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Of all the changes between novel and show, I may mourn Foya the most. The dog they chose for the role really wasn’t on board with the idea of becoming an actor and made that known, they didn’t have a lot of usable footage and thus ended up deleting Foya completely.
But in the novel, Jingyan has a tamed wolf named Foya, who was given to him by Lin Shu. Because of course Jingyan has a tamed wolf, and of course such a stupid idea was Lin Shu’s. They were such disastrous teenagers.
Anyway, come the Spring Hunt, Su Zhe is supposed to travel with Jingyan’s retinue, and while they are preparing for travel, Lie Zhanying is all “please don’t panic but we are also bringing a wolf, who is mostly tame, so just stay out of its way and it will be fine” and tons of things are suddenly happening in Mei Changsu’s very busy mind:
- wait a wolf? Foya is still alive?
- Foya will definitely remember Lin Shu
- which means I will be identified on sight, err, on scent
- I need to explain that.
And Mei Changsu blithely explaining to a Polite but Deeply Sceptical Lie Zhanying that actually, ahah, funny story, but I am a Disney Princess, wild animals love me, birds go perch on my shoulders if I play music, and probably your wolf will in fact adore me.
Which, to be fair, is not such a bad lie to tell on the spot, and was possibly not even the most outrageous lie he told that day.
Comes in Foya, and sure enough, that wolf immediately focus on Mei Changsu, and greets him with the kind of unbridled enthusiasm that makes for cute Internet videos becoming viral and Buzzfeed articles titled “Wild Animal Meeting Again Their First Caretaker After a Decade of Separation!”.
By the way, while the novel doesn’t tell us that, I need you all to know that wolves tend to pee when they are very excited, and meeting Mei Changsu would evidently qualify. I’m prepared to stand my ground with this headcanon. Mei Changsu deserved to be peed on, how dare he forget Foya.
Meanwhile, Lie Zhanying is converting from Politely Sceptical to Reluctantly Impressed, and while he would never annoy his prince with the strategist’s many quirks, this is prime gossip material to be disseminated throughout the whole Jing Army.
Jingyan can live in ignorance a little while longer.
2. Random war horses
In the next days, the Jing Army members going to the Spring Hunt are totally watching Su Zhe, and they have to admit that he is a terribly weak scholar, the kind who need help to just walk after a full day in a carriage (look, staying seated in a moving vehicle means your body is constantly readjusting position not to fall of, and that’s exhausting), and completely unable to ride by himself BUT he also knows how to interact with war horses.
Horses are nervous animals, war horses even more so, but this scholar totally acts like only his own weakness prevents him from riding, and he even has training suggestions, which possibly shouldn’t be surprising coming from a strategist with an opinion about everything under the sun, but still manage to take the men by surprise. Maybe he really is a Disney Princess.
3. Nie Feng
And then, of course the monster is captured! After a whole year of hunting! And even worse than expected, that feral creature drinks blood! Even in the cage, the men are wary of approaching it. I mean, a blood drinking beast, a little cautiousness is not amiss, right?
But that scholar comes in without any care for danger, and talks to the monster, and gives him his own blood, and when the cage is opened, the beast follows him meek as a lamb. Whatever this beast is or will turn out to be, it was feral and it’s tame for Su Zhe.
Disney Princess, for sure, that reputation is now sealed.
4. Feiliu
Look, if it was up to Qi Meng, Feiliu would be higher on that list. According to him, Feiliu should have been number one on that list. There definitely needs to be something magical, something Disney Princessy, to have that little murderous ball of energy be so adoring of this scholar.
Even Grand Commander Meng Zhi doesn’t radiate cold intent to kill all the time like this child does. It takes a considerable amount of restraint for the better trained men not to treat him as the terrifying menace he is, not to step in front of their prince to protect him, not to yank that oblivious scholar to safety.
But they have to admit that while Feiliu is a cold, cold killer, the kind of threat that only seems to spring in the jianghu, he also visibly adores his Su-gege and will steal all the flowers in the prince’s garden to brighten his days.
So it took several weeks of debate, and then voting, but in the end, the Jing Army collectively agreed that Feiliu counted as a proof that Su Zhe was, in fact, a Disney Princess.
+1 Xiao Jingyan
Look, it was mentioned once and then never again, by a foolish centurion rapidly shushed to silence (not Qi Meng, for once, but only because he was drinking at the time and someone beat him to it), but their prince is a prickly one, ok? All standoffish and repressed. Nobody has liked him in court for years, and he apparently was not able to maintain any actual friendships for a full decade.
And then that Su Zhe came, and suddenly His Highness is mending old friendships, creating new ones, actually respected in court, and even accepting a new marriage instead of just ignoring his two consorts. No one will admit it aloud, but their prince was wild, and now he is fit for company.
Maybe the legends about Qilins are wrong; maybe it’s all about Disney Princesses advisors taming wild princes. If so, that’s a secret the Jing Army will guard zealously.
