Jin Xueli

Biodata

Background

Jin Xueli comes from an ordinary immigrant family and lacks prestigious educational credentials or elite connections. When she first arrived in Blackmoor City, she shared a semi-basement apartment. Her later residence in a historic landmark places her among wealthy neighbors who still regard her as an outsider; one initially mistakes her for a maid 5 22.

Hunting substantially improves her finances. A $3,000 commission that would once have excited her is no longer worth accepting, but her earnings remain gray income that does not improve her official assets or creditworthiness. Despite her success, she envies the credit, transport, and commercial networks available to family-affiliated Hunters 5 45.

Personality

Xueli is outspoken about mistreatment. When her building manager dismisses Anthony’s harassment as a lovers’ quarrel, she explicitly rejects both that description and the suggestion that she should placate him. Her anger is sharpened by the manager’s class prejudice and unwillingness to take responsibility for building security 5.

She is cautious without being fearless. She follows the Nest’s rules closely, prepares extensive supplies, and avoids responding to suspicious residents. Her severe fear of heights never disappears despite repeated jumps, and ordinary alcohol leaves her too physically impaired to travel safely 5 6 9.

Her curiosity can compete with her caution: news of Candle Tears draws her away from her original destination. After the duplicate’s manipulation of history nearly destroys her, she becomes markedly less willing to experiment with the candle. She also recognizes that her attention is easily caught by minor sights and sounds—a trait she exploits to distract the copy that shares her personality 6 31 43.

Abilities & Skills

Pathway into the Nest

Xueli has a personal passage into the Nest, reached by falling backward from her high-rise balcony after drinking the bartender’s special mixes 5 6.

• Repeated entries bring her to the same hidden foothold, where she keeps supplies and a radio 6.
• The drinks dull her fear enough to attempt the jump; other alcohol makes her limbs heavy and causes her to pass out 5.
• Being a Hunter does not grant her supernatural strength or transform her body 8.
• The fall remains physically and psychologically dangerous despite her experience 6.

Navigation and Rule Analysis

Xueli possesses Infinite Illusion’s Virtual Guide, which she credits with helping her avoid direct confrontations with residents. She also uses Nest 173 Radio, an annotated map, and recorded observations to navigate 6 7 30.

• Identifies Vulture’s deliberate footsteps as a distraction intended to steer her into the chalk hopscotch trap 7.
• Records unfamiliar resident behavior for later information trading 7 8.
• Finds a taxi hotline on her map and successfully calls it despite having no phone signal 8.
• Recognizes that the duplicate’s words exploit her self-doubt to produce physical effects and threaten her identity 29 30.

Physical Training and Improvised Combat

Her physical conditioning helps her survive the hopscotch course and fight a duplicate with her own strength and reflexes 7 29 30.

• Crosses demanding hopscotch squares while carrying a backpack weighing over ten kilograms, including using a utility pole for an inverted maneuver 7.
• Dodges axe blows, kicks the duplicate’s ankle, and throws a sock at its eyes 29.
• Tackles and pins the duplicate, then gags it with a towel to interrupt its verbal attacks 29 30.
• Remains limited by ordinary human endurance, injuries, and footing; she cannot overpower the copy indefinitely 8 30.

Practical Preparation

• First-aid knowledge: Teaches herself basic first aid and carries medical supplies because of the Nest’s dangers. The extraordinary throat-wound recovery shown during the identity conflict is not reliable evidence of a human healing ability 22 26.
• Information gathering: Photographs distant exhibit instructions with her phone’s shutter sound disabled before committing to an attack 26.
• Commercial judgment: Understands the resale problems created by short-lived Phantasms and recognizes the changed profit potential of the Vending Machine’s products 45.
• Planning around human law: Chooses the Purple-Can Soda because conventional violence could expose her to investigation and imprisonment 46.

Equipment & Phantasms

• Hiking backpack: A large pack capable of holding a sleeping bag, stocked with food, water, tools, and first-aid supplies 5 7 22.
• Weapons: Initially prepares a hunting knife, a handgun designed for women, and bear spray. In the revised timeline, Anthony has borrowed and never returned the knife, so she enters the Nest without it 5 25 43.
• Phone and annotated map: Used for navigation, voice recordings, photographs, and taxi calls 7 8 26.
• Radio: Stored in a locked cabinet at her hidden foothold; receives Nest 173 Radio’s route reports and special bulletins 6.
• Bartender’s special drinks: Enable her to attempt her Pathway’s terrifying entry procedure without the incapacitating effects she experiences from other alcohol 5.
• Candle Tears: A giant museum Phantasm that she uses to erase the event in which Vulture copies her. It changes history rather than serving as a direct attack; she ultimately leaves it in the museum 26 31 43.
• Purple-Can Soda: A grape-soda Phantasm purchased for $12,000 using Moran Dao’s card. After drinking it, Xueli can blow on a target, who turns into grape soda at the first moment no human eyes are watching. She uses it on Anthony, then sells the remaining half-can 45 46 47.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Anthony’s Harassment

