#hualian: xie lian sitting hua cheng standing

[irritablepoe]

Keep thinking how I systematically project onto servant-type characters

[mikaela-the-slut-expert]

( Sorry for any writing mistakes, I don't speak English! )

Hello, it's me again! How are you? I was reading some of your Tgcf stories and I had an idea! ✨

I would like to request an Fluff Imagine (?), where (m/n) is married to Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, and has extremely beautiful long white hair!

The three of them were strolling through the ghost kingdom and Hua Cheng sees a beautiful bouquet of roses. He thinks it would look really nice on our hair, since the red would stand out against the white.

(M/n) and Xie Lian were looking at some things in another stall, when Hua Cheng arrives with a beautiful bouquet of roses. When (m/n) asks "what is this?", Hua Cheng just responds: "secret".

When they get home, Hua Cheng asks Xie Lian to help him put the roses in our hair. And it's a really cute moment between the three of them! 💗💗

I hope you have a great day! And I wanted to say that I love your stories! 🗣️💗💗

Roses

HuaLian x M!reader

You, Xie Lian, and Hua Cheng have been married for a while.

It's a loving relationship

But if there was one thing they love most about your physical appearance it had to be your hair

Long, white, pretty locs. That reminded them of the snow.

They think it's gorgeous.

Xie Lian and Hua Cheng spend a lot of time playing, braiding and running their fingers through your hair.

They're like obsessed with it

Well while stroking through ghost city, you and Xie Lian are busy looking at a stall with jewelry in it.

Hua Cheng on the other hand is busy buying some beautiful red roses.

He thinks they'd look gorgeous in your hair.

And it's like putting a piece of him on you.

So when the three of you meet back up and start walking home you're staring at the bouquet in his hands

"What's that for San Lang?"

"You'll see it's a secret baobei"

And you do find out.

When you get home Hua Cheng sits you down on the bed and starts trimming the roses stems and placing them in your hair.

Xie Lian helps too, careful to remove the thorns so it doesn't prick you

Once they're finished your hair has many roses in them, and it does look good.

The dark red popping from your white hair.

Hua Cheng is never wrong and he knew you'd be a vision like this.

[fateandloveentwined]

5 notes on Xie Lian and maybe a note more

omg this took so long i'll proofread in the morning. written in chinese originally, under "read more". annotations on [google docs] with translations to come because there are too many.

(if you do chinese, skip to the cut! it is way better than the translation cri.)

it is fortunate that their ship name is coined Hualian and not Hua-xie. The flower withers, the petals fall. Yet there is a time for blossoms, a time for withers — if huaxie it really is, still it is befitting of their eight hundred years of separations and reencounters.

仙花垂憐，川城傾謝。

Heavenly flowers empathise and shed mercy; entire rivers and cities bow down in gratitude.

身在無間，心在桃源。

Whence the body dwells incessant the heart thrives beyond, content.

o n e .

He was pierced by a hundred swords. Thereafter, he offered to be pierced again. The nightly terrors that prowl wild in his dreams: he was ready to embrace it once more. The heart pierces, and yet it trembles.

t w o.

A thought experiment: if Wuming didn't die for Xie Lian at the rematerialisation of the hundred swords, would Xie Lian have accepted his second ascension?

The world is a wretched sea. Mortals, misery. Some people carry with them the weight of conscience, atlas or abyss on their shoulders as they edge stepwise towards the heavenly skies, for they know that the higher they go, the more power they wield in their hands to change the course of the stars. Lin Shu stands on the shoulders of legacy and demarcates Conscience on the ground. He steps into the encirclement he has carved: he holds himself hostage and falls into the nether realms of the incessant inferno, subject to an unyielding pursuit for bygone honours and nobility in store. It takes courage, to live like this.

But it also takes another kind of courage, to not live like this. Xie Lian wasn’t like Lin Shu. Dethroned, mortalised, buried and stripped of power and grace, he wandered on earth for eight hundred years. He did not save the destitute mortals, desolate and crying for help. He did not bestow on them the bountiful blessings, as what a god could do. The did-not-do’s — it takes in another courage to be him.

t h r e e.

Had Xie Lian really collected scraps these eight hundred years? To deny would be an injury to his memoir, but there is more to that. He served as the high priest of a kingdom, a general to an army; through the grapevine, the crown prince in white had played many roles on the stage of life, a hundred years here in the role of one, and a hundred from forth in the robes of another. In time, the tales of the one who inspired rose and ebbed, yet the legacies remain. He didn’t protect the people with his deified status, yet what endures is his compassion and mercy. In the rain, the figure clad in white walks past the world in joy and tears and touches the hearts he passes — this was his salvation, and his ascension to godhood.

f o u r.

At his second banishment, Xie Lian implores Jun Wu to assuage him of his merit and luck. Mortals light incense in exchange for blessings in supplication. Xie Lian disperses Fortune to earth instead, and disassembles Divinity for the common people to carve out blessings of their own lives.

The works of one cannot salvage the teetering constructs of a foundering world. The world is a tapestry of woven histories; people save the people as the tales unfurl. The stitches tangling in a sea of light, blessed faces lit up in the night by the millions of lanterns adorning the households of the earth, keeping it bright as stars in the sky. And it was so, what Xie Lian and Hua Cheng did.

f i v e.

The sword nears his neck: he is unfazed. The tenderness and gentleness of the noble spirit endures, staid as the meekness of nephrite jade. In the vicissitudes of temperaments, he sits, blasé; he does not concern himself with the triumphs and setbacks of life.

Clouds and storms wash across the world as he continues, with eased smiles and casual dialogue.

It is the most pitiable thing, of all in the world, gazing upon one who smiles placid in face of abject misery. He laughs in his affliction, yet is there such a thing, to be okay in utter wretchedness?

Fleeting moments of forlornness and joy all condensed in the time of a single gaze: his experiences refine him into a jade of the heart. The days of the ingenuous youth awash in ages past, gone were the luckiest teen of the kingdom, but the pureness in the eyes behind the sheaths of pain remain.

— I’m used to it, it matters no more;

who is there in this race with him but the immutable laws of nature in the crescent moon and wind?

The splendour surges, the crowds fete, the splendour falls — in the desert there is none: there is no glass of water waiting at your salvation. Dust and silt fork at each’s turn of fate; flies shovel across the path towards their better destinies. So long as one has feelings, has desires, how could one be truly free? The flower remains. The vista is unchanged. Yet the splendorous tower — the radiant memories of the past — bygones — and still he says that although the body dwells incessant, the heart thrives content. Where, pray, is the fount of the utopian peach blossom? How so, that the heart is at peace, in face of all this?

Yet he is well. His heart at peace. Where the heart lies, the peach blossoms spring.

+ 1

Xie Lian is this person, as such. Though the spring of the peach blossoms have long since dwindled, he hopes, towards.

Original chinese version below the cut

所幸，他们选的CP叫花怜，不是花谢。不过“花落花开自有时”，若真为花谢，也配合他们这八百年的聚散离合罢。

仙花垂怜，川城倾谢。

Heavenly flowers empathise and shed mercy; entire rivers and cities bow down in gratitude.

身在无间，心在桃源。

Whence the body dwells incessant the heart thrives beyond, content.

一、

百剑穿身后复挺出，再一次历万剑戳戮之痛。这一点，我是痛心、亦是悸动的。

二、

有过这样的想法，花城若是没有为谢怜挡下了第二次的万剑戮身，怜怜是不是不会愧疚如斯，会接受第二次的飞升？

“琅琊榜”林殊跟谢怜是不一样的。苍生于苦海，有的人会承载着毕生愧疚跬步而行，因为上了天庭，才有最大的力气赋以一拼，拯救最多的人。此后一生举步维艰，承载着、背负着的不再是一个人小时候的清平理想，更是踩着他人骨脊向上爬行的椎心之痛——往后是画地为牢，是不顾己身也要焚尽一切，济众生于颠簸的无间岁月。这无庸置疑是一种勇气。

可谢怜没有这么做。失去了神力、身分，八百载流连人世，他没有拯救到苍穹下的芸芸众生，没有为他们争取最大的福祉。可这，也须要另一股勇气。

三、

谢怜这八百年真的去收破烂了吗？有，当然有。可他当过国师、当过将军，成就过数之不尽，江湖传闻中不为人知的百年故事。他没有以神明身分保佑万民，可他的慈怜犹存；雨中笠者，垂緌间点拂人间百态——这是他的拯救、他的神明。

四、

第二次飞升之际，谢怜哀求君吾散去自己一身功德、一身气运，自此潦倒人间历尽尘俗。人皆供神求福，谢怜将其福泽尽散，颠沛流离之人得享其华。他致神明于凡人，使世间重拾自由、意志。

孤木难��，一人之劳无能挽苍生、解万苦；大厦将倾，独木焉能匡扶？拯挽苍生，自苍生始，遂藉万民之手拯之。此后万家灯火灿若星河，烟火千里红尘无虞。谢怜、花城做到了。

五、

刀斧加身而神色不改、面无惧色，谦谦君子温润如玉，今古兴衰谈笑风生中雨过天青。宠辱不惊，看庭前花开花落；去留无意，望天上云卷云舒。

云淡风轻。

最疼是口是心非之人，三两莞尔散去心中阴霾，愈是疼痛，愈是笑逐颜开，浑若无事。可刀斧悬颈，万剐千刀，心中岂能无恙？

百般悲喜付诸抬首一眸，千番历练炼就柔和似水：如切如磋、如琢如磨。削磨净尽的是昔日的棱角利刃，透澈瞳帘背后是磔刑凌迟般的刀剜苦楚。“习惯了，不足为外人道矣”——清风拂我，明月清风我。

可笑这世间起朱楼、宴宾客，人情冷暖的荒漠里连救命的一杯水也不肯施舍。浮沉各异势；泣血蝇虫笑苍天：蚁排兵、蜂酿蜜，有感情、有欲望，世间焉得自在者？花相似、景依旧，烟锁秦楼、却道“身在无间，心在桃源”。桃源何在，心何安之？

然心安。心之所向，是桃源。

Tl;dr：谢怜就是这样的人。纵武陵人远，吾往矣。

Full annotations found here. Untranslated for now because there are simply too many; I suggest copying and pasting into the browser if you are interested in the poetry and verses cited. Many of them are not used as per their original meaning, however, so it is 99% on me if you caught the reference but did not understand it.

Anyhow, a note on the two most important allusions, because there is value in such:

[1] 身在无间，心在桃源。Whence the body dwells incessant, the heart thrives beyond, content.

A suggested translation of "Body in abyss, heart in paradise" because I vehemently abhor the official tl.

Incessant hints to the nirvana of buddhism. I didn't play with the idea of using paradise like in John Milton's poem to encapsulate the utopian ideals of Jin dynasty Tao Yuanming's Taoist Peach Blossom Spring visions. In Tao's essay he expresses the notion "I can live in a peaceful provincial paradise where the peach blossoms spring and forget about worldly matters", which is not exactly the biblical Eden. Probably owing to the idea that Xie Lian never actively sought out an extraterrestrial, heavenly, peach-blossom-spring paradise, I did not translate it literally here but figuratively, though opinion probably divides on this one.

[2] 纵武陵人远，烟锁秦楼。

念武陵人远，烟锁秦楼。——《凤凰台上忆吹箫·香冷金猊》 李清照

李氏取自：

烟锁凤楼无限事，茫茫，鸾镜鸳衾两断肠。——《南乡子·细雨湿流光》 冯延巳

Extreme liberties taken. Li Qingzhao wrote the first poem from the perspective of a lover. She sits at her own chambers reminiscing about her lost lover. This in turn was alluding to Feng Yansi's poem. Both works reference a tower/chamber where two mythical lovers spent their time at before ascension. As such, this phrase denotes here something unattainable from past memories and someone locked in perpetuum, in stasis, waiting for something to come.

In relation to this line on the chamber/tower by Li Qingzhao, a direct allusion to Tao Yuanming's peach blossom utopia was also alluded to in Li's poem in the antecedent line, despite both being used to speak of romance and not sociopolitical utopian ideals. The sleep-deprived me thus thought it "apt" to cite both lines in the writing to express Xie Lian's longing for the peach blossom paradise, despite said paradise being no longer extant on Earth, and him being in incessant hell. The peach blossoms in question tie in with mxtx's allusion of the peach blossom spring in tgcf's famous quotation; thus explains the reason for all the convoluted quoting.

this much for now. I hope something makes sense, at least. The english version is very, very figurative since I realised the chinese version was nigh impossible to literally translate without dedicating a relatively great amount of time to it. I don't know how this will be received at all, but why hi, and hope it is something at least xD

[user-needs-new-hyperfixation]

Writing Patterns

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

Thanks for the tag @hergan416!

