#huli jing & li lianhua

[tiny-breadcrumbs]

Ripple

[greentealycheejelly]

Huli Jing deserves all the treats :)

[carduelis-art]

[omgpurplefattie]

Today, @tiny-breadcrumbs finished my commission for some refreshing summer fun with the Lotus Trio. Hopefully, they will have fish to roast, come evening.

[naixaie]

🌱 the mlc triooooo 🥹🫶✨

[qpjianghu]

Li Lianhua + saying "I love you" without saying "I love you" (1/?)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook (2023)

[jianghushenanigans]

cinnamon rolls, lotus tower edition

(here's to Fang Duobing's canonically high kill count)

[lyselkatz]

A pile of puppies. All is well and nothing hurts.

🦊🐺🐶🐕🐕🐕🐕

Follow up to this headcanon.

...☕?/commission

[goblinkingsart]

I present to you: censorship Hulijing

[anndramarama]

Di Feisheng, Pet Magnet

Happily thinking about this post by @acequinz Have a little DFS extended headcanon ... ficlet ... thing:

There are always animals vying for his attention but not many people notice. For instance, Di Feisheng is just trying to quietly exist in his child form outside Yi Pin Tomb and ... a puppy sits on his foot. Why puppy? Where from? These are questions he grapples with while he scratches his nose and tries not to look down. Fortunately no one else notices before the puppy waddles away.

At some point during the Cailianzhuang Wedding Dress case a cat chooses to vibe in his space; he pretends it isn't there until it climbs into his lap and stretches with its little cat butt in his face. Li Lianhua ducks his head and smiles. Fang Duobing points and laughs. Di Feisheng stands up and displaces the cat, only to find it underfoot multiple times when he's trying to discreetly eavesdrop on Guo Qian.

During the Girls' Mansion case, a bird alights in Di Feisheng's hair for no reason, then hops on the ground in front of him a few times before taking off again. He doesn't have seed in his pockets, so what is happening? The bird returns later with friends and they seem content to drift around him, poking gently at his clothes and hair until he flies away, bewildered. This time Fang Duobing is fully aware and will not stop talking about it.

And then there's Huli Jing, who will not leave Di Feisheng alone.

Li Lianhua is supposed to be Huli Jing's favorite and she does spend a lot of time with him, but when Li Lianhua is resting or cooking, which happens a lot, Di Feisheng just can't shake her. She is always bumping against him, or sitting on his feet, or dropping muddy sticks in his path, or turning circles in front of him when all he wants to do is walk from place to place.

When he stops fighting sleep, Di Feisheng shares Li Lianhua's bed most of the time, and this is a source of unending joy for Huli Jing.

If Li Lianhua sleeps alone she's a good dog and sleeps on the floor, or at the end of the bed on cold nights. When they share the bed, however, Huli Jing is relentless. No matter how many times Li Lianhua scolds her and pushes her off, she still finds a way to wriggle underneath the covers and into Di Feisheng's space while they're asleep.

Li Lianhua is a light sleeper who wakes early, oftentimes before Di Feisheng, and one of his favorite things to do just after dawn when he is the only one awake in Lotus Tower is to watch Di Feisheng sleep. There are mornings when Li Lianhua wakes too early, before he feels rested. Sometimes on those mornings he has to stifle laughter because Huli Jing has wriggled fully into Ah-Fei's embrace, and man and dog are both snoring softly. (And if Li Lianhua touches Di Feisheng's messy hair and Huli Jing's soft ears until he's able to fall asleep again, no one has to know.)

Of course Fang Duobing notices all of this and is immediately jealous. He's too embarrassed to say anything or complain to Li Lianhua about Di Feisheng supposedly monopolizing the dog's attention, of all things, so in an attempt to sway her affection Fang Duobing starts keeping dried meat in the sleeves of his robe. Which he is able to use to lure Huli Jing to his side, but only for as long as it takes to eat the treat and get her head scratched.

Fang Duobing tries to take this in stride, but he snaps one day when not only does Huli Jing accept the food from his hand, she takes it and, rather than eat it, offers the dried meat to Di Feisheng. Who eats it slowly while making eye contact with Fang Duobing.

All of this amuses Li Lianhua, who does not fault Huli Jing's taste and wishes Fang Duobing was a little less anxious about it. But Fang Duobing will not be pacified. The tension between him and Di Feisheng rachets up a few notches and Li Lianhua is tempted to throw them both out for a while. He says as much, but they are past responding to what they know are empty threats.

So Fang Duobing is still jealous, still upset, Ah-Fei is not-so-subtly teasing him about it, and Li Lianhua is frustrated by their stupid rivalry, which he knows is only partially about the dog.

Then one afternoon Li Lianhua has a cough, and the cough comes with a fever, and delirium, and tremors that make him shake in bed. He needs to be able to stretch out and be comfortable, so Di Feisheng and Huli Jing have to make other sleeping arrangements. All day and all night and into the evening they watch Li Lianhua carefully. They tuck blankets around him and take care of him as best they can.

Fang Duobing is pragmatic: he knows that the bicha poison might have worn down Li Lianhua's health and made him more susceptible to illness, but he understands that the poison did not cause his current illness, which is likely just a cold that will pass soon enough.

Di Feisheng nods when Fang Duobing explains this and does everything that is asked of him, including taking Huli Jing out, and going to the nearest town for supplies, and trying to sleep when Fang Duobing is awake.

