Lady An

Lady An Liyiao (12 September 134 - 29 June 202) is a fictional character. She was the second wife of Suo Nen, and later the wife of Feng Xu and Yuan Shao. She was an evil noblewomen who could trace her descent to Wang Chen, a famous lord in the noble Wang clan, and a stepdaughter of Quan Li, who married her widowed mother. She is a minor character in both The Halberd of Destiny and The Book of Truths.

Early Life
Lady An was born to An Huang and Lady Wang in 134. She was a lady-in-waiting of the Empress Yue and later of the Emperor's daughter, Lady Suo Shiqiao. Lady An was raised as a queen during her youth and was raised amongst duchesses and royal princesses, ensuring that her nobility was noticed by her friends and their rich parents. This eventually led to her gaining many suitors and in 147, she was engaged to Quan Li. When An Huang died the same year, his widow (Lady An's mother) married Quan Li. As Quan Li didn't want to look after another child besides his own son, he sent Lady An to become a concubine of the Emperor. Lady An and the Emperor quickly became close, considering he had known her already from her service to his wife and daughter. Rumours spread that he and her had a sexual relationship, despite her later engagement to Suo Ping in 149, due to their close friendship. Lady An and the Emperor Suo Yen were comfortable with sharing a bed and seeing one another in the nude, and they spent more time with each other than with anyone else, including the Empress, his concubines and his children. In 153, Suo Ping broke up his engagement to her for this reason, and promised her to his brother Suo Nen instead. Suo Nen wed her immediately to prevent her from becoming too close to his father. Still, she did not hesitate to visit Suo Yen's bedchambers often, to either speak of her problems or engage in other activities. In 156, Suo Nen's first wife, Lady Liu, fell pregnant with a child, sending Lady An into a jealous rage. Fueled by Suo Yen's permission to have multiple lovers, she began a string of affairs to anger her husband, however, this failed to work. She then revealed to Suo Nen, publicly, that she and Suo Yen had been sleeping with each other since 145, when she became a lady-in-waiting for Suo Shiqiao. Suo Nen, not believing her words, denied her of all his property and continued with his life. Enraged, she created a cocktail of lethal poisons in the Emperor's Kitchen with the aid of her stepfather, Quan Li, which she later gave to Lady Liu as an "ointment to ease the pregnancy". As a result of the poisoning, Lady Liu had complications during the birth which killed her nine days after the birth. Her son, Suo Yuan, also suffered from this poisoning, with the inability to age upon reaching the age of thirty, until he had suffered enough tragedic events to wear himself down. Only she and Quan Li knew of the consequences of the poison, and nobody, not even Suo Yuan, ever discovered the truth.

The Circle Rebellion
Blaming the death of Lady Liu on nature, Lady An feared her actions would eventually catch up on her and decided to move away from North Korea. She met up with Suo Yen, and confessed her actions, so he told her to lie to Suo Nen and claim her reason to leave was that she was afraid the rebellion by Mi Hang, a rebel leader targeting the Circle of Four, would harm her and her family. Unable to convince her relatives to do the same, she told Suo Nen this lie and managed to persuade him to let her and Suo Yuan escape to China to be raised in a small village where her enemies couldn't trace her. She lied her destination to Suo Nen and moved to Anling rather than Niureng, with only Suo Yen knowing the truth. As she was in the carriage with Suo Yuan, a passenger and Suo Nen's carriageman, she asked him to take her to Anling rather than Niureng. The passenger got off near Niureng to stay at an inn so she continued onto Anling. She then killed the carriageman in the carriage to prevent him from telling Suo Nen later. When six schoolgirls witness the murder and flee, she pursued them with a dagger and a bow, and kills them one-by-one. Two of them escape and enter an inn, telling them of the murders, so the passenger tells the girls to stay in the inn as he tries to go back to North Korea. Lady An enters the inn and sets it on fire, killing everyone in there and brutally murdering one of the girls. The other girl, seeing this brutal killing, escapes and catches up with the passenger and they tell Suo Nen of her lies. She did not tell Suo Yuan of his imperial inheritage and when Suo Nen arrived he did not realise this. In 161, they agreed to annul their marriage so that she could continue living in China. She was hired by the Governor of Anling, Feng Qian, to work as a maid in his household.