Back to When My Senior Brother Was Down on His Luck

Everyone in the Nine Provinces envied Yan Jiao, simply because she had a senior brother named Shen Qingchao.

Shen Qingchao was quiet yet powerful. He reached the Deity Transformation Realm in a century, and at a young age mastered the supreme sword path. No one was his match.

He was a once-in-a-thousand-years genius and, beyond question, the foremost figure in the cultivation world.

Everyone in the Nine Provinces knew that Yan Jiao was Shen Qingchao's one and only junior sister.

Shen Qingchao doted on her and protected her. No matter how rare the spirit artifact or treasure, how powerful the ancient divine sword, or even how distant the stars and moon, if Yan Jiao wanted it, Shen Qingchao would find it for her without hesitation.

Yan Jiao, meanwhile, had so many things to think about.

How could she spend all the spirit stones her senior brother had given her?

What delicacies should she eat today?

Should she wear this cloudwood hairpin made from a thousand-year-old spirit tree, or the ornament made from a black phoenix feather that took eight hundred years to obtain?

It was all so difficult, so agonizing!

But when Yan Jiao opened her eyes again, she had returned to a hundred years earlier.

Before her was a drafty thatched hut, a rice jar with only a few grains left, and Shen Qingchao, who had only Qi Refining cultivation and a battered peachwood sword at his waist.

Yan Jiao was shocked. Yan Jiao fell silent. Yan Jiao was on the verge of tears.

My dear senior brother, I can forgive you for having low cultivation and not knowing me a hundred years ago, but how could you... how could you...

How could you be so outrageously poor?!

-

A swordsmanship genius appeared out of nowhere in the Nine Provinces.

Not only did he win first place at the sword tournament with a peachwood sword carved with adorable little bunnies, he also brought a little girl with him to join the head of the four great sects, Tianyao Sect, as disciples of its sect leader.

In less than a century, he reached the Deity Transformation Realm. Throughout the Nine Provinces, the name Shen Qingchao was known to everyone.

Unable to contain his curiosity, a fellow disciple asked, "Senior Brother Shen, how did you become so amazing?"

Shen Qingchao lowered his eyes. Hidden in his sleeve was a red sandalwood and gold hairpin he was taking back for Yan Jiao.

Perhaps it was because he had a junior sister who would wither away without delicacies, with too few spirit stones to spend, without pretty hairpins to wear, or without the most powerful spirit sword to use.

-

In Yan Jiao's eyes, Shen Qingchao was perfect in every way, except that he was too wooden.

In both this life and her previous one, Shen Qingchao refused to reveal how he felt.

So Yan Jiao sealed away all the things Shen Qingchao had given her and returned them to him in one go.

Then she turned around and pretended she was going to elope with someone else.

A slender, pale wrist was seized, and she crashed into the arms of the person behind her.

Shen Qingchao shielded Yan Jiao's forehead with his hand, then slowly lowered it, his palm gently caressing her neck.

Around it was the red agate necklace with Sanskrit inscriptions he'd just given her, the only one of its kind in the Nine Provinces.

Yan Jiao had begged him for it.

When she had received it just the night before, she'd smiled and told him, "I love you more than anyone, Senior Brother."

He glanced at all the things she'd returned to him and suddenly gave a soft laugh.

"You little ingrate. Didn't you just say you loved me most?"

"You want to elope with someone else? Can he really give you everything you want?"

[Reading Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's first. A pampered but not spoiled, easygoing little sister x a poker-faced senior brother determined to give her the very best at all times.

2. My own worldbuilding, with tons of original settings.

3. Not a female-led power fantasy. The male lead is completely love-struck.

Theme: Always love life