I'm working in order from the oldest of the ten to the newest (except of course that the multi-chaptered ones sort of throw that off). For the two multi-chaptered ones included, I'm throwing in the first line of the first chapter and the first line of the latest chapter to compare and contrast those too.

10. In the Absence of Tea (Mycal, E)

“What are you doing?”

9. Candle in the Window (Mycal, M)

Albert is entirely alone.

8. Melt Like This (Sherliam, E)

“Do your fangs always come out when you’re hard?”

7. if you're asking, yes you have me (Mycal, E)

It starts with a mission gone awry for MI6; a past squabble with some criminal gang making it impossible for any of the core group to go undercover into the particular pubs and opium dens they are investigating as part of a possible smuggling ring.

6. Candles for the Year (Sherliam and Mycal and brotherly affection, T)

William yelps as his foot turns in some small burrow or divot hidden beneath the snow. Wool-mitted hands reach for him as he tips, grabbing at his waist.

5. Betwixt and Between (Moriathree cuteness, T)

William sits atop Albert’s dressing table, swinging his legs back and forth, socked heels knocking lightly against strong oak. Albert is peering forlornly into the mirror.

4. Roses and Moss (Mycal, M)

Albert’s beauty is best drawn out in the sunlight, in the way it coaxes auburn shimmers from his hair and turns his eyes an almost impossible emerald.

3. Veneration (Hualian, E)

The Soldier is jolted awake by the sharp caw of a crow outside his makeshift shelter. When he crawls out into the chilled morning air, he is struck by a sudden wave of disorientation.

2. Slow and Steady (Hualian, E)

Chapter One (January 24, 2024) --

The nights are getting cooler and cooler, and yet as the maple leaves fall and turn the ground into a sea of endless red, Xie Lian lingers still atop Mount Taicang.

Chapter Four (May 5, 2024) --

The sight of Hua Cheng standing by the bath is enough to make Xie Lian’s breath catch in his throat. Evidently he’s magicked himself clean, but done no more than that.

Love, In All Its Disrepute (Mycal, E)

Chapter One (April 24, 2023):

Lord Holmes is staring.

Chapter 16 (May 26, 2024):

Albert kicks a pebble across familiar paving-stones and hunches his shoulders against the brisk evening breeze and wonders at his own hesitation.

Apparently I used to start way too many things with a single isolated sentence, but have gotten a bit more varied over time. Still looks like I should switch things up at a bit from starting stories and chapters with CHARACTER NAME though lol.

tagging (no pressure of course, only if it's fun!) -- @xieliansbignaturals @loichte @soapy-soartp and anyone else who wants to claim a tag from me haha!

[rooviebae]

Consider the following: Hualian spending a peaceful day in Liyue Harbor, maybe running into a few familiar faces along the way

. ݁₊ BUNNY HUT . ݁₊

YOUR ORDER

❥︎ Xie Lian and Hua Cheng spend a relaxing day in Liyue Harbor + running into familiar faces ❥︎ 1,301 words ❥︎ i'm terribly sorry for the late request ! i was focused on a project (that i struggled to finish-) but i hope you enjoy still !

The time is noon, but the orange and yellow lanterns continue to illuminate brightly under the shadows of buildings and bridges. The place is relatively crowded, with people happily greeting each other as they walk by, making it a more welcoming entry for others who wish to visit.

Xie Lian wasn't used to it, yet it gave him a sense of comfort.

He can't help but dart his eyes from building to building, occasionally gazing inside to see the people and materials that decorate the area. "This place is beautiful." Grinning, he says, turning to face the tall man standing next to him. "Have you been here before?"

"I have." Hua Cheng's arms are securely crossed as he stares down at Xie Lian, noting his sigh. He shouldn't be surprised that he's been here before. Even though they were together, a part of him remained a mystery.

Xie Lian's gaze wanders once more as he thinks to himself. "That means you can walk me around?" He asks with a small head tilt, focused on the man's face, quick to notice his low chuckle as he continues walking. "I wish I could, but my previous stay here was fairly brief. But don't you think we can still experience it together?"

"Heh, I guess so."

The crowned prince couldn't stop looking at the people and the decorations. To him, the ethereal nature of the area reminded him of heaven, or perhaps he was exaggerating. Actually, looking around him, this place felt more like heaven than heaven itself. If any god heard him spew such nonsense, who knows what their reaction would be. Although, to him, their reactions to his talking about most things in general may be the reason why heaven does not feel like heaven, even if what they say doesn't bother him.

Exploring Liyue Harbor they went, scouting the various locations and met some strange people along the way. Xie Lian almost stopped to talk to them, but he was so preoccupied with everything else that he hardly noticed them pass by. Perhaps another time, he thinks.

"Gege." Hua Cheng comes to a stop, staring at his significant other beside him. "We're practically on the other side of Liyue, was there anything you wanted?"

Xie Lian smiles up at him and chuckles lightly, but he waves his hands in front of him. "Were you planning on buying me something?" He lowers his arms. "Just visiting the place is all of a gift I need."

Before Hua Cheng could speak up, he notices Xie Lian shift his eyes behind him, causing the ghost to turn around to see what has caught his attention. He chuckles to himself. "Well what are those two doing here?"

To think that the two would encounter other gods here, especially given those two aren't exactly on favorable terms. The two are sitting at an outdoor table with food in front of one of them, and a young woman stands beside the table, talking to them excitedly. This woman looks to be one of the strange people he had encountered. Maybe this time he will be able to stop by and talk to her.

Hua Cheng crosses his arms. "Your friend looks rather uncomfortable with that girl." And he did. Feng Xin's pale skin and stiff body made it clear to all around him that he doesn't want her to stay because of his discomfort, but she refuses to leave. Mu Qing, on the other hand, appears unconcerned as he eats his noodles in silence.

Finally, Xie Lian approaches the three, catching their full attention. He waves and gives them a little nervous smile. "I wasn't expecting to see you two here." He speaks honestly.

The female speaks first before either of the two gods can. "Ah! Are you also here to eat? I have so many dishes for you two to try!"

Wow, she looks incredibly excited. It reminds Xie Lian like a small child, especially with her lively personality. It was kind of sweet in his opinion. By the way he looks at her, he assumes Hua Cheng has taken a liking of her as well. "Well," he begins, averting his eyes to Xie Lian. "The food here smells pleasant, don't you think?"

Xie Lian's smile grows as he stares up at the taller man. Gods didn't have to consume food if they didn't want to, but seeing one of them slurping noodles while the other looks to be waiting for his food must mean that the food here was truly delicious. He couldn't deny that the smell alone makes him hungry.

He didn't even have to respond for Hua Cheng to know he agreed based on his facial expression. So he pulls two chairs from a nearby table and drags them back to the small group so that the two newcomers can join. Xie Lian takes a seat in a chair and raises an eyebrow at the woman. "Have any recommendations?"

The girls' already-bright eyes brighten even more, as if that were possible. Her smile was large, but it was tinted with tranquility. "I've got a few! What about Honey Char Siu?" Xie Lian adjusts himself in the chair. "The flavor of the marinated and roasted pork is well-balanced, with an added touch of sweetness from the honey. It's been strangely popular lately."

Xie Lian lets out a breath, his smile unwavering. He was the type of man who wasn't too concerned with the quality of most foods. He wouldn't mind eating anything months old because he wasn't a human. However, just the thought of trying a new dish that he could enjoy made him feel a little excited.

He extends his arms outward and rests one palm on top of the other, gazing up at the younger-looking woman. "That sounds incredible. I would be happy to give it a try if that is what you suggest."

"I'll take some too." Hua Cheng's cheek is resting on his hand as he looks up at the female, seeing her big smile. "Coming right up!"

She then runs inside a small building, and after leaving the crowned prince's sight, he tilts his head to stare at the two gods. Feng Xin looks away for a minute, unwilling to stare into his old friend's eyes. He expected a question or two.

"You two are eating together?"

Mu Qing nearly choked on his noodles. He looks at Xie Lian almost as if he is glaring at him. "It's not like that." He says harshly as he swirls one of his chopsticks through the thin noodles in the bowl. "I was already eating here until he showed up."

His voice was full of disdain, but he doesn't bother to continue and returns to eating his meal. Hua Cheng hums as he reclines in his chair. "You seemed to be okay with sitting here with him."

He was clearly teasing the two, seemingly fining enjoyment in their annoyed expressions.  However, because Xie Lian brought up such a topic, the two ended up arguing for quite some time, even disregarding the food when it arrived for the three.

Despite how bothersome or nerve-racking it can be for Xie Lian to watch these two quarrel, he can't help but feel at ease. Maybe their arguments get heated at times, resulting in fist fights, yet no matter how many fights these two have, they, along with Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, always end up together as friends.

It quickly developed a sense of familiarity. The familiarity began to feel like home. When he thought about the ethereal sensation of heaven, a home, he did not think of Heaven itself or Liyue Harbor.

Neither of them were home.

But being surrounded by the people he cherishes are what he truly believes to feel like home.

[xueyuverse]

Now I Want You: A HuaLian fanfic, chapter six

Trigger warnings

This is an +18 fanfic, so it may and/or will contain themes such as suicide, physical and psychological abuse, violence and cruelty, explicit sex, complex or highly impactful sexual situations, and rape. Be careful when reading, do not force yourself and protect yourself.

Contains age gap, Xie Lian is 20 years older than Hua Cheng here.

────୨ৎ────

Xie Lian found Hua Cheng at the lake a few hours after work, his hair still damp from the shower tied into a simple braid, wearing a light and fresh white long-sleeved blouse, skinny jeans, and white sneakers.

Hua Cheng, sitting on a blanket, wearing a tight black tank top, zipped up to the neck, and jeans, laughed when he saw him. “You could easily pass for a teenager,” he said as Xie Lian sat down beside him. “When gege created the fake identity, did he think of using a fake age as well? I doubt people will so easily believe that you are 46 years old.”

“They really don’t believe it,” Xie Lian laughed, “I always have to show them my ID. I didn’t bother to change my birth year.”

“Day and month, yes?”

Xie Lian nodded. “Uh-huh.”

Hua Cheng looked at him melancholy. “Gege really didn’t want to be found, huh.”

Xie Lian shook his head. Seeing that there was a large bag beside Hua Cheng, he pointed at it and asked, “What do you have there?”

“Oh,” the young man placed the bag between him, “some presents.”

From the bag, he pulled three swords: a silver-hilted scimitar with a closed eye; a straight double-edged sword, with roots intricately carved into the red leather hilt and flowers growing from the golden blade, the characters 身在无间, 心在桃源 engraved between the designs — ‘body in the abyss; heart in paradise’; and a bronze longsword with beautiful patterns, decorated with pearl beads and jades, the blade was sharp and cold as ice and reflected a cold light, two characters were engraved on this sword: 赤霄, pronounced Chi Xiao[1]. 斩白蛇起义, ‘Uprising of the Slaying of the White Serpent’.

“Zhan baishe, ti san chi jian li bu shi zhi gong[2],” Xie Lian said in an awed whisper, raising the sword in front of his eyes, unable to believe what he was seeing. “The Snake-Slaying Sword[3] of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty. Is it real? It looks real.”

If it wasn't real, then it was an incredible replica, Xie Lian thought in delight, testing the sword in his hand.

“Yes, it is,” Hua Cheng seemed very proud of himself.

Rightly so, he really should be.

“How did you manage that?” Xie Lian asked in disbelief, standing up to punch the air a few times. “It’s been missing for millennia.”

Hua Cheng shrugged. “I’ve been bored for many years, so I went around looking for things, treasures, places, something to do.”

Xie Lian turned to him, his eyes wide. “Are you telling me you found this sword by accident?”

“No. I wanted to go after it. It took me a few years to find it.”

“Everyone wants to find that sword.”

“Well, bad luck for them, I found it first.”

“And what do you intend to do with it?” Xie Lian tested it a little more. It was too light for him, but it flowed well with softer strokes, like a dance.

“It’s my gift to Ban Yue, I think it suits her.”

Xie Lian turned back to him, delighted. “It’s perfect for her. She’s been training with short swords lately, but this one… there’s no way it won’t fit her like a glove.”

He put the sword back into its sheath, picking up the other red-hilted one this time and testing his moves on it. Xie Lian recognized the phrase engraved on it, of course, and thought of it with longing.

But he didn’t think too much, Xie Lian preferred to think about the here and now, there was nothing for him in the past.

“This one, dare I ask, is it for me?” He cut the air a few times as he asked. It was a light sword, for fast and flexible swordsmen.

Hua Cheng looked at him with a contented smile. “Yes. I specially forged it for gege, I hope I didn’t disappoint you.”

Xie Lian gasped in astonishment, turning to face him and pointing the blade of his sword at the young man. “No way. Did you forge it?”

