HuaLian TGCF Oneshots

Xie Lian asks for dating advice part 4

Early Christmas gift! :)
Please excuse the somewhat bad smut at the end, this is my first time trying it 😭

After Hua Cheng had done his hair and they had breakfast together, he had excused himself almost immediately.

Xie Lian was a bit puzzled at his abrupt disappearance, but it worked in his favor as he now had uninterrupted time to make preparations for the next day.

(Between you and me, yes Hua Cheng went to go paint)

And so Xie Lian set off for his first stop: ghost city. He arrived almost in no time, and although ghost city was in its most active form only at night, even now people crowded the streets and noise flooded the city.

As Xie Lian meandered through the curving and convoluted maze of roads to get to his destination, several of ghost city's residents stopped him for idle conversation or shot him a hello from across the street.

Xie Lian didn't mind this at all. In fact, it was his purpose for coming here. And so he took his time chatting, catching up with familiar faces from his time as acting Chengzu for the day.

News of his arrival spread quickly, and it wasn't long before a crowd had formed before him. Xie Lian patiently explained his request to the residents of ghost city and soon the place was bustling with even more people than at its zenith. Ghosts reached out to touch him or fought each other to give Xie Lian presents. If it wasn't for the fact that Xie Lian was accustomed to this kind of treatment as a god, he was sure it would be a very uncomfortable affair.

It wasn't long before Xie Lian's arms were piled to the brim with small presents and he struggled to keep himself on task. After dismissing the crowd somewhat, Xie Lian made his way to the few stores he had planned to visit. The first was a flower shop, where Xie Lian spent time carefully picking and choosing the flowers he believed would suit Hua Cheng's tastes the best.

The owner refused to take any payment from him, going so far as to give Xie Lian much more than he asked for and even promising to help Xie Lian with his surprise gift while keeping it a secret from Hua Cheng.

Next, Xie Lian headed towards a clothing shop. While he would never fully heed the wind master's advice of wearing something special for Hua Cheng, he did have to admit that his everyday garb might be a little too drab for the occasion he was planning. The crown prince spent his time looking through outfits, each more flashy than the next, and once again was refused when he tried to pay the owner of the shop.

Xie Lian felt a little helpless when he tried to push the owner into accepting his money and ended up giving up, for they were much more determined than he was.

Xie Lian only had three more stops on his mind, the first being the only place he could find that made food edible for humans (because while Hua Cheng devoured his cooking like it was a delicacy, Xie Lian was very aware of how bad it was.) And the second stop was a small jewelry store, where he put in a custom request to be made by tonight.

The last shop Xie Lian visited was one that sold all manners of decorations, from elaborate fireworks to intricate lanterns and ribbons. With this aspect of Xie Lian's surprise, he needed a helping hand or two and also requested someone to help him set up the fireworks.

With all of his "purchases" complete, Xie Lian almost felt like he went into ghost city just to rob the poor inhabitants. No one took any money from him the whole day! And on top of this, many insisted on helping him when they caught wind of Xie Lian's plan.

It was almost dark by the time Xie Lian finished all of his purchases and made his way to the location he picked out earlier - Qiandeng temple.

When he arrived, the place was already full of people. Hua Cheng had normally declared the temple to be off-limits to any but Xie Lian and himself, today was an exception. When the ghosts noticed Xie Lian had arrived, they bowed to him in respect and left the temple, having mostly completed their work anyway.