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#TGCFReadalong chapter 4: great horror imagery, and I love this kind of recontextualisation of a prior scene—the mysterious young man shielding Xie Lian with an umbrella is still a romantic and dreamlike image, but how different from what we, and he, imagined was happening.

(Images marked as sensitive for description of dead bodies.)

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 5: wow, there’s a lot going on here.

Xie Lian is so exhausted that he carries a dead body down the mountain and then, by accident, into the tea shop… and doesn’t realise till afterwards that he’s still dressed as a bride!

Then he finds a nice stream to sit by for the debrief in the communication array, only to have More Trauma awoken by the discussion.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 6: Xie Lian might be happier for having lowered his standards, but these are still some LOW standards. :(

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 6: aaah, and now we get my favourite meetcute in fiction! Is it a meetcute if you’ve already met once, but one of you was in a different skin at the time? Good job not dissolving into butterflies this time, San Lang.

Xie Lian is doing his homework in the cart… his homework turns out mostly to be about how much of a disgrace he is as a god. How convenient that there’s a cute young master to help him out with it.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 6: Xie Lian takes the Mario Kart approach to escaping ghosts.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 6: lots of commentary on what makes a god different from others in this chapter.

Xie Lian responds to the scroll’s description of him by saying that all gods are equal; San Lang replies that if that were so, most of the existing gods wouldn’t be necessary.

The Puqi villagers suggest multiple gods to worship at the new shrine, but are eventually keen to burn incense despite not knowing what kind of god the Prince of Xianle is: “a god was a god, and prayers do no harm.”

And despite his protestations earlier, Xie Lian doesn’t tell them outright that the Prince of Xianle is a scrap-picking god!

I feel like this theme also comes into the conversation about Jun Wu: did he banish the Prince of Xianle out of personal dislike (San Lang’s assumption) or duty (according to Xie Lian)? The actual answer doesn’t matter so much here as asking the question, I think. What should we assume a god is like—selfish, like Pei Ming, or principled, like the young Xie Lian?

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 11 (skipping to the current chapter rather than catching up first):

Help, hualian are too cute! Xie Lian probably *would* let just any ‘runaway teen’ crash in his temple, and if he met, e.g., Ship Sinking Black Water, he probably would start chatting normally to him—because he doesn’t have a lot of self-presentation rn and he’s used to pain. How wonderful that the teenager/Ghost King he ran into is one who’s such a good match for him.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 11:

Obviously there’s huge amounts of other stuff going on in this book, but it wouldn’t be the great story it is if MXTX hadn’t got this relationship so right from the beginning. :)

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 11 still: I forgot that this was how Hua Cheng got the name Crimson Rain Sought Flower!

#TGCFReadalong chapter 12: we’re into the second volume of the official translation, woo! (I am switching chaotically back and forth between the physical books, my tablet and my phone, but only one of these has the beautiful illustrations.)

We start off with heavenly officials doing what they do best, gossiping just barely behind Xie Lian’s back. :(

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 12:

On this read through, I’m really interested in the relationship between Shi Qingxuan, Pei Ming, Pei Xiu, and by extension Shi Wudu. Just how long had Shi Qingxuan been suspicious of Little Pei, hmm?

#TGCFReadalong chapter 12:

Finally, Xie Lian meets his old companions again! Interesting that the close third-person narration characterises Feng Xin as looking annoyed but not actually annoyed, whereas we only learn that Mu Qing looks like he’s scheming. He’s changed so much over the years that Xie Lian can’t read him any more, or perhaps he never could.

CSI: Great Martial Hall! FX and MQ have to cooperate, but they don’t like it. As always, I am open for fic recs about Hua Cheng fighting with them during the 800 years.

