Duan Chan'er

Biodata

Background / History

Childhood and Name

Duan Chan'er's nickname originated while her mother was staying at her maternal grandmother's countryside home after her birth. Whenever the summer cicadas called, she would babble along, prompting her grandmother to call her “Chan'er.” Her grandmother wanted to register her name with the character for cicada, 蝉, but the family chose the identically pronounced 婵 instead to avoid an unusual name that might invite teasing 26.

Her grandmother kept a dog during her childhood. Duan Chan'er remembers losing a tug-of-war over a chicken drumstick to it and crying for the rest of the day 48.

School Reputation

Duan Chan'er became widely known almost immediately after entering high school. Zhang Zhaomu had heard accounts of her childhood literary talent and medals from prestigious competitions, alongside rumors that she already earned money from writing. Her essays were frequently read aloud as model compositions 1 3.

Her beauty and reputation as a literary girl attracted numerous admirers, but also made her seem unapproachable. Several sports students admitted that they did not dare speak to her; one abandoned the idea of a love letter because he feared his writing would look childish beside hers 7 8.

Appearance

• Face: Fair skin, gentle eyes and brows, a high nose bridge, naturally rosy lips, and a softly rounded jawline 1.
• Hair: Silky black hair worn without bangs; Zhang Zhaomu later describes her usual hairstyle as shoulder-length 1 11.
• Build: Slender, with a particularly narrow waist 11.
• Clothing: Often wears dresses, including a simple white dress and a purple floral dress with a carefully tied neckline bow 1 37.
• Other distinguishing detail: Zhang Zhaomu notices a faint jasmine fragrance from her hair during their first conversation 1.

Personality

Duan Chan'er is courteous and socially perceptive rather than genuinely aloof. She knows how to begin conversations, maintain a pleasant atmosphere, and preserve personal distance without offending others. However, that practiced politeness also keeps people from knowing her closely. She admits, through her online persona, that she has few true friends and sometimes feels lonely 27 47.

She values boundaries and takes practical precautions. She firmly declines Zhang Zhaomu's initial lunch invitation and does not turn his praise of her cooking into an invitation to her home. When dealing with a locksmith, she waits until her door is open and she is safely inside before challenging his inflated fee and warning him against misusing her identity information 7 26 27.

Food brings out a more animated side of her. She enjoys planning meals, experimenting with ingredients, and discussing favorite dishes. She considers eating delicious food a source of happiness and buys unfamiliar products simply to discover how they taste 7 47 48.

Her private interests contrast sharply with her restrained school image. She researches risqué material for her writing and plays romance games; she once wrote a lengthy complaint after encountering unexpected infidelity scenes in a game advertised as pure romance. She recognizes that excessive exposure to fictional scenarios can distort her real-life judgments 25 37 47.

She is compassionate toward animals, becoming angry at the abandonment of newborn puppies and refusing to leave their care entirely to Zhang Zhaomu. By contrast, she has little tolerance for frightening material and avoids even novels with horror elements 47 48 49.

Abilities & Skills

Writing

Duan Chan'er writes under the pen name Bing Chan, serializing All I Wanted Was to Get Ahead, but Now I'm Surrounded by Beauties, whose protagonist is Lu Zhaoheng 12 25.

• Her school compositions are used as model essays 3.
• Her webnovel combines harem wish fulfillment and risqué content with writing and plotting that keep Zhang Zhaomu reading 12 25.
• Her reader group, “Have You Complained About Bing Chan Today?”, has more than 1,800 members when Zhang Zhaomu discovers it 12.
• She researches practical details for scenes; information gathered for a stray-dog rescue sequence later helps her care for real puppies 49.
• Her readers regularly complain about missed updates, and she acknowledges that her credibility with them has fallen sharply 50.

Cooking and Household Management

Duan Chan'er cooks for herself and maintains an orderly, well-equipped apartment 7 49.

• Prepares time-consuming ingredients in advance so she can cook during the school's eighty-minute lunch break 7.
• Keeps her stove spotless and kitchen utensils neatly arranged 49.
• Experiments with unfamiliar foods and different kinds of milk, though she considers her own cooking insufficiently accomplished for a food-blogging career 48.
• Would prefer to share food without showing her face if she became a blogger 48.

Observation and Practical Judgment

She notices other people's intentions and responds without unnecessarily escalating confrontations 7 26.

