Fanfic / Memories Like Ghost Stories

Memories Like Ghost Stories is a Scumbag System fanfic written by Miss_aprosexia on Archive of Our Own.

While attempting to change his looming fate of becoming a human stick, Shen Qingqiu confidently charges into a wife plot — only to get trapped by an evil, psychic plant and forced to relive Shen Jiu's childhood.

This enlightens him about some harsh truths regarding himself, brings him closer to Liu Qingge, and convinces him to do the utmost to utterly derail the plot.

In the background, Luo Binghe just won't stop getting the wrong idea and Shang Qinghua really wants to know what the flying heck is going on.

Contains the following tropes

• Above the Influence: Liu Qingge firmly yet gently refuses to go further than kissing Shen Qingqiu when the freshly traumatized man tries to seek comfort, since he wants to be sure that Shen Qingqiu has genuine feelings for him and isn't acting out from shock.
• Asshole Victim: After witnessing how Qiu Jianluo abused his slave, Liu Qingge isn't sorry at all to hear Shen Jiu murdered him and burned his house.
• Awful Truth:
  • For Liu Qingge, learning that Shen Qingqiu actually wasn't a haughty nobleman but a traumatized slave, mainly because it means he bullied someone out of a misunderstanding.
  • Shen Yuan isn't a separate person from Shen Jiu. He's his previous life.
• Big Bad: The System really wants to keep the storyline more or less intact, and has no compunction about letting the blackened protagonist rape Shen Qingqiu as punishment protocol.
• Bigotry Exception: Shen Qingqiu cannot stand men near him after his Near-Rape Experience, but Liu Qingge makes him feel secure and protected after the War God fought the memory of Qiu Jianluo. Yue Qingyuan actually shows surprise when he learns Shen Qingqiu allows Liu Qingge in his bedroom while the Qing Jing Peak Lord is sleeping.
• Broken Pedestal: Liu Qingge greatly respects and admires Yue Qingyuan. After seeing Shen Qingqiu's memories, the Bai Zhan War God feels much more conflicted towards the Sect Leader as he still respects the man's capacity but is shocked by the former slave's seeming abandon of Shen Jiu.
• Composite Character: After recovering his memories, Shen Qingqiu keeps the kindness and self-sacrificing tendences of Shen Yuan, but he added the trauma and steel spine developed by Shen Jiu.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Invoked as the reason why Shen Qingqiu refuses to allow Luo Binghe to fight the Heart Devouring Blossom, as it would bring his past trauma back to the surface.
  • Everything regarding Shen Jiu's childhood and adolescence. There's a reason why he was such a bitch, and why he suddenly became much nicer after an amnesia bout.
  • Liu Qingge lost his older brother Liu Mingxuan in a home invasion. He got to see the corpse.
• Distressed Dude: Shen Qingqiu stumbles into the Heart Devouring Blossom's grasp and needs Liu Qingge to intervene.
• Does Not Like Men: Shen Jiu was terrified by men, courtesy of Qiu Jianluo trying to sexually abuse him. The Heart Devouring Blossom reawakens the trauma in Shen Qingqiu who can barely bring himself to let Mu Qingfang give him a physical and orders Luo Binghe to move into the disciple dorms because the Qing Jing Peak Lord cannot sleep with him in the bamboo house's spare room.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Luo Binghe suspects Liu Qingge from trying to forcefully kiss Shen Qingqiu and later sexually abuse him after the Heart Devouring Blossom, since the War God went into Shen Qingqiu's bedroom, there was shouting and Shen Qingqiu looked very much distressed. The Qing Jing Peak Lord actually was the one who made advances to his martial sibling (Liu Qingge declined on the grounds that Shen Qingqiu was suffering from shock) and screamed because he was having nightmares.
• Foreshadowing:
  • As Shen Qingqiu worries about the Heart Devouring Blossom potentially using his memories of being Shen Yuan against him, the System declares the plant can only access events that he underwent in his current life.
  • As the plant releases a smell designed to appeal to his prey, Shen Qingqiu thinks it reminds him of sword oil — something Liu Qingge naturally uses a lot. Luo Binghe also looks rather shifty and refuses to admit how he perceives the scent in front of his teacher.
• Gossipy Hens: Qi Qingqi and Wei Qingwei are openly competiting to be the one informed of the latest juicy rumour before the other.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Luo Binghe is emphatically not happy about Liu Qingge growing closer from Shen Qingqiu and impressing the Qing Jing Peak Lord through a dashing rescue. The War God actually sniffs vinegar when he leaves the Blossom's cave when holding Shen Qingqiu in a Bridal Carry.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After realizing he cannot see the people surrounding him as mere characters in a novel, Shen Qingqiu decides he won't even try to throw Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss in spite of the System warning him that it would cause his termination.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Luo Binghe assaults his Shizun with a hug to comfort him after the Heart Devouring Blossom's trap. Unfortunately, the Blossom reminded Shen Qingqiu why he should fear men, resulting in the Peak Lord forcing his disciple away.
  • Yue Qingyuan's insistence on calling Shen Qingqiu Xiao Jiu, as Qiu Jianluo referred to his slave the same way.
