Xie Lian Knows The Sound Of A Well-oiled Machine When He Hears One. And The Pleasant Rumbling That Tickles

Here's a reimagining I wrote of the scene in book 4 where Xie Lian gets drunk at the graveyard. Mind the tags, please.

Summary:

Didi (弟弟): Younger brother.

Drunk for the first time in his life, Xie Lian accidentally falls in an open burial pit and finds that he’s not alone.

Canon divergence from chapter 185 of the original/unrevised serialized edition.

Chapter 1: Fever

Summary: In the past few days, by his own initiative, Xie Lian had hugged and carried Hua Cheng more times than he could count. He'd held his hand for hours at a time, he kept squeezing his cheeks and nuzzling his hair. He shared blankets with him every night and made his hair every morning. His attention brought Hua Cheng a level of comfort and reassurance he hadn’t even imagined before. Even the smallest gesture of tenderness coming from Xie Lian could push all the rage of the volcano to the far corners of Hua Cheng’s mind and make him forget that it was there.

Perhaps that had been the problem. Perhaps Hua Cheng had got too comfortable basking in Xie Lian’s attention, shamelessly taking advantage of his good heart until, due to his carelessness, a wave of the mountain’s evil influence impacted his brain directly, taking him out of commission like a stupid novice.

It took over ten days for Xie Lian and Hua Cheng to walk from the inn where they met with the emperor to the entrance of Mount Tonglu. What happened during that journey? And most importantly, what would've happened if things had gone differently during that journey?

Expect folk stories told by Hua Cheng worshippers, Xie Lian figuring out stuff he could've realised one hundred chapters ago, and a Ghost King simultaneously hating on his child-like appearance and getting the best out of it.

Canon divergence from chapter 143. Contains many spoilers from the book!

Read on Ao3.

ABCDMXTX - Day 13: Mu Qing.

I read somewhere that Mu Qing uses a zhanmadao (horse-slicing curved sword) and I never looked back.

List of prompts.

This links to a wheel with nearly a hundred fic tropes for plots, settings, and more. Spin it twice.

This could also work with art inspiration, but the buttons only allow for so many characters on them. And please do ramble in the tags! I'm going to have no idea what most of you are talking about, and it's going to be great.

Lucanis: "For what it's worth, Spite seems to miss him."

Emmrich: "Does he?"

Lucanis: "Sort of like a cat when you shutter the windows and stop him from watching birds."

A short comic I made about my experiences as a seasonal worker, and the way places change you.

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

(x)

A Lucanis 🧅

ABCDMXTX - Day 6: Feng Xin.

My little angry hyacinth~

I based his clothes on the donghua design.

List of prompts.