An Qian

Biodata

Background / History

Family Circumstances and Rescue

An Qian remembers debt collectors coming to her home during her childhood. While attending university, she cooks food for her hospitalized mother and delivers it after classes. One evening, running late, she takes a deserted shortcut despite the hospital nurses’ warnings about the area 4.

Several men corner her in the alley and threaten sexual violence and blackmail. She offers them money and threatens to call the police, but they refuse to release her. Believing escape impossible, she prepares to ram herself into a wall rather than fall into their hands. Chu Yannan intervenes with a stick and leads her to safety at the hospital. She recognizes him as S University’s well-known Finance Department student, exchanges contact details with him, and promises to buy him a meal 4 5.

Campus Romance and the Engagement Dispute

After the rescue, An Qian repeatedly encounters Chu Yannan on campus and welcomes the chance to grow closer to him. A photograph of them sitting together in a shared general course goes viral on the university forum. Students debate whether they make a suitable couple, while others point out that Chu Yannan already has a fiancée, Liu Muyan 18.

When Liu Muyan confronts them, An Qian insists that they only happened to meet. Chu Yannan immediately shields her and accuses Liu Muyan of making things difficult for her. Liu Muyan subsequently tells An Qian that she may pursue him only after he properly ends their existing relationship. An Qian privately acknowledges that she has contributed to their misunderstanding, though she maintains that she did not intend to do so 36 37.

Chu Yanqing later asks An Qian to leave so that he can address the matter privately with his brother. She again describes herself and Chu Yannan as friends and asks him not to blame Yannan. His polite distance leaves her acutely conscious of the gap between their social backgrounds 38.

Chu Yanqing’s Birthday Banquet

Chu Yannan brings An Qian to his older brother’s birthday banquet, hoping that meeting her will persuade his family to accept their relationship. It is her first occasion of this kind. He introduces her to his friends and has nearly all the available desserts brought to her table 45.

The arrangement provokes a dispute when Liu Muyan and Shen Zhiyi discover where the missing cakes have gone. An Qian apologizes and offers to share them, while Shan Yirou mocks her social standing. After Liu Muyan criticizes her, An Qian tearfully protests that she has gone too far. Chu Yannan arrives and accuses Liu Muyan of bullying her 46.

Shen Zhiyi orders the couple to finish the remaining twenty-odd desserts and intimidates them with a wooden stick. An Qian becomes frightened by Chu Yannan’s distress and tries to stop him from eating. Although Liu Muyan eventually tells them to stop, Chi Ye arrives and orders them to continue. During the confrontation, Liu Muyan publicly severs her relationship with Chu Yannan 47 48.

Work at the Chu Group

When Chu Yannan begins learning to manage the company, he insists that An Qian join him despite his parents’ objections. She becomes his secretary while continuing her studies, determined to support him. However, she cannot understand the business reports he gives her and struggles with office procedures and document handling 68.

Shan Yirou joins the company to get closer to Chu Yannan, and their rivalry disrupts the office. After an important document appears to go missing, An Qian accuses Shan Yirou of taking it and offers to leave the company if she returns it. Surveillance footage instead establishes that the document has reached its intended recipient. An Qian remains suspicious, but Chu Yannan closes the dispute and transfers document handling to Special Assistant Gao 69.

An Qian later tells Chu Yannan that she has already apologized and does not understand Shan Yirou’s continued hostility. He promises to dismiss Shan once the company’s collaboration with her family ends. Their restaurant meeting turns into another confrontation: Shan splashes An Qian with Shen Zhiyi’s drinks, Chu Yannan retaliates with water, and Shen Zhiyi throws grape drinks over all three 71 72.

Becoming Shen Zhiyi’s Neighbor

After Shen Zhiyi moves into a small apartment, she discovers that An Qian is her neighbor. During one of An Qian and Chu Yannan’s jealousy-driven arguments, the couple blocks Shen Zhiyi’s doorway for ten minutes. Shen Zhiyi slaps both of them, interrupting the quarrel and prompting them to reconcile 82 83.

