Xue Baochai
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–Xue Baochai, Canto VIII: The Surrendered Witnessing | ||
Xue Baochai is a member of the Xue Family and Hong Lu's ex betrothed, as well as a candidate in the Family Hierarch Evaluations. She is a supporting character in Canto VIII: The Surrendered Witnessing, and a minor antagonist in Intervallo VI: Spring Cultivation.
Appearance
Xue Baochai is a woman of pale complexion, with droopy orange eyes and long, curly brown hair that reaches to her lower back. Her hair is partially worn in princess curls, tied up with orange flower ribbons, and she has blunt bangs. Baochai dons a qixiong ruqun, a high-waisted hanfu, composed of a pink top with orange detailing, and a skirt in peach tones, all sporting colorful flower decorations.
Around her neck, Baochai wears a jade pendant, that she began wearing after her betrothed Jia Baoyu's departure from Hongyuan, as a way to remember him.
Personality
Xue Baochai is an outgoing woman with a lively temperament. Used to the brutality of Daguanyuan, she always appears unbothered by the violence of the Family Hierarch war or the common practice of decapitation even among family members. Baochai has a vested interest in the dark and macabre, and one of her pastimes being curating collections of creepy urban legends and adventure stories.
During her first meeting with the Sinners, she immediately strikes up conversation and appears very interested in the tales of their adventures, particularly those of bloodshed, showing herself as amiable and friendly. Similarly, she converses with Jia Xichun and compliments her bravery, although her expressions of sorrow to Xichun's troubles come out as slightly back-handed. Baochai also shows herself completely unbothered at the possibility of her brother, Xue Pan, being killed by their mother as punishment, instead commenting that she hopes his personality will be edited to be more obedient and cause less trouble this time around. This lack of empathy on her part appears to stem from her exposure to the cruelty of Daguanyuan.
Baochai cares deeply for Hong Lu, and has long looked forward to his return to Hongyuan, upon which they will be married. While she used to think him a brooding man, Baochai reconsidered her first impression after an encounter in which Hong Lu comforted her, and she became enamored with his gentle and thoughtful demeanor. After their engagement was made official, Baochai began preparing his chambers, and she would often speak to him of the happy and luxurious life they would have together. Her infatuation for Hong Lu is shown to revolve less around Hong Lu as a person, but more around his role and his importance as the jewel of Hongyuan; her fixation on him often has her focus on the brilliance of his jade and the light he radiates, making her feelings closer to objectification than a genuine romantic interest.
Baochai is typically shown to be confident and place a great importance on her appearance, as she always had a fondness for expensive perfumes and fragrances, upkeeping her scent on the daily through a rigorous routine. Despite this, she seems to grow self-conscious at the possibility of Hong Lu not reciprocating her feelings, and to nurse a slight jealousy upon seeing him interact with Lin Daiyu.
Despite this, Baochai eventually lets go of this feeling, only requesting Daiyu to keep Hong Lu safe after they're forced to separate during the second round of the Family Hierarch Evaluations. By the end of the Canto, Baochai seems to have accepted that Hong Lu will not return to Daguanyuan to marry her, but despite this she stills wishes to care for him, defying her family's orders and risking her life to protect him and his sister.
Baochai's personality grows more somber after losing the attention of Hong Lu, now wishing the man and his siblings chose to simply ignore the happenings of Daguanyuan, wishing to live in naïve peace. While she has been taken fully into the schemes of those on the board of the District, she still expresses her own wish to return to the days of loving Hong Lu, going as far as revealing a scheme to harm Xichun moments before it finishes as a way of "following her heart".
After the short meeting with her former fiancé during the events of Intervallo VI, Baochai becomes continually more morose, now lamenting over her lack of fragrance and fully giving in to the controlling relationship bestowed upon her by Jia Yuanchun. With no family to support her, and her fiancé lost, she only sees a path forward with the other woman, who acts as her sole guiding light.
Story
Prior to Limbus Company
Sometime in the past, Xue Baochai was put into an arranged marriage with Jia Baoyu, as of an agreement between Jia Mu and Baochai's mother.
