Mo Yuqing

Biodata

Background / History

Mo Yuqing grew up in a wealthy, influential family. Her father, Mo Wenjun, is a high-ranking official, and her family’s resources meant she rarely encountered anything she needed to beg others for. Her mother required her to study subjects and extracurricular activities including guzheng, electronic keyboard, dance, and mathematics competition problems 10 37 39.

She and Chen Lu knew each other before kindergarten. He accompanied her through childhood difficulties, including her parents’ divorce, and passed handwritten messages beneath her bedroom door when she had chickenpox. During one childhood incident, he searched for her in heavy rain after she ran away from home; both developed fevers afterward 18 39.

After the divorce, her mother frequently traveled abroad. Although materially generous, she was often unavailable when Mo Yuqing wanted companionship. When a promised return fell through, her mother suggested that she spend time with “Uncle Lin,” her longtime partner. Mo Yuqing refused and bitterly referred to her mother’s life with him and their child 17 18.

At university, Mo Yuqing became class monitor after Chen Lu helped her campaign. When she tired of the work, he took over most of her duties. He also bought her meals, collected packages, learned her favorite dishes, and helped resolve her early conflicts with her roommates 2 35.

Appearance

• Hair: Long, straight black hair, initially worn loose. She later begins wearing a ponytail because she believes Chen Lu likes the style 1 7 38 50.
• Face: Almond-shaped eyes, fair skin, an exquisite face described as aloof, and faint dimples when she smiles 1 38.
• Build: Long legs, a slender waist, and striking body proportions 7.
• Clothing: Changes outfits daily; early appearances include a milk-white long dress and a fitted camel-colored sweater with a long black skirt 1 7.
• Stage costume: Wears a red, ancient-style dress with long, wide sleeves as the lead dancer at the school anniversary celebration 36.
• Reputation: Recognized as the school’s most beautiful girl and frequently approached by admirers, including students from other departments 1 50.

Personality

Mo Yuqing is proud, emotionally unguarded, and accustomed to being comforted after expressing her displeasure. Her reserve makes other students feel distant from her even when she treats them generously. Early in the story, she cannot bring herself to apologize first and assumes Chen Lu will eventually return to her as he always has 7 10 11.

Her behavior is not uniformly cold or ungenerous. She gives Chen Lu a new laptop for his birthday, buys expensive desserts for younger dancers, and has bought gifts for Chen Mo since childhood. However, material generosity does not translate into understanding Chen Lu’s desire for emotional reciprocity 2 10 27.

Her parents’ failed relationship also informs her insecurity. When she begins considering a relationship with Chen Lu, she worries that he might later fall for someone else and recalls that her parents were childhood sweethearts too 20.

Losing Chen Lu’s attention gradually forces her to recognize both her feelings and the work she had taken for granted. Her development includes publicly apologizing, thanking other admirers when rejecting them, and accepting responsibility for paperwork she previously left to him 21 36 46 50.

Abilities & Skills

Dance

Mo Yuqing is an accomplished dancer who can coach younger students and lead a major university performance 10 36.

• Instruction: Leads rehearsals, evaluates the dancers’ progress, and sets their practice pace 10.
• Quick learning: Catches up with an existing routine after only a few run-throughs 21.
• Stage presence: Remains composed before a large audience and multiple cameras; her backward kick draws a particularly strong response during the anniversary performance 36.
• Organizational limits: Her performance experience does not initially extend to arranging props or sound equipment, which Chen Lu previously handled for her 10.

Childhood Training

• Studied guzheng, electronic keyboard, dance, and mathematics competition problems at her mother’s insistence. The passages establish this training but do not demonstrate her proficiency in the instruments or competition mathematics 10.

