Nirvana In Fire

The Imperial family’s Spring Hunt was in fact a kind of hunting sacrifice. It was meant to thank the gods for the gift of bravery*, so it was an annual practice and a necessary part of national mourning. The Spring Hunt was always held at Jiu’an Mountain, about 500 miles away from the capital, an area which encompassed dense forests, pastures, and a hunting palace. But as a rule, not even the Emperor was allowed to stay in the hunting palace for they had to camp in the countryside to honor the heavens.

*Originally established to commemorate Manchu’s nomadic life of animal husbandry and martial spirit (https://en.dpm.org.cn/collections/collections/2013-04-27/1554.html)

On the 27th day of the 3rd month, the banner of the Son of Heaven fluttered as they made their way from the city, as the ministers who were left behind to take care of things bowed at the gates, sending them off. Although Prince Jing had been ordered to “bring Mister Su along”, his position required him to ride beside the Emperor’s Dragon Carriage, so this “Mister Su” could only follow behind with the people of Prince Jing’s household.

As it happened, Prince Jing was summoned to the Emperor’s side early that morning, and so missed what would have been a very unexpected and bewildering spectacle, and for this, Mei Changsu was grateful. In the late morning, Zhanying arrived somewhat ostentatiously at the main gate of the Su Residence to pick Mei Changsu up, as it had already been pre-arranged for everyone to meet at Prince Jing’s mansion. Altogether, there were thirty of them in Prince Jing’s Spring Hunt entourage. Since the auspicious time for departure was midday, it was still early, so once they arrived in Prince Jing’s mansion, Lie Zhanying invited Mei Changsu into the reception hall to rest. He sat down too, to keep him company, and the both of them chatted casually about military affairs to pass the time.

He had barely finished drinking a cup of tea when Mei Changsu suddenly heard a loud howl from outside the hall. After a moment of shock, he suddenly realized what that sound was.

At that moment, Lie Zhanying had run to the hall entrance, shouting, “Why are you tying him up so early? Quickly let him go and wait till it’s time to board the carriage.”

Mei Changsu’s face was a little pale and he quickly tried to cover it up, his thoughts awhirl. After a while, when Lie Zhanying had returned to his seat, he asked in a casuals tone, “What was making that sound outside?”

“That’s Foya, a wolf raised by His Highness.”

“His Highness raised a wolf?”

“Sir doesn’t come to the mansion very often which is why you do not know. Foya doesn’t usually come to the front. He was still suckling when His Highness brought him back, but he’s now already 15 years old. Who knows how much longer he will live……Foya is very proud. Other than His Highness, he won’t let anyone else near him. In the mansion, His Highness is the leader, and he is the second in command!” Lie Zhanying laughed out loud at his own exaggeration.

“Oh?” Mei Changsu laughed with him awhile then asked, “Are you bringing him along this time?”

“Buddha’s Tooth likes to play outside. But he doesn’t have many days left so His Highness brings him out whenever he can.”

“Even though he was raised at home, he is still a wolf. Why did you tell them to let him go?”

“Don’t be afraid, Mister Su. Foya doesn’t like being with people. As long as His Highness doesn’t give the command, he won’t bite anyone.”

Mei Changsu rolled his eyes and laughed. “I’m not afraid of him biting me. I’m afraid he will bite others. Let me tell you, I have an extraordinary ability. No matter how violent an animal is, it would be willing to let me near it, and wouldn’t bite me.”

“Does such an ability exist in the world?” Lie Zhanying was greatly surprised. “I have never heard of it.”

Just as he was saying this, a light gray shaggy shadow appeared silently at the hall entrance, its head held high and proud, like an emperor patiently inspecting his domain.

Mei Changsu said praisingly, “Foya is truly beautiful.”

“Of course,” Lie Zhanying replied with pride as if he had raised the wolf himself. He has a strong body, thick and dense fur. He was even more beautiful a few years ago. Even though he’s older now, his coat still looks very good.”

Foya turned its head towards them, its bright and shiny brown eyes intelligent. It remained at the hall entrance for a moment, then suddenly raised its head, emitting a long howl, its back arched like a bow, and lunged straight for Mei Changsu, as if to swallow him whole.

Lie Zhanying had never encountered such a situation before. His face pale with fright, he hurriedly jumped forward to stop the wolf. Mister Su was the most important person to Prince Jing now. If he let Foya hurt him in his presence, one might as well hit him to death with a piece of tofu. But even though Lie Zhanying’s reaction was very quick, a wolf’s reflexes would always exceed that of humans, not to mention the distance from the hall entrance to Mei Changsu wasn’t very long in the first place. Just as he leapt to grab hold of Foya, the gray wolf had run past him, plunging straight into Mei Changsu’s embrace, practically knocking him off his seat.

