Bai Yi

Biodata

Power Progression

The Pocket Watch has numbered watch levels as well as broader Modifier stages. Its Third Stage is exceptional: it existed from the beginning rather than being acquired after the Second Stage 27 30 698.

Background / History

Bai Yi grows up under the strong influence of her mother, Zuo Jiangqin, who pushes her toward frequent entertainment appearances and a career built around her looks. Bai Yi instead wants to write songs and pursue music on her own terms. Repeated arguments teach her to avoid confrontation: resisting her mother usually ends with Bai Yi expected to apologize 30 38 89.

Her family history is presented differently as the story develops. Early narration describes her biological father as having died when she was very young. Later, Bai Yi says she has never met him and knows him only through her mother's accounts; she eventually meets Bai Letian in custody 79 729 730.

According to Bai Yi's later account, her father persuaded her mother to cross the ocean and enter Linmen illegally before Bai Yi was born. His subsequent imprisonment left Zuo Jiangqin raising her alone. Bai Yi recognizes the hardship her mother endured, even while struggling with her controlling behavior 692 707.

Her stepfather, Jiang Xiong, acts as an intermediary between mother and daughter, describing himself as their “firewall” 79.

Appearance

• Hair: Long black hair, sometimes worn loose with a slight wave 356 409.
• Face: Described as exceptionally beautiful even without makeup; her small, rounded, pale earlobes are highlighted in her first appearance 1 346.
• Voice: Frequently compared to a lark's, both in conversation and while singing 409 584.
• Style: Wears coordinated, feminine outfits, including a ruffled chiffon cold-shoulder blouse and a white lace-trimmed skirt 356.
• Accessories: Butterfly-shaped rimless sunglasses, jade earrings, and a matching necklace appear among her accessories 409 486.
• Grooming: Skilled at applying makeup; she gets up early to prepare a full face for Yan Huan's return 346.

Personality

Bai Yi is friendly and enjoys making friends, leaving even casual acquaintances with a favorable impression. Beneath her ladylike public image, she is argumentative, easily flustered, and prone to puffing out her cheeks when annoyed—the recurring basis for the narration's “Pink Pufferfish” description 106 616.

Her central insecurity is a lack of recognition. Her mother's rejection makes praise for her music especially meaningful, and Yan Huan's encouragement becomes a major source of confidence. She initially treats escape as her answer to difficult situations, whether facing family conflict or stronger Modifier Hosts 89 109 497.

Romance brings out her jealousy, competitiveness, and elaborate fantasies. She readily interprets Yan Huan's gestures as proof of commitment and devises schemes to outmaneuver his other admirers. Nevertheless, she can question her own entitlement, recognizing that she has often simply assumed they would end up together 310 356 409.

Yan Huan characterizes her as having “a sharp tongue and a soft heart.” Despite her complaints, she cares for Ye Shiyu during his disappearance and later exhausts herself seeking help to rescue him. He also comes to regard her as comparatively restrained in using her powers 346 586 629 708.

Abilities & Skills

Indifference

Indifference separates Bai Yi's worldline from ordinary reality, making her undiscoverable while delaying the external consequences of her actions until the effect ends 27 274.

• Delayed contact: Bai Yi immediately feels touching another person, but that person receives the accumulated sensations only when Indifference ends 27 110.
• Object correction: The watch can restore an object to its previous position and remove evidence of use while preserving an intended result, such as a prank drawn on someone's face 27.
• Transparent Human Correction: At Level 2, the watch corrects potentially revealing inconsistencies in surveillance footage, phones, cameras, and other recording methods. Humans and animals can still notice abnormalities directly 30.
• Worldline enforcement: Her Modifier prevents Yan Huan from approaching Ye Shiyu by eliminating the worldline in which he makes that movement 110.
• Tentacle interaction: An Le's tentacles ordinarily pass through Bai Yi in this state, but Bai Yi deliberately touching one allows An Le to detect her 237.
• Barrier counter: Hitomi Sakuramiya's Barrier obstructs her separation from the worldline and exposes her movements as visible afterimages 274 280.
• Changing effectiveness: Yan Huan sees her during her first appearance, but later fails to notice her while she uses a much stronger version of Indifference 1 763.

Time Stop

Turning the hour hand clockwise activates Time Stop, described as reducing time's flow to an infinitesimal rate 630.

• Bai Yi initially believes it has no duration or usage limits, but she experiences intense cold while using it 140.
• Its interaction with Hitomi Sakuramiya's Barriers can shatter them and expose those inside to the spaces between them 274.
• Mousey Sakuramiya later exploits this interaction to escape pursuit 488 497.
• Severe side effects include exhaustion and unconsciousness. One attempted activation causes stabbing pain, a nosebleed, and loss of strength before she can stop an approaching vehicle 497 622.

