"JingHan.", The Emperor greeted the strange man personally, as soon as he and Zhang GuoFu were escorted by the Emperor's personal eunuch into his study. The eunuch then tactfully excused himself, quickly disappearing beyond the door and the garden outside.
Zhang GuoFu merely steeled himself, not daring to say anything for the moment. Even entering this particular room - which was always off-limits without explicit consent from the Emperor himself - was the first time for him.
The room was simple. Too simple, in fact, in Zhang GuoFu's opinion. The style and decoration was, by far, the most basic and plain among the many different rooms and halls inside the Palace. It was designed and decorated more like a commoner's living room. The only object standing out was the lone round table in the middle of the room - made of high quality oak and finished with deep brown lacquer. There was a rolled up scroll on top of it.
There was a couple of chairs set against one wall with a small desk in between, and a longer bench by the window overlooking the garden.
"This son greets Imperial Father. May Father lives for tens of thousand of years," he said his usual formal way of greeting towards the Emperor. The greeting towards one's superior - even if that one was his own Father - had been etched into him since he was small, so for him, it was just proper.
However, as he lifted his head slightly, he saw that JingHan was looking at him like he just performed a circus act.
The Emperor coughed, "GuoFu. Never mind the greeting. You don't need to be too formal this time."
At the direct way of calling by his little name, Prince GuoFu relaxed and straightened his body.
"JingHan," Emperor Zhang SongWang repeated his calling towards the stranger,
"Do you remember me? You used to call me Uncle Wang."
"What in the blasted heavens is happening??" Zhang GuoFu thought. But he kept his silence, "First it was the General, now it is my Imperial Father? I mean, he is the Emperor. Who is this man?"
JingHan narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the Emperor, scanning him from head to toe. Gradually, his eyes widened as he - once again - grinned and laughed loudly.
He dropped the eagle that he had been holding all this time onto the floor - the bird's head hitting the hard wooden floor with a thump, this time waking it up. It let out a weak squawk in protest.
Zhang GuoFu felt so sorry for the animal.
Then JingHan walked in long robust steps, reaching the Emperor in a breath's time. Zhang GuoFu was still registering what had happened or what would happen; then he could only let his jaw fall as he saw that the stranger that had been called intimately by General Ji and his Imperial Father --
-- suddenly pulled the Emperor into a tight hug.
Zhang GuoFu did not dare to blink his eyes and let his mouth hang opened as JingHan merrily called the Emperor with his disjointed speech: "Uncle! Wang! Uncle! Wang!"
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Emperor Zhang SongWang could only awkwardly pat JingHan on his back, as he was being hugged.
"Northern Plains folks are so touchy-feely," SongWang mused bitterly, "I'm glad in this room there's only GuoFu. If my ministers saw me like this... my prestige and dignity as the Emperor could just be thrown out of the window."
"Alright, Jinghan, you can let go now."
Zhang SongWang examined the face of the young man in front of him carefully. JingHan looked so similar to his father - old Jing's leader's son - and also old Jing himself. The last time he saw him was briefly before the insurgence, when this young man was merely only about four years old. He was bubbly and bright, and he was always fascinated with Zhang SongWang and Ji ChanFang's sword arts.
For the Northern Plains, as their terrain did not yield too much metals to produce weapons, the warriors were more adept in hand-to-hand combats. That was why their grips were strong and could break human bones easily. The stronger warriors could even destroy boulders and stones with their fists. But little JingHan would always join the two men in practice whenever he could.
Then during the disturbance and after old Jing was assassinated, because of the chaos, Zhang SongWang lost his sight on old Jing's son and subsequently, JingHan.
"I am glad to see you safe," he smiled at him, then added carefully, "What about your sibling?"
JingHan had a little brother - merely a baby at the time.
True to SongWang's concern, JingHan shook his head. There was distant sadness in those deep brown eyes.
"Your father? your mother?" - he already knew the answer to that, but still he wanted to be entirely sure.
Once again, JingHan shook his head.
There was silence between them while SongWang thought hard of the questions and words he wanted to say. Then a low pitched miserable squawk was heard --
-- It came from the forgotten bird, still lying pitifully on the floor. Its wings were spread open, spanning widely across the floor. Its beady eyes looked at Zhang SongWang, luster in his eyes. It looked utterly exhausted.
"A mountain eagle?" Zhang SongWang muttered. He had seen his share of mountain eagles before, but never this large. The birds in the wild could never have long lifespan. The northern terrains was not a friendly place to live in for the birds, although they already tend to choose higher places. There were too many wild beasts eating their youngs, and even if they managed to grown into adulthood, competition for scarce food resources left many to starve or killed by their own kin.
Therefore, this bird must have been taken care by someone. But by the look of the wounds on JingHan's arms and necks - clearly from the bird's beaks and claws - , and his rough treatment towards the bird, SongWang doubted that JingHan was its master.
