Xia Mi

Biodata

Appearance

• Hair and complexion: Black-haired, fair-skinned, and usually bare-faced, with an energetic appearance 104 134.
• Build: Described as balanced in figure, standing between Zero and Nono in height 134.
• Eyes: Her pupils narrow upon hearing of Norton’s death; they appear golden-yellow and almost luminous when her commission payment arrives 133 134.
• School clothing: At her introduction, she wears a navy knitted vest over a loose white shirt and a pleated skirt 104.
• Public impression: Her beauty attracts frequent attention at school and helps make her a subject of Cassell’s romantic speculation 104 131 160.

Personality

Xia Mi combines royal pride with practiced deception. She privately dismisses human students as children, yet presents herself as a sweet, vulnerable schoolgirl when it serves her interests. Her invented account of family neglect convinces a teacher that she is struggling alone, while flattery allows her to work with Indiana Downs despite resenting his condescending manner 104 106.

Money is a persistent concern rather than an abstract ambition. She budgets for subway fares and Fenrir’s potato chips, bargains over groceries, and imagines using a large commission to buy him a television and educational cartoons. She can swallow insults for a paying job, though she privately fantasizes about humiliating the employer afterward 106.

Her attachment to Fenrir is expressed through both care and bossiness. She brings him food and entertainment, gives strict instructions about rationing snacks, and worries about the disturbances his movements cause. Despite being pressed for time, she agrees to watch an anime episode with him before leaving for work 106 161 176.

She is cautious about human dragon hunters but repeatedly underestimates how much they know. Norton’s reported death unsettles her, and MARK’s use of dragon bodies leaves her frightened of exposure. Her pride does not prevent her from recognizing danger—or from wondering whether her recruitment was arranged in advance 134 169.

Abilities & Skills

Terrain Mapping and Underground Engineering

Xia Mi’s abilities make her particularly suited to surveying terrain and finding concealed routes. She tells Indiana Downs that she possesses a relevant Word Spirit, though its name is not given 106.

• Maps the terrain and surveillance positions around White Emperor City 114.
• Excavates a concealed underground passage toward Norton’s tomb, compacting its walls as she works 114.
• Identifies a stress point where a collapse would admit groundwater, allowing an intruder to swim inside 114.
• Conceals the entrance with a fallen tree and camouflage; Downs later confirms that the route worked without attracting notice 114 134.

Physical Agility and Strength

As the King of Earth and Mountains, Xia Mi can traverse difficult terrain as though it were level ground 114.

• Moves rapidly through dense woodland and climbs a pit wall with gecko-like agility 114.
• Kicks down a tree to hide her tunnel entrance 114.
• Punches away falling rocks when Fenrir’s movements shake the surrounding wall 161.
• Cannot break free when Lu Mingfei restrains her hands during their bow-tie confrontation 170.

Coin Alteration

Xia Mi can alter a coin’s markings without leaving visible evidence of tampering 114.

• Changes the date on a one-yuan coin from “2000” to “000” by rubbing it with her finger 114.
• Recognizes that the resulting apparent mint error could sell for thousands of yuan and considers it a new source of income 114.
• Leaves the altered coin as payment after eating an unattended barbecue meal; no subsequent sale is documented 114.

Dragon Pressure

Xia Mi releases a terrifying pressure when she believes MARK has exposed her identity 167.

• The release visibly alarms Su Enxi and Shadw before Old Tang interrupts the misunderstanding 167.
• A sudden chill also accompanies her reaction to news of Norton’s death 133.

Knowledge of Dragons and Alchemy

Her accumulated knowledge extends far beyond that expected of an elite hybrid 106 167.

• Answers Indiana Downs’s difficult questions about terrain and Word Spirits, eventually engaging him in an advanced academic discussion 106.
• Receives Old Tang’s endorsement for her understanding of Word Spirits, alchemy, and bloodlines 167.
• Disputes textbook history with her teacher, insisting that the events happened differently; the teacher treats her account as dubious unofficial history 104.

Acting and Social Manipulation

Xia Mi uses an innocent teenage persona to obtain access, sympathy, and information 104 166 167.

• Maintains a school identity supported by good grades and stories of family hardship 104 105.
• Uses exaggerated admiration to cultivate Indiana Downs as a contact 106 135.
• Invents a “brother complex” when Su Enxi challenges the existence of her supposed human older brother 167.
• Recruits more than one hundred internet café members while handing out promotional flyers 105.

Background / History

Human Identity and School Life

Xia Mi attended Shilan High School’s junior high division before transferring during her first year of high school. While working at an internet café, she regularly encountered Lu Mingfei, whose visits mostly revolved around playing StarCraft. Their QQ exchanges concerned practical matters such as reserving his preferred seat 160 166 167.

By December 12, 2009, she was posing as a seventeen-year-old high-school student. She cultivated the image of a neglected girl who worked after school to support herself, while maintaining strong grades in subjects other than history. Although she told a boy who confessed to her that she intended to attend Peking University, she already expected to enter Cassell College’s preparatory program 104.