• Recognizes that the sports students intend to embarrass Zhang Zhaomu and encourages the girls to help carry textbooks 7.
• Checks local locksmith prices before disputing an eighty-yuan charge for a service normally priced at fifty yuan 26.
• Explains why Class Nine values Zhang Zhaomu as its public representative rather than as a strict disciplinarian 50.

Newborn Puppy Care

Her knowledge comes from research for her novel, although she tells Zhang Zhaomu that she learned by caring for her grandmother's dog's puppies 49.

• Stops him from bathing the newborns and explains how to clean them gently with a damp towel and carefully dry them 49.
• Prepares warmed goat's milk and proposes using a kitchen glove as an improvised feeder 49.
• Knows they need feeding every two to three hours and assistance relieving themselves 49.
• Offers her apartment and supplies when his home lacks the equipment they need 49.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Becoming Acquainted with Zhang Zhaomu

After acquiring the [Refined] persona, Zhang Zhaomu greets Duan Chan'er instead of avoiding her as usual. She responds warmly and compliments his changed appearance. Their ordinary conversation about breakfast overturns his assumption that she is an inaccessible literary girl 1.

They subsequently discover that they share Humanities Class Nine. When sports students try to leave him struggling with textbook collection, Duan Chan'er rallies the girls to help. Later, a conversation about his makeover skills leads them to exchange WeChat details 3 7 11.

Discovery of Bing Chan's Identity

A reader-group notification on Duan Chan'er's phone leads Zhang Zhaomu to Bing Chan's novel. He initially assumes she is merely a reader 12 25.

The connection becomes clear when Bing Chan tells him online about being locked out and needing a bathroom, immediately before Duan Chan'er arrives at his door with the same predicament. Zhang Zhaomu realizes that she is the author but decides not to reveal his discovery 24 25.

During her visit, Duan Chan'er sees Chen Zhenzhen's clothes near his washing machine and mistakenly assumes the two are living together. After he explains the makeover arrangement, she apologizes and privately resolves not to let her research material influence her judgment so readily 25.

Online Friendship and the Invented Daughter

As Bing Chan, Duan Chan'er maintains the fiction that she has a high-school-aged daughter. She uses this supposed daughter to discuss her own lack of friends and her impressions of her neighbor 27.

She does not know that Jasmine Meow, the online friend she believes to be a female reader, is Zhang Zhaomu himself. He encourages her to suggest that her “daughter” befriend the neighbor, while concealing his knowledge of both identities 27 50.

Rescuing the Puppies

Following that advice, Duan Chan'er invites Zhang Zhaomu to join her for late-night barbecue. On the way, his unusually sharp hearing leads them to two newborn puppies abandoned in a trash bin. They abandon their meal plans to rescue them 47 48.

They bring the puppies to her apartment, where she organizes their feeding, cleaning, and warm bedding. Zhang Zhaomu becomes the first visitor other than her family and landlord to enter the apartment since she rented it 49.

After he leaves, she decides they should choose the puppies' names together. She takes a day off writing and tells Jasmine Meow that her “daughter” has not been so happy in a long time now that she has made a friend 50.

Relationships

• Zhang Zhaomu / Jasmine Meow — Neighbor, classmate, and developing friend; also her trusted online confidant without her realizing the two are the same person. He knows her author identity and keeps it secret 25 27 50.
• Chen Zhenzhen — Zhang Zhaomu's longtime friend. Duan Chan'er takes no offense at overhearing her preference for Xiang Qing's appearance and later apologizes for misunderstanding her relationship with Zhang 11 25.
• Maternal grandmother — Gave her the childhood nickname that became her registered name; also owned the dog she remembers from childhood 26 48.
• Xu Xiujie and other sports students — School admirers who regard her as difficult to approach 7 8.
• Bing Chan's readers — An active audience that jokes about her writing and criticizes her update schedule; she is unsurprised when many doubt her explanation for taking time off to rescue puppies 22 50.

Notable Quotes

“What I look forward to most every day is making all sorts of delicious food for myself!” 7

“Even if I became a blogger, I'd only want to share the food itself. I wouldn't show my face.” 48

“Anyway, I haven't seen my daughter as happy as she was tonight in a long time. It's wonderful that she's been able to make a friend.” — Speaking as Bing Chan about herself 50