#the hanzi of cheng also looks a little nicer bc its a tad more complicated than hong too lol

[lenglengflames]

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

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

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

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

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

time to unpack the name a little:

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

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

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

i cannot express how much i love wordplay in chinese.

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