The Carefree Princess

The Carefree Princess is a full-length wuxia novel written by Xiao Yi in 1981, set against the backdrop of the Ming Dynasty. Prince Poyang is framed by the imperial court (the forces of the Eastern Depot and Inner Depot), and his family is pursued and killed. His eldest daughter, Zhu Cui—known as the "Carefree Princess"—has lived away from home since childhood and has learned martial arts; she now escorts her mother and younger brother Zhu Pan as they flee through the jianghu. Shi Yinzhou, a prince's guard on the boat, and the extraordinary hero Hai Wuyan, also recovering from injury aboard, come to their aid in moments of danger. Beyond the pursuers, the Bule Gang of the Bule Island, a dark force of the jianghu, also intervenes, abducting the princess's family and tyrannizing the South China Sea under the name of the "Bule Contribution." Zhu Cui comes to know the swordswoman Pan Youdi and becomes connected with Hai Wuyan and the mysterious old man Shan Kun. She rescues her family, pursues the old general Chang Wei who betrayed her, and is drawn into the struggle over the Snow Mountain treasure and the task of breaking the Bule Island formation and its ultimate technique, the "Drunken Golden Crow." Hai Wuyan has an old grudge against Bai He Gaoli, the grand island master of Bule Island, while Pan Youdi duels the third island master, Gong Yidao, in swordsmanship, and the three join forces in desperate battle in the crevice between jianghu and court. The plot advances layer by layer, weaving grudges and strategic schemes, and ultimately points toward a showdown between good and evil and the princess's growth from an innocent girl into an independent woman. Xiao Yi writes martial arts with an elegant, graceful, and flowing style, emphasizing "chivalry" and human feeling, and is one of the representative authors of the saying "Jin in the south, Xiao in the north."