lenglengflames

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in honour of the new tgcf books being published (this has been sitting in my drafts for a Very Long Time lmao bc im sure its been at least a year since the new books-) and mxtx confirming hua cheng’s insecurities about his eye, may i present: hua cheng who’s laughter is extremely hearty.

when he truly, genuinely laughs, he’s guffaws, snorts, cackles uncontrollably, and wheezes on occasion.

and he's incredibly weak to horrible dad jokes or dark humour.

on the other hand.

for some godforsaken reason, xie lian is unintentionally incredibly good at both. (hua cheng absolutely despises this, because he’s supposed to be the epitome of intimidating, damn it. he could care less about himself when he’s in the presence of his beloved, but having to stopper his laughter while keeping up his image to xie lian’s unpredictable murmurings whenever they’re in public is a formidable challenge…)

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random headcannon that hua cheng detests rainy weather - light drizzles, mild rains, thunderstorms, all of it. he’s the type of person to appreciate the rain from inside, beside a crackling stove that has a simmering pot of dumpling soup over it. hua cheng has experienced being left out in thunderstorms as a kid and absolutely detests being drenched and cold with nowhere to take shelter.

also because when it rains he looks like a drenched cat and becomes a hundred times less menacing than the persona he’s built for himself.

the only way he enjoys rain the most is when he’s cuddled up to xie lian under layers of silken blankets in puqi shrine (hand-made by none other than himself) and wakes to cool winds whistling in the morning and swirls of cloudy skies.

but xie lian likes the rain.

its refreshing to walk through a thundering monsoon rainstorm, or a fleeting summer drizzle. and the best part of it all: he's not going to get sick, no matter how drenched he becomes.

so they compromise.

xie lian is more than happy to stroll in the rain and enjoy it through the patters of raindrops again hua cheng's umbrella. hua cheng, well. he'd gladly trudge through torrential rainfall if xie lian so much as breathed a word about it.

its during a light summer rain, with the sun high in the sky and a gentle zephyr ruffling the grass and trees around them that hua cheng decides to shut his umbrella.

the patter of rain against his face is uncomfortable at first, and xie lian is quick to suggest taking cover under a tree, hua cheng doesn't take him up on the offer. because as they meander through fields of wildflowers, pass by a merry stream, and navigate through a swarm of butterflies that flutter busily around the flowers, hua cheng realises the rain didn't seem as bone-chillingly cold as he remembered.

he's still not going to walk into a downpour of his own volition though. (and that's perfectly fine, because xie lian would also very much prefer having someone to cuddle with by the fire, wrapped in layers silky blankets and many cups of tea to nurse while enjoying the rains from inside puqi shrine.)

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wip modern au wangxian fic: lyricist! lan wangji and singer! wei wuxian

both of them are attending the same specialised music uni, but do not know each other (yet) due to having different specialisations and it being only the start of the year; lwj plays the guqin (obv), but also is in composing. wwx plays the dizi though he mainly does singing (could be geared towards contemporary music or traditional chinese operas, or both, tho a wwx who has the vocal ability to sing beijing opera would be so good.)

anyway lwj loves writing lyrics. its basically modern poetry and its his way of processing things. he doesn't really sing them, because he's had a teacher in the past sigh in disappointment when he was training for his aural exams, and he's terrified of how his voice sounds. it doesn't help that he absolutely doesn't sound the same when his voice is recorded.

he just posts it online under the user 'jaderabbit', and even tho there's no vocal to accompany the lyrics, just a couple tunes to hint at the melody/ chorus, and people love it. he gets a huge following online.

so one day, when he frequents his usual cafe to get work done, he's a little miffed to find out there's a makeshift stage in the middle. the barista tells him some local band is performing a gig for a charity event, and lwj resigns himself to having to leave early.

he's finishing up his work and getting ready to leave when a young man shows up fashionably late in helping set up the instruments for the performance and deflects all the complaints from his band with a wide smile, evidently the singer from the way he'd walked in without any equipment whatsoever. for some reason definitely not because of that young man, lwj is compelled to stay for a bit. people trickle into the cafe, and a small audience grows.

