Qin Mubai

Biodata

Appearance

• Build: Tall and originally strong and imposing, with large, well-defined hands 75 134.
• Features: Handsome, mature face; sharply defined features; low-set brows; dark eyes; a striking jawline 78 79 94.
• Clothing: Usually shown in formal or understated clothing, including suits, a dark gray shirt, and a black cashmere coat 75 78 142.
• Later condition: Becomes noticeably pale, thin, and gaunt during his illness and hospitalization, with increasingly prominent hand and facial bones 133 135 146.

Personality

Qin Mubai is restrained, proper, and rigid, maintaining a stern composure even within his family. Raised as an exemplary eldest son, he receives the strictest education and carries the expectation that he will inherit both families’ responsibilities. He is fastidious about cleanliness and ordinarily dislikes being touched 78 107.

Nan Qing is his conspicuous exception. Qin Mubai tolerates him making a mess in his office, sharing his bed, and leaving a half-eaten pear for him to finish. He climbs trees to fetch fruit for him and routinely resolves the trouble he causes. After an unsuccessful attempt at strict discipline, he decides that Nan Qing’s happiness and safety matter more than academic achievement 78 108 109.

His romantic and sexual feelings for the younger brother he raised provoke intense shame and self-condemnation. Rather than explain his distress, he withdraws, leaving Nan Qing to interpret his silence as rejection. His later remorse does not immediately erase his possessiveness: he repeatedly challenges Nan Qing’s relationship with Huo Yuzhou and struggles to accept their happiness even after witnessing it firsthand 111 129 144.

Eventually, Qin Mubai acknowledges that his suffering cannot cancel out the harm Nan Qing experienced. He tells Nan Qing not to forgive him merely because he appears pitiful, and ultimately chooses to remain his older brother without revealing his feelings 134 135 153.

History

Childhood and Guardianship

Qin Mubai takes his mother’s surname. With the Bai parents rarely accompanying their children, he becomes Nan Qing’s principal caregiver and a figure Nan Qing regards as half a father. Their bond develops over roughly twenty years of growing up together 75.

He oversees Nan Qing’s schoolwork, attends parent-teacher meetings, checks whether he has eaten or slept properly, and handles complaints about his behavior. Although he once strikes Nan Qing with a disciplinary ruler over his lack of ambition, he abandons that approach after Nan Qing tearfully asks him not to treat him that way. He instead resolves to protect him and provide a secure life, even if Nan Qing never becomes particularly accomplished 108.

Qin Mubai repeatedly promises that he will neither hate nor abandon Nan Qing. Those assurances become especially important to Nan Qing, who fears being left behind 110.

Withdrawal and Departure Abroad

After developing feelings he considers incompatible with his role as Nan Qing’s brother, Qin Mubai begins avoiding him. When Nan Qing seeks comfort after a nightmare, Qin Mubai sternly refuses to let him sleep with him, then arranges his affairs and leaves on the earliest flight abroad 111.

He remains overseas for six months, despite his father saying that the business does not require his presence. During that period, he suffers sleepless nights, drinks heavily, and watches Nan Qing through the family’s communal security cameras or receives information through Bai Yanxiu. Nan Qing later learns that he had also gone abroad for treatment 78 94 111 142.

Before leaving, Qin Mubai entrusts Bai Yanxiu with protecting Nan Qing and delivering substantial financial and property provisions. Nevertheless, when Bai Ruanruan demands Nan Qing’s expulsion from the family, Qin Mubai responds with silence. Nan Qing consequently believes that the person he trusted most has abandoned him 78 107 111.

Failed Reconciliation

On returning, Qin Mubai asks Nan Qing to come home. Nan Qing instead confronts him over the family’s rejection, bites his hand, and leaves with Huo Yuzhou 75 76.

Qin Mubai subsequently challenges Bai Ruanruan’s lies and warns that further schemes against Nan Qing will result in his expulsion from the Bai Family. However, Nan Qing rejects Qin Mubai’s apologies and financial assistance. His account of having almost no money—and of Qi Bin attempting to sell him to an older man—shocks Qin Mubai, who believes he has already provided for him 78 91.

Discovering the Missing Provisions

Qin Mubai questions Bai Yanxiu about the items left for Nan Qing. Bai Yanxiu admits withholding them initially, but claims that he later delivered them through Auntie Chen. Qin Mubai then enters Nan Qing’s locked bedroom and finds his preserved belongings, childhood gifts, and the ruler once used to punish him 107 108 110.

Nan Qing’s diary records his confusion over Qin Mubai’s increasing distance and ends with the belief that Qin Mubai no longer wants him. Reading it leaves Qin Mubai sobbing. He also discovers that the case intended to contain cash, contracts, keys, and bank cards is empty except for a USB drive holding a recording of the family disparaging Nan Qing 110 111.

