LINKDING

summary: Twenty years ago, Xie Lian slept with his his beloved for the first time. Today, he makes a rare request. With the memory of their first time echoing around them, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng make a kinder memory together on a temple altar. Or, at least, that's the plan... ➜ post-canon hualian, exploring their sex life ➜ intertwined narratives of their first time, and of a much later time when they try some under-negotiated kink that doesn't go as planned ➜ I love how careful and caring (and teasing!) they are with each other, how much being with each other gives them the bravery to be vulnerable ➜ such a lovely fic, and with many good hualian feels! ➜ 20k words long

“That’s weird,” Feng Xin said. “It’s not weird, he’s me,” Mu Qing replied, slipping into the robe and waiting as Fu Yao did the ties at his waist. “Well, I can dress myself,” Feng Xin said, snatching up the other robe. Fu Yao rolled his eyes and spoke up for the first time. “No one said I was going to do this for you.” ➜ tgcf post-canon fengqing from fq's pov ➜ mq spontaneously generates a clone of himself; weird selfcest power dynamic games ensue, which fq finds both baffling and hot, leading to a threesome ➜ so much fun! the matter of fact intro to the hilarious premise, and how much fx is just like, "nobody could possibly understand mu qing, shrug, oh well", while mq and his clone are busy being deeply weird at each other! ➜ and then how much all of them contribute in their own ways to their mutual enjoyment of the sexual dynamics they engage in ➜ it's great ➜ 3.5k words long

summary: Disgraced former child star and current struggling street musician Xie Lian sends off an audition tape to a new movie on a wild impulse, and then runs into an interesting man while he's performing. And again that evening, and again the next day. When he's asked to travel to Atlantic City for a table read for the movie, his new friend, Hua Cheng, offers to drive him, and he proceeds to run into a number of old acquaintances (many of whom he didn't realize still considered him a friend), learn a few heart-breaking secrets, and fall absolutely catastrophically in love with a man he's pretty sure is already taken. ➜ tgcf hualian modern au ➜ xie lian is a former child actor who gets by by busking, hua cheng is a mysterious handsome goth he keeps running into, and bai wuxian is the twitter troll who ruined xl's previous career ➜ I love watching hualian's interactions with each other, how much fun they have teasing each other and how much they like each other (and are weird about each other) ➜ lots of secondary characters they have connections to ➜ yin yu as hbomberguy equivalent...this gives me life ➜ charming and fun and exactly what I needed on the day I read it ➜ 19k words

Summary: Xie Lian lounged across from him, the dice cup on the tea table askew to reveal two sixes beneath. His Highness had - helped along with subtle doses of luck as the dice were passed to him - won decisively. Still, though he had drunk much less, the effect on him was more pronounced. // Xie Lian can have a little to drink and do a bit of gambling, as long as he maintains a tranquil heart. That should be very easy. ➤ tgcf hualian post-canon fic ➤ god this is cute, they're so CUTE!!! ➤ hua cheng and xie lian happy and comfortable together, having fun teasing and playing a drinking game ➤ the vibes are sooooo good I'm so charmed! ➤ 2k words in length

Summary: "After all, this gracious daozhang has been spoiling me so much lately, and it’s high time I returned the favor.” Xie Lian trailed to a stop behind Hua Cheng, looking a little lost as Hua Cheng leaped briskly up the steps. Once there, he stopped to flash an impish grin in Xie Lian’s direction. “If dianxia has no objections– allow /me/ to make dinner tonight.” 🍲 In which 'home' isn't a place, but the people in it. (Or, "Good Soup: the fic") ➤ a sweet hualian fic from before they get together ➤ about hua cheng and xie lian cooking together at puqi shrine, and about what makes the feeling of home ➤ lots of great food details! ➤ 8k words in length

Summary: Xie Lian had humoured Mu Qing's desperate resistance for only a few blows before putting a stop to it with a flourish. Now the worn broom Mu Qing had improvised as a weapon lay in pieces on the grass, the royal boot was on his chest, and the royal sword was at his throat. ➤ xianle era, mu qing has presented as an alpha, and xie lian wants to protect him ➤ mu qing desperately horny and mad about it, xie lian obliviously sublimating all of his feelings into Isn't Swordfighting Great :D ➤ I love mu qing's suspicious and pessimistic pov, it's so perfect and so him! ➤ a delightful little glimpse into this world! ➤ 1k words in length

