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. The three of them grew up together in Jade Spring, acting as defenders of the community.

In 215 BCE, while their master was away on a long journey, she and her friends conducted a heist of an invaluable treasure at Yangzhou Palace pursuant to false intel provided by their longtime informant Nie Jing. They stole the treasure believing that they were retrieving it for a poor farmer, unaware that they were falling into a false flag operation staged by Nie Jing, a secret agent of the Department of Immortality, to create a pretext for a Qin attack on their village that quickly turned into a massacre. Despite their best attempts to protect the people of the village, Qin ambushes dogged survivors all the way through until Yu Ying and Chu Huan's sworn sibling were left as the sole survivors.

Determined to seek out those responsible for the slaughter, the two youxia investigated Grand General Meng Tian as a prime suspect, discovering later that the Immortality Department under the command of Yang Duanhe operated against his authority and were colluding with Touman Chanyu of the Xiongnu. They formed an alliance with Touman's ousted heir and rival Modu and intervened at the Battle of Tulu Pass to foil a plot by Duanhe to sabotage the defences for Touman's invasion. There, they avenged Chu Huan by killing Duanhe and fended off an attempted assassination by Nie Jing.

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 came under 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.

Alliance with Modu Chanyu

Grief-stricken, Yu Ying's friend swore vengeance for the people of Jade Spring and proceeded alone to Meng Tian's camp at the Great Wall construction site up north to continue their investigation, following intel they had acquired from his residence in Yangzhou that he planned to question the commander of the attack. Yu Ying herself arrived on site belatedly, narrowly missing a surprise assault on the camp by Xiongnu raiders. She watched as her friend slew the Xiongnu commander in personal combat and was commended by the grand general himself for their martial feats. They excitedly told her that not only was Meng Tian not responsible for the massacre but that he had also offered to reward them at his mansion.

Yu Ying saw the investigative merits in her friend accepting the invitation despite her concerns for their safety. In the meantime, she had her own leads to follow. Once she was through with those, she waited outside Meng Tian's mansion for her friend. After an apparent fight with the general, they came out with what to Yu Ying was a brazen plan. Meng Tian had claimed that the Department of Immortality's commander was operating outside his authority and colluding with the Xiongnu. To track the commander down, Yu Ying's friend proposed to break into his prison and rescue one of the Xiongnu hostages awaiting execution, thereby indebting him to them.

While hesitant, Yu Ying showed them to the prison, where by chance the Xiongnu they broke out of jail was none other than Modu, eldest son and deposed heir of Touman Chanyu, although he hid this relation at the time. He readily agreed to honour his debt and act as the youxia's guide through Xiongnu society, notwithstanding their wariness of him. Rendezvousing at the northernmost beacon tower facing Xiongnu lands, Modu suggested that he locate his nomadic tribe alone while they waited for his return at Mu Us Village out on the desert. In spite of their reservations, he persuaded them that they would always trail behind his tribe's movements if they were to accompany him on his search.

Discovery of Nie Jing's treachery

For her part, Yu Ying was determined to find Nie Jing and reconnect with her, still not suspecting that she was their enemy. This left her friend to travel to Mu Us Village by themselves, but Nie Jing eluded her at every turn. She had not yet succeeded in locating her when Modu later reached out to alert her of another impending attack by Touman, this time at Tulu Pass on the Great Wall. She hastily went to the pass, where she discovered that the Immortality Department's commander, now known to be Yang Duanhe, had smuggled an immense supply of oil jars into the Qin base with the aim of blowing up the wall and creating breaches for Touman's invasion. Her friend, having both received the report from Modu and learned of Duanhe's scheme separately, arrived shortly afterward.

With the assault already underway, they hurried together to destroy all of the oil jars and thwart Duanhe's plot. As they scoured the fort dismantling the barrels, they ran into Duanhe personally preparing to ignite a batch of them atop a section of the wall. Duanhe hurled an ignited jar at Yu Ying's friend, but Yu Ying acted swiftly to leap from a turret and kick the jar away from her friend. The ensuing explosion was powerful enough to tear a gash right down the wall and left Yu Ying wounded. Duanhe fled down the breached wall, but the other youxia quickly intercepted him. A fierce clash between them commenced. It soon dawned on Duanhe that he was no match for his adversary, and he tried to withdraw from the fight using his troops as cover to little avail—he was run through with the youxia's sword while in flight.

It was then that Nie Jing, obscuring her face behind a mask, came out of hiding to try to assassinate the youxia while they were busy satiating their vengeance. Her throwing knife missed its mark, leading to another duel for the youxia. The fight wore on until the youxia managed to knock off Nie Jing's mask, exposing her identity at last. At that very instant, Yu Ying rushed in with Meng Tian to join the fight, having sufficiently recovered from her injury. Outnumbered and with her treachery finally exposed, Nie Jing escaped by repulsing all three of them with an energy field projected by the treasure from Yangzhou—revealing too that she had seized it into her possession all along.

By then, the fighting had subsided, and the two youxia conferred with Meng Tian, sharing their verification of the Immortality Department's collusion with the Xiongnu. Determined to expunge the Qin government of this rogue faction, the grand general requested that Yu Ying's friend be his "hunter" against traitorous agents like Nie Jing. With their affirmation, he instructed them to next investigate the North Shangjun garrison and Fushi Clay Mine for the Department of Immortality's influence.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Jade