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Fridge Brilliance
- There is a pervasive fan theory that Shen Yuan died and was transmigrated into Shen Qingqiu because he most likely had some sort of terminal illness.
- Shen Yuan reacts very nonchalantly to suddenly having his health being compromised due to the Without A Cure poison. He is also completely unsurprised after he collapsed from the said poison and waking up in an infirmary with a doctor looking over him. Most people, even those who have suddenly transmigrated into a fantasy novel, would react a bit more strongly to that.
- It is explicitly mentioned in the BC Novels English translation of the novel that Shen Yuan was "used to laying around, waiting to die" and as a reason for him being able to function properly after having transmigrated into a story villain who he knows died in a horrible way. However, given that this quote is translated from Chinese to English, this particular passage could just mean that Shen Yuan simply liked to laze around a lot. The original passage reads: 他早就知道，就算自己一辈子混吃等死，也不缺他那一口饭吃.The words "等死" simply mean that Shen Yuan tended to laze around and generally just do nothing with his life.
- It is stated that Shen Yuan died from eating expired noodles. However, without some sort of pre-existing terminal illness, food poisoning is extremely hard to just drop dead from. Food poisoning can incapacitate you for several days, yes, but death isn't quite as likely.
- Shen Yuan seems to have even begun reading Proud Immortal Demon Way and other webnovels as a form of escapism. Proud Immortal Demon Way is an absurdly long piece of fiction, and Shen Yuan was able to read it in its entirety and even remember specific details outside of the author's own recall, implying that he had more free time to read than most others would.
- Shen Yuan's internal musings about his original life barely mention anything of a life outside of his family. He also read a lot and indulged in escapism. This may be indicative of Shen Yuan simply being a loner, but in addition to all the other tidbits of his original life, it does make one wonder if Shen Yuan read so much to forget about his own reality.
- Shen Yuan developed feelings for Luo Binghe even before transmigrating into Proud Immortal Demon Way. The entire reason why he dropped dead after reading it was because he felt that Luo Binghe deserved much better than what he got, and he was waiting for Luo Binghe to achieve true happiness. Instead, Shen Yuan was incensed to find that Luo Binghe wasn't facing his internal demons head on, instead simply falling into bed with various women and conquering cities to amass his empire. He may not have been in love with the original Luo Binghe, but he definitely wanted something better for him. Thus, he transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way. It must be noted that Shen Yuan read Proud Immortal Demon Way for the plot and not the porn, which says quite a lot as the original novel was a wish fulfillment stallion novel.
- Shen Yuan is a good example of a gay person raised in an environment not exactly conducive to the proper exploration of sexuality, that environment being modern China.
- In a twist of dramatic irony, it was actually the original Luo Binghe who did the things the original Shen Qingqiu was accused of:
- Being promiscuous: It is revealed in the extras that the original Shen Qingqiu, who frequented brothels, only went there because his severe trauma made it so he could only sleep if there were women around, and wasn't actually having sex with the prostitutes at all.
- Killing people: The original Shen Qingqiu's reasons for killing the Qiu family were far more justified than the original Luo Binghe's indiscriminate killing and plundering.
- Coercing people into sex: One of the crimes held against the original Shen Qingqiu was molesting Ning Yingying, which might have never even happened. Luo Binghe meanwhile, doesn't exactly always ask for consent first, as shown by him attempting to trick Shen Qingqiu into having sex with him in the extras.
- Scheming his way into power: Shen Qingqiu got where he was due to hard work, considering he'd long since passed his windows of opportunity from beginning cultivation at 16, whereas the Proud Immortal Demon Way's version of Luo Binghe's takeover of Huan Hua palace wasn't exactly the most honorable way to go about things. Knowing all this, the original Shen Qingqiu's life is just a complete utter tragedy. Furthermore, it could also be argued that the original Luo Binghe was projecting onto Shen Qingqiu, punishing and torturing him for things that he should have been punishing himself for.
- The original Luo Binghe was already quite fixated on the original Shen Qingqiu, and the Shen Yuan canon Luo Binghe's romantic feelings for Shen Qingqiu did not come out of nowhere:
- Shen Jiu was a symbol to Bingge of all the bullying he experienced, all the misfortune he experienced, the weakness of his youth.
- It is possible that in the faceoff extras, Bingge was also very shaken at seeing this Shen Qingqiu who saw him extremely hurt and chose to heal him, and slept cuddled up to him transfer spiritual energy. He saw that level of affection and pure love, and how unconditional it was. Bingge likely wanted that for himself, from the person he had always wanted care and attention from as a young child, and it wasn't until the Faceoff extras that Bingge realized what he truly wanted.
- Bingge has most definitely come across villains who've done even worse things, considering the original Proud Immortal Demon Way was nearly 10 million words long. But he gave Shen Jiu that disproportionately horrible torture and death because of his fixation on him. He wanted Shen Jiu to suffer not because of his crimes, but because he didn't care for Bingge the way Bingge refused to admit he wanted.
