#tgcf ox cart scene

[ennonzi]

The ox cart scene 🍁

[luminacerin]

How many times do we think Hua Cheng stared at a mirror during those 800 years like he was on an episode of Say Yes To The Dress deciding what form and what clothes he would wear when he would inevitably meet his Gege? So carefully circulating his wardrobe only to change it in the last five minutes.

[zarasu]

Hua Cheng had waited for this moment for almost 800 years, but when it finally arrived, it was strangely simple.

It was the early evening of an autumn's day. The air smelled like decaying leaves and the setting sun threw golden, dream-like light over everything.

Hua Cheng was sitting on an ox cart, his view half obstructed by the hay around him. There was someone sitting next to him. He knew who it was.

He didn't look.

The cart slowly drove through the maple forest, bumping over little stones, the wheels loud and heavy on the ground.

Hua Cheng had wispy, almost faded memories of this place. Once, the trees here had been blackened. Once, it had been dead land, as dead as Xian Le itself.

Now, they were burning with red leaves, a last flare of life before the winter.

How strange, then, that Hua Cheng thought he might be smelling the sweet scent of peach blossoms instead.

He should be feeling more, he idly mused. He should be excited, nervous, short of breath, all these little things that the dead carried over from life, as long as they still had enough heart to feel.

Instead, his heart was silent inside his chest. He might as well have been dreaming. Maybe, if he reached out, the scene around him would dissolve and he would wake up at Paradise Manor, cold and alone in his bed.

The rustling of parchment came from beside him and he turned his head away.

How did you meet your peach blossom valley, if you found it again, after such a long time spent searching? Did you laugh in disbelief and run towards it? Did you fall to your knees and pray? Did you give up?

Was it not in some ways a tragedy, to feel a happiness so great?

The truth was, Hua Cheng didn't know what to do. He could only listen to that rustling of the parchment, to these subtle shifts of cloth, the silent breathing that was so familiar that it pierced his chest.

He thought, maybe it was like this: sometimes, when someone grows old, they're gripped by the desire to see their childhood home one more time. They go on one last journey, and when they walk on the streets of their past, when they see the familiar buildings, and hear the language of their people, for one moment, they turn into the child they once were. For one moment, they are the truest version of themselves.

In this moment, Hua Cheng was the truest version of himself. And it hurt, as he remembered who he was.

Then, a voice more familiar than his own, started to speak, and he prepared himself to answer.

[scrapimmortal]

xie lian's so normal about him

[magicpotatothoughts]

TGCF reread new finds #1

Xie Lian actively and consciously knows that he is attracted to HC the MOMENT THEY MEET in the Ox Cart. Like it’s not just blank gay panic, he knows.

His beauty was deadly like a sword, sharp and mesmerising. Xie Lian only met his eyes for a moment, then lowered his eyes in defeat.

MATE, normally wouldn’t you continue to be mesmerised and can’t peel your eyes away? That is, UNLESS YOURE WHIPPED. XL knows that SL's looks affect him to this degree. Defeat is the key word here.

Also

The distance between them had closed too fast. he suddenly didn't know what to do[...]Xie Lian blanked on the spot. He watched as the tall and slender youth walked away with his giant bag of junk as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do, and it made him mutter inwardly, Forgive my sins.

Making a rich young lad carry your things? Making him sleep in your crappy temple? That doesn't warrant the weighty thought? FORGIVE WHAT SINS Xie Lian??!!!

Many village girls saw (HC) and blushed [...] Xie Lian didn't know what they were going to ask, but felt instinctively that it must be stopped at once, and cried, "No!"

Jealous jealous boi! XL WAS POSSESSIVE after ONE night spent together at Puqi Shrine. Didn’t XL just say to SL that he will have no problem in the love department because girls will throw themselves at him? Yo, why are you cock-blocking? Everyone says HC is insane, no XL is equally insane for the other!

