Liu Xi

Liu Xi is a supporting character defined less by public power than by the quiet, practical work of sheltering another person. As Mo Beiyu’s cousin, Liu Xi becomes part of the domestic refuge where the seriously weakened Su Xiangwan is discovered, treated, and temporarily hidden. Her importance lies in the way ordinary acts of hospitality—opening a door, keeping a secret, helping a feverish woman stand—become decisive interventions in a plot shaped by pursuit, surveillance, and possessive claims.

Identity and Introduction

Liu Xi is identified as Mo Beiyu’s cousin. She lives in the same household where Mo Beiyu is staying, and she is the person who finds Su Xiangwan by the roadside during her morning practice. Su Xiangwan has already fainted when Liu Xi discovers her, but Liu Xi brings her home, helps change her clothes, and cares for her for two days. The scene establishes Liu Xi through action rather than biography: she recognizes immediate physical danger and responds with shelter and nursing care.

Her role is also tied to the household’s position between kinship and secrecy. Mo Beiyu is present at his cousin’s home, which allows him to care for Su Xiangwan without immediately revealing her location to Mo Beichen. Liu Xi therefore becomes an inadvertent or tacit participant in a protective arrangement whose practical purpose is concealment. The home is not merely a domestic setting; while Su Xiangwan remains weak, it functions as a temporary barrier against the people searching for her.

Care and Concealment

Liu Xi’s care is concrete and bodily. She helps Su Xiangwan after the collapse, changes her clothing, and continues looking after her while the illness leaves her unable to recover quickly. Mo Beiyu later explains that Liu Xi has been taking care of Su Xiangwan for the previous two days, while he has also remained at the house. This division of labor places Liu Xi alongside Mo Beiyu in a shared act of protection, but it does not make her care ornamental: without her intervention, Su Xiangwan would not have had the same refuge or period of recovery.

The secrecy surrounding the arrangement is explicit. Mo Beiyu does not want Mo Beichen to know that Su Xiangwan is staying there, so he instructs Liu Xi to keep the matter confidential. Liu Xi’s silence thus has a protective function. She is not presented as a strategist directing the larger conflict, yet her willingness to preserve the secret helps prevent Su Xiangwan’s location from becoming known before she is well enough to move. In this sense, Liu Xi’s domestic labor becomes part of the plot’s security structure.

The Police Visit and the Pressure of Discovery

The refuge is tested when an urgent knock interrupts the household. Liu Xi, sleeping in the guest room, is awakened and goes out to answer the door. The visitors identify themselves as being from the Public Security Bureau and say that they are investigating a young woman rescued by the roadside two days earlier. Several policemen stand outside, accompanied by a distinguished man in a low hat and additional apparent bodyguards. The scale of the arrival turns Liu Xi’s private household into a scene of official scrutiny.

Liu Xi is initially stunned when she sees the police and the men behind them. She looks toward Mo Beiyu, receives his nod, and opens the door calmly. That moment captures her position within the concealment: she does not act alone, but she does not panic or expose the household either. Her composed cooperation with Mo Beiyu allows the encounter to proceed while preserving the possibility that Su Xiangwan will not be immediately surrendered to the people seeking her. The contrast between the force gathered outside and Liu Xi’s small domestic gesture underscores how vulnerable the refuge is, and how much depends on discretion.

Relationship with Su Xiangwan and Mo Beiyu

Liu Xi’s relationship with Su Xiangwan is grounded in care before familiarity. Su Xiangwan later wonders whether Liu Xi already knows her, suggesting that the rescued woman is uncertain how much of her identity has been recognized within the household. Even so, Liu Xi’s conduct toward her does not depend on a prior intimate bond. She helps because Su Xiangwan is unconscious and in need, and the practical fact of illness creates an immediate obligation.

When Su Xiangwan finally leaves, Liu Xi helps her up and expresses concern that her body is still very hot. She tells her to return and rest properly, urging her to recover as soon as possible. Liu Xi also says that, if there is an opportunity, she will visit Su Xiangwan’s home. The offer extends the temporary shelter into a continuing personal connection, while her warning about the fever shows that she understands the departure is medically dangerous rather than reassuringly complete.

The farewell is marked by physical weakness. Su Xiangwan walks out under the attention of those present, but her feet feel unsteady, her legs are sore and weak, and her fever remains intense. At the elevator she reaches for the button and faints before touching it. Liu Xi’s earlier concern is therefore confirmed by the immediate aftermath: the patient is not recovered merely because she can stand and leave. Her insistence that Su Xiangwan rest properly reads as an accurate recognition of the body’s condition, not a routine farewell.

Narrative Role and Significance

Liu Xi gives the story a form of protection distinct from the possessive protection exercised by powerful men. Mo Beiyu feeds Su Xiangwan, hides her from Mo Beichen, and tries to preserve their closeness; outside the refuge, other men make competing claims over her identity and relationship. Liu Xi’s contribution is quieter and less controlling. She provides shelter, clothing, nursing, confidentiality, and a concerned farewell without claiming ownership of Su Xiangwan.

Her role also makes the story’s recurring boundary between family and intimacy more visible. The wider narrative repeatedly treats cousins, adopted relatives, household members, spouses, and desired partners as categories that can protect, disguise, or complicate desire. Liu Xi remains specifically Mo Beiyu’s cousin, but her household becomes the site where Su Xiangwan can be cared for outside Lu Xun’s immediate control. Through that arrangement, kinship is not simply a label: it is a social infrastructure that can either expose a vulnerable person to scrutiny or give her a temporary place to survive.

Liu Xi’s ending within the supplied episodes is open rather than dramatic. She does not receive a public confrontation or a decisive victory. Instead, her narrative significance rests in the consequences of several modest choices: finding Su Xiangwan, helping sustain her for two days, keeping her presence secret when the police arrive, and urging her to return to bed when illness still threatens to overwhelm her. In a plot dominated by abduction, pursuit, jealousy, and coercive declarations, Liu Xi represents care that operates through attention and discretion. Her small actions materially alter what is possible for Su Xiangwan, even though the larger conflict remains unresolved.