Seventh Lady

[Blurb 1]

Liu Hanyu was born the youngest of seven daughters in a small roadside inn. She hated her elegant, gentle-sounding name, so she insisted everyone call her Liu Qiniang.

Liu Qiniang doesn't have many hobbies. She likes good horses, good blades, and gambling. She's also fond of wine. What she likes most is watching people fight.

If she hears there's a master up ahead, she'll usually go have a look. And while she's watching, she often ends up joining in.

When she was eighteen, she was hurrying home to celebrate her mother's birthday. By the roadside, she fought a stranger, broke the lousy knife she'd bought for three coins, and injured her hand. But she boldly wagered everything on one strike and won a beautiful victory. She won the man's horse and barely made it to her mother's birthday banquet, though she still got a scolding.

That man was Yan Zhao.

Afterward, the two crossed paths again and again in the martial world. Sometimes they traveled together for a while; sometimes they drew their blades and fought first. She learned the way he wielded his sword, and he gradually learned all her feints, every time her gambling instinct got the better of her and she risked everything in a blade clash, and the growth he couldn't ignore.

Each time, neither waited for the other. But after winding around countless mountains and rivers, they always met again.

Qiniang kept moving forward. From Black Ridge to Yanmen, from the northern lands to the great river. At first, she lost often. Later, she lost less.

Then her name began traveling farther and faster than she did.

Some people impersonated her. Some ran betting pools on which master she could beat. Others heard she had defeated someone and went hundreds of miles out of their way just to fight her.

Qiniang was very pleased with this.

But the farther she traveled through the martial world, the more she realized that not everything blocking her road was a blade.

Old debts from thirty years ago, people who had been dead for years, friends who had once saved each other's lives and later become enemies, and old hands in the martial world whom everyone praised for always taking care of things for others...

One old story after another surfaced from beneath the roads she had traveled.

Someone asked what she wanted to do in the future. Qiniang thought for a long time. There was no great task she absolutely had to accomplish.

There were still mountains she hadn't crossed, masters she hadn't fought, and the new blade she had bought for sixteen coins still worked fine.

So she would just keep going.

As for Yan Zhao...

If he was up ahead,

all the better.

They could fight again.

[Classic wuxia / A young wanderer's coming-of-age journey / Ensemble cast in the martial world / Martial arts progression / Two powerful leads in love / Happy ending]

Liu Qiniang traveled many roads in her life, lost countless times, and later won many fights, too.

Eventually, when people in the martial world spoke her name, they no longer had to ask:

"Which Qiniang?"

She was Liu Qiniang.

[Blurb 2]

Liu Hanyu was the youngest of seven daughters in her family, but she hated her elegant, gentle-sounding name, so she insisted everyone call her Liu Qiniang.

Qiniang has a habit. Whenever she sees people fighting, she always asks, "Who's going to win?"

If they don't fight, she thinks it's a shame. If they fight but there's no clear winner, she thinks that's even more of a shame. And if someone tells her

there's a master up ahead...

that's even better.

That's how she followed the masters and found her way into the martial world.

The first time Qiniang met Yan Zhao, she wanted to borrow his horse so she could go home for her mother's sixtieth birthday. They were strangers, and Yan Zhao refused.

Qiniang thought for a moment. "Let's fight. If I win, lend me your horse for three days."

Yan Zhao agreed, mostly because he couldn't get her to leave him alone.

Qiniang took a lot of hits in that fight, and her blade broke in half. In the end, she won by relying on her nerve and risking everything on one strike, taking half a move.

The horse was hers. Temporarily.

Yan Zhao: "Return it in three days."

Qiniang: "Definitely."

At the time, Yan Zhao didn't yet know that three days in this girl's mouth could mean three days, or it could mean half a year.

Qiniang originally only wanted to go to Shixia to buy a good blade, since Yan Zhao had smashed her previous lousy three-coin knife to pieces.

Then someone by the roadside entrusted her with a letter on their deathbed.

Shixia was to the west; Qingzhou was to the east.

Qiniang stood at the crossroads and thought for a moment.

"Qingzhou it is."

She didn't buy a blade on that trip, but she did see a true master first.

After that...

When Black Ridge was blocked off, she clumsily climbed over it in the freezing snow.

When people asked her name, she told them, and the news traveled faster than she did. By the time she reached the next town, people were already talking about "that Qiniang from Black Ridge."

Qiniang's eyes lit up.

At the next town...

No one knew who she was.

Qiniang: "..."

No matter. Keep fighting! One day...

Later, someone even impersonated her to show off and swindle people. Qiniang was pleased, but she also beat the person up, because she realized...

That girl's swordplay was unbelievably ugly, and she still dared to impersonate her!