• Xueli cuts contact with Anthony after a few dates because he repeatedly asks for money and gifts after seeing her lifestyle. He retaliates with threats, abusive messages, publication of her phone number on porn sites, and a funeral wreath bearing her portrait outside her apartment 5.
• Doubting that police intervention or a restraining order will reliably protect her, she decides to retrieve something from the Nest to deal with him 5.
• She declines a commission at Between the Backlight, obtains the bartender’s drinks, and enters the Nest that night 5 6.

Vulture and the Museum of Modern Art

• A radio bulletin diverts her toward Candle Tears, newly discovered in the Museum of Modern Art’s basement. Her intended destination remains Ninety-Ninth Street 6.
• On Colorado Avenue, Vulture and a chalk hopscotch trap appear to cooperate against her. She calls a taxi to escape, but steps onto a copying square during the departure 7 8 22.
• Vulture copies both her appearance and mind, believes itself to be the original, and proceeds to the museum. The resulting viewpoint shifts initially obscure which “Jin Xueli” the narrative is following 9 22 26.

Altered Timelines and the Identity Conflict

• During the fight, Xueli argues that her unanswered doubts distinguish her from a resident that continually repairs gaps in its copied memories. Neither combatant’s arguments immediately settle the conflict, and the duplicate ultimately decides to kill her regardless 30.
• After the final revision, she accepts that she is the original and breaks down in relief. She leaves Candle Tears untouched rather than risk another uncontrolled change 43.
• Separately, Chai Si learns that Wei Xilai created a rumor about a Vulture copying a human and using that person’s Pathway to enter the human world. The rumor came true on November 17, connecting the copying incident to the wider Phantasm investigation 42.

Purple-Can Soda and Anthony’s Disappearance

• Xueli resumes her original plan and takes a taxi to Ninety-Ninth Street, reducing a potentially two-day walk to about half an hour 43.
• At the subway Vending Machine, she and four other Hunters remain silent through the Restocking Resident’s invitations. She then shares information about Vulture’s unusual behavior 44.
• Unable to finance her purchase herself, she borrows Moran Dao’s card against her identification, credit card, and phone, then buys the purple soda 45.
• Back in the human world, she lures Anthony to the bar where they met, drinks the soda, and blows grape-scented breath toward him. On returning from the restroom, she finds him gone and purple liquid on his seat and the floor; she tells the waitress she spilled her drink 46.
• She sells the remaining soda and repays Moran Dao the full $12,000, while refusing to publicly describe her actions as murder 47.

The Missing Morgan Squad

• At Between the Backlight, Xueli learns that Chai Si Monroe’s family wants information about Vulture 47.
• She recalls that the resident had been examining Wei Xilai’s history through Candle Tears and contacts Amber about the convoy crash 47.
• Amber reveals that Fu Tailan ordered the incident kept confidential. She also reports that a Morgan Family squad is missing in the Nest and that its leader, Jonah, is still alive and needs urgent rescue 47.

Relationships

• Anthony — Former dating partner turned stalker. His harassment motivates her expedition, and she ultimately turns him into grape soda 5 46 47.
• Vulture / the copied Jin Xueli — Resident antagonist that copies her mind and appearance. She defeats it by erasing the copying event rather than winning their physical fight 22 30 31.
• Moran Dao — Fellow Hunter who lends her the card used to purchase the Purple-Can Soda and later vouches for her when she brings the active Phantasm into Between the Backlight 45 47.
• Amber — Friend and Morgan Faction finance worker with no Pathway. Invites Xueli to the celebration where she meets Anthony and later provides information about the missing Morgan squad 23 47.
• Between the Backlight’s bartender — Professional contact who offers commissions, prepares her specialized drinks, and passes along inquiries about Vulture 5 47.
• Wei Xilai — Not a personal acquaintance. Xueli initially knows him through a client’s dealings; his convoy and the resident’s interest in his history later draw her attention 5 24 47.

Notable Quotes

“It’s not a lovers’ quarrel. It’s stalking and harassment!” 5

“It’s only by building on that tiny bit of doubt in my mind that your words can hurt me and become reality.” 30

“I only said to blow a breath at the target. I never said anything about killing.” 47