Hong Lu

Personality Hong Lu is an exceptionally curious person with a rather ditzy demeanor and friendly attitude. He exhibits a potent, almost childlike indiscriminate curiosity and wonder, to the point of baffling the people around him. While this implies having lived a sheltered lifestyle up until his employment with Limbus Company, there are also indications– and first-person accounts– that he grew up in a difficult family full of danger, betrayal, and disapproval. Hong Lu speaks casually of attempted murder and abuse against him in a similar way to how he approaches the hardships of the City, almost as if it has nothing to do with him. On one occasion, when concerns about his little sister dying are expressed, he simply and matter-of-factly states that he would take care of her body as she would for him. He has a tendency to give off the impression that he doesn't have particularly strong emotions about anything, regardless of the severity of the topic. While sometimes jarring, this trait primarily serves to make Hong Lu come off as amusingly easygoing and absentminded.

Hong Lu also appears to lack inherent social tact, leading to excessively oblivious statements and questions when something inevitably catches his eye. While the Sinners have learned not to dwell on his offenses, they are sometimes shown to grow frustrated with him. Despite this, he does not grow angry or depressed when others give him a difficult time. Hong Lu will either playfully disregard words of scorn, or is altogether too oblivious to be hurt by them, at least outwardly. Although some matters may lead to him growing more obedient or solemn, Hong Lu will consistently let anything and everything slide right off of his back without complaint or meaningful retort. He is exceptionally cheerful compared to most of the Sinners, in no small part to his positive, carefree approach to everything around him. He is additionally very amiable and is shown to be open to striking up neighborly conversation with everyone he comes across.

Despite this, Hong Lu is not loud or a big talker in the way Don Quixote is. He is surprisingly quiet, with only occasional input. Rather, he comes off of as reservedly observant. Canto IV: The Unchanging is the first story chapter to give insight into Hong Lu's unique perceptiveness and emotional intelligence. He takes the role of Young-ji in the League of Nine play, who Yi Sang describes as the most gentle and heartfelt of the League in their heyday, and contributes tender observations pertaining to Yi Sang's mental state and growth throughout his Dungeon. Hong Lu goes as far as to espy "I'm thinking that he may have been calling for help all along." In the face of Yi Sang's emotional vulnerability, Hong Lu demonstrates striking maturity and self-control in contrast to his usual attitude.

Canto VI: The Heartbreaking and Intervallo IV: Timekilling Time add to this more empathetic, mellow side of his character. He is gentle and insightful: happy to help Heathcliff prepare to visit Wuthering Heights, stating that he trusts in him when the other Sinners begin to worry about his ability to deal with the return to his homeplace, and volunteers to help with the Time Ripper case out of a desire to understand the world better, then encouraging Rodion through her moments of fragility during the investigation. In tandem with his emotional maturity, however, grows Hong Lu's own signs of distress. Timekilling Time and its subsequent Canto depict him acting passively suicidal, with noticeable, albeit casual, warning signs. In Canto VII: The Dream Ending, he goes as far as to state that he is always ready to accept death, his usual smile plastered across his face. As the story goes forward, Hong Lu continues to be playful and blissfully ignorant, but has grown into a tendency to display emotional maturity and subtle disquietude.

Background Hong Lu is a child of the incredibly wealthy Jia family, and appears to have lived a sheltered life, until he was told by his family elders to see and experience as much of the world as he can before returning home. His role as a Sinner of Limbus Company allows him to travel the City and fulfill the wishes of his family.

Hong Lu's family has strong connections to many Wings, with the elders being able to pull a few strings to get a member of the family hired by a Wing or obtain items unavailable to others, such as when one of the children of the family wanted a special, red passport and the family contacted the shareholder of H Corp. to acquire it. Hong Lu's time living with his family has not yet been fully explored, but he has shared that his siblings would often try to kill him while growing up. During those moments, while he was afraid, he also felt as if he could understand his family. He would also style his sister and younger sibling's hair and seems to have fond memories of them, although it is unknown if these siblings of his were among the ones who would make attempts on his life.

Many of Hong Lu's siblings seem to have received similar directions to Hong Lu, and are assembling their own factions to aid them on their own journeys through the City.

Trivia Hong Lu's character icon represents a jade-colored eye surrounded by clouds. Hong Lu is represented by the 🔮 emoji, with the crystal referring to the jade in place of his eye. Hong Lu's particulars are listed as "bachelor" and "sheltered". Hong Lu is based on the protagonist of Dream of the Red Chamber, Jia Baoyu ("贾宝玉"), a youth who is born with a magical piece of jade in his mouth, reincarnating as a human being to fulfill his previous life's wish to learn about humanity. Hong Lu's name, 鸿璐 (pinyin: hóng lù), is derived from both the name of the main character of Dream of the Red Chamber and the title of his source material, "红楼梦" (pinyin: hóng lóu mèng). The meaning of the name ("precious jade") remains unchanged, but the pronunciation of his name becomes very similar to the pronunciation of "Red Chamber" (紅樓, pinyin: hóng lóu). Despite this, on his splash art his name is still written as "红楼" (hóng lóu). The first character of his name is shared with Hongyuan Bioengineering Group (Mandarin: 鸿园生命工程集团, pinyin: hóng yuán shēngmìng gōngchéng jítuán), District 8's Wing. In Canto II, Hong Lu mentions that he did not get along with his younger sibling as a child, and that his younger sibling liked to "cheat and grouch if things didn’t go as desired." This references a scene in Dream of the Red Chamber in which Jia Baoyu's younger half-brother Jia Huan cheats at a game during his introduction. In Intervallo IV, Hong Lu mentions one of his aunts being fond of District 23's purple salt. This appears to be a reference to Baoyu's paternal aunt Jia Min, whose husband Lin Ruhai is a wealthy official in the Yangzhou salt commission. Hong Lu's introduction quote comes from the frame story of Dream of the Red Chamber, in which a sentient stone converses with a Buddhist monk and a Taoist immortal, expressing its desire to be taken with them to experience the mortal world. The two masters attempt to cull its enthusiasm and convey the various problems of human life, by replying that “美中不足，好事多魔” ("beauty has its flaws, good things have their demons"). Like all of the Sinners, Hong Lu voiced a "Document Excerpt" Youtube short. During HamHamPangPang's Limbus Company Pop-up theme, one of the available menu items was "Sinner Soul Food" which changed every week to be a different meal associated with one of the twelve playable Sinners. Hong Lu's associated meal was Chilli Japchae & Hua Juan. Hong Lu wears a metal name tag as opposed to the ID badge that the the majority of the other Sinners use, a trait he shares with Don Quixote and Outis. This is due to the name "Hong Lu" being a new name he chose upon joining the company.

This happens after Canto VIII: The Surrendered Witnessing. He finally gets past his trauma, and his grandmother, Jia Mu, plays a big role in that. He learns to accept himself for all he's been through, even though he always puts on a smile. He really sees that there’s a brighter future ahead. He can still remember the tough times from his childhood, but that doesn’t change who he is because he knows he’s the one in charge of his own journey. The Family Hierarch "War" is over now. He’s got Jia Xichun (his little sister), Lady Wang (his mom), Jia Zheng (his dad), Jia Huan (his presumed half-brother), Jia Yuanchun (his older sister), Lin Daiyu (his childhood friend), Xiren (his maidservant), Xue Baochai (his fiancée), Jia Qiu (a relative), and even Jia Mu (his grandmother) around him. Basically, he’s finally ready to embrace his path and find freedom along with the other ‘Sinners.’ Plus, Dante reminds him that he matters to everyone in his own unique way and helped shape all of this.