Summary: Pleasuring Wu Ming won’t break Xie Lian’s cultivation. But it will go against what has always been expected of him, and he feels a perverse sort of glee at the thought of doing something so uncharacteristic of his old self. A boot on that flower, grinding it further into the mud. He tilts his head at Wu Ming. “So?” he asks. “Did you lie? Will you run, now that you know what I want from you?” / Xie Lian pressures Wu Ming into giving him spiritual energy via a blowjob, with the goal of pushing him away before he leaves on his own. Wu Ming doesn’t want Xie Lian like this. ➤ ooh a compellingly painful fic about xie lian testing the limits of wu ming's devotion, leading to a sexual encounter that neither of them feel great about ➤ it's so very them for that period in their history: xie lian trying to push wu ming away because he thinks wu ming is better off elsewhere but doing it by being horrible to him, and wu ming feeling an awful mix of self-loathing and heady excitement for getting to be touched this way by dianxia ➤ 1k words in length

Summary: Feng Xin caught a whiff of soap from the bedsheets, just barely there beneath the aroma of the candle glowing on the bedside table. The fine fabric was fresh and soft against his skin as he joined Xie Lian under the blankets. For some reason, that set him on edge. ➤ yessss ➤ omggg this is exactly the kind of dynamics I love to see between Feng Xin and Mu Qing during the Xianle era ➤ fx and xl are so SWEET together and fx and mq are so....united in their mutual disdain for each other and how they're connected with each other ➤ and how sex with each other doesn't actually change any part of that for fengqing; they have a good time having hatesex, they still hate each other, they're connected forever via their hatred for each other and their mutual love of xl, and their mutual inability to understand /how/ the other approaches their love for xl ➤ it's just so good!!!! ➤ 3k words in length

summary: <blockquote>Hua Cheng only wants to have Xie Lian's full and complete attention.</blockquote> ➤ hualian fanvid of the TGCF donghua set to Vienna Teng's "Never Look Away" ➤ ahhhhh it's just very feelings!!!! ➤ audio is song-only ➤ youtube video includes lyric captions ➤ 3:16 in length

Summary: <blockquote>A facet of reality where Quan Yizhen has something Hua Cheng wants, for a change.</blockquote> ➤ tgcf canon divergence au where quan yizhen finds the coffin containing the guoshi fangxin ➤ a fun look at a different way for xie lian and hua cheng to meet again, and for quan yizhen and yin yu to meet again! ➤ 9k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>“This is…” Mei Nianqing’s gaze flickers between Jun Wu—tired, shackled, familiar—and the recently unmasked figure beside him. Two pairs of deep black eyes regard him from nearly identical faces. “...unexpected.” / Jun Wu experiences qi deviation and has to deal with the consequences.</blockquote> ➤ wow?!?! jun wu is such a disaster and this is amazing ➤ post-canon, jun wu has a qi deviation that splits off a younger version of himself as bai wuxiang ➤ mei nianqing suggests that jun wu can fix it by dual cultivating with himself. jun wu is NOT into it but makes it work with mei nianqing's help. ➤ 3k words in length ➤ thanks to @xieliansbignaturals@blorbo.social for the rec!!!

Summary: <blockquote>He almost feels like he should write a book; “How to Break into Heaven, a Guide for Ghosts”. Step one: Ask your fellow ghost king for undercover advice, seeing as he did it for decades. Step one-point-five: Ghosts aren’t supposed to be in the Heavenly Court, so no one thinks to look for them anyway. Step two: Ironically, pray. End of book. / Xie Lian tests a theory, Hua Cheng goes on a date, and Heaven suffers.</blockquote> ➤ xie lian gets an idea for a fun adventure and hua cheng loves to indulge his husband's mischievous side (I LOVE THIS) ➤ the idea: if hua cheng went to heaven wearing clothes that aren't red, would anyone recognize him? ➤ a charming and cute fic! ➤ 3k words in length ➤ thanks to by-xieliansbignaturalsby-blorbo.social for the rec!

