Hu Tao

Biodata

Power Progression

History

First Life: Childhood and Funeral Training

Hu Tao grows up under the care of Hu Xiu Yuan, whose first reincarnation places him in the role of her grandfather. His mission is to raise her until she can lead the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. When other children mock her as an unwanted orphan and beat her, he rescues her and reassures her that she still has him 1.

Xiu Yuan introduces her to doggerel, giving her a way to make friends and express herself. She forgives her former bully Yuan Chen, shares his family’s mung bean cakes, and begins teaching him and other children improvised verses. Their nightly performances around Liyue help transform her from a withdrawn child into a lively group leader 1 2.

Watching Xiu Yuan’s ceremonies, Hu Tao learns that funeral rites preserve the deceased’s final dignity and must reflect each client’s wishes. She also learns why a funeral can be cheerful: the living may want the departed soul to see happiness rather than grief. By age ten, she has learned practically all the knowledge and procedures needed for the work 3 5.

Her growing understanding of souls removes her fear of ghost stories. She begins turning them into gentle, silly rhymes and sleeping in coffins. After one such nap causes a frantic search, she apologizes and thereafter tells Xiu Yuan before sleeping in one. He also teaches her the parlor’s secret route from Wuwang Hill to the Border 4.

First Life: Loss and Succession

Hilichurls capture Hu Tao at Mt. Tianheng. Xiu Yuan rescues her, but the ensuing battle forces him to use Torch Dragon Flame Dance against four maximum-level Kairagi. Its irreversible backlash leaves him dying. Hu Tao discovers his worsening condition, yet both continue acting cheerfully to preserve their remaining time together 6 7 8.

Xiu Yuan dies in her arms after asking her to see him off. Despite widespread doubts about her age and mischievous reputation, Hu Tao conducts her first funeral with solemn grandeur and no mistakes. The parlor’s employees recognize her as qualified to become director 9.

She then travels alone to the Border to find him. After searching for two days and nights and exhausting her supplies, she learns that no Wangsheng Funeral Parlor director has lingered there. Remembering his advice to live without regrets, she accepts that he departed without attachments. On returning home, she resonates with the Vision he left for her 10.

First-Life Side Stories: Responsibility and Old Age

During the year after Xiu Yuan’s death, Hu Tao conducts the Rite of Parting for Rex Lapis with Zhongli’s assistance. She stops joining her childhood friends, insisting that her duties leave no time to play. On the first anniversary of her grandfather’s passing, she visits his grave and admits how exhausted and lonely she feels. Zhongli watches over her through the night and carries her home after she cries herself to sleep 31.

Hu Tao later promises Zhongli a funeral as grand as Rex Lapis’s, and they seal the promise with a contract. Decades afterward, as she lies dying of old age, she believes she has failed to fulfill it. Zhongli reminds her of the Rite of Parting; understanding his meaning, she thanks him and dies with a faint smile 32.

Second Life: Qiqi

The Hu Tao in Xiu Yuan’s second-life world does not remember him as her grandfather. Believing that Qiqi’s continued existence as a zombie disrupts the balance of yin and yang, she kidnaps her and begins digging a grave. Xiu Yuan intervenes and escapes with Qiqi 13 14.

Months later, Xiu Yuan gives Hu Tao a flower sachet, explains Qiqi’s past, and asks her to help care for Qiqi after his departure. When the sachet glows as he fades away, Hu Tao cries without understanding why she feels she has lost something important 17 19.

Afterward, Qiqi voluntarily asks Hu Tao to bury her. Hu Tao refuses, citing Xiu Yuan’s wishes, while Zhongli explains that burial would violate the contract making Liyue Qiqi’s home. Their response helps lead Qiqi back toward the city’s welcoming community 20.

Fourth Life: Xiu Yuan’s Joyful Funeral

After Xiu Yuan’s death in his fourth life, Xiao brings his body to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and requests a joyful funeral. Hu Tao arranges a ceremony filled with drums, gongs, laughter, and lively voices, honoring Xiu Yuan’s final wishes 49.

Appearance

Hu Tao is introduced as a small girl with reddish-brown, gradient-colored hair in twin ponytails and a patterned Chinese-style outfit 1.