Time Acceleration

Turning the hour hand counterclockwise accelerates time rather than stopping it 630.

• Affects the user: Bai Yi once skips through a day hoping to watch a show's finale, only to miss the experience and nearly faint from hunger 630.
• Limited availability: The ability has usage restrictions or a cooldown; insufficient remaining uses prevent an attempted activation 717 737.
• Route escape: She uses acceleration to reach the 4:44 travel window while escaping a collapsing IF Route 737.
• Can be breached: Aria's Thumb tears through its protective shell and damages the Pocket Watch during that escape 737.

Spacetime Travel

At 4:44 p.m., Bai Yi can use the watch to access other times and IF Routes 630 650.

• She perceives the available worlds as open doors or time-space gates 650.
• During her travels, she attempts to undo bonds with Yan Huan by either performing his earlier interventions herself or preventing the incidents that required his help 738.
• Ye Shiyu warns that opposing established events with superpowers can disrupt causal lines and have irreversible consequences 694 709.
• Their return from a collapsing route lands several days later than Bai Yi intended 737.

Retaliatory Curse

Bai Yi's Modifier possesses a passive identified as damage reflection, which retaliates against other Modifier effects 188 193.

• The associated Toad Venom fragment specifies a random powerful curse for an attacker and a random powerful buff for its bearer on the following day, each initially lasting one day 188.
• Modifier resistance weakens the displayed curse's effect but not its duration 188.
• When An Le attacks Bai Yi with tentacles, Bai Yi's passive manifests as green mist and a sleep-inducing curse 232 237.

Unresolved Third Stage and Causality

Ring Finger already possessed its Third Stage ability when it descended upon Bai Yi. Its precise mechanics are not fully explained in the supplied passages 698 713.

• Yan Huan distinguishes this innate ability from her later acquisition of spacetime travel 698.
• At the climax of her journey, Bai Yi's overwhelming regret produces a Causality Bomb on a baby, linking past, present, and future into a loop 759.
• Her subsequent emotional evolution remains unclassified; Yan Huan questions whether it could be a Fourth Stage but does not establish an answer 737.

Music and Performance

• Singing and songwriting: Wants to succeed through original music rather than appearance-based popularity. Milos explicitly recognizes her singing talent 30 59.
• “Fan A”: Performs the song at the Linmen Game Expo and dedicates it to an unnamed longtime fan—Yan Huan 58.
• Instrumental performance: A later broadcast credits her for lyrics, composition, and instruments, and shows her singing while playing guitar 584.
• Acting: Learns to imitate her earlier behavior to avoid exposing herself during time travel, though an attempt to play her own enthusiastic fan goes poorly 732 738.

Equipment / Items

• Moment Pocket Watch / Nameless Pocket Watch — Her Modifier and the source of Indifference, time manipulation, and spacetime travel 27 630 731.
• Silence Ring — Given to her by an IF Route's Ye Shiyu. It seals her Modifier while she wears it; when used on someone else, its effect is single-use and lasts twenty-four hours. Removing it makes the Pocket Watch reappear 696 711.
• Modifier supplies and Crab Coins — Carries items supplied by Ye Shiyu and coins secretly packed by Yan Huan before departing an IF Route 698 713.

Relationships

• Yan Huan — Schoolmate, early supporter, and love interest. His encouragement helps her pursue music; their relationship develops through deception, estrangement, rescue attempts, and his eventual sincere confession 32 58 356 540 759.
• Zuo Jiangqin — Mother. Bai Yi seeks her approval but resents her control over work and personal choices. She ultimately ends her entertainment contract and leaves a letter severing their ties 32 89 737 753.
• Bai Letian — Biological father. Bai Yi meets him in custody after knowing him through her mother's accounts; later revelations about his imprisonment trigger a major emotional and supernatural upheaval 729 730 733.
• Jiang Xiong — Stepfather and mediator. Supports her during the Expo performance and buffers conflict with her mother 58 79.
• Ye Shiyu — Romantic rival, uneasy ally, and occasional recipient of Bai Yi's care and advice. An IF Route's Ye Shiyu comforts her and provides protective equipment; Bai Yi's recorded affection toward her reaches 62% despite her hostile remarks 204 346 409 694 696 758.
• Hitomi Sakuramiya — Ally against Spencer and recurring romantic competitor. Their powers interfere dangerously, and Bai Yi is devastated when she mistakenly believes she has killed her 204 274 497.
• An Le — Romantic rival whom Bai Yi initially dismisses as too weak to invite into her alliance. An Le subsequently captures, attacks, and chases her 202 232 274 317.
• Tong Yingying — Tavern owner who listens to Bai Yi after she runs away from home and later attempts to reach her during the effort to rescue Yan Huan 32 616.
• Ye Lan — The person Bai Yi reaches after running overnight to seek help for the imprisoned Yan Huan 629.
• Yan Ye — White cat presenting himself as her Modifier's incarnation and offering help changing the past. Yan Huan later travels with her under this identity; Bai Yi eventually realizes the connection 650 695 759.
• Lemon — Entertainer who arranges the theft of Bai Yi's score and a plagiarism accusation against her. Yan Huan exposes Lemon's confession 590.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Recognition and Musical Debut

