This account is for a modern!AU version of Xie Lian from Heaven Official's Blessing (TGCF). If you'd like to add my canon Xie Lian account, you're welcome to. Though I've adjusted Xie Lian's background to work for modern day, the information I've given can still be considered spoilers for the canon story of Heaven Official's Blessing, so please be warned. There are also dark themes involved.
Growing up, Xie Lian's father was the CEO of a large company in China. The company had been founded by Xie Lian's great-great-grandfather and had been passed through the family. Because of how successful the company was, his family was always rich and lived in luxury. His mother was what would be considered a 'trophy wife' who stayed at home and made sure things ran smoothly there, while also parenting Xie Lian in between the private teachers that were hired for him. Due to how wealthy the family was, his parents didn't want to risk sending him to even private school, in the case he was kidnapped and used for ransom.
The only real friends he had were Feng Xin and Mu Qing. Feng Xin was adopted and meant to be a type of security guard for him that doubled as his friend, so he wouldn't lose out on social interaction. Mu Qing was for making sure his personal needs were met when his mother and house staff weren't around, while also doubling as a friend.
When Xie Lian was 17, some scandals surfaced in his father's company. Despite them finding out who the culprit of these false rumours were, they were unable to prove it which caused the companies downfall when several employees and clients decided to sue Xie Lian's father. The issues reached the point where he was forced to give the company up and pay the employees and clients what they were suing for. This resulted in Xie Lian's family losing everything while the company was taken over by the very person that had started the issues in the first place.
After being forced to sell all their possessions in order to survive, Xie Lian's family fell into poverty and homelessness. During this time, the 3 teens chose to look for jobs, but with no actual experience, Xie Lian found it difficult to find anything. And whenever he did, it was only ever temporary work so he never worked for long and never managed to earn much. After some time, Mu Qing left the family in order to start working to look after his own, which was also living in poverty. Soon after, having found a path he wanted to take with his own life, and not being able to handle the stress of how Xie Lian was coping (AKA, not well), Feng Xin also left. Until now, the stress of everything had caused Xie Lian's father to become sick and no amount of rest or medication was helping. With his friends now gone, Xie Lian's mental state deteriorated more and more to the point of constantly snapped on his mother and getting tired of his father who refused any other help for his health.
Only a few nights after Feng Xin left, Xie Lian blew up at his mother and indirectly his father, his mental state officially breaking. That night, he went to bed without eating anything and his parents stayed in their own room. The next afternoon, Xie Lian woke up wondering why no one had woken him up earlier. Wanting to apologize for the evening before, he went to his parents room, becoming worried that they were so quiet. Upon opening the door, he found that his parents had hanged themselves, leaving the teen alone.
Feeling he was unable to handle life anymore, Xie Lian took the bodies of his parents down and laid them on the floor before setting the noose back up and preparing to follow after them. However, he failed to tie it properly and while he hung from the ceiling, choking, the knot keeping the noose to the ceiling slipped free and he fell to the floor, hitting his head and losing consciousness. When he woke up, he found himself in the hospital with a man sitting beside the bed reading a book. Once he noticed Xie Lian was awake, he introduced himself as Jun Wu. He was the CEO of one of the companies that had worked alongside his father's, before everything had happened.
Once he was discharged, Xie Lian received help from Jun Wu in terms of finding a steady job and even offered to let the teen live with him. During this time, Xie Lian was able to find a steady job at a café and was able to save up. Upon saving enough money, he began attending school to become a daycare worker while still working his café job on the side. Despite all the hard work and stress he went through during this time, Xie Lian was able to reach his goal. When he succeeded, he moved out from Jun Wu's place and found himself a small apartment. It wasn't by any means luxurious--and some would even call it run-down--but he had grown accustom to the less expensive things over the years, and 'fancy' things no longer stuck out to him.
More to be added at a later time.