#TGCFReadalong chapter 12:

Fellow inattentive-type ADHDers, I’m claiming Lang Qianqiu as one of us. (Not that I think MXTX has written a neurotypical character in her life, mind you.) Getting medicated and suddenly being able to stay awake for an entire meeting blew my mind! I’m sorry becoming a god doesn’t seem to have the same effect.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 12:

This definitely sounds like the kind of thing Xie Lian would say and hate to be reminded of! I can’t actually find this or a similar quote in the book, though, so I’m not fully sure what Jun Wu is referring to. Anyone got an idea?

(Me, trying to look up the word ‘stab’ in TGCF:
My ereader’s search function: )

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 12, a last couple of thoughts:

As far as I recall, several people tell Xie Lian not to touch E’Ming because it will have terrible consequences, but we never find out just what those are—am I being forgetful, or does it never get mentioned? (I’ve read fic that mentions it, but I don’t know if that’s canon or fanon.)

Nan Yang secretly forgiving Xie Lian’s debt: aaaaah, I am SOFT for this!

Ling Wen telling this to Jun Wu, who tells it to Xie Lian: uggghhhhhh the Heavenly Court just continues to be like this at all levels, doesn’t it.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 13:

Oh noooo, imagine being a god and reading tales where worshippers ship you with your brother, together with your brother, and worst of all your brother is Shi Wudu

Honestly, I remembered that the Wind and Water Masters’ devotees had started to model them as husband and wife, but I’d forgotten that things got wilder than that, yikes! Someone here was wondering whether Shi Qingxuan would have found the freedom and pleasure that she takes in her female form without having been worshipped in this form; right now, I’m just impressed that she’s managed to separate it so much from its partial origin of being worshipped as her brother’s wife (or—whatever else!).

Meanwhile, Ling Wen seems to experience her male form more as a restriction than an extra option: it’s not that she chooses to appear in dreams as a male god, she *has* to.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 13:

No comment besides: Hua Cheng is so skilled at making sexy entrances, he can do it even when he’s not the one entering a room. Whew.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 14:

Doing my best not to fall off the back again. I’m not sure I have a lot to say about these chapters: they’re fun but maybe not that deep?

Hua Cheng has been in a good mood the last couple of days—hmm, why could that be?—and he’s come down to play, which means Xie Lian gets to see that the chengzhu of Ghost City will let gamblers bet their daughters’ lives and fates in marriage at his tables, if they so choose. This doesn’t change Xie Lian’s feelings about him!

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 14:

Hua Cheng shows himself in his true form, just as he promised! There’s something so fairytale-like about hualian sometimes. Xie Lian enjoying being the only one who knows this is Hua Cheng’s true form is delightful. Hua Cheng also remains the only person who can properly embarrass Xie Lian.

#TGCFReadalong chapter 15:

This is a horrible memory for Xie Lian, and he’s so upset by it that he hurts the bandaged boy by gripping his shoulders too tight, but it is also a pretty damn epic image for us.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 15:

Everyone else has posted this quote and so am I!!! I love hualian being sword nerds together, I love the obvious eroticism of it, I love that reference to Daddy-I-mean-Jun-Wu right there.

And then Hua Cheng just falling over himself to offer gege a sword, no, the whole armoury, no, the whole Paradise Manor, no, that plus maintaining the swords himself… and somehow not coming across [to Xie Lian] as desperate.

And then! Xie Lian remembering Daddy’s warning about E’Ming and immediately asking to see it! Ah, what a good scene!

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 15:

Backtracking slightly, White-Clothed Calamity, with his cry-smiling mask, as nemesis to Xie Lian who often wonders whether to laugh or cry, is very satisfying. I also noticed this read-through that the Waning Moon Officer’s mask is “contorted, as if it was smiling woefully.” Another similarity he has with Xie Lian, besides the cursed shackle?

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 16:

E’Ming is The Cutest, that is all.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 16:

Yong’an is the country that destroyed Xie Lian’s Xianle, yet here he is suggesting the ghost boy he wants to mentor take on a Yong’an name, and promising to feed and shelter him.

