Xiao Ming

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Xiao Ming (萧明)
Alias(es)	Huhu (childhood family nickname); Xiao Xiao; [One Flute Tune] (fan-support-association username) 16 36 37
Species/Race	Human
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Full Speed Ahead! Acceleration Team and regular cast; Qu An Fan Support Association leadership team (probationary finance role) 24 37
Occupation/Role	Incoming graduate student; actor/public figure; competitive-variety-show participant 1 24
First Appearance	Chapter 1

Background / History

Xiao Ming spent his childhood with An’an, a quiet kindergarten friend who later became the actor Qu An. The two were inseparable for three years, but Xiao Ming’s researcher parents abruptly took him away for an intelligence test before he could say goodbye. Overhearing their disappointment that he was not as gifted as they were shaped his next fifteen years of relentless academic effort and isolation. 48

As an overworked academic researcher, Xiao Ming collapsed while writing a paper and awoke from a year-long coma. During that time, a former minor actor’s ghost had occupied his body, used his appearance to gain a supporting role in the hit drama Only Me in the Martial World, improved his health through exercise, postponed his graduate enrollment, and preserved his paper. Once the ghost’s obsession with fame was fulfilled, it returned Xiao Ming’s body, memories, and earnings—but also left him bound to participate in Full Speed Ahead! by an unaffordable withdrawal penalty. 1

The experience forces Xiao Ming to reconsider the life of exhaustion and achievement he had built for his parents’ approval. He still intends to attend graduate school, but abandons plans for a doctorate and begins pursuing travel, competition, and enjoyment on his own terms. 1 6

Appearance

Xiao Ming is a tall, strikingly beautiful young man whose appearance repeatedly draws public attention, including for his brief “Mermaid” role in a Mint Soda commercial. His naturally detached expression can make him seem cold or intimidating, despite his awkward and easily flustered nature. 13 23 33

• Peach-blossom eyes; when expressionless, his direct gaze can feel imposing. 23
• Previously wore thick bangs over his eyes, giving him a gloomy appearance; later cut them shorter. 23
• Often described as a “pretty bookworm” and noted for his pale, delicate appearance. 2 26
• Frequently carries and drinks jasmine flower tea; its faint scent becomes associated with him. 21
• His appearance is unusually suited to androgynous costuming, notably his role as the Seventh Fairy in the holographic Huangmei Opera mission. 34

Personality

Xiao Ming presents himself as a “salted fish” who wants a quiet, easy life, but is intensely competitive, afraid of boredom, and incapable of leaving a task unfinished. He treats missions like exam papers: completing everything possible matters more to him than being guaranteed a high score. 1 21

He is socially anxious, inexperienced with celebrity culture, and often blunt without intending to be rude. Around people he trusts—especially Qu An and Chen Anle—he becomes playful, earnest, and noticeably more expressive. 2 9 21

His upbringing left him highly sensitive to approval and abandonment. He works hard to avoid disappointing others, masks hurt with humor, and tends to dismiss his own pain or needs as unimportant. 32 43 48

Despite his reserve, Xiao Ming is principled and considerate. He repays favors, refuses exploitative offers, protects private information, and helped an elderly stranger suffering a heart attack without accepting payment. 9 12 13 38

Abilities & Skills

Strategic Analysis

Xiao Ming rapidly identifies patterns, loopholes, mission locations, and hidden-rule structures under pressure.

• Deduced the shopping street’s importance from the venue layout and correctly prioritized the tailor shop during the first mission. 2
• Recognized the traditional-medicine-clinic logo on a Hunter’s clue and directed the team to retrieve Chang Le’s equipment efficiently. 3
• Solved the cross-referenced opera clues by determining that each location’s question provided the other location’s answer. 30
• Identified an obstacle-course loophole: the Hunter would not deploy until a runner reached the first obstacle. 31
• Detected the danger associated with orange during the “Rules of the Strange Tales” challenge and avoided directly naming the color around a suspicious maintenance worker. 50

Physical Ability

Despite not appearing athletic, Xiao Ming is exceptionally fast, agile, flexible, and composed while being pursued.

• Routinely escapes Hunters by using terrain, alleys, shops, walls, and hiding places to break line of sight. 3 28
• Climbed over a wall to evade a Hunter during the Yellow City episode. 28
• Completed the hardest revival obstacle course while his hand was injured, earning three Revival Cards. 32 33
• Won an Acceleration King title alongside Qu An and Pang Ba after surviving the holographic-theater episode. 35
• Maintains strong endurance and continues participating even after injury, though this tendency frequently worries others. 29 35

Academic Knowledge & Memory

Xiao Ming’s long academic training gives him broad research skills, exceptional recall, and practical knowledge beyond the entertainment industry.

