Lou Quan

Biodata

Background / History

Family and Childhood

Lou Quan was born to Lou Hua, the Lou Family's adopted daughter, and Lou Second, her adoptive brother. Although they were not related by blood, their relationship became a family scandal. Lou Second married a Zheng Family daughter for political advantage despite having promised himself to Lou Hua. Lou Hua gave birth to Lou Quan three months before Lou Second's eldest legitimate son 239.

Lou Hua initially chose to keep the child out of anger at Lou Second's abandonment. She named him Quan to mock his father's willingness to sacrifice their relationship for power. Her affection for her son eventually displaced that resentment, and she left the Lou household with him. After learning the truth, Lou Quan forgave his mother, who had raised him with considerable love 239.

As Lou Quan grew older, his resemblance to Lou Second attracted attention. The Zheng Family obtained samples for a paternity test, exposing his parentage and forcing the Lou Family to pay compensation. Lou Second also lost his position as family head. Lou Quan largely ignored the resulting gossip and earned admission to Central Base's best military university through his own academic performance 239.

Career and Relationship with Bai Huan

Lou Quan's achievements drew the Lou Family leadership's attention despite his disputed birth. At university, he looked after Bai Huan, one of the disadvantaged children Lou Hua had supported. The two became lovers, and Lou Quan openly acknowledged their relationship with the intention of spending his life with Bai Huan 240.

After graduation, Lou Quan served in the military for two years before entering politics. Within another year, his record was strong enough for the Lou Family to name him and Lou Yu its principal prospective heirs 240.

Lou Hua's Murder and Revenge

While Lou Hua and Bai Huan were shopping for a gift to celebrate Lou Quan's promotion, they were caught in a terrorist attack. Lou Hua was fatally injured. At the hospital, Bai Huan confessed that Lou Quan's half-siblings had kidnapped his family and forced him to report on Lou Quan. His disclosure of their location had enabled the attack 240.

Lou Hua stopped Lou Quan from killing Bai Huan and made him promise not to avenge himself on him. Lou Quan subsequently established that his half-siblings had arranged her murder. They claimed to be avenging their own mother, but he concluded that their real aim was to destabilize a rival for the Lou Family succession. The available evidence was insufficient for prosecution, and both the Lou and Zheng families protected them 240.

Lou Quan pretended to abandon revenge, waited six months, and poisoned his father and half-siblings at a family banquet. They survived emergency treatment but suffered severe organ damage. With those relatives effectively ruined, the Lou Family protected Lou Quan from Zheng Family retaliation. He then requested a transfer to Yong'an Base 240.

Taking Control of Yong'an Base

Lou Quan arrived at an impoverished base dominated by entrenched factions, with little effective authority of his own. Rather than accommodate the local powers, he immediately removed officials and used lethal force. Within a year, he had uprooted every major faction except those belonging to several Central Base families. This campaign earned him the name Jade-Faced Shura 197.

Under his leadership, Yong'an developed into one of the three strongest satellite bases. He continued dealing with Central Base while pursuing Yong'an's development and greater independence 8.

Appearance

Lou Quan is described as handsome, with a habitual smile that makes him appear more approachable than his reputation suggests 197.

• Outward expression: Usually smiling and apparently easygoing; his expression becomes cold and unreadable when he drops the façade 197 239.
• During periods of strain: Reconstruction work and supply shortages cause him to lose weight. After his Central Base interrogation, he returns visibly gaunt 129 166.

Personality

Lou Quan is calculating, ambitious, and strongly motivated by profit and political power. He frequently treats assistance as an investment: even when Lou Yu is unconscious, he considers how retaining leverage over his cousin might secure cooperation with his experiments. He also enjoys teasing Lou Yu and drawing out information through apparently casual conversation 6 10 69.

His ruthlessness extends to himself. He withstands severe interrogation rather than surrender Yong'an's secrets, relying on military training and deliberate psychological conditioning. His conduct toward Bai Huan is also abusive, including humiliation, violent sexual treatment, threats, and a near-fatal strangling. Their continued intimacy does not amount to reconciliation 7 64 126 166.