• Clothing: A waist-length black robe with a long back hem, shorts, white short socks tied with red knots, and black shoes 1.
• Eyes: Plum-blossom-shaped pupils 32.
• Headwear: A Primordial Hexagonal Hat 14 32.
• Old age: White hair, a wrinkled face, and a frail body that makes speaking difficult 32.

Personality

Hu Tao’s playfulness develops alongside her funeral training. She confidently appoints herself leader of the children’s doggerel troupe, invents unusual nicknames, and treats ghosts as pitiable souls rather than frightening monsters. Her willingness to forgive Yuan Chen reflects Xiu Yuan’s lessons about sharing and correcting mistakes 2 4.

Her mischief does not undermine her respect for funeral work. Even as a child, she becomes quiet and solemn during ceremonies. As director, she takes pride in keeping her word and openly discusses preparations for death, including her own funeral 3 32.

She is intensely attached to her grandfather and stubborn enough to ignore repeated warnings while searching for him at the Border. After his death, her outward cheerfulness conceals grief and the strain of responsibility. She suppresses her desire to play and deliberately restores her enthusiastic expression before facing Zhongli 10 31 32.

Her professional convictions can also make her overbearing. She initially views burying Qiqi as an act of liberation despite Qiqi’s protests, but later honors Xiu Yuan’s request to protect her instead 14 20.

Abilities & Skills

Funeral Rites and Management

Hu Tao learns the parlor’s procedures through close observation of Xiu Yuan and proves her competence by conducting his funeral 3 5 9.

• Tailors ceremonies to clients’ preferences, including solemn, grand, tragic, or cheerful funerals 3 17.
• Conducts the Rite of Parting for Rex Lapis with Zhongli’s help 31.
• Arranges Xiu Yuan’s joyful funeral at Xiao’s request 49.
• Promotes the parlor directly in Liyue’s streets, including an unsuccessful offer of half-price second gravestones 32.

Doggerel and Classical Literature

Hu Tao studies classical poems and verses daily, building a store of material for improvised rhymes 4.

• Composes silly verses on the spot 4.
• Teaches new words and rhymes to her childhood companions 2.
• Reworks ghost stories into humorous or heartwarming tales 4.

Knowledge of the Border

Xiu Yuan passes down the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor’s secret route to the boundary between life and death 4.

• Reaches the Border from Wuwang Hill while still alive 10.
• Sees and speaks with wandering souls there 10.
• Learns that the Border holds souls with lingering attachments, not everyone who has died 4 10.

Equipment & Items

• Inherited Vision — Xiu Yuan’s former Vision, entrusted to Zhongli and successfully resonated with by Hu Tao after her return from the Border 10.
• Flower sachet — A gift from Xiu Yuan in his second life; Hu Tao recognizes its plum-blossom fragrance. It later glows during his departure 17 19.
• Sack and shovel — Used to capture Qiqi and prepare a grave in the second-life world 14.

Relationships

• Hu Xiu Yuan — Her grandfather, guardian, and teacher in the first life. His care shapes her poetry, funeral practice, and understanding of death. The second-life Hu Tao does not remember their shared childhood 1 3 4 14.
• Zhongli — The parlor’s consultant and her adviser. Xiu Yuan contracts him to care for her; he helps with the Rite of Parting, protects her during her grief, and remains beside her in old age 5 31 32.
• Yuan Chen — A former bully who becomes her friend and doggerel pupil. He later alerts Xiu Yuan when Hilichurls capture her 2 6.
• Qiqi — Initially a target for burial who fears and dislikes Hu Tao. Following Xiu Yuan’s appeal, Hu Tao refuses Qiqi’s later request to be buried 14 17 20.
• Xiao — Requests that she conduct a joyful funeral for Xiu Yuan after his fourth-life death 49.

Notable Quotes

“Who cares if there's reason or none whatsoever? I'll be the first emperor of doggerel forever!” 2

“I really want to sing silly rhymes with my friends again...” 31

“Every director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor has understood life and death. Preparing early is perfectly normal.” 32

Trivia

• She bathes the stone lions outside the Ministry of Civil Affairs, calling them “Big Kitty” and “Little Kitty.” She eventually stops because they need to become independent, turning instead to conversations with statues of the gods 4.
• Her childhood poetry group substitutes Yuan Chen’s family-recipe fruit tea for wine during its “grand ceremonies” 3.