Also, when HC revealed that it's his real skin after the Banyue arc, XL instinctively poked him. Then

He looked at his own finger then hid it away, betraying nothing of his thoughts.

What thoughts XL ?!! Explain yourself right now!

Jumping back to OX CART scene, Xie Lian's character development was foreshadowed when they were talking about the gifting of ghost ashes.

Book 1: Xie Lian sighed. "It certainly is painful to think about, to have given everything for love and lose everything in return."

This is what Xie Lian is most afraid of! Like even thinking back to Xie Lian pushing Feng Xin away in Book 4, he definitely operated under that mindset. Love is a risk, it's something to be feared. Even now 800+ years later, he still feels that way and doesn't allow himself to get close to anyone. It just hits so much harder thinking that he operated under that for so many centuries.

Then Hua Cheng says

"What there to be afraid of? If it were me, I'd have no regrets giving away my ashes"

Which I think really changed the way that Xie Lian thought about love. Book 5 Xie Lian completely operates with Love is empowering and isn't something to be afraid of.

TGCF isn't about XL realising his feelings, literally from Book 1 it's about him wondering if it's worthwhile to act on them.

Three things, is this person worth losing cultivation over for?

He needs the reassurance that this person must reciprocate his feelings.

Then HC changed his perspective on love from FEAR -> EMPOWERMENT.

XL is soooo self-aware (unlike SQQ from SVSSS and WWX from MDZS), he's an unreliable narrator in the way that he doesn't reveal everything to the reader, especially his own feelings until he was absolutely sure that there really was both a physical and romantic attraction. I wanted to make this post to dispel the assumption for XL it was easy to forego 800+ years of cultivation. It was not? He ABSOLUTELY thought about it carefully.

[flowersdiceandlove]

Okay, so, confession: I haven’t actually watched season 2 of Heaven Official’s Blessing. I absolutely LOVE tgcf so, so much and I watched the first season, repeatedly, when it was on Netflix. At first I didn’t watch it cause I didn’t have Crunchyroll, but I’ve had that for months now and still haven’t watched it… I’ve tired. Really, I have. It’s just, I like to watch it from the start when new seasons come out and it’s been a while. So, I started watching from episode 1 and was doing pretty good until the ox cart scene. I was so fangirling over it. I kept having to pause it, squeal, and hit my bed in excitement over hualian. Repeatedly. like, every single minute repeatedly. I just couldn’t get through it without freaking out about much I love hualian😭😭😭 But it’s keeping me from watching season 2😭 I wanna watch season 2😭 But I just. can’t. handle it. Hualian are just to cute and sweet and in love. It’s too much. It’s just too much for me to handle😭😭 I have the books so I know what happens, and knowing what their history is (hua cheng, fuck— hua cheng, my baby!!! You poor sweetie😭) it just makes it all the harder to get through because I know what this must mean for them. Meeting like this. Being together. Just having someone there that you enjoy spending time with. The are Not Normal from the very start and I can’t handle it. The devotion😭 the care😭 the trust😭 It’s too fucking much for me to handle!!! And animated so well. That animation is beautiful. Seriously. It fits so well, and I just… fuuuuuuuck. I wanna watch season 2…

[lazyrunawayphilosopher]

I love the OX cart scene in TGCF. Both Xie Lian and Hua Cheng met after so many years and actually got to have a normal conversation with someone without worrying about giving them bad luck or scaring them or getting judged. Something about having a conversation with a stranger and they match your vibe is so amazing. Talking about mundane things without worrying because both of them are equally weird and one in a million. In other words they are made for each other.

[kiwi207]

Doodled the ox cart scene from TGCF cuz I love working with orange color schemes

[caldeiras-random-fandom-thoughts]

Did anyone else notice this ?!

*Slight spoilers for season 2 of TGCF/Heaven Offiical's Blessing and the novel*

In episode 12 of season 2 of TGCF, there is a flashback of the war and we see solider/teenage Hua Cheng. We also see baby Hua Cheng/Hong Hong'er at a small shrine that worshipped Xie Lian. In this scene we hear Hua Cheng saying " I won't. I won't forget. I will never forget you." But there is something interesting about this scene in the sub that isn't included in the English dub. In the sub, there are TWO voices.

