Zhou Qiang

Anyone who has ever beheld Zhou Qiang would harbor no doubt: she is a peerless peony, nurtured exclusively by the gold and silver of aristocratic houses. "Why would such a figure appear in Velvet Shade?" Many patrons of the pleasure quarters, and even novice disciples, have harbored this question. They all believe that the privileges Zhou Qiang possessed from birth should have placed her upon a pedestal forever beyond the reach of common mortals. Zhou Qiang has never answered this question. She despises it, for it forces her to recall that unforgettable banquet. Indeed, though she has attended hundreds of feasts to this day, the one etched deepest in her memory remains the banquet from her eighth year. It was the fifth year of the Yonglong era. The young Zhou Qiang accompanied her mother back to their hometown of Fuzhou to visit relatives. The kin prepared a glorious feast in their honor. Zhou Qiang had always loved banquets; she adored the grand halls carved with dragons and phoenixes, the resplendent decor, and above all, the unexpected and exquisite music and dance. That banquet, however, truly exceeded her expectations and those of everyone present. Soldiers suddenly breached the compound, washing the manor in blood within moments. The noble and wealthy, who had been so imperious just a breath before, were instantly reduced to the likeness of the elaborately garnished meats upon their plates. It was the fortuitous intervention of a Velvet Shade disciple that allowed Zhou Qiang and her mother to escape by a hairsbreadth. These two hothouse flowers rejoiced at surviving, little knowing that the true nightmare had only just begun. The Fuzhou before them had been entirely transformed by mutiny; an entire dynasty had crumbled into smoke and dust almost overnight. It is difficult for ordinary people to imagine what a frail girl, possessing nothing but her status and beauty, unable to carry a burden or wield a weapon, had to endure to walk out of Fuzhou and return to Guangling. The road back was the exact same distance as the journey there, yet to the girl, it felt infinitely long. It was so long that everything she experienced along the way became seared into her memory for a lifetime. Thus, when her aged father finally embraced his lost-and-found daughter, the young child had long forgotten how to cry. That banquet and that perilous return journey had proven to her that the things she once firmly believed in and relied upon, such as status, wealth, and worldly affection, were all unreliable. Unwilling to let history repeat itself, Zhou Qiang recalled the lone Velvet Shade disciple who had successfully retreated from that bloody banquet, and she personally knocked upon the gates of Velvet Shade. Nine years later, the exceptionally gifted Zhou Qiang had become the most favored personal disciple of the previous sect master. Another nine years passed, and the glamorous reputation of the Mistress of Revelry Hall became known throughout the realm. Over these decades, powers rose and fell, and the guests, protagonists, and venues of the banquets changed time and again. What remained unchanged was the perilous undercurrent and lurking danger hidden beneath the glamorous vanity fair. Take the current Heroes Assembly for instance; the matter of the Faceless Ones' roster is fraught with extreme peril, where the slightest misstep could spark a disaster entangling all factions. Yet, Zhou Qiang has also changed. She is no longer that helpless little girl trapped in the game, at the mercy of others. She is the Master of Velvet Shade, capable of stealing the sky and turning the tide. She is the orchestrator of the entire banquet, the ghostwriter hidden behind the velvet curtain.