Lu Ting-Pin—Xianniang

Lu Ting-Pin and Xianniang are father and daughter, but their bond begins in absence: his forbidden relationship with Yellow Peony leads to their child’s birth in disgrace, and the Immortals forbid him from seeing or interfering in Yellow Peony’s life. Lu Ting-Pin comes to recognize that the daughter, rejected by her mother and known as the Unwanted Girl, suffered for his choices. His later resolve to kill the White Fox is an attempt to free Xianniang from servitude, but it cannot erase the harm or restore the years of separation.

A bond formed through separation

Lu Ting-Pin recounts that the other seven Mighty Immortals punished him for his relationship with Yellow Peony. Among the terms of his penance, he was forbidden to see her or interfere in her life again. He accepts that restriction as justified: he had removed Yellow Peony from the world and treated her as though she were a possession, disregarding her own thoughts and destiny. The judgment that separated him from Yellow Peony also left him without a place in the life of the daughter born from their relationship.

The daughter’s birth did not lead to a shared family life. The Immortals arranged for Yellow Peony to move to another town and create a different identity; they dissolved her marriage to Lu Ting-Pin after the baby was born, and Yellow Peony later remarried and began a new family. Lu Ting-Pin learned what followed only gradually, hearing fragments over time. That distance is central to their relationship: he knows his daughter through the consequences of his past actions and the reports that reach him, rather than through a life spent raising her.

The Unwanted Girl

Yellow Peony could not bear the sight of her eldest daughter, because the child recalled the betrayal and disgrace surrounding her birth. The girl consequently received the anger and resentment that Lu Ting-Pin believes should have been directed at him. He calls this the worst of his transgressions: his actions helped turn an innocent child into the target of a mother’s rejection. The daughter became known as the Unwanted Girl, a name that records the consequence of the adults’ choices in the child’s life.

The story connects that rejected child to Xianniang, who is now under the White Fox’s control. Lu Ting-Pin’s account makes fatherhood a source of responsibility rather than a claim of authority: he recognizes that the daughter’s suffering was not her fault, and that his remorse cannot undo it. An author’s note describes Xianniang as a new character whose lineage was inspired by Pai Shih, identified there as Lu Ting-Pin’s ill-fated forbidden son. This mythic source is an inspiration for her lineage, not a replacement for the story’s account of Xianniang as his daughter.

Penance and the attempt to help

Lu Ting-Pin’s punishment bars him from interfering in Yellow Peony’s mortal life, while his later objective concerns Xianniang’s immediate condition. He explains that he has killed 9,999 demons and wants the White Fox to be the final one. The reason is personal as well as part of his penance: the White Fox controls his daughter, and he believes killing the demon will end Xianniang’s servitude.

That aim does not cancel the limit he has already acknowledged. Lu Ting-Pin’s remorse is directed not only toward the wrong done to Yellow Peony, but also toward the daughter who bore its consequences. He knows that completing his penance cannot compensate her for being rejected. His plan to confront the White Fox is therefore a concrete effort to help, but not a claim that one act will repair their relationship or the damage that preceded it.

Mulan and the unresolved relationship

Lu Ting-Pin’s effort to free Xianniang depends on Mulan. When Mulan recalls that no man could kill the White Fox, Lu Ting-Pin answers that the fact it has not happened does not make it impossible. After Mulan kills the White Fox, he recognizes that the old claim had named the means of his daughter’s possible release: only a girl could kill the demon, and Mulan had done so. His response gives Mulan credit rather than presenting himself as the person who can rescue Xianniang by force.

The ending thus shifts Lu Ting-Pin’s role from the father who caused a lasting wound to an ally whose hope for his daughter rests on another person’s action. The evidence establishes his desire to free Xianniang and the condition he believes will end her servitude; it does not describe a reconciliation between father and daughter. Their relationship remains marked by separation and irreversible harm, even as his pursuit of the White Fox gives that bond a present purpose.