✧𝔻𝔼𝕍𝕆𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ~ 𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃~✧

✧Xie Lian- Unnatural✧

A/N- I swear every piece of Xie Lian fanart I see is just so beautiful- these artists are just true legends.

XIE LIAN WAS the most beautiful man you had ever seen in your entire life. He was just unnaturally beautiful. You found it hard to believe that he was even human- or that he had been human, before ascending into heaven. You wanted to confess your love to him, but you didn't know how in the world such an ugly person as you could confess your love to a literal statuesque man like him. So you just stayed quiet, loving him from afar.

There were many people that disliked Xie Lian for varying reasons, some for his looks, some for his skill in fighting, some for his noble origins (his parents had been the king and queen of Xianle). These people were relentless in bullying the poor man, trying their hardest to bring him down. To your knowledge, the bullies' words didn't affect him much. He always seemed cheerful even after he was made fun of due to his appearance, origins, and fighting skill.

You were up early one morning, and you chose to go for a walk by the rice paddies. It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of flower fields by the rice paddies which you could run in and have fun in. Perhaps you would even bring a few flowers back for your mother. She did love to have fresh flowers at the house.

When you reached one of the flower fields, you noticed Xie Lian wandering around in it. His hat with the veil was off, so you could truly appreciate his beauty. His long brown hair was loose and flying behind him in a gentle breeze, and a butterfly was hovering around him, landing on his hand, then flying up and sitting atop his nose, making him sneeze.

You laughed at how much fun he seemed to be having, and then you noticed his body tense up. You gasped and rushed away, throwing yourself down to the ground and hiding in the long grasses that were right behind this particular flower field. You barely breathed as Xie Lian looked around to see who he had heard laughing. He went towards the grasses that you were hiding in and knelt down to look if someone was lying in the ground. You crawled backwards until your back hit a tree, then stopped moving completely, not even breathing.

He sighed deeply and got back up onto his feet, tearing a few flowers off their stems and sticking them in the folds of his hanfu before heading deeper into the field. You followed him, back up on your feet as well.

There was a forest behind the flower fields, and you followed him deep into that forest. He knew his way around it, avoiding all the dangerous paths with predatory animals and all the thorn bushes and other unsafe plants and heading straight towards the most beautiful clearing you had ever seen.

There was a small stream running through the clearing, and a few young willow trees were growing by the side of the stream. Xie Lian took a few of the willow blooms and put them in his hair, and you once again were dazzled by how handsome he looked. You wanted to go to him and tell him this, but you were too afraid, so you just stayed back.

He leaned down over the river, watching silently as the water flowed unbroken over rocks and down to a waterfall. Suddenly, he looked up and stared directly at the bushes you were hiding in, making you quite frightened.

"I know you're watching me," he said. "If you've come to bully me, just don't. I already know what you're going to say, and I agree with everything you say. I am hideous, I do look like a girl, my parents did kill themselves because of me, and I'm not worthy of the title of prince. My fighting skills are terrible, I know this. The things you say are no worse than the things I tell myself."

Hearing those words made your heart break for the young man. He was smiling on the outside, and seeming happy, but in the inside, he was hurting. Poor Xie Lian...

You came out from your hiding spot and went over to where he was sitting by the river. He flinched when you reached out to pat his shoulder, thinking that you were raising his hands to hit him. His bullies had never hit him before, and he didn't want to get too angry, or he'd go crazy and kill you. You knew that he had some issues with his anger, and that when he got angry, he would go crazy, and start attacking people. He had actually killed and seriously hurt a few people because of this issue. You also knew that he had some depression issues as well, but you didn't know that he hated himself this much. You just thought that the depression was a passing thing that he had to deal with. Knowing that it was this bad made you want to hold him in your arms and shelter him from the world forever.