With footholds in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and even Japan, the family was extremely successful and had become wealthy as a result. They were able to offer protection to those who’d be willing to pay for it and had influence over the police and politics. 

In Xiao’s pre-teen years she enjoyed hunting game, her eldest brother Chen would take her on long hunting trips into Tibet and even Russia to hunt deer, ibex and bears. By the time she was thirteen she could make a lethal shot from over eight-hundred metres away; a number that could compete with military snipers. 

Her father was impressed with her skills, he had use for her within his organisation; she was instructed to remove ‘obstacles’ for her father. People who caused trouble for him or refused to comply to demands. She had no moral quarrels with this duty, it was strictly business. She was nicknamed ‘Cottonmouth’ her colleagues, on a count of her soft and muffled way in which she spoke. 

Her training had made her body strong for what was to come; by seventeen Xiao was slender, athletic and beautiful; her body riddled with muscle, covered in scars from past injuries. But she was a stern-faced and hardened killer; much to the delight of her family, she brought great honour to them. 

It was around this time she began experiencing horrific nightmares, of beast warriors on the battlefield; the clattering of steel and the roar of these huge and monstrous creatures echo’d long in her head. A scar had risen in the shape of a sun on her upper back, between the sharp blades of her shoulders; it stung and it itched, she’d spend hours bathing in the hope that the water would sooth the ache. 

Xiao knew what was to happen next; she was to either accept the blessing of her families blood or to die in agony. There were often times when members of her extended family would be left to die, not wanting a long life or to be plagued by their animal blood, or perhaps they were not deemed worthy to be tapped for their true potential. The Sun family believed the blood was both a blessing and a curse but it had to be earned. One which Xiao’s father decided her to be worthy of; the Prima of her family performed the ritual on the night of the Dragon Boat festival and she sat on the rooftops, watching the show of lights below.

As the years passed it was as if no time had passed at all, Xiao’s face did not weather as the days passed her by; she’d soon climbed to the top of her trade; her sights were focussed on high value targets, political figures, crime bosses and a number of other distinguished individuals from all around the world. 

By the late 1970’s and early 1980’s economic reform had began, Mao was dead and the Peoples Republic of China was falling apart; the country was no longer a safe place for her or the surviving members of her family; many of her brothers moved off to other lands were their business thrived, those who remained retreated to Tibet to escape the economic turmoil and famine that began in the cities. 

Xiao, forced into a period of inactivity in her profession, decided to hone her skills as a martial artist; using her translocation and blink abilities to become a skilled hunter at close range as well as from a distance. 

When her father passed away and the leadership of her family was given to her brother, Xiao was able to go free; she travelled to America in the late 1980’s to explore a place where the culture was new and different. But where her skills as a professional were still very much in demand. There were many other Chinese triad families living in America, she often seeks refuge with them when travelling between cities.