- Take into consideration how Bingge sent Yue Qingyuan Shen Jiu's legs and then presented Shen Jiu with the broken Xuan Su after Yue Qingyuan died. He wanted to destroy the one person in the world Shen Jiu really cared for, and then gave Yue Qingyuan a horrible death too because Bingge wasn't that person in Shen Jiu's heart.
- The original Shen Qingqiu could be considered in the right by the cultivation world for pushing a half-demon child into the Abyss. The irony is that it was this same cultivation world which later turned their backs on him and framed him for crimes he didn't commit.
- For the donghua while some made note of how copy-pasted the characters other than the main leads look, some fans argued that it was in-line with Airplane's writing as everyone else other than Binghe and the harem girls were canon fodder, so of course there wouldn't be as much detail in characters who are in the background to be fodder for Binghe to conquer. Also as the story goes on, the graphics and textures seem to become slightly better, likely signaling how Shen Qingqiu is now seeing this world not as a fantasy and as the people he interacts with as actual people and not characters he once read in a story. Come season 2, his full immersion has begun as everything looks higher quality.
- As noted by this post
, the main plot isn't a traditional love story; which is to say it's not a romance until the extras as the journey is more about Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe learning to approach each other as equal people, addressing their various issues, and coming to truly respect each other. This is why the main story ends with Shen Qingqiu noting this is where their story begins. - While played for comedy, Shang Qinghua staring at Shen Yuan when mentioning they needed a virgin for a charm if they were lost. Shen Yuan asks why Shang Qinghua was looking at him for since he wrote Shen Qingqiu as a frequenter of brothels. Shang Qinghua likely had the original Shen Qingqiu's backstory all written out in his head, but never published it. So therefore, he knew Shen Qingqiu was a virgin.
Fridge Horror
- Imagine being Shen Yuan's family, and coming home to just find your son or sibling just dead on the floor, a cup of expired noodles on the table...
- One can only imagined what sort of things Shen Jiu was exposed to, being a victim of human trafficking. It is also implied that Qiu Haitang's older brother might not have only stuck to physical and emotional abusing Shen Jiu in his time in the Qiu household...
- Imagine just being an average servant in Huan Hua palace, with the knowledge that your boss is keeping the corpse of his rumored flame in his bedroom.
- The old Huan Hua palace master's feelings towards Su Xiyan were obsessive and though it is unlikely that he ever laid a hand on her sexually, one can only really wonder if anything of that sort happened. In that matter, one could also only imagine what would have happened to Luo Binghe if the Huan Hua palace master had actually been successful in manipulating him.
- The original Shen Qingqiu's molestation of Ning Yingying is only alluded to, and no details are ever really given. Thankfully, after Shen Qingqiu was replaced by Shen Yuan this never came to pass, but one could only wonder what sort of trauma the Ning Yingying of the original Proud Immortal Demon Way canon had faced. On the flip side, Shen Jiu molesting Ning Yingying is only ever alluded to and seems to have only been an event only rumored to have happened even in the original novel itself. There is a large possibility that said molestation never even happened, as the original Shen Qingqiu was much softer around women considering his traumatic past. Some of the charges that Shen Qingqiu was tortured to death for may have been false. One of the reasons why it was so easy to accuse him of this too was that the original Shen Qingqiu was known for frequenting brothels. However, it's revealed in the extras that he couldn't sleep without women around, and the only way he could get a decent night's rest and keep this fact a secret was to go to brothels, and he wasn't actually having sex with the prostitutes.
- Shen Jiu in the original novel was turned into a human stick, had an eye and tongue removed, and faced unspeakable torture under the original Luo Binghe. His legs were even sent to Yue Qingyuan, making Yue Qingyuan be led into a trap that ensured his own death. However, from Shen Yuan's investigation into Shen Jiu's memories, most of the charges for which Shen Jiu faced all this torture for as punishment weren't even true. Yes, he killed the Qiu household, but that was due to the horrible abuse he suffered under their hands, which was implied to have been sexual as well. The alleged molestation of Ning Yingying might also have never even happened. The only crime Shen Jiu was really confirmed to have done was being abusive to Luo Binghe (though, him pushing Luo Binghe into the Abyss could be considered a murder attempt). Getting turned into a human stick over these is more than a little disproportionate to the things Shen Jiu actually did.
- None of the cast, excepting Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua, know that Shen Jiu died. Shang Qinghua reincarnated as a baby, but Shen Yuan straight up replaced Shen Jiu as an adult. Knowing that Shen Jiu died really puts a sadder spin on the first chapter of the novel, where Yue Qingyuan is relieved that Shen Qingqiu was alright after his sudden collapse...