It's a little hard to hear and you"ll probably need headphones to hear it better but there are two voices in the war scene and the shrine scene. One belongs to solider/teenage Hua Cheng and the other belongs to baby Hua Cheng/Hong Hong'er. But in the English dub, it's only one voice (solider Hua Cheng). When I notice this, I thought I was going crazy until I rewatch the scene again in both sub and english dub to confirm what I heard.

It makes sense to have two voices because it shows the audience that the solider and Hong Hong'er are the same person, and how they grow up to be Hua Cheng as the next scene afterwords is Hua Cheng as San Lang when he meets Xie Lian on the ox cart. (Which if you read the novel before seeing the donghua it something already known).

It help shows the flow of time at the shrine, to the war and to the scene where Hua Cheng reunites with Xie Lian again on the ox cart as San Lang as the scenes transition to each other/overlapped each other as we essentially see Hua Cheng grow up back then and who he becomes. But it also shows the promise Hua Cheng made as a child/teenager to Xie Lian and the new one he made when they reunited again.

Although, I am slightly disappointed that they didn't include a second voice in the dub. It would have been interesting how that detail in English but maybe they have a different idea of how they wanted to portray it in the dub or maybe they didn't hear the second voice. That would explain why I didn't see anyone talking about it anywhere else or maybe someone but it got overshadowed by how emotional the final episode was.

That's all for now

- Ria.

Edit: Originally on secondary blog but move it to my main and change main blog to to match the secondary blog before deleting the second one. All in the same day (February 18 ).

Rewrote some of it to be more clear, fix errors and add a little more details that I forgot to put in the original one and deleted some details.

Sorry if you came across the old one and had to reread the same idea again when finding this one.

[yabancreations]

WIP Game!

I was tagged by @e-n-t-r-o-p-i-c-f-r-o-g. Thanks!

Rules:

Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder.

Let people send you asks with the title that most intrigues them, then post a snippet or reveal something about it.

Tag others to continue the game.

I'm going to provide a little more information besides the titles, because otherwise, picking one feels too much like a shot in the dark.

UNPUBLISHED:

In Memoriam: MDZS, postcanon. Wei Ying is asked to pretend he's Mo Xuanyu and bid farewell to the former nanny of the Mo family, so she can pass away in peace.

Scars: MDZS, postcanon. Wei Ying asks Lan Zhan if, given the chance, he'd erase the scars left by his punishment.

First night: TGCF, missing scene. During the first night he spends in Puqi shrine after meeting Xie Lian on the ox cart, Hua Cheng ponders about what kind of life the prince has lived the last eight hundred years, and about the function of his second shackle.

Clarity: TGCF, canondivergence. Hua Cheng comes back from his second dispersion early, but he's barely there, unable to move or speak on his own. Afraid of exposing his beloved to any malignant actor while in such vulnerable state, and tormented by how much and in how many ways he missed him, Xie Lian locks them both inside the Mt. Taicang's shack until he can come up with a solution.

Pearl Memories: TGCF, postcanon. Xie Lian decides to learn how to style hair properly, and in return, he learns about what happened to the lock of hair he tied around Hua Cheng's finger during the land of the tender incident.

Haifisch: TGCF, mermaid AU. To unwind from his gruelling job and difficult circumstances, Xie Lian has got into the habit of screaming underwater while he swims at the bay, unaware of the fact that his sorrow smells like blood in the water for Hua Cheng, a siren that feeds from despair.

The Newcomer/King of the Ghosts: TGCF, postcanon. A new earth master ascends and immediately accuses Hua Cheng of having stolen his auspicious fate in marriage and use it for himself in order to marry Xie Lian. Seeing in this a chance to free herself from her bureaucratic prison, Ling Wen offers to take care of the case.

