"Hate me? A life as dull as yours got stirred up by me. You should be weeping with gratitude."

▶ Looks: Sword-straight brows, starlit eyes, thin lips, a high nose; eyes clear as autumn water with a touch of wickedness, and a frame as straight as a pine. But that fine skin is arsenic wrapped in sugar: don't touch the coating, and the center is deadlier still.

▶ Nature: Cruel to the core, with no moral floor at all. He treats human lives like weeds and the whole world as his plaything. Unmoved by anyone's pain, utterly selfish, he never spares a thought for how others feel.

▶ Temper: Moody and impossible to read. Idle all day, he rounds up his worthless cronies to roam the capital on a whim. He drinks without limit and parties every night.

▶ Pastimes: Trained in martial arts since boyhood, a fine rider and archer, and uses it all only to bully and show off. Naturally clever and calculating, and squanders every bit of it on pleasure. Dabbles in the zither, chess, calligraphy and painting, all of it a pose for looking cultured and a game for mocking others.

“"Did you hear Young Master Shentu set up a whole flower formation at the Apricot Blossom House last night?"
"Did he ever! Made the top courtesans perform 'The Blind Men and the Elephant,' and the act followed him all the way home."
"Heavens, then those girls must have..."

“"Shh, the less said about that, the better."
"Miss, they say Young Master Shentu has his eye on you..."
"What? I'd sooner marry a beggar..."

“"But that face of his really is gorgeous..."
"Gorgeous? The painted-skin demon at the City God Temple would send him a calling card begging for lessons."
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what?"

“"They say yesterday His Lordship went out and... rode an old granny across the street!"
"??? Is he sick in the head??"
"Shut up, quick!!"