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English
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MXTX Exchange 2025
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Published:
2025-07-27
Words:
600
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
1
Kudos:
11
Hits:
205

Has guoshi ever smiled like that before?

Summary:

This is an art piece for the Spring 2025 MXTX Exchange! No fic here, but I did try to write down all my ideas too, since it's just one piece. AU where Hua Cheng meets Xie Lian as Fangxin. Does he know who this is? Up to interpretation!

Notes:

Work Text:

A pencil drawing of hualian from Tian Guan Ci Fu. They are both sitting in profile and portrait, facing towards each other. Xie Lian is dressed as Fangxin, though not true to the donghua or manhua design, wearing a mask and hairpiece loosely based on a barn owl and robes similarly inspired, though quite similar to the donghua ones. Hua Cheng wears simple, unadorned robes and a small earring, and wears his hair half up, with the up part being braided and a few front pieces loose to frame his face, these only going down to around his shoulders. Hua Cheng is smiling lightly, mouth open as if speaking, and Xie Lian's face is tilted downward, laughing, his knuckles partially covering his laugh. Past Xie Lian, drawn small enough to fit his entore body on the page, though what is visible is cut at the knees, is Lang Qianqiu, leaning in through a sketched doorway and looking bewildered, concerned, and slightly forlorn. His arm is lifted but his hand curled inwards, as if he had been about to call out but faltered. There are faintly visible hearts doodled between Hua Cheng and Xie Lian.

Here's my piece! This was tons of fun to make, I really enjoyed it. I haven't drawn portraits in a while, but I find them really rewarding, I should do them more often. Closeups are at the bottom of the fic if you want them! Right here I'm gonna tell you ALL my ideas about this AU, since this is relatively little art.

Design/creation notes:
I tried a lot of hairstyles for Hua Cheng. I am in LOVE with the one I settled on, but he had at least three others. All I really knew was that I wanted braids. His hair was the most fun thing to shade in this entire piece, hair is always fun but- idk, something about the texture. Xie Lian's design is kind of an amalgam of my favorite parts of both donghua and manhua designs, and some of my own spice. I love the colors and style of the donghua, though the robes are a little stiff for my taste, but I really dislike the cartoonish butterfly mask and the matching hairpiece, so I tried for something a bit more tasteful, drawing a tiny bit on the manhua. This design is modeled after a barn owl, hence the owl-like hairpiece and the shape of his mask. The little spiky bit on his nose is meant to missor the way barn owls' feathers look in the center of their face. The stars/spots on his robe are also an homage to the barn owl's spotted underbelly, and the fitted white sleeves of his inner robe to the bar owl's thin, white-feathered legs. And they just looked cool idk. I was not creative with Lang Qianqiu's design because... honestly, I just didn't feel like it. Love him though! I hope he looks confused and worried enough.

Another idea :)
When I was first brainstorming I had a second idea that, if I'm being honest, I think I prefer to this one in concept, but this one made better art, so I'm not complaining. Basically, hualian sparring; Xie Lian hasn't faced a competent opponent in YEARS and he is having so much fun. Picture a comic with me, since I didn't have time to draw it. Hua Cheng manages to land a hit on Xie Lian, with real swords. Xie Lian falls back, looking in shock at the small gash on his arm. Hua Cheng is horrified, already mentally flagellating himself for hurting his god, stammering an apology, when Xie Lian LIGHTS UP. "Holy crap- that was awesome! Here, here, come at me again! That was so good!" He's ecstatic, hastily tying a strip of cloth around his arm and raising his sword. I'm not really sure where that goes but- ah, if anyone wanted to write a fic of something like this and use this for inspo, PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE write something like that in it would be so funny! Xie Lian loves fighting! He wants violence! Let him be a feral sword guy! I would love you forever if you wrote ANYTHING like that tbh, it's so fun.

Anyway, thanks so much to the people running this exchange for the opportunity, and to ChildOfTheEast for the prompt! It was lots of fun, and please go check out the other works in this exchange! I'm really excited to see them myself.

A closeup of Hua Cheng from the picture described above. A closeup of Xie Lian from the picture described above. A closeup of Lang Qianqiu from the picture described above.

If you're curious about this, or you want to see more art, or you just want to talk to me, my art blog on tumblr is @bookwyrm-art-blog, come say hi!

Thanks so much for reading, make sure you're drinking water, and have a wonderful day/night! <3