Hey, Have You Heard?

hey, have you heard?

there's a new event on the block! created especially for lovers of di feisheng, li lianhua, and most importantly the two of them together, dihua exchange is a friendly hand-matched fan work exchange celebrating our favorite pair. sign-ups open june 1, 2024 and works will be posted on august 9, 2024.

want to participate but don’t write or draw? no worries, we accept fanfiction, fanart, mixes, edits/gifsets, fmvs, and any combination of the above! we also have an option to create derivative works, such as translations, podfic, and recursive fic. whatever you can make, we want to see it!

be sure to check out our schedule, info, and FAQ pages to learn more about the event and don’t forget to follow dihuaexchange for updates!

event graphics provided by @la-muerta​!

I totally think CPP wants revenge on the emperor!! notice how we have been getting hints all season about a crazy secret weapon in his wheelchair? I bet he’s saving that for the emperor

That was genuinely great - the way Fan Xian sees through everything when CPP tries to explain that the assassination attempt was random.

Because no normal person would plan it, claims CPP. Fan Xian's response:

Fan Xian figured it all out while in pain, recovering from surgery and coming out of anesthesia. That man's brain!

I love him so much.

The thing that I love btw is Fan Xian still cares for CPP and this doesn't do anything to that care - he takes people as they are and sees the good and bad in them but does not require them to be great people to be attached. There are certain things that violate his bottom line and he will not get over but the staged attempted assassination is not one of them. (I also find it pretty telling that out of his four father figures, he likes his actual biological father the least - CPP, Fan Jian and Fei Jie are all ranked higher for him both in terms of emotional attachment and just plain liking them as a person.)

But the thing is, Fan Xian generally accepts reality. Oh, he will work to change it if it doesn't suit him, but he accepts what the reality currently is - he never mistakes "what I wish it could be" or dwell on what-ifs or wallow in self-pity or w/e. I mean, this is the man who wakes up to find out his qi, the foundation of all his martial art, is gone, and is all "oh, OK" and accepts it because this is a fact and denying it won't change the fact. He will clearly work on figuring out either how to restore it or how to overcome the lack in terms of fighting but there is no denial that it happened or panic.

PS Not related but I wonder if CPP wants revenge on the Emperor perhaps for FX's mom's death which the emperor clearly either staged or did not prevent. His little speech about how a grudge can take over felt like a hint to me.

a kiss on a place of insecurity fic meme fill from discord, requests still open. yes, this is the version where dfs survives the purification process.

speaking of discord, consider joining us over on the dihua server!

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some nights li lianhua lies awake and looks at the moonlight caught in di feisheng's hair, silver on silver, the sight of it blinding to his heart if not his eyes. he remembers all too well the sight of di feisheng bloody and triumphant, hair loose and pale, falling around his shoulders like an unseasonable snow drift. what have you done, li lianhua had cried, and di feisheng had smiled with red teeth and all the arrogance of jianghu's demon king when he said saved your life, and collapsed in li lianhua's arms.

li lianhua had been able to tow him back from death's door with the renewed vigor of yangzhouman that time, but his meridians were damaged beyond repair, a lifetime of training and cultivation gone, and for what? a dead man's life? it's not that li lianhua doesn't appreciate the depth of di feisheng's sacrifice or the returned strength of his body, he sometimes just cannot fathom being worth the cost. now, he gathers a handful of di feisheng's moonbright hair and brings it to his lips, presses his love and regret into the strands with kisses that taste of salt.

di feisheng, as always, wakes without a sound. he sleeps more deeply than he used to, both out of familiarity and his diminished senses, but old habits die hard. "what is it," he murmurs and li lianhua shakes his head. di feisheng hums warningly, a sound that means li lianhua won't get away with that tonight, and he sighs.

"don't you ever regret it," he says, still with his handful of moonlight, fingers twined in pale silk. di feisheng turns to face him fully, reaches out to tilt li lianhua's face up until their eyes meet.

"no," he says, and li lianhua's heart swells in his chest, never quite sure how to grapple with di feisheng's absolute pronouncements.

"but your martial arts," li lianhua says, doubt a clinging spectre in his soul, "you worked so hard..."

"i gave it up so you could live and i would do it again," di feisheng says, so sure that li lianhua feels almost embarrassed by his sincerity.

"you could have died," li lianhua says, grasping for his earlier certainty of his own unworthiness.

"i didn't," di feisheng says. "you didn't either. are you not happy?"

"i am," li lianhua says helplessly, disarmed. di feisheng has a way of extinguishing his misgivings by simply suffocating them with his surety. it's infuriating, but also reassuring.

"then it was worth it," di feisheng says, closing his eyes. "go back to sleep."

Yet another silly alternate ending to Mysterious Lotus Casebook cuz . . . I'm not over it, ha ha!

Enjoy!

“Li Xiangyi,” Di Feisheng said. Nothing more, nothing less. His voice was almost reverent when he used that name. He hadn’t called him by it since they’d found him, saved him. It made Li Lianhua’s breath catch. “This Li Xiangyi gets way too many chances,” he muttered. He was supposed to have died a long time ago. He’d buried him for a decade, and the past had come along and dug him back up. Then he’d once again thrown Li Xiangyi away after tying up every loose thread, and yet, Li Xiangyi lived because there were those who spoke him to life. Li Xiangyi lived because Li Lianhua couldn’t quite stop answering to the name when it was uttered in this voice. Or: Li Lianhua deals with having to live on after a decade of expecting death.

I started this fic thanks to @lyselkatz and their lovely feihua art! It sort of got buried in wip hell, but I dug it back up and this happened. Set in post-canon where Li Lianhua has been found and saved by Di Feisheng and Fang Duobing, and is almost fully recovered. They're figuring this new life out. Baby steps!!

A few days ago I asked myself what kind of drawings I would love to see. Well, Mei Changsu.