Chapter 2#

Dried Meat#

Even in his dreams, there was nothing but snow that blotted out the sky and earth. Jin Yang shivered from the cold, and when he woke with a start from the dream, he was almost curled up in a ball inside the carriage.

Outside the carriage was pitch black. Bai Ni was not by his side. The convoy was moving slowly through the wind and snow.

He was badly frightened. He hurriedly pushed open the wooden lattice door and shouted, “Bai Ni!”

Bai Ni, mounted on horseback, responded and rode over.

The convoy had originally intended to camp on the spot for the night, but the wind and snow shifted from gentle to fierce, bearing down with menacing force. General Hu suggested they take rest at the nearby Yetai garrison camp and continue north to the Northern Capital only after the heavy snow passed.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m here,” Bai Ni said. “General Hu is taking us to the Yetai garrison camp. It’s not far ahead.”

Jin Yang retreated back inside the carriage, tightly closing the wooden lattice door. In the dark night, there were the neighs of horses and the howls of the wind, pouring into his ears one after another. He was wide awake, wrapped in a bearskin cloak, sitting inside the carriage, unable to help but think of things in Liangjing once more.

Great Yu had been established with its capital in Liangjing since its founding, for over eighty years now.

Jin Yang was born in Fenghu City, where the Northwest Border Defense Corps headquarters was located. When he was six or seven years old, an edict from the official family forcibly summoned mother and son back to Liangjing. After that, he never had another opportunity to travel far.

This was not Jin Yang’s first time being a hostage. In the past, both he and his mother had been hostages his father held before the official family. Now, he was the hostage Great Yu held in the Northern Rong. In any case, there was not much difference.

He did not like the imperial palace. When he was a child, during festivals, he would follow his parents into the palace to see the ruler, have his studies quizzed by the official family, have his little face pinched by the empress and consorts, and even if unwilling, he had to smile obediently. Because his father served as the commander of the Northwest Border Defense Corps, and his mother was a princess of the previous dynasty, every court official and minister, upon seeing Jin Yang, would smile like chrysanthemums of various colors, their attentiveness becoming almost frightening.

The princes and princesses in the palace initially thought Jin Yang was like Jin Mingzhao, full of heroic spirit and an untamed nature. But later they discovered he was frail and sickly, not skilled in martial arts, a dull child who could spend half an hour staring at a single camellia covered in frost.

They became increasingly fond of teasing Jin Yang, kneading his small face like dough. Novel items and precious delicacies from the palace often flowed like a stream to the Jin residence.

The Jin family home was in the inner city of Liangjing: exit the palace through the Vermilion Bird Gate, go east past the Minzhou Bridge, then south for a short half-tea-drink’s journey, and you would reach Qingsuli. The Jin residence was in the center of Qingsuli, a house of moderate size.

The Jin family had a training courtyard. When Jin Mingzhao was not at home, that was the territory of Jin Yang’s sister. The Jin family also had a school, employing a renowned tutor from Liangjing. The students were all sons of high officials and daughters of powerful ministers, and occasionally, one or two disguised princes or princesses would also be present.

As long as the tutor or the guards were the slightest bit negligent, a few princes would lead a group of children, climb over the wall, and run into Qingsuli, eating, drinking, and causing a ruckus all the way, annoying cats and dogs alike. Gateway: Rankings|Book Finder|Qiangqiang LiangchanTop

Of course, when trouble erupted, the one punished was often Jin Yang.

Yet Jin Yang did not feel any resentment toward the tutor. Though the old man was stern, he was very fond of him. After striking his palm with a ruler, the next day he would invariably bring some food to comfort him: either plum blossom buns or Guanghan cake, or plum stewed with cherries, or stir-fried ginkgo nuts and roasted chestnuts, steaming hot, wrapped in a handkerchief, and opened solemnly before Jin Yang.

Jin Yang’s nose stung with sourness, and he sneezed.