The young man nodded, his pride clearly rising by the second. “Yes.”

Xie Lian looked at him, fascinated, admiring, incredulous, with wide eyes.  “Every time I discover more about you, the more you surprise me.”

“So, did you like it, gege?”

Xie Lian twisted his body along with the sword, testing its lightness and flexibility and being pleased with the result. “Yes.”

“Really?”

“Very much so. And what’s the other one?”

Hua Cheng stood up and pulled his scimitar from its sheath. “Oh, this one? It's just E-Ming.”

E-Ming’s eye opened, a scarlet red iris swiveled towards Xie Lian, at first with the eyelid drooping and the pupil closed into a slit, indifferent, but as soon as he saw Xie Lian, that eye of his became a half-moon, the pupil opened and grew until it was round like a button and began to spin crazily. The entire scimitar trembled.

Xie Lian smiled and walked over. “Hello.”

Hua Cheng slapped the scimitar’s eye, causing it to shudder and lose heart.

Xie Lian looked at Hua Cheng and blinked. “Why did you hit her?”

“She wants you to pet her. I didn’t let her.”

“Ah? Why not?” He reached out, stroking the scimitar’s hilt, causing that eye to spin wildly again.

Haha, I know I get along well with animals, but I never imagined a scimitar would like me, Xie Lian thought happily.

“Alright, alright, gege.” Hua Cheng was pouting, which made Xie Lian laugh. “Gege, stop spoiling her.”

Xie Lian looked at him with an amused smile. “Why? Do you want to be spoiled in her place?”

“Of course I do.”

Xie Lian lowered his hand, causing E-Ming to shudder unhappily, and he smiled. “How about that duel now, San Lang?”

Hua Cheng smiled. “Gege read my mind.”

He took a stance and Xie Lian soon followed. “Ready?”

Xie Lian's smile widened. “Always.”

It was exhausting. They both fell to the ground when they finished, sweating, panting, and laughing.

Yes, it was exhausting, but it was perfect. Hua Cheng’s strikes were strong and agile, truly powerful, while Xie Lian’s was more flexible and quick. One moment one would defend and the other would attack, when they couldn't use their blades, they would use their fists, legs, elbows or even their heads, and the latter in particular made them laugh many times.

“Gege, you killed me,” Hua Cheng declared after a while, laughing. “It’s really impossible to win against you. My gege is so powerful.”

Xie Lian laughed breathlessly. “Ah, San Lang, you’re wonderful too. I think we’d get along better as a team than as opponents.”

“Gege is right, and I really do prefer to stay in your good graces.”

“Hehe, now San Lang has seen what it’s like to fight the best prodigy of his generation,” Xie Lian said, allowing himself to be arrogant again, like he was all those years ago.

“Oh. That being the case, I feel honored to lose to gege.”

“It was a worthy defeat! You have an impressive and innate ability, a rare talent!”

“Gege flatters me.”

Xie Lian turned to him, found him already looking at him, and slapped his forehead. Hua Cheng blinked.

“Gege, what did this San Lang do this time?” He was pouting, melting Xie Lian’s heart.

“I’m not flattering, it’s just a fact. If San Lang wasn’t good, I wouldn’t say anything to save your face and keep our friendship on good terms.”

“Oh. Then this one thanks you.”

***

Ban Yue was speechless.

“Is this Chi Xiao?” she asked, her mouth agape, staring at the blade that was halfway out of its sheath. “The Snake-Slaying Sword, Chi Xiao?”

“Uh-huh,” Hua Cheng confirmed, smiling.

After a few more moments in the living room, everyone silent, Ban Yue let out a little scream.

“Dàge! Dàge, how did you manage that?!”

“A magician never reveals his tricks,” he signaled silence with a finger resting on his mouth.

Ban Yue put the sword back in its sheath, ran to Hua Cheng and jumped up to hug him around the neck. He, moreover, froze for a quick moment, as if he didn't know what to do, but soon returned the hug. “Mèimei really liked it?”

Ban Yue nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes!! Absolutely!! It was the best gift anyone has ever given me!!” She turned away from Hua Cheng and looked at Xie Lian, who was leaning against the wall in the corner, smiling sweetly at them. “Of course, any gift from you will always be number one in my heart, dad.”

Xie Lian laughed. “No problem. San Lang is truly unmatched here.”

“Gege, nothing like that. Anything from you is the greatest honor anyone could receive.”

Xie Lian laughed embarrassedly, lowering his head for a moment before looking at him again. “You flatter me.”

“Ah, now I’m the flatterer?”

“I know you guys like to isolate yourselves in your own little world,” Ban Yue interrupted, pulling the sword out of its sheath entirely this time, “but I’d really like to test this sword out now. Who’s up for a duel with me?” She made a few slashing motions, causing Xie Lian’s eyes to widen.

“Not in the living room!”

***

Shi Qing Xuan was in trouble.

Sending Xuan Ji to the city where Pei Ming resides was not a good idea. She found him easily, of course, this was expected, and with that Pei Ming was able to find out where she lived and where Shi Qing Xuan was. Shi Qing Xuan's fake identity was really bad, she knew that, but…

“AAARRRGGHHHH WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME!!!!” She shouted after her twenty-fifth drink, unhappy and irritated, and slammed her forehead on the table again.

Xie Lian smiled sympathetically, stroking her messy hair, while Hua Cheng raised his eyebrows at him, as if asking if this was normal.

He wiggled his own eyebrows a little, as if saying ‘yeah, maybe’. Hua Cheng laughed out loud, causing Xie Lian to look worriedly at Shi Qing Xuan, who didn’t seem to have heard anything.

They were at a small kiosk on the lakeshore at the moment, Shi Qing Xuan had invited Xie Lian during his work hours, and Xie Lian had invited Hua Cheng. She didn't mind the unexpected guest, in fact she seemed quite excited to meet the man Xie Lian had been crying for this past month, but she had to hold back certain very personal information when it came to venting her latest problems.

That was until she started drinking.

Xie Lian wasn't too worried, Hua Cheng didn't seem all that interested in the chaos going on in her life and barely seemed to be paying attention to what she was saying, so he believed that it would be okay for this young man to know some of Shi Qing Xuan's secrets.

Other people around looked at their table strangely, and Xie Lian smiled to divert their attention, who shook their heads or shrugged and went back to whatever they were doing.

“Lao-Xie…” Shi Qing Xuan muttered into the table, “What should I do?”

Xie Lian sighed. “You don’t have anywhere else to go, do you?”

“…No.”

“Then I’ll help you deal with the consequences. I’m part of this mess, I owe you.” 

Shi Qing Xuan threw herself into his arms to hug him, which caught Xie Lian off guard and they almost fell to the ground.

“Lao-Xie! You’re the best, Lao-Xie! Thank you so much!” She laid sloppily on his shoulders, her eyes closed as if she was about to fall asleep. Xie Lian, smiling awkwardly, patted her head affectionately.

“If this Pei Ming is who I think he is,” Hua Cheng began, looking at the table and fiddling with his drink glass, “he’s a harmless, womanizing jerk who’s wealthy enough to afford a city. Why doesn’t Shi Qing Xuan accept his help? He and her brother were friends after all.”

Xie Lian shrugged. “I have no idea. I just know that she doesn’t like him at all.”

“I'm always surprised when someone shows up as his friend or wants to be his lover. She has good taste.”

“How do you know him?”

Hua Cheng laughed and looked at him, putting down the drink and folding his hands behind his head.

“He was Shi Wudu’s friend. Pei Ming is a professional boxer, a high-performance athlete, his fortune comes from both that and his birth. Again, harmless, unlike Shi Wudu.”

Shi Wudu. This name was familiar.

Shi Qing Xuan’s older brother, the Water Tyrant, was the owner of a shipbuilding company. Previously, his family were middle-class businessmen and merchants, they lived well but had no fortune, until Shi Wudu built his own business and became rich quickly.

It was at some point after this that the road took on a dark shape, even Shi Qing Xuan did not quite understand what had happened. What she knew was that from within her brother’s corporation, a tyrant as powerful as him had been born, unhurriedly destroying their empire from the inside out.

Whether it was out of revenge, envy, or greed, Shi Qing Xuan didn’t know, but somehow, she still had to hand over the remaining lands of the Shi family to repay a debt that she didn’t even know how it came about. The remnants of her family had also disappeared, only the gods knew where they were now, if there were any left at all.

Hei Shui was not a simple man, just like Shi Wudu was not a simple man either.

At some point, right after hearing this story from Shi Qing Xuan’s mouth, Xie Lian really found himself wondering if this was all caused by some grudge from a former lover. Thinking about it again, although one side of him wondered how he had thought of the possibility of Hei Shui being Shi Wudu's ex-lover seeking revenge, the other side could still see the meaning in this question.

Not that he would verbalize it.

Xie Lian knew a lot about Shi Qing Xuan's past and he knew it wasn't an easy past, but now someone from her past, who she already didn't like, was coming after her, and there was nowhere to run or hide. It was understandable why Shi Qing Xuan was so distressed.

“But wait, if Pei Ming is this harmless, then how could Xuan Ji betray his family for him?”

“Pei Ming comes from a bourgeois family. The Pei family was interested in a land that belonged to the Xuan clan because of its fertility and mineral wealth, and they pressured the clan to the point of entering into a cold war. When Pei Ming got involved with Xuan Ji, the Peis saw it as an opportunity to get what they wanted, and Xuan Ji actually helped them just to impress Pei Ming.”

Xie Lian raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Pei Ming is harmless?”

Hua Cheng shrugged. “He’s an incorrigible womanizer, and his family used that to their advantage. He dumped Xuan Ji right after his betrayal. Such a sucker.”

How could this be harmless??

Though for a man like Hua Cheng, his views on what was and wasn’t harmless must not have been really conventional.

────୨ৎ────

Footnotes:

[1] (赤霄剑), Emperor Liu Bang's sword, one of the ten famous swords of Ancient China, used by him to kill the white snake in Daze and begin his imperial life.

[2] (斩白蛇、提三尺剑立不世之功), “Behead the white snake and raise the one-meter sword to achieve incomparable achievements” is a phrase referring to this sword.

[3] (斩蛇剑), zǔ zhǎn shé jiàn.

The author has something to say:

You don't know how much I freaked out when I found this sword, I felt like a fanboy like Xie Lian. I read about it and thought, "It's for Ban Yue." In general, I don't know much about swords, so the descriptions may not be very accurate.

I intend to develop each one's stories in due time, always basing myself on the original work because I have fun using the canon to my advantage. And the non-canon too kakaak.

Chapter five — Chapter seven (coming soon)

Like what I write? Support me on ko-fi!

[loopielupie]

Whumptober Day 24 - Neglect

Hualian Modern AU: artist HC.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"San Lang?" Xie Lian calls quietly as he toes off his shoes and hangs his jacket. No response. That's odd, normally San Lang's just...there: either scooping him into a hug in the entry way or poking his head out of the kitchen. He tries again, a little louder but still he's met with nothing.

He knows Hua Cheng's here, they have plans to cook together after conflicting scheduled have kept them apart for two whole weeks. He pads to Hua Cheng's kitchen to put away the ingredients he's picked up but is immediately struck by how unkempt it is. There are dirty dishes in the sink, empty takeaway containers on the counters, and, when he opens the fridge it's almost empty save for a questionable looking tupperware.

Xie Lian's brow furrows and a little thread of worry starts to spool in his chest. San Lang's kitchen is always clean, Xie Lian has never known him to neglect chores like this. Unless....

It still makes him hesitate to wander around someone else's apartment without permission, but San Langs reminders echo in his head:

"This place is yours too, gege."

It's sort of true, with how much time Xie Lian spend here. Either way, it emboldens him enough to tiptoe down the hall to the studio. He's only been in it a scant few times but he has a feeling this is where he'll find him.

He pushes open the door and sighs fondly when he catches sight of San Lang's back. He's hunched over a canvas, clearly so absorbed in his work he hasn't noticed Xie Lian's presence. Xie Lian is tempted to watch him for a little while, but he's quick to realise that San Lang isn't moving, just sitting there, his brush dripping onto the tarp. it's then that Xie Lian notices how cold the room is.

"San Lang," he murmurs, stepping towards him. Hua Cheng snaps to attention immediately, turning on his stool. But his usual grace is absent and Xie Lian hurries to catch him before he falls. A pained whine is muffled in his shirt and he takes note of the heat radiating of him.

"San Lang, you're sick," he chides softly, tucking him closer and coaxing him to look up. And, oh, he looks awful: flushed cheeks, bleary eyes, beads of sweat lining his forehead.

"Gege..." it comes out on a sigh and Hua Cheng melts against him, eye fluttering shut when Xie Lian tucks a stray piece of hair from his braid back behind his ear. It looks like it hasn't been washed in days.

