Yan Guiyun

Biodata

Background / History

Yan Guiyun belongs to the wealthy but low-profile Yan Family. He is introduced as the sole heir to Yan Falls on the Southern Mountain, one of the country’s leading financial conglomerates. At twenty-two, before graduating, he succeeded his father, Yan Ting, as the group’s president 16 341.

His childhood was repeatedly disrupted by kidnappings and assassination attempts. After being abducted while buying water at school, he abandoned his piano studies to concentrate on combat training. He also studied strategy and methods of outwitting his captors, eventually becoming capable of escaping kidnappings and dismantling entire gangs 450.

By his late twenties, he had been hunted down and forced to flee at least a hundred times. He came to regard later kidnappings as trials that sharpened his abilities, reasoning that his capacity to survive and retaliate spared other family members from becoming targets 268 477.

Despite describing his family as happy and loving, Yan Guiyun has little need for conventional parental affection. He regards his parents as friends who occasionally act as parents, and returned to his grandfather’s old residence partly because he disliked constantly watching their displays of affection 450 507.

Appearance

• Face: Deep, pitch-black eyes, finely shaped lips, and sharply defined features; Chi Yining repeatedly considers him ideal reference material for comics 13 20 100.
• Build: Long, straight legs, a firm chest, and visibly developed arm muscles 287 332 339.
• Usual presentation: Impeccably tailored suits, polished leather shoes, and meticulously slicked-back, side-parted hair 164.
• Informal appearance: With wet hair hanging down after a shower, he looks young enough to resemble a recent college graduate 24.
• Voice and scent: A low, magnetic voice that reassures Chi Yining, accompanied by a familiar cedar scent 24 71 231.
• Resting expression: Without a smile, his face can appear forbidding; his expression softens immediately when Chi Yining addresses him 311.

Personality

Yan Guiyun’s tenderness is highly selective. With Chi Yining, he is patient, physically affectionate, and attentive to small needs, from preparing food to treating injuries. With executives, he is exacting and intimidating: a rejected proposal requires two improved alternatives, and senior staff fear overlooking even a single detail during meetings 50 177 341.

He is calculating, competitive, and willing to manipulate circumstances to obtain the outcome he wants. During his pursuit of Chi Yining, he presents intimate behavior as ordinary friendship and portrays other guests as the ones with questionable intentions. His rivals encounter a much less gentle man than the one Chi Yining initially believes him to be 130 500.

His possessiveness frequently becomes comic jealousy. He resents Chi Yining enjoying his grandfather’s company, competes with his young nephews for kisses, and abandons the idea of adopting a child because he wants their life to remain centered on the two of them 233 500 520 521.

Beneath his confidence, Yan Guiyun fears losing Chi Yining to something he cannot control. Learning about transmigration leaves him worried that his partner might disappear. Rather than demanding reassurance alone, he quietly researches comparable cases until he finds evidence that people in similar circumstances remained and lived full lives 313 451.

Abilities & Skills

Martial Arts and Combat

Yan Guiyun received combat training from childhood under world-famous martial artists who had refused even foreign royalty as students 209 229.

• Documented disciplines: Sanda, judo, taekwondo, Jeet Kune Do, karate, kickboxing, and Shaolin martial arts. A later attacker’s information credits him with proficiency in eight martial arts, though the complete list is not supplied 209 471.
• Close-quarters fighting: During the Dragon Cry Building operation, he defeats almost every opponent he encounters with one punch, leaving his bodyguards little to do 468.
• Reflexes and counters: He dodges a lethal flying needle, catches an attacker’s wrist, breaks it, and follows with a kick and punch that decisively incapacitate the attacker 471.
• Survival experience: Repeated abductions taught him to escape, retaliate, and turn hostile situations against his captors 450 477.
• Reputation: His bodyguards regard him as a “human weapon” 468.

Observation and Deduction

Yan Guiyun attributes his sharp eyesight and quick judgments to childhood combat training 229.

• Reads minute changes in Chi Yining’s expression that others overlook 229.
• Predicts food preferences from recent meals, repeated choices, and previously mentioned favorites 229.
• Recognizes that Chi Yining’s manners and abilities do not match the background information he obtained 153 186.
• Deduces a possible sequence of different souls occupying Chi Yining’s body before hearing his explanation 313.
• Acknowledges that his observations are not infallible; when he cannot tell what Chi Yining wants, he makes an educated guess 229.

Business Management and Intelligence Gathering

Yan Guiyun runs a business empire worth hundreds of billions while continuing to participate in the dating show 231 383.