Bai Ni tapped on the window. “Young Master, are you cold?”

“No.” Jin Yang burrowed into the soft quilt and the cloak. “I’ll sleep a bit longer. You don’t need to worry.”

He did not know when he fell asleep. The carriage rocked, and he was back in Qingsuli. His sister, who had returned for a visit, brought many pastries. His brother-in-law sneaked a jug of plum juice mixed with wine. The twin children of Minister Fang next door called out to him from the wall top to come out and play. The dog picked up by the butler slept under the flowers. His mother, with a small bamboo basket in her hand, was picking fruit in the courtyard. His father… Jin Yang did not dream of Jin Mingzhao.

He ran out of the house, but saw only a vast, boundless expanse around him. In the far, far distance stood a tall, imposing figure clad in iron armor, holding a long sword, shouting loudly at him.

“Yang’er—”

“Father!” Jin Yang ran towards him at full speed, but tripped and fell in the snow. “Father! Have you come to get me!”

The man did not answer, but only called his name again and again, filled with pain and reluctance. Jin Yang could not stand up from the snow and burst into loud sobs.

When he woke this time, tears streamed down his face. The convoy had stopped. Jin Yang heard the hum of voices outside and the glow of firelight flickering. He wiped his face haphazardly, gathering his spirits.

Outside the carriage, nearly a hundred felt tents were arranged across the plain, brightly lit.

The hostage convoy from Great Yu arrived at the Yetai garrison camp. Helan Feng was vigorously scrubbing his fox fur cloak.

He had returned home and changed his clothes, only to find the inner side of the cloak stained with his own blood. He scrubbed it earnestly for most of the day, but the faint red bloodstains still clung stubbornly to the light grey lining, impossible to wash away.

The voices outside attracted Helan Feng. He had just stepped out of his tent when he immediately saw General Hu waving at him.

General Hu was discussing the arrangement of tents with Bai Ni. He beckoned Helan Feng over and said, “You know a lot of Han language, chat with them for a bit.” With that, he pushed him into a small tent nearby.

Only Jin Yang was inside the tent. As his gaze lingered, he caught a glimpse of a faint, eerie green light flashing within Helan Feng’s jet-black eyes, like a wolf’s gaze.

Immediately after, three or five soldiers entered, some Northern Rong, some Great Yu, and they stood straight on either side, staring intently at the two of them.

Seeing Helan Feng looking impatient yet standing ramrod straight, Jin Yang couldn’t help but ask, “Want some candy?”

He took out a paper packet from his chest. Inside were three remaining lion candies.

Helan Feng hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn’t resist the sweet fragrance of the candy. He carefully picked one up. The candy was milky white with a hint of amber translucence, shaped like a lion. He looked left and right, then put it in his mouth, and his eyes widened immediately.

Jin Yang laughed at once. “Good, isn’t it?”

Helan Feng had never had such a treat. He savored it carefully, his mouth full of wonder. Jin Yang pushed the packet forward a bit more, trying his best to sound friendly. “You take them all.”

Helan Feng tore open the paper, carefully wrapped one candy and put it in his pocket, then stood straight and stiff again.

Jin Yang found it rather dull. He ate the last one himself. The furnishings inside the tent were simple; it was a temporary lodging for soldiers on night duty. He paced around once and returned to Helan Feng’s side. “What’s your name?”

Helan Feng said it. Jin Yang then asked how to write it. “I don’t know much Northern Rong script. Can you write in Han characters?”

Helan Feng wrote crookedly on the ground, the three characters taking up the space of four. After writing, he quickly scuffed them away with his foot, not letting Jin Yang see them for long.

“My name is Jin Yang.” Jin Yang also wrote on the ground.

Helan Feng didn’t recognize the characters and said dryly, “What does it mean?”

Jin Yang smiled. “‘The bright moon rises from the Heavenly Mountains, amidst the vast sea of clouds.’”

Helan Feng: “I don’t understand.”