"Mmm, I'm here," Xie Lian replies, chewing his lip. He wonders, briefly if Hua Cheng can stand before discarding that idea entirely and just repositioning. He does give Hua Cheng a warning before he eases him into his arms but he doesn't expect him to try and wriggle free. he plants his feet to stop them both ending up on the floor.

"Wh- San Lang, what's wrong?"

"I...I need. I need to finish. Please gege, it's not- Please-" San Lang babbles, something desperate edging his tone that strikes deep in Xie Lian's chest. He swallows past the lump in his throat and cups Hua Cheng's too warm cheek.

"You can finish it later, San Lang." He presses a finger against cracked lips when it looks like San Lang might argue. "Please, let me look after you. When you feel better you can come back to it."

Hua Cheng's noise of acquiescence or maybe more protest is lost to a ragged cough and then a full on fit as he buried his face in Xie Lian's shoulder. Xie Lian braces him through it and takes the weight when he sags in the aftermath.

"Gege is right." He sounds exhausted, his voice hoarse. Xie Lian steadies him in his arms and presses a soft kiss to his sweaty temple.

He carries him through to the kitchen and sets him on the counter, keeping one hand around his waist just in case.

"'m' fine, gege," Hua Cheng tries to insist, but he presses closer to keep his head cradled against Xie Lian's collar. Xie Lian lets him with a gentle laugh, reaching for the last clean glass and the end of a packet of paracetamol. The kitchen is small so he has no issue working with his human sized limpet.

Hua Cheng winces when he drinks but Xie Lian just encourages him until he's taken the pills and finished the water before rewarding him with a kiss on the forehead. In the light of the kitchen, Hua Cheng looks even worse: the pink of his cheeks is starker, the bags under his eyes are more prominent. There's redness around the string of his eyepatch that Xie Lian knows has to hurt. Xie Lian's own chest aches that he wasn't there sooner, that Hua Cheng had neglected himself for so long.

He clicks his tongue but says no more on it for now. There'll be a time and a place for talking about this. For now, Xie Lian just scoops Hua Cheng back into his arms and carries him to the bedroom for some much needed rest.

[phagechildon]

Hualian mermaid AU where Hua Cheng gets caught as a young merman by a large boat. It so happens it’s the royal’s ship, and Xie Lian, seeing them mistreating the terrified mermaid, about to kill him (who’s been injured by something else in the water) makes him jump into action and uses his own sword to stop his father’s. Hua Cheng is shocked that someone, let alone a human saved him, and is standing up for him. He’s learned the human language out of sheer boredom (most of it at least, and mainly as a child by a very young human child who saved him -cough Xie Lian-) and realizes this human is literally arguing with the King. Xie Lian’s father, who’s outraged by the insubordination. In the end, the King agrees to let the mermaid go, but Xie Lian must suffer severe punishment in his place. Xie Lian more than readily agrees.  Xie Lian undoes the rope that’s around Hua Cheng and smiles with the warmth of a thousand suns, completely captivating him. He apologizes on behalf of the humans, and gives him some bandages, telling him to go before they change their mind. After a moment of staring, Hua Cheng does what he says, watching the men who caught him start tying Xie Lian up instead. 

Xie Lian has a history of being a rebellious Prince, after all. His father makes him sit in the haul (or wherever they put prisoners) until the voyage is over. Unfortunately, Qi Rong had planned a coop, and murdered the King and Queen. Xie Lian hears the ruckus and tries to get out, but feels excessively weak when he stands. Qi Rong poisoned his food and water, and enters just as he’s about to fall unconscious mocking his “beloved” cousin.  But Xie Lian survives, having an immunity to many poisons, but he’s very weak. Being alive shocks Qi Rong, but decides to publicly humiliates him infront of his whole kingdom, then lets him hang over a large cliff that sits above the roaring ocean, which is a punishment the most cruel criminals face. He wants him to rot and die there (after having him severely beat and the people throw things at him)

Qi Rong, of course, lies and tells his people the Xie Lian slaughtered the King and Queen to become the next ruler. While most don’t believe this, Qi Rong is backed by corrupted officials. Everyone who dared speak out against the crown prince had been slaughtered before the voyage, which doesn’t help Xie Lian’s case. Then a horrible pandemic breaks out, patient zero being someone on board the ship, and Qi Rong says the gods decided to punish everyone thanks to Xie Lian sparing the mermaid’s life

While all this goes on, Hua Cheng hears the gossip and races to find him, blaming himself (realizing that the kid he met so long ago was Xie Lian. Maybe Xie Lian gave him one of his ruby red earrings, and only now remembered seeing his savoir wearing the other). By the time he finally finds the island, he sees it engulfed in flames. And high above, bloodied and unmoving, is Xie Lian, still strung over the ocean, far too high for him to reach. 

Maybe he finds a way to be able to transform between a mermaid and human? I’m usually not one for mermaid au’s but this got me lasudfsf he doesn’t even have to be a mermaid too, maybe a type of fae, and they caught him in the forest. Regardless, the image of teen Hua Cheng staring up at a hanging Xie Lian, seeing his bloodied hardly moving form that was left to rot is nice~ All should fear his wrath aushdf

Maybe Xie Lian falls into the water, and with his horrible luck, survives. Hua Cheng who went to find a way literally misses him being carried away, and while he assumes he’s dead, he never found a body on land or in the water. Years later, he finds him and such XD 

[abigail-nicole]

tgcf livetweet

“when the people said you were a god, you were a god. If the people said you were shit, then you were shit.” This is delightful

I read TGCF in spring of 2020, sitting on my porch roof amongst blooming dogwood trees, and it was the most pleasant experience reading a book I may have ever had. I livetweeted and since twitter seems to be barrelling towards self destruction I am archiving the live-tweet here. 

this book is hilarious and I am 2 seconds in 

“Body in the abyss, heart in paradise” is a cool phrase in translation but I bet the chengyu is better 

what say a good crown price you have there—would be a shame if SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN TO HIM

Crown Prince Is A Total Himbo 

“when the people said you were a god, you were a god. If the people said you were shit, then you were shit.” This is delightful

“Blood Rain Reaching Towards A Flower” is a metal af name

I fell asleep during my reading time last night but: team XIE LIAN IS A HIMBO & I’m waiting to be proven wrong about this

this book is funny & xie lian is peak Dumb Baby

xie lian + wei wuxian = forgetting everyone’s names

Xie Lian gets sassy 

I love Ruoye. almost as much as the butterfly baby

I too want to be with the woman holding a knife to my throat

PUTTING UP AN UMBRELLA TO PROTECT XIE LIAN FROM THE RAIN OF BLOOD IN THE CORPSE FOREST IS SO ROMANTIC

Wait this is way too early in this very long book for me to have feels about Xuan Ji & Pei Ling

 magine if your favorite scarf was also a pet and friend & that’s Ruoye, my new favorite magical accessory

I’m pretty immune to body horror & the Human Face Plague is Not Cool Not Cool Not Cool

Oh Xie Lian was about due for a Himbo moment huh

ten thousand withered bones

OUR LOVE INTEREST IS FIRST NAMED! WE LOVE HIM ALREADY

Among the Four Calamities and Four Famous Tales...there are NATURAL pairings here

But we love every one of His facets, our Demon Lord, Hua Cheng

OF COURSE Hua Cheng lives in a volcano city. I have met him once for three pages & I already know he Respects Aesthetics

Xie Lian sighs, contended, proud of his Demon Crush

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT XIE LIAN WOULD HAVE DONE IF HE COULD NO WONDER HIS CRUSH IS SO STRONG

Xie Lian, after hearing eight pages of description of how everyone is scared of Hua Cheng: mmmm sexy

Ok i got really into this part and fffff i have to be at work in 6 hours. Ch 13 later with more Himbo Xie Lian & Lonely Yet Too Smart For The Room Hua Cheng

Xie Lian....the Himbo who got kicked out in 15 minutes for calling out eerybody.....Hua Cheng who is so fed up he was like “fuck it im out ANd im better than all of u”........energy

Xie Lian replying to all in the email chain & everyone like SHUT UP BOOMER

Xie Lian just wants to be debt free. Millennials would worship at his shrine

Xie Lian eating trash. Man mxtx really loves to drag this guy

I love their dappled sunlit ride in a haywagon together #romance wait what’s their hashtag what’s the wangxian of #TGCF (it’s #hualian) 

oh no Hua Cheng is Soft crying emojis 

I would apologize but I’m loving my Exquisitely Slow Stop-Every-Page Livetweet read of #TGCF lets appreciate these soft gays

LOVE! SOFT GAYS! 

God their dynamic is so sweet and Soft

Scaring away the ghosts for your crush and then telling him “no you did it” #justHuaChengthings

Xie Lian renowned himbo tries to flirt & be smooth

AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED

san lang i love u  

Omg these gay babies

gay BABIES who go STARGAZING TOGETHER

(3/26/20) reading tgcf at work is the most enjoyable day I’ve had at work all week and NO ONE GOT STABBED TWENTY TIMES, UNLIKE YESTERDAY

Xie Lian giving up his hat......so soft..... Hualian standing shoulder to shoulder staring at the stars.......soft

Omg Hua Cheng breaking the sword in the sheath....the inexpert power dynamics of Nan Feng & Fuyao trying to trick him & failing....Xie Lian couldnt dissemble if his life depended on it....it’s Good Fucking Food

“WHO THE FUCK DECIDED THAT MY BOYFRIEND SHOULD GET SNAKE BIT IM REAL OVER Y’ALL” -Hua Cheng, probably

Xie “I’d rather die than risk the possibility of my boyfriend getting snake bite” Lian

they’re moving real fast huh

This person buried in the mud who became a demon is also v creepy there’s a lot of creepy stuff in this book!!!

from one demon to another, bro—

XL: I’ve known San Lang for two days and if anything happened to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself

Even the Pet-Weapon-Fashion Accessory Ruoye ships them

OH MY GOD HE KILLED EVERY DEMON IN THE PIT I

THATS GODDAMN ROMANCE

Murder pit?? But i wanna see my boyfriends new body

Murder pit? 4/10. My hot “friend” 8/10

Okay i did NOT see this twist coming

Lolololol #hualian

Substantial Boyfriend Himbo move by Xie Lian here

incoherent screaming FLOWER UNDER THE UMBRELLA IN THE BLOOD RAIN

Nan Feng: STOP HAVING A ROMANCE ITS MAKING ME FEEL ICKY

incohereNT SCREAMING HUALIAN

Archive note: for interest, this is where season one of the Heaven Official Blessing donghua stopped! 

continued in part 2. 

[mollymauk-teafleak]

Hi! First off welcome to the mxtx fandom! Second, i absolutely adore that hualian lady and the tramp au fic! Cutest name for an au, and id love to hear some more about this au if you have some additional thoughts!

Thank you so much, thats so lovely of you to say!! I'd Love to talk about this AU honestly and as always huge amount of credit goes to @minky-for-short as basically every single Hualian AU I have is also hers :')

So the way I envision this modern AU working is that rather than being royalty, Xie Lian's family is very rich and his father is the head of a mega corporation that their family have been building up for a long time, called the Xianle Corporation. So Xie Lian is high society and has a lot of the same pressures and weighty expectations on him that he experiences in canon

Xie Lian came out as trans when he was about eighteen (mostly because he thought if the worst came to the absolute worst he'd have his trust fund and his mother wouldn't let his father freeze it). And his father certainly wasn't happy about it but Xie Lian is very close to his mother and she did a lot of the smoothing over, frightened of losing her son. It helped that Xie Lian was a straight A student, getting into the best universities and making sure he was the perfect child, as far as his parent's definition went. His father allowed him to present as he wanted and start HRT and get top surgery and change his name. But now Xie Lian is terrified of letting him down because he can just feel that sense of disappointment and resentment looming over him and he's really starting to chafe against his father

He meets San Lang after meeting him in an alley, seeing him getting attacked by some older kids. Xie Lian didn't hesitate to run in and help him, despite the fact that they'd still be outnumbered. San Lang is hugely grateful for him helping though he's evasive about Why exactly they were attacking him. He offers to buy Xie Lian a drink in thanks, then a coffee when Xie Lian admits he doesn't drink. They spend the whole time chatting and getting to know each other, so long that Xie Lian has to run off home when he realises he's late. Though he leaves San Lang with his number

Feng Xin and Mu Quing are instantly cautious when they hear about this new friend Xie Lian has found and after some digging they tell him why, the young man is Hua Cheng, an up and comer in the seedier business that goes on in the city. He's currently climbing the ladder at the famous Ghost City Casino which is known for its owners being all but criminal gang leaders. They warn Xie Lian to stay away but he's not so sure San Lang is all that dangerous? But it does teach him not to tell his parents about his new friend

Their friendship shifts to something more when San Lang steals Xie Lian away from his parents New Years party which is just a networking event. He takes him to the Ghost City casino for the first time, up to the roof where San Lang likes to come and sit on his breaks and as the fireworks go off from his parent's manor up on the hill, Xie Lian kisses him.

