LINKDING

summary: He Xuan has little money, no stable job, an eating disorder, and a great deal of resentment at the way their life has fallen apart. Shi Qingxuan, whom they met on an online eating disorder community, is also going through a challenging time. Perhaps it is good, then, that they have each other to depend on. ➜ beefleaf modern au ➜ sqx and hx, their respective struggles with eating disorders, and the relationship they have with each other ➜ told in a really cool non-traditional way, largely through the digital records hx keeps -- texts with sqx, web searches, youtube history, to do lists, notes to self, etc ➜ I love how the form allows this really great window into hx's state of mind, with a sort of spareness that packs a big punch ➜ and the translation to the modern context of the beefleaf relationship pre-black-water-arc is so good! ➜ what a good. I'm so impressed! ➜ 7k words long

Shi Qingxuan had thought it would be easy, walking up the mountain path to bring her brother his dinner and fetch him home. She hadn't realised that the way would be so confusing, or guessed she'd meet somebody along the way. ➜ inspired by roland bloodletter's opus pantingbed, this is a tgcf fic that shows a possible different first meeting between hx and sqx ➜ both are children, sqx in her era of living as a girl while her brother cultivates, hx a child in an ordinary village who doesn't quite fit in ➜ I love the way it shows what kind of people they both are as children, both recognisable as the people they'll become, but hx still able to hope, and trust, and reach out for potential good things ➜ and then the ENDING!! ahhhh!!! ➜ peak ouchy beefleaf <3 ➜ 2k words long

<blockquote>He Xuan starts coughing so loudly and so violently that for a second Xie Lian loses track of reality, and thinks it was He Xuan who got buried under what feels like half a mountain, and not Xie Lian. It’s only as he tries to get up, alarmed, that the pain shoots through his body and reminds him why that would be a terrible idea. A grunt of pain must escape him, because He Xuan pushes him down again. This time, he leaves his hand on his shoulder, a constant reminder to “stay the fuck down, dianxia, fucking idiot.” “You sounded like you were in pain. Are you sure you weren’t hurt in the collapse?” “It really is very galling to be fretted upon by a man who is bleeding half of his intestines unto the floor.” (or: Xie Lian and He Xuan end up trapped in a cave together, and Xie Lian won't stop saying upsetting things. It's probably the concussion.)</blockquote>