Explaining IDV characters' lore bc I'm bored (Part 9)
𝗤𝗶 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝘆𝗶 (The Antiquarian)
"Young bamboo shoots could brave the bitter cold of winter, graceful and serene in the face of adversity."
▪︎ Xiao Yao (original identity) was born into the noble Xiao family as the seventh youngest granddaughter of Xiao Hang and the daughter of Xiao Wang.
▪︎ Growing up, her father raised and taught her traditional noble virtues. Thus, she developed a strong sense for justice.
▪︎ Until one day when her grandfather and father, along with the mention of other 'acommplices,' were sentence to execution for the crime of "colluding, conspiring to rebel, sowing discord among the people, and seeking to do harm to the government".
▪︎ The whole Xiao family was then executed except for Yao, who was saved by Long Cobin– one of the old servants who worked for the Xiao family and just returned to the residence after to have recovered from an illness. With no resources behind, the two became beggars.
▪︎ Due to Cobin's inability to look after Xiao any longer, he reached out to his distant relative, Lin Jingfu, who happily took in the little girl as if a daughter of his own.
▪︎ Xiao refused to let go about how her family was wronged and joined a martial arts sect along with a reason to get vengeance. She and, along with other assasins, attempted to kill off the emperor but failed. Only she and an assassin fled the scene injured.
▪︎ After hearing the news, Congbin wrote a letter to her, advising her to abandon her hatred and go on to live an ordinary life. Meanwhile, Jingfu's friends and family were unnaproving of letting Xiao stay under his roof further as she would put him in hazard.
▪︎ Consequently, Jingfu was forced to kick her out. With nowhere to stay and in order to live, Xiao took on the job of being a hired assasin and killed many wealthy businessmen in a month. With enough money to sustain herself, Xiao purchased and became the owner of the antique shop, "Bamboo Study," and adapted the name "Qi Shiyi."
▪︎ As she was running the shop; Qi was forced to step in to settle a dispute nearby and stumbled across the granddaughter of her grandfather's friend— Tang Si. The two quickly become friends afterward.
▪︎ Something strange was going on when Tang Si disappeared without a trace, and the shops owned by the Tang family began shutting down altogether.
▪︎ Just as her worries and concerns grew more, she suddenly heard a word that a certain person knew about Tang's whereabouts. And so, she ended up going to the Manor.
(Side note: I've been wanting to take on her lore ever since I've started posting lore posts. the reason I didn't have done it earlier was because I was too scared to fumble over my beautiful, majestic, strong, and independent queen (◞ ‸ ◟ㆀ) I kid you not when I tell you my hands were shaking the entire time while I was writing this post. But yeah, besides that, I had a lot of fun doing this and hopefully have more motivation to keep this channel updated some time to time)
(That's all, thank you! Credits to id5.fandom as my source for this post ♡´・ᴗ・`♡)