What Common Tropes Appear In Hua Cheng/Xie Lian Fanfiction Plots?

Man, I've seen so many Hualian fics orbit around that whole 'centuries of pining' vibe. It's rarely just straightforward fluff post-canon, you know? Writers love to dig into the 800 years Xie Lian was alone, spinning these elaborate AUs where Hua Cheng finds him earlier, or Xie Lian remembers something crucial from their past encounters. The devotion angle gets pushed to extremes—Hua Cheng's worship isn't just background; it's the central engine for hurt/comfort, identity porn, or even darker possessive themes. A trope I'm a bit tired of, honestly, is the 'amnesia reset'. It pops up a lot where one of them loses their memory, forcing a re-do of the trust building. It can be sweet, but after the tenth variation, you crave something where their hard-won stability is the starting point for a new conflict instead. That said, the 'First Worship' fics that imagine Hua Cheng's very first prayer or Xie Lian's first awareness of his believer? Those still get me every time.

If we're talking about Hualian pairings beyond the main canon, I find myself drawn most to AUs that preserve the core dynamic but shift the context completely. Modern college AUs where Hua Cheng is the campus bad boy and Xie Lian the slightly oblivious, perpetually unlucky scholarship student just hit different. There's something about translating Xie Lian's celestial patience into surviving student loans and bad roommates that makes his eventual devotion from Hua Cheng feel even more grounded. Another pairing that lives in my head rent-free is the 'Ghost King Hua Cheng & Mortal Cultivator Xie Lian' trope, but set before their reunion. Fics where Hua Cheng secretly watches over Xie Lian's mortal struggles, intervening just enough to keep him from true disaster but never revealing himself, are a special kind of agony. It's all about the pining and the protection from the shadows. I tend to avoid fics that pair either of them with other characters from the TGCF universe romantically—it just feels off to me, given the canon intensity. The best fics for me are the ones that explore different facets of their established bond, not replace it.

I see this request and my brain immediately goes to post-canon fluff. Something about them getting to be boringly, profoundly happy after everything hits right. Tbh a lot of the fics where they're just being domestic or Xie Lian figuring out how to accept being pampered without guilt are my comfort reads. They don't need big plots. But if you want specific dynamics, I'm a sucker for any setup where Hua Cheng is the one who gets temporarily weakened or vulnerable, and Xie Lian has to step up as the protector. It flips their usual dynamic in a way that feels really earned. There's one where Hua Cheng loses his memory post-canon and Xie Lian has to patiently re-seduce him without any of the power imbalance of their first go-around—it’s surprisingly tender and funny. Avoid the high school AUs unless they're really well-done; the epic scale of their devotion gets lost in a locker room.

The greenlight trope in 'Heaven Official's Blessing' is a masterclass in subtlety, especially when exploring Xie Lian and Hua Cheng's relationship. One standout moment is Hua Cheng's unwavering devotion, which is often framed under dim, eerie green light—symbolizing both mystery and hope. Their interactions in these scenes, like the lantern festival or the ghost city sequences, are charged with unspoken longing. The light becomes a silent witness to their emotional growth, contrasting Xie Lian's initial hesitance with Hua Cheng's patient persistence. Another layer is how the greenlight mirrors their spiritual connection. It’s not just about visual aesthetics; it’s a narrative device that underscores their bond. For instance, when Xie Lian realizes Hua Cheng’s true identity, the green hues soften, almost like the universe acknowledging their reunion. The slow-burn isn’t rushed—every glance, every shared silence under that light feels earned. The trope also plays with duality: green can signify decay (Xie Lian’s past suffering) and renewal (Hua Cheng’s love as his salvation). It’s poetic how a color can carry so much emotional weight.

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.

Hu Tao x Zhongli fics? They almost always circle back to that one dynamic: the lively, death-obsessed director slowly chipping away at the god's ancient, stoic exterior. It's the 'sunshine x grumpy' trope cranked up to eleven, but with a morbid twist that's perfect for them. You see a lot of 'found family' or 'domestic' AUs where Zhongli somehow ends up living with or working for the Funeral Parlor long-term. The trope of him learning to appreciate mortal life through her chaotic energy is a staple. It's a nice inversion—usually the immortal teaches the mortal, but here, Hu Tao's vibrant, fleeting humanity is the lesson. Then there's the angst. So much angst. The 'immortality angst' trope is front and center, with Hu Tao grappling with the fact that he'll watch her grow old and die. It gets heavy, but writers love exploring that bittersweet tension between her profession and his permanence. A more niche one I've seen is 'contract marriage' AUs for political or business reasons, which is hilarious given his literal history with contracts. It usually devolves into fluffy domesticity anyway, but the initial setup is always fun.