• His paper was accepted by an international journal. 21
• Used his economic-law background and internship experience to expose exploitative clauses in Full Speed Ahead!’s proposed contract. 24
• Memorized maps and reconstructed routes during missions with limited navigation information. 39 40
• Instantly answered classical-literature questions in the Interstellar Universe and later recited an entire passage from memory. 42
• Learned basic medical knowledge and can clean, medicate, and bandage minor injuries himself. 30

Acting

Although Xiao Ming initially regards acting as an accident caused by the ghost who used his body, he learns quickly when given emotional direction.

• Struggled during the Mint Soda shoot until Qu An encouraged him to draw on personal emotions; his later take impressed the crew. 8
• Demonstrated instinctive experiential acting while playing the Seventh Fairy, immediately immersing himself in the role. 34
• His public acting reputation originates partly from the ghost’s performance in Only Me in the Martial World, which makes praise for that role personally complicated for him. 1 6

Relationships

• Qu An / An’an — Childhood friend separated from Xiao Ming for years; they reunite as fellow Full Speed Ahead! participants and develop an exceptionally close partnership built on mutual protection, teasing, and trust. Xiao Ming later recognizes Qu An as the An’an he once knew. 2 32 47 48
• Former actor’s ghost — Occupied Xiao Ming’s body during his coma to fulfill its dream of becoming a recognized actor. Xiao Ming resents the violation but acknowledges that it preserved his academic work, improved his health, and left him acting income. 1
• Xiao Ming’s parents — Emotionally distant researchers whose expectations and disappointment drove Xiao Ming’s academic overwork. Their private mark appears on the Holographic Pods used by Full Speed Ahead!, suggesting a connection to the technology’s development. 1 34 48
• Chen Anle / Xiao Le — Qu An’s assistant and Xiao Ming’s easygoing friend. They bond through snacks and food, with Xiao Ming often listening patiently to Chen Anle’s talkative nature. 9 14
• Su Erya and Qu An Fan Support Association — Xiao Ming joins under the identity “One Flute Tune” to contribute his financial expertise to Qu An’s support network; the leadership accepts him after questioning his motives. 37 38
• Tang Gudu — A former contact whose help contributed to Xiao Ming’s initial entertainment opportunity. Xiao Ming later recognizes Tang’s manipulative intentions, blocks him, and firmly rejects his unwanted familiarity. 22 38 43
• Jiang Yuefeng — A fellow contestant who resents Xiao Ming’s closeness with Qu An and repeatedly attempts to undermine or compete with him. 38 46

Story Role / Major Arcs

• Unexpected entertainment debut — Returns from a year-long coma, inherits the consequences of the ghost’s acting career, and reluctantly enters Season Four of Full Speed Ahead!. 1
• First Full Speed Ahead! episode — Becomes one of the team’s main problem-solvers, completes missions with Qu An, and repeatedly sacrifices his own safety to create openings for others. 2 3 4 5
• Mint Soda controversy — Films a seaside advertisement with Qu An, gains widespread attention as the “Mermaid,” and becomes the target of purchased trending topics and rumors. 8 9 13
• Regular-cast contract — Chooses to remain on Full Speed Ahead! because he enjoys it, then forces Producer Li to revise an exploitative contract before signing for the remaining ten episodes. 22 23 24
• Yellow City challenge — Continues competing after injuring his hand, solves the opera missions, earns three Revival Cards through the hardest obstacle course, and becomes an Acceleration King with Qu An and Pang Ba. 29 30 32 35
• Fan-support work — Secretly joins Qu An’s fan support association as its finance officer candidate and organizes promotional efforts while maintaining his graduate-student life. 36 37 38
• Team-battle and holographic missions — Uses covert alliances, literary knowledge, and his coordination with Qu An to influence team-based episodes in Miedie Forest and the Interstellar Universe. 39 40 42
• “Rules of the Strange Tales” — Records all ten amusement-park rules immediately, helps reduce the number of Hunters, and continues investigating the hidden logic behind the horror-themed tasks with Qu An. 48 50

Notable Quotes

“I hope I can finish the mission, like answering an exam paper. Filling out the whole paper is important, but what grade you get is uncertain. So I want to finish everything I can do.” 21

Trivia

• Xiao Ming’s username [One Flute Tune] was chosen as a reference to Qu An. 36
• The Qu An Fan Support Association initially assumes “Xiao Xiao” is a woman. 37 38
• He prefers sweet and spicy food, unlike Qu An’s lighter diet. 9
• He collects souvenirs and mails postcards to himself from cities he visits because he dislikes taking photographs of himself. 44