Shi Wei—whose rare and eccentric Chinese character is pronounced "Wěi"—hails from Guangxin in Cangwu. He is the third-born son of the Shi clan and full younger brother to Shi Xie, the undisputed overlord of Jiaozhou, having served as Grand Administrator of Jiuzhen in the twilight of the Han Dynasty. On the grand chessboard of this chaotic era, Shi Wei is neither an elegant, gentle scion of noble blood nor a calculating strategist orchestrating schemes from behind the scenes. Players often tease him as "a foul-tempered creature, but undeniably gorgeous"—a poisonous southern fruit, dazzling on the outside yet bristling with thorns. His narrative is woven with the sultry, humid mists of Jiaozhou, the cloying, syrupy fragrance of longans, and the almost twisted cravings and desolation of an arrogant young master living in the towering shadow of his elder brother. The True Colors Beneath the Seductive Exterior: A Spoiled "Southern Menace" Shi Wei’s appearance exudes an intoxicating blend of exotic allure and aristocratic decadence. He often drapes himself in an open, jade-green robe; even bare-faced without cosmetic embellishment, he looks "like a drop of celestial nectar fallen from the heavens." Barefoot in two-toothed wooden clogs and toying with a branch plucked from a longan tree, he embodies the quintessential dissolute dandy. His temperament is imperious and arrogant, almost to the point of being delightfully brainless. Bound hand and foot by the Prince of Guangling, he shows not a shred of fear, instead petulantly demanding honeyed water and shouting brazenly, "Eldest Brother will never punish me!" His spite does not stem from calculated malice, but from the unthinking entitlement of someone utterly spoiled. Fully conscious of his standing within the clan, he enjoys the unreserved favoritism of his mother, Dowager Lady Zhang, while his brother Shi Xie, aloof though he may be, quietly indulges his tantrums and antics. Such pampering has bred in him the swaggering conviction that "there is nothing in this world I cannot have"—yet it is precisely this arrogance that betrays the bottomless void within his heart. Twisted Brotherhood: Chasing the Elder Brother's Shadow In Shi Wei’s world, Shi Xie is the sole point of reference. He cannot speak three sentences without mentioning his "Eldest Brother," his tone brimming with worship, boasting, and a covert jealousy he refuses to admit even to himself. He flaunts before the Prince of Guangling how Shi Xie granted him a personal calling card to secure outrageous discounts at the physician's pavilion, and passionately hand-picks—even retouches—the portrait depicting his brother being deified as a divine king, striving to make Shi Xie appear august and flawless. Yet, when Shi Xie entrusts the lantern festival to Shi Yi, Shi Wei completely unravels: "Why give it to Shi Yi of all people?! Why... why did you have to call Shi Yi back?!" That outburst tears away his haughty facade, exposing the terrified child beneath who dreads being replaced and starved of his brother’s gaze. His dynamic with Shi Yi is a tangled web of contempt and fear. Shi Wei constantly spits insults like "domestic slave" and "wretched cur born of a low-born servant." He loathes Shi Yi with a burning passion, not merely because Shi Yi commands their brother's attention, but because Shi Yi effortlessly occupies that singular place at Shi Xie’s side—a place Shi Wei desperately yearns for yet can never attain. Deep down, he knows that as the legitimate, full-blooded brother, his weight in Shi Xie's heart might pale in comparison to that hostage brother whom Shi Xie took upon himself to discipline. Absurd Vengeance and Covert Attachment Shi Wei's entanglements with the Prince of Guangling begin with a poisoning scheme steeped in both political calculation and theatrical absurdity. His mother, Lady Zhang, was originally married off from the Jiaozhou Zhang clan as a political pawn—essentially a living hostage to uphold a truce between the two families. When the Prince of Guangling eliminates Zhang Jin (a key figure of the Zhang clan and Shi Xie’s maternal uncle) on the eldest brother's behalf, Lady Zhang, driven by loyalty to her maternal house, develops murderous designs on the Prince. And Shi Wei—this seemingly frivolous, heedless dandy—serves as her willing assassin. Yet what should have been a lethal, life-or-death confrontation unfolds in an astonishingly ambiguous, farcical manner. Shi Wei traps the Prince of Guangling in his own private chambers, where the air is smothered in a heavy, cloying sweetness so potent it stifles the chest. Reclining against his daybed, with fingers "fair, slender, and as delicate as soft shoots," he leisurely peels longans one by one. Whining about how "peeling them makes his fingers ache," he cannot resist flaunting to the Prince his deep bond with his elder brother: "He told me! He said it to me himself... When he departed to take office as Grand Administrator and I went to see him off, he held my hand and said, everything as far as the eye can see will belong to us." In this standoff bordering on imprisonment, Shi Wei exhibits baffling contradictions. Holding the Prince of Guangling's life in his hands with lethal poison, he nonetheless chatters endlessly like a lonely, neglected child, babbling about his tangled feelings toward his mother and brother. He frets over the Prince's remarks that his attire is "improper," yet when his hidden sorrow is laid bare, he turns spitefully defensive, snarling and threatening to bite. Belated Awakening and a Flawed, Fated Dream Beneath Shi Wei's prickly, malicious exterior lies a clumsy, almost pathetic craving for affection. When trust reaches its pinnacle, he confesses a memory of his awakening: he once loved a shadow operative—a death-sworn agent. For that person's sake, he went in person to see them off, and that person once held his hand, pledging a grand vow. That promise—"Everything as far as the eye can see will belong to us"—became the tenderest, most lethal vulnerability in Shi Wei's heart. His initial reason for taking command in the Jiaozhou army to suppress barbarian rebels was purely because he was "bored at home all by myself." Yet when the common folk praised him as having "the bearing of a general," this pampered young noble perhaps tasted, for the very first time outside his brother's shadow, a sense of self-worth that belonged truly to him. Still, he could never shake the bone-deep dependency and anxiety that haunted him. He flies into a violent rage when his mother delays in writing back, threatening to "run the horses to death until the letter is delivered"; and in the face of torrential downpours and crushing defeat, he mutters in bleak delirium: "The rain is so heavy... Heh... I can't... hear anything anymore..." Such is the man named Shi Wei. Like a dazzling yet venomous flower deep in the southern jungle, he masks his terror and loneliness behind the foulest temper and the most decadent extravagance. Toward the Prince of Guangling, he adopts the haughty condescension of an aristocrat, yet harbors a delicate dependence born from being truly seen. All his scheming, poisoning, posturing, and temper tantrums are, in the end, nothing more than the clumsy, desperate cries of a soul begging to be unconditionally cherished.