“Er….” In the next scene, Lie Zhanying stood speechless with his mouth inelegantly half-opened. What he saw was Foya resting his two front paws on Mei Changsu’s shoulders, its wet pointed nose sniffing at his neck, rubbing against him from time to time, this coquettish manner exactly the same as when it was on Prince Jing.

“How’s this, General Lie?” Mei Changsu finally extricated himself from the slobbering Foya, smiling as he said, “I didn’t lie about my extraordinary ability, did I?”

“It…it’s as you said…..” Lie Zhanying was stunned. “This is very amazing…..”

“There was once a proud horse that nobody could tame that would only eat grass from my hand.” Mei Changsu patted Foya on its shoulders, making it go down on its knees. “Foya is probably too lonely. Prince Jing is probably too busy to spend much time with him?”

“Yes, especially…especially this past half a year, His Highness has been very busy…..so busy his feet hardly touched the ground*….” Lie Zhanying still hadn’t gotten over his shock and stammered. Mei Changsu leisurely picked a few topics of interest and slowly led him back into conversation. Lie Zhanying wasn’t a very complicated person, and as the conversation picked up, his attention drifted from Foya and he began to follow Mei Changsu’s guidance. The more they spoke, the happier he became, eventually dominating most of the conversation. Mei Changsu merely smiled and listened attentively, interjecting occasionally in encouragement. Foya remained by his side, circling his seat from time to time, sometimes hitting Mei Changsu with its great tail to amuse itself. After a long while, Lie Zhanying gradually became accustomed to it.

*idiom

In this manner, the hour passed very quickly. Outside, preparations were ready. Qi Meng, who was once reduced to a centurion because of a word from Mei Changsu, was also a part of the retinue. When he strode in to inform them that it was time, Mei Changsu observed from the colour of his clothes that he had already been promoted to a military officer and couldn’t help smiling as he asked, “Have you caught the monster?”

Qi Meng replied dejectedly, “Not yet….that creature is very cunning…..”

Fei Liu entered at this moment. Seeing Foya, he exclaimed in surprise. As soon as he stretched his hand out to touch it, the gray wolf moved disdainfully away. He immediately chased after it with his hand outstretched, and Foya once again moved out of the way but it wasn’t fast enough this time and was grabbed roughly by the scruff of its neck. Immediately furious, it turned around to fight back, and boy and wolf ended up creating a great disturbance right in the middle of the hall. Mei Changsu stood watching by the side with a big smile plastered on his face, having absolutely no intention of restraining them.

“Mister…Mister Su,” Lie Zhanying felt a little weak, “it’ll be time soon…..”

“Oh, let’s go then.”

“He….they…..”

“Once we leave, they’ll follow.” With these words, Mei Changsu walked out. Lie Zhanying had no choice but to follow. Fortunately, Fei Liu and Foya stopped their fighting and followed behind as Mei Changsu had said they would, both running out of the hall at the same pace.

Most of Prince Jing’s company were military men. Only Mei Changsu sat in the carriage. Since Foya insisted on boarding the carriage with him, Fei Liu, who had never sat in a carriage before, jumped into a carriage for the first time. A boy and a wolf, sitting opposite each other, continuing the game of touch and dodge, bite and dodge, made the entire journey less boring.

In the evening, they arrived in the small town where they would stay the night, and the entire hunting party stopped to set up camp. After he had completed paying his respects (to the Emperor), he retreated to the royal tent Lie Zhanying had prepared for him to rest. Just as he arrived in the front of the tent, he saw two shadows flash past and disappear after bypassing the wooden gate and couldn’t help being surprised.

“On the way here, Foya already got acquainted with me and Fei Liu.” Mei Changsu emerged from within the tent, smiling as he stepped forward to greet him. “General Lie said that Foya doesn’t like being close to people, but actually, he is pretty good-natured. I have always been good with animals so it was easy, but Buddha’s Tooth is also very good with a loner like Fei Liu.”

“Is that so? Foya really doesn’t like letting other people close to him. Looks like you and Fei Liu are really different.” Even though Prince Jing was very surprised, because he didn’t see Foya enclosed in Mei Changsu’s embrace, reluctant to leave, he didn’t pay it much attention. Instead, he looked around and asked, “Where’s Zhanying?”

“The strings of my (musical) instrument were broken, so I asked him to help me select two strands of first-rate horsehair to replace them.” Mei Changsu pointed to the rear of the tent, “Look, he’s already seen Your Highness and is running over.”