Sure, it’s been hundreds of years and maybe this shouldn’t be unusual behaviour, but in the societies we see in this book, it is.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 17:

I love how Shi Qingxuan has no concept that other people might not recognise someone in male guise whom they’ve only met in female guise. Yes, the inside is what’s important, but not to the exclusion of all else!

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 17:

I think this was the point in my first time reading this book that my attention lit ALL the way up. My tastes are deep-rooted, if predictable.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 18:

I just love friendship so much, and Xie Lian’s friendship with Shi Qingxuan is such a good one!

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 18:

Never go to a birthday party in #wuxia or #xianxia!

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 19 (I’m catching up):

Shi Qingxuan defending Xie Lian is wonderful. They are such good friends.

Why does Xie Lian so strongly wish to be banished? Is it just so that he can be sentenced for his crimes without having to duel Lang Qianqiu, because he’s sworn not to kill with the sword again?

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 19:

Friends! Have you all read the extended account of Xie Lian’s time as Fangxin Guoshi, from MXTX’s new edited version? Someone translated it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LIoAE8OPKiYmHj65LJ-0VHXMfmRDWjnk28vKWYRBwSA/edit

(I saw this on the birdsite ages ago, but don’t know who the translator is or where there are more translations of the new stuff out there. Please let me know if you have info!)

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 19:

1. Ah, Xie Lian’s A+ adoptive parenting.
2. To be honest, though, hibernating in a pickle pot for a while sounds like a good rest for Banyue after the last couple hundred years. Maybe occasional airing out really is all she needs.
3. Xie Lian unhesitatingly asking Shi Qingxuan, who’s so often infantilised (and can play into that as well) to look after his adopted ghost kids is very sweet somehow.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 19:

It’s true that MXTX has never offered me credit or concept rights for all the stories I wrote as a pre-teen, but I’m honestly just proud to have been part of her process. #fuckYeahFangxinGuoshiArc

(Images blurred for description of violence/murder.)

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 19:

Counterpoint: Mu Qing is really pleased with himself because this time *he’s* the one offering Xie Lian help when nobody else is stepping up. Not even Feng Xin! Thinks he’s so loyal, but you don’t see him around here, do you?

[Feng Xin enters the Palace of Xianle]

(Mu Qing’s also super keen on getting the gossip and has no tact, but I’m in the same position, so I can’t super fault him here.)

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 19:

Jun Wu recreating the Palace of Xianle exactly as it was when Xie Lian first ascended smacks so much of a parent keeping their child’s bedroom just as it used to be for years after they’ve left home, especially combined with his ‘you never called, you never wrote’ speech earlier.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 19:

1. Feng Xin’s line here is mean as shit and gestures to so much potential background. Good writing!
2. This whole fight (which continues through at least the next chapter) is nasty, but can you really say things were better back then, Xie Lian? Perhaps it was just easier to pretend things were okay, hm?

I am super behind with #TGCFReadalong, but I think a few of us are. Let’s catch up together. :)

It’s been weeks since I read chapters 20 and 22… I’ll see what I highlighted and try to say something sensible about it. (With typical good timing, I’m about to go out for an hour or so, but this is my intention for the evening.)

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 20:

Feng Xin and Mu Qing can’t stop falling back into taking care of Xie Lian, can they? He’s right in a way—touching the wraith butterflies isn’t going to do him any harm at all—but it must be tiring for them, worrying so much over someone they thought they were done worrying about.

#TGCFReadalong, chapter 20:

Hua Cheng says, “We’re too close to the Heavenly Court. Let’s hurry,” and lets go of his wrist—and that’s the moment Xie Lian decides that he must have come for revenge instead of rescue.

Well, it’s more that that’s the first moment he gets to think past his initial ‘yay, it’s San Lang!’ response. Argh, these two, vibrating at one another in mutual poor self-esteem and attempts at apologising!!! And upsetting Eming!