Title: Supplanted
Fandom: Guardian (TV)
Rating: G-rated
Length: 1541 words
Notes: Much thanks to mergatrude for beta. <3
Tags: Episode Related, Canon Dialogue, Outsider POV, Episode 9, Roadtrip, Zhao Yunlan is my blorbo, but sometimes he's a bit of a dick, Xiao Quan don't get no respect
Summary: The responsibility for getting them back on the road rests on Luo Quan’s shoulders—and when he achieves it, the glory will be his, too. Jiajia will clap her hands and promise to buy him a drink when they get back to Dragon City. Professor Shen will give an approving smile.



Luo Quan peers into the car engine as best he can. It’s one of the university’s fleet, and it shouldn’t have just stopped like this. He’s lucky the others aren’t blaming his driving.

Anyway, he needs a step ladder. He’s not tall enough to examine things properly. Not that he’s familiar with car engines, but he’s a scientist, and it must all be logic, right? Spark plugs lighting the fuel, pistons capturing the energy and turning it into force to turn the motor.

Of the three of them, he is the practical one. Professor Shen is a theoretical genius, but he doesn’t use a computer or even have a cellphone; he’d taken one glance at the car’s internal workings and stepped back, trusting Luo Quan to deal with the problem as if it were a jammed photocopier. Jiajia has shown zero interest in the engine at all; as soon as the car broke down, she started cataloguing their water and food supplies, and calculating how long it would take to trek to the nearest village.

The responsibility for getting them back on the road therefore rests on Luo Quan’s shoulders—and when he achieves it, the glory will be his, too. Jiajia will clap her hands and promise to buy him a drink when they get back to Dragon City. Professor Shen will give an approving smile.

Luo Quan lives for that approval. He’s not like Jiajia, making friends easily, and he’s well aware he’s not a brilliant student. His parents have been nagging him to leave university since he completed his undergrad degree. They want him to contribute to the household, get married, grow up. But Luo Quan is keeping at his studies because they’re interesting, because Professor Shen can make anything interesting. Professor Shen is his role model: quiet, unflappable, intellectual, kind, widely respected.

One day, Luo Quan will be like that. He’ll earn enough that he can dress well, too, maybe even buy some elastic arm bands to wear over his shirtsleeves, though he doesn’t really see the point.

In the meantime, he needs to stop daydreaming and fix this car. He’s on tiptoe checking the few connections he can see, one by one, and trying to formulate a strategy, when he hears a vehicle approach. Jiajia exclaims, and Luo Quan looks up.

A bright red Jeep is stopping. The driver says something to the passengers, points emphatically, and climbs out, tall and easy. “What happened? You broke down?”

“Yes, but Xiao Quan—” starts Professor Shen, but the tall stranger is already flagging down a following car, apparently part of his convoy.

“Lin Jing, get your toolbox.”

Luo Quan redoubles his efforts. His window for heroically fixing the car is closing rapidly. He checks a hose and prods the spark plugs. If only he knew what he was doing. Why didn’t he read a book on car engines before they left?

And then it’s too late. The tall stranger’s subordinate is even taller, as if they’re a race of giants. He greets Professor Shen by name and asks what’s wrong.

“If we knew that, we wouldn’t need your help, would we, you scientific monster,” says the first stranger.

No one asks Luo Quan what he’s found. A knot of resentment forms in his stomach. But Professor Shen is taking these people’s interference with good grace, he seems to know them, and after all, the car is broken down. They need to get back on the road. Fine, Luo Quan can be gracious. He yields his place and watches this Lin Jing open his toolbox.

Luo Quan doesn’t have a toolbox, not even a screwdriver or a spanner. The knot tightens. Were these people sent by the Heavens just to make him look bad by comparison? Once Lin Jing has evaded his boss’ insults, he does ask whether Luo Quan has found the problem, but when Luo Quan points out the hose he things is questionable, Lin Jing doesn’t move to check it. He doesn’t explain what he’s doing either. Luo Quan doesn’t ask, but he watches as closely as he can from his modest height. Next time he will definitely know what to do.

Lin Jing pulls off and re-connects several mysterious parts and eventually finds a blockage. He exclaims in triumph, clears it out with a tool from his toolbox, and slams the hood shut.

“I fixed it,” he announces, proudly.

