After the autumn harvest, the weather remained hot and dry.
That morning, Prince of Wuling Army Provisioning Officer Xi received a baffling invitation.
Langya Interior Minister Liu Cheng had sent his Attendant Secretariat Supervisor Xie Ae with an interminable, tiresome, and ugly-looking note. It said he had recently heard that His Highness the Prince of Wuling intended to hunt wild boar. As it happened, farmers harvesting crops on Flower Mountain's eastern slopes had spotted a large boar with a litter of piglets, so he wished to invite His Highness and his son to join the hunt.
"What does this Liu Yulong mean by this?" Army Provisioning Officer Xi found it absurd. After briefly receiving the quite presentable Xie Xuan, he could not think whom to consult, so he could only return to the rear courtyard to discuss it with his sole adult son, Army Provisioning Officer Zong. "Why invite us out of the blue to hunt wild boar?"
"Could someone have found out about our earlier work putting the weapons in order, and he's using this to warn us?" Army Provisioning Officer Zong instinctively reached a conclusion fairly close to the mark. "We did recruit some deserters then, after all, and later dismissed some because we had too many. They were all Northern Chu men from the Huai River region, so he found out."
"If the Wang and Xie families warned me, that would be one thing. What gives a Northern Chu fellow like him the right to warn me? He could simply go slander me to Daowan." Army Provisioning Officer Xi still found it absurd.
"Then he's seen the situation becoming unstable and wants to attach himself to you, Father." Army Provisioning Officer Zong thought for a moment and offered a more logical deduction. "Hunting out in the countryside