Li Xu
After I Provoked the Obsessive Villain, His Serpent Tail Wrapped Around Me
Biodata
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Li Xu (李旭) |
| Alias(es) | Ah Xu; Young Master Li 4 103 |
| Species/Race | Human 65 |
| Gender | Male |
| Affiliation | Li family; the Bookshop 4 |
| Occupation/Role | Bookseller and publisher; self-taught medical practitioner; behind-the-scenes shareholder of Colorful Splendor Tower 4 118 126 |
| Family | Youngest child of the Minister of Rites and his wife; has several older brothers and sisters 124 |
| First Appearance | Chapter 3 3 |
Background / History
Li Xu was born late in his parents’ lives into a scholarly family whose ancestral tradition emphasized entering official service. With several promising older children already in the household, his parents placed fewer expectations on him. He showed an early fascination with money, choosing a large gold ingot at his first-birthday object-grabbing ceremony and refusing to release it 124 126.
As a child, Li Xu repeatedly brought other children home because he wanted a younger sibling. After overhearing that the neglected Ninth Prince, Xie Huizhou, had disappeared from the Detached Palace, he decided to find the prince and make him his little brother. He encountered Xie Huizhou beside the road, persuaded him to play, and brought him to the Li Residence, where his father recognized the missing prince 124.
His parents punished him and tried to send Xie Huizhou away, but Li Xu refused to abandon the friendship. Before his injuries had healed, he climbed into the Detached Palace to visit Xie Huizhou again. His family eventually stopped interfering, and their friendship continued for more than a decade 125.
During his teens, Li Xu began studying medicine partly because physicians were unwilling to treat Xie Huizhou. He learned from a medical book written by Ye Changfeng while continuing to pursue business. Although his first attempt involved alarmingly thick acupuncture needles, he eventually became capable of taking pulses, diagnosing illnesses, and treating ordinary colds 126.
Personality
Li Xu is boisterous, mischievous, and openly money-minded. He rejects the official career expected of his family, preferring business and medicine. His appetite for profit can overcome his fear of powerful people: despite recognizing Zhang Lanhe as the model for Xie Huizhou’s scandalous illustrations, he publishes them because he expects them to sell 4 124 126.
His loyalty is stronger than his concern for personal safety. He befriends Xie Huizhou despite the prince’s reputation for bringing misfortune and later risks the old emperor’s anger to examine him and prepare medicine. He explains that he would offer the same care to any friend or family member 124 125 126.
Li Xu enjoys gossip and often leaps to dramatic conclusions about romance. He initially assumes Xie Huizhou has slept with a woman, later suspects Zhang Lanhe’s interest, and repeatedly imagines his friend being mistreated. Although easily frightened by Zhang Lanhe, he still intervenes when he believes Xie Huizhou needs help 3 38 39 103.
He rejects rumors about demons, reasoning that his foreign customers demonstrate how widely human hair and eye colors can vary. Nevertheless, his knowledge of the legend of a white snake imprisoned beneath the palace gives Xie Huizhou an important lead 42.
Abilities & Skills
Business and Publishing
Li Xu turns a secretly acquired bookshop into a thriving publishing business 4.
- Large-scale operation: More than half the bookshops in the Great Xia Dynasty are under his operation 4.
- Publication and distribution: Sells Xie Huizhou’s illustrated stories under the name Spring Studio Hermit and repeatedly requests new installments to satisfy readers 4 21 42 103.
- Commercial judgment: Recognizes the earning potential of controversial stories and the longer-term uses of epidemic-prevention supplies 4 66.
- Public influence: His Bookshop helps disrupt an examination-fraud scheme and provides an outlet for publications intended to provoke Xie Wangqiu 38 102 103.
Medicine
Li Xu studies independently from Ye Changfeng’s medical book rather than following his family’s scholarly career path 126.
- Demonstrated skills: Takes pulses, diagnoses minor illnesses, and prepares medicine for ordinary colds 3 126.
- Practical experience: Frequently cares for Xie Huizhou when other physicians refuse to treat him 3 126.
- Limitations: His early confidence exceeds his competence; Xie Huizhou refuses his proposed acupuncture after seeing needles as thick as chopsticks. No successful acupuncture treatment is documented 126.
Business Interests & Items
- The Bookshop — His principal business and the publishing outlet for Xie Huizhou’s artwork. His father eventually accepts the venture and secretly provides substantial financial support 4 79.
