Xie Lian was completely stunned. “Why must he know the truth? Was the truth that important?” “Very important,” Hua Cheng replied. “He needed to know what you did and what you didn’t do, and why you had to do it.”
i think this disagreement shows a big part of why xie lian and hua cheng’s relationship works. xie lian is very self destructive, willing to let people harm him and his reputation without any malice on his part. he was fine with being banished and being called a murderer if it meant protecting Tai Hua. he doesn’t hold it against the officials in the heavenly court when they talk badly about him or openly avoid him. mixed with xie lian’s kind nature, he’s been beaten down so far by what has happened to him that he thinks he deserves more bad things that may happen to him. in his mind(and in heaven), he is a failure, misfortune does follow him so who care if misfortune is blamed on him? who cares if other call him what he believes he is? hua cheng directly goes against these sentiments at every turn. hua cheng fiercely protects xie lian and his reputation against heavenly officials and making examples out of them(the 33 officials incident). hua cheng is setting the record straight here bc he knows xie lian wouldn’t have killed the yongan royal family without reason(and he knows what xie lian suffered as a result). throughout the story, we get these instances of xie lian’s self destructive behavior being managed by hua cheng(who’s happy to do it, mind you)
