"Shen seemed to have a low tolerance for pain (despite being a seasoned master of kung fu and swordsmanship), as when the Soothsayer plucked out one of his smallest down feathers, he yelped audibly and pulled his wing-back while he was acting as if he were badly wounded."

(kungfupanda . fandom com / wiki / Shen)

5. A Glimmer of Hope

It was dark in the room, although it was bright day outside. Nevertheless, the two peafowl parents could take no risks. Outside, the city was in a celebratory mood, and they couldn't know whether an excited neighbor might be peering through the window. In front of each hole, they had hung a cloth or a blanket so that nobody could really watch them. The only light, that was shining in the house, was a lantern which was held by Lady Ai in a secluded corner over two other peacocks. It was an improvised bed next to the dining room, where the storeroom was actually located. But it could easily be separated by a curtain. If anyone unexpectedly came into the house, the one would not spot the white warlord, who was assumed to be death for everyone. Especially since Shen couldn't defend himself against anyone. He was still unconscious, embedded on pillows and blankets that were partially stained with blood. Yet his white figure hardly stood out from the white fabric and gave him a ghostly appearance. His torn robe was cut, but folded on the floor. Liang, who was kneeling next to his son's bed, tried very hard to get the wood splinters out with tweezers or with his bare wings. Fortunately, most of them weren't deep. Even on the head, they hadn't penetrated the top of the skull. Still, both of them could only pray that the brain was not damaged. Liang squeezed the ends of the tweezers together and pulled the next small piece of wood out of Shen's head. Shen's facial muscles contracted extremely, which in turn contracted Ai's heart.

"Good boy," Liang said quietly to his son. Then he washed the wound and turned to the next one.

The peahen sighed heavily. Sometimes her eyes welled up with tears. She couldn't bear to see her son like that. He had been a strange child with his health from the very first breath he'd taken. How many times had she kept watch by his sickbed? And now, as he lay there, her throat felt constricted.

"Ai?" The peahen winced when her husband called her name and waved his wing. "More light."

The peahen leaned forward obediently with the lantern. From the outside she only reacted, inside her thoughts were only with her son. But maybe it was no different for Liang, who was busy examining a particularly large piece of wood that had drilled into Shen's wing. The father looked thoughtfully at the wooden projectile and pushed the feathers aside, just to see how the piece of wood stuck in the skin. It wasn't easy, because the blood was already partially clotted and the skin was stuck together with the feathers. Liang picked up a cloth, dipped it in a bowl of warm water, and rubbed the affected area. The blood loosened, revealing the skin.

Ai craned her neck. It hurt to see the many injuries, but she wanted to know what her son had.

"And?" she asked. "How bad is it?"

"The bone is still intact," Liang reassured her. "It's just sticking in the fold of the skin. But it won't be so easy to take it out. I have to cut the wing a bit."

With these words, the peacock father picked up a small knife. Ai only watched with one eye as he gently performed the small operation.

Although Liang hadn't passed a medical study, he had learned how to take care of himself over the years in the village. He did the same to the wooden arrow in Shen's belly, which had caused most of the damage. At first, Liang had shied away from pulling out this larger piece of wood. But as long as they couldn't find a real doctor, the risk that the wood could cause severe infections was much greater. To Liang's relief, the wood hadn't hit an organ.

While the peacock stitched up the wound, he had to smile slightly. His son had more than two guardian angels. But then his smile disappeared again. Or was that just an extension of the disaster that could still come?

When it was done, he got up and looked at his son with a frown on his forehead.

Lady Ai didn't like his look at all. "How does it look like?"

"The wounds are still looking good," Liang said. "Just if there are no complications..."

He looked at his wife. She caught his gaze with concern. "Shouldn't we try to get the doctor?"

Liang sighed. "We have to wait. Chaos will have broken out in the city anyway. Who knows if the doctor is even at home for this occasion." He put a wing on his wife's shoulder. "It will be all right. Come on, help me to clean him up. He urgently needs it."

With that, both of them went to work to clean the plumage and body of their son, which wasn't stained with blood only, but with gunpowder, too. They proceeded as gently as possible, just not to wake him up. He had been injured only, but he was also through an extreme fight that he had lost. What he had worked towards all his life, was razed to the ground in a matter of minutes.

After they washed him off well, they applied ointments to his wounds and bandaged them with bandages. Then they rubbed him dry and covered him with a blanket.