an easy smile graces the features of that young man, and he cheerfully greets and thanks the audience before casually announcing the lineup for the evening.

lwj wonders why the song titles seem to familiar when the singer announces that all the songs are from the popular songwriter online, jaderabbit. the man sings it beautifully; its everything lwj's imagined his songs to be sung.

he goes home slightly shocked, because he never expected to hear someone singing his songs.

unfortunately or fortunately for him, he realises this man is one of the few who also specialises in traditional chinese instruments the next day when they're gathered for a combined class critique. after the lesson, the he comes up to lwj to compliment his playing, bc he rarely sees anyone play the guqin.

lwj almost combusts on the spot.

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hc that hua cheng also experiences somewhat frequent nightmares. but through sheer force of will, he refuses to show this side of him to xie lian. he'll have one of his butterflies sting him out of his nightmares, so that he won't accidentally wake xie lian with his trembles during a particularly bad nightmare.

until the one night, where xie lian is unable to fall asleep and resigns himself to cuddle with hua cheng for the rest of the night and watch him sleep. as the night passes by, he suddenly feels hua cheng shivering beside him.

he's a little dazed at first, because hua cheng couldn't possibly be shivering from the cold. but then he feels hua cheng's arms tightening around him, holding onto him desperately like a lifeline, and realises what it is. he gently nudges the butterfly away, stopping it from waking hua cheng.

gods can appear in the dreams of their followers, and xie lian doesn't hesitate to materialise in hua cheng's nightmares in hopes of turning them into dreams. his heart breaks when he realises hua cheng's been reliving his time as hong-honger, so he gladly guides little hong-er away from the monsters of his past, chasing them away and turning them into sweeter dreams.

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god i just remembered that butterflies are symbolic of rebirth, and a pair of butterflies flying together symbolises love. (in chinese culture)

but i also just learnt that butterflies are symbolic of the arrival of your soulmate. and that white butterflies symbolises that someone is watching over you from the heavens. and that sometimes, butterflies were once thought to be lost souls.

hua cheng's sliver butterflies. (sliver is basically shiny white.)

he first appears as a lone butterfly before xie lian during the ghostgroom arc.

his 'rebirth' as a powerful calamity. (are ghost fires lost souls?)

him watching over xie lian as hong-er, wuming, etc, over eight centuries.

in the legend of the butterfly lovers (from which im pretty sure the pair of butterflies flying together symbolising love originated from), liang shanbo and zhu yingtai are reunited due to a wedding procession. (sounds romantic, but i promise you its not. zhu yingtai refuses to be wed to some other guy and as she stops by liang shanbo's grave - long story - to pay respects, the grave suddenly opens and she throws herself in. their spirits then turn into butterflies)

hualian are also reunited through a wedding procession.

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hua cheng who makes it a personal goal to make the pull the longest noodles physically possible for the first time they xie lian's birthday together.

but he woefully underestimates just how difficult it is to make them, because surely 800 years of dabbling in sculpting has some skills that translates over, right? no, it absolutely does not, and he only reluctantly accepts the fact that he's not going to go anywhere with this on his own when most of his robes turn white from flour and he realises xie lian's birthday is only a week away.

so he sends his butterflies to spy on distinguished chefs so he can learn how to make them from scratch. he finally manages to churn out his first successful batch, even if it does end up not looking like the fine, silky strands of the chefs he was spying on.

he only manages to make the perfect batch minutes before sunrise on xie lian's birthday.

xie lian wakes up to a hua cheng entirely covered head to toe in flour, the silver butterflies he'd yet to disperse fluttering around him busily and a simple handmade bowl of longevity noodles.

