#goodbye-blue

After reading the novel, I went through a phase where I searched out fanfics. But I didn't really stick around in the fandom afterwards. Nonetheless, these were my favourite stories that I stumbled upon. Anticipating that this will be my one and only list, Part One.

1. Beginning; Anew

Xie Lian remembers falling asleep at his husband's side in their shared bed, but he wakes up to the familiar scent of rotting, dirt, and iron in a familiar coffin more than seven hundred years ago. His memories are a mess and he can't figure out how he landed in the past although he isn't entirely alone. Black Water Sinking Ships is there and while he can help fill in some of the blanks, the reality of their situation is grim and there doesn't seem to be a way back home.

2. When the Rain Comes

When Xie Lian tells him who the Earth Master really is, Shi Qingxuan realizes the implications of "Ming Yi's" behavior, and makes a different choice.

3. Not in Rivers, but in Drops

Death was supposed to bring them peace.

And for a while, it did. Hong Diao and his sons have been carving a place for themselves in Ghost City for years, blissfully free of misfortune that plagued them in life—up till the day a blood rain brings changes and with them, the nightmare they believed to have left behind.

4. That's what I call love

Banyue and Pei Xiu find Xie Lian before he can leave them in the desert. All of a sudden, Xie Lian is a single father of two.

5. willow branches and flowers

After a mishap helping a village get rid of a malevolent ghost, Xie Lian stumbles upon a mysterious shrine and its keeper and discovers his most devoted believer in the last place he'd ever think to look.

6. what faith provides

Hua Cheng prays for centuries as he searches for his god. His god hears.

7. a mighty ocean or a gentle kiss

It is a weird thing to wake up and realise that for the first time in 800 years, you are no longer in love. Hua Cheng felt it even before he opened his eyes, could taste it in the back of his throat. Even the air around him felt different: stale, and with a strange odour to it. With his eyes still closed, he took stock of his other mental facilities, and it all came back in order, except—

Except that for the first time in 800 years, he thinks of Xie Lian and feels nothing.

8. fabled ones, stray dogs, those that have just broken the vase

They say all sorts of things about the daemon of Crimson Rain Sought Flower. They say it’s a shapeshifter, like he is. They say you can only spot it because, whatever form it takes, it’ll be as red as its master. They say it can wander as far from him as it likes. They say he wears it like an accessory—scarlet dragonflies that glitter like jewelry, a clouded leopard in crimson draped over his shoulders.

Nobody knows its true form. Nobody knows if it even has a true form. They say whatever its true form is, it must be a snarling monster. They say whatever its true form is, it must be a beautiful, alluring thing.

9. before me the sea still heaved

Shi Qingxuan professed to be his best friend? Fine. He would test that friendship. He would prove to himself that it was as fragile as wet paper. And then he would tear both brothers apart.

10. deeper into the drink

Shi Qingxuan discovers who "Ming Yi" really is when He Xuan kidnaps him as payment for the crimes against him and his family. The two of them try to make their way through their feelings and their new situation—and then Mount Tonglu opens.

11. too long til i drown (in your hands)

Whatever Shi Qingxuan is expecting while being sent on a mission with Xie Lian to Ghost City, finding out that his Highness and Crimson Rain Sought Flower were married is definitely not one of the things.

And so, in true Shi Qingxuan fashion, he proceeds to have a breakdown about it.