Xu Chengyuan

Biodata

Background / History

Family and concealed crimes

Xu Chengyuan was married to Lin Wan, Xu Zhihan’s birth mother, before marrying Zhou Man. After his remarriage, the sickly Xu Zhihan became increasingly marginalized within the household. Chengyuan routinely demanded that he apologize whenever Zhou Man presented herself as the injured party 1 2.

Behind the family’s respectable public image, Chengyuan financed and concealed activities connected to supernatural doors. A construction contract linked him to the underground gate chamber, while his money, authorization, and silence connected him to crimes he avoided carrying out personally 55.

His ultimate objective was to extend his own life through the Red Door. He was not merely a pawn of the Old Gods Society: he knowingly cooperated with it while seeking personal benefits from the door’s opening 57.

Conflict with Xu Zhihan

When Xu Zhihan awoke in the hospital, Chengyuan showed little happiness and treated his recovery as the return of a troublesome problem. Xu Zhihan’s knowledge of He Guilan’s death quickly made him fear that his son had become dangerous 1 2.

Chengyuan then tried to persuade Xu Zhihan to relinquish his engagement to Gu Huai so that Xu Mingji could take his place. He dismissed Xu Zhihan’s objections as a tantrum and initially defended Mingji’s staged illness. Even after the deception was exposed, he minimized it as a “momentary lapse in judgment” and demanded that Xu Zhihan stop making a scene 4 5 6.

The discovery of Xu An’s sealed soul in the family basement brought the Special Investigation Bureau into the household. Chengyuan challenged Lu Wenchuan’s authority, demanded evidence, and resisted the sealing of the scene. After Xu Zhihan refused to defend the family, Chengyuan decided that he could no longer remain in the house 14.

Failed attempts to contain the scandal

Chengyuan tried to suppress the recording exposing Xu Mingji, declaring that money was no obstacle. The effort failed, and Xu Zhihan also rejected the attempt to portray him as mentally unstable 20 21.

To reassure business partners, Chengyuan insisted that the Xu Family reception proceed and used information about Lin Wan and Xu An to secure Xu Zhihan’s attendance. The reception instead became another public disaster when Zhao Huaide confessed. Chengyuan’s attempt to take Xu Zhihan home ended when Xu Zhihan chose the Bureau’s temporary witness protection and left with Lu Wenchuan 25 26 27.

As investigators uncovered Zhou Man’s past, Chengyuan summoned a lawyer and tried to stop her from speaking. During her confession, she publicly implicated him in the medication tampering and Xu An’s confinement. After her arrest, he moved to characterize her crimes as individual actions unrelated to the company and instructed Xu Mingji to distance himself from them 42 44 45.

Red Door confrontation and disappearance

At the Red Door, Chengyuan claimed that Xu Zhihan owed his life to the Xu Family. His own name was carved beneath Xu Zhihan’s, binding part of his life to the door. He redirected its threads toward Lu Wenchuan’s Fate Line, but Xu Zhihan remotely asserted control, forced him to kneel, and cracked his name on the door. A Masked Man intervened and helped him retreat 57.

Chengyuan subsequently disappeared. Surveillance in the underground parking garage had been destroyed, his driver was found unconscious, and relevant records in the Xu Group Building’s archives had been burned or tampered with. Xu Zhihan determined that Chengyuan was suffering backlash from a severed door thread and would need the Old Gods Society’s help 59.

Capture at Xu Holdings Private Hospital

The investigation eventually led to Xu Holdings Private Hospital, where Chengyuan was found restrained on an operating table in the Doorline Repair Room. Xu Zhihan turned the door lines against him and again forced him to kneel. Chengyuan’s demand for Xu An’s Peace Amulet exposed his dependence on it: without it, he believed he would die 70 72 73.

During the evacuation, Chengyuan tried to hurt Xu Zhihan by describing Xu An’s suffering and cries for his brother. Lu Wenchuan punched him and stopped the provocation. Fake Shen Cheng then shattered Chengyuan’s Black Ring and sent a black thread into his chest to silence him 74.

Facing death, Chengyuan began confessing. He revealed that the real Shen Cheng had died in the church fire fifteen years earlier and that an Old Gods Society member had taken his identity. He also admitted agreeing to Xu An’s sacrifice and identified Level B4 as the location of the real Shen Cheng’s body and children turned into Door Line materials 74 75.

Detention and later testimony

After his rescue, Chengyuan became a potential replacement body for Fake Shen Cheng. The attempted intrusion left their consciousnesses struggling within him, requiring confinement in an isolation pod 79 80.

Xu Zhihan temporarily suppressed the intruding threads so Chengyuan could explain how to dismantle the Green Gate Core without scattering the children’s souls. His information established the need for Xu An’s guidance, Lu Wenchuan’s Gatekeeper blood, and Xu Zhihan’s Divinity Fragment 80.