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oh yes!! now i know why yinyu's name was so familiar to me. (for some reason i always read it as yín yù, like 隐 instead of 引, which means to conceal.)

but i also think that perhaps, the implication of the chapter title is mxtx trying to refer yinyu as a piece of jade concealed as a brick and unintentionally cast away in order to bait a better piece of jade. because in context of the saying, you chuck a brick - not jade - at the person/ thing you want to lure, but yinyu is referred to as jade. (but maybe I'm thinking too much into this.)

however, with this in mind, quan yizhen's name makes perfect sense. because "一真" (yì zhēn) translates directly to 'one truth'. "一" is just the number 1, and "真" in context of his name, would translate to "real, truth or genuine". i love this additional layer to the foil between them, because 抛砖引玉 is the 17th out of the 36 stratagems. (the 36 stratagems, 三十六计, is a compilation of strategies that to be used in battle/ politics, etc.) yinyu's name alluding to it gives it an element of deviousness, cunning; it is part of a strategy to fool your opponent into giving you what you want.

however, quan yizhen is the complete opposite of that - there is nothing about him that he conceals, i.e., his lack of awareness to social norms, and he presents himself as is.

for me, one of the most devastating things mxtx did in tgcf was give to yin yu arc, which talks about the feeling of being easily replaced and the feeling of just being a mean to someone else's happy ending, the title: "this jade refuses to be a thrown-away brick", and not only because I know that the character "玉" (yù) in his name means "jade", but also because I discovered the Chinese saying "抛砖引玉" (pāo zhuān yǐn yù) , which translates as "throwing a brick to attract the jade", and means using what is not so precious to get to what really is precious...

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just thinking about hua cheng who claims to be apathetic to everyone but xie lian.

he says that, but he secretly has a soft spot for orphaned children roughing it out on the streets, or children who've escaped abusive households by running away. if he comes across them, he disguises himself as hong-er, sometimes teaching them self-defence, or survival skills.

sometimes he hints at a place called puqi shrine, perhaps accidentally dropping a crude map with directions and mentioning how the daozhang there is very kind and might possibly be able to help.

also! head cannon that hua cheng gets along extremely well with these children. like, they love him, right down to his eyepatch. xie lian is well-loved by them too though it's in a more in a parental/ mentor-like manner. but hua cheng's the fun gege that gets in trouble and shoulders the subsequent consequences together with them.

hua cheng likes interacting with children, even if they do get annoying sometimes because he understands that it's just mostly just harmless curiosity. the children don't view him as hua chengzhu, or crimson rain sought flower, or one of the most powerful calamities.

he's just their hong-gege, xie daozhang's husband, and can play a mean game of hide and seek when he hides. (but he always sucks at seeking because "you jingle when you move, hong-gege! you're so easy to run from!")

hua cheng, who never thought that his source of happiness could come from no one but xie lian, is surprised to find his throat tightening and a tiny flicker of heat building his eyes when he sees the carefree smiles from these children finally blossom - in contrast to the bloody, muddied, faces who learnt too early how evil the world truly was just a couple weeks ago when he tipped them off about puqi shrine.

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hua cheng definitely is someone who spent years to perfect his skin and haircare routines, different routines for morning/ night, drier/ humid weathers, etc, he's had 800 years to figure that out. (let's pretend that even in death or godhood, pimples and acne are inescapable.) he has scented oils, luxurious soaps/ cleansers/ shampoos, you name it, he has it.

on the other hand, xie lian is the kind to splash his face with cold water and call it a day. he washes his hair with water and whatever equivalent of 3 in 1 shampoo in ancient china. he used to have the same rigorous skin/haircare routine as a prince, but years of travelling outdoors doesn't really give you the opportunity to sustain that. (but he's blessed genetically; he learns that on his travels when he doesn't experience the breakouts, the greasy hair, as badly as other, a good shower does the trick nicely.)

so, xie lian is incredibly surprised at the 20 or so step routines that hua cheng developed for his hair and face at different times/ conditions of the day and weather. vice versa, hua cheng is horrified to learn that xie lian does nothing but the bare minimum. (he also gets a little very salty about that.)

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Fic concept:

Hua Cheng learning about the concept of ghost ashes, physically digging up his hong er body ALONE from a mass grave in the old xianle battlefield, burning the remains, and forging that into the necklace (possibly in the fires of mt. tonglu) that he promises himself to give to Xie Lian when he finds him...

Can you imagine what that does to a man ghost emotionally?!