Just as his voice trailed off, Lie Zhanying had already rushed forward, his hands clasped in respect, “Your Highness, all camps have been set up. Please rest.”

“Mister Su’s tent is to be surrounded by all your tents, understand?”

“That’s exactly how it has been arranged.”

“That’s good.” Prince Jing nodded in approval, then turned towards Mei Changsu and said, “It’s still early. Perhaps Sir would like to sit with me in my tent for a while?”

Mei Changsu was worried that Foya would return so he smiled politely and said, “I would like to comply but after the day’s journey, I feel a little tired and would like to retire early.”

Xiao Jingyan knew that he was not in good health so he didn’t mind being rejected, and said warmly, “Then I shall not hold you back. We have another day’s travel tomorrow so you should indeed rest early.”

Mei Changsu gave a slight bow and retreated to his tent. Because Lie Zhanying was in charge of all affairs surrounding the royal tent, his nerves were a little stretched, so of course it wouldn’t have occurred to him to make any mention to Prince Jing about Foya’s initial reaction to Mei Changsu. As soon as Prince Jing disappeared into his tent, he went around patrolling the area again.

Early the next morning, Prince Jing hurried to the Liang Emperor’s tent to pay his respects. Because he was served a meal there, he didn’t return but proceeded to accompany the Emperor’s carriage as the hunting party continued its journey. Mei Changsu deliberately got up later than him, so the both of them did not meet.

They travelled faster that day than they did on the first day and quickly arrived in Jiu’an Mountain by dusk. Tents were set up in a large area of land just in front of the hunting palace. Situated right in the centre was the gold-topped Cloud Dragon imperial tent, five feet* tall and ten feet wide. Even though it was a temporary structure, its interior was beautifully decorated. Embroidered velvet curtains hung from the centre, dividing the area into two different sections – a sitting area, and a sleeping area. Concubine Jing’s tent was next to the imperial tent. Its style and dimensions were not as grand, but because she waited on the Emperor, she would basically spend the nights in the imperial tent, returning to her tent only when the men go out hunting.

*Chinese feet, which is about 3.3m

With Meng Zhi and his three-thousand imperial guards standing guard all round, the imperial tent seemed as if it was enclosed in an iron barrel, the security so tight that even a groundhog wouldn’t be able to get past.

The tents of other imperial family members and key officials were naturally much smaller, and were arranged around the imperial tent in rings that varied according to rank, like a myriad of stars surrounding the moon.

After resting and regrouping for the night, the Spring Hunt officially began the next day. Although Mei Changsu had changed into appropriate attire and stood by Prince Jing’s side, he carried not even an arrow with him, obviously not intending to have anything to do with the “hunt”. It was inevitable that other members of the hunting party who knew him by reputation would come over to greet him, so they had to stop many times to reciprocate as they made their way through the grounds. When they arrived at the hunting stage, the Liang Emperor ordered Gao Zhan to summon him and Prince Jing both onto the stage where he smiled and said a few words. Although he didn’t say anything of any real substance, at least he demonstrated his love and affection before the rest of the surrounding imperial family and nobles.

Because Spring was the season for all living things to multiply, it was not appropriate for them to kill. Therefore, the Spring Hunt was different from the Autumn Hunt, and attached greater importance to ceremony than a competition of skills. Roaming around the forest was mostly for appearance, and other than occasionally shooting at hare or pheasants, deer, roebuck and other similar types of prey were completely off limits. 

The Liang Emperor presided over the launch of the hunting ceremony early in the morning, and heavily protected by his imperial guards, he roamed the forest for about two hours, finally carrying two pheasants with him back to his tent. After all, he was old, and feeling tired after lunch, he fell into a deep sleep as Concubine Jing gently pounded him with her fists (in massage).

With this free time now on her hands, Concubine Jing ordered Gao Zhan to carefully watch over him and left the imperial tent to return to hers, where she instructed her personal maid, “Go quickly to Prince Jing’s quarters. Tell him to bring Mister Su to meet me.”

Afterthought:

I really enjoyed translating this chapter. It was funny and fun, and really nice to see this side of MCS. Though it was a pretty light chapter (relative to some of the rest), it was also at the same time very poignant, because as I read on, it became clear that Foya was also a part of MCS’s youth, just like XJY was. And unlike XJY, Foya could go all out to welcome his old friend back whereas XJY had to continue to remain in the dark in the previous chapter. That really took a stab at my own heart. Still, it was a really good and heartwarming chapter to have, especially knowing what’s in store in the next one.

I believe they tried to incorporate Foya into the series but the “actor” wasn’t being very cooperative. I didn’t understand much of the Chinese, but whatever I could see in this NG video of the Foya scene was highly entertaining.