• Handles corporate work during the hours outside filming, describing the arrangement as essentially working away from home 231.
• Maintains an extensive information network covering elite circles in the Capital and other major cities 453.
• Treats intelligence gathering as a necessary investment against commercial rivals and betrayal 453.
• Applies sustained business pressure against the Li Family rather than attempting to destroy it in one move 326 347.
• Has limits to his technical expertise: he cannot follow Chi Yining’s advanced programming work and initially relies on the specialists’ reactions to gauge its significance 168.

Sports and Recreation

• Archery: Repeatedly scores tens and helps his team win the show’s archery competition with 120 points 20.
• Table tennis: Returns shots while answering an idiom-chain challenge without hesitation 87.
• Horseback riding: Rides with Chi Yining on Hurricane at the riding grounds 501.
• Piano: Studied as a child but abandoned it after a kidnapping; he later admits that he has forgotten almost everything he learned 450.
• Gardening: Has no prior experience and looks up how to hoe soil before starting 383.

Cooking and Practical Care

Yan Guiyun takes pride in feeding and caring for the person he loves, continuing to cook even after Chi Yining tells him he need not do everything himself 269.

• Prepares regular meals and late-night dishes, including clam pasta and skewers 50 177.
• Disinfects and dresses Chi Yining’s injuries 25 50.
• Checks for seafood allergies before buying crabs and prawns 57.
• Carries Chi Yining when his legs are too sore to climb stairs and supplies strawberry milk afterward 93.
• Assembles camping equipment and handles domestic tasks such as unpacking their luggage 274 339.

Equipment / Assets

• Yan Falls on the Southern Mountain: The conglomerate he leads, with businesses spanning real estate, vehicle manufacturing, electronics, technology, and gaming 341.
• Personal security team: Retired mercenaries who protect him in shifts against frequent attacks, including explosives and firearms 512.
• Hurricane: A tall, completely white horse with a glossy coat and powerful legs, which he brings out for Chi Yining to ride 501.
• Phone photographs: Keeps photographs of Chi Yining on his phone; he initially hides them because he fears being thought a pervert 289.
• Primary bank card: Hands it over to Chi Yining after their marriage 459.

Relationships

• Chi Yining — Husband. Their relationship develops from reassuring companionship into mutual romantic love. Yan Guiyun calls him “Xiao Yi” and frequently likens him to a kitten; Chi Yining continues using “Brother Yan” even after their marriage 25 150 289 413.
• Yan Ting — Father and predecessor as company president. His retirement leads to Yan Guiyun taking over the group at twenty-two 341.
• Murong Xue — Mother. Yan Guiyun knows her aloof exterior conceals a weakness for cute things and suggests that Chi Yining could use this to persuade her 453.
• Old Master Yan — Grandfather. Yan Guiyun introduces Chi Yining to him through Go and Chinese chess, then becomes jealous of how naturally they get along 231 233.
• Yan Zhibei — Older brother. Their exchanges are full of teasing and bargaining; Yan Guiyun tries to recruit him for company work so he can spend more time with Chi Yining 410 442.
• Mei Heqing — Sister-in-law. She follows his romance through the livestream and later extracts a total of 1.5 billion from him over an incident involving Yan Zhibei 410 459.
• Ruan Dongchen — Longtime friend, elementary-school classmate, and client. Yan Guiyun jokingly demotes him to “classmate” while claiming Chi Yining is his only friend 164.
• Bai Chongxuan — University classmate and frequent sparring partner in verbal exchanges. They understand one another’s tactics, though Yan Guiyun refuses to praise someone he considers a potential romantic rival 480 526.
• Gu Chengyuan — Principal romantic rival during the show. Their antagonism eventually gives way to Gu Chengyuan wishing him and Chi Yining a lifetime together 73 474.
• Qin Shijing — Older cousin through Yan Guiyun’s eldest paternal aunt. Their family connection is known to few people 508.
• Chi Jingyi and Zhong Feifei — Parents-in-law. He assigns them two-thirds of his personnel and shares intelligence for their operation against Chi Er; he later addresses them respectfully as Dad and Mom 511 519.
• Li Family — Hereditary enemies responsible for more than half the dangers surrounding him. He escalates his retaliation after their actions endanger Chi Yining 326 327.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Notable Quotes

“Brother Yan will always be your friend, someone you can lean on. With me here to shield you, don't worry about what anyone else says.” 82

“You drew me in from the very first moment I saw you.” 289

“I'll always love you. If I make a promise, I'll keep it. But I'm afraid something beyond my control might happen.” 451

“Even if you hadn't gone on the dating show, I would have met you. It would only have been a matter of sooner or later.” 523