One of the two's first meetings happened when Baoyu ran into Baochai grieving the loss of her pet bird, which had escaped from its cage; Baoyu comforted her, proposing that it would return to follow the scent of the blossoms in the coming year. On another occasion, Baoyu commented on Baochai's fragrance on a day where she hadn't the time to use her perfumes, stating that he quite enjoyed it. This stuck with Baochai until her adulthood, frequently citing it as one of the reasons of her love for Baoyu.
Canto VIII: The Surrendered Witnessing
Upon the return of Hong Lu to Daguanyuan, Xue Baochai quickly arrived to meet with her betrothed. Catching up with her absent fiancé, she drew his attention to the creation of her necklace, inspired by his jade eye. She was an exceptionally friendly face for the Sinners to encounter, and expressed curiosity over the tales of Hong Lu's adventure, particularly the bloody parts. After briefly discussing the situation regarding Jia Xichun, she checked with Hong Lu if he had encountered Jia Qiu during his travels, reaffirming the one-sided allyship he had held with Shi Yihua. Reminding Hong Lu she would always reside at Hongyuan, she departed from the dining hall.
Xue Baochai would participate in the Family Hierarch Evaluations, where she passed the first round—having been one of the many candidates shocked by Hong Lu's participation—and progressed towards the second round. She also made sure to congratulate Hong Lu for passing.
During the second round, she traveled with her clan only to stumble upon the Sinners; her bodyguard Lin Daiyu having traveled with the group due to getting lost. The group was soon forced into combat against a revived Shi Yihua, alongside the candidate Wang Dawei. Baochai, in an act of hoping to save Hong Lu and allow him to continue through the round, told him to leave as she would handle the enemy candidates. While her bodyguard accompanied her betrothed, her faction battled their foes until their collective eliminations, trapped by the closing walls nearby.
During the ceremony for Jia Xichun becoming hierarch, Baochai sheepishly approached the Sinners, skirting around a topic as she attempted to speak with them. Hurriedly, as Jia Qiu and his faction arrive, she explained the possible coup forming in the power vacuum before Xichun takes the throne. Her mother, the Shi and Xue families—led by Jia Yuanchun—all internally looked to overthrow the ceremony; this was still not accounting for outside factions looking to enter the Wing. Fearing her mother would find out if she delayed any longer, she shortly departed.
Following the events of Canto VIII, Baochai was abducted by Yuanchun, who threatened her with the exposure of her insubordination to her mother. Xue Baochai, fearfully, accepted to comply by Yuanchun's demands.
Intervallo VI: Spring Cultivation
After the events of the Family Hierarch Evaluation and Jia Xichun's ascension as new Executive Director of H Corp., the Xue family members that had conspired against the Hierarch were arrested, which left Baochai as current head of the family during council meetings. Baochai remained aligned with Jia Yuanchun during this period, planning to vote for the vote of no confidence towards Xichun. Furthermore, her engagement to Hong Lu, which had been arranged by her mother and the late Jia Mu, was broken off.
During Xichun's thirty days of training, Baochai visited the lecture hall to meet with Hong Lu. Baochai was dismissive of Xichun and the group's efforts, asking Hong Lu when they would give up on their attempts to change things. Hong Lu bluntly demanded Baochai to stop this behavior, although Baochai only stepped back after he commented on her having no fragrance, thus dispelling any illusion she still had of his attraction to her.
At the end of the month, after Jia Yuanchun is expelled from the council by Jia Xichun, Baochai follows Yuanchun, as the latter comments that she will depart to Q Corp., and that Baochai will follow her, for Yuanchun is the only light left for her.
Gallery
Story Log Portrait
Trivia
- Xue Baochai takes her name from the eponymous character, Xue Baochai (薛寶釵; 薛宝钗，Pinyin: Xuē Bǎochāi), from Cao Xueqin's novel Dream of the Red Chamber.
- In Dream of the Red Chamber, Xue Baochai is Jia Baoyu's maternal cousin, and is described as a beautiful and tactful woman, well-liked by all the servants of the house, and whose qualities compliment Lin Daiyu's. Through the course of the novel, Xue Baochai weds Jia Baoyu, although their matrimony is an unhappy one, as Jia Baoyu's affections still lay with the late Lin Daiyu.
- Xue Baochai's jade locket is based on the locket worn by her literary counterpart. In Dream of the Red Chamber, Baochai always wears a golden locket that was given to her by a monk, which contains an inscription that matches Jia Baoyu's, who similarly always wears the jade he was born with around his neck.
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