An Qian then offers to show Shen Zhiyi around the neighborhood and accompanies her to the supermarket despite her refusal. She fetches a cart, helps select groceries, offers to cook, and mediates between Shen Zhiyi and Chu Yannan. She also supports Shen Zhiyi’s purchase of baking equipment without pressing her to explain it 83 84.

Their recurring romantic disputes continue afterward. Doctor Bai makes repeated visits, including three in one week; on one such visit, he bandages An Qian while the couple fusses tenderly over her wound 89.

Appearance

• Features: Pretty, fair-skinned, and delicate-featured, with a fresh, unworldly quality 5 45.
• Hair: Long enough to fall loose down her back; worn half pinned up at the birthday banquet 18 45.
• Campus clothing: Wears a chiffon dress during the classroom scene that becomes a viral photograph 18.
• Formal clothing: Wears a white evening gown to Chu Yanqing’s birthday banquet 45.

Personality

An Qian is attentive to people she cares about. She prepares meals for her hospitalized mother, comforts Chu Yannan after an upsetting phone call, and later helps Shen Zhiyi shop for household necessities. At the banquet, she responds to the hotel staff’s bows with a small bow of her own, an unfamiliar courtesy that Chu Yannan interprets as evidence of her kindness 4 19 45 83.

She is shy and easily overwhelmed in unfamiliar social settings, but strongly attached to Chu Yannan. She is conscious of their unequal backgrounds and commits herself to supporting him after he insists on bringing her into the company 38 45 68.

Her sense of being mistreated can harden into unsupported accusations. During the missing-document dispute, she remains convinced that Shan Yirou has engineered the situation even after surveillance clears her of taking the document. She can also overlook others’ boundaries, following Shen Zhiyi shopping after being explicitly refused 69 83.

Abilities & Skills

Computer Science

• Recognized at S University for outperforming most male students in her department 5.
• Described by fellow students as a computer science prodigy 18.
• Her academic ability does not translate into business administration: she struggles with reports, procedures, and document management at the Chu Group 68 69.

Cooking and Household Tasks

• Prepares food at home for her hospitalized mother 4.
• Knows the neighborhood around her apartment and helps Shen Zhiyi choose groceries 83.
• Offers to cook for Shen Zhiyi and Chu Yannan during their shopping trip 83.

Relationships

• Chu Yannan — Rescuer, romantic partner, and employer. He repeatedly defends her in conflicts and insists on employing her as his secretary despite family opposition 5 36 68.
• Her mother — Hospitalized family member whom An Qian visits and supplies with home-cooked meals 4 5.
• Liu Muyan — Chu Yannan’s former fiancée. Their conflict centers on An Qian’s intimacy with him before his existing engagement is properly resolved 37 47.
• Shan Yirou — Romantic and workplace rival. Their hostility includes public insults, a false accusation over company documents, and the restaurant drink fight 46 69 72.
• Shen Zhiyi — Initially an antagonistic acquaintance, later her neighbor. Shen repeatedly interrupts the couple’s disputes, while An Qian later helps her shop and mediates her exchanges with Chu Yannan 47 72 83 84.
• Chu Yanqing — Chu Yannan’s older brother. His courteous but firm exclusion of her from a family discussion makes her feel the distance between their social positions 38.
• Doctor Bai — Treats her during his frequent visits to the couple 89.

Story Role

• Original female lead: Shen Zhiyi identifies An Qian and Chu Yannan as the original novel’s romantic leads, contrasting their continued adherence to its plot with other characters’ changing lives 36 46.
• Recurring plot influence: Their melodramatic behavior is eventually presented as more than ordinary relationship conflict. Shen Zhiyi’s interruptions temporarily bring them out of the plot, but they resume similar arguments afterward 89.
• Spectacle for other characters: Liu Muyan and Madam Ye come to regard the couple’s public interactions as a live melodrama 68.