Bai Yi first appears testing her unnoticed state in an examination room, unaware that Yan Huan can see her 1.

After running away following an argument with her mother, she reaches Tong Yingying's tavern. Yan Huan identifies himself as a listener of her music and encourages her ambitions. When her mother's cold response drives her into despair and agitates the watch, his caramel pudding and reassurance calm her 32.

At the Linmen Game Expo, Yan Huan and Meow-chan arrange for her new song to play. With his encouragement through an earbud, Bai Yi overcomes her stage fright and performs “Fan A.” Milos's subsequent praise gives her further confidence in pursuing singing 58 59.

Rivalries and the Sakura Nation Trip

Bai Yi organizes an alliance with Ye Shiyu and Hitomi Sakuramiya against Spencer, although all three privately intend to win Yan Huan for themselves 204.

The alliance proves unstable. During a fight with An Le, Bai Yi's Time Stop destroys Hitomi's connected Barriers. Later, she discovers Ye Shiyu restraining and kissing Yan Huan and intervenes. An Le eventually pursues both women after misinterpreting the scene she finds around him 274 308 317.

In Akihabara, Yan Huan leads Bai Yi to interpret his family introductions as romantic commitment. He kisses her to complete a mission condition, while she responds with a heartfelt confession and the belief that her feelings are reciprocated 356.

High Table Banquet

Bai Yi plans to secure Yan Huan as her partner for the High Table Banquet's flower-offering and dance tradition while her rivals are occupied elsewhere 409.

Mousey Sakuramiya later provokes her into using Time Stop, exploiting its ability to break a Barrier. Bai Yi mistakes the resulting disappearance for Hitomi's death, collapses from the side effects, and requires Yan Huan's comfort 488 497.

Estrangement and the Plagiarism Scandal

When Yan Huan refuses to choose between Bai Yi and Hitomi, Bai Yi removes him from her contacts and resolves to focus on self-discipline and entertainment work 540.

Her career becomes the target of Lemon's scheme: a stolen score is used to accuse her of plagiarism. At Lemon's signing event, Bai Yi confronts her, loses concealment when a watch fragment breaks, and faces an angry crowd. Yan Huan protects her and produces a recording exposing Lemon's admission 590.

Rescuing Yan Huan

After discovering that Ye Shiyu has imprisoned Yan Huan, Bai Yi tries to contact Spencer, Hitomi, and An Le. Ye Shiyu intercepts electronic communications and blocks outside help. Despite her fear, Bai Yi runs overnight from Beihai District to Ye International, collapses beside Ye Lan's car, and begs her to save him 616 629.

Yan Huan's apparent death in a vehicle collision then drives Bai Yi toward the watch's newly accessible time-space gates. Yan Ye appears and offers to help her change the past 650 663.

IF Routes and the Causal Loop

Bai Yi travels through IF Routes with Yan Huan disguised as Yan Ye. She encounters alternate lives, receives help from another Ye Shiyu, and learns that her powers' apparent sequence does not explain Ring Finger's innate Third Stage 694 698 709.

Revelations surrounding Bai Letian's imprisonment trigger another watch evolution. After escaping a collapsing route, she ends her contract and cuts ties with Zuo Jiangqin. Even when Yan Huan no longer remembers her, she chooses to risk another journey to save him 733 737 753.

At the journey's climax, her regret creates a Causality Bomb and closes a loop between past, present, and future. She realizes who has accompanied her as Yan Ye, and Yan Huan finally tells her that he truly loves her 759.

Notable Quotes

“Anyway, after meeting you, everything started getting better!” 356

“You'll always stay with me, won't you, Yan Ye?” 737

Trivia

• She drinks standard-sugar coconut jelly milk tea despite her manager explicitly forbidding it 409.
• She argues with critics of her music through an alternate account until the site restricts her comments 139.
• Her fan club is called the Yi Family Army in a changed worldline. Yan Huan mocks the name, but Bai Yi insists it sounds cool 752.