Call Him Chenchen

When Su Nian was three, Ninth Master Xie brought her home to the Xie family from a rain-soaked street. From then on, her world held only one “young master”: Xie Yuchen.

Xie Yuchen would ruffle her hair and tell her to call him “Chenchen,” but mindful of her status as an orphan, she always kept her head bowed and called him “Young Master.” She kept all his secrets: how his palm reddened from gripping it in frustration when he became head of the household at eight, the candy hidden in his sleeve for when his blood sugar dropped, and the green peppers he never touched. At family banquets, she would quietly move the green peppers from his bowl to her own plate. Backstage at the opera troupe, she always carried milk candies in her pocket, ready to offer him one when he fainted.

In the caustic-alkali passage beneath the Zhang Family Ancient Tower, she carried the injured Xie Yuchen to safety. In the collapsing tomb chamber of the Second Tomb Under Heaven, she shielded him from a boulder and, despite the agony, pried open the lock. When a branch of the Xie family rebelled, she steadied the negotiations in the name of his “personal attendant.”

When Wang Ba Qiu insulted him in public, she was the first to rush forward and seize his wrist. Amid the sandstorms at the Queen Mother of the West's palace, she searched for him despite her injuries. During the Sand Sea operation, she guarded the Xie family for him, always ending her letters with “Wishing you peace.” She protected him for no reason other than to help him cast off the shackles of “Master Hua” and become once more the Xie Yuchen who called her “Niannian.”

Then, on the day the Wang family fell, Xie Yuchen clasped her hand beneath the setting sun and said, “Stop being a servant. I want to give you a home.” She gazed at him, her eyes finally reddening, and softly spoke the name she had kept hidden for so many years: “Chenchen.”