➤ fan animation to music

Summary: <blockquote>When Mu Qing glanced over at Xie Lian beside him, he was startled to find him already watching him. A small smile played on his lips. “You know, Mu Qing,” he started—and if Mu Qing didn’t know any better he would say he sounded almost shy— “no one else that I fight with feels like a challenge. You’re the best of them all.” Mu Qing’s throat was tight and his face was hot, like he was going to cry. His eyes were quite dry, though. “You’re the best. You always will be.” / Mu Qing can't seem to reconcile the simple facts of his relationship to the crown prince with his more complicated feelings for Xie Lian.</blockquote> ➤ mu qing pov from the xianle trio era ➤ ft. class issues and teen relationship drama ➤ xie lian is an enormous martial arts nerd and a naive but shining prince; mu qing is pining but hyper-aware of class boundaries and how everyone sees him; feng xin is ready to judge ➤ it's so great and succeeds so well at what it's doing, I love it ➤ I love the last scene, which it ends on, about xie lian's appearance after he ascends. perfect ending to the fic ➤ 7k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Hua Cheng wakes up in a long-robbed tomb older than Xianle, cursed shackles on his neck and ankle and hope hammering in his stolen heart. Xie Lian awakens in a bed. This is somehow more disconcerting. / In which a body-swapping curse brings two people together.</blockquote> ➤ canon divergence story where ghost king hua cheng manages to catch up with his god in a different way ➤ that way: xie lian accidentally triggered a curse and now he's swapped bodies with a mysterious ghost....? ➤ (INCREDIBLE premise) ➤ I love xl and hc's very different reactions to finding themselves in each other's bodies ➤ I think my favourite part though might be poor yin yu doing his best to handle the situation, between hc's firm instructions on how to treat xl, and xl's equally firm opinions on what to do ➤ a very fun read overall! ➤ 6k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>All of Heaven has been brought to its knees by the hot new gatcha game, Celestial Confluence/Cultivation Cross. The gods are at each other's throats, and are at the brink of civil war, in pursuit of the rarest of .pngs. Chaos reigns. And it is most emphatically Hua Cheng's fault.</blockquote> ➤ a silly funny fic about hua cheng causing chaos in heaven by creating a trendy new gacha game ➤ xie lian, bewildered, ends up on shi qingxuan and ming yi's livestream about the game ➤ hua cheng is absolutely willing to get distracted from the game by gege ➤ there's some excellent comic timing in here! ➤ 6k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>As he rounds the corner to the front of Puji Shrine, he's taken aback to see Nan Feng standing outside the shrine's open door with his sword drawn. "Nan Feng?" he calls, and Nan Feng jumps. "Oh!" he says, recognizing Xie Lian. "There you are! Your highness, you shouldn't enter — there's a demon inside!" Xie Lian frowns at him. "I'm aware," he says. "He stayed the night." / Xie Lian and Hua Cheng talk things out a little.</blockquote> ➤ a cute quiet small domestic scene in puqi shrine in the middle parts of book canon ➤ see hua cheng as a cat! hear hua cheng's theory about breathing being sexy! enjoy hua cheng and xie lian being completely smitten with each other! also lady windmaster is a real pal as always ➤ it's super adorable ➤ 6k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The coral bead bites into the pads of Hua Cheng’s fingers as he freezes, pressing down too hard in surprise. It takes a moment for his voice to work. When it does, it comes out distant, as if spoken by someone else entirely. “Your Highness remembers someone so insignificant?” he asks.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>“Never in my life,” Lang Qianqiu said, “have I seen such a pathetic creature.” Qi Rong felt a stab of vicious amusement. A fresh peal of laughter shocked itself from the recesses of his body. It rattled up through his diaphragm, convulsive and somewhat painful. “Pathetic?” Qi Rong’s voice voice emerged on a shallow rasp. “You, you think I’m — ohhh, now that’s fucking rich, isn’t it?” / Lang Qianqiu manages to capture Qi Rong. The question, then, becomes what to do with him.</blockquote> ➤ this really helped me make sense of qi rong as a full person; I'd struggled to understand him from just reading canon

Summary: <blockquote>He Xuan cannot contend with what he holds. How it can be possible that Shi Qingxuan has everything and is so unconscious of it as to hand himself thoughtlessly over to his own predator. / He Xuan is managing the trajectory of his revenge just fine.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Midday, on a beach that’s… somewhere, though he can’t exactly say where. The shapes of mountains loom inland, peering behind dreary clouds. This must not be the far south, which has white sand and shady palms under which to drink wine, and Shi Qingxuan really, really could use some wine right now given the dryness in his mouth. / Post-Blackwater Arc, Shi Qingxuan adjusts to a mortal life, which means adjusting to hunger pains. Someone is taking care of him. Written for Heaven Official's Kitchen - TGCF Cookbook Zine (by-tgcfcookbook)</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>He was close enough now to reach out and touch. So he did. Ignoring Qi Rong’s shrieks of fury, he caught him by the throat and bent him back over the altar. Jun Wu studied his features, comparing them to Xie Lian’s. “Your eyes are all wrong, of course,” Jun Wu said. Even at his lowest, Xie Lian’s were never so deranged. “But around the mouth, yes… and if you were better dressed…” / Unable to get his hands on Xie Lian, Jun Wu makes do.</blockquote> ➤ oof ➤ the jun wu/xie lian is by proxy