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only hua cheng can eat/ tolerate xie lian's cooking.

but what if this was because he lost his sense of taste when he was alive?

he can only feel textures/ very strong flavours, and xie lian's cooking is the only thing that allows him to taste.

loss of taste can occur from (limited to only to what hua cheng would've potentially experienced while alive): head/ ear injuries, the common cold/ illnesses, poor nutrition and stress/ anxiety/ depression (though this impairs taste, not causes loss, and is rather rare).

though loss of taste may not be permanent, perhaps he'd hadn't gotten rid of it when he died, and this followed him into his ghosthood.

since basic human necessities does not impede him after death, there is no reason for hua cheng to eat. so he probably doesn't eat anything until xie lian offers him something.

thus, xie lian's food would be the first meal in centuries - and possibly since his childhood - that hua cheng could taste due to it's strong and unorthodox taste. he finally gets to experience what salty, spicy, sweet and bitter tastes like again through xie lian's cooking. when xie lian finds out, he promises to cook for hua cheng whenever he wants.

after dubious amounts of salt, chilli peppers, sugar, etc, they realise hua cheng has quite the sweet tooth, and xie lian finds that incredibly endearing. he takes the time to learn how to make deserts (with at least 10 times the amount of sugar than the recipe calls for), and has a new weapon to deal with fengqing's quarrels.

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do you ever think about hua cheng carving the statues

hua cheng's statues are like. the only form of comfort he could have in tong'lu. the only distraction. the only way to physically touch his god. the only way to pray to him. the only way to see him. the only way to not feel alone. the only way to bring his memories to life. the only way to make sure he would never forget his face.

the statues were a hobby, something to pass time, something to get his mind off his daily life of killing and surviving, something to ground himself, to memorize the shape of his god again and again, to catalogue every facets of him, to surround himself with what saved him everytime. the statues were reminders. prayers. offerings. memories.

it's said the first statues were really not well-done. it's said some of the art on the walls was done as if the artist was in a trance and in great suffering. imagine hua cheng carving the stone incessantly in the dark. longing to depict him perfectly. to honor him and to feel him. to see him. imagine him racking up every single memory he had of xie lian and etching it into stone to make it as permanent as his faith. imagine him talking to them. praying. crying. promising that he'll find him, that he'll do his best, that he'll be the best for him.

but the statues are cold and still and never talk back. and in the end he's alone. in the dark. with his memories of the one that taught him love quiet like the deads around him. and he doesn't know what happened to the real, flesh and blood xie lian and he won't know until he gets out of there

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hong'er became a flower by falling into one of xie lian's hands while the other had the sword, and wu ming became a sword by getting blood on his hands so that the flower in xie lian's other hand would remain untainted, thus, the crown prince of xianle who was known with the flower in one hand and the sword in the other would always be remembered with hua cheng in the palm of his hands.

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i'd like to think that hua cheng has many skills that involve the creation of something, i.e., sewing/ weaving, wood carving, pottery, sculpting, etc. i see him as someone who would enjoy tactile creations. artisans/ craftsmen were largely made up of the commonfolk in ancient china, so hua cheng being able to sew (perhaps first out or necessity, in order to patch up his tattered robes), carve wood, etc, wouldn't be too far of a stretch.

he could've also taken the time in those 800 years to pursue any of such interests, and i'd like to think one of those skills would be blacksmithing.

xie lian has the whole of hua cheng's armoury to pick a new spiritual weapon after losing fangxin, but apart from ruoye, hua cheng realises he never really settles on the using same sword. instead, xie lian rotates through the swords in his armoury.

so, hua cheng decides to forge a sword for xie lian. since the sword is made for xie lian, hua cheng requests that xie lian name it.

xie lian takes a little time to think, but would eventually settles on the name: 诚心 (chéng xīn).

time to unpack the name a little:

诚 translates to sincere, and 心 translates to heart. so together, 诚心 would translate to 'a sincere heart'.

hua cheng's name in hanzi is 花城 (huā chéng). not only does the 城 in his name look similar to 诚 (sincere), they have the same pronunciation. verbally, it could be said as 城心, which would translate literally to 'city sword'. but in the context of his name, where 花 is his surname and 城 is his given name, it'd translate to 'hua cheng's heart'.