I think it all falls apart when his parents find out about Hua Cheng and his father is up waiting to confront him along with police officers as they're sneaking back in. Xie Lian doesn't hesitate, he just kisses Hua Cheng and tells him to run, jumping out of the car and letting Hua Cheng drive away.

I'm also considering it might be further complicated by Xie Lian realising one of the Hualian kids I have in my AUs is on the way...

But things all come to good when Xie Lian stands up to his father and tells him that he's done living a life he isn't happy with, he doesn't want to follow him, he wants to be happy and be with Hua Cheng. His mother stands on his side and they end up living happily ever after in a tiny little apartment, Xie Lian teaching martial arts to kids and Hua Cheng still...well still being kind of a criminal but he's hiding it pretty well

[elencelebrindal]

Sorry if they're too many, you don't have to answer everything! What is your fave novel of the three? Favorite/least favorite character for each one? Favorite male/female character for each one (aside from you all-time fave)? Favorite canon ship? Favorite non-canon ship? Least favorite of them (and why)? Favorite tool/weapon in the three? They're so many, sorrysorrysorry!

Don’t worry, I love answering questions! There might be some spoilers here, so... be wary of them. 

Ok, let’s go in order:

1.

My favorite novel of the three is Tian Guan Ci Fu. When I read Mo Dao Zu Shi I told myself “okay, I don’t think anything could beat this”, and then TGCF came around. I think this novel is, in general, one of my favorite books of all time. Aside from the romance part of it (which is often what people mainly focus on when it comes to MXTX), I really loved the characters and the story is absolutely incredible. I ended up getting so involved in it that I read the entire thing + the extras in three days, subsequently read what was out of the manhua in... maybe two hours? and watched the entire donghua as soon as it came on Netflix in one sitting. The only time this happened to me before TGCF was with the Silmarillion. 

This tells a lot. 

2.

Favorite SVSSS character: Luo BingHe shares his first place with Shen QingQiu.

Least favorite SVSSS character: Immortal Master Lao Gongzhu of Huan Hua Palace. I cannot even begin to explain how disgusted I was by that character, I almost never hated anyone more than him. 

Favorite MDZS character: Wei WuXian. He’s been my favorite character from the beginning. His story follows exactly one of my favorite character dynamic, much like many other favorites of mine (from good to evil to neutral/somewhat good again, even if in this case WWX didn’t actually turn evil). I’m pretty sure the same can be said of almost everyone in my favorite list... oh well.

Least favorite MDZS character: it’s a tough choice between Su She, Wen Chao, and Jin ZiXun. I just... I disliked them so much. It’s not even hate, I just didn���t want to see them on screen. Maybe Wen Chao is the worst of them... yeah, he’s the worst. I could count Jiang Cheng in my least favorites as well, but my reasons for not liking him are way too complicated so I won’t insult him so much. 

Favorite TGCF character: Hua Cheng!!!!!!!

Least favorite TGCF character: I don’t have a least favorite character. 

3. 

Favorite SVSSS male character aside from LBH and SQQ: MoBei-Jun and LiuQingGe. I’m not troubling myself with trying to choose between them.

Favorite SVSSS female character: I used to be torn between Sha HuaLing and Liu MingYan, but SHL follows my general preferences way more so she wins. 

Favorite MDZS male character aside from WWX: Wen Ning. He deserves all the love in the world. All of it. Also I really love Nie MingJue and Xiao XingChen. 

Favorite MDZS female character: Jiang Yanli (because I fell in love with her gentle personality while watching The Untamed and I can’t bear myself to stop loving her). Wen Qing is right up there with her.

Favorite TGCF male character aside from HC: well, first of all Xie Lian. Second of all, Bai WuXiang and He Xuan.

Favorite TGCF female character: Ling Wen, but only because I don’t count Shi QingXuan as a fully fledged female (I am too in love with both forms to choose one side, sorry guys). 

4. (they’re all going to be the main ones, lol)

Favorite canon SVSSS ship: Shen QingQiu x Luo BingHe, though... MoBei-Jun x Shang QingHua is a really close second. 

Least favorite canon SVSSS ship: I don’t think I have one? I mean, there’s not much material to examine when it comes to canon pairings.

Favorite canon MDZS ship: Wei WuXian x Lan Wangji.

Least favorite canon MDZS ship: it’s not really a ship (I think, maybe it’s just me?) but whatever they tried to do with Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing in the drama doesn’t sit right with me. For reasons that are a bit more complicated than it seems, and that would need me explaining my opinion about JC first. 

Favorite canon TGCF ship: Hualian! Hualian! Hualian! Hua Cheng x Xie Lian is one of my all time favorite ships, in general. I stand by the statement “Hualian invented love”. 

Least favorite canon TGCF ship: that weird bullshit the mortal realm like to do with Shi QingXuan and Shi Wudu. Poor guys. It’s canon only because their perverted followers say so. 

5.

Favorite non-canon SVSSS ship: I don’t think I have one...? Maybe ZhuZhi-Lang and TianLang-Jun, but I’m still way too confused about that. I know people ship a lot Liu QingGe and Shen QingQiu, but I never saw the appeal of it.

Least favorite non-canon SVSSS ship: again, don’t have one, mostly because I never delved too deeply in the world of non-canon SVSSS ships. 

Favorite non-canon MDZS ship: Xiao XingChen x Song Lan. It’s probably the pairing that makes the most sense (to me) out of everyone else. And it’s heartbreaking, so bonus points for that. 

Least favorite non-canon MDZS ship: Xiao XingChen x Xue Yang. [heavy spoiler alert] I absolutely HATE this pairing. I love Xue Yang, he’s an amazing villain, but this pairing is straight up abuse, no matter how you look at it. I am a sucker for angsty shit, but I really draw the line at the fucked up pairing that is this one. Xue Yang literally destroyed Xiao XingChen psychologically, lied to him for years, gaslighted him, forced him to kill innocent people, forced him to kill Song Lan, and then ended up ruining him so much that Xiao XingChen killed himself and destroyed his own soul. 

I have no idea why people love this pairing so much, but I genuinely hate it. There’s nothing redeeming about it. 

Another ship I don’t like is Jiang Cheng x Lan XiChen, but once again this has more convoluted reasons that revolve around JC, mainly. There’s also Lan XiChen x Jin GuangYao. Please, no. I really don’t like it. 

Favorite non-canon TGCF ship: Pei Ming x Shi Wudu and He Xuan x Shi QingXuan. We all know why beefleaf is important in our hearts, so let me explain something about Pei Ming and Shi Wudu; this pairing doesn’t mean I completely disregard everything else about Pei Ming. He’s our good old manwhore womanizer and I haven’t changed that (too much). But this pairing... in my headcanon, which is something I’m also going to write in my desperate attempt and being a good fanfic writer, Pei Ming fell in love with him so hard that he was like “okay, fine, there’s just you now, I’m done with sleeping around”. After Shi Wudu dies, Pei Ming keeps his word and doesn’t cheat on him for the reminder of his life. My own headcanon is the reason why this is my favorite non-canon ship. I stumbled into it my complete chance, but I genuinely love it. 

Least favorite non-canon TGCF ship: anything that has Xie Lian and Hua Cheng not with each other. I don’t like seeing them paired with anyone else. 

6.

Favorite SVSSS weapon/tool: Xin Mo and Xiu Ya. 

Favorite MDZS weapon/tool: Chenqing

Favorite TGCF weapon/tool: E-Ming and Fang Xin

If you want to ask anything else, feel free! My blog is mostly Saint Seiya, but I do write about other stuff if you ask me! ^ - ^

[paradife-loft]

A Smattering of More TGCF Thoughts, Having Finished Book 3

*not exhaustive, because that would be way too much; but still apparently enough rambling to need a cut for length

EVERYTHING IS METAPHYSICAL WORLDBUILDING...... I don’t even know if I have a specific place I’d want to start with this, bc it’s all just deeply fascinating trying to tease out how it all works, but. mmmm delicious crunchy worldbuilding on what heavenly officials (of each court) and ghosts even are, and how spiritual power works! what exactly ascending is, and what role “fate” plays in that, and what even is fate really? what relationship does fate have to social standing in one’s mortal life?

this is my shit. I love to know how it all works. I will poke at all the things.

BLACK. WATER. XUAN. it is probably obvious by now that I am in massive hearteyes with He Xuan?? just. the dramatic flair! the extent of being SO wronged! intense murder aesthetic!  d e d i c a t i o n. power and planning and being utterly terrifying as a trap closing in when the time comes - and an absolute Weirdo antisocial half-person Mess the rest of the time! “I am going to give you all these tests as opportunities to show that you see me, the person your successes came at the very literal physical cost of, and CARE to rectify that horrible injustice. show me that you give a fuck! show me that you’re not just stuck in your pampered myopic little heavenly heads!”

I am a little disturbed by how quickly I’ve built up a whole headcanon persona and POV for He Xuan already despite. not having finished the book yet. :’D what can I say though, intense capacity for violence, plus messy depression/depersonalisation badbrains, plus unstable identity and literally subsuming other beings into yourself, plus hella fucked up relationship with food... This Is Coming For Me Where I Live rn <33

(nom nom transmisogynists make a delicious crunchy snack~)

honestly it’s kind of like, the more intense my feelings & thoughts about a character are, the harder it is for me to really ramble properly about them without more specific prompts.... oops. but just know, I have many He Xuan thoughts. hot damn.

Yin Yu and Quan Yizhen ;____; god, I just have.... a lot of feelings about the way in which Status Issues Fuck Them Up. and about how Yin Yu ends up taking all this blame not because he’s A Bad Person, but also not because he’s Framed Horribly and Is Totally Innocent? he’s just very real, and imperfect, and his personal shortcomings combine with events to create a complete and utter clusterfuck :(

CORPSE RATS CORPSE RATS :D I am enjoying literally everything that’s eaten other spirits in this book honestly. delightfully fucked up favourite “taking on traits of a thing you consume” trope :D

Mount Tong’lu especially, but also just a certain amount of the aesthetic of this book in general, is once again Reminding Me Of Dark Souls. it’s the combo “gain more power by murdering other entities and consuming their souls” / “transformational Final Level specifically called a kiln” thing, I think.

so I guess it’s canon that the Supremes are a “mentally unstable obsessives only” club??? :’D I have a lot of feelings about much-younger-ghost!Hua Cheng just kind of. spending ten years alternately nerding out over trying to learn to read a dead language, and trying to... depict his devotion and somehow express/externalise the very story of who he even is into this empty underground series of caverns? trying to pound it into his head to, like, remember who he is and make SOME part of the world witness to what’s made him, even though (and because) he can’t actually open up about any of that to any other people?

like hmm, certainly I don’t think he’s losing it during the Mount Tong’lu experience as much as, say, certain other individuals might have (*cough*), because he’s not literally taking the essences of other beings into himself, just getting a power-up - but that alone, killing so much and experiencing that kind of metaphysical change, must already be kind of disorienting and weird? especially if you’re functionally alone the whole time?? which is to say, sure, the thousand gods and all the murals might have been a little bit of a monument to Hua Cheng being batshit crazypants for a while, but given the material circumstances of 10 years of isolation/ling nerding/murder, I really cannot blame him. (I would also rather not have other people, certainly not the object of my affection & obsession, get to see those things! that is entirely relatable, not sinister!)

(obligatory “what would a centuries-old sourdough starter from Mount Tong’lu be like“ joke....)

although. that said. I continue! to be not okay! with the extent of Literal Hero Worship happening in this relationship! “if you don’t have anything else to live for, then live for me!” like ok ok it is all very well and good that you said that as a dumbass naive teenage god, and clearly don’t believe in any such thing anymore, but. Hua Cheng! has not gotten over that! he is still very much in that headspace! “oh don’t worry my ashes are in a totally safe place bc if the place where I hid them was destroyed then I would have no reason to live either ~<3″ NO. NO BAD. EXTREMELY BAD, HUA CHENG SIT DOWN RIGHT THIS INSTANT UNTIL I FIND YOU SOMEONE TO TALK YOU THROUGH THIS SHIT.

I just. mmmmmmmnnn. I really enjoy how they interact with one another most of the time! I’m also just... not cool with the level of power disparity in terms of psychological vulnerability to one another, that seems pretty fundamentally baked into the dynamic :/

(it’s funny bc this is the opposite of the panic Mu Qing & Feng Xin were having over Hualian, oops)

actually while I’m being a whole-ass Downer about ships, I will also mention that I do Not get shipping those two..... like “excessive bickering” has never appealed to me in the first place but also. FX seems to genuinely think MQ is a bad person?? and doesn’t understand what his perspective is like in general? perhaps I am simply A Bit Sensitive to people misunderstanding someone and thinking they’re a bad person bc they’re not Nice And Cheerful And Personable, but. eugh, no thank you.

miscellaneous thoughts....