JingHan noticed SongWang's curious gaze towards the eagle. He briefly looked at the bird in disgusted dismay, recalling the painful pecks and scratches he received from it. Then he looked at SongWang as he growled disdainfully,
"Niu!!!"(1)
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"..." Zhang GuoFu felt so dizzy he wanted to faint.
Did this man just call his Imperial Father - the Emperor - a cow?
However, the Emperor himself did not look offended, so GuoFu held himself back from pointing his sword once again at the stranger, for the crime of insulting the Emperor.
The Emperor merely pointed at the bird, "This bird?"
JingHan nodded and said once again, "Bad. Bird. Niu!"
The Emperor nodded and shifted his eyes towards Zhang GuoFu - who by this time was feeling neglected and utterly confused.
"GuoFu. Please ask Ho gong-gong outside to fetch Imperial Physician Su!"
Ho gong-gong was the Emperor's personal eunuch who was waiting just outside the garden in front of the room - the very same one who had escorted them inside.
Zhang GuoFu nodded and headed out briefly to do what his father just asked, and quickly returned.
Everyone in the room was silent with their own thoughts, making the whole atmosphere uncomfortable for Zhang GuoFu. This time, SongWang had knelt in front of the bird, observing it with mild interest. JingHan stood by his side. The bird let out a weak sound every now and then.
Luckily, Imperial Physician Su arrived soon and was quickly escorted by Ho gong-gong, before the eunuch excused himself once more.
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After Physician Su finished his greeting in a deep bow, with the typical wish for the Emperor to 'live for tens and thousands of years' - once again, observed by JingHan in mock amusement - Zhang SongWang waved his hand to let him stand.
"Physician Su," SongWang said, "Zhen wants you to treat Niu!"
Imperial Physician Su was baffled for a bit and he dared himself to quickly glance at the Emperor - wanting to make sure that he did not just mishear.
Then he was relieved as he saw the strangely garbed young man in animal skin/cotton combination robe, standing by the Emperor's side.
From the sturdy build and his muscles' outline clearly visible, every inch of this young man did indicate the robustness of an ox. Imperial Physician Su could safely assume - as bizarre as it was for the polite Emperor to ever address someone as a bovine - that the Emperor was referring to this man.
After all, the man did look a bit worse for wear - Physician Su could see visible scratches and red scabs throughout his skin. Nevertheless, it should be an easy task for him as all the wounds seemed to be merely superficial.
He walked up to the stranger and stretched his hand to take the stranger's hand, to feel his pulse on his wrist. However, as he was only starting to feel the man's pulse, trying to hear if there was anything out of place, the Emperor furrowed his brows and reprimanded him,
"What are you doing?"
Imperial Physician Su stilled as he could sense the slight ire in his superior's voice.
"Uh... This lowly one has to feel his pulse to see if there is any misalignment or internal injury... ,"
he began to explain, keeping his voice as steady as possible. Checking the pulse of a patient was, after all, the normal procedure for any physician before treating the patient further.
"Not that." the Emperor interjected, "Zhen asked you to treat Niu, the bird."
"..." Physician Su was becoming more perplexed, "Cow... the bird?"
As he dared himself to look uncertainly at the Emperor, he noticed the Emperor's index finger pointing towards the floor.
On it, he finally noticed a large bird - massive for normal standard - was lying dormantly, its eyes looking up at him blankly. The bird looked pitiful as well, letting out weak squawking sound. On several area on its body, Physician Su could see bald patches where its feathers seemed to have been pulled with brute force.
Physician Su stammered, "Your Majesty means... Your Majesty wants this lowly one to treat this bird?"
"Didn't he say to treat a cow? The only one with a similar build to an ox is that burly young man... ."
"Yes," The Emperor nodded, then turned his head to JingHan, "This bird, Niu, is important, right?"
JingHan nodded affirmatively, "Important. JingMo's Niu. Niu dead. JingMo angry."
"You heard him," The Emperor turned his attention once more to Physician Su, "You must treat Niu, the bird. It is an important pet for zhen's esteemed guest."
Zhang GuoFu really wanted to laugh as he saw Physician Su's face changing color. Now he realized that the Emperor was probably blowing the matter out of proportion, just to tease the old doctor. Zhang GuoFu never knew this particular side of his Imperial Father before.
For starter, JingHan did not look too concerned about the bird's wellbeing. Zhang GuoFu heard JingMo's name being mentioned, and he could vaguely guess if it was the same JingMo he knew that had been hanging around at Liu YangHuan's estate lately along with the Ji family - who had left along with YuLan.
From JingMo's eagle tattoo that he had also seen once before, he was almost sure that JingMo was the real master of the bird. But he still did not know the relationships between this person and that person, throwing the bird into the mix of matters, as well as how it was related to his father and General Ji. The whole thing happened too fast.
Therefore, he kept his silence.
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notes:
(1) remember, "niu" means "ox/cow"
runexi's notes:
Now you know why the Crown Prince was very cheeky. He most likely got it from his father.
I am spoiling you all with updates this fast. Because I want to get past this particular episode of the story a.s.a.p. Haha.
Thank you always for reading, voting, commenting <3