Summary: <blockquote>After getting lost in Ghost City, Xie Lian bargains away years of servitude to the Gambler’s Den to help a man in need. He dons the robes of a worker and hides his face and life behind an enchanted mask, protecting himself from the city's denizens. Xie Lian finds an unexpected home in Ghost City before he ever sees the lord of it, the infamous Hua Cheng. When he finally does, something about himself seems to catch the attention of the Ghost King, slowly striking up an unusual friendship. Xie Lian must figure out how to navigate his burgeoning feelings, how to keep his identity to himself, and how to get over a ghost so clearly in love with someone else.</blockquote> ➤ I enjoyed the fic a lot but the ending wasn't very tight

Summary: <blockquote>Over the course of his life, Xie Lian learned that there were some fates worse than death, that death could be a mercy—far too benevolent for those of Yong'an. They stripped him of his entire life: his friends, his family, his crown, his kingdom, his godhood. Xie Lian lost everything and he was being forced to live with it, so no, he would not be so kind as to gift his enemies with that which he craved most. They deserved one of those fates far worse than death, and he knew exactly how to give it to them. / Or: Darkness hangs heavy over Xie Lian. Wu Ming looks after him.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Wearing a face that is not his own, dressed in a red tunic and simple boots, Hua Cheng comes face to face with the love of his life - and forever after - for the first time in two hundred years. Or, the one where Xie Lian is also a ghost.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>“Your highness,” White No-Face sighs. He sounds like a disappointed parent. “You’re harming your cultivation, to go around like this. Your cultivation demands purity.” “Fuck off,” Xie Lian says. (A very drunk Xie Lian is instructed by White No-Face to keep his cultivation vows. He decides to do the opposite.)</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>A post-canon Quanyin series, because I really needed a happy ending for these two and then we just kept going.</blockquote> ➤ series consists of: Then It All Goes Away Plain to See (Harder to Say) I'd Write Your Name in a Heart with the Hemorrhage Go I But For the Grace of You ➤ about difficulties in communicating even after you decide you're gonna try to have a better relationship

Summary: <blockquote>Hua Cheng huffs out a laugh. “You do have terrible luck,” he agrees. “And mine is quite good. But you don’t know that you wouldn’t win it back. Play with me?” “San Lang,” chides Xie Lian, voice crinkling gently as it’s swept along to the midpoint between amusement and fondness. “Are you going to let me win again?” “Depends,” says Hua Cheng, “on what you’re betting, Gege.” / A search, a gambling table, and the events thereof.</blockquote> ➤ a great look at the two of them in a mid-canon stage in their relationship, and the careful dance the two of them are engaged in, getting closer and closer to each other, has a delicious frisson here

Summary: <blockquote>“And I said something like, ‘If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you try?’” Quan Yizhen stood up so quickly that his chair clattered over. “Yes!” he cried, hands slammed flat on the table in his excitement. “Yes, Shixiong, that’s what you said! Did you remember?!” “…No, it just…” Yin Yu stammered, unprepared for that reaction. “Isn’t that a normal way to respond?” He doesn’t think that way, Xie Lian had told him. He scrambled for a better answer, gesturing for Quan Yizhen to sit back down. How did one explain sarcasm to someone like this? / When Yin Yu returns to the world as a ghost, he’s forgotten everything about his former life. Has he been given a chance to start over again, or will the pain of the past just catch up with him?</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Your Highness,” Feng Xin says carefully, “what do you…how much do you remember?” “Clearly, he remembers enough,” Mu Qing snaps. He waves an emphatic hand. “He’s happy to see us, isn’t he?” “Ah, it’s really alright, I remember most things,” Xie Lian says, placating. “I just don’t…” His eyes skitter nervously towards Hua Cheng and then away again; the tension in Hua Cheng’s shoulders, in his entire body, stretches closer to snapping. It feels like every muscle is straining under the weight of this, like every cell in his body is rebelling against this…this horror. Still, he manages to say what Xie Lian apparently cannot: “He just doesn’t remember me.”</blockquote> ➤ yessss