How Does Hua Cheng/Xie Lian Fanfiction Explore Their Emotional Bond?

Man, I’m just gonna say it—the best fics for them are the ones that get into Hua Cheng’s head. Canon gives us this incredibly devoted, centuries-long love, but it’s all from Xie Lian’s POV for the most part. So the fic writers go to town on the agony of waiting, the sheer depth of that worship. I’ve read a few that are just Hua Cheng’s internal monologue during the eight hundred years, and they’re brutal. The way he turns his own suffering into a kind of art, all for Dianxia? It’s not just romantic, it’s obsessive in a way that could be creepy if it wasn’t so... earned.

What makes the bond work, though, is how Xie Lian reciprocates in fic. He’s not just a passive recipient. The really good authors show him slowly understanding the weight of what he’s been given, and choosing to shoulder it anyway. He heals by learning to accept being cherished, which is a huge deal for someone who spent 800 years believing he was a curse. So the emotional exploration is this two-way street: Hua Cheng’s devotion healing Xie Lian’s self-worth, and Xie Lian’s acceptance finally giving Hua Cheng’s existence the meaning he’s been searching for. It’ s less about grand declarations and more about quiet moments where that dynamic just clicks.

Some fics also dig into the post-canon domesticity, which is a sweet spot for me. Seeing them figure out how to just be together, without the world ending, is where a lot of subtle character work happens. Hua Cheng learning to want things for himself, Xie Lian gently pushing back against the pedestal—that’s the good stuff.

I’m a sucker for fics that flip the script. There’s this whole subset where Xie Lian is the one who remembers first, or Hua Cheng is the one who needs saving emotionally. It peels back layers of their dynamic I hadn’t considered.

Exploring their bond often means testing its limits—what if one of them doubted? What if the power balance shifted? The answers are usually rooted in that unshakeable core of respect and choice, which feels really solid. Even in AUs, that foundation translates.

The thing that gets me every time is the sheer scale of the emotion. Hua Cheng waited 800 years. He built a city, gathered an army, mastered countless skills—all for one person who didn’t even know he existed. Fanfiction takes that epic premise and grounds it in tiny, human details. I remember one fic that was just about Hua Cheng learning to cook for Xie Lian, and the sheer focus he brought to it, like it was the most important battle of his life. Another explored Xie Lian’s quiet anxiety that he could never be worthy of that level of devotion, and Hua Cheng’s confused frustration when he realizes Dianxia doesn’t understand his own worth.

That contrast between the grand myth and the intimate reality is where the emotional bond gets explored most deeply. It’ s not just ‘they love each other a lot.’ It’s about how two people with utterly monumental pasts—one a god who fell, the other a ghost who rose—create a small, safe space together. The fics that nail it show love as a deliberate, daily choice for them, which feels even more powerful given the epic backdrop. Hua Cheng’s love isn’t just a feeling; it’s his entire reason for existing, and seeing Xie Lian gradually learn to live with that, and even return it in his own understated way, is what keeps me reading.

Honestly, I think a lot of fic overshoots the mark and makes their bond kind of... saccharine? Don’t get me wrong, I love them, but canon is so much about a love that persists despite deep trauma, not one that erases it. The most interesting fics I’ve read lean into the weirdness—Hua Cheng’s ghost king nature, Xie Lian’s immortality and guilt. How do you have a normal relationship when one partner literally built a nation in your honor and the other can’t feel pain?

They explore the bond by putting them in situations where their specific damage has to interact. Like, fics where Xie Lian tries to ‘repay’ Hua Cheng and it backfires horribly because that’s not how Hua Cheng’s love works. Or ones where Hua Cheng’s fear of Xie Lian disappearing again manifests as overprotectiveness that strains things. It’s messy and uncomfortable sometimes, which feels more true to their history than endless fluff. The emotional core is in the negotiations, the small repairs after those misunderstandings.