Xiao Feng—A’Zhu

Xiao Feng—A’Zhu is a love relationship whose promise of marriage is cut short by A'Zhu’s death and survives in Xiao Feng as grief, remorse, and a duty he cannot set aside. Their bond is shaped by more than affection: both grew up separated from their birth parents, and A'Zhu’s discovery that she and A'Zi are daughters of Duan Zhengchun turns an intimate revelation into a decision that will destroy their shared future.

A Bond Between Two Separated Children

Xiao Feng and A'Zhu recognize a kinship in their childhood losses before they know that their family histories intersect. A'Zhu was sent to another household when she was just over a year old and could not recognize either parent; she tells Xiao Feng that, when she learned of his origins in the Apricot Forest, she felt for him because they were both miserable children. Xiao Feng, whose birth father was Xiao Yuanshan but who had been given the surname of his foster father, Qiao Sanhuai, similarly learns his parentage only after a long separation from his origins.

A'Zhu’s birth identity comes into focus through the matching marks on her and A'Zi: each has a red character for Duan tattooed on the shoulder, and the sisters also have matching gold locks engraved with the same twelve characters. Their mother, Ruan Xingzhu, had arranged for the girls to be sent to other families after separating from Duan Zhengchun, hoping the marks would let them recognize one another later. A'Zhu explains that she had not known her own surname was Duan until she saw A'Zi’s mark and heard the family’s conversation. The discovery places Xiao Feng’s beloved within a family and political world that he has been seeking for another reason.

Marriage Promise and the Fatal Misrecognition

The connection becomes decisive when Xiao Feng realizes that A'Zhu and A'Zi are both daughters of Duan Zhengchun. He knows that the Duan family possesses the Six Meridians Divine Sword and understands the danger of killing its prince. A'Zhu has disguised herself as Duan Zhengchun in order to take the consequence of the killing upon herself; her action is meant to protect Xiao Feng from retaliation. When she explains that motive, he understands what she has done, but the revelation arrives too late to spare her.

A'Zhu asks Xiao Feng to promise one thing: to look after A'Zi, her only younger sister, and keep her from going astray. He agrees readily and speaks as if A'Zhu will recover and the three of them will meet again. A'Zhu then imagines the future she wants with him: riding and hunting beyond Yanmen Pass, tending cattle and sheep, and bringing her sister along. Xiao Feng answers that A'Zi will surely join them, calling himself and A'Zhu her elder sister and brother-in-law. The imagined family reunion gives their marriage promise a future beyond the couple, but it is a future A'Zhu will not live to see.

Grief, Memory, and the Unkept Future

After A'Zhu’s death, Xiao Feng’s attachment is expressed as an absence that no force can reverse. When Madam Ma taunts him about losing A'Zhu and suggests that his martial skill might let him take her back, Xiao Feng says that he only hopes to see her once more and that even heavenly powers cannot bring her back. The exchange sets the limit of the strength on which his life has so often depended: it cannot undo this loss.

The promise to care for A'Zi keeps A'Zhu present in Xiao Feng’s choices. When A'Zi celebrates Madam Ma’s death because it has left Xiao Feng without the answer to his search for an enemy, his anger rises, but he remembers A'Zhu’s final request and restrains himself. He decides to try to correct A'Zi rather than abandon her, even while recognizing her malice and mischief. A'Zi’s reminder that A'Zhu was killed by Xiao Feng himself cuts through his anger; he turns away in silence. His protection of her sister is thus not simple approval or ease, but an effort to remain faithful to the last responsibility A'Zhu placed in his hands.

The Difference Between the Sisters

Xiao Feng’s memories of A'Zhu also become a standard against which he measures his difficult relationship with A'Zi. When A'Zi asks whether he regards her less than her sister, he replies that A'Zhu was a thousand times better, and her angry departure prompts him to imagine how he would have treated A'Zhu: he would have followed, apologized, and tried not to make her angry. He remembers her as yielding and considerate, while A'Zi’s departures and returns expose how little their temperaments resemble one another.

That contrast does not erase Xiao Feng’s obligation to A'Zi. She returns and offers to follow him and learn from him; he is wary of the anxiety her company brings, yet continues to address her as his younger sister and tries to steer her toward kindness. A'Zhu’s request therefore extends their relationship beyond her lifetime. Xiao Feng cannot restore the future they pictured beyond Yanmen Pass, but his bond with A'Zhu remains active in the promise he keeps to her surviving sister.