On the day after Yuan Shao folded the banquet and left, Dong Zhuo quietly emptied a cup inside his own camp tent. Even after the cup was drained, he did not set it down. He knew well that Yuan Shao had only folded the seat without being broken; and he already knew a thing more fearful than that.

To the west of Luoyang, another military commander had come up. His name was Ding Yuan (丁原), style Jianyang (建陽), Governor (刺史) of Bingzhou (幷州). Within his army was a young fellow said to be the foremost warrior under heaven. That young man's name was Lü Bu (呂布), style Fengxian (奉先), a man of Jiuyuan (九原) in Wuyuan (五原), adopted son of Ding Yuan. It was said that when Lü Bu's lance moved, half of Dong Zhuo's twenty thousand Xiliang cavalry could fall within three breaths.

Dong Zhuo called his close retainer Li Su (李肅). Li Su laid his hand quietly under his chin and looked down at the floor for a moment. The scene of riding horses across the plains of Wuyuan with Lü Bu in their childhood crossed before his eyes this evening. Yet at the end of that memory, the corner of Li Su's mouth moved coldly first.

"Your Lordship. As I know him, Lü Bu is a man of my own country. A man who grew up with me in Jiuyuan of Wuyuan. His courage (勇猛) has no match under heaven. Yet his counsel (智謀) does not run deep, and he is also a man who forgets righteousness (義) for a moment before profit."

Dong Zhuo's eye glinted for the first time this day.

"Lend me one thing."

Li Su's voice was low. Yet the end of that voice lifted the corner of Dong Zhuo's mouth upward.

"Your Lordship's treasure-horse (寶馬), Red Hare (赤兎) — just that one horse, if you lend it to me, I, Li Su, shall turn Lü Bu's heart back into Your Lordship's bosom."

Red Hare (赤兎). That name settled heavily upon the air of the camp tent this evening. Its coat was red as flame; it was a horse said to run a thousand li in a day. It was a horse that did not miss its master's breath even in the middle of a battlefield. Dong Zhuo had kept this Red Hare hidden behind his own tent, and had not yet put its reins into any other hand.

Dong Zhuo drained his cup. He looked long upon Li Su. Then he nodded.

"Take Red Hare. Take a thousand liang of gold and ten chests of jewels with you. The name of a price shall ride together inside the red coat of this horse."

That night, Li Su led Red Hare toward Ding Yuan's camp tent. Outside the tent, Li Su called Lü Bu aside. Lü Bu recognized Li Su's face and laughed greatly. It was the face of a far friend from the plains of Wuyuan.

"Brother Li. What meaning is there in your coming to find this Fengxian on the seat of a single night?"

Li Su pushed the rein of Red Hare lightly toward Lü Bu's hand. Lü Bu's two eyes stopped upon the red coat of the horse. The horse's eye met Lü Bu's eye. A horse and a captain were recognizing each other.

"Fengxian. This horse is a gift that General Dong has sent to you. A thousand liang of gold and ten chests of jewels have also come behind it. The master's meaning is one: that before Fengxian's lance, the name of this General Dong may come to be placed."

Lü Bu's hand closed quietly upon Red Hare's rein. The red coat of the horse trembled small inside Lü Bu's hand. The face of his adoptive father Ding Yuan crossed through the inside of Lü Bu's two eyes. Yet the grain of that face was thinning before the gaze of Red Hare tonight.

"Brother Li. This Fengxian shall give his answer to this seat before the night is out."

Before that night reached dawn, within Bingzhou's camp tent a short sound of a blade rang. Ding Yuan's neck fell first. Lü Bu's hand carried that neck across, by morning, to the front of Dong Zhuo's tent. Dong Zhuo made Lü Bu his own adopted son (養子). The rein of Red Hare was tied to Lü Bu's waist.

The thirteenth dawn of Book 1 opened quietly before Dong Zhuo's camp tent. The three characters Jeoktoga (赤兎價, the price of Red Hare) were planted as a seed: a name's price carried inside the rein of one red horse. The overlapping of two names in Day 12's night of two emperors (雙帝夜) had today joined into two lanes: the neck of one adoptive father, and the bosom of a new father.

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