Chu Fei

Chu Fei enters the later conflict as a formidable outsider whose influence rapidly transforms the balance of power in Cloud City. He is connected to Su Qingrou and Su Xiangwan through family-like bonds, yet he refuses to let those labels conceal his personal loyalties or desire. His role therefore rests on a deliberate contradiction: he can act as a tender elder-brother figure, a capable protector, a market-disrupting power broker, and an adversary who regards Lu Xun as an obstacle.

Identity and Position

Chu Fei is described as the leader of the new forces in Cloud City. His foreign-backed forces quickly occupy substantial portions of the city’s market, creating pressure for both Lu Shengxun and Lin Yanche. Lin Yanche’s illness makes the challenge particularly difficult, while Lu Xun is left facing an opponent whose expansion cannot be handled easily through ordinary corporate methods. Chu Fei’s power is therefore not merely romantic or personal; it is institutional, territorial, and economic.

His arrival also carries the atmosphere of a concealed organization. When Lu Xun and Lin Yanche travel to Yan City, Chu Fei’s men are already waiting at the airport, apparently having calculated their arrival time. They lead the visitors to a dilapidated and hidden location that functions as one of Chu Fei’s bases. Inside, the apparent ruin gives way to disciplined control: Chu Fei sits in the living room with a cigar, watches the newcomers without expression, and dismisses his bodyguards with a gesture. The setting presents him as a man who conceals reach behind ordinary surfaces and commands obedience without needing to raise his voice.

Family-Like Bonds and Protection

Chu Fei’s relationship with Su Qingrou and Su Xiangwan repeatedly uses the language of family, but the narrative keeps testing the limits of that language. He spends an entire night beside Su Qingrou’s hospital bed, caring for her, and he treats Su Xiangwan well when she is present. Later, after leaving Cloud City, he returns almost immediately after putting other matters aside. When he enters Su Qingrou’s ward, he finds the sisters facing him with surprise because he looks worn out; his first response is to embrace her and reassure her that he is there.

His protective instinct is also practical rather than merely emotional. When Su Xiangwan is distressed and Su Qingrou worries that she cannot help, Chu Fei enters carrying fruit and offers to handle the matter himself, asking whether they trust his ability. This gesture combines domestic care with a declaration of competence. He does not simply sympathize with the sisters; he places his resources at their disposal and makes himself the person who can intervene when their own options have narrowed.

That protection extends into more dangerous circumstances. His men are involved in detaining Song Yun’er, and when Su Xiangwan reaches the abandoned factory where Song Yun’er is being held, Chu Fei has already been monitoring her through cameras positioned around the room. He observes her from concealment before finally coming down the stairs with a warm smile, presenting the kidnapping operation through an unsettling mixture of surveillance, control, and personal familiarity. Even in a threatening environment, he addresses her affectionately and is pleased that she has come.

Desire, Rivalry, and the Limits of Kinship

Chu Fei’s feelings toward Su Xiangwan are not confined to brotherly protection. He tells Lu Xun that a woman may wear the clothing or social identity of a close relative without there being genuine kinship, and that he liked her intensely. He therefore regards Lu Xun as an eyesore. His argument turns the family-like vocabulary surrounding Su Xiangwan into a contested boundary: what Lu Xun treats as a reason for restraint or suspicion, Chu Fei treats as a distinction that can be challenged.

At the same time, Chu Fei claims that he will not force a woman and that he prefers the process of pursuit to immediate possession. The statement gives his attraction a stated principle, but it does not remove the pressure created by his power, surveillance, and rivalry. His interest is framed as a long chase, while Lu Xun understands it as a direct threat to his marriage. Chu Fei’s restraint is thus part of his self-image, but it also becomes a method of extending uncertainty and keeping control over the emotional field.

His opposition to Lu Xun becomes explicit when he refuses to attend Su Xiangwan’s wedding. He explains that he cannot bless the marriage and does not want to watch her walk toward what he considers a grave. After studying her, he concludes that her husband is not worthy of her. The judgment is simultaneously romantic, insulting, and strategic: it denies Lu Xun legitimacy while presenting Chu Fei as the man capable of recognizing Su Xiangwan’s value.

Conflict with Lu Xun and Lin Yanche

Chu Fei’s expansion creates a three-sided pressure system involving himself, Lu Xun, and Lin Yanche. He plants spies near Lin Yanche, and Lu Xun warns that, had Lin Yanche not discovered them in time, Lin Yanche would have died first, followed by Lu Xun and eventually Su Xiangwan. This makes Chu Fei’s danger concrete. Lu Xun insists that his demand for Su Xiangwan to stay away from Chu Fei is not simply jealousy or possessiveness; he sees Chu Fei as a force capable of killing the people around her.

The confrontation in Yan City strips away the polite surface of their rivalry. In the concealed base, Chu Fei tells Lu Xun that he has made a ridiculous mistake by failing to recognize Chu Fei as a threat. His relaxed posture and cigar contrast with Lu Xun’s rising anger, making the scene a contest between overt authority and controlled provocation. Chu Fei does not need to shout to establish power; he allows the setting, the waiting men, and his knowledge of the visitors’ movements to speak for him.

His return to Cloud City coincides with several linked pressures. Su Qingrou’s planned engagement to Jin Zhengnan appears to Lin Yanche as a deliberate attack on his vulnerable point, while Chu Fei’s forces are simultaneously occupying the city’s market. Chu Fei thus affects both the intimate and commercial dimensions of the plot. He is not a detached rival who appears only in a love triangle; his movements intensify family wounds, corporate anxiety, and the danger surrounding Lu Xun’s alliance with Lin Yanche.

Narrative Function and Significance

Chu Fei functions as a bridge between affection and coercive power. He can sit beside a sick relative through the night, return in an exhausted state to protect her, and offer to solve a family crisis; he can also command bodyguards, operate hidden bases, plant spies, control surveillance, and detain Song Yun’er. These aspects do not cancel one another. Together they explain why his presence is so destabilizing: tenderness becomes inseparable from reach, and care is delivered by someone capable of controlling the surrounding situation.

His family relationships also expose the instability of social labels in the novel. Terms such as cousin, brother, and close relative suggest limits, but Chu Fei repeatedly distinguishes nominal kinship from blood relation and from desire. Su Xiangwan’s declaration that Lu Xun is her husband sharply reasserts marital identity against Chu Fei’s competing claim, while Chu Fei’s refusal to bless the marriage shows that he does not accept the husband’s moral superiority. Through this conflict, Chu Fei becomes the figure who forces the story to ask whether protection, attraction, and possession can remain separate when one person holds overwhelming economic and organizational power.