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Royal weddings in the kingdom of Xianle were, as everything in that place had been, grand . The procession lasted for several days, nevermind the feasts.
There's one custom, however, that's a little unusual: the exchanging of rings. A gold one to propose, and a diamond ring on the night of the wedding itself.
It's not a custom that's sprung up anywhere else since then, presumably because diamond rings are ludicrously hard to procure.
Which means that when Xie Lian wakes up in Puqi Shrine, alone, with a diamond ring hanging from his neck, he spends the next twenty minutes alternatively in shock and re-evaluating every single interaction he's had with San Lang. (Because who else would just - marry him and immediately run off. Honestly! That silly ghost.)
And. Hm. He had first met him while wearing a wedding dress, hadn't he? Maybe Xie Lian should have seen this coming.
“So,” he mutters to himself, the first coherent sentence since he woke up. “I have a husband now…”
Well, if it had to be anyone, San Lang wasn't bad. Not bad at all.
(It never so much as occurs to him that Hua Cheng wouldn't know about the custom. After all, he's known about everything else so far.)
When the, ah, night worker tries to bother him in Ghost City, Xie Lian is prepared to use his usual excuse.
What slips out instead is “Miss, please, I have a husband…”
The woman - Lan Chang, he thought her name was - groans. “ Ugh , lead with that next time! Honestly, why are all the best looking ones cutsleeves…”
… Why does it sound like she's speaking from experience?
The first person to actually notice his new accessory is Shi Qingxuan, mostly because it slipped out of his robes when they fell through the floor at Paradise Manor.
“Oh, wow! That's such a nice ring - where did you get it? Is that diamond ?”
Xie Lian can't quite help the flush that works its way up his face. “Ah - my husband gave it to me.”
The Wind Master's eyes blow wide. “You're married?! ”
“Not for long, not for long,” Xie Lian fiddles with the ring hanging around his neck with a smile. “And my husband’s a very private person, so I try not to make a show of it…”
That much, at least, San Lang had made obvious with the way he acted in Ghost City. (It’s kind of adorable, really, how shy Hua Cheng seems to be about showing affection, even in private. But who is Xie Lian to deny his husband? Just because they got married quickly doesn't mean that they can't take their time with everything else, after all. Besides, nobody else knowing - or at least, knowing who , now - means there's less of a spectacle about it. Xie Lian doesn't really mind.)
And anyway, I haven't even gotten a chance to give him his own ring! Oh, how am I going to find one…
Then the earth starts rumbling and they have to run from giant earthworms, so the topic falls to the wayside.
The next one to find out, and in a rather embarrassing fashion, is Qi Rong. (Xie Lian’s still not entirely sure how to feel about his cousin, at the moment, to make the situation even more complicated.)
He's perhaps not entirely thinking clearly. If asked, his thought process was something along the lines of well, if their graves have been desecrated already, I might as well finally get San Lang a wedding ring. It’s not like they're using them anymore.
Qi Ring is the one who squawks “What the hell are you doing?!” when Xie Lian removes his father’s wedding ring from his meticulously preserved corpse.
(These were the only things they'd absolutely refused to pawn off, after all. And he doubted his mother’s ring would fit Hua Cheng.)
Xie Lian, still a little dazed, replies “Getting my husband a ring.”
Dead silence.
“WHEN THE FUCK DID YOU GET HITCHED?! TO WHO ?!”
This becomes their most frequent topic of conversation by far . For all that Qi Rong insists he doesn't give a shit about his cousin any more, he does seem to be extremely curious about Xie Lian's husband.
Qi Rong went through two suspects in particular - Feng Xin ( definitely not) and Mu Qing (also hates his guts) and seemed to be rather stumped when it's neither of them.
Then, a few days later and in the middle of him refusing to eat a meal (much to little Guzi’s distress) he suddenly blurts “not that dog-fucked Hua Cheng?!”
And, well, how is Xie Lian supposed to hide his blush that fast? Nevermind while hiding his glare for insulting his husband in front of him.
Qi Rong stares at him for several seconds and then laughs hard enough he starts choking. (Though that might also be because he's hanging upside down, at the moment.)