Fang Duobing lets Di Feisheng take over when it's his turn to rest, and tries to manage their little household as best he can. He makes broth for Li Lianhua and puts simple dishes in front of Ah-Fei, who can't seem to look away from Li Lianhua long enough to eat.

The dog gets underfoot at night but it's warm enough for her to sleep outside, so Fang Duobing banishes her to Lotus Tower's little dog house and she settles down without much fuss.

Until one evening after Li Lianhua's fever spikes. It's a rough day, and come early evening Fang Duobing is up and Di Feisheng is supposed to be sleeping, but the shouts Fang Duobing hears tell him that Ah-Fei is dreaming, and that it's not a good dream.

It's embarrassing, and not a little upsetting, and Fang Duobing doesn't know what to do. But just as he's about to give up and go up to the second level to shake Di Feisheng awake, Huli Jing pushes through the door and runs up the stairs. After a few long moments spent staring into space, Fang Duobing can no longer hear Ah-Fei. Curious, he moves quietly up the stairs and stops at the top. Ah-Fei is deeply asleep but Huli Jing is still awake and, having burrowed under the bed's only blanket, is nosing gently at his sleeping face.

She yawns and looks at Fang Duobing, who moves toward the bed and touches her head. "Good girl," he says. "Such a good girl."

He adjusts Ah-Fei's blanket until it's covering all of him and tiptoes down the stairs, where he finds Li Lianhua awake and smiling a tired smile.

"Is everything alright up there?" Li Lianhua asks, and Fang Duobing knows the question is rhetorical.

"Everything is fine," he says anyway, and Li Lianhua nods. With Huli Jing's help, everything is going to be OK.

[peridot-tears]

The year is 2024 and a team of archeologists have excavated a strange grave in an old seaside village. The verdant green skeleton of a man who died in his 50s next to the bones of a dog. Alongside them are the bones of two men who passed well into their 90s. DNA testing shows that at least one of them was the ancestor of several prominent imperial families throughout the dynasties, and yet he was buried in this unmarked grave instead of with his family. None of them were related. All of them were buried decades apart.

[tiny-breadcrumbs]

Have this silly sketch...

[greentealycheejelly]

They're watching fireworks from the back of the Lotus House :)

[carduelis-art]

[eirenical]

WiP Wednesday... is only two days late?

Haven't done one of these in a while, but I finally cracked the writer's block last night and thought I might share. ^_^ Enjoy?

[Earlier snippets of this fic in no particular order.]

Long familiarity with the road led to a mind that wandered as far as his feet.  He lost himself in going over his mental checklist of chores, trying to sort out the most efficient order to get everything done before he could be on his way.  But a soft growl from behind him followed by the whistle of a blade leaving its sheath jerked his mind rapidly back to the present.

Dropping the basket, Li Lianhua whirled and grabbed for the growling puppy even as he put a hand out keep the person she had been menacing at bay.  "Lao Di, stop!"

But Di Feisheng was already moving, his dao faster than most eyes could see… right past Li Lianhua and towards a group of rough looking men further up the road.  The puppy continued to growl and bark from her place in Li Lianhua's arms, hackles raised and teeth bared as though she'd love nothing more than to join in the fight.  Li Lianhua tightened his grip, though whether he did so for his own benefit or for hers, even he couldn't have said.

Seconds later, the fight was over, the few bandits who'd had the sense to run carrying their compatriots who no longer could.  Di Feisheng wiped off his dao, sliding it carefully and with great precision back into its sheath before turning.  The set expression on his face gave away nothing of what he was thinking, but the clipped way he began stalking back towards Li Lianhua made it clear enough what he was feeling.

When he reached Li Lianhua, Di Feisheng grabbed a fistful of his collar and jerked him close—close enough that the warmth of his breath ghosted over Li Lianhua's face.  "You didn't even sense them, did you."

Less a question and more a statement of fact, Li Lianhua wasn't quite sure how to respond.  He scratched briefly at his nose, eyes darting around quickly enough to avoid it every time Di Feisheng tried to catch his gaze.  The longer Li Lianhua refused to answer, the tighter Di Feisheng's grip on his robe became.  Eventually he let him go with a small push that startled a yipe out of the puppy in Li Lianhua's arms.  Di Feisheng shook his head.  "The puppy has more sense than you do.  You know better."

Li Lianhua's face heated.  He did know better.  He shouldn't have let himself get distracted.  But the simple truth was that he'd gotten used to having a shadow on his way to and from town, and before that an actual companion. And Di Feisheng was vigilant enough for both of them and enough of a visible threat that it rendered that vigilance unnecessary most of the time.  Li Lianhua had grown complacent, having absolute faith that Di Feisheng would deal with any trouble long before it arrived.

Li Lianhua smiled.

He hadn't been wrong, had he?

Di Feisheng stared at him for a minute, finally letting out a huff of disgust.  "I cannot imagine what about this situation amuses you."

Li Lianhua hiked the puppy up a bit higher in his arms and stooped to pick up the basket.  "Nothing.  I just didn't realize that the try-outs for the position of my guard dog had two applicants."

[omgpurplefattie]

One of the Di Fortress orphans takes Huli-jing on a walk up a mountain and reflects on how glad they are that Di Feisheng is still keeping an eye on them.

That's it, that's the fic.-