Aunt Han, whose full name is Han Xiangxun, is one of the central figures in the early hours of Where Winds Meet. She runs Blissful Retreat, disciplines the protagonist, and anchors the found-family atmosphere of Heaven’s Pier. Then the chapter’s climactic fight erupts around the Sweetwine Tower, and many players notice the same thing: she seems to disappear just when everything falls apart.
That absence is intentional. It ties directly into a hidden operation in Qinghe, the Evercare Clinic dungeon, and the broader politics of the martial world.
Who Aunt Han (Han Xiangxun) is in Where Winds Meet
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Han Xiangxun |
| Common names | Aunt Han, Water Lady |
| Affiliation | Blissful Retreat / Heaven’s Pier |
| Status in Chapter One | Alive |
| Debut quest | A Horse Neighs in the Forest (Chapter One) |
On the surface, Han Xiangxun appears to be the strict but caring head of Blissful Retreat. She orders you to copy books after the Dalang and Horse Dancer fight, she scolds you for taking risks, and she tries to keep Heaven’s Pier hidden from hostile forces like the Aureates.
Underneath that, she is a well-known figure in the Jianghu, with a very specific and dangerous specialty: altering faces. That power is precisely why so many masked enemies later descend on Heaven’s Pier.
Aunt Han’s hidden past and the North Alliance operation
Aunt Han’s backstory is revealed gradually through the main story and the Qinghe side content. Her face-changing art is not a parlor trick; it underpins a long-running infiltration plan.
| Element | Role |
|---|---|
| Faction | Revolutionary group often rendered as the North Alliance |
| Goal | Take back a strategically vital territory |
| Key members | Jiang (formerly), Killerblade Yi Dao, Tian Ying, Chu (Aunt Han’s lover) |
| Aunt Han’s role | Change people’s faces and record their new identities |
| Partner in Qinghe | “Uncle” Tian, the Evercare Clinic doctor, who is actually a woman |
The plan works like this:
- Volunteers agree to have their faces and identities altered.
- Aunt Han and Tian perform the procedures, making them unrecognizable.
- The altered individuals are smuggled into the target land as sleepers or refugees.
- Every transformed person is logged in a ledger so the conspirators can track who they have placed, under which name, and where.
The failed surgeries are locked away under the Evercare Clinic. The zombie-like figures encountered in the Still Shore dungeon are patients whose bodies and minds did not survive the face-changing process. They live out what remains of their lives in the dark, a reminder of how costly this plan has been.
The ledger that tracks all of these altered identities becomes the single most dangerous object tied to Aunt Han. It can expose everyone that the North Alliance has already embedded and let their enemies wipe out not only the infiltrators but also their families.
Why the masked attackers burn Blissful Retreat
When the Aureates and other masked enemies attack Heaven’s Pier in the “Night Of Tragedy” segment of Heaven Has No Pier, they are not just trying to kill random residents. They are hunting for information.
Their real target is the record of face changes: who Aunt Han altered, how, and where those people ended up. With that data, they can unmask every infiltrator seeded into the contested land and retaliate against them.
This explains several key story beats:
- Heaven’s Pier, which seemed like a sleepy backwater, suddenly draws heavy, coordinated violence.
- The attackers repeatedly focus on central locations like Blissful Retreat and the Evercare-linked structures rather than just pillaging.
- The chaos around Sweetwine Tower is framed as part of a larger magical array and assassination plot, not a simple raid.
From Aunt Han’s perspective, remaining in Heaven’s Pier after its discovery is a direct threat to everyone she has ever helped. That is why, in the “Aunt Han And Her Decision” and “Preparations” segments of Chapter One, she starts planning to leave as soon as she learns that the Aureates have found the area.
Where Aunt Han is during the final Qianye fight
During the last sequence of Heaven Has No Pier, most of the action is centered on:
- Defending Sweetwine Tower and rescuing hostages like Song Jiu, Beard Guang, Ding Si, and Ruby.
- Identifying and confronting Qianye, the witch-like focal point of the maze array.
- The underground arena and multi-phase battle with Qianye below the tower.