Qin Mubai confronts Bai Yanxiu for betraying his instructions to protect Nan Qing. He physically attacks him, withdraws his thirty-million investment in Bai Yanxiu’s art gallery, and demands repayment within three days under threat of legal proceedings 112.

Conflict with Huo Yuzhou

Bai Ruanruan claims to have dated and slept with Huo Yuzhou, supplying private details and references to their past whereabouts. Qin Mubai initially rejects the claim, but later commissions an investigation that finds substantial overlap in their movements 95 129.

He presents the report to Nan Qing as a warning. Nan Qing tears it up, defends his boyfriend, and tells Qin Mubai that his childhood demands for gifts had really been attempts to obtain his attention. When Qin Mubai compares Nan Qing’s independence to a kite drifting beyond reach, Nan Qing answers that Qin Mubai cut the string first 129.

Bai Ruanruan subsequently prepares a scandal alleging involvement between the two. Huo Yuzhou also receives messages confirming Qin Mubai’s feelings and reacts with murderous hostility 128 131.

Illness, Accident, and Agreement

Amid business pressures and medication-related fatigue, Qin Mubai is involved in a car accident. At the hospital, Mr. Bai says that he has taken too much medication with serious side effects. Nan Qing learns of his psychological assessments, extensive medication, and electroconvulsive therapy, but Qin Mubai minimizes his condition 132 133 134.

In a private conversation, Qin Mubai recognizes that Bai Ruanruan lied about his relationship with Huo Yuzhou. He asks Huo to conceal his condition and protect Nan Qing from the entertainment industry’s harsher realities. In return, he offers to treat his injury as an accident and not pursue it 134.

His grandfather requires extensive medical examinations before permitting his discharge more than a month later 135.

Forgiveness and Withdrawal from the Bai Business

After Bai Ruanruan is convicted of misappropriating property, Nan Qing understands that Qin Mubai had tried to provide for him rather than leave him entirely without support. Their next meeting nevertheless remains awkward and unresolved 141 142.

Qin Mubai later acknowledges Nan Qing’s choice of partner, although accepting it remains painful. He also rejects family-arranged marriage prospects, stating that he has no plans to marry 143 144 145.

When he asks Nan Qing to return for New Year, Nan Qing refuses to regard the Bai residence as home. Instead, he urges Qin Mubai to stop carrying both families’ burdens, thanks him for raising him, embraces him, and explicitly forgives him 146.

Qin Mubai subsequently steps down from his position at the Bai Family’s company. When the business becomes embroiled in turmoil connected to his father’s past wrongdoing, he reassures Nan Qing that the crisis has nothing to do with him 151.

Later Life

Decades later, Qin Mubai continues working and living alone. Nan Qing sometimes calls him “Big brother” and invites him to performances, dinners, and family gatherings, but Qin Mubai remains torn between wanting to see him and fearing his own feelings 153.

He writes unsent letters and discovers an old inscription on a window frame: Nan Qing had scratched out “I hate Qin Mubai” and replaced it with “Qin Mubai is the best big brother.” He chooses to keep supporting Nan Qing without confessing his love and arranges a bespoke Patek Philippe watch as a New Year gift 153.

Resources and Gifts

Relationships

• Nan Qing — Non-biological younger brother whom he largely raises. Their estrangement stems from Qin Mubai’s unexplained withdrawal and failure to protect him; Nan Qing eventually forgives him. Qin Mubai keeps his romantic feelings concealed 75 111 146 153.
• Bai Yanxiu — Biological younger brother and former beneficiary of his financial support. Qin Mubai entrusts him with Nan Qing’s welfare, then repudiates him for failing that responsibility 107 112.
• Bai Ruanruan — Biological youngest brother. Qin Mubai refuses to excuse his slander of Nan Qing, threatens to expel him, and is temporarily misled by his claims about Huo Yuzhou 78 95 134.
• Huo Yuzhou — Nan Qing’s partner and Qin Mubai’s rival. Their antagonism eventually gives way to a private agreement concerning Nan Qing’s protection and Qin Mubai’s secrets 75 129 134.
• Qin Jingzhu — Mother, whose surname he bears. She describes his stern disposition as longstanding 75 79.
• Mr. Bai — Father. Qin Mubai leaves the Bai company before the consequences of his father’s earlier wrongdoing destabilize it 151.
• Old Master Qin — Grandfather, who insists on thorough medical testing after Qin Mubai’s accident and later presses him to meet prospective marriage partners 135 145.
• Assistant Wang — Assistant and intermediary who shares information about Qin Mubai’s treatment and recovery with Nan Qing 133 134 135.

Notable Quotes

“Bai Ruanruan, Nan Qing isn't my biological brother, but that doesn't mean you can slander him however you please in front of me.” 78

“I thought we would always be brothers.” 91

“Qingqing, your big brother was wrong. If you throw a punch at me, I'll never dodge.” 129

“In the end, a guardian can't win against a child. What can I do when he likes him?” 143