Relationships

• Chen Lu — Childhood friend and longtime suitor. He pursues her for seven years, but they do not become an established couple. After she rejects his final confession, he withdraws; she subsequently recognizes her feelings and unsuccessfully asks him to love her again 1 21 39.
• Liu Yan — Roommate and closest friend. Their friendship develops after Chen Lu helps settle the dormitory’s early conflicts. Liu Yan repeatedly urges her to reconsider her treatment of him, helps arrange a private meeting, and supports her after his rejection 2 11 38 39 50.
• Mo Wenjun — Father. He has known Chen Lu since childhood and expresses confidence in him remaining beside his daughter. After the public apology, he encourages Chen Lu to communicate with her rather than treat their disagreement as a passing quarrel 37.
• Mother — Provides generously but is frequently absent. Mo Yuqing longs for her company and resents being directed toward her mother’s partner instead 17 18.
• Chen Mo — Chen Lu’s younger sister. Fond of Mo Yuqing’s beauty and generosity, she once expected her to become her sister-in-law and initially interpreted her behavior as playing hard to get 27.
• Liang Zhirou — The girl whose growing closeness with Chen Lu makes Mo Yuqing fear losing him. Seeing them eat together and later watching him play guitar for Liang intensifies her jealousy 7 17.
• Jiang Chao — Chen Lu’s friend and Liu Yan’s boyfriend. Mo Yuqing initially contacts him to locate Chen Lu, but he tells her it is too late and deletes her contact. She later hears his account of how Chen Lu met Liang Zhirou 3 32.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Final Rejection and Withdrawal

Mo Yuqing rejects Chen Lu’s public confession after his seven-year pursuit, telling him that another confession would end even their friendship. He announces that he will no longer love her and leaves. When he subsequently declines her call for the first time, she is indignant and insists that she does not like him and that he will return 1 2.

Trying to prove that she can manage without him, she begins handling meals, packages, and class responsibilities herself. The effort exposes how much he had routinely done for her. Nevertheless, when she finds him eating with Liang Zhirou, she demands to know why he is spending time with another girl. Chen Lu reminds her that he has stopped pursuing her and rejects her claim over his attention 7 8.

Recognition of Her Feelings

Her unease increases when other girls show interest in Chen Lu. Even after he helps with the dance performance’s equipment without speaking to her, she refuses Liu Yan’s advice to lower her pride and waits for an apology from him 11.

Seeing Chen Lu play guitar for Liang Zhirou is especially painful: he originally learned because Mo Yuqing remarked that guitar-playing boys were handsome. Afterward, returning to an empty home and finding her mother unavailable makes her recognize how instinctively she once relied on him for comfort 17 18.

Mo Yuqing eventually acknowledges to herself that she likes him. Unable to message him directly, she posts a Moments update about cherishing things before losing them. She waits unsuccessfully for his response and discovers that he has replaced her photograph in his profile background with Pikachu 21.

Attempts at Reconciliation

After more than ten days without contact, Mo Yuqing messages Chen Lu and tries to recreate their former banter. He instead asks that they let each other go, tells her he is tired, and says he wants to forget her 32.

At the anniversary celebration, she departs from the interview script to thank him publicly, apologize for taking his care for granted, and ask whether he will still be beside her at graduation. Chen Lu leaves with Liang Zhirou. Backstage, Mo Yuqing cries but continues hoping that he will change his mind 36.

With Liu Yan’s help, she later secures a private meeting and pleads for his love. Chen Lu explains that his feelings had been eroded over time: the final confession marked their end rather than a last opportunity to restore them. At Mo Yuqing’s request, they take one final photograph together before separating 38 39.

Taking Responsibility

After the failed reconciliation, Mo Yuqing admits to Liu Yan that Chen Lu’s kindness had become so ordinary to her that she stopped noticing it. Chen Lu, meanwhile, questions whether her regret reflects love or the loss of someone who attended to her every need 40 41.

She begins rejecting other admirers more considerately, thanking them for their feelings while explaining that she already likes someone. Her attachment to Chen Lu remains unresolved, and his continued silence leaves her missing him 46.

By Chapter 50, she is personally sorting employment documents needed for her classmates’ upcoming internship searches. She declines to ask Chen Lu for help, develops neck pain from the work, and remembers having complained that he completed the same tasks too slowly. Recognizing how hurt he must have been, she resolves to repay all the kindness he showed her 50.

Keepsakes

• Thirty-three paper roses — Handmade by Chen Lu for her birthday after nearly half a month of preparation. She keeps the bouquet at home and revisits its photograph while reconsidering his feelings 21.
• Final photograph with Chen Lu — Requested after he refuses reconciliation. She keeps the image taken beneath a streetlamp, capturing him turning toward her while she cries 39.

Notable Quotes

“Thank you for staying by my side all these years. … I got used to how good you were to me and took it for granted. I’m sorry.” 36

“You’d be better off spending your energy on someone who loves you. Don’t waste your time on me.” 46

“I’ll repay him for it, every last bit. I’ll repay it all.” 50