I've Wanted To Read A Bit On Xie Lan's Side Of This Too So This Is Cool - Blog Posts

born from a conversation I had with @ciaran​ a while ago but I’ve been thinking about it lately SO:

based on the popularity of that one glib tweet I made once, I think that it’s not that uncommon for people to acknowledge that hua cheng probably would love to sub. less talked about but no less fun is how well I think xie lian would fit into a dominant role

xie lian has for so long been beholden to the whims of Literally Everything causing him misfortune that I feel like he would really enjoy discovering the experience of dominance, specifically with hua cheng. having these continuous little realizations of how much everything he does genuinely affects hua cheng, and how vulnerable another person can be to him, and then being able to take a little it of… lovingly malicious glee in just letting go and doing whatever he wants, even if ‘whatever he wants’ is not being very nice.

xie lian already has a habit of lovingly bullying hua cheng in canon (see: every time hua cheng pretends to be anyone other than himself and xie lian inevitably figures it out long before he lets hua cheng know that he’s figured it out, occasionally for the sole purpose of teasing him), and it would be a natural and likely positive experience for them both to bring that into their intimate life as something they both enjoy… but also as a way for xie lian to experiement with and test out the range of power that he is finding he is delighted to have over hua cheng, especially knowing that hua cheng is on his own an extremely powerful individual that is so emotionally beholden to xie lian that he willingly lays himself out. burn his mansion down again, gege, it was trash anyway!

and meanwhile hua cheng gets to indulge in the complete submission that he genuinely wishes to give xie lian, which xie lian typically has very little desire for because so much of his life has been couched in unequal relationships and having the genuine good will beaten out of him under the guide of “hubris”. hua cheng being delighted at xie lian being comfortable enough to act a little selfish and a little unkind to him because he’s so reassured that hua cheng wants it with full sincerity.