Professor Shen says thank you, and Luo Quan swallows his chagrin and backs towards the driver’s seat, eager to be rid of their rescuers and put this whole episode behind them. There’ll be other ways to demonstrate his talents on the journey. For starters, he’s the designated driver, since Jiajia only just got her license and Professor Shen is Professor Shen.

But before he reaches the driver’s door, the first stranger—Chief Zhao—calls, “Hey, student!”

Luo Quan halts, annoyed. The man hasn’t even asked his name.

“The car was just repaired, and the road conditions will be rough,” says Chief Zhao. “You’re too young. I’m an experienced driver—I’ll drive.”

“What?” Luo Quan’s indignation rises. So Chief Zhao is the kind of person to casually belittle and dismiss a man just because he’s young, short and can’t fix a car. Screw him! This is a scientific fieldtrip, not a social outing. Luo Quan waits for Professor Shen to come to his defence and send the man on his way.

But Chief Zhao continues heartily, “Professor Shen, are you frozen? Get in the car. Lin Jing, drive my car.”

In his own mild way, Professor Shen looks just as bothered as Luo Quan, but courtesy is his undoing. He follows pushy Chief Zhao’s instructions. Luo Quan has no choice but to yield his place again.

He gets in the back with Jiajia and refuses her offered water bottle, even though the day is hot and dusty and his mouth is dry. His pride smarts as if he’s just been scolded in public, in front of his professor. Worse, he feels let down. Up until now, he’d believed that Professor Shen, for all his dislike of electronics and mechanics, was the epitome of a capable, serious-minded adult who could handle any situation.

Now the professor is sitting quietly in the passenger seat while a bully hijacks their fieldtrip into the mountains. And of course, Jiajia is being friendly with Chief Zhao and ignoring Luo Quan. Luo Quan hates this turn of events.

Chief Zhao says something that makes Jiajia giggle and exclaim, “Zhao-dage, you’re so funny.”

“What’s the most important thing in taking a trip? Have fun!” he replies, jovially.

Luo Quan glares at the back of the driver’s seat, willing it to burst into flame. Okay, so he’s sulking, and if he doesn’t snap out of it, he’s going to ruin the whole trip for himself, but wow, he hates this interloper barging in and treating their scientific work like a game. Taking Luo Quan’s place without even a nod at letting him save face.

Luo Quan’s sole consolation is that Professor Shen isn’t joining in the banter. He’s looking ahead through the windscreen, not even smiling along. In fact—in a flash of understanding, Luo Quan recognises it as a passive protest: Professor Shen couldn’t keep Chief Zhao out of their car, but he’s not engaging, not making Chief Zhao welcome.

A rush of fellow feelings soothes Luo Quan’s resentment. He resolves to keep his lips zipped too. Maybe eventually Jiajia will catch on, and they can freeze Chief Zhao out until he gets bored and switches cars again. The road conditions are fine; that was clearly just Chief Zhao’s excuse.

“Oh, right,” says Chief Zhao, as if he’s still making small talk, “what are you studying near the epicentre?”

“It’s still in progress, so we can't tell you,” interposes Professor Shen before Jiajia can say anything. Cutting off the line of enquiry and snubbing Chief Zhao into the bargain.

It’s like a masterful block in Go; there’s no way for Chief Zhao to argue or push or sneak around it, even if he wanted to. He deflates a little, and his voice loses some of that fake heartiness. “Oh, right. You guys are doing important research.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Chief Zhao,” returns Professor Shen, with a polite smile, putting him in his place once and for all.

Chief Zhao laughs and falls silent; he can’t ask anything else without being very rude indeed.

Internally, Luo Quan is crowing with delight: Chief Zhao so had that coming. And it’s reassuring, too: Luo Quan has been misjudging Professor Shen, mistaking his silence for acquiescence, blaming him for not shaking off this burr of a man when they’d had the chance. He’d forgotten that Professor Shen always knows what he’s doing, that he can see at a glance where an equation will lead.

So maybe Chief Zhao’s presence isn’t such a bad thing, after all. It’s a different kind of education, watching Professor Shen rebuff unwelcome questions. Luo Quan might still learn something. And in the meantime, it’s proving rather restful not having to drive.

He sits back and nudges Jiajia for a bottle of water and waits to see how things play out.



END