Despite his methods, Lou Quan is not indifferent to human suffering. The deaths in the first awakening experiment leave him motionless for hours, and he delays a second trial until better safeguards are available. Tao Qiu judges him greedy and power-hungry but still possessing a conscience and limits. His subordinates trust his promises of rewards because he follows through on them 126 166 171 211.

His mother's death remains his deepest grievance. He refuses suggestions that he reconcile with his father, rejects attempts to excuse the attack on Lou Hua, and explicitly identifies his surname with his mother rather than paternal obligation 214 239 240.

Abilities & Skills

Military and Political Leadership

Lou Quan's authority rests on training, administration, and coercion rather than supernatural power 165 240.

• Demonstrated exceptional military and political ability before becoming Yong'an's commander 164 240.
• Reorganized the base's power structure and later coordinated a broader purge of Central Base influence with Lou Yu 197 174.
• Maintains substantial public loyalty; residents protest his removal, and his officials protect the base's secrets during his absence 165 166.

Interrogation Resistance

Lou Quan received top marks in military interrogation-resistance training and has experience as both interrogator and prisoner 166.

• Withstands ability-assisted methods involving insects, disorienting sounds, and mind-clouding scents 166.
• Before entering Central Base, gives himself a psychological suggestion to forget matters concerning Yong'an while there 166.
• Returns without disclosing the secrets his interrogators sought 166 175.

Intelligence and Counterintelligence

Lou Quan identifies vulnerabilities and uses them to undermine opposing networks 212.

• Deduces Snow Bird's human identity from Lou Yu's photograph and associated gifts 158.
• Exploits informants' debts, affairs, fear of death, and concern for relatives to turn them against their former employers 212.
• Retains nominal cooperation with the Lou Family while reducing its actual influence inside Yong'an 174 212.

Negotiation and Research Direction

Lou Quan converts Yong'an's scarce assets into supplies, protection, and bargaining power 63 129 174 214.

• Exchanges selected research findings for Lou Family political support and weapons 63 129.
• Trades Awakening Reagent data for identities that allow Tao Qiu and the children to enter human society 174.
• Proposes extracting active energy from Tao Qiu's crops for medicine and improved awakening outcomes; researchers carry out the development 202 203 219.
• Cannot ordinarily perceive Tao Qiu's raw ability energy, and his body cannot absorb it directly without a suitable medium 199 203.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Protecting and Studying Lou Yu

• After Lou Yu survives the wilderness, Lou Quan brings him to the research institute to discuss his escape and newly strengthened ability. Lou Yu cooperates with testing while concealing Tao Qiu's human form 9 10.
• When Lou Yu publicly uses his ability against mutant flying bats, Lou Quan takes responsibility for the consequences and seeks the main Lou Family's protection. In return, he agrees to share part of Yong'an's research on Lou Yu 61 62 63.
• During later monster attacks, the Lou Family withholds weapons to pressure Lou Yu into revealing his secret. Lou Quan negotiates an exchange involving Lou Yu's blood and training insights, but recognizes that Central Base's demands will keep escalating 128 129.

The First Awakening Experiment

• Lou Quan pays Lou Yu to obtain blood and fur from a living high-level mutated white fox for the institute 95.
• The subsequent reagent experiment kills fifty-two people. Its final report visibly devastates him; Zhao Tao is later identified as its sole survivor 126 210.
• Zhao Tao's improving condition prompts Lou Quan to reward the research team, although he does not yet know that Tao Qiu's produce is helping stabilize the young man's ability 141 142 171.

Conflict over Snow Bird

• Lou Quan attempts to test Snow Bird's attachment to Lou Yu, hoping to obtain greater benefits for Yong'an. Lou Yu and Tao Qiu stage a quarrel and departure to prevent him from exploiting their relationship 121.
• Guards stationed near Lou Yu's home catch burglars and recover a photograph of Lou Yu with Tao Qiu. Lou Quan recognizes the secret behind it and proposes continued cooperation rather than exposure 158.
• Lou Yu accepts but shocks him during their handshake as a warning against future exploitation 158.

