Just thought that it would be useful to have these information. I know that this will be ESPECIALLY HARD to remember for people who are not fluent in Chinese, so perhaps keep this tab open next to the story. Trying my best to not leak the plot.
New characters: Surnames have no meaning (the surname characters themselves do). Females usually do not get a courtesy name (or zi 字), except for sometimes after marriage. Ranked by rough chronological order of their appearances in the story.
The prefix 'A-' or 'Zi-' and the suffix '-er' combined with the last character of someone's name is a way of calling a very close friend, child, younger sibling, or a servant. In modern times, we usually just use the prefix 'Xiao-' which means 'little'.
Given name: Xue Rui 雪睿 (wise)
Courtesy name: Xue Ranmei 雪染媚 (tinted by beauty)
Note: Lol I kind of gave him a feminine name (◉///▽///◉)
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Given name: Su An 苏安 (peace)
Courtesy name: Su Xiaonan 苏晓楠 (dawn cedar)
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Given name: Qing Qiao 青桥 (bridge)
Courtesy name: 青宛惺 (clever)
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Given name: Qing Su 青素 (plain)
Courtesy name: Qing Wanjing 青宛净 (pure)
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Given name: Qing Feng 青枫 (maple)
Courtesy name: Qing Qingxian 青倾弦 (playing zither)
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Given name: Qin Yue 秦悦 (pleased)
Courtesy name: Qin Conglin 秦从林 (subject to the forest)
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Given name: Nage Aila 娜歌瑷拉 (beautiful jade)
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Name: Handi Ge 韩迪舸 (large boat)
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Name: Handi Ji 韩迪吉 (good fortune)
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Name: A'Xin 阿欣 (joyous)
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Given name: Miao Xiaoxian 缪小纤 (graceful)
Locations:
Yao Nation 钥国: Covers the whole central plains territory.
Handi Kingdom 韩迪王国: A wealthy tiny kingdom subordinate (legally) to Yao Nation in the frontiers.
Qingmeng Yard 青梦院 (Cyan Dream Yard): A prominent orthodox sect of Yao Nation.
Jinyue Sect 浸月宗 (Soaked Moon Sect): Another sect of Yao Nation, not very powerful.