Fanfic / The Bamboo Scholar

The Bamboo Scholar is a The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong series written by Mavyn on Archive of Our Own.

Slender in form, and elegant in face. The man was strong, modest, and humble as he stood up for justice and protected those that couldn’t protect themselves. He was truly the manifestation of the noble bamboo.

Shen Yuan wrinkled his nose in disgust. Who the hell is writing this crap about him?!

A 3-part series (plus 2 stand-alone extras, so technically a 5-parter) where Shen Yuan dies in Jinlan and awakens as a young Shen Jiu, calming down enough in his second go at it to make decisions that accidentally mold and inspire the people around him to be better, healthier people.

Except for Qiu Jianluo. And the Old Palace Master. And Wu Yanzi. And … um … I’m going to need to make a list.

Contains the following tropes

• All for Nothing: Yue Qi pushed himself into a qi deviation and mental illness out of his frantic despair to grow strong enough to rescue Xiao Jiu. Not only did the Qiu Manor burned down in his absence, Xiao Jiu saved himself and completely forget his Qi-ge's promise.
• Big Brother Instinct: Shen Yuan is rather protective of Qiu Haitang, long before learning he is her half-brother.
• Break the Cutie: After finding bruises on her sweet Xiao Jiu, poor little Qiu Haitang goes to her big brother A-Luo to beg for an explanation... only to stumble on him about to rape her handmaiden. She's left a sobbing wreck when she reaches safety at her uncle's home.
  • When Shen Yuan meets Shang Qinghua (currently Shang Deming) and realizes his fellow transmigrator doesn't remember the first run-through, he gets an up-close look at how being forced into spying and betrayal has affected Shang Deming, before the man grows jaded about it. Thankfully, Shen Yuan's System overrides Shang Deming's to be less abusive, and Shang Deming breaks down crying in relief.
• Broken Ace: Yue Qingyuan isn't the perpetually calm, strong and reliable shixiong he appears to be, as he's a mess of self-loathing and mental issues for failing to uphold his promise to Xiao Jiu.
• Cain and Abel: Qiu Jianluo learning this slave brat he enjoys beating and tormenting is his younger half-brother doesn't convince him a whit to stop abusing Xiao Jiu or plan to steal his spiritual veins.
• Child Prodigy:
  • Shen Yuan marvels at Shen Jiu's perfectly developed spiritual veins, lamenting the original goods would have been this if only he had been allowed to cultivate sooner in his life.
  • Liu Yingjie gets to participate to the Immortal Alliance Conference when he's barely thirteen years old to the other competitors' sixteen or seventeen.
• Commonality Connection: Shen Yuan and Shentu Guang (the future Peak Lord responsible for the Beast Peak) immediately strike a friendship when they meet while busy sniffing around a monster burrow.
• Cuteness Proximity: Shen Yuan utterly melts in front of a tiny grumpy Liu-shidi.
• Downer Ending: Shen Yuan's first run of Proud Immortal Demon Way has him dying from self-destructing his golden core to prevent Xin Mo overtaking Luo Binghe. Unfortunately, Shang Qinghua's experimental fertilizer killed the plant body he wanted to use so Shen Qingqiu never reincarnated — leading a heartbroken Luo Binghe to destroy the world as he couldn't bear to live without his shizun.
• Drives Like Crazy: Shen Yuan's acrobatics on his sword lead the cultivators watching the spectacle to label him a madman.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Qiu Jianluo's only redeeming quality is his genuine affection for his younger sister Haitang. Unfortunately, he's so obsessive about it that it verges into creepiness.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • There's a streak of mental illness (implied to be schizophrenia) in the Min bloodline. This added to Old Man Qiu's meaness drove Min Aihua and her son Qiu Jianluo to become first-grade abusers.
  • Being forced to live through Xiao Jiu's hellish childhood gives Shen Yuan a heaping lot of empathy for the original goods.
  • Yue Qingyuan didn't set to botch his relationship with Shen Qingqiu, his heart demon literally wouldn't let him explain why he never came back.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Qiu Manor still burns down to the ground, with Qiu Jianluo being killed by Xiao Jiu's hand. Enforced by the System.
  • Wu Yanzi still tries to disturb the Immortal Alliance Conference, unwittingly allowing Yue Qingyuan to be reunited with his childhood friend.
• In the Blood: Mental illness runs through the Min bloodline. The magistrate's wife also serves as his caretaker, Qiu Jianluo obviously inherited his mother Min Aihua's Axe-Crazy tendences, and Shen Yuan ponders about Qiu Haitang developing the condition in the first timeline due to trauma.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Qiu Jianluo is obsessed by his sister's security to the point he basically imprisons her within her quarters, won't hesitate to beat the cook for the sin of adding ginger to Haitang's breakfast in spite of the girl's disgust for the spice, and tries to betroth her to someone he can kill with impunity as a widow isn't allowed to remarry and leave her family again.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Deconstructed by the altered canon's Downer Ending, with Shen Yuan being mortified for making Luo Binghe so reliant on him he destroyed the world in his unability to deal with his shizun's demise.
• Locked Away in a Monastery: As becoming a cultivator involves renuncing mundane titles and responsabilities, Shen Yuan reassures Magistrate Min he has no intent to steal Qiu Haitang's inheritance by announcing his wish to cultivate immortality.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Qiu Haitang is so heavily coddled by her father and brother that she lives in the lap of unimaginable luxury and has no friends in her age range. She eagerly befriends Xiao Jiu in spite of his slave status merely because he's the only other child she can see in her house.
• Meaningful Rename: Xiao Jiu leaves his slave status behind by asking to be called Shen Yuan.
• Named by the Adaptation: Several Peak Lords were never named at all or were only known by their courtesy names in canon. Here, they're identified as Liu Yingjie (future Liu Qingge), Qi Ruolan (future Qi Qingqi) Shentu Guang (future Jian Ya Peak Lord Shentu Qingji) and Shang Deming (future Shang Qinghua).
• Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: Plum Blossom in the Brood of Vipers is a dramatized account of the Qiu Manor's burning and affiliation with demonic cultivators. Shen Yuan hates it, first because it makes light of people his sister still loves and second because it implies an incestuous love affair between his avatar and Haitang's.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Shen Yuan has to force an explanation out of Yue Qingyuan for his abandoning of Xiao Jiu, internally lamenting that much trauma and grief would have been avoided if only Yue Qi had been able to seriously talk in the first timeline.
  • A huge problem with the former Qing Jing Peak Lord. As she strongly believes in actions speaking more strongly than words, she doesn't bother telling why she acts or decides something in a certain way and it causes frustration and misunderstandings galore.
• Related in the Adaptation: Xiao Jiu is identified as Qiu Haitang and Qiu Jianluo's half-brother, being the son of their father's concubine Shen Qiyu.
• Surprise Incest: Shen Yuan is disgusted to learn of his betrothal to Qiu Haitang as she's his half-sister. Poor girl is just as horrified when she's informed of their blood relation and the fact that Qiu Jianluo not only was aware but still asked for it.
• You Remind Me of X: Shen Yuan cannot help but feel fond of Qiu Haitang because she makes him remember his baby sister. It becomes ironically hilarious when she's revealed to be his younger half-sister.