- Colorful Splendor Tower shares — Holds a behind-the-scenes stake in the restaurant, allowing him to reserve its highest and most luxurious private room for Xie Huizhou’s farewell banquet 118.
- Ye Changfeng’s medical book — Retains a copy of a book submitted to his shop for sale and uses it to teach himself medicine 126.
- Commissioned acupuncture needles — Obtains unusually thick needles during his early medical studies; their appearance immediately discourages Xie Huizhou from accepting treatment 126.
Relationships
- Xie Huizhou — Childhood best friend, publishing partner, and frequent patient. Li Xu originally wants to raise him as a younger brother and continues calling him “Zhouzhou” even after his marriage to Zhang Lanhe makes them family through the Li family’s claimed kinship 124 125 126 123.
- Zhang Lanhe — Addressed as his distant older cousin, though they share no blood relationship. Li Xu fears his punishments and initially worries that he will exploit Xie Huizhou. Zhang Lanhe nevertheless protects him during the political upheaval 7 67 103.
- Minister of Rites — His father, who repeatedly disciplines him but eventually tolerates and financially supports his publishing business 4 79 124 125.
- Fang Yuanke — A mutual associate through Xie Huizhou. Li Xu contacts him to discuss participation in the epidemic-supplies workshops and later joins him and their friends in visiting Xie Huizhou before his departure 66 116.
Connection to Zhang Lanhe
- Li Xu describes claiming kinship with successive Imperial Preceptors as a longstanding family custom 65.
- Zhang Lanhe later explains that a man who named him and taught him literacy married into the Li family and changed his surname. Zhang Lanhe looks after that man’s descendants; in actual seniority, Li Xu’s family are all his juniors 79.
- This connection helps explain Zhang Lanhe’s unusual tolerance of Li Xu’s repeated provocations, including selling erotic illustrations modeled on him 79.
Story Role / Major Arcs
| Arc | Li Xu’s involvement |
|---|---|
| After Xie Huizhou’s disappearance | Searches all night after losing track of Xie Huizhou during a drinking outing. Upon finding him feverish, Li Xu arranges medicine and later passes along news of Zhang Lanhe’s citywide search 3 4. |
| Provoking the Imperial Preceptor | Tries to discourage Zhang Lanhe from visiting Xie Huizhou, then asks whether he has a “hidden ailment.” He is sent home to kneel in the ancestral hall and receives a beating from his parents 7. |
| The paintings are discovered | Attempts to conceal a freshly printed picture book, but Zhang Lanhe compels him to surrender it and recognizes Xie Huizhou’s artistic style. Li Xu rushes to warn his friend, then persuades him not to flee overseas immediately 25 26 27. |
| Examination-fraud counterplot | Agrees to help Xie Huizhou and Ning Shan sell misleading study papers, undermining the supposed leaked examination questions being used to frame Xie Huizhou 38. |
| White-snake investigation | While requesting another volume of Phoenix Painting, recounts the legend of the giant white snake sealed beneath the imperial palace. The story prompts Xie Huizhou to investigate during the Qionglin Banquet 42. |
| Epidemic-prevention project | Offers to pay half the cost of the illustrated guidance and associated supplies, requests a share in the production workshops, and contacts Fang Yuanke to discuss the proposal 66. |
| Xie Wangqiu’s crackdown | Remains in the capital under Zhang Lanhe’s protection while other acquaintances flee. After checking on Xie Huizhou’s safety, obtains new illustrations deliberately intended to provoke the emperor despite repeated searches of his Bookshop 103. |
| Departure from the capital | Learns of the couple’s planned departure through readers’ rumors and confronts them with their friends. After protesting and asking to accompany them, he respects Xie Huizhou’s wishes and hosts the farewell banquet 115 116 117 118. |
| Wedding and continued publishing | Attends the wedding in Peach Blossom Village and laments being unmarried. Xie Huizhou continues sending artwork to him after leaving the capital 123 127. |
| Later-age reunion | Appears among the old friends drawn to Xie Huizhou and Zhang Lanhe at a convention. Their sense of familiarity strengthens as they approach Xie Huizhou’s signing table, where he recognizes and greets them 133. |
Notable Quotes
“We're friends. That's enough. It's not just you. I'd do the same for any of my other friends or family.” 126
“No! I won't! I want to play with him! I want to be friends with the Ninth Prince!” 125
“Then I'll stick with Zhouzhou. I'm used to it.” 123