Qiu Yuan

Biodata

Background

Qiu Yuan became heir to the Qiu Group after his older brother, Qiu Jing, was believed to have died in a fire at the group’s Prometheus Laboratory. The previous generation of the Qiu family had conducted human and biological experiments there; after the fire, its experimental specimens vanished and alien species emerged 11 22.

Unlike the other heirs in his social circle, Qiu Yuan joined them in middle school rather than early childhood. He showed little interest in inheriting the group, preferring to travel and make films; one trip in search of inspiration took him to the dangerous Thirteenth District 22.

Qiu Yuan was a student of director Yun Ziming. His breakthrough was a bloody apocalyptic road movie, a marked departure from his teacher’s gentler style. His later project was a dark sequel to a Yun Ziming film in which Xin Hexue had starred as a teenager 40 43.

Appearance

Qiu Yuan has the outward appearance of a handsome mixed-race Alpha, with features described as both strong and distinctly Eastern in their details 22 37.

• Thick golden curls, a broad forehead, sword-shaped brows and thin lips 22.
• Deep blue eyes, usually hidden behind sunglasses to limit their disruptive effect on others 22 47.
• Approximately a head taller than Xin Hexue 37.

Personality

Qiu Yuan is unconventional, inquisitive and fond of provoking people. He takes pleasure in unsettling Xi Zhengqing and openly admits that he might deliberately pick on Xin Hexue. He is also observant: after seeing Xin Hexue at the archery range, he suspects that his frail, easily bullied presentation conceals a more calculating personality 36 40 47.

His interest in Xin Hexue becomes both flirtatious and protective. He offers to help him escape his enemies, although he also invades Xin Hexue’s privacy by reading Number One’s memory chip and later snooping through Xin Hexue’s communicator 37 48.

Abilities & Skills

Tentacles

Qiu Yuan has eight tentacle arms, each with its own secondary brain. He can monitor them through his consciousness, though they are capable of acting independently 28.

• Coordination: He stationed his arms around the Pei estate to obstruct security during Gerard’s assassination 28.
• Independent action: Two arms abandoned their posts and severed their connection to his central nervous system 28.
• Combat and resilience: His tentacles resisted light weapons manufactured by the Qiu family’s arms factories. He says they regenerate well enough that breaking them off is not a serious concern 28 47.
• Memory reading: A tentacle read the memory chip inside Number One’s android body 37.
• Mimicry: One tentacle changed shape after Xin Hexue stepped on it, retaining the outline of his footprint 40.
• Vulnerability: An electric shock delivered to a connected tentacle caused Qiu Yuan pain; two of his arms had previously returned injured 37 41.

Sensory abilities

• Mental disruption: Qiu Yuan warns that prolonged eye contact can disrupt a person’s mind and sometimes cause hallucinations. He describes the effect as passive 47.
• Vision: He claims better night vision than a human and a 360-degree field of view without blind spots 47.

Directing and riding

• Film direction: Qiu Yuan controls the Qiu Group-funded production of his sequel and coaches Xin Hexue on portraying Yi Si’s desperation 44 47.
• Motorcycling: He says he raced throughout middle and high school and owns a motorcycle dealership in North City 47.

Relationships

• Xin Hexue — Actor in Qiu Yuan’s film and the object of his growing affection. Each recognizes that the other is concealing important truths; Xin Hexue deliberately encourages Qiu Yuan to believe they are both nonhuman outsiders 37 41 44.
• Qiu Jing / The Cutter / Number One — Qiu Yuan’s older brother, once believed dead in the laboratory fire. Qiu Yuan recognizes him as the xeno known as The Cutter, who has lost his human memories and serves Xin Hexue in an android body 22 37.
• Xi Zhengqing — Childhood friend and rival for Xin Hexue’s attention. Their incompatible personalities and views make their friendship particularly fragile 22 48.
• Pei Guangji — Childhood friend whose aircraft Qiu Yuan ordered Number One to sabotage 22 33.
• Zuo Yongyan — Member of Qiu Yuan’s childhood social circle 22.
• Yun Ziming — Qiu Yuan’s teacher and the director of the film to which Qiu Yuan makes a sequel 38 43.

Story Role

Pei family banquet

Qiu Yuan cooperates with Spark’s assassination of Gerard, positioning his tentacles to obstruct the estate’s security. The Cutter kills Gerard, but two of Qiu Yuan’s arms leave their posts and cut off contact while moving toward Xin Hexue 28 30.

Afterward, Qiu Yuan confronts The Cutter for delaying his escape. He traps him in the android body, reads its memory chip and discovers his connection to Xin Hexue 36 37.

Resort and cruise party

At a hot spring resort, Qiu Yuan suggests that Xi Zhengqing staged a confrontation with reporters to rescue Xin Hexue, then proposes that he and Xin Hexue become friends. He also confirms that Xin Hexue can distinguish Xi Zhengqing from Pei Guangji despite his face blindness 36 37.

At Qiu Yuan’s cruise-ship birthday party, he discusses an upcoming film with Xin Hexue. During their dance, Xin Hexue uses K’s electric shock to confirm Qiu Yuan’s connection to the tentacles and leads him to believe they are alike. Qiu Yuan then interrupts Xi Zhengqing’s attempted proposal by bringing guests—including the newly awakened Pei Guangji—onto the deck 40 41.

Film production and assassination threat

Qiu Yuan casts Xin Hexue as Yi Si in his sequel. After criticizing his performance as too confident, Qiu Yuan takes him on a fast coastal motorcycle ride to give him a sense of losing control 44 47.

Qiu Yuan later reveals that the Gong Group hired a killer through Black Snake, which passed the job to Spark. He offers to help Xin Hexue fake his death before his engagement banquet and says he can prevent the assigned mutant from acting before then. After Xin Hexue falls asleep, Qiu Yuan reads messages on his communicator and carries him home to Xi Zhengqing 48.

Qiu Yuan also keeps Pei Guangji’s former assistant Jiang Jing at a private resort, using a mutant’s illusion to prevent Pei’s people from finding him, before bringing Jiang Jing to Pei Guangji 50.