696 Precocious Child (1/2)
As a twelve year old boy, Shulitu was much thinner than his peers, and his head was embedded with a pair of precocious eyes, which essentially meant that they appeared quite large. In many cases, a young boy with such thoughtful and inquisitive eyes like him would not be favored by adults.
If judged by the standards of the Norland, he was a useless child, and had he not been of royal blood, his family would have abandoned him in the wilderness and he would be a small pile of bones by now.
He had actually been a normal baby when he was born, and on his first full moon he had giggled in the Khan's arms, earning him lots of praise including one that said he was 'precocious.' As one of the countless flattering words that followed whomever orbited the Khan, this one comment was quite the apt appraisal.
Shulitu spoke and walked earlier than the other children but at the age of three, a serious illness struck him and changed his fate.
An unknown disease was spreading across the prairie at the time and many people died because of it, including Shulitu's biological mother. He survived in the end, but the illness had taken its toll and his physique was greatly harmed. While the other children of his age were beginning to ride ponies and play with bows and arrows, he could only lie in a babysitter's arms, wrapped in a thick blanket. This made him a laughing-stock among all the other children.
At that time, King Riying was his grandfather. The old king had watched his grandson grow up but each time he met him, his face only grew colder. It wasn't until several years later when Shulitu was eight years old that the old king finally lost patience, and he took his grandson out of the warm nest of the babysitter and blanket, strode out of the tent, threw him on the nearest horse, and said, ”Prove that you have the blood of the Khan in your veins. Your father and I can't afford to lose any more face.”
For the first time in his lifetime, Shulitu sat on a horse's back. Frightened and shivering from the cold, he turned to the babysitter and his father, the two who had always loved him the most, only to find that one of them was wiping her tears away while the other had his head lowered. None of them dared say a word for him.
The eight years old child suddenly came to understand that he was facing a critical moment in his life, and that the survival of his emaciated body depended on the horse under him and his stern grandfather.
Shulitu knew from then on that crying and begging were of no use, so he tried to straighten himself up, and imitate the rider's way by shaking the reins gently.
The moment the horse leaped out, he fell heavily to the ground. Sore and dizzy, he faintly heard the cry of the babysitter, the rebuke of his grandfather, and the absence of his father's voice.
The royal child's next performance wasn't stunning either, but it saved his life. He kept running after the horse and falling down. After two hours of hard work, he had finally mounted the horse and turned it around to return to his grandfather.
The old King Riying's face was still frostily cold. Without criticism or praise, he grunted and strode away, somehow admitting that this grandson had earned the right to live.
Shulitu would never forget that day. For the next couple of days and nights, that scene played in his mind on an infinite loop, gradually becoming clearer and clearer with every re-imagining until it was finally permanently imprinted on his mind. Every time he woke up from the nightmare, the first thing he told himself was, ”You have to be careful. Other people live to struggle, but you struggle to live.”
He learned how to ride, managed to draw an ordinary bow, and even cast off his dependence on the babysitter, but he still staggered behind his peers, and behind him was the reaper's sickle.
His father invited many wise men from the Central Plains and the Western Regions to teach him. As a result, Shulitu's intelligence burst out irrepressibly. Scholars, monks, Taoist priests, and mystics all praised the child but regretfully shook their head when they left. 'This royal child was born in the wrong place. In the Norland, where people only value warriors, the exceptionalness of his mind is useless' was what they all said.
The old King Riying was very dissatisfied with this. A weak grandson was already enough; if he became a bookworm, he wouldn't be able to bear the humiliation anymore.
All the wise men were driven away from then on. But the two years of study had already left an indelible mark on Shulitu. From then on, his eyes were thoughtful and inquisitive.
That same year, the royal child's fate changed again.
Shulitu's mother was King Rizhu's daughter. It was said that King Rizhu and the old Khan had taken turns hugging him when he was a baby, but strangely, he only vaguely remembered the hard chest of his great-grandfather and had no memory of his distinguished and high-profile maternal grandfather.
King Rizhu looked at his grandson with cold eyes as if he were a strange foreign creature, and his eyes only softened for a moment when he said, ”You look just like your mother.”
King Rizhu left but every once in a while he would come back to talk to him about the history and influence of the Naihang Tribe, and teach him the ways of kingship. Occasionally, he would also casually chat with him for a while, showing a little more affection than his paternal grandfather.
No one had told him anything and King Rizhu would, of course, not tell a child the truth, but Shulitu soon understood his position. One day he asked his father, ”Are my grandpas going to make me the Khan?”
His father was taken aback, and anxiously put his hand over his mouth and looked around in horror. When his father made sure that no one was around, he asked, ”Who told you this?”
”No one, it's obvious.” The ten years old Shulitu's tone was so calm that he didn't sound anything like a child at all.
His father stared at him for a while, then suddenly sighed. ”You'll be a good Khan but remember, never say those words out loud again. Especially in front of your grandpas.”
Of course Shulitu understood the seriousness of the matter; he just wanted to know if his life was secure.