Hualian

Hualian

Hualian is the SLASH ship between Xie Lian and Hua Cheng from the Tian Guan Ci Fu fandom.

Canon
The two characters first meet at the God Pleasing Ceremony where Xie Lian catches a falling child and saves him from death. This child is Hua Cheng, who, for the next 800 years, has a one sided infatuation with Xie Lian, protecting him even after Hua Cheng's own death.

They meet again after 800 years when Xie Lian ascends to the heavens for the third time and Hua Cheng is a powerful ghost king. Xie Lian is on a mission assigned by the heavens to catch a "ghost bridegroom", and he dresses in a wedding dress to try to trick the evil ghost. Hua Cheng helps Xie Lian by leading him from the marriage sedan to where the ghost bride is and destroying the array that stops people from entering. Hua Cheng also uses a red umbrella (the same one that Xie Lian gave to him in the past) to protect Xie Lian from the blood rain.

After this meeting, the two see each other often. Hua Cheng, under the alias "San Lang" stays at Xie Lian's PuQi Shrine and helps him on a mission in BanYue. Xie Lian knows that San Lang is actually the powerful ghost king Hua Cheng, but still he trusts him and doesn't believe that Hua Cheng would ever cause him harm.

Trivia

 * Hua Cheng, as a child, tattooed Xie Lian's name on his arm. Xie Lian didn't recognize this as his own name because of Hua Cheng's terrible handwriting.
 * Xie Lian tries to help Hua Cheng improve his handwriting, to no avail. Even after they had married, Xie Lian still has Hua Cheng practice often, but Hua Cheng makes almost no improvement.
 * A lot of things from Hua Cheng's character design are related to his past from when he first met Xie Lian.
 * His name (which translates to "flower city") is most likely inspired by Xie Lian's title "Flower Crowned Martial God".
 * He wears a red coral bead in his hair which is revealed to be an earring that Xie Lian lost after the Pleased God Ceremony (where he saved Hua Cheng's life).
 * He carries with him a red umbrella which is the same one that Xie Lian gifted to him on a rainy day at one of Xie Lian's temples.


 * While Hua Cheng was in Mount TongLu, he carved 10 thousand statues of Xie Lian. The best of these statues is the one he carved while inside the kiln, and is the biggest god statue that Xie Lian has ever seen. Xie Lian uses spiritual power to control this statue to break out of the kiln and escape Mount TongLu.