Jin Yang gave up, his belief that Northern Rong people were hard to deal with becoming firmer. The two stood in awkward silence, several soldiers around them stared blankly, and the air in the tent was dull and boring.

Helan Feng refused to speak, so Jin Yang had to rack his brain for topics to ingratiate himself with this Northern Rong youth. “Have you ever been to Great Yu?”

Helan Feng: “I don’t like Great Yu.”

Jin Yang wanted to look into Helan Feng’s eyes, but didn’t dare to do so too openly. He forced conversation where there was none. “Why?”

Helan Feng ignored him, strode out of the tent, and after a moment returned with a palm-sized cloth bundle, which he stuffed into Jin Yang’s arms.

Jin Yang’s heart skipped a beat, and his stomach felt empty: he smelled meat!

“Northern Rong people don’t owe Great Yu people anything,” Helan Feng said. “This is my family’s dried meat. Eat.”

Jin Yang was truly hungry. The dried meat was delicious and rich. He chewed until his cheeks hurt, yet he ate with great pleasure. He smiled at Helan Feng, who immediately averted his gaze.

Jin Yang asked between bites, “You don’t like Great Yu people?”

Helan Feng: “I’m Northern Rong. Of course Northern Rong people don’t like Great Yu people.”

Jin Yang’s mouth didn’t stop. “But you just ate a Great Yu person’s lion candy.”

Helan Feng: “…!”

Jin Yang looked at his expression and couldn’t help but burst into laughter. When Bai Ni lifted the tent flap and entered, she couldn’t help but pause slightly.

General Hu and she had arranged Jin Yang’s lodging tent. Jin Yang had to bid farewell to Helan Feng. Bai Ni asked Jin Yang if he had made a friend. Jin Yang thought again and again. “Does it count?”

Soon he added, “We’re only stopping in Yetai for a while, right? Ultimately, we must go to the Northern Capital. Whether or not we make friends doesn’t matter.”

Strangely, this stop stretched on for seven or eight days.

The heavy snow had passed, and the sky was a clear, brilliant blue. Bai Ni asked General Hu several times, but he only said the snow accumulation blocked the roads, making travel impossible, and they had to wait a few more days.

Bai Ni gradually sensed something was wrong. The Great Yu soldiers guarding Jin Yang’s tent grew increasingly tense. Everyone entering or leaving was scrutinized strictly. Jin Yang was not allowed to step even half a pace out of Bai Ni’s sight.

The Chiwang Plains was the southernmost grassland of Northern Rong, squeezed between the Kudulin and Yinglong mountain ranges. The climate was not overly cold. At the year’s end, the rivers and streams froze into thick ice, but beneath the ice, there was still flowing water and fresh fish.

After the snow stopped, the youths of Yetai, with nothing to do, often galloped across the Chiwang Plains, hunting rabbits, playing polo, or fishing on the ice-covered river, having a great time. Gateway: Rankings|Book Finder|Qiangqiang LiangchanTop

Helan Feng did not join them, partly because he had numerous grievances with them, and secondly, because he had no horse.

His father was a Gaoxin tribesman who had wandered from the other side of the Kudulin Mountains to Yetai, picking up a blind Great Yu songstress along the way. The songstress was blind but excelled at singing. The Gaoxin people were skilled hunters. The two stopped in Yetai for over twenty years. After passing away, they left behind three children, a flock of skinny sheep, and a home with bare walls.

Helan Feng’s eldest brother had harbored a wish to join the army since childhood, but the Northern Rong army required recruits to bring their own horse: because he had no mount, he was repeatedly rejected.

Both Helan Feng and his brother had reached the age when marriage could be discussed, but their family was notoriously poor, and both brothers had a pair of wolf-like eyes. None of the nice girls in Yetai dared to come for a meeting. General Hu wanted to arrange a match for the eldest brother, but as soon as the name was mentioned, others would immediately interrupt: “I know, I know, that’s the family that doesn’t even have a single horse.”

