i went through like all your tgcf posts so i feel very confident in asking: can we just talk about how unhinged xie lian is? like i feel like a lot of fandom forgets this and instead have xie lian constantly correct hua cheng's behavior when he like...literally almost never does that, even when HC is honghong'er and is clinging to his robes with filthy hands xie lian's the only one who just lets him do what he wants while everyone else is yelling at him about it
like he trusts, loves, and understands hua cheng so much that he doesn't question him about really anything and is never judgmental about anything he does or doesn't do and most of the time he's in full agreement bc the mfer is unhinged enough to be in full agreement with this crazy ass man (i say lovingly i them both)
Bro I saw a fucking post the other day that was like, 'oh Hua Cheng is great for Xie Lian, because by being himself he teaches Xie Lian that it's OK to not be nice all the time!!'
Like... I think that the reason you don't hear people talk about it is just because there's very few book readers. Fans who know the manhwa or donghua only or only know the story through osmosis from others. Xie Lian is plenty insane. He finds like 80% of the shit Hua Cheng hilarious cuz he just lacks the filter Xie Lian does, and Xie Lian always makes it clear in his head that he more or less has the same thoughts about stuff that Hua Cheng does. And, hell, when Xie Lian DOES disagree with Hua Cheng, half the time he doesn't actually do anything. He watches Hua Cheng scream at and bully his villagers and do shit like (in the revision extra) toss stuff at ghost fish so hard they run away, and he's just internally like 'oh I feel bad for them....' but just lets Hua Cheng do it LMAO. Like literally he'll watch him threaten other ghosts and just be like:
He's literally the stereotype of a bad dog owner. 'He don't bite' meanwhile his massive doberman pitbull mix Hua Cheng is in the middle of mauling someone
I think there's like... One time. Where they go to try and recruit beggars to help with the array, and some old, disabled beggar tells Xie Lian to fuck off, and Xie Lian has to put his arm out to stop Hua Cheng from beating up this old man LMAO and even then that was more a 'now is not the time' situation sdfgk
