Qing Ting-An/Relationships

Family
† denotes death at current time

Ting was adopted into the royal family of the Light Kingdom to prepare her for the role of princess Makemnoit as well as to ensure her compliance to the destiny. Formally, she’s adopted by the Queen of the Light Kingdom (Addy’s grandmother), making her Addy’s aunt. However, taking into account her age and how she was brought up in the royal family, Ting considers the Queen her grandmother, and Addy’s parents as a vaguely parental set of aunt and uncle.

Ting has nothing but the utmost respect for the Queen. The Queen was one of the few Light Princesses whose prince passed away in the course of the story, and out of personal reasons, the Queen never remarried. As the monarch, the Queen serves as the representative of the kingdom and as the model of strength the people look towards. Ting admires the steely gaze of her Grandmother as well as her commanding presence, and aims to emulate her bearing.

Ting’s aunt and uncle feel guilty for taking Ting away from her birthplace and dooming her to a destiny where she’s supposed to die. Ting’s uncle deals with his guilt by staying away from her and providing material support, while her aunt cares about the image of Ting she sees: the pitiful child stolen from her homeland and adopted into the family, and treats her accordingly.

Ting respects her aunt and uncle, and appreciates their care, but is frustrated that they only treat her as what they assume of her. This treatment plays into her fear that she is only valued in the royal family for her role as the next Princess Makemnoit. She works so hard partially because she’s scared that if she doesn’t try her best, she would be separated from the life she knows since 2.

The philosophers from Addy’s story were the ones to find Ting and bring her to the royal family. Teacher Heng and teacher Guo are both extremely traditional people, so they imposed upon Ting a strong sense of responsibility. Spending a large proportion of her time studying under the philosophers, Ting considers them as a second set of parents. However, the philosophers view themselves as her mentor instead, and that results in her jealousy of the next philosopher (a kid adopted by the philosophers and whom Ting shares her lessons with).

Ting grew up with Addy and learnt about the ins and outs of her curse (despite not being the one to cast it). As they spent time together, they naturally became closer and treated each other as sisters instead. Ting admires Addy’s open mindedness, and tries to be a better person around her (which in turn influences Addy to be a more caring person).

Honestly, if Addy wasn’t her family or if they didn’t grow up together, Ting An would’ve never befriend Addy. Addy can seem fake to some people, and Ting is very sensitive to this absence of sincerity. Ting’s study of the curse allows her to be more understanding of Addy’s flakiness and lack of gravitas in life.

Friends
Ting is a pretty private person, and can be quite selective of who she associates with. She isn’t opposed to befriending people with different lifestyles, but she will not try to reach out to them too. Ting generally dislikes people who come off as inauthentic. She is quick to judge, and even quicker to distance herself from such folks.

Despite her high standards, or maybe because of them, Ting is a loyal friend. She goes above and beyond for the few friends she makes, and will stick with them through whatever struggles they face.

Acquaintances
Ting is surprisingly popular, despite her introverted nature. Is it her charisma? or her association with some high profile royalty? Either way, Ting knows people and those people know her.

Rosabella Beauty
They are in a working relationship and support each other’s advocacy efforts. While Ting appreciates Rosabella’s presence and likes debating with her, she occasionally finds her difficult to work with and ends up arguing with her. Their arguments are usually due to disagreements about the privilege they have, and their duties to their Kingdoms.

Ting finds it hard to reconcile her privilege as a member of the royal family and her own activism. Why did destiny allow her to be brought into the royal family while forcing others into terrible roles? Ting feels guilty and tries to amend for this (perceived) mistake destiny made. This is plays into her resentment of people with saviour complexes (or what she perceives to be one). This is probably why she is so defensive around Rosabella.

Romance
Ting is very sure she's bisexual, but is rarely attracted by one's appearance. She is more interested in people who intellectually captivate her, or people who she can hold long conversations with. However, given her general lack of time for anything more than cursory nods and perfunctory “hi/bye”s, she finds it difficult to develop this elusive romance.

Enemies
For someone as charismatic as Ting, there's unexpectedly quite a few people who dislike her. Ting can come off as rather standoffish or selective, and that causes her to be seen as a frigid asshole in some circles. Ting doesn't know about this reputation, but also wouldn’t care if she knew. She has a strong sense of self and won't be affected by people disliking her.