Yáng Yǔchén

History

Before traveling Teyvat, Yuchen was a close servant to Yan, the soon-to-be head of an important clan. His role was to attend to any of his master’s needs, and make sure he was out of harm's way at all times. Since they were similar in age, the young master easily befriended him and kept him close. Sometimes they’d play a game together or take walks out in the mountains near the estate when his master was bored. Yuchen wasn't ever in a position to decline a request from him, so he always agreed to do whatever was asked, even if they were tasks that seemed a bit out of place for the upcoming head of an important family. Yuchen began to genuinely enjoy the time they spent together, and his master became more open and honest with him. There were many times his master would defend Yuchen's actions whenever he’d make a mistake, even when he definitely should’ve been reprimanded and punished. Though it did confuse Yuchen a little, the actions Yan started doing as the two grew closer began to change how yuchen felt towards him. He admired his master’s sincerity, compassion, and amiability, but always felt indebted to him.

While Yan was preparing to become the head of the family at such a young age, many were after his position and reputation. Like many clans, there were enemies always watching every move- waiting for opportunities to ruin an event, relationship, or a person’s life. Yuchen was always on his guard and constantly had his eyes open for anything or anyone that intended to harm the young master. He was ready at all times to put his life on the line- but being skilled in many forms of fighting and martial arts allowed him to be a bit cocky when fighting. He never really feared being hurt, and most certainly didn’t think he’d actually die fighting. He was more than confident in his abilities, and sometimes it spooked Yan. As the appearances of enemies grew and got more intense, Yuchen showed his more scary side. There were times it looked as if he was excited to attack back and kill, and getting hurt in the process didn’t phase him. Yuchen simply had to protect and serve his master, and to him that meant nothing being able to go near or touch Yan. Yan might’ve known how to fight and defend himself to some extent, but Yuchen wouldn’t allow for an opportunity to witness it. If even a scratch were to appear on Yan, the family would make a huge fuss about it, blame yuchen for being unable to fulfill his duties, and he wouldn’t forgive himself.

Yuchen and Yan still stayed close, despite Yan being a bit wary of Yuchen’s merciless and almost sadistic fighting style. Yan hated to see yuchen hurt and beat up, especially when he had nothing to do and wanted to have fun- instead of treating some of yuchen’s injuries. Yuchen always laughed it off and told his master it was his duty to provide protection and care, not the other way around. They spent everyday together, whether it was in meetings, helping with schoolwork, or hanging out as friends when the rest of the family wasn’t paying attention. He understood he had to keep feelings and emotions on the downlow when out and around the family, since they'd immediately disapprove. He is supposed to be only a servant and nothing more than that, so any signs of deviating from his duties would have him dismissed.

Some of the other servants, butlers, and maids caught on to Yuchen's overly-friendly relationship with Yan. Though most of them carried on and chose to ignore them, some were either jealous of how close they were, or simply hated the two together. At some point someone among the staff had notified a member of the family, and a plan was formed to sabotage Yuchen to get him away from his master and the family.

An important member of the family chose a loyal group of fighters to secretly attack Yan, knowing it would ultimately draw out Yuchen along with him. Of course, since Yuchen has no problem defending his master, he quickly retaliated without hesitation. Unfortunately he wasn’t aware that among the group was someone important disguised as another fighter. Just after making a scene and injuring the man with a gruesome stab through the abdomen, someone who had been observing the fight decided to make themself known and expose Yuchen’s terrible mistake. Yuchen was in denial and claimed to have been set up, but with the family always pushing positions around and using anyone they can as pieces to their game- he wasn’t able to defend himself from his grave mistake this time.

His master was furious and begged for some sort of understanding to happen, but the current head of the family and elders simply wouldn’t let this situation slip past them. Even though Yuchen was proven to be loyal and skilled, the two were unfortunately separated once Yuchen was dismissed from his duties.

After being dismissed, he was banned from entering the estate and making contact with anyone there ever again. Making things even more difficult, his own family disowned him for failing at such a simple role of a servant. He was basically some broke bum now who's only method of getting mora was by winning fights with large crowds…… It started to get boring, not bringing him the same excitement as it did before.

After wandering around Liyue’s rural area for a few days, he came upon an old looking building. It was surrounded by what looked like training dummies, targets, and broken pieces of wood. At first Yuchen was confused, fearing what he had just walked into, but suddenly saw a woman with long blonde hair kicking away at one of the dummies. He quietly walked up to her, about to offer useless advice on her form- before being tornado-kicked to the head by the woman. Yuchen was smacked down to the ground, unable to believe what had just happened, while the blonde looked back at him in shock. She claimed it was self defense from an unexpected guest and kept apologizing, while Yuchen couldn’t help but feel utterly defeated.

The girl explained where they were and what she was doing- Practicing her martial arts at her currently-closed training center. It was supposed to be closed for renovations… but since it doubled as her home she had no reason to leave. Yuchen was still a bit stunned, and maybe had a bit of a concussion, but the fact this one girl had an entire martial arts camp under her name amazed him. The blonde offered to be hit back as some sort of compensation, but Yuchen insisted it be a full on sparring match instead, to see what this girl can really do.

To sum up their fight, Yuchen got beat to a pulp, and it was the first time in his life he felt his abilities weren’t good enough. Though he was bruised and scraped up, fighting her re-lit the fire inside of him- the weird exciting feeling he would feel when slashing enemies down. That’s when he decided he’d stay and be trained by this girl, hoping to further develop his skills.