Yu Ying

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Yu Ying (虞纓), nicknamed Yingying (纓纓) by her friends, was one of the disciples of the youxia Wei Yu, alongside Chu Huan and his sworn sibling.

Biography

As a child, Yu Ying was abducted by bandits to be sold into slavery, but she was rescued by the youxia Wei Yu. From that point on, she became one of his apprentices and found a home with them in Jade Spring, Shang Commandery. She grew up with Chu Huan, a boy who had also been saved from human trafficking by Wei Yu, and his sworn sibling. Wei Yu trained them in the martial arts and the principles of a youxia, and they conducted many missions together in service to their community. For her part, Yu Ying received many gifts of gratitude from the people she helped, and she stored them for safekeeping in a secret safehouse on the hills above the village. With her savings, she dreamed of someday building a "prosperous, business empire" in the manner of her idol, Ba Qing.

Yangzhou Palace heist

In 215 BCE, while Wei Yu was away on a long journey that took him to the Mediterranean Sea, his three disciples were alerted by their informant Nie Jing to the theft of a poor farmer's treasure by a corrupt official in Yangzhou City. Given Nie Jing's reliable track record, they readily believed her when she spurred them to retrieve it from Yangzhou Palace and claimed that the palace would be virtually vacant. While Chu Huan and his sworn sibling sneaked into the complex, Yu Ying was in charge of keeping surveillance outside and securing their exit.

Nie Jing's intel had been a lie, and security at the palace was at an all time high because of an official visit by Qin Shi Huang. Although they had acquired the treasure, Yu Ying's two friends were unable to elude detection, and Yu Ying was forced to leap into action to assist their escape. She led the way back to Jade Spring, during which Chu Huan and his sibling raced one another along the Great Wall to the nearest beacon tower to determine who would be treated as the senior of the household that night. The race culminated in Chu Huan's sibling diving off the tower into a haystack, a reckless feat that alarmed Yu Ying. Per her instruction, the three made their way home separately from that point to mitigate the chance of unwanted attention. Consequently, Yu Ying missed the bandit attack on outlying farms that Chu Huan, his sibling, and Nie Jing intervened in.

Back at their village, she and Chu Huan went to ask the local martial arts master Ji Wei if he had seen their third youxia friend, but they had not yet returned. While Chu Huan hurried to track down the lair of the bandits responsible for the recent raids, Yu Ying waited for their friend at an open-roof, food establishment just outside the main village entryway. Just before they arrived to meet her, one of the patrons stole a valuable item from her. Yu Ying urged them to catch the thief as he broke into a run but was hesitant to say what was stolen. The chase took her friend up the hills outside Yu Ying's secret storehouse, where the thief turned around with his spear drawn to ambush the youxia with his two accomplices. After the youxia had slain the thieves, they assumed that the storehouse was actually the hidden cache for their stolen goods. To get inside, they blew a hole in one of the walls, an act that alarmed Yu Ying and impelled her to come rushing over. She anxiously checked that the treasures inside were unharmed and confessed to her friend that the cache was really hers while swearing them to secrecy.

Later that day, the two of them enjoyed what they did not realize would be their last, peaceful time together with Chu Huan. His sibling's twentieth birthday—the age at which they could legally drink alcohol—was the following day, and Chu Huan tried to tempt them into drinking Wei Yu's favourite wine a day in advance. Knowing that he had stolen it without their master's permission, they declined and made do with Chu Huan's own wine. Erstwhile, Yu Ying had shared her dream of emulating Ba Qing by saving up her wealth, nearly prompting Chu Huan's sibling to instantly spill her secret in reply.

Jade Spring massacre

Purple-uniformed troops from the Qin's Department of Immortality surged into Jade Spring the following morning in a punitive action for the theft of the treasure. They mercilessly cut down villagers who resisted or could not divulge information on its location. Yu Ying and Chu Huan acted as quickly as they could to shelter the children of the village at her house. While Yu Ying barricaded its doors from the marauding troops, Chu Huan hastily ran for the main hall to defend it. Her house was soon surrounded by enemies who shouted for their surrender and threatened them. Before they were able to break their way through the entrance, Chu Huan's sworn sibling arrived to slay them all from behind. They entered as Yu Ying was tending to the wounds of one of the villagers on her bed and instructed her to take the survivors to her safe house while they themselves would head off to assist their brother.

Yu Ying abided by the plan and led the villagers who were under her wing to her secret storehouse on the hills, but they were discovered by the Qin troops and came under attack. More innocent lives were lost, and Yu Ying herself was taken captive. Although Chu Huan's sibling arrived to dispatch the soldiers and rescue them again, they bore with them the grim news that Chu Huan had given up his life for them as they escaped from Jade Spring. While Yu Ying consoled them, a soldier hiding among the thicket exposed himself and fled in an apparent panic. Yu Ying's companion furiously gave chase down the hill until they fell right into an ambush. They prevailed against the enemy and intended to leave one alive for questioning, but he was abruptly silenced with an arrow by Nie Jing, as though she were venting grief for Jade Spring.

Their informant dishonestly claimed that Grand General Meng Tian had ordered the attack, and the two youxia decided that they would have to warn surviving Jade Spring residents in and around Yangzhou City of what had transpired. While her friend was to contact Fan Zeng and the village chef Jiu Wei, Yu Ying would gather all the other survivors in the area. Nie Jing demured, feigning a desire to keep a low profile and remain uninvolved when she was in reality the real mastermind behind the massacre.

Much to the youxia's regret, they listened to her parting advice to collect all the Jade Spring survivors at the stables by Yangzhou's rear gate, which she had alleged was "the fastest route out". Because her partner was investigating Meng Tian's role in the attack, Yu Ying was chaperoning the survivors at the gate by herself when her group fell to yet another ambush. Although she did her utmost to fend off the soldiers, she was unable to protect the villagers under her charge, and one-by-one they perished. By the time her fellow youxia returned, she was the last one standing. Together, the two killed all the remaining ambushers, but in the aftermath, they had to reckon with being the very last remnants of Jade Spring.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Jade