• Intimate Hairbrushing: Liu Qingge cares for a distressed Shen Qingqiu by helping him to clean plant matter and dirt out of his hair.
• Kick the Dog: Wei Qingwei bluntly tells Shen Qingqiu he was more likable when he was an amnesiac. Cue Death Glare from Liu Qingge.
• Logical Weakness: The Nightmare Demon admits he's powerless to help Luo Binghe with the Heart Devouring Blossom because the plant isn't sapient enough to truly dream.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Liu Qingge is mortified after learning Shen Jiu's past, as he has ruthlessly antagonized and bullied the Qing Jing Peak Lord in the past for being haughty and spoiled.
  • Shen Qingqiu doesn't take well the reveal that Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu are the same person. Luo Binghe's abuse? It was all him.
  • Qi Qingqi is just as upset as Liu Qingge was when she snoops around and learns she launched a smear campaign against Shen Qingqiu for nothing, since he never did any of the awful things she suspected him of.
• Near-Rape Experience: Qiu Jianluo tried to force Shen Jiu to give him a blowjob, but backed off from sexually abusing the slave after Shen Jiu "used his teeth" to show what he was thinking of the matter. It nonetheless left Shen Qingqiu with a life-long hatred of men rooted in trauma.
  • The System uses the punishment protocol on Shen Qingqiu when the man decides to prevent Shang Qinghua's betrayal and the bloodbath at the Immortal Conference Alliance — by throwing him into Bingge's clutches and almost letting the half-demon rape him until Shen Qingqiu frantically swears to not interfere with that chosen plotpoint.
• Noodle Incident: Liu Qingge confesses he's an expert at picking things out of his hair, including blood and teeth. Now, how teeth wound up in his ponytail...
• Oblivious to Love: Shen Yuan is blissfully unaware of the lust he's encouraging within Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe. It's averted when he recovers Shen Jiu's memories.
  • Ning Yingying doesn't realize Ming Fan is blatantly crushing on her, in spite of him blurting that the prey-alluring smell released by the plant they're seeking reminds him of her perfume.
• Prone to Tears: Luo Binghe. However, Shen Qingqiu is startled and annoyed by it, rightfully suspecting the boy from trying to manipulate his Shizun with his hysterics.
• Psychological Torment Zone: The Heart Devouring Blossom's cave, as the plant lures its prey in order to feed on their darkest, most traumatising memories.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • Shen Qingqiu notes how strange it is for a plant to grow up away from others of its kind, and to not disseminate seedlings beyond its ground. Finding a demonic artefact in the Heart Devouring Blossom's cave confirms there is foul play at work.
  • Yue Qingyuan is rather suspicious when hearing Shen Qingqiu has regained his memories yet allows Liu Qingge into his bedroom.
  • Shen Qingqiu understands Shang Qinghua isn't acting as his novel counterpart after regaining his memories and noting the man is a Nervous Wreck since he became a Peak Lord.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted, Mu Qingfang suggests for Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge to visit him once or twice a week for talking.
• Trauma Button:
  • Looking at Shen Qingqiu with any kind of desire, be it sexual or more innocent like fatherly approval. A shame no one warned Luo Binghe when he was accepted on the Qing Jing Peak.
  • Calling him Xiao Jiu is a huge no-no, as it reminds him of being a mistreated slave.
• Unreliable Narrator: Luo Binghe having Yandere tendences refuses to accept the possibility of Shen Qingqiu growing to romantically love another person than him, so he starts to depict Liu Qingge as a sexual predator that won't hesitate to force the Qing Jing Peak Lord.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Male version with Liu Qingge who very much desires to kill Qiu Jianluo for abusing Shen Qingqiu in his youth (and is perfectly okay with the other Peak Lord murdering the asshole) and burns the Heart Devouring Blossom to the bedrock in spite of it being already neutralized.
• Yandere: Luo Binghe's mind shows hints of worrying tendences, as he really wants for Shen Qingqiu to pay attention to him and won't hesitate to use manipulation or break his word to this end. He also persuades himself that it's impossible for his Shizun to romantically love someone else unless forced, and his knee-jerk reaction when Liu Qingge grows closer with Shen Qingqiu is to fantasize about gutting the man.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Liu Qingge is utterly stunned when Shen Qingqiu calls himself disgusting and immediately declares he's not. Mu Qingfang also declares he believes the happier, sweeter persona displayed by the amnesiac Qing Jing Peak Lord was his true self.
• You Are Not Alone: After rescuing his fellow Peak Lord from his dark memories, Liu Qingge tells Shen Qingqiu he doesn't have to suffer on his own. Later reinforced by Mu Qingfang offering to serve as a therapist, letting Shen Qingqiu know he's there for the other man.
• You Didn't Ask: Shang Qinghua's answer when Qi Qingqi gets pissed at him for not explaining what actually happened with the water ghouls Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge destroyed.
• You Remind Me of X: Unfortunately for Luo Binghe, his nickname and way to look at Shen Qingqiu triggered the Peak Lord into remembering his former owner Qiu Jianluo.