Bai Yan

Biodata

Background / History

Early Life and Confinement

Bai Yan was born in the slums and grew up in hardship. Her studies and research later occupied so much of her time that she never learned much about cooking 90 202.

Lou Qing seized and confined her with the tacit approval of the Lou Family’s leaders. He fathered Lou Yu to bind her to him, although she neither loved him nor wanted the pregnancy. Bai Yan nevertheless made a deliberate choice to love her son and taught him that he should never feel guilty for accepting her affection 57 62 202.

During her confinement, Lou Hua became her only friend and supporter within the Lou Family. Lou Hua tried to help her leave, but lacked the influence to secure her freedom 235. Bai Yan also resisted Lou Qing directly: she once came close to stabbing him to death, leaving a lasting scar on his chest 201.

When Lou Yu was fourteen, he spent a year planning an escape for them. Mother and son remained hidden for two months before being caught. Lou Qing nearly beat Lou Yu to death, and Bai Yan had to compromise and plead for his life 69.

Divorce and Independence

Negotiations among several parties eventually allowed Bai Yan to leave the Lou Family. She divorced Lou Qing and resumed an independent life as a researcher 57 159.

Despite hating the family for enabling her confinement, she continued working at its research institute. She regarded the arrangement as employment and refused to abandon the comfortable life she had spent decades building at the Central Base merely to avoid them 62.

Her professional success did not remove the family’s influence over her life. She remained under surveillance and avoided contacting Lou Yu after his departure, fearing that the family would use her to lure him back 217.

Protecting Lou Yu

Lou Yu infiltrated the Shen Family’s awakening experiments under a false name to investigate his comrades’ deaths. He obtained evidence of lethal misconduct but became a defective experimental subject himself 202.

Bai Yan threatened to expose the major families’ dealings unless Lou Qing and the Lou elders intervened. Their subsequent pressure prevented the Shen Family from openly pursuing Lou Yu, though he was expelled from the Central Base 159 202. Unable to see him off, she sent a message affirming that he had done nothing wrong and that she believed in him 57.

Years later, Lou Qing brought her photographs of Lou Yu with Tao Qiu and their three children. Seeing her son smiling and living happily moved her to tears. She welcomed his relationship but refused to keep the photographs because she wanted nothing from Lou Qing 201 202.

Personality

Bai Yan is gentle and easygoing with colleagues. Her team’s repeated successes earn commendations, and even professional competitors admire her more than they envy her 201.

Her warmth toward Lou Yu is grounded in choice rather than obligation. She openly acknowledges the circumstances of his birth without making him responsible for them, and she supports his right to affection, freedom, and a life beyond the Lou Family 57 202.

She is pragmatic about dependence and personal boundaries. She teaches Lou Yu that relationships require reciprocal interests and emotions, rather than complete isolation or one-sided sacrifice 62. With Lou Qing, she refuses gifts and insists on paying fairly so that she owes him nothing 202 214.

Years of abuse leave her deeply wary of her ex-husband even after their divorce. She limits his opportunities to prolong conversations and waits until he has left before relaxing 202. That caution does not prevent her from confronting powerful people when her family or principles are threatened 202 235.

Research and Skills

Biomedical Research

Bai Yan develops medicines intended to strengthen the human body through gentle, effective methods rather than high-risk awakening procedures 202.

• Research aims: Longer lifespans, stronger constitutions, less illness and death, and better survival against mutated monsters 202.
• Team leadership: Her team completes several successful projects in succession and receives repeated commendations 201.
• Independent experimentation: She develops her own catalyst and tests multiple methods when conventional analysis fails to explain Tao Qiu’s seeds 216.

Investigation of Tao Qiu’s Seeds

Bai Yan independently discovers active energy within Tao Qiu’s improved crop seeds. She conducts the investigation alone and withholds its results to protect him 216.

• Demonstrated scope: Her tests establish effects on an injured rabbit and a stunted plant; no human trial is documented 220.
• Reason for secrecy: She fears the families would seize Tao Qiu if they discovered the energy’s medical potential 216 220.
• Later disclosure: After reuniting with Lou Yu and Tao Qiu, she tells them about both the discovery and her destruction of the evidence 239.

Views on Awakening Experiments

Bai Yan publicly condemns the awakening program’s extreme death rate. Although Lou Yu’s near-death experience is one reason for her opposition, she also questions where the Shen Family obtained its earliest experimental participants, recalling how easily slum residents could disappear without investigation 202.

• Ethical position: Her objection is to illegal and immoral practices, not an unconditional rejection of every awakening experiment 202.
• Criticism of the opposition: She also denounces fraud, profiteering, and violent demonstrations that injure the ordinary citizens the opposition claims to defend 202.
• Political consequences: Her criticism alienates both sides. She is initially mistaken for an opposition spokesperson, while members of both camps later want to act against her 202.
• Protection from forced participation: Lou Qing keeps her team out of Awakening Reagent development and blocks attempts by the elders to compel her involvement 202.
• Resolve: She refuses to abandon her beliefs merely because future generations might judge her caution as an obstacle to humanity’s progress 202.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Intervention in the Family Negotiations

When the major families move against Lou Yu, Tao Qiu, Lou Quan, and the children, Bai Yan contacts Lou Qing voluntarily for the first time since their divorce. She threatens to stab him and expose the Lou Family’s secrets if he cannot guarantee their safety 235.

Her intervention helps ensure that Lou Qing represents the Lou Family at the negotiations and protects them against the Shen, Bai, and Zheng families 235.

Reunion at the Central Base

As part of the negotiated cooperation, Lou Qing promises to place Bai Yan in charge of the experiments involving Tao Qiu. Her kindness and relationship with Lou Yu make the arrangement more reassuring to both men 238.

At the Central Base, she warmly receives Tao Mo and Tao Xue, embraces Lou Yu in tears, and welcomes Tao Qiu when he calls her “Mom.” She immediately notices Tao Yuan’s absence and asks where she is 238.

After learning that a mutated monster has abducted Tao Yuan because it covets Tao Qiu’s ability, Bai Yan explains her earlier seed research. She temporarily moves into Lou Qing’s residence with the family for safety, deliberately choosing a guest room far from his bedroom 239.

Relationships

• Lou Yu — Her son. She repeatedly protects his life, affirms his innocence after the Shen Family investigation, and supports his relationship with Tao Qiu 57 202 238.
• Lou Qing — Her abusive ex-husband and former captor. She rejects reconciliation and personal indebtedness, but uses his attachment to her to demand protection for her family 201 202 214 235.
• Tao Qiu — Lou Yu’s partner. She destroys valuable research to protect him from exploitation and welcomes him as family when they meet 220 238.
• Tao Mo, Tao Xue, and Tao Yuan — Her grandchildren. She recognizes Lou Yu’s childhood features in their photographs and notices immediately when Tao Yuan is missing from the reunion 201 238.
• Lou Hua — Her only friend within the Lou Family during her confinement. Their shared mistreatment brought them together, and Lou Hua attempted to help her escape 235.
• Lou Quan — Lou Hua’s son. He respects Bai Yan because of his mother, and Bai Yan includes him among those Lou Qing must protect 235.

Notable Quotes

“I don't love your father, and giving birth to you wasn't what I wanted, but I chose to love you of my own free will, because you are my child.” 57

“Xiao Yu, you did nothing wrong. Mommy believes in you.” 57

“We exchange money for goods and owe each other nothing. I don't want to owe you anything.” 214

Trivia

• Bai Yan likes strawberries; when Lou Yu was young, he often ate the fruit she could not finish 98.
• She used to assemble building-block models with Lou Yu and could quickly help him complete an entire set 141.