#lhl

[potahun]

nothing to do with aa but im forever so glad that in LHL, they kept the actors voices without making another person dub over them

[qpjianghu]

Who’s the real you? The person who did something awful... or the one who’s horrified by the awful thing you did? Is one part of you allowed to forgive the other? [insp]

Li Xiangyi & Li Lianhua | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (2023)

For @mysteriouslotuscasebookweek prompt, Day 4: grief

[xiehuaian]

[mx-myth]

I totally think that if mlc had been from fdb's pov it would have read like a ya novel with a female protagonist. Running away from home to escape a marriage! Getting constantly ditched by your mentor/love interest/sugar daddy! Reluctantly growing close with the villain/your other love interest (who isn't as bad as he seems)! Discovering your mentor/love interest/sugar daddy is not who he said he is and that he actually was in/is in a situationship with the villian/your other love interest with loads of sexual tension! Dramatic reveal of evil scheming father! Character growth galore but still being a petty prissy little princess!

[junemermaid]

[fic] the taste of pomegranates

Chapters: 4/4 (Complete!) Fandom: 莲花楼 | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Di Feisheng/Fang Duobing/Li Lianhua | Li Xiangyi Characters: Di Feisheng, Fang Duobing, Li Lianhua | Li Xiangyi Additional Tags: Porn with Feelings, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Issues, Tenderness, Backstory, Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Complicated Emotions, Angst with a Happy Ending Series: Part 2 of pomegranate season Summary:

You are a blade for my hand. Do not forget your place. An ordinary day carries Di Feisheng back to the past—and, with a little help, reminds him of the promise of the present.

soooo who's up for 27k words of di feisheng feels (with a side of fang duobing feels, as always, and li lianhua offering pointed asides)?

contains: di feisheng backstory, thorny and tender difanghua smut, gratuitous bath scenes, egregious fruit symbolism, and the evergreen question of how to be good to each other.

read chapter 4 on ao3.

or start from chapter 1.

[bbcphile]

WIP Wednesday (Happy MLC-versary, everyone!)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook started airing two years ago today!! So I figured that called for a WIP Wednesday excerpt!

Here's more of my dihua collaboration with @greentealycheejelly (the sequel to the dihua anniversary fic for @exitvelocities).

**

Li Lianhua thought back to one of a-Fei's more inventive ways of encouraging him to be honest about his health back when he was in the throes of Bicha. It had already been adapted previously, after all, and multiple times; modifying it for these purposes seemed like the best plan they had.

He leaned in and turned his head, his lips nearly touching a-Fei's ear. "Shall we resurrect an old tradition?" he murmured, pitching his voice low enough to be heard by a-Fei and a-Fei alone. "Three questions for a kiss? The usual rules apply?"

For a moment, a-Fei stilled. Then he huffed out an almost amused breath and shook his head. "Two," he said with a hint of a smile.

Li Lianhua snorted and bopped him in the knee with his own. "Oh, now the rules are negotiable? Fine, you menace," he pretended to grouse, letting a hint of a smile play on his lips. "Two. But I get to ask a third if you pass on a question." Not that a-Fei had passed once in the fifteen years they'd played this game, but given how much a-Fei was struggling to tell him anything at all, the contingency seemed wise.

A-Fei hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Ask," he said at last. His hand started to tremor again. He clenched it to force it steady.

Li Lianhua stroked a-Fei's hand with his thumb as he thought through his strategy. With only two questions, he couldn't ask about the scope of the problem, the solution, and why it was happening at all. He'd have to choose. And of those, only the third could wait safely. He'd just have to hope he could figure it out on his own. For now, he'd start with the simplest question, for all that he knew a-Fei would hate it. "Alright," he said, patting a-Fei's shoulder, then holding him more tightly. "How extensive is the intermittent paralysis, or is it only your wrists?"

A-Fei tried to scoff. "That's two questions," he said, his voice pulled painfully tight, making a valiant attempt at a lopsided smirk.

Li Lianhua rolled his eyes, bumping their shoulders together. "Fine, you impossible man. I'll revise it," he said, trying to match his Lao Di's banter while his own worry escalated rapidly. "Is it only your wrists?"

There was a long pause. A-Fei took a slow, deliberate breath. "Usually," he said, his voice worrying hoarse.

Li Lianhua was torn between wanting to pull him onto his lap and hold him close, sheltering him with his body from whatever had done this to him, and wanting to whack his stubborn fool over the head with the fishing rod. "Lao Di-a. Unless you've changed the rules on me again, I'm not wasting my second question guessing limbs and joints."

With a scowl and an attempt at an eyeroll that he'd clearly hoped would cover his shaking exhale, a-Fei squared his jaw. Then he glanced quickly at his shoulder near his collarbone, right where half of a pair of jagged scars lay under his robes, then down to his ankles.

Ah. So, it only affected damage that occurred while he was Jiao Liqiao's prisoner.

A-Fei tensed further, his free hand clenching into a fist so tight his knuckles turned white.

Li Lianhua winced. Time to lighten the mood before a-Fei's nails drew blood from his own palm. "Thanks," he said, patting a-Fei's shoulder again. "And since you so generously let me revise my question," he teased, "I think you deserve an extra reward, don't you?" He darted in and pressed a quick, light kiss to a-Fei's temple. "There," he said, smiling, and bopped a-Fei's knee with his own again. "Better?"

A-Fei's only response was a small dip of his chin, a barely-there nod.

[peridot-tears]

Fic idea:

Horror-ish fic where Di Feisheng is sitting in Lianhua Lou waiting for Li Lianhua. When he finally comes back, switch to Li Lianhua POV where they sleep together for the first time.

While Li Lianhua is asleep, Di Feisheng (back to his POV) goes upstairs to check on Xiaobao, and finds Xiaobao also asleep, having clearly just slept with yet another Li Lianhua, this one who's out of bed and holding a knife, urgently telling Di Feisheng, "That thing downstairs isn't me. We have to get rid of it now."

Switch to this Li Lianhua's POV. He thinks every word of what he's saying is true.

Bonus if one of them is Jiao Liqiao possessing Li Lianhua and the other is just a malevolent demon.

[nutcasewithaknife]

Fang Duobing character of all time. He commits identity fraud to become a detective because his mom won't let him. He imprints like a duckling onto the guy who scammed him. Onscreen kill count higher than the Jianghu's most infamous guy. On the run from a royal engagement. Absolute zero spending sense with money, a spoiled often inconsiderate brat. He's relentless and stubborn as a donkey and will get up every time he's kicked down. He bonds with his mom over the technical and practical applications of torture devices. He doesn't hesitate for a moment to choose the family that loves him. He has a celebrity crush on his shifu. He keeps getting left out of the loop. He changes his entire future plans in a matter of weeks to include the cunning old fox of a quack who is now his zhiji. He's sooo so so loved. He tries to reform the Jianghu's most evil man while the latter has amnesia. He doesn't eat watermelon. He can pick locks and is smug about it. Xiaobao my beloved