lauki bedevils me

Can we talk about Ruoye for a second.

Like, it’s a sweet, wholesome, playful little spirit that loves Xie Lian to pieces, yet its backstory is so fucked up. It only came to life because of the horrible evil acts it was used to commit, and I’m just thinking that poor baby Ruoye has got to be just as traumatized as Xie Lian. The book notes that in its very first moments, it doesn’t understand the suffering that birthed it, but I hardly think that means Ruoye wasn’t aware of what caused it to gain consciousness. It was a lil baby spirit, so it just didn’t understand the implications yet.

And Ruoye had the misfortune of coming to life during Xie Lian’s worst moments. Of course it wasn’t XL’s fault, but it still hurts that Ruoye, innocent little spirit that it was, just wanted love from the person it saw as its creator and wasn’t able to get it. My guess is Ruoye probably quickly understood the circumstances surrounding its birth because of XL’s initial attitude towards it. I almost imagine it had to feel some sort of guilt for its part, albeit involuntary, in XL’s suffering.

However. As we know, no matter what mistakes Xie Lian made in the past, he ultimately chose kindness. I cannot imagine how painful it must have been for him to see Ruoye for a while, given what it must have reminded him of, yet he welcomed and cared for it regardless. He gave it the love that it so desperately wanted. And I can’t get over that. He realized that no matter how much pain Ruoye had caused him, it wasn’t the little spirit’s fault. In a way, I can draw parallels between that and Xie Lian’s treatment of Hong Hong’er, who he always took care of no matter how much others warned him that he would cause misfortune. Xie Lian ignored the warnings because Hong Hong’er didn’t deserve to be punished for something he had no control over. He deserved to be loved like anyone else.

Now, the scene that really got me thinking about all this? When Jun Wu uses Ruoye to tie up Xie Lian in Quan Yizhen’s palace, Ruoye is distraught. I don’t think that is purely because it has been tied into knots, as is explained in the book, but also because of the resurfacing trauma of again being used to hurt Xie Lian, whom it loves so much. And again, like little ghost fire Hua Cheng, it can do nothing about it.

All this to say, I love precious little Ruoye and I love the relationship it has with Xie Lian even more. Despite the trauma and pain, they found companionship in each other, choosing to love. It’s like, one of, if not the main theme, of TGCF, and I never realized how much Ruoye, with all its parallels to Hua Cheng, embodies that.

Since reading TGCF, I literally have not gone a single day without thinking about Xie Lian.

per my hua cheng is not a stalker post

some of yall really don't know what legitimate stalking and stalker behavior is.

you know who did?

bai wuxiang

xie lians true stalker who feels entitled to xie lian and obsessed with him to such a degree he wants to mould xie lian in his own image

slip up

Can’t recommend Heaven Official’s Blessing enough if the main thing you look for in fiction is guy hitting rock bottom and then hitting like five more rock bottoms

baffles me when people say hua cheng stalked xie lian for centuries lol.

the motherfucker didn't know where his precious beloved was! he couldn't stalk him if he wanted! and he doesnt btw.

the second hua cheng knew of xie lians location what did he do? he got all dressed up and immediately went to see him. he spent centuries searching for xie lian, not to follow from behind in secret, but to present himself to him in all his ghost king glory and woo the man

made a woodblock print(??) for class

And while we all know it to be true, I'm going to say it so it's out in the universe.

Everytime Xie Lian grabs his sword, Hua Cheng has to do some serious deep breathing to keep himself from turning into an overwhelmed Victorian lady

^like this

Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”

If the text says the curtains are blue you can argue about what that means; but if you’re going to claim they’re actually yellow you’d better have a really good argument.

Medusa Lian and blind Hua Cheng!! This drawing is kinda old but I'm very proud of it!!

I was thinking this AU as some kind of canon divergence in which JW "walk in" when XL is still recovering after being stabbed ×1000 and changes him into Medusa as a way to "keep people away from XL so that they'll never hurt him again" and so XL just has to live completely alone in random forests to avoid changing people into statues kzkdkd

I was also thinking of the snakes being this universe's Ruoye (= an extension of XL that still has its own will) but not sure about that one lmao

I’ve said this before but you read tgcf and you are like aww Xie Lian saved baby Hong Hong’er and it’s so sweet Hua Cheng fell in love with him and searched for him and gets protective over him. He’s so chivalrous truly a knight in bells booted armour.

Until you read the rest of the books and you realise that Hua Cheng is in fact not acting out of chivalry and must have been going out of his mind for 800 years because every time he and Xie Lian interacted he saw Xie Lian being in a situation and his go to plan was to basically always push the self destruct button and for extra measure throw himself on the chopping block in literal seconds.

Like all his over protectiveness isn’t so much about making Xie Lian a damsel in distress as it is instead a parent taking away all choking hazards and baby proofing the locks except the baby knows martial arts and could kill a man just by twitching his elbow yet he continues to use himself as target practise.

Truly nothing is funnier than Xie Lian just losing his goody two shoes facade when Qi Rong is involved like when everyone else is an asshole or doing evil things Xie Lian just smiles patiently and thinks it’s none of his business but the second Qi Rong is around he is being force fed Xie Lians food and made fun of for being a wrath and getting served straight hands the second he says anything about Hua Cheng like truly some things are just for the family.