#rip to him but poor fang doubing is playing xanatos speed chess against his megalomaniac bio dad

[where-the-water-flows]

also WHERE is the au where, at some point in his decade long fake dead stint, Shan Gudao discovers his useless cripple son is now actually a pretty decent option for an heir, and poor Fang Doubing:

1) gets his ass kidnapped

2) finds out he's adopted in the worst way

3)finds out his biological father is plotting treason and world domination

4) decides to go all in on being undercover because he's Li Xiangyi's disciple! he has to stop this evil! he can definitely bring this down from the inside!! justice for his shifu!!!

cue poor fang doubing who spends like five years learning to manipulate and/or manslaughter his way through more ethical nightmares than he realised existed, and keeps learning worse and worse reasons that basically no one is trustworthy except, and this is the rub, his shifu (murdered) and maybe di feisheng (tricked into murdering his shifu, also in seclusion, also also definitely not aware most of his underlings are plotting against him)

and then, of course, di feisheng comes out of seclusion, and fang doubing figures...well. maybe having an ally - or at least someone vaguely on the same side - might be novel, after so many years on his own against the sprawling horror of his father's plans.

also I do need to be clear here bc this is tumblr etc etc I am disabled myself, I know cripple is a loaded word for some people but like. I, a cripple. do not @ me