Fanfic / Another Time, Another Place, Another Story

Another Time, Another Place, Another Story is a Scumbag System fanfiction written by Mayvn on Archive of Our Own.

When another Luo Binghe appeared to kidnap Shen Qingqiu, Liu Qingge was murdered trying to protect the Qing Jing Peak Lord. He opens his eyes in a very strange room, with a very strange voice telling him that he just got transmigrated into a dogblood drama — why should he care about this? Tell him rather how to find Shen Qingqiu and rebuild his cultivation!

Meanwhile, Shen Yuan is reeling from being suddenly repatriated in his original world, but it won't stop him from using all his knowledge of Internet snark gremlin to protect Liu Qingge from shitty tropes and fume about the fact he didn't know there is cultivation in the modern world this whole time!

Also, what's up with all these weirdly familiar faces popping around?

Contains the following tropes

• Author Avatar: In-Universe, the original Shang Qinghua was used to express Shang Lei's frustration and grudge towards a society refusing to give him a chance to be considered as more than a Butt-Monkey.
• Barrier Maiden: The Proud Immortal Demon Way dimension entirely revolves around Luo Binghe as the protagonist. When Bingge killed his younger counterpart, it entirely destroyed the world and caused Shen Yuan, Shang Lei and Liu Qingge to transmigrate.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Shang Lei looks hopelessly shifty and is completely clueless about social interactions, but he's a full-blown master when it comes to cultivation arrays and cheerfully plows through paperwork with such speed he does two weeks' worth of work in a single day.
• Crack Pairing: Maelyn Yin and Shen Yueqi aka Madam Meiyin and Yue Qingyuan. There is no indication that they even met in PIDW or SVSSS.
• Delicate and Sickly: Shen Yuan was born with a sickly body and a weak immune system. He has a private room in the hospital because he needs very often to be there, and the prospect of him dying soon heavily weighs upon his family and friends. It drives Liu Qingge to look for cultivation in the modern world, as he wishes to bestow immortality upon Shen Yuan.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Liu Qingge has to bluntly reveal that no, Luo Binghe's love for Shen Qingqiu wasn't platonic at all to Shen Yuan, and the whole Cang Qiong Mountain Sect was wondering when he would finally confess his feelings.
  • Shang Lei bemoans over Liu Qingge and Shen Yuan being head-over-heels for each other yet utterly unaware of this to the security squad that commiserates with him.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Liu Qingge cordially despised the original Shen Qingqiu, but is disquieted to learn the man wanted to die and is later horrified when he's informed he bullied Shen Qingqiu for a misunderstanding.
  • Shang Lei is rather freaked by his own fandom's unbridled fantasies and is infuriated to learn of Chen Baozhai's attempts to discredit Liu Qingge.
  • Shen Jiu sneers at Shang Lei for writing porn and being a Nervous Wreck, but he refuses to exploit him when he accepts the dude as an accountant and practically bullies Shang Lei into receiving a fair salary.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Chen Baozhai genuinely believes she can seduce Shen Yuan into dating her, in spite of knowing he's friends with Liu Qingge — her former boyfriend whom she actively tries to ruin.
• Find the Cure!: Liu Qingge is stricken to learn Shen Yuan's failing health will kill him soon and resolves to find the cultivation society in order for Shen Yuan to receive pills and treatments that will allow him to achieve immortality.
  • As the plot progresses, Shen Yuan's father is revealed to have attempted the same thing only to fail, since Shen Yuan's body would have badly reacted to spiritual energy.
• Flashback Nightmare: Shen Yuan tends to relive Bingge cruelly murdering Liu Qingge and Bingmei right in front of him when he's sleeping, and it distresses him a lot.
• Foil: Just like Shen Yuan, Liu Qingge transmigrates in a very different world after a very sudden death, almost seamlessly adapts to his new existence and is bent on escaping the messy fate he was supposed to suffer, being more interested in cultivating and doting on the man he admires and secretly loves. However, his System is much less sadistic and he's helped from the beginning by Shen Yuan. He's also a lot more martially-inclined and straightforward.
  • Liu Qingge also is hinted to be a foil to Luo Binghe, from all people. His modern incarnation has been abandoned and raised by a compassionate elderly, he grew up in poverty and wants to become a cultivator and stay besides Shen Yuan. However, his relationship with Shen Yuan isn't as messy and much more equalitarian, and he's accidentally more successful in making Shen Yuan fall in love with him while Binghe's attempts were misinterpreted.
• Foreshadowing: Liu Qingge was found in a dumpster as a baby with a jade pendant on him. In melodramatic dogblood dramas that is an indicator that he is someone important. And it parallels with Luo Binghe, who was found in similar circumstances and happens to be the heir to the demonic throne.
• Gift-Giving Gaffe: Shen Yueqi just won't stop buying very expensive gifts for his family and friends in spite of them telling him they would rather have something cheaper.
• Gold Digger:
  • Subverted with Liu Qingge, who doesn't care a whit about Shen Yuan's money. Shen Jiu still insists he has to be one, but it's Played for Laughs as he's obviously overprotective and slightly jealous about his brother making a friend.
  • Chen Baozhai is a completely straight example, dating several rich second-gen sons in order to enjoy gifts and growing interested in Shen Yuan after learning he belongs to one of China's wealthiest families.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Bingge still is lurking somewhere in the multiverse, waiting for an opportunity to finally steal the perfect Shizun for himself.
• Hot for Teacher: Liu Qingge has to spell it out to Shen Yuan that Bingmei did indeed have romantic feelings for him. He even uses the exact phrase.