(hua cheng had also said once that there was no one in the world more sincere than him.)

i cannot express how much i love wordplay in chinese.

xie lian takes to carrying chengxin around with him on his duties, or sometimes just because. so even if hua cheng cannot physically be beside xie lian to protect him, there'll always be chengxin.

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so, let's talk swords in tcgf. (minor spoilers ahead for some of the swords named.)

most of the swords we see in tcgf are jians, i.e. fangxin, hongjing, yulong (yushi huang's sword), ming guang (pei ming's previous sword), etc.

a jian, though it has many variations, it is generally a double-edged straight blade. it is one of the four major weapons (棍 - staff，刀 - sabre，枪 - spear，剑 - sword), and sometimes known as "the gentlemen of weapons", as an incredible amount of skill was required to wield it. common users of the jian were scholars and nobility/ royalty, be it for practical purposes or not - some carried jians simply due to their elegance/ for religious purposes, but jian were often signifiers of high status.

due to the nature of the blade, the jian is primarily made for stabbing or precise cuts.

the most significant sword other than the jian that appears in tcgf is e'ming, which is a sabre.

the sabre, or dao, is a single-edged blade, though the word dao simply means knife. it has a curved edge, and is meant to be wielded with a single hand. it is known as "the general of weapons", due to the fact its usually used for chopping and slashing and had a pretty fierce offensive style.

anyway, i find it interesting that hua cheng chose to forge a sabre rather than a sword.

but being a long-time sword enthusiast, i had to write a fic exploring a little into why hc would choose to wield a sabre.

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thinking about how gods diminish when their devotees dwindle, but as long as hua cheng remains in the world, xie lian will exist.

hualian will live on for decades, centuries, millenniums. as long as hua cheng's ring is protected by xie lian, and as long as xie lian still has hua cheng as his devotee. it's just poetic that they're each responsible for the existence of the other.

the other gods are all susceptible to the trends and evolution of the mortal world, but hualian will exist for eternity.

hualian as the guardians of history, witnessing every rise and fall of the world. xie lian who ultimately becomes one of the oldest and most powerful of gods, but still politely refuses the role of the heavenly emperor. he'd rather tend to his shrine, which at some point along the way turned into a safe place and shelter from the harsh world for orphans or the homeless.

he tells them stories of the gods, sometimes debunking historical events that had been spun by the victors.

xie lian who occasionally teaches in the village school at puqi, which is too far from the big urban cities to feel the spread effects of cumulative causation. he teaches the younger children how to read and write, walks through history with the older, inquisitive minds.

at some point, a former student of his who had moved out to the city and eventually became a professor in a prestigious university reaches out to him, asking if xie lian would like to teach history classes. xie lian of course declines, content to stay where he is, even if the truths he's told his students eventually gets lost as they grow and learn what's taught in the world.

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assuming the timeline of tcgf takes place in the zhou dynasty and beyond, xie lian would’ve been educated in the six arts (bc the six arts was established in the zhou dynasty.)

the six arts include (also addressed in mdzs, iirc): rites, music, archery, calligraphy, chariotry and mathematics.

we already known xie lian excels in calligraphy, and given feng xin's dexterity with his bow, it probably isn't too hard of a stretch to say that xie lian also received training in archery even if he heavily favours the sword. i believe rites refer to taoist rituals, because the six arts stemmed from confucianism. (confucianism ≠ taoism, but both follow the tao (道).) anyway, xie lian is a taoist priest/ cultivation is a concept stemmed from taoism, so he'd naturally be competent in the rites of taoism. we'll assume he's decently skilled in chariotry and mathematics.

so that just leaves music.

here's the thing: the guqin was almost exclusively played scholars, generals, nobility, etc, by men of rank, prestige and privilege.

xie lian is royalty so there's a high chance he could play the guqin, and who else in the mxtx universe is also incredibly adept at playing it? lan wangji.

xie lian x lan wangji guqin duets with hua cheng and wei wuxian as their audience. (or consider, wei wuxian joins in with chenqing and hua cheng has an internal breakdown in an attempt to read the scores they're using.)