23. Tears in the Rain

Master Shifu frowned. Something was in the air. The little master stood up and stepped out of the hall where he had previously meditated a little. Outside, the clouds were gathering. He narrowed his eyes. There could be rain soon, he thought to himself, but a gloomy cloud also passed over the master's mood. "Po, I hope you're on your way."

Master Storming Ox and Master Croc also looked down on the valley. They sat cross-legged on a rock, but could not concentrate on mediation. Above all, master ox kept emitting an annoyed snort, which finally aroused the attention of Master Croc. "What's up, mate?"

"How so?"

"You've been very silent for a few days."

Master Ox shrugged. "What did you expect? First him, then he."

The crocodile looked at him questioningly. "What or who are you talking about?"

"Well, by whom?" Master Ox answered snotty. He seemed to be really in a bad mood. "First the first son goes crazy and now the second one runs amok somewhere abroad. That makes you wonder what else is going to happen in this wicked family."

Master Croc frowned. "Well, yes, for the two of them, but not for the children."

Master Ox exhaled loudly. "Didn't we think the same of the two at first? I wonder where they got it from. Unlike Lord Liang. He had been a decent person."

"Do you really think, we should think of those two like that?" Master Croc remarked cautiously. "We haven't exactly covered ourselves in glory either. Maybe things wouldn't have been so bad if we'd been more careful."

"Oh!" Master Ox gave his colleagues a venomous look. "We are warriors and teachers. The servants were at most responsible for the well-being of the children."

"Nevertheless," Master Croc objected. "I still believe that a lot would have been different if we had shown more responsibility."

The ox looked at him in bewilderment. "What are you spitting out now? Responsibility. We had done our duties. We didn't have much to do with Dao anyway. He was quite young and hardly in our care."

"But he was good at fighting for his age," the crocodile added, which aroused no reason for sympathy in the ox. "Just so his mother would give him some attention. Maybe the boy wouldn't have turned out well anyway. A raid on a village is probably proof of that." His hooves clenched. "Same as his brother."

Master Croc narrowed his eyes. "You can't know that. Who knows what kind of people he was among. He was just a little boy when he ran away from home."

Master Ox snorted. "Just as flippant as his big brother. We should never have allowed him to leave the palace."

Master Croc raised his eyebrows. "Who are you talking about now? Shen or Dao?"

"It amounts to the same thing. Good thing her father is no longer with us. He would be ashamed to death for their behavior. Perhaps he would even have preferred them both to be in the ground instead of him."

Master Croc's mouth fell open in horror. "Do you really think that of him, or are you just speaking your mind?"

The ox looked at him sharply. "Don't you agree?"

Master Croc bowed his head sadly. Then he got up and looked at the ox reproachfully. "No, that rather less."

Then he walked away. On the way, many questions went through the crocodile's mind. Above all, he was preoccupied with what was to become of the family and he was uncomfortable with the thought of what was to come.

A medium-strong wind was now blowing over the Valley of Peace. Most of the residents took it with a sour expression. Only Shenmi was in a good mood. Meeting Xiang yesterday made her a little happier and lucky that he hadn't attacked her. Now she strolled down the street and thought about what she could do today. When she saw her sister Xia, she ran towards her.

"Hi, Xia!"

Xia looked up in surprise. "Where had you been again?"

Shenmi shrugged. "Oh, I played a little. And I thought about what else I could play."

"Aren't you going to fold something?"

"I've folded so much. There's no one playing with me."

Xia frowned. "Maybe another toy could help."

"It doesn't necessarily have to be a toy," Shenmi objected. "Isn't papa back yet?"

To her disappointment, Xia shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. Not even a message."

At that moment, King Wang spoke up. As so often, the Hun king sat on a bench in the sun and also wondered when the Dragon Warrior would appear again. "I hope he will be not late. I cannot stay away from my home for a long time."

Xia lifted his beak. "I don't think those two will keep us waiting forever. Dad isn't someone who would like to leave us alone." – Unless something bad happened, she thought to herself. But she didn't say that, especially in the presence of Shenmi.

The Hun king was just about to lean back when suddenly a large square of paper flew in his face. "Hey!"

"Sorry," the voice of a little pig boy said. "Wasn't on purpose. It's just very windy."

The little pig pulled on a thin string and pulled the large paper, which turned out to be a paper kite.

Shenmi inclined her head as she watched the boy take the paper kite back and look for a new place for kite flying. Then she tugged at her sister's shirt. "Xia? May I have one of those, too?"

"Er..." Xia thought about it. But her little sister won't be able to do anything bad with a paper kite. Her gaze fell on a shop where the clerk, a gander, was stocking up some of his wares before the wind blew them away. People could also buy paper kites there. "What color would you like?"

"But be back home early!" Xia called after Shenmi and watched as her little sister walked down the street. "And don't stay away long, it looks like rain."

"I just want to try it out," Shenmi assured, pulling the blue paper kite behind her.

As always, Xiang had retreated himself to a lonely corner where he could not meet anyone. At least, he hoped so. Sighing, he sat on a big stone under a tree near a large meadow and waited longingly for the fact that he could finally get out of this dump. But until the baby hatched, he was stuck here. Snarling, he folded his wings and stared darkly ahead. Liu said in a few days at the latest. The child took quite a long time.