Grain Crisis, Arrest, and Return

• A poor harvest and black-market grain sales intensify Yong'an's food shortage. Lou Quan trades the fox materials for borrowed grain and publicly stakes his credibility on restoring production 146 154 157.
• A manipulated protest ends in a stampede that kills seven people and injures more than a hundred. The Zheng Family uses the disaster to suspend him and take him to Central Base for questioning 164.
• Lou Quan survives interrogation without revealing Yong'an's secrets. The Lou Family eventually retrieves him, fearing that the Zheng Family will torture him to death 166.
• His refusal to betray Tao Qiu strengthens Lou Yu's trust in him. Tao Qiu subsequently provides fruit and a video demonstrating his plant-growing ability, giving Lou Quan a practical answer to the food crisis 171.

Alliance with Tao Qiu

• Lou Quan agrees to remove hostile factions in exchange for Tao Qiu's support. He and Lou Yu expel rival forces and sharply reduce the Lou Family's remaining influence 172 174.
• Tao Qiu offers food security for Yong'an in return for legal human identities for himself and his three children. Lou Quan arranges their registration through Yongkang Base by trading Awakening Reagent research data 174 186.
• When the family arrives, Lou Quan supplies their identity histories, welcomes them to the base, and arranges a banquet 188.
• He negotiates crop purchases and seed experiments, then establishes a secure planting site for Tao Qiu. The pre-winter produce supplied to the army is priced at five times the ordinary rate 194 198.

Defense, Trade, and the Stabilization Agent

Exposure and Central Base Negotiations

• When a man distributes photographs exposing Tao Qiu and the cubs as mutated snow birds, Lou Quan takes him for interrogation and orders a search of his home 231.
• The Shen, Bai, and Zheng families demand control of Yong'an's research, Tao Qiu, and the children, along with Lou Quan's imprisonment and exile. Lou Qing's presence prevents an immediate seizure 235.
• Lou Quan ultimately negotiates the withdrawal of charges and punishment by trading crops and laboratory data to the Lou Family elders. He retains command of Yong'an and the possibility of future cooperation with the family 239.
• Afterward, he visits Lou Hua's grave, rejects Bai Huan's presence, and replaces the flowers Bai Huan brought 240.

Relationships

• Lou Hua — Mother and the central emotional attachment of his life. He forgives her past choices, avenges her murder, and continues to struggle with visiting her grave 239 240.
• Lou Second — Biological father. Lou Quan holds him responsible for abandoning Lou Hua and remains openly hostile after nearly killing him 239 240.
• Paternal half-siblings — Rivals who engineered Lou Hua's death to undermine his succession prospects. Lou Quan poisons them after legal remedies fail 240.
• Lou Yu — Younger cousin, political ally, and indispensable combatant. Their relationship combines sharp banter, bargaining, mutual protection, and firm boundaries concerning Tao Qiu 10 61 121 158.
• Bai Huan — Former lover whose coerced spying contributed to Lou Hua's death. Bai Huan follows him to Yong'an seeking atonement, but Lou Quan refuses reconciliation and subjects him to sustained abuse 64 126 240.
• Tao Qiu / Snow Bird — Initially a potential source of benefits, later a protected partner in Yong'an's food supply and research. Their cooperation becomes formalized through the identity-for-food-security agreement 121 174 186.
• Tao Mo, Tao Xue, and Tao Yuan — Lou Yu and Tao Qiu's children, who address him as uncle. He helps secure their identities, praises them, and gives them snacks 174 194 198.
• Bai Yan — Lou Yu's mother and Lou Hua's close friend. Lou Quan treats her with particular respect and affection; she later insists that Lou Qing protect him alongside Lou Yu's family 235.
• Lou Qing — Paternal uncle and Lou Yu's father. His intervention at the negotiations shields Lou Quan's group from the other three major families 235.
• Lou Family elders — Useful but coercive partners. Lou Quan exchanges research and crops for protection and supplies while resisting their claims to his obedience 63 128 214 239.

Notable Quotes

“I came to Yong'an Base to govern it better, not to play house with that trash.” 197

“My surname is Lou because my mother, Lou Hua, is a Lou.” 214

“After all, we're all the same kind, and I hoped fewer people would die in the awakening experiments.” 230