Indiana Downs’s Commission

Using the Hunter Website, Xia Mi repeatedly lost desirable commissions to Indiana Downs. After finding reports of an explosion at Cassell College, she connected the damage with its Three Gorges operation and suspected that the school possessed the Bronze and Fire King’s Dragon Bones 105.

She accepted Downs’s commission to find routes around Kui Gate that avoided surveillance. The job offered US$50,000, potentially rising to US$500,000, and placed her in competition with nine other contractors. Although she resented helping someone loot another Dragon King’s home, the prospect of improving life for herself and Fenrir persuaded her 106.

After entering Cassell’s preparatory program, Xia Mi obtained leave and surveyed White Emperor City. Rather than merely submitting a map, she excavated a concealed passage to exceed the commission’s requirements. Downs later confirmed its success and paid the full US$500,000 114 134.

Norton’s Death and the Chicago Meeting

On returning to class, Xia Mi discovered that her classmates interpreted her Three Gorges absence as an attempt to meet Lu Mingfei. Her admission that they had attended middle school together only strengthened their belief that the two were childhood sweethearts. News that Lu Mingfei had killed Norton shocked her far more than their accusations 133.

Xia Mi considered getting close to Lu Mingfei as a way to conceal her own identity. She also arranged to meet Indiana Downs in America to investigate his connection to Norton’s defeat. Her class’s trip to Cassell gave her an opportunity to meet him in Chicago earlier than originally planned 134 135 160.

After slipping away from the class outing, she reached the Peninsula Hotel and found both Downs and Lu Mingfei waiting for her 166.

Recruitment into MARK

Old Tang introduced Xia Mi to MARK’s representatives and vouched for her knowledge and potential. During the interview, Su Enxi challenged her financial motives and false family story, prompting Xia Mi to improvise a claim that she had a brother complex. She also professed trust in Lu Mingfei as evidence that she could trust the organization 167.

When Su Enxi announced that a Dragon King was present, Xia Mi assumed she had been exposed and began releasing her pressure. Old Tang hurriedly reframed the exchange as a successful newcomer test. He recognized her as Jormungandr, while she remained unaware of his own concealed identity 167.

Her acceptance quickly became alarming. MARK disclosed its project to let human consciousness control modified dragon bodies, including corpses. Angers subsequently questioned her about her fabricated background, the Three Gorges assignment, and Norton’s missing remains. Xia Mi said that she had only handled perimeter work, then privately feared Norton had become one of MARK’s weapons 168 169.

Cassell Visit and Return Home

At Cassell’s end-of-term ball, Xia Mi confronted Lu Mingfei about his transformation from an internet café regular into a celebrated dragon slayer. Their exchange drew Zero and Nono’s attention, and both treated her familiarity with him as a challenge. Xia Mi later followed Nono as the latter went to check on Lu Mingfei and Zero 170 171.

Nono assigned Xia Mi to join the June trip to Japan and keep watch over the pair. This disrupted Xia Mi’s plans to address another threat: seismological records that might reveal traces of herself and Fenrir 173 176.

Using US$250,000 from Downs’s payment, Xia Mi hired a hunter to steal the records before they reached Cassell. She hurried home to observe the operation and intervene if necessary. Before departing again, she supplied Fenrir with chips and a Gunbuster disc, then stayed to watch the first episode with him 176.

Relationships

• Fenrir — Her brother and the focus of much of her spending. She manages his food, entertainment, and behavior, while keeping his existence outside her human records 106 161 176.
• Lu Mingfei — Former schoolmate and internet café customer. Their supposed childhood romance is largely a construction of classmates and forum gossip; Xia Mi initially denies romantic involvement, though his changed appearance later catches her attention 131 133 160 170.
• Old Tang / Indiana Downs — Rival hunter turned employer and recruiter. She resents his arrogance but respects his knowledge and values his generous payment; he recognizes her true identity without revealing his own 106 134 167.
• Chen Motong / Nono — Organizational superior who invokes Xia Mi’s intern status, orders her to make tea, and assigns her to monitor Lu Mingfei and Zero in Japan 168 170 173.
• Zero Romanova — Fellow organization member who warns Xia Mi against using personal access to Lu Mingfei to improve her standing. Xia Mi regards her as a difficult colleague to contend with 170 171.
• Isabella — Preparatory-class president who shifts from hostility to cultivating Xia Mi’s friendship after learning of her connection to Lu Mingfei. Xia Mi gives her his QQ number 133 160 166.
• Hilbert Ron Angers — Cassell’s principal, who investigates inconsistencies in her family story and questions her role in the Bronze Operation 169.
• Chu Ran — Internet café receptionist whom she persuades to let her use a computer for an hour; she teasingly calls him “Chu Nan” 105.

Notable Quotes

“Thank you, boss! You’re so generous, boss! … This girl is at your beck and call, with professional tunneling skills and guaranteed quality and quantity!” 134

“All I know is that I’m Lu Mingfei’s junior at school. Back at the internet café, I made hundreds of cups of instant noodles for him. Isn’t that right, senior?” 170