Aunt Han raised you for sixteen years. She protected you, scolded you, and kept the world from swallowing you whole. Then the massacre at Blissful Retreat happened and she vanished without a word. The question everyone asks is simple: where did she go? The answer may be far more dangerous than anyone expects.
[spoiler]The roots of Aunt Han's fury stretch back three years before Chapter 1 begins. At that time, a Khitan envoy was traveling through Qinghe toward the Southern Tang, hoping to forge an alliance against Emperor Chai Rong. Tian Ying saw a chance to shatter that alliance before it could form. His plan required the face-changing technique, a skill only Aunt Han possessed.
She refused. She had spent years keeping that technique away from the Hanging Blade, understanding that handing it over would put lives at risk. So Tian Ying orchestrated a distraction. The Hanging Blade hosted a banquet, luring Aunt Han away from Blissful Retreat. While she was occupied, Tian Ying slipped inside and stole the manual.
But the cruelest part of his plan was not the theft itself. He pulled Chu Qingquan, Aunt Han's lover, into the scheme. When she realized what was happening and rushed back, it was Chu Qingquan who blocked her path at the Bell Tower. The two fought, and while they clashed, Tian Ying succeeded. Their love story ended that night.
Armed with the stolen technique, Tian Ying changed Chu Qingquan's face and sent him north as a spy. Chu Qingquan departed for the sake of the nation, leaving behind nothing but a letter promising to make things right when he returned. He never came back. Yi Dao later brought the devastating news: Chu Qingquan had fallen at Blackwater City.
Aunt Han poured every jar of parting tear wine she had saved for his return into the river. Not because she was broken, but because she understood that her youth and her love were gone forever. Yet she did not collapse. She still had people to protect.
Then Tian Ying's actions cascaded further. His assassination of the Khitan envoy on Southern Tang territory provoked retaliation. The Aureate Pavilion, deeply connected to the Southern Tang court, mobilized to hunt Tian Ying. When they discovered Aunt Han's sanctuary in Qinghe, they attacked. The massacre at Blissful Retreat followed, destroying everything Aunt Han had built and killing people she loved.
The cruelest irony is that the spy list Aunt Han carried, the names of agents who had operated in Yanyun, became a bargaining chip. The Aureate Pavilion seized it during the massacre and nearly traded it to the Khitan. You later destroyed that list at Velvet Shade, though you were being manipulated the entire time by the women who orchestrated the exchange.
So where is Aunt Han now? One theory suggests she has left Qinghe and headed north, hunting Tian Ying in his new identity as Lord Li. Perhaps she seeks not only revenge but also the truth about whether Chu Qingquan truly died. Another theory holds that she gave Killerblade a new face and sent him to finish the job. Or perhaps she has already changed her own face and is quietly watching over you from the shadows, waiting for the moment you need her most.
Whatever the truth, one thing is certain: Tian Ying stole her lover, destroyed her home, and turned her life's work into a weapon against her own people. If anyone in the world of Where Winds Meet has earned the right to vengeance, it is Aunt Han.[/spoiler]
*Based on analysis by [WWM Girl (Goose Girl Stories)](https://www.youtube.com/@GooseGirlStories).*