The Secret Garden: TGCF, postcanon. Xie Lian is a tireless worker, and while Hua Cheng deeply admires that of him, he's also desperate to make him settle and rest after so many years of struggle. Perhaps making Paradise Manor feel like a real home could do the trick.

Picture perfect: TGCF, modern AU. Hua Cheng begrudgingly agrees to participate in a photography project of his fellow uni student He Xuan, under the condition that he won't have to remove his eyepatch. However, when he arrives to the studio and meets Xie Lian, an incredibly charming man who's missing the right leg, he fears he might be persuaded into exposing his own scars.

The fantasy creatures pitches: SVSSS, MDZS, TGCF (but they aren't crossovers). Chinese mythology AUs. I wrote six pitches for the Tails And Scales fanzine, two for each novel. They picked one from TGCF, but I can talk about the other five.

Fairy Boy: Zelda BotW, missing scene. The story of Link growing up and how he ventured into the Lost Woods to find the Master Sword at age 12. It's entirely told in rhymes, like a children's bedtime story.

ONGOING:

Heavenly Damnation: TGCF, modern AU, metal music. After eight years of taking on awful gigs to stay afloat, Xie Lian is forced to confront his past when issues with the registration office bring him back to the capital. The difference? Hua Cheng, who has been his biggest fan since the beginning, is now ready to help him out of the hell Bai Wuxiang put him into.

Treasure Hunting in the Clouds: TGCF, modern AU. Hua Cheng bought a first class couple's pod to fly back to London after a business trip to the USA, but the airline forced his hand at the last minute and shoved a stranger in the other half of the bed. Hua Cheng hates this at first, but he changes his mind when he sees who's his impromptu pod mate.

Within Reach: TGCF, canondivergence. During their long walk towards Mount Tonglu while Hua Cheng is in his sealed child form, he and Xie Lian encounter humans who tell stories and legends of Crimson Rain Seeking A Flower, and decide to make a game out of it in order for Xie Lian to learn more about his secretive companion.

The Perfect Gift: Zelda BotW, post canon. Unauthorized sequel of the orphaned fic "A Most Convenient Marriage". On a mad race to eliminate the new threat looming over Hyrule, Link comes to terms with his strained relationship with Zelda and the blooming love he shares with Prince Sidon.

This... is hella lot more than I expected to have, lmao. Feel free to ask about as many titles as you want. I'm just now starting to use Tumblr again, so I'm sorry if I'm being inopportune with the tags: @ardenrabbit, @edenwolfie, @peachylixir, @callmefoxypepsi.

Answered questions:

The Newcomer/King of the Ghosts

In Memoriam

Treasure Hunting in the Clouds

Within Reach

Clarity

[hualianisms]

tgcf audio drama ep 4 (the scene in book 1 when they're on the ox cart and ghosts attack on zhongyuan festival night)

san lang: "I'm scared 🥺" (is not scared)

xie lian: "Don't be scared. Come here, sit behind me. There won't be anything that can harm you."

san lang: (laughs softly) "That's really great. At your side, I feel so much more at ease."

hua cheng's voice sounds soo sweet and soft when he says that last sentence 😭😭

[danmeichael]

important notes:

my dad is fairly chill about queer stuff so he's not going to flip shit or anything

he is however a middle aged straight man whose foreign animation repetoire is akira, ghost in the shell, etc. and i do not think he knows what yaoi is

help me

[animebltches]

okay so i’ve been listening to the heaven official’s blessing audiobook recently (which from henceforth i will refer to as ‘reading tgcf/hob’) and i cannot begin to tell you how insane it is. the anime does an absolutely incredible job of sticking to the accuracy and events of the story and truly is one of the most beautiful art styles i’ve ever seen. but the problem with tv is that it is very difficult to show a characters inner thoughts. a lot of the time that gets translated into action and expression of some kind. but in the book, holy hell, the amount of coding™️ that goes into xie lian alone is insane.