Later still, the name "Liu Qiniang" appeared in a betting pool for the first time.

Qiniang squeezed into the crowd and stared at it for a long while.

Twenty-eight to one!

She didn't look too happy. "Am I really worth so little?"

So she pulled out fifty coins...

and bet on herself.

Obviously! Liu Qiniang loved gambling and winning, but she would only ever bet on herself.

Qiniang's greatest virtue was that she rarely pretended to be humble.

She forced the famous master Qin Baichuan to take half a step back.

Someone said, "Half a step."

Qiniang: "A whole step."

"It was only half a step."

"Is half a step not a step?"

Later, she finally won a beautiful victory in a fight she had been thinking about for ages. Her opponent had already conceded, but Qiniang still wouldn't leave.

"Say it again."

"..."

"Say it."

"You won."

She just loved winning, and she loved having people admit she had won.

Because winning feels so good!

After Yan Zhao got to know her, he realized she was a nightmare to fight. She had a pile of feints and dared to trick, gamble, and risk everything. She was practically a madwoman who fought as if her life depended on it. But that wasn't even the most troublesome part.

Liu Qiniang was very good at borrowing things. She'd borrow a horse or a sword, then even take it to gamble.

One day, Qiniang was three coins short of her gambling stake. She looked down at the short sword Yan Zhao had given her.

She thought about it, then took it off and bet it anyway.

When Yan Zhao arrived, she had just won the sword back. He stood by the table and watched for a moment, then suddenly realized something was wrong. "That's mine!"

Qiniang: "I know."

"That's mine."

"Didn't you give it to me? And I already won it back."

Yan Zhao held out his hand. "Give it back."

Qiniang thought he was being unreasonable. She had won it fair and square!

To show how generous she was, she even planned to split the winnings with him!

Yan Zhao didn't take a single coin. He took the sword and left, furious!

Qiniang couldn't make sense of it.

When she got home, she told her mother about it.

"I saw that man who lent me his horse again later. He even gave me a sword, but then he wanted it back."

Her mother: "Did you return it?"

"A long time ago."

"Good."

Qiniang took a bite of rice. "But he's still angry."

Her mother: "Put the lid on the pot when you're done eating."

They bickered, but when danger came, Yan Zhao only had to say "Left" from behind her.

Qiniang didn't even need to look back. She struck behind her, then quickly slashed to the left!

The longer they fought together, the more troublesome things got. Qiniang realized Yan Zhao had started copying her feints to trick people.

Yan Zhao also realized Qiniang had secretly picked up his footwork habits.

Neither had taught the other.

Neither would admit it.

The next time they fought, they would keep stealing from each other.

Can you call it stealing when you're a martial artist?

It's called...

Qiniang didn't know what it was called, either.

Qiniang grew more and more famous in the martial world.

"That Qiniang from Black Ridge."

"That Liu Qiniang in the betting pools."

"The one who made Qin Baichuan take half a step back..."

Qiniang: "A whole step."

"...A whole step."

Later, rumors spread that she had died in the north.

Qiniang: "????"

Later still, someone heard that Liu Qiniang had soundly beaten the renowned hero Xue Qingtang, and went out of their way to find her.

At last, her name had truly caught up with her, and people who admired her had caught up, too.

But Qiniang was on the roadside, wearing a sixteen-coin cable-cutting knife at her waist and haggling with someone.

After she became famous and went home, she happily told her second older brother, "I'm famous out there now."

Her brother pointed at the sack of rice on the ground. "Then carry one more sack."

Qiniang: "..."

The martial world was vast, full of fights and even more masters.

She thought life was pretty great.

As for Yan Zhao...

Yan Zhao's biggest flaw was that he had an excellent memory.

He remembered his horse.

He remembered his sword.

He remembered what he had promised her.

And he remembered every debt she owed him.

Eventually, Qiniang couldn't help asking, "Why are you so vindictive?"

Yan Zhao glanced at her. "I remember your blade, too."

Qiniang: "Then let's fight?"

Yan Zhao said nothing. He quietly drew his sword.

[A gambler and swordswoman who loves winning and fighting, can't help secretly gloating, and will get back on her feet and fight again even after a humiliating loss x A reserved, taciturn, score-keeping, grudge-holding, old-fashioned swordsman who won't give an inch in an argument but grows more and more partial to her]

[Liu Qiniang x Yan Zhao]

[Classic wuxia / A young wanderer's coming-of-age journey / Martial arts progression / Everyday life in the martial world / Bickering couple]

She started with an old knife that cost three qian of silver.

She fought and lost along the way, until at last she began to win.

In the end, she made the whole martial world know:

Who Liu Qiniang was.

Theme: I meant to buy osmanthus wine and travel with you, but it is never quite like the carefree days of youth.