Ling Wen can honestly do as many murders as she feels like, I’m not too broken up about this ultimately :////

Xie Lian’s trauma response panic mode whenever he sees White No-Face! it’s upsetting!

White No-Face is not valid specifically for the reason that I wanted the next ghost king to come out of the kiln to add something cool to the Calamities’ color scheme >:( Give Me A Purple Ghost You Dumb Motherfucker >:(

(actually in part I make fun of him because I am otherwise also terrified of him! he is creepy and horrifying! he seems like substantially less of a Person and more like a Horrible Force of Nature than the other calamities!! also HE WAS LIVING IN THEIR HOUSE *screams*)

(you may notice there is approximately no book 2 content on here and that is.... largely bc I found book 2 very upsetting and unpleasant to read, as “overwhelming futility in the face of world affairs and mass suffering” is in fact my Least favourite emotion to have evoked in fiction. or in real life for that matter. “biological phenomenon wherein foreign entities grow in or on your body” is ALSO a least favourite thing in both fiction & real life too, funnily enough! not actually to the same extent as Futility Forever, but. no thank you.)

there’s definitely more I wanted to talk about at one point or another and then forgot, so, if there’s something you want to hear about in particular, ask me questions!

[chibimuiwritesstuff]

MMA Fighters HuaLian - Meeting

Right. I’m just going to post this. The backstory to the Hualian MMA AU idea I thought up of how they initially met. This is not edited btw, so apologies for any errors.

----

They meet in a match.

Xie Lian has met many people in matches before, he is one of the best MMA fighters out there after all, so usually he doesn’t remember most of his opponents—but he remembers this one. He remembers him because he is tall (not an issue), lanky (he’s experienced enough to know skinniness doesn’t mean lack of strength), has an eyepatch covering his right eye (a handicap?) and is absolutely, ridiculously, unfairly, gorgeous.

The referee counts to three, the whistle blows, and Xie Lian tenses and is surprised when the other man barely moves a muscle. Just looks at him, expression unreadable. There’s an intensity to his gaze, but it’s not the usual look of a fellow fighter preparing to attack, it’s… it’s something else. It unsettles Xie Lian for a moment, makes his heart beat just a bit faster, but, well, if his opponent will not make the first move then that’s their mistake.

A rookie perhaps?

He launches forward and feels his heart sing when the man not only catches his blow, but dodges to the side in a way that looks effortless, but Xie Lian knows speaks of unbridled skill. Not a rookie then.

Not a rookie at all in fact.

The match is one of the toughest Xie Lian has had in ages. The other man is incredibly defensive and catches Xie Lian’s punches, kicks and feints blow for blow, although rarely making an effort to strike out himself. It’s mildly frustrating, somewhat confusing, and incredibly invigorating. It’s fun. It’s a joy Xie Lian hasn’t truly felt in a fight in ages. He dances around and is somewhat glad for the mask he wears so no one can see the ridiculously large smile he can feel stretching across his face. This is why he loves martial arts. This is why he loves fighting. So that he can dance with people like the man in front of him.

He’s almost sad when he finally manages to pin the other man on the ground for a count of three, and the referee blows the whistle again.

‘Winner, give it up for The Crown Prince!’

The referee holds his hand up, but Xie Lian can’t take his eyes off his opponent, who by this point is already sitting up and also looking back at Xie Lian as well. He looks unphased, unruffled. He does not look like a man who has just lost a fight. In fact, the small smile on his face somehow makes it seem like he was the winner of this match somehow.

His is registered under the fighter name ‘Crimson Rain Sought Flowers’. The people in the mixed martial arts underground call him Hua Cheng.  

Xie Lian remembers him and looks forward to the day he might be able to fight him again.

-

It takes another year before Xie Lian is able to meet Hua Cheng again—and it’s not for lack of trying. After their one match he had tried to seek him out, find out more information about this mysterious opponent who had stepped into the ring and fought with Xie Lian like he had just decided to do it on a whim, but there was nothing. There had been no previous fight records, and no fights he had signed up for afterwards. It was truly as if he had just appeared to fight Xie Lian and then left.

Mu Qing had commented dryly that maybe he had scared the other man off, as he did to so many other earnest newcomers, but Xie Lian didn’t see how that was possible. Hua Cheng had not been a rookie fighter, and Feng Xin had agreed on this as well. But, whatever the reason—Hua Cheng had never reappeared until now.

Once again Hua Cheng stands before him looking deceptively relaxed. If Xie Lian were anyone else he might have felt insulted. After all, he had won their last fight—Hua Cheng should look at least somewhat wary. But he doesn’t. Instead something about his expression makes Xie Lian feel like he’s just as excited for this match as Xie Lian is himself. Xie Lian smiles under his mark, forgetting for a moment that Hua Cheng can’t see his face. It’s nice, to face an opponent who not only isn’t intimidated by him, but appears just as excited and actually has the skill to back up their own air of confidence.

Xie Lian’s heart skips a beat as he catches Hua Cheng’s single eye and can’t help but shiver in anticipation of the match to come.  

The whistle blows, and this time Xie Lian waits. He wants to see what Hua Cheng will do, but Hua Cheng does nothing. In fact, the both of them stand still for so long, the audience begins boo-ing and Xie Lian’s mounting excitement begins to curl into confusion, and then into frustration.

Hua Cheng merely raises an eyebrow, “What is gege waiting for?” he drawls, smirking.

“I could ask you the same question.” Xie Lian replies.

Hua Cheng nods his head, as if he’s considering Xie Lian’s words very seriously, “Hm… that’s true.” And then he launches himself forward.

Xie Lian had been prepared, this is what he had wanted after all, but it shows just how skilled Hua Cheng is that for a second Xie Lian can’t track his movements at all and he is hit with a spike of surprise. It is only through muscle memory, born from hours and hours of training, that allows Xie Lian to effectively dodge Hua Cheng’s fist, following immediately with a counterattack of his own, which Hua Cheng also effortlessly dodges in return.

They continue like this for a few bouts, and it’s similar enough to their last match that it causes Xie Lian to pause. Despite Hua Cheng opening with the first strike, they’ve somehow fallen into a pattern where Xie Lian is on the offensive and Hua Cheng only defends and it’s… it’s frustrating. Xie Lian has never really cared about the actual competition itself, he simply joined matches for the sake of being able to fight others who were just as crazy about fighting as him, and so now he just feels incredibly put-out that it seems like Hua Cheng isn’t taking things seriously.

He stills, pulls out of his last punch and as expected, Hua Cheng jerks his arm back at the last second as well instead of taking the obvious opening to his advantage. Once again, they’re just two opponents, standing in the cage, staring at each other but neither of them moving. Neither of them have even taken a stance—standing almost casually, albeit somewhat alert. The crowd has also noticed the pattern of the fight, and some bystanders have begun jeering at Hua Cheng specifically.

“Come on! Put up a proper fight or just get out!”

“Don’t waste His Highness’ time!”

Both of them stand and listen to the calls of the crowd and while Xie Lian usually doesn’t like to encourage this sort of heckling, he can’t help but cock his head to the side and ask, “Well, are you going to take this seriously?” because what other conclusion is there to draw from this bout? It’s obvious that Hua Cheng doesn’t want to beat Xie Lian at all, doesn’t even really want to fight him at all. It doesn’t make sense and it makes Xie Lian wonder why he’s even here.

Hua Cheng simply smirks at him, but his posture doesn’t change. “What makes you think I’m not taking this seriously, dianxia?”

“You’re not even trying to go on the offensive. Any other person would have felt insulted by now.” Xie Lian replies.

“Well, it’s good that you’re not any other person then isn’t it?”

His voice is low and velvety smooth and it makes Xie Lian feel warm for reasons besides physical exertion. “Perhaps, but I also refuse to continue a match with someone who clearly doesn’t want to engage.”

He turns to the referee who also looks like he’s one second away from giving both of them warnings and it’s this that finally seems to pull a genuine reaction out of Hua Cheng.

“Wait--!”

Xie Lian turns and cock his head to the side again in question, since Hua Cheng can’t see his face.

“You’ve got me gege, this newcomer didn’t mean to offend. I was simply excited at being able to spar with you again and wanted to do anything to extend the time as much as possible.”

Xie Lian lets out a huff of air, feeling somewhat affronted.

“And what makes you think going on the offensive would have made the time shorter? Either you think too highly of yourself, or you are severely underestimating me.”

Hua Cheng shakes his head vehemently, “No, I can assure you I would never!”

Xie Lian signals to the ref to stand down and that he will handle things before turning back to face Hua Cheng properly once more, “Then, are you going to fight me properly?”

Hua Cheng nods.

They both return to the center of the cage and take up positions, eyeing each other warily. Since no time outs were taken, there will be no whistle to signal a new start—it is simply up to one of them to make a move.

The fight that follows leaves everyone breathless.

It is Hua Cheng that makes the first move, and when he does it is clear that he had been holding back. His attacks are quick, aggressive, and absolutely wild, but what is perhaps even more wild is how composed Xie Lian managed to remain in comparison. The only sign that he may have been struggling lay in the fact that despite the sharpness of his own moves, equally quick and unforgiving, he still had not won.

Attack are blocked, grabs and holds are escaped from and used to lead into secondary attacks, throws that would have had most fighters winded on the ground ended with miraculous recoveries with both parties somehow still on their feet. Even when the fight had devolved into wrestling, as Xie Lian struggled to pin Hua Cheng down for three counts, it was hard to see who was at an advantage—but eventually, a winner was decided.

The crowd roared with enthusiasm, a whistle was blown and as for the fighters themselves…

Xie Lian flinches when the referee grabs his wrist, having nearly forgotten where he is and what he has been doing. He had been too immersed in the fight. Too immersed in Hua Cheng. He hears nothing but the blood that is still roaring in his ears, continues to feel nothing but the soft panting of Hua Cheng’s breath on his skin as they had rolled on the ground, and sees nothing but Hua Cheng’s eyes as the other man continued to stare at him from his position on the ground—gaze dark and dangerous.

Then he blinks and he is back in the cage, his arm being held up, the crowd cheering. Hua Cheng stands and dusts himself off, calm and cool as ever, although even with the noise Xie Lian could still hear the ragged panting of his breath—matching his own laboured breathing.

“Good fight.” Xie Lian hears himself say, truly meaning it as he shakes the other man’s hand. It is warm, strong, and Xie Lian can still feel the traces of where those hands had left marks on his body. He represses the urge to shiver.

“It was truly an honor to be able to fight you again, dianxia.” Hua Cheng replies, smirking once again. Were it anyone else, Xie Lian would have been sure they were mocking him, but there was something in Hua Cheng’s voice that sounded more like reverence. Xie Lian drops the other man’s hand and laughs awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

“I think the honor should be mine, you really didn’t make things easy for me.”

Hua Cheng doesn’t reply, and afterwards they are ushered out of the cage to make room for the next match. When Xie Lian turns his head after toweling off his sweat, Hua Cheng is already gone.

-

Feng Xin and Mu Qing both tell him to forget about Hua Cheng. They are, and have always been, Xie Lian’s best friends, so usually Xie Lian does try his best to listen to their advice—they care for him after all. But he cannot forget about Hua Cheng. During training he imagines the other man in front of him, he walks down the street and pictures fights with him in his mind, he goes from competition to competition seeking him, tries and fails to search him up on social media, but just like last time, it is like he has disappeared.

“You’re thinking about him again aren’t you,” Feng Xin grumbles as he sits down, practically throwing his tray of food onto the table of the university cafeteria.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Xie Lian replies promptly as he takes a bite of his own lunch.  

Mu Qing takes the seat beside Feng Xin, placing his tray down more gently and completely ignores Xie Lian to turn to the other man at his side, “He was thinking about him again, wasn’t he?”

“I wasn’t!”

Feng Xin has the audacity to grunt and nod as he slurps up his noodles at an alarming pace.

“Hey! I said I wasn’t!”

Mu Qing lets out a sigh that Xie Lian thinks is supremely unfair, given the fact that his friends are the ones being rude to him. Then, Mu Qing grabs something from his bag—a piece of paper it looks like, and places it on the table. “We’re only doing this because we know you won’t stop mooning about him otherwise.”

“I’m not—mooning? I’m not mooning!” Xie Lian splutters, but he grabs the paper anyway, with perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm and then stops short.

