Having seen a demonstration of what he was told was called “Chinese Boxing” on his 21st birthday, on the 21st of February, 1921, in Shanghai, William Samuel Daniels decided to learn the skills he had seen that day.
Being the Englishman he was, this proved impossible; being a very wealthy Englishman, as well as exceedingly stubborn and more than a touch arrogant, he continued to look.
As he sought, he found that Chinese boxing was not properly called that, but instead kung fu, and that there were a variety of forms and styles in its practice. None of which would have anything to do with him.
Then on February 22nd, 1922, he found Miss Li Liao Lian, who practiced a little-known, and unknown to him, outlawed renegade style known as 幽靈蜘蛛 (Yōulíng zhīzhū) or, to translate into English, Ghost Spider Kung Fu.
Li Liao Lian laughed when he asked to learn the style, but when he told her what he was willing to pay to learn, a light came into her eyes, not of greed, but of mischief. “Ghost Spider Kung Fu is like no other,” she told him, pretending to try to discourage him. “It not only remakes the body, but the very being of those who practice it,” William said that was just what he was looking for. “Also, you must learn and practice proper Middle-Kingdom ways, speak, dress, and act completely like us. “I can do that!” said William.
What Li Liao Lian didn’t tell young Mister Daniels was just how much it changed those who learned it, or, and this bit of information would no doubt have actually convinced him to run, it was a form of Kung Fu practiced only by women of pure Han ancestry.
Lian thought it might be amusing to see what effect teaching it to a Western man might have.
And so the teachings began. William Samuel Daniels was awkward, but Li Liao Lian kept at him, never letting him rest, while also plying him with dozens of noxious potions, herbal baths, and sessions of “Chi realignment” treatments.
Daniel improved quickly; he dressed as he was told, only ate what he was told, and practiced meditations that made his head swim.
When he began to refer to himself as Daniels Wenjie Shijun, the changes accelerated.
Soon, no one would tell he had ever been a ginger-haired Englishman, appearing to be a true Han man.
Then, on February 23rd, 1923, Li Liao Lian invoked a wave of charged Chi, and Mr. Daniels Wenjie Shijun became Miss Zhan Xiu Wenyi, mistress of 幽靈蜘蛛, Yōulíng zhīzhū, Ghost Spider Kung Fu. The secret style of the deadliest female assassins in the world.
That was when Li Liao Lian let the veil of Chi-powered deep hypnosus fall from William’s mind, and he perceived for the first time who and what she now was.
Shortly after that, Miss Zhan Xiu Wenyi returned to Great Britain ready to serve as a housemaid in a series of noble British homes, all of whom Li Liao Lian judged in need vengeance for the Boxer Rebellion, and deliverd by a former heir to their wealth and power, transformed by her into the deadly agent who would come to be known as The Golden Orbweaver.
On occasion, late at night, the William Samuel Daniels deep at the core of Zhan Xiu Wenyi would think. "I really should have just gone home and learned regular boxing." Then she would think again, "No, I would have had to have put up with too many Irish." Showing that there was still more than a bit of Upper Class British gentleman in Wenyi.
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