Helan Feng would not tell Jin Yang these things. Although he often lingered around Jin Yang’s tent, he rarely spoke with him.

Jin Yang, however, chatted happily with his seven-or-eight-year-old sister, Zhuo Zhuo.

Zhuo Zhuo had tasted the lion candy Helan Feng brought home and couldn’t bear to finish it. Whenever she craved it, she would take it out and lick it. Jin Yang felt distressed seeing this and gave her a large handful of dried pear slices. Because of this, Zhuo Zhuo liked Jin Yang by extension and ran over every day to talk to him. She was young and spoke without reservation, making it very convenient for Jin Yang to gather information.

“In our family, I’m the most important,” Zhuo Zhuo said while eating dried pear slices. “Then come the sheep, then big brother, and last is second brother…”

Helan Feng clamped his hand over Zhuo Zhuo’s mouth.

“I haven’t met your big brother,” Jin Yang said.

“General Hu gave him a horse, and he went to war!” Zhuo Zhuo broke free from Helan Feng’s grip and answered loudly.

Jin Yang was slightly startled.

Great Yu and Northern Rong had been at odds for decades. Because the newly ascended Northern Rong Heavenly Lord, Zhe Weng, was busy quelling disputes among the various tribes, the border between the two countries had temporarily become peaceful. Not long ago, Northern Rong and Great Yu signed an alliance at Pingzhou City. Great Yu ceded three cities to Northern Rong and donated ten thousand bolts of silk annually in exchange for Northern Rong’s ironware and iron-smelting techniques. To show sincerity, Great Yu also sent a hostage to Northern Rong.

… That meant Northern Rong was going to war with Jin Qiang? But Jin Qiang and Great Yu were at a stalemate near White Sparrow Pass and shouldn’t have the bandwidth to deal with Northern Rong.

Jin Yang told this matter to Bai Ni. She looked worried but didn’t explain.

“Something unexpected must have happened for us to be trapped here,” she said. A few indecisive civil officials were arguing noisily in the tent, giving her a headache. She instructed Jin Yang, “That Northern Rong friend of yours, unless necessary, try not to get close.”

Jin Yang explained, “Helan Feng doesn’t like Great Yu people, and he doesn’t want to be friends with me.”

“Is that so?” Bai Ni tidied his clothes and smiled. “But he comes to see you every day.”

On the other side of the garrison camp, Helan Feng and Zhuo Zhuo saw a familiar black Northern Rong horse in front of their family’s tent.

Zhuo Zhuo lifted the tent flap. “Big brother!”

Helan Jinying was removing his armor when Zhuo Zhuo pounced on him, giving him a full embrace. He laughed heartily, opening his arms to hold her.

“Why are you back? Is the war over?” Helan Feng grabbed his collar, looking him over from left to right. “Are you hurt? Did you earn merit? You… why are you dressed like this?”

When Helan Jinying left home to join the army, he was just an ordinary soldier in the Northern Rong army. After several months apart, he was already wearing the silver armor of a centurion.

Helan Jinying laughed and ruffled Helan Feng’s hair. “Almost done. I came back first because I have some matters to attend to.”

Helan Feng’s reaction was swift. “Is it related to the Great Yu hostage?”

Author’s Note:

A reader asked, since the promotional copy for this story has been changed, whether the settings have also been changed.

The settings haven’t changed. The reason for the new promotional copy is that while the old one was concise, its meaning was ambiguous, and everyone had their own interpretation (for example, that line about the unsharpened sword seeking its lost scabbard actually refers to Helan Feng). Just putting one sentence in the copy can attract readers, but I admit I’m not capable of that yet, so I switched to a detailed and specific copy.

Qiangqiang + Getting back together after a breakup + Bittersweet love-hate, this is the unwavering core direction of this story (OK hand gesture.

Treating everyone to Sichuan tribute lion candy made with added cheese!