It is an address and apparently it is for a place called Ghost City. He’s heard of Ghost City. Xie Lian frowns. Before he can ask the question though, Mu Qing already gives him the answer.

“He’s there. We told you to give up on him, but we knew you wouldn’t so we thought it’d be better to just see for yourself what type of person Hua Cheng really is.”

Ghost City was an underground cage match arena—everyone who was anyone in the MMA world knew about it. It was for the fighters who desperately wanted to prove themselves beyond the world of sanctioned, formal, competitions. For the fighters who truly wanted to test their skill in a match where they had to put everything on the line. The only rule in Ghost City was the one: there were no rules. Although Xie Lian loved fighting, this was a place he had no interest in. He had never been interested in hurting and dominating others, he simply just wanted to test his skill and to experience the skills of others.

If Hua Cheng was there though…

“Please, just remember to be careful alright Xie Lian?”

Xie Lian nodded, gripping the paper more tightly than was probably necessary. He looked up at his friends, at Feng Xin who continued to studiously eat his noodles as if they had somehow offended him just by existing, and at Mu Qing who was looking somewhere off to Xie Lian’s left looking disgruntled, and smiled. “You two really are the best.”

Neither of them bothered to give him a reply, but the address was enough.

[fixaidea]

For the fic asks, 40 for the hualian one where Xie Lian is in the petitioners line when he gets back to ghost city (or just another way he suprises Hua Cheng when he comes home) Sorry I'm a lil drunk so I hope this makes sense but I really liked that short! ❤❤

Aaa thank you! :D

40. Write an alternative ending to [insert fic title] (or just the summary of one). 

Honestly the only alternate ending I was really thinking about was Xie Lian arriving in the middle of the ongoing audition, stand in the queue and then after Hua Cheng kissed him senseless he joins him on the podium and they finish evaluating the cases together.

(Well, really Xie Lian just sits there, offering company - after all, this is all Hua Cheng’s business, and while he’s happy to offer his input when asked, he won’t interfere or try to sway his judgement on his own.)

[mirai-eats]

To Return

Hualian, 3,369 words, rated G, complete

Forest Guardian AU, Fairytale Elements

There is a forest far beyond the horizon where a fallen prince is tied to its ancient roots. 

read on AO3

Once upon a time, a prince of a faraway land tried to save his people from death and disease with his own hands. One man could only do so much, and as the war wore on and the death toll rose to the thousands, he pleaded up to the heavens for help. The gods turned their backs on him and he desperately sought help on earth where he was scorned, then down to the demons of cold hell.

They wanted a life for lives. No, not his life, they said, he was too willing. They wanted those most precious to him. He turned away and didn’t look back.

A figure of neither heaven nor hell, moral nor immoral, found the prince and said he could help him bring the war to an end and cure for the plague. Skeptically, the prince asked for what they wanted in return.

“Your life for me to do as I please.”

The selfless prince agreed too quickly and watched the war tumble to a halt with an overwhelming victory to the rebels where they usurped him from his throne and scattered his riches and reputation into the jeering air. The plague tapered off with no more lives to kill, the king and queen its last victims. 

With nothing left, not even a name, he was grabbed by the hand and pulled away by the immoral moral person. “I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain, now you must complete your part.”

“You did not fulfill anything!” the prince retorted.

“I ended the war, I ended the plague, now all that’s left is to take your life.”

The prince, an honest man, could do nothing but follow the immoral moral person through high planes and forests, over icy mountain peaks and dipping valleys, across rivers and seas, and finally, from beyond a desert pass, laid a glittering forest steeped with age and might. 

“Stay here and protect it,” said the immoral moral person. “This is your new home.”

The prince’s life was tied to the roots of the trees, a leash upon his snowy neck, and told to sit and watch the tree line until they died. Only then may he be free. 

This is what Hua Cheng was told, in the painted breath of storytellers and awed shouts of children. In the name of the prince, he had become a shadow of a man, his soul tied not to his body due to a pact he dealt with a god of the underworld to keep him alive long enough to find the prince. It had been so long, his kingdom buried in time, the story of the prince who tried to save his people was the only memory of its former glory. 

No one believed it to be true anymore. It was nothing more than a simple fairytale to warn children from trying to play god. 

Hua Cheng was as old as the trees and knew it to be true. It’s been so long even his own memory was clouded, but he knew the path well and has been seeking out the glittering forest for almost a millennia. 

Weary in his ageless body, he stumbled into another forest with trees that touched the heavens and the leaves that draped the ground with whispers of its magic. It was dead silent, not a bird to be heard nor a squirrel to be seen. Hua Cheng took in a deep, steadying breath full of early autumn chill and felt his bones sag with misery. 

He took a step into the treeline and felt a zing of something. It shot through his body with a shudder and he felt this might actually be it. But where were the glittering trees?

The moment he was submerged fully into the trees it felt as if the world was muted, a soundless bubble trapped the forest in a timeless loop of silence. Every step he made reverberated loudly up into the trees, his breath too loud in his ears. The trees were leering over him, its green to orange leaf-covered fingers ached to grab him. He placed his hand on the hilt of his scimitar. His chest was full of ice, his ears pounded to the rhythm of his racing heart.

A low, breathy hiss broke the pressing quiet. Hua Cheng jolted and looked over where the sound was coming from. There was something scrabbling at the base of a tree, the leaves stirred up from its frantic movements. He snuck closer, light on his feet as not to alert whatever was doing that. 

Stuck amongst the foliage was a snow-white ferret with wide, dark eyes scrambling around amongst, hisses pulled from its sharp teeth and its hind leg trapped and twisted through a withering hydrangea bush and the gnarled roots of the tree. 

He tutted and reached out to help shift the branches away and received a sharp hiss and sharper claws. He jerked back and cradled his wounded hand. The cut wasn’t that deep; three shallow lines marred the side of his hand and oozed steadily, but that was nothing compared to past wounds. 

“Little ferret, let me help you,” he said softly. 

The ferret seemed to have understood him and froze, its starless gaze fixed upon Hua Cheng. He gently reached over, wary of its teeth and claws, and tugged the branch back enough for the ferret to leap free. It scampered off amongst the trees, the flick of its black-tipped tail the last thing he saw. He stood and licked the blood off his hand then wiped it on the side of his trousers. The bleeding had already stopped. 

From then on, as he wound through the pathless forest every once in a while he would catch a glimpse of white and the sound of something scuttling amongst the leaves. 

He didn’t travel far. In fact, he was pretty sure despite walking relatively straight he had been going in a circle. The dying hydrangea bush, the color rotted away from its petals long ago, remained a landmark he’d passed not twice but four times. The heavy air weighed on him like a wet blanket, chilled and muted to the outside world. There was a spell on the entrance that would turn unwelcome guests away. 

“How do I get into the forest?” He asked aloud, his voice breaking the din of nothing. 

“You can,” a voice answered him.

From behind a large maple tree emerged a man dressed in snow-white, his face veiled off from under a weimao hat traced with fragrant jasmine flowers, his voice rang like clear bellflowers. He stood atop a mound and looked down upon Hua Cheng like a god on his alter. 

“What do I do to gain entry?” Hua Cheng asked.

“You have,” the man said. He bowed his head, the pale curtain fluttering with the subtle movement. “I tested you, and you passed, and now you have found the door to this realm and picked the lock open. I stand here at the doorway ready to let you in, but only if you can tell me one thing.”

Hua Cheng nodded, his jaw set in determination. 

“Why have you wandered so far to this forest? There are no riches nor strange creatures lurking in the trees, nor are there friends to see. No path leads to here or through. Are you lost?”

“No, I believe I’m exactly where I need to be.”

The man froze, still as the ancient trees circling them. “Why have you sought out this forest?”

“You said one thing,” Hua Cheng noted.

The man hummed. “I guess you are right. Very well, come on in.”

With a turn and a flutter of his expansive sleeves and pale veil, the very land seemed to transform around them. The trees stood taller, arching toward the heavens, and the air was filled with clicking and chirping of its habitants. A swallowtail butterfly fluttered by, dancing along his line of sight. The ground grew greener, the smell of pine and dirt filled the breathless air with color. It was as if life was splashed down upon the forest. 

The man was walking ahead, down a clearly worn path that wounded through the trees. He paused at a bend and turned, the veil lifting slightly in the sweet breeze just enough to see inky black circling his neck and pale lips saying, “Come along.”

He scrambled up the ledge the man had been perched upon and down along the path to where the man waited. Once he was upon him he turned and continued walking, the air starkly warmer in the forest the man unlocked for him. 

“You were the ferret.” It wasn’t a question, but he needed to confirm.

“I am the ferret, yes,” the man said. “My apologies for scratching you, I needed to be sure you wouldn’t try to harm or abandon me.”

“How often are you saved?”

“Never.”

Hua Cheng’s heart ached. “Does this mean I am the first to be let in?”

“Yes.” The man suddenly stopped and turned. “Would you like to see something wonderful?”

“Of course.”

The man took him everywhere, to a cliffside that overlooked the whole of the forest where the verdant green were traced with golden orange and the sky was an arching silver, to the small birds’ nests full of smooth eggs. Tumbling waterfalls of crystal tears trailing the rockface, and meadows of whispering cornflowers, daisies, cosmos, and so many more he couldn’t name, but they smelled so sweet and left his head light with their tender touch. There were families of deer where the man sat amongst tracing their delicate heads with gentle fingers, while wild bears trodded along the shores of the river rapids. The forest fed them fruit and roots, Hua Cheng not daring to suggest roasting one of the rabbits for a meal to the gentle man. He saw how tenderly he had held a mockingbird in his hand, singing a tune along with her sweet song; there was no way he could hurt a single life. 

“I have a question,” Hua Cheng said after their meal, the sun dripping gold over them, the trees’ shadows lengthened with the fading day. “Is this what they call the glittering forest?”

“I suppose so, yes,” the man said. Hua Cheng felt his heart lurch, gripping his apple core hard enough for the juice to spill down his wrist.

“May I have your name?” he asked, his voice straining past his racing heart. 

“Hm, I haven’t had a name in a very long time,” the man said. He bowed his head and continued, “My apologies, I have nothing to give you.”

“Xie Lian…” Hua Cheng breathed. “The guardian of the glittering forest, a prince lost in time. I am looking for him and you...”

The man, Xie Lian maybe, froze. “That… could be me. I’m not sure, it’s been so long my memories are nothing more than mist. You may call me as such. But what may I call you?”

“I am the third son, so you can call me San Lang,” Hua Cheng said. “If you are unsure of your name, may I call you gege?”

Gege tipped his head with a nod, the veil swaying to and fro. “You may.”

Hope’s seed which had been planted when he’d first stumbled into the forest tentatively grew a green shoot, buds of an unknown flower were ripe and green on its delicate stems. He didn’t want to nourish this small, budding thought if it would once again lead to him ripping it out from its delicate roots. 

They finished their food and gege took him someplace to rest for the night. Stars were tracing the horizon, and with the sun gone, the moon hung low and bright, a silver crescent amongst the deep blue. 

“I do not have a home for you to seek shelter in,” gege said. “This tree is firm and reliable, surviving many a storm and snow.” He patted the trunk of an ancient pine. “You may rest here for the night; tomorrow I can show you the creek which has the most delicious blackberries along its shores and the nest of foxes that reside a little south.”

“Where will gege sleep?” Hua Cheng asked.

“Ah, my home is here.” He pointed to a tree stump, hollowed out with jagged edges. The tree that it felled laid intertwined with the ground.

“Did gege fell that tree?” he teased. 

“It-it was an accident.” Hua Cheng could almost see a blush on gege’s cheeks. “Sleep well, San Lang. I will see you with the sun.”

With another flourish of his expansive sleeves and pale veil, his figure morphed into that of the white ferret with a black-tipped tail. With a chatter, he climbed into the tree stump and curled up at the bottom with a sigh. 

“Good night, gege,” he said softly and climbed up the tree and found a sturdy branch to lay across and fell asleep almost instantly.

He awoke when the moon was high above his head to voices talking. He leaned over carefully and peaked down between the branches to see gege, glowing white in the pale moonlight speaking softly to a man in front of him draped in imperial armor and radiating his own light.

“-but the treasure, Jun Wu,” gege was saying.

“You don’t need to worry about it,” the man, Jun Wu, said. This, Hua Cheng realized, was the Jun Wu, the emperor god of the heavens. “I must be going now, I only wanted to see how you were doing.”

“... Can you tell me…” gege hesitated, “What was… my name?”

Jun Wu seemed to soften at his words. “Never you mind that, you haven’t needed one and I dare say you won’t ever need one.”

Hua Cheng seethed from his perch. It took everything not to jump down and punch the daylight out of Jun Wu, a god of heaven or not. 

