important to note is that the reason hua cheng enjoying xie lian’s awful food and not telling him it’s bad works is because he’s playing along with xie lian’s act. xie lian’s KNOWS his food is shitty, he is doing it on purpose, because all of it – the chaotic cooking, the inventive names, the godawful taste – reminds him of his mother and he does not want to talk about it, so he just plays carefully oblivious whenever people try to discourage him from cooking and keeps doing it. lying to your partner if their cooking is awful is bad practice, but hua cheng praising xie lian’s cooking (not excessively but just enough to be encouraging) is perfect for them, because it lets xie lian just enjoy this moment of feeling close to his mother without needing to be defensive about it. once AGAIN an example of how tgcf takes unhealthy codependent romance tropes and flips them on it’s head to make it the most profound shit ever. height of romance. what in the fuck