Players often look for Aunt Han in this stretch and never see her fighting alongside Du Qiaoxian, Yuan Jin’gang, or Yi Dao. In terms of scene direction, she has two critical responsibilities elsewhere:
| Stage of the night | What Aunt Han is doing |
|---|---|
| Before the siege peaks | Preparing to evacuate from Heaven’s Pier and handling the fallout of the Aureates’ discovery |
| During the Sweetwine Tower defense | Off-screen, dealing with the records and the wider web of people her work has endangered |
| After the Qianye arena collapse | Reappearing to physically drag the protagonist out of the burning tower and stop a suicide attempt |
Her only on-screen presence during the climax is at the end: once Yi Dao sacrifices himself and sets fire to the aged Parting Tears wine inside Sweetwine Tower, the protagonist tries to throw themselves back into the flames to reach him. Aunt Han appears at that exact moment, grabs them by the collar, and prevents them from dying.
The absence from the actual boss arena is deliberate narrative framing. The fight with Qianye is about the player character and Yi Dao confronting the mastermind of the massacre face-to-face. Aunt Han’s story in that sequence is about something else: erasing or securing the ledger and preparing the political fallout that will ripple across Qinghe and Kaifeng.
How the “An Urgent Word” quest tracks Aunt Han’s movements
If the main story feels like it has missing pieces around Aunt Han’s whereabouts, the quest “An Urgent Word” in Qinghe fills in some gaps. It unfolds just after “Out of the Woods” and continues into “Uncover Still Shore’s Secrets.”
| Quest | Key objective involving Aunt Han |
|---|---|
| An Urgent Word | Return to Blissful Retreat urgently to warn Aunt Han |
| An Urgent Word (Inn step) | Ask Doudou about Aunt Han when she is not at her usual post |
| An Urgent Word (Clinic step) | Investigate Evercare Clinic’s second floor for secrets tied to her |
| Uncover Still Shore’s Secrets | Enter the well to reach the dungeon where the face-changing failures are hidden |
The flow shows what she is involved in, while the protagonist is often being pulled to other crises:
- You teleport or travel back to Blissful Retreat to warn her, only to find she is already gone from her normal spot.
- Locals like Doudou point you toward clues that something bigger is happening than day-to-day village life.
- The Evercare Clinic investigation exposes the daggers, the gold-inlaid ledger, and the sealed well leading to Still Shore.
- The Still Shore dungeon confirms the existence of the failed patients — the human cost of Aunt Han and Tian’s operation.
Mechanically, “An Urgent Word” makes you chase Aunt Han’s shadow through the spaces she has shaped: Blissful Retreat, Evercare Clinic, and the underground warren that holds her past mistakes.
Why your character “can’t leave yet” if Aunt Han is unfinished
Some players see an on-screen line along the lines of “no. Aunt Han hasn't finished giving her instructions. So I can’t leave just yet.” This is not random filler dialogue. It is a gate on progression tied to Aunt Han’s role as your guardian and plot handler.
That message generally appears when:
- You try to leave a story-critical area before completing all conversations or steps linked to Aunt Han.
- Certain instructions, punishments, or preparations she sets up (such as copying books or getting ready to leave Heaven’s Pier) are not yet marked as finished.
The text reinforces that, in-universe, you still see Aunt Han as an authority figure whose orders have weight. System-wise, it is a simple check: do not allow fast travel or departure until her current sequence is complete.
How the Qinghe side story explains Aunt Han leaving
After the Qianye battle and Yi Dao’s sacrifice, several days pass. Survivors rebuild parts of Heaven’s Pier, Ruby’s horse Clip Clop turns up alive, and you receive an email that shifts the story’s focus toward Kaifeng.
That email references a deal between Aunt Han and Wuque and sends you to meet Wuque at Wheatwind Bazaar once you have learned all wandering skills in Qinghe. Narratively, this communicates two things:
- Aunt Han is still alive and actively pulling strings behind the scenes, using her influence in Jianghu to arrange your next steps.
- She has already left Heaven’s Pier, taking the dangerous records with her, in order to protect both the infiltrators and you, her adoptive child.
The Qinghe dungeon and the explanation of the North Alliance plan make her departure feel less like abandonment and more like damage control. The masked forces attacked to locate and destroy everyone connected to her face-changing work. If she stayed in Blissful Retreat with those records, she would act as a beacon for further attacks.
That context also clarifies why many residents later pretend not to know you. By acting as if you are a stranger, they avoid creating an obvious tie between you and Aunt Han, who has become a high-value target. Their denial is a protective lie.
Seen together, Aunt Han’s absence from the final fight is not a plot hole but a pivot point. On the surface, Heaven Has No Pier ends with Yi Dao’s death and Qianye’s defeat. Underneath, the chapter also closes the book on Aunt Han’s years-long infiltration scheme and forces her to vanish from Heaven’s Pier, leaving you to follow her unfinished business into Kaifeng.