Gege only nodded. “I see. Have a good evening, then.” With a flash of light, Jun Wu was gone. Gege sighed and shrunk back into a ferret, but didn’t crawl back right away, only simply sat on the forest floor. 

“Gege,” Hua Cheng spoke up. Gege looked up, his beady little eyes fixed to where Hua Cheng was hidden amongst the branches. 

“How much did you hear?” Gege’s sweet voice echoed in his head. 

“Only the end, my apologies I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.” 

“You’re fine, San Lang.” He still sat on the ground as a ferret, his back arched and rounded like a small hill. With an audible huff, he laid down and stretched out, his head rested in front of his paws. 

“Won’t you go to bed, gege?”

“Soon.”

Hua Cheng pursed his lips and decidedly climbed down. gege raised his furry head to watch him descend and sit down next to him with his back leaning against the tree. “I will sit with you then,”

“There is no need,” gege argued. “San Lang should get his rest.”

“I won’t be able to rest knowing you’re not,” Hua Cheng said stubbornly. 

With a chitter, gege changed back into his human self sitting next to Hua Cheng, the length of his veil practically obscuring his whole body. 

Curiosity itched his skin, his hands twitched to where gege was sitting so close to him he could feel the gentle warmth of his body. 

“Gege, may I…” his throat closed up. “If you feel comfortable, may I see your face?”

Under the shadow of the moon, gege was a ghost. He couldn’t see the trace of his jaw or the slight pull of his lips like he could in the daylight. Hua Cheng could not gauge a reaction from him.

“You may,” gege said. 

With bated breath, Hua Cheng reached up and pulled aside the curtain, his hands visibly shaking and he hoped gege didn’t see. The smooth parting of the light-as-air veil seemed to take another millennium before he could see his face. His breathing stopped.  

Hair rich like mahogany framed a snowy face Hua Cheng would never forget. Dark eyes and a slim nose with pale lips set to a peerlessly beautiful face that had been painted over and over. His throat was traced with an inky cuff that marred his marble skin, a leash to tie him down. How could he ever forget the prince’s face? So kind and open, but its unshakable confidence whittled down to a humble shell. 

“Dianxia,” Hua Cheng breathed. “Xie Lian, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” 

“Xie Lian? That was the name you spoke of before,” Xie Lian’s smooth brow furrowed. Hua Cheng finally pulled his hands away from his weimao but leaned in close to drink in the face he hadn’t seen in so, so long. “Am I the one you seek?”

“You are, you are.” Hua Cheng let out a breathless laugh. “Dianxia, my prince, I’ve finally found you.” The children’s tales and storyteller rhymes were suddenly made true right before his eyes. 

“I am?”

“You are!” He wanted to leap and bound with joy. He’s found him at long last, the only one who had ever mattered in Hua Cheng’s own immortal life. “Xie Lian, your name is Xie Lian, you are a prince of the people who was made wrong. You… you saved me, and I swore to find you and serve you once more.”

“I am…” as if a candle was lit inside his heart, Xie Lian rose to his feet and removed his weimao, the moon seemed to glow from within him and the stars danced around him. The forest was glittering! Hundreds and hundreds of little flecks of light seemed to emerge from the foilage and dance to an unheard rhythm. Fireflies, Hua Cheng realized.

“Oh,” Xie Lian said softly. “They’ve been gone for so long, faded with my memory and my name.” 

Hua Cheng rose to his feet and watched the fireflies sparkle and dip and twirl across the green fern, pale leaves, and budded flowers left to sleep under the blanket of night. 

“My life is tied to the forest,” Xie Lian said. “I am no longer a prince with a kingdom to rule. Xian Le fell along with my soul.”

“May this humble servant beg of Dianxia to stay by his side?” Hua Cheng took Xie Lian’s hand and knelt to the ground, his other hand placed over his heart and bowed his head as he, a humble servant, should.

“You- I don’t know if you can stay here. I’ve never had anyone here except the life that already lives amongst it,” Xie Lian stuttered. “And I am no longer a prince, there is no need for a servant of any sorts.”

“How about a companion, a friend, even?” Hua Cheng raised his head to look up at his prince framed in the night sky and waltzing stars. 

“A companion would be very nice. Please.” Xie Lian gently clasped Hua Cheng’s hand between his own- Hua Cheng’s heart leaped- and pulled him up to stand equally. “Don’t kneel, I’m not worth kneeling for anymore.”

“May I bestow a gift to you?” Hua Cheng asked eagerly. He traced a finger to the leather pouch hanging from his neck. 

“So soon? San Lang we only just became friends.”

“And to celebrate our newfound friendship.” Hua Cheng pulled the pouch over his head and opened the small thing to show the contents to Xie Lian. He leaned forward, his breath a warm whisper over his chilled hands. 

“Oh San Lang, it’s beautiful,” Xie Lian sighed. Inside was a brilliant coral pearl, the red so rich only the brightest cardinal and richest rose could compare in color. It pulsed softly with light. 

“Keep it, it was once yours and now I will return it to you.” Hua Cheng tenderly placed it in Xie Lian’s hand and took his other hand to cup the satchel, his hands caressing Xie Lian’s holding what he held dearest. 

“Will you really stay with me, San Lang?” He looked up at Hua Cheng with wide, hopeful eyes.

He could never deny him. “I will never leave your side, gege.”

[peerless-soshi]

3 + 13 with hualian? owo gimma dat uwuw energy ; and yes i swear i messaged wrongly for sure

Rules: Send me two (2) tropes from this list + a ship and I’ll describe how I’d combine them in the same story.

Modern AU +  Detective AU

Whoever met Crimson Rain Sought Flower always claimed they’ve never seen him.

Xie Lian didn’t question it; there was an explanation for everything, after all. Maybe that man was so horrific that after meeting him you never stayed in a dark room alone again? Or he was a surrealistic beauty you refused to speak of, as if an image could be stripped of weight by plain words. Maybe he was looming unseen in the corners of the dark. Maybe. One thing was certain: he was a fugitive of many names

A mystery, a demon and a human.

No matter what others told him, Xie Lian couldn’t help but believe that disquieting air surging past Crimson Rain Sought Flower had its source in him acting against everybody — the bright world and the underground world. That was indeed an unspecified danger. When some were only speaking, sitting, fearing, he had a way of sneaking beside you on a crowded street. In the blink of an eye he was right next to you with a blade shining in his hand, wearing a mocking smile. And then he was vanishing in the night along with all his reasons. And truth.

Xie Lian finally understood what it meant to see Crimson Rain Sought Flower on a cold spring evening, when he wasn’t even on detective duty. He was walking around the park without a clear purpose, driven by the vague impression that trees showered in moonlight could shield him from rain as well as help comprehend the clues in a new way. Crimson Rain, according to his name, appeared only under the sky streaked with clouds. Still, it was cold as for March. Puddles were sobbing and swashing under Xie Lian’s feet, raindrops cloaked branches as if they were nothing but soggy watercolor picture.

All Xie Lian could think of was how he should had taken an umbrella.

He was wiping his eyes, staring at his worn wristwatch and planning to go back home, when he glanced at a streetlight and saw someone. A tall man was standing near in the shadow, his hair long and black, his face veiled by a red umbrella, making him a glowing red blot on a gray picture of ink.

Red.

Xie Lian stopped in his track. His heart dropped; a stone in cold water.

A red umbrella? Here, this night? Has he lost his mind from looking at the files? But he could swore he caught an echo of bloody drops seeping into the damp soil, and the sound of footstep, too silent for such a tall person.

A faceless man with a blood-colored umbrella. In other words? Crimson Rain Sought Flower.

Xie Lian turned back, putting his hand on a gun hidden deep in the cloak  —  a pocket safeguard, just in case — and coming up with a quick worst-case scenario. One, two, three. Rain slashed his face, obscuring the view, mud swathed the ground, impeding a run. The lonely streetlamp flashed a round grin.

The man disappeared.

Xie Lian blinked, shaking off raindrops from his eyelashes. Nothing. An empty lawn surrounding an empty path, adding only shadows to accompany him. He swerved past a line of benches and streetlamps, his steps reflecting on the water’s edge. They were blurring — like the man’s outline. Looking for a trace, he felt more and more like a fool. A detective who lures Crimson Rain Sought Flower similar to a white flower attracting a silver butterfly, one colleague once had said it about him. Back then Xie Lian had taken it as a compliment. Now it was a warning. Maybe he needed vacation…  

But then — a few feet ahead — a stroke of color. Red. It was immediately swallowed by trees and dimness but this time Xie Lian clearly spotted a dark, slim figure with an umbrella. The man seemed rigid, vacillating, as if he was reaching out and escaping at the same time. Lightning struck, the sky shuddered. Xie Lian suddenly had a feeling the stranger would be both a killer and a victim; the silver blade hidden inside the umbrella would pierce the man’s own eye.

“Stop right now!” Xie Lian yelled, trying to outshout the rain.

He run through slippery mire, lower branches squeezing his arms and leaving scratches on his hands. If it was really Crimson Rain Sought Flower then here was fleeing the only chance to catch him; if it was an innocent person, Xie Lian needed to make sure they were all right. He picked up his pace as he approached the path behind the trees so he could take a closer look in the glow of cars, now shining through the bushes like fireflies.

As he neared, however, he knew it was pointless. And indeed, there was no sign of the man.

Silence.

Engines purred, wheels squeaked on the wet asphalt, but silence fell upon the night. Xie Lian could make out a rumbling of his pulse and a shiver; cold rain was running down his cold nape when an icy cold grip seized his arm.

By this time the presence was clear; it pierced the air like a lightning. But Xie Lian’s moves were faster and lighter. He reached back, his hand tightening on the other man’s arm — just in case. He was about to use his body weight and flip the stranger over his shoulder, when suddenly the man managed to grab him and turned Xie Lian around to face him.

“Who are you?!” Xie Lian shouted, wheeling around.

“Usually, you welcome me nicer.” It was a young voice, swathed in tenderness. And it sounded familiar.

Squinting in abundant rain, Xie Lian looked up. What he noticed was a relaxed face, though still unclear, as if behind a dewy glass: raised eyebrows, twitching corners of the mouth, slightly tangled braid. A completely ordinary umbrella.

“San Lang?”

“You could break my hand,” his boyfriend said in return.

Xie Lian closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. “What are you doing here? You surprised me.”

“It started to rain and I guessed you left without an umbrella, as usually. I just came to pick you up,” Hua Cheng said and as gently as he could brushed hair from Xie Lian’s eyes, shielding him from the rain.

Xie Lian’s first impulse was to squeeze him tight. Reaching out for the umbrella he could see his fingers white and trembling from a too strong grip. The air was moist but his mouth stayed dry. All latent tension stepped aside and disappeared.

Hua Cheng must have also realized something was off because he brought him closer as his hand stopped on Xie Lian’s cheek.

“Did something happen, gege? Even now I can see how pale you are.”

He didn’t answer immediately.

They were walking calmly back to the park, hiding under one umbrella when rain twinkled around them like noise on an old black and white movie. The city sounds were becoming clearer. And then, flooded by reality of the main street, Xie Lian explained to Hua Cheng everything that had happened this evening.

Hua Cheng was not the slightest surprised, instead looking at Xie Lian as if his every word was true.

“If gege says Crimson Rain Sought Flower was there, it means he was there.”

Xie Lian smiled. “If that’s the case then why didn’t he attack me?”

“He had no reason to hurt you?” Hua Cheng said, shrugging slightly. Xie Lian felt it only because he was so close. “Probably he doesn’t hurt everyone, otherwise catching him wouldn’t be so hard. What if he wanted to see you?”

“Me?” Xie Lian was startled.

“If I was Crimson Rain Sought Flower, I’d like to know who is coming after me,” Hua Cheng said and laughed.

“Investigating his case is enough to target me.”

With a doubtful glance, Hua Cheng put his arm around him. Experiences of the evening were the only reason Xie Lian didn’t panic about this display of feelings in public.

“Others would replace you,” Hua Cheng said, “And gege is conscientious and fair. You didn’t accuse him of murders, did you?”

Xie Lian’s face fell a little. It was that feeling; he wanted to talk, to ask Hua Cheng for an opinion, but he couldn’t decide how much of his investigation he could reveal. In theory, nothing. Hua Cheng was making his unprofessional.

“It’s just a feeling,” Xie Lian finally said. “All deaths indicate suicide. However, witnesses saw a man with a red umbrella at almost every crime scene and that became the basis for looking for a murder. I feel there’s more to this than we know.”

His boyfriend smirked, folding the umbrella. They reached a block of flats where they lived.

“Nobody seeks the real truth. I bet Crimson Rain Sought Flower respects you for that.”

“And where does this thought come from, San Lang?”

“It’s just a feeling,” Hua Cheng answered, closing behind Xie Lian the door of their place.

He left the umbrella outside.