the first time he saw san lang (not hua cheng on mount yujun but san lang in the ox cart) he did not just look at him. did not just engage in conversation about the latest god gossip. no he described him as beautiful. spent ages explaining the red of his tunic and the black of his hair and the pale of his skin. and that is one minuscule example.

in the banyue arc when they’re caught up in the sandstorm and xie lian gets lifted into the air, we see in the show that he asks rouye (his silk bandages) to extend and grab onto something dependable and solid and the first thing they grab onto is san lang. we know that scene. it was masterfully and delightfully done in the show. but when you read it in the book, it is not just that xie lian asks rouye to find something solid and dependable to latch onto and rouye happened to find san lang. it’s that rouye went to san lang. those bandages went to san lang first. as in the same way hua cheng’s scimitar loves xie lian, rouye loves hua cheng. and when he finds san lang he binds to san lang’s wrist (just his wrist) and suddenly xie lian is safe. kited in the air sure, but safe.

rouye is treated as very much a “character” with feelings, who gets scared, or worried. who is affectionate towards hua cheng from the very beginning. i don’t think it’s that noticeable in the show (if it is at all). but it is so painfully sweet in the book.

also side note xie lian is not only intrigued by the silver butterflies but finds them beautiful and plays with them. hahahahha i nearly collapsed by the way.

in the scene when xie lian and san lang are to sleep on the same straw mat for the first time, san lang doesn’t take off any clothes but xie lian does remove his outer layer, exposing first the black collar at his neck (his cursed shackle) and then later the cursed shackle at his ankle. in both instances, san lang’s rage is palpable, described as ‘his gaze focused on those spots and his eyes dark’. i can’t actually describe how unbearable these two are from the very beginning. as soon as they meet… as soon as they meet, there is no other version of the story. it is xie lian the crown prince. and then it is them. and it is always them after that.

anyway if you haven’t you should definitely read tgcf, it’s so so so good! also xie lian describes himself as an old man because he doesn’t know anything happening in the heavenly realm and keeps getting himself into awkward conversations in the communication array with his horrible conversation skills and outdated news. it’s hilarious. i’m listening to the audiobook on spotify, so if you want the link let me know :)

[apho-sappho]

What is your fave TGCF scene

The classic ox cart scene or the beefleaf water master beheading scene tbhhhh

[masterash]

I feel like he'd be a fan of the creative monsters, and definitely appreciate them for following decent danmei tropes.

I'd say the cultivation setting he'd have so many issues with, what do you mean MDZS is closer to Wuxia!? But they have cultivation and sects!? And what about Xie Lian riding an ox cart!? He's a god, surely he can just teleport where he likes.

I think he'd chastise how tame the sex is in tgcf is for a danmei (You have a hot love interest Hua Cheng and you're telling me they don't fuck as often as Wangxian!?) Though he'd appreciate that for the few female characters there are in both, they're decently fleshed out.

I feel like he'd LOVE the scene of Wei Wuxian getting his revenge on Wen Chao for tossing him in the burial mounds. Meanwhile despising Wen Chao and Wen Rohan for being so one dimensional compared to Nie Huiasang and Meng Yao. Same with hating Qi Rong (What he doesn't serve a single purpose but to be an annoyance to Xie Lian!?).

As for characters he'd fixate and absolutely not be gay for, Hua Cheng. He would murder the entire world for that ghost king and be so proud of him for getting revenge on 33 heavenly officials. I feel like he'd also love Wei Wuxian for similar reasons (man's has a type, don't deny it). He'd have a lot of, let's call it "respect" for Lan Wangji and his toned body.

Spent a fair amount of time driving myself more insane picturing what reaction Shen Qingqiu would have to reading mdzs or tgcf. Like would he be a fan. What would he think of the plot and the villains and the cultivation lore and monsters.

Who would he be weirdly fixated on and not at all gay for

[jzixuans]

gonna shake and cry and throw up if i don’t reread tgcf immediately