• Locked Away in a Monastery: When a scion from a wealthy family seriously wants to cultivate, they need to renunce involvement in the family business and mortal politics. Shen Yuan is at peace with the prospect, being the third son.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Shen Yuan is pretty salty to learn cultivation is possible in modern China, and he didn't know it. However, there's a rule in the Shen family forbidding the current Head and their designated heir to reveal the existence of the cultivation world, unlike many other wealthy families in which everyone is aware.
  • The Shen family is in the dark regarding the circumstances in which their third son met Liu Qingge. However, they start to nurture suspicions...
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: After transmigrating, Liu Qingge's hair still is long enough for him to style it in a ponytail and the first thing people do when meeting him is noting how beautiful he is. Shen Jiu's narration outright calls him a pretty boy, if derisively.
• Meaningful Name: Liu Qingge reveals his family name is written with the character for kill instead of the one for willow in modern China. Shen Yuan admits it suits the War God a lot better.
  • When they need to pick a Dao name in order to interact with the urban cultivation world, Liu Qingge chooses to be called Baizhan while Shen Yuan opts to be Qingjing, keeping the memory of Cang Qiong alive.
• The Multiverse: There is at least four worlds — the original Proud Immortal Demon Way timeline, the Scumbag System one (as Bingge implies he started his rampage after his canon confrontation with Bingmei), another that got interrupted due to Bingge's interference and modern China who's an Alternate Universe and apparently has dimension pockets.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Bingge murdered his younger counterpart in order to prevent him from gaining Shen Qingqiu's affections. It caused the Scumbag Villain timeline to collapse since Bingmei was a Barrier Maiden, and Bingmei's current reincarnation suffers from nightmares that firmly keep him on the straight and narrow instead of letting himself be corrupted.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: Modern Liu Qingge was found as a baby in a dumpster by Grandpa Liu. The baby had a jade pendant on him. When Peak Lord Liu Qingge transmigates and has to leave his apartment the System tells him to secure the jade pendant because it is important.
• Parents as People: The Shens really do care for their children, but they are quite distant because of their work and struggle to not be overbearing or prejudiced.
• Raised by Grandparents: Liu Qingge has been adopted by an old man in modern China, and cares enough about Grandpa Liu to try and give him a better life.
• Riches to Rags: Liu Qingge used to be the Bai Zhan War God, a proud member of the most prestigious sect in the country and a scion from a distinguished bloodline. After dying, he transmigrates in the body of an extremely poor youth in modern China — all his belongings fit within a backpack and a suitcase, and he owns a single pair of jeans.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Chen Baozhai uses one of her boyfriends to fire Liu Qingge from his current job as a construction worker, since said boyfriend's family owns the construction business. Alas for her, the Shen family — much wealthier and more connected — counterattacks because Liu Qingge is friends with Shen Yuan.
  • Shang Lei confesses he was a victim of this trope — all his credentials from attending one of China's most prestigious colleges weren't enough for him to find a job, since he was too poor and unknown for the positions he was qualified.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As Chen Baozhai does her first attempt to ruin Liu Qingge by framing him for domestic abuse, her boyfriend suddenly identifies Shen Yuan and his sister as the children of the wealthiest family in China and immediately drops Chen Baozhai like a hot potato before leaving the scene.
• Seer: Maelyn Yin aka Madame Meiyin. She warns Shen Jing and Shen Yueqi about Shen Yuan escaping death with the help of Liu Qingge.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Liu Qingge is a very beautiful and fit man. Chen Baozhai targeted him for his looks so she could brag about him to her friends. She even overlooked his poverty because of his good looks. For a while at least.
• Tempting Fate: As Shen Yuan laments their former friends on Cang Qiong might be reincarnated in modern China and they wouldn't be able to find them again, his siblings barge in the hospital room — and Liu Qingge identifies them as Yue Qingyuan, the original Shen Qingqiu and Ning Yingying.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Shen Jiu, the reincarnation of the original Shen Qingqiu is the second son of the wealthy and loving Shen family. He is rich, successful, admired, has a loving and supportive family and avoided losing his brother. The multiverse rewarded him for all the crap that he was put through in PIDW and SVSSS.
• Training from Hell: The screaming on Bai Zhan Peak wasn't entirely caused by the Peak Lord beating the crap out of his students — their martial cultivation involves breaking bones and tearing muscles apart in order to rebuild them stronger. When Liu Qingge rebuilds his foundation, he spits so much blood Shang Lei comments on the bathroom looking like a crime scene.
• Tsundere: Shen Jiu. He shows his love by scolding his family members and friends. Not that he would ever admit that he has friends.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Chen Baozhai firmly believes she still can fulfill her role as a dogblood drama villainess and destroy her former boyfriend's reputation. Said boyfriend has decided he would rather swap genre and is currently busy living in a urban cultivation danmei setting.
• Yandere: After getting a taste of a sweet and nice Shizun, Bingge has decided to rampage through the multiverse until he finds another one and he's not afraid to Murder the Hypotenuse.