Kong Que

"Only after tearing all ties with the Soul-Stealing Gate and killing so many people I knew could I come and go as I please. If that is what freedom means, I would rather not have it."

A female disciple of the Kongtong Sect's Flying Heaven Gate and the wedded wife of Fire Guardian Yan Jiang. The sect calls her "Sister-in-law Yan", and she is often seen in the red robes of the Flying Heaven Gate. Yan Jiang secretly loved , and to keep others from accusing a Guardian of coveting the Sect Leader's Wife, he married early; the two separated rooms soon after the wedding, and her husband spends every night in brothels. She has long since counted him as a dead man and clamors daily for a divorce (in Flying Heaven Gate Bullying, Xiaomei once frightens Yan Jiang with "Sister-in-law's coming with her cleaver"). Denied her husband's favor and jealous of Xiaomei, she is often mocked on Kongtong Mountain as a jealous shrew.

Yet during the Kongtong succession struggle, when Xiaomei and were thrown into prison, the Legend text records that after Xiaomei fell from power, the only one who spent money to arrange a visit to the Soul-Quelling Prison was her (the visitor is decided by the dice; 50 or above is her, below 50 is Yu Baohua). She bribes the Soul-Stealing Gate jailers with two hundred coins to bring food, water and clean clothes, wipes down Xiao Zhu's body with her own hands after the Sinew-Softening Powder, and tells her of the situation outside: that Danxiazi has returned to the mountain, that Venerable Golden Crow is eager to start the war, and that outwardly agrees to everything while letting the disciples be ordered about. Before leaving, she urges the two childhood friends Mei and Zhu to speak plainly and make peace while there is still time. If she is the visitor, then later, when Xiaomei hears Soul-Hooking Elder mention Danxiazi's arrival on the mountain, she quietly covers for Sister-in-law Yan so as not to implicate her. On Xiaomei's route, when Xiaomei falls into chaos and loses control, Sister-in-law Yan's cry of "Junior Sister Xiaomei" is among the voices calling her.

On the route where Zhao Huo becomes Kongtong Sect Leader and Xiao Zhu is honored as the Sect Leader's Wife, she stands up for Xiao Zhu in front of the Great Smithy. She not only scolds the mocking Elder Zhai (if Yan Jiang is dead, Elder Zhai retorts by bringing up her widowhood), but publicly orders everyone who owes Xiao Zhu money to pay it back of their own accord, and laughingly urges the flustered Xiao Zhu to take her time getting used to being the Sect Leader's Wife.

Notes

• Xiaomei usually calls her "Sister-in-law Yan" or "Auntie Yan", and when she hears her talk about her husband, she teases, "My condolences, Sister-in-law."
• Before the prison visit, Xiaomei also marvels at how capable she is; after all, in the past it was unimaginable for a Flying Heaven Gate member to come and go freely in the Soul-Stealing Gate's Soul-Quelling Prison, let alone bring in a great deal of food and drink.
• The name "Kong Que" can only be found in the Legend text (the prison-visit scene during the Kongtong succession struggle).