that he'd died and been reincarnated. Or was he a future life? Or, perhaps, he was transmigrated...
When Zhuzhi-lang wasn't looking, Shen Yuan whispered a quiet, "System?" and nodded when nothing answered. Couldn't be transmigration then, protagonists always had a system. Unless it was a romance novel, then those liked to buck the norms sometimes...