Zhang Yunyao

Biodata

Background / History

Zhang Yunyao is the daughter of Zhang Yucheng, chairman of the Dragon Gathering Group, and the younger sister of Zhang Yunliang. Her family comes from Yongfeng County, more than three hundred kilometers from Yanbei. Her grandfather brought her father to Yanbei to make a living, and two generations built up the family business 36 38 39.

The family’s prosperity was linked to an auspicious ancestral burial site selected by a Taoist during the late Qing dynasty. By Zhang Yucheng’s generation, the Dragon Gathering Group ranked among Yanbei’s largest companies, and his net worth was at least several billion yuan. Yunyao herself had a bank card containing one hundred thousand yuan in spending money from her father 38 39.

Yunyao attended the same school as Wu Jie, but they were in different classes and he did not initially know her. She and her father repeatedly sought help from Li Xuantong’s household after other feng shui practitioners failed to resolve the trouble at their ancestral graves 32 35 36 38.

Appearance

Wu Jie considers Yunyao exceptionally pretty and suspects that she is one of their school’s beauties 32.

• Hair: Falls over her shoulders, described as cascading like a waterfall 35.
• Banquet presentation: Wears light makeup and attracts widespread attention on entering the hall 35.
• Expressions: Frequently blushes during awkward exchanges with Wu Jie 32 38 48.

Personality

Yunyao is courteous but willing to challenge others openly. At Wang Chaoyang’s banquet, she ignores his ridicule, recognizes the value of Wu Jie’s talisman, and explains his qualifications to the assembled guests. She insists that she has merely told the truth when Wu Jie thanks her for defending him 35 36 37.

Her concern for her family is persistent rather than uncritical. She pleads for help with her brother’s nightmares, but also candidly describes his bad temper, lack of discipline, and habit of offending people. Even when he attacks Wu Jie under an evil spell, she hesitates to strike him because she fears killing him 38 40 43 49.

Supernatural encounters frighten her intensely, yet she does not simply abandon others. She follows Wu Jie into the cemetery at night, intervenes when he is being strangled, and tries to assist him against the jiangshi. Wu Jie explicitly admires her courage and resourcefulness during the pursuit 48 49 50.

Abilities & Skills

Driving

• Drives Wu Jie between the ancestral cemetery and the Zhang Family’s old residence during the emergency 44 47.
• Completes each urgent journey in just over half an hour 44 47.

Emergency Care

• Gives her father medicine when his high blood pressure flares up and supports him after he recovers 40.
• Cleans blood from Wu Jie’s forehead and bandages his wounded shoulders after the supernatural confrontations 46 50.

Improvised Defense and Evasion

• Uses a rock to loosen Zhang Yunliang’s grip on Wu Jie’s throat, giving Wu Jie an opening to counterattack 49.
• Evades the pursuing jiangshi by running around coffins, exploiting its stiff body and inability to bend 50.
• Cannot see the female ghost’s disembodied form; she only feels a chill when it approaches her 46.

Equipment / Items

• Peace-Safety Talisman: Receives Wu Jie’s handmade talisman as a gift after offering one hundred thousand yuan for it. He refuses payment because accepting it would count as business in Yanbei 35 36.
• Evil-Warding Talisman: Given by Wu Jie to carry over her heart. The female ghost retreats when it approaches her, and she still has the talisman during the later cemetery encounter 45 46 48.
• Bank card: Supplies the one-hundred-thousand-yuan deposit for her family’s case 38.

Relationships

• Zhang Yucheng — Father and chairman of the Dragon Gathering Group. He credits her with persuading Wu Jie to help and sends her to accompany the midnight grave relocation when his health prevents him from attending 36 39 43.
• Zhang Yunliang — Older brother. She cares deeply about his safety while acknowledging his irresponsible behavior 39 43 47.
• Wu Jie — Schoolmate, hired feng shui practitioner, and protector. She generally addresses him as “Young Master Wu,” even after he invites her to use his name 37 38 46.
• Housekeeper Wang — Family housekeeper, whom she calls “Uncle Wang.” His emergency call alerts her to her father’s possession 44 46.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Defending Wu Jie at the Banquet

• Offers to buy the protection talisman that Wang Chaoyang and his classmates dismiss as worthless. Her identification of Wu Jie as Li Xuantong’s disciple changes how the guests treat him 35 36.
• Waits outside afterward to discuss her family’s troubles privately in a Rolls-Royce 36 37.

Securing Wu Jie’s First Job

• Reports withering cemetery trees, black vapor, bloody water beneath the graves, and her brother’s recurring nightmares of jumping to his death 37 38.
• Reveals that the graves are in Yongfeng County, allowing Wu Jie to accept without violating his master’s prohibition on taking his first job in Yanbei 38.
• Prevents the visit from ending immediately by apologizing after Zhang Yunliang accuses Wu Jie of fraud 39 40.

Grave Relocation and Possession

• Tries to help her father after black vapor from a buried ritual box strikes him down. Wu Jie stops her because touching him would expose her to baleful qi 41.
• Accompanies the midnight exhumation, then brings Wu Jie home after learning that her father is behaving violently and speaking in a woman’s voice 43 44.
• Witnesses the ghost move from her father into Housekeeper Wang before Wu Jie drives it away 45 46.

Return to the Cemetery

• Helps the dizzy Wu Jie reach the car after his collapse and drives him back to stop the unauthorized digging 46 47.
• Finds her brother rendering corpse oil in a nearby grove. Her intervention during his attack allows Wu Jie to break the spell controlling him 48 49.
• Becomes the jiangshi’s target after an ancestor’s corpse transforms. She survives the pursuit, and Wu Jie immobilizes the creature before she tends his injuries 49 50.