Chengyuan later revealed the Society’s plan to contaminate Lu Wenchuan’s Fate Line through Gu Huai and Xu Mingji. He disclosed the Old Marriage Contract’s location and safe code, hoping that useful information would keep him alive. Xu Zhihan instead promised that he would survive to see his deeds publicly exposed 93.

At the Old Freight Station, Chengyuan was among those who acknowledged their debts, allowing the tangled lines to retreat. During the Returning Guilt incident, he explicitly accepted responsibility for Liang Qiu’s murder, Xu An’s death, and Lin Wan’s altered medicine; a Black Line then snapped back into his own body 102 134.

When Xu Zhihan later severed the Heavenly Judgment chain connected to the Xu Family Old Residence, half the Black Lines in Chengyuan’s isolation pod went dark 153.

Appearance

• Initial appearance: A middle-aged man with a frequently severe expression, first seen carrying a suit jacket over his arm 1.
• Public presentation: Wears formal business clothing, including a dark gray suit, with neatly styled hair 4.
• After the door backlash: Dark red lines rise beneath his skin, and his Black Ring becomes cracked and bloodstained 73 74.
• In detention: Appears to have aged ten years, with ashen skin, bluish lips, and ring fragments embedded in his right hand 93.

Personality

Chengyuan values control and the Xu Family’s reputation above the welfare of its members. Xu Zhihan’s resistance unsettles him more than Xu Mingji’s dishonesty, and his first response to exposed crimes is to assess the evidence rather than ask who was harmed 6 17 42.

His calm is calculated rather than reassuring. He suppresses anger when negotiation is useful, invokes fatherhood to demand obedience, and presents dependence on the family as a debt. Zhou Man considers him most frightening when he is composed 4 27 42.

His protection is conditional on usefulness. He abandons Zhou Man politically after her arrest and teaches Xu Mingji how to avoid implication rather than comforting him. Once his own survival is threatened, he bargains with information and pleads for rescue; his later interest in Xu Zhihan is explicitly driven by survival rather than guilt 45 74 93.

Abilities & Skills

Borrowed Door Authority

• Carved his name onto the Red Door, binding part of his life to it and using it as a refuge 57.
• Manipulated door threads, including an attack on Lu Wenchuan’s Fate Line 57.
• Borrowed the Second Door’s authority through the Black Ring; that authority was not inherently his 73.
• Could be overruled by Xu Zhihan, who turned the threads against him and forced him to kneel remotely 57 73.
• Suffered severe backlash and bodily deterioration from his involvement with the Door Line 59 80.

Knowledge of Gate Mechanisms

• Knew how Xu An’s Soul Flame functioned as the Second Door’s Lock Core 73 80.
• Understood the dangers of forcibly destroying the Green Gate Core and the requirements for safely reaching it 80.
• Knew how marriage ties, stolen benefits, and sacrificial materials could be used to force Sin Lines onto Lu Wenchuan 93.

Financial and Reputational Manipulation

• Used corporate resources, legal assistance, and business receptions to protect the family’s standing 20 25 42.
• Attempted to suppress damaging recordings and separate the company from Zhou Man’s criminal liability 20 45.
• Concealed his involvement behind intermediaries, making testimony and contracts insufficient by themselves to establish the full case against him 55.

Equipment / Items

• Black Ring — Enabled him to borrow door authority. Fake Shen Cheng used it to attack him before it shattered; fragments remained embedded in his right hand 73 74 93.
• Old Marriage Contract — Secretly preserved as leverage over Xu Zhihan through his fate characters. Hidden in the west-building safe at the Gu Family Old Residence, with Lin Wan’s birthday as the code 93.
• Lin Wan’s old key — Previously taken by Chengyuan and later kept in the Xu Residence safe. Xu Zhihan recovered it to investigate her sealed study 47.

Relationships

• Xu Zhihan — Son whose obedience Chengyuan took for granted. Their relationship becomes openly hostile as Xu Zhihan exposes the family’s crimes and rejects his authority 2 6 80.
• Lin Wan — Deceased first wife and Xu Zhihan’s mother. Chengyuan admitted ordering the tampering with her medication and concealed a marriage contract she wanted destroyed 1 93 134.
• Zhou Man — Second wife and accomplice. She implicated him when he attempted to leave her to bear the consequences alone 44 45.
• Xu Mingji — Favored son whom he initially defended. Chengyuan later withdrew that indulgence, ordered his silence, and acknowledged that benefits taken from Xu Zhihan had made Mingji usable in the Society’s schemes 5 45 93.
• Xu An / Lin An — Child brought into the Xu Family from Lin Wan’s side and renamed Xu An. He addressed Chengyuan as his father; Chengyuan agreed to sacrifice him as a backup Soul-Sealing Body 22 75.
• Lu Wenchuan — Investigator and intended Gatekeeper key. Chengyuan knew about his childhood involvement in the Gate Game and later attacked his Fate Line 57 61 73.
• Fake Shen Cheng — Old Gods Society collaborator who ultimately tried to silence Chengyuan and seize his body 74 79 80.