“Dad, are you okay?!” Guzi asks, alarmed.
“Oh shut up, ” Xie Lian mutters at the same time, hiding his burning face in his hands.
Qi Rong just laughs harder.
They're running from Hua Cheng in the Thousand God Cave (well, Nan Feng and Fu Yao - ah, no, he really needs to get used to using their actual names again, doesn’t he? - are running. Xie Lian is being dragged along and rather exasperated about the whole thing) when he has enough of them being ridiculous and speaks up - as much as he can, right now, anyway.
“Could you two please stop slandering my husband in front of me?”
The resulting silence lasts just long enough for Xie Lian to realize what he let slip, then the resulting “Your WHAT?! ” from the two nearly blows out his eardrums.
And, well, at least that saves him the trouble of telling Feng Xin and Mu Qing later .
Xie Lian sighs as he wills his ears to stop ringing and pulls out the chain from which his diamond ring hangs, holding it up with an unconscious sappy smile.
Fu Yao and Nan Feng stare at it. Hard .
“I'm going to castrate that red-clothed menace if he laid a single non-consensual hand on you,” Nan Feng states very calmly. Fu Yao nods.
Apparently this is what it takes to get those two to agree with each other, then. Good to know.
“We haven't done anything beyond kissing, but I assure you I was a very enthusiastic participant.”
His friends look like they severely regret letting this topic linger. Xie Lian tries not to laugh.
“Try not to let it slip you know about it? He's shy about other people knowing,” Xie Lian requests after a moment. “And I'm still trying to finish his ring, for that matter - I want it to be a surprise.”
(Because really, the gold filigree of flowers around the diamond band clashes horribly with Hua Cheng’s vambraces. Teaching himself metalworking on such a small scale is more difficult than anticipated, but darn it, Xie Lian wants to do this right. It's his husband, after all. This has to be perfect .)
The regret on their faces rackets up another two notches and this time Xie Lian really can't help his laughter.
(Oh, he missed this.)
This is how Hua Cheng finds them, about two minutes later - Xie Lian still laughing while Mu Qing and Feng Xin glare at him even harder than usual. (It makes sense, if they've seen the - ah. More private murals he painted. Though he's not sure why Dianxia is laughing , if that's the case.
They quickly get distracted (or rather, pulled back on track) when Hua Cheng feels White No-Face enter the caves.
“Are you thinking about Crimson Rain Sought Flower?” Jun Wu asks as the doors to the Palace of Xianle slam shut. (Like a lid on a coffin, his mind supplies oh so helpfully .)
“Who wouldn't think about their husband in this kind of situation,” Xie Lian bites back without thinking.
He is treated to the spectacularly rare sight of Jun Wu stumbling in shock.
“... Ah,” he says quietly, then recovers instantly, turning a warm smile upon Xie Lian. His eyes are harder than usual. The juxtaposition makes him shudder. “Then you must really want to talk to him. Why don't you connect to him for a little chat?”
Xie Lian is numb with confusion, still with terror, and aches for his husband.
Even if Jun Wu is listening in, talking to San Lang makes him feel a little better.
(Finding the dice in his robes helps a lot more, even if Shi Qingxuan keeps making little innuendos and Xie Lian wants to tell him that there is a time and place for teasing .)
Mei Nianqing pulls Xie Lian out of Hua Cheng’s (presumed) earshot with a strange expression.
“Your Highness, I saw it.”
“Huh?” Xie Lian tilts his head, a little confused. “Saw what?”
“On top of that giant divine statue.”
Oh, that.
Xie Lian fiddles with his ring. “I don't think there was any problem with that.”
Mei Nianqing’s eyes wander to the ring. Then dart to Hua Cheng. “ Ah . Nevermind, then. I won't lecture you on this kind of thing - I don't know anything about it either way. As long as you're happy?”
Xie Lian nods immediately and forcefully, not even trying to hide his blush this time. “ Very .”
“Good. But - really. A Ghost King? His evil qi is so suffocating that it assaults the mind, it's almost like -”
“The Star of Solitude?” Hua Cheng interjects lazily before Xie Lian can object to the state preceptor’s words himself.