I spend way too much time wandering the edges of AO3 trying to find new food for my XL/HC obsession, and I gotta say, that archive is by far the deepest well. The tagging system is a lifesaver—you can just set a filter for the pairing and go down a rabbit hole for weeks. It’s not just quantity, either; the quality spectrum is wild, from these beautifully lyrical novel-length epics to the funniest modern AU coffee shop one-shots. The sheer dedication of that fandom on there is something else. I do sometimes check FF.net for older stuff, and there’s a decent chunk, but it feels a bit like digging through an attic compared to AO3’s organized library. Honestly, if someone told me they only read on AO3, I wouldn’t blame them at all. For Chinese-language stuff, Lofter has a huge presence. It’s a bit harder to navigate if you’re not fluent, but the art and fic combinations there are stunning. Wattpad has some, but it skews younger and the tropes can get pretty repetitive. Still, every now and then you’ll find a hidden thread of a story there that just hooks you. The real trick is knowing which platform matches your mood: AO3 for depth and tags, Lofter for that visual-creative blend, and maybe Wattpad for something quick and tropey when you’re not in the mood to think too hard.

AO3, hands down. It's basically the default archive for that ship. The tagging system means you can find anything from ten-chapter slow burns to one-shots focused on a specific moment, and because it's so character-tag driven, the Hua Cheng/Xie Lian stuff is incredibly easy to navigate. You don't have to wade through unrelated stories. I'd say the other big hub is probably Lofter if you can read Chinese. The art and fic there are intense, and the community feels very active. I've seen some translations of Lofter fics pop up on AO3, but there's a whole other world of content that doesn't get translated. It's a different flavor, sometimes more lyrical or poetic in a way that's hard to describe. For me, the depth on AO3 is unmatched, though. Writers there really explore the centuries of pining, and you get these epic, novel-length fics that feel like they could be canon extensions.

A lot of discussion around Hu Tao and Zhongli fiction orbits the dynamic shift between their canonical, mostly professional acquaintance and the sheer gravitational pull of their archetypal roles. You’ve got the funeral director and the ancient god of contracts and history—it’s a playground for juxtaposition. The most common route is exploring their shared connection to death and memory. Hu Tao, who treats the afterlife with cheerful irreverence, versus Zhongli, who carries the literal weight of millennia of loss. Fics that dig into that contrast are everywhere, often framed as quiet, introspective character studies. Maybe they share tea after a difficult funeral, and Zhongli reveals a sliver of grief for someone he knew centuries ago, leaving Hu Tao to reassemble her view of him. Then there’s the ‘found family’ or mentorship trope, which honestly feels more natural to me than forcing a romantic angle. Zhongli as this weary, retired archon secretly looking out for the eccentric, energetic director of his own funeral parlor has such a warm appeal. He becomes this silent guardian, maybe subtly guiding her away from dangers she’s unaware of, or providing obscure historical context for her unusual poetry. It’s less about dramatic plot and more about these small, accumulating moments of care that redefine their working relationship. I’ve also seen a surprising number of crossovers or AUs that transplant them into entirely different settings but preserve their core dynamic. Coffee shop AUs where Zhongli is a regular customer and Hu Tao is the relentlessly peppy barista. Fantasy AUs where she’s a necromancer apprentice and he’s the immortal king watching from the shadows. The tropes that stick are always the ones that highlight their contrasting energies—her chaotic life-affirming energy against his ordered, timeless solemnity. It’ s less about whether they fall in love and more about how two people who symbolize different facets of mortality somehow make each other feel more grounded, or more alive.

Wangxian fics have this magical way of reinventing their dynamic while keeping the core intact. One trope I adore is the 'modern AU where Lan Zhan is a stoic CEO and Wei Ying is his chaotic artist neighbor'—it’s everywhere, and for good reason! The contrast between Lan Zhan’s structured world and Wei Ying’s free-spirited chaos creates this delicious tension. Another classic is the 'soulmate AU with red strings or marks,' where they’re destined but still dance around each other for 50k words. I’ve lost count of how many fics use the 'time travel fix-it' trope, where Wei Ying goes back to prevent the tragedy, often with heartbreakingly soft moments between them post-revelation. And let’s not forget the 'co-parenting A-Yuan' fluff fests, which are basically emotional comfort food. Then there’s the darker stuff, like 'angst with a happy ending' where one of them suffers (usually Wei Ying) and the other nurses them back to love. The 'fake marriage' trope also pops up a lot, often with hilarious misunderstandings or secret pining. What’s fascinating is how these tropes mirror their canon dynamic—protective Lan Zhan, reckless Wei Ying—but stretch it into new universes. My personal weakness? 'Band AU Wei Ying with rockstar vibes and classical musician Lan Zhan.' It’s like the tropes are love letters to their chemistry, just reshuffled endlessly.