Eventually running out of patience with his feral companion, Wang had him released into the countryside, 30 miles away, only for Ye Ke to return to his door within hours. Then Wang took him up to the headwaters of the Han River, so far away that he couldn’t find his way back. Tying a red silk string round his neck, Wang composed a poem about their relationship before the final parting. Then, a year later, at the end of his time of service, on his way up the Han River valley, Wang encountered a troop of monkeys drinking in a stream; and there, hanging in a tree, was Ye Ke, still wearing the
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