Han Yanluo's mother died when she was young, and her father followed Chai Rong on a northern expedition. Fearing his daughter would be left unattended, Han's father entrusted Yanluo to his friend Hu Changyi.
Even as a child, Han Yanluo showed profound insight into Daoist philosophy. One day, when a Masked Troupe disciple mentioned her mother in front of the five-year-old Han Yanluo, Hu Changyi angrily rebuked them, but Yanluo neither cried nor grew upset. Instead, she comforted Hu Changyi with a quote from Zhuangzi, "In life's first dawn, no breath, no form did show. Beyond all shapes, in boundless haze we go. From chaos rose the vital air we breathe. Air shaped to form, from form life's flame did leave. Now to decay this mortal frame must turn, as seasons change, by nature's eternal urn."
In that moment, Hu Changyi saw the shadow of his master, Han Xiangzi, in the young girl.
Hu Changyi then dedicated himself to teaching Han Yanluo everything his master had taught him. With exceptional aptitude, she excelled in music and dance, particularly the flute. She then joined the ranks of the Masked Troupe's "Six Great Performers" at a tender age. However, her upbringing in the Masked Troupe left her strangely detached from ordinary life, earning her the nickname "Immortal Maiden" from peers who both admired and feared her. Hoping to ground her through worldly experiences, Hu Changyi made her a "World Wanderer", taking her on journeys across the land. Yet the more she saw of the world, the more ethereal her music became, a fitting reflection of the fortune teller's words, "Huagai Star with Taiji Nobleman, Ten-Spirits Day with Child Fate." She seemed a divine envoy on a mission, bound to return to the heavens once her task was done.
As Hu Changyi sipped his wine, he wondered. Is there anyone in this world who can anchor this little immortal to the mortal realm? ...Certainly not me.
