
It's more or less true; he was originally introduced as a "potential love rival" to XiXi, more or less-- but Old Xian scrapped that plotline very early on, immediately after having him and Mo meet. We never got a confirmation from He Tian himself that he liked Jian Yi in the short period where it was supposed to be a thing, tho, so it's not necessarily canon. You could argue that he stopped pursuing Jian Yi after falling for Mo, or that he has always been in love with Mo only; the narrative itself isn't contradictory to either assumptions.
As someone who has been reading this since the very beginning, the period where He was infatuated with Jian Yi (from a meta POV) felt a bit longer than it probably was, so I personally am all for believing He Tian did like him for a while-- buuut, again, no official confirmations or denials on the matter.
Not sure whether Old Xian has ever commented on the subject too
I watched a tiktok saying that he tian liked the blond guy before … i honestly didn’t get that from them but would that be true?