Lan SiZhui

Lan SiZhui is a thoughtful GusuLan junior who often steadies his peers during night-hunts and whose recovered childhood memories reveal that he is A-Yuan, a survivor of the Wen community at Burial Mound.

Biography

A-Yuan of Burial Mound

Lan SiZhui is born Wen Yuan, a young child of the displaced Wen community sheltered at Burial Mound. Called A-Yuan, he is raised communally among Wen Qing's relatives and becomes attached to Wei WuXian, who plays with him, buries him in a vegetable patch as a joke, and takes him into Yiling. There A-Yuan also meets Lan WangJi, clinging to his leg and briefly calling him “Dad” when frightened. After the first siege destroys the settlement, the injured Lan WangJi returns to Burial Mound, finds the surviving child, and brings him into the GusuLan Sect as Lan Yuan. (Chapters 74–75 and 111)

Leadership at Mo Village and Dafan Mountain

Without clear memories of his early life, Lan SiZhui grows into a trusted GusuLan junior under Lan WangJi's care. At Mo Village he leads the investigation with courtesy, protects civilians, and listens when the apparently mad Mo XuanYu points out the pattern of missing left arms. When the hostile arm overwhelms the sword array, he holds the group together until Lan WangJi intervenes. At Dafan Mountain he continues questioning evidence, mediating between volatile juniors, and recognizing that Mo XuanYu's deductions deserve attention. (Chapters 3–10)

Yi City

In Yi City, Lan SiZhui cooperates with Jin Ling and the other juniors through poisonous fog and attacks by corpse-poisoned people. He follows Wei WuXian's instructions, helps test the mute A-Qing's answers with Inquiry, and watches over Wei WuXian's body during Empathy. Learning how Xue Yang deceived Xiao XingChen reinforces his refusal to decide guilt from reputation alone. After leaving, he mourns A-Qing and Xiao XingChen and joins the juniors in burning offerings for them. (Chapters 33–46)

The second siege of Burial Mound

When the juniors are abducted to Burial Mound, Lan SiZhui openly trusts that Wei WuXian came to save them. As the attacking cultivators lose their spiritual powers and corpses close in, he directs everyone toward the damaged array in the Demon-Slaughtering Cave. He helps identify that the loss came through altered battle music rather than poison, then charges out with the other juniors to support Wen Ning. His willingness to act on evidence helps turn a planned siege into a joint defense. (Chapters 68 and 79–84)

Remembering Wen Yuan

The return to Burial Mound produces sensations Lan SiZhui cannot initially explain. Wen Ning recognizes his resemblance to a Wen cousin and thanks Lan WangJi for caring for A-Yuan, while the sight of Chenqing finally releases clearer memories. Lan SiZhui recalls Wei WuXian's terrible cooking, jokes, and lessons, realizes that his surname was once Wen, and confirms his identity with both men. The revelation reconnects him to a family thought destroyed without undoing the GusuLan upbringing that formed him. (Chapters 89 and 110–111)

Qishan and later night-hunts

Lan SiZhui travels with Wen Ning to Qishan to bury the Wen people's ashes and create a cenotaph for Wen Qing before returning to the Cloud Recesses. He later leads night-hunts that include Jin Ling and accepts Wen Ning's hidden protection. During the White Room case, he and Jin Ling conduct interviews, interpret resentful shadows, and persist for five days until the juniors recover a murdered hero's missing tongue. These investigations show him carrying both inheritances forward through patient, cooperative cultivation work. (Chapters 111, 116, and 120.5–124)

Appearance and personality

Lan SiZhui is described as fair and refined, with a gentle manner characteristic of the GusuLan juniors. He is observant, patient, and notably willing to withhold judgment until he understands a situation; he also shows open compassion for the dead of Yi City. (Chapters 3, 42–43)

Abilities and cultivation

Lan SiZhui has the broad orthodox education of a GusuLan inner disciple: swordsmanship, talismans, musical cultivation, arrays, night-hunting procedure, and the discipline to apply them calmly. His distinguishing strength is judgment. He gathers evidence, listens to less conventional explanations, and coordinates other juniors without treating leadership as a privilege to dominate them.

Swordsmanship, talismans, and field command

Lan SiZhui carries a spiritual sword and fights alongside the other juniors against walking corpses, fierce corpses, and human opponents. He also uses immobilizing acupoint strikes, protective talismans, signal flares, and spirit-attracting or suppressing measures appropriate to an investigation. These techniques are effective within a trained group but do not place him on the level of senior cultivators; in Yi City and at Burial Mound, survival depends on following Wei WuXian's instructions and maintaining formation. (Chapters 5, 35–43, and 79–82)

He naturally takes responsibility when adults are absent. At Mo Village he keeps the disciples focused after their formation is damaged, and during later crises he checks casualties, assigns immediate tasks, and prevents frightened companions from scattering. His authority comes from composure and explanation rather than rank alone, which allows Lan JingYi, Jin Ling, and disciples from other sects to cooperate even when their families distrust one another. (Chapters 3–5 and 79–82)

Inquiry and analytical cultivation

Lan SiZhui can play Inquiry, using the GusuLan guqin language to question spirits. In Yi City he applies it while the juniors try to identify the beings hidden by fog. The technique requires correct questions and interpretation; incomplete answers cannot substitute for physical evidence, and stronger or manipulated spirits may still mislead an inexperienced group. (Chapter 38)

His later work in the White Room shows the same method without relying on a single supernatural answer. He compares the room's construction, marks left by violence, local accounts, and the reactions of resentful beings to connect a present haunting with an earlier murder site. This investigative patience is a developed skill: he tests explanations, invites relevant observations, and avoids claiming certainty before the clues agree. (Chapters 121–124)

Memory, identity, and limits

Lan SiZhui's childhood memories as Wen Yuan are largely lost after fever and trauma. Familiar places, food, Wen Ning, and Wei WuXian gradually provoke recognition, but remembrance is not an ability he can activate at will. Once the identity returns, it changes his relationships without erasing the GusuLan upbringing that shaped his techniques and values. (Chapters 84–89 and 110)

His empathy and willingness to learn are practical advantages, yet they also expose him to risks that more suspicious cultivators might avoid. He trusts Wei WuXian's field directions before knowing his identity and approaches Wen Ning as a person rather than merely a corpse. The narrative rewards that openness, but his survival still depends on stronger protectors when he encounters opponents such as Xue Yang, Nie MingJue, or Jin GuangYao.

Relationships

• Lan WangJi: His senior and protector, who raised him after the destruction of the Burial Mound settlement.
• Wei WuXian: A figure from his early childhood and later a trusted senior whose unconventional teaching he gradually remembers.
• Wen Ning: His surviving Wen relative, addressed as Uncle Ning and encountered again through their night-hunts.
• Lan JingYi: His frequent companion among the GusuLan juniors.