Dominant and sterile. Perhaps unapproachable.

Qin Su!

Her childhood I think was probably pretty charmed. Her father seems to care an awful lot about her getting what she wants, and trusts that she knows what will make her happy, because he lets her persuade him to approve of a marriage to someone with famously dubious parentage against his own wife's protests. Her mother is invested enough in her peace of mind to not tell her why she doesn't want her to marry Jin Guaungyao. I saw someone describe this as "everyone being invested in her continuing to be able to live the charmed life of favored daughter of Qin Cangye" and, yeah. Also she seems like a happy, confident, normal person. I feel like even with most minor characters you can see the outlines of less than stellar parenting in them, but (yes largely because she's underwritten but I work with what I go) she doesn't seem to have that. Her late teens would have been interrupted by the war, like everyone else's, and since Jin Guangyao saves her life during the war, I do think she either fought or was in a support role. I prefer her being a cultivator so I think she would have trained etc. I think in the book she's described as the only child of the Qin family, but I usually hc Qin Su (both canon and genderbent) as the baby. A little bit spoiled, not burdened by expectation, very secure in her parent's love.

Talents and hobbies: Let it be known that I really dislike people writing Qin Su as either stupid or having obvious cognitive issues and backing it up with Wei Wuxian's throw-away line about vaguely remembering her being "simple" in his first life. This guy's memory is famously made of cheese, and his inability to suss out what others are thinking, feeling, or motivated by is kind of integral to the plot. Why do we trust him here to such an extent that we take it further? I don't think this is *as* much of a problem as it used to be but it used to be everywhere. So. I think she is a genius when it comes to event management, and that is part of why she and Jin Guangyao were so into each other. We know he falls hard for people who respect and are sweet to him and with whom he works well. So I think she should be someone he can work with and who can compliment his abilities. Insane social skills and the like. She is a high society lady in this world so probably she also does embroidery. But I mostly love the idea of her and Jin Guangyao, completely happy and making gross eyes at each other over seating charts, invitation design, conference itinerary, etc. Of course she's on the throne at the discussion conferences. They are a joint effort!

Why did she fall for Jin Guangyao: I do think the saving her life in the war thing was a big part of it. But he's also very different than your average young cultivation master. He's closer in demeanor and etc to a scholar official, and that novelty I think was pretty attractive. I think she also has a bit of a soft spot for sad kicked puppies and... well. But while I do think she's a cultivator, I think she's mind of mid and the sword path is not her life by a long shot. This makes her less attractive and less interesting to the rest of them. Most people aren't rude about it, but she's not someone anyone is making a special effort for. Jin Guangyao, however, is interested in the things she talks about, gives her a kind of sustained and genuine attention that she isn't getting from others, and clearly doesn't see her as less interesting or less prestigious because she's just ok with the sword and doesn't have the most powerful core. He also, again, tends to react pretty strongly to people he doesn't expect to be good to him being good to him. I think that makes her feel incredibly special. Lianfang-zun is polite to everyone, but only she gets his confused, sincere, and devastating gratitude when she diverts a conversation about some perceived deficit of his to be about how it's actually really impressive and cool. yeah.

I kind of love all ways the rescue could have played out, but because I'm a cql main, I usually assume it's while he's embedded with the Wen. I like the idea that he used her to pass the map, actually. I do think he killed at least one Wen soldier in front of her during this rescue, and I like the idea that it was one of those moments where even he doesn't know what he's doing. Spur of the moment, lets himself be driven by sentiment because something about her or her situation reminds him of his mother, makes up a strategic justification kind of as he's doing it, doesn't expect her to really remember it later. But beyond that I don't have a good hc.