For a while, the parents looked at their son. It had been such an extremely long time since they had last seen him sleep. Over 20 years. 20 years, that suddenly seemed like nothing to them. After a while, they broke away from this sight. They closed the curtains that revealed the barrack and retreated briefly into the bedroom. There they changed their clothes and dyed their plumage again, because the water had washed off all their camouflage color.

When they had left the room, they stood in the dining room for a moment in silence and didn't seem to know what to do next.

Finally, Ai raised her head. "I'll make us some tea."

In silence, the couple sat at the table and looked back over the eventful morning. Everything seemed so unrealistic to them. All these years, they had waited for his return. Now everything had happened at once and they first had to process what they had experienced.

Ai puffed thoughtfully over her still steaming teacup. She glanced over at her husband, who hadn't touched his tea yet and was just staring blankly at the table top.

Finally, the peahen couldn't take it any longer and put down the teacup.

"Did we do the right thing?" she asked quietly.

But Liang didn't respond to this question and just lowered his gaze even more. He wasn't entirely sure of himself. Had they been so fooled by parental instincts and made a mistake with their actions?

But if somebody had asked them whether they would have reacted differently, each of them would have answered this question with a clear "no". The whole world might hate their son, but they couldn't. No more. Once they had cast him out in front of everyone. Just as the law prescribed. And also the great disappointment that he had to be banished from their homeland as a mass murderer. But just as much was the anger which Shen had shown them. They would never forget how he threatened to come back and all of China would bow to him.

Ai sighed again at the thought. "Do you think, he is still hating us?"

Only now, a jolt went through her husband's body.

Hate.

My parents hated me.

Liang blinked at Shen's words during the conversation with the soothsayer. His gaze wandered to his wife, who didn't know what to make of the expression on his face.

Finally, Liang moved his beak. "Maybe…," he began hesitantly. "Maybe he thought the same about us."

He tried to smile and before his wife could reply, he quickly put his wing on her wing. "We have to wait and see what will happen. We did our part." He briefly lowered his gaze. "The rest is up to him."

Lady Ai sighed heavily. She was afraid that there would be complications with Shen and it was clear to both of them that they would not be able to avoid a doctor.

Liang increased the pressure on her wing. "Don't worry, he'll be fine. He is strong."

He tried to smile, which his wife tried to reply, but nobody was in the mood for laughing. Nobody wanted to say it, but they had to realize that after they had reprieved Shen, they had broken the law. Regardless of whether they belonged to the royal family or not, they could be convicted at any time - if they weren't careful.

Lady Ai blinked. She thought she had heard something. She was lying in bed next to her husband. Both of them had lay down briefly to recover from all the exertion. Ai's gaze wandered to the window. It was dusky outside. Again, she thought she heard a noise. In order not to wake her husband unnecessarily, she got out of bed quietly, lit a candle in the dining room and approached the storeroom. There was a rustle behind the curtain.

The peahen's heart stopped. Did her son wake up?

Reluctantly, she pushed the curtain aside. At first, she was frightened. Shen tossed and turned in bed restlessly, but to her relief, his eyes were still closed. He seemed to be dreaming badly.

The mother peafowl instinctively sat down next to him at the bedside. There she set the candle down on the floor and rested her wing on his wing.

"Ssshh," she whispered very softly. "It's okay, everything is okay."

She felt his tension, accompanied by an uncontrolled tremor. What was he seeing? She wished she could look inside his mind. She was still plagued by the last events they had lived through, shortly before his expulsion from the city. She had never seen her son like this before. And he had never looked at her like that before. That had haunted Ai into her nightmares. Every day, she was tormented by the question of what her son thought of her. Did he still feel anything for her at all?

Tears welled up in her eyes again. She had never really opened up to him. Neither in his childhood, nor when he was an adult.

Gently, she stroked his white feathers. The tremor had stopped. But that wasn't the only thing that bothered her.

Carefully, she held up one of the feathers with her finger feathertips and looked at it with sadness.

"Like Baizhong," she mumbled softly.

Sighing, she let go of the feather again. She was always afraid that Shen would be like Baihzhong. His mother's heart had caved in because of his death. She never wanted to go through the same situation.

Her gaze returned to Shen's bandaged head.

But he was still alive after all, she thought, and feelings of guilt hit her again. Why had Baizhong's life influenced her so much? Would it have turned out differently with Shen otherwise?

Ai suppressed a sob. Gently, she stroked her son's uninjured side of the head. Where was her innocent little child from the past?

Finally, she couldn't help but pushed her face forward until she was very close to his ear.

"Come back to me," she breathed and fluttered a kiss on his forehead.

"Baizhong" are the Chinese words for "white race/species". We will read more about him later.