And then his husband drapes himself all over Xie Lian, making his old teacher back off slightly - presumably because his presence is giving the poor man a headache. Xie Lian would feel bad for him, but he really is being terribly rude.
“My smile is certainly quite insincere, but to say to a man’s face that he's the Star of Solitude, disaster reborn, the worst of misfortunes, the child of parents who are better off dead, and unable to live past eighteen - that's not very nice, is it?”
Mei Nianqing's eyes widen. “... Wait - you're…”
It doesn't seem like he can pick what to look at first, and Xie Lian does feel a stab of pity this time.
Then the preceptor sighs . “You two - oh, what did I expect ? Still, your Highness, I would like an explanation. He's really…?”
Xie Lian’s smile turns distinctly frosty - not that Hua Cheng can see it from this angle. “Quite so.”
Mei Nianqing looks as though he can't decide whether to laugh or cry. “Eight hundred years he's been stalking you, and you just jump into his arms?”
Hua Cheng's breath seems to stutter - there's that shyness again. His husband really is too cute.
“Is there a problem?” Xie Lian asks, beginning to lose his patience at this point. “Because I do believe there are more pressing matters at the moment.”
“Right - right , of course,” Mei Nianqing shakes his head, still looking supremely exasperated. “He has us all locked up for now, but if the past eight hundred years are any indication at all, he's probably arranging another test for you…”
Xie Lian, mentally seventeen, wakes up in a room he doesn't recognise, with a diamond ring hanging around his neck and spends the next two days panicking about the fact that he neither remembers getting married nor his spouse. (And then panics even more when he meets a strange man in red who he wishes was the one who gave him that ring, because that is a man and Xie Lian is supposed to continue the royal bloodline at some point. And then panics for an entirely different reason when it comes out that Xianle is long gone - point is, his seventeen-year-old mind has quite a lot to panic about.)
Xie Lian, once he has his memories back, feels very awkward about the whole thing for an afternoon. Then he decides, well, it's not the worst thing that's happened to me, and moves on.
It’s a few days still after the incident that Hua Cheng asks.
“Gege, want to get married?”
Xie Lian blinks in honest confusion. “... We already are, though?”
Hua Cheng stops breathing for several seconds. Because - on one hand, that certainly explains a few things. On the other, what.
“- huh ?! When-” He finally gets out.
“After the whole thing at Banyue Pass,” Xie Lian explains, calm as can be, like he didn't just turn Hua Cheng's world upside down. “It is a little unusual that only I have a wedding ring, but it was harder to customize one for you than I thought and then we kept getting distracted -” Xie Lian has a visible realization, jolting to a complete stop. “- and you didn't know.”
“ I did not. ”
Awkward silence as Xie Lian covers his face in mounting embarrassment.
“Gege,” Hua Cheng requests about as calmly as he can manage right now. “How many people think we're already married?”
“... Ahahaha,” Xie Lian chuckles helplessly. “Um. Shi Qingxuan saw my wedding ring during Ghost City and I told Jian Lan I have a husband, but neither of them knew who - they've probably figured it out at this point, though. Qi Rong was there when I found the one I'm making into yours , Feng Xin and Mu Qing found out when I snapped at them in Cave of Ten Thousand Gods, the same thing happened with - the Emperor, while he was confining us to our palaces, of course us kissing all the time on the giant divine statue didn't exactly go unnoticed , but Mei Nianqing was the only one who brought it up and obviously I told him it was fine since you were my husband, and I think everyone else could guess from the way I acted while you were gone, and oh my goodness my husband is the last person to find out we're married .”
Hua Cheng processes that. Then has to re- process several interactions.
“... Well, your amnesiac self’s reaction to my ashes certainly makes a lot more sense,” he finally states. Blinks as another sentence jumps out. “... You got me a ring?”
“Of course I did,” Xie Lian states it like it's obvious, even though his face is still burning. “...Do you want it?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
(Xie Lian will find out in very short order that his husband is not shy about showing affection, public or otherwise, in the least. )