A fine start, the blue peacock thought to himself. He could only hope that the child would not get on his nerves later.

He flinched as a shadow flew overhead. His bad mood only returned when he heard a child giggling shortly afterwards. "What are you doing here again?"

"Oh, sorry," Shenmi apologized. "But my kite wanted to fly somewhere else." Happily, she pulled the paper kite behind her, which the wind was tugging violently at. She ran back and forth across the meadow with it. "That's fun! Why don't you try it out, too?"

Xiang looked sideways stubbornly. This attitude irritated the girl at first. But then she ran towards him again and held out the string of the kite. "Do you want to hold it, too? You don't have to walk to do this. How is your foot? Is it feeling better?"

"What do you care?" Xiang snapped at her, critically glancing at the blue color of the kite, making him suspicious again. Just because she wanted to give her a blue paper peacock in the past, he got angry again. "Busy yourself alone!"

Shenmi lowered her wings in disappointment. "But it's not so much fun alone... whoops!"

At that moment, a strong gust blew across the gas landscape. The wind almost blew up Xiang's robe. The peacock scowled at the sky. The rain clouds in the distance were now approaching very quickly.

"Fine," he grumbled sarcastically. "It's going to rain soon. It was even better in my hometown. Why did I allow myself to be persuaded to do this...?"

"Hey! Stay here!" Shenmi suddenly shouted.

The paper kite was caught in the wind and dragged the girl across the lawn. Shenmi had no way of staying on the ground because she was quite light in weight, especially as a bird. But the wind paid no attention to that. With the next strong gust, she was carried away.

"HELP!" she screamed.

In amazement, Xiang watched as the girl was picked up and thrown into the air along with the kite. Shenmi whirled helplessly above the ground and disappeared behind the nearest forest.

For a moment, Xiang sat stunned. Then he snorted derisively. "Mmpf, kids. Can never watch out for anything."

He leaned sullenly against the tree trunk and debated whether he should wait for her to come back or limp home. Because now the sun disappeared completely behind the dark rain clouds and Xiang was slowly getting a little cold.

Several minutes passed without the girl reappearing. Xiang craned his neck questioningly. Why didn't this brat come back? She couldn't have fallen badly. That's why she had wings. Peacocks could fly badly, but they weren't that extremely clumsy in the air.

More minutes passed. And Shenmi still didn't show up.

"My goodness!" Xiang cursed. "She's doing it on purpose! Just to annoy me." However, somehow, he doesn't believe in it that much. Maybe something had happened after all.

Slowly, he got up, put his crutch in his wing and stood on one leg and looked out. But there was really nothing to see of the girl. Or had she walked back into the village somewhere else? He snorted. Rather unlikely. She wouldn't come back sooner without shouting "no harm done" to him.

Xiang cursed again. Why did he even think that? Now she wasn't that nice either. He turned and limped towards the village. But no sooner had he walked a little, he stopped again.

If the girl really was missing, the others would wonder why she didn't show up again. No question that he would probably be the first one to be suspected of some outrage. Everyone knew, he didn't like the girl. And everyone knew, that he was capable of doing bad things.

The peacock lowered his gaze in frustration. He could also do without unnecessary accusations. However… what if something bad had happened to the girl… maybe she was even dead… would he be blamed?

"Damn woman!" he cursed.

He turned again and hobbled toward the grove into which the girl had disappeared. "If I catch her..." he continued to scold. "Then she can get the shock of her life!"

Finally, he had reached the forest. With difficulty, he squeezed his way between the bushes and tree trunks. With a crutch it was more difficult for him. From time to time, a branch hit his face, or he nearly tripped over a tree root. Just as he was going to call her, he heard what sounded like a whining not far away.

"Help!" a girl's voice cried, which Xiang, to relief and frustration, recognized immediately.

Because peacocks had good hearing, it wasn't difficult for him to figure out where the voice was coming from. Behind a hedge, he found a small grass gap in the forest, surrounded by several trees. And in one of the trees, Xiang saw something white, almost two meters above the ground. He limped toward it. Shenmi hung upside down in the branches, wriggling. When Xiang finally reached the tree, the peacock narrowed his eyes. The girl got caught in the kite string and couldn't seem to get free. Exhausted, the peacock girl let herself hang for a moment. She stopped when she saw Xiang below her.

"Get me down here!" she yelled. "I can't get out of here!"

Xiang gave her a stunned look as if she had just made a joke. "Get you down there? Are you crazy?"

"What?" Shenmi asked anxiously. "Please, I can't do this alone!"

Xiang giggled darkly. "For all I care, you can stay there until you rot." The peacock turned away and made preparations to leave the place again.

Shenmi let out a frightened scream. "No! Don't go! Help me down, please!"

Xiang stopped. Then he turned back to her with a thoughtful face. "Weeell," he said long. "I could get you out of there if..." He paused deliberately. "If you promise to leave me alone forever and never speak to me again!" He smirked, looking up at her gleefully, completely sure that the brat would have no other choice.

The girl in the tree looked at him in shock. Then her beak lips began to quiver, giving the impression that tears were welling up in her eyes. "I… I can't!" she cried out.

That startled the blue peacock for a moment. He looked at her with wide eyes. But then he twisted his face into an offended grimace. "That's up to you. Then you have to stay there." He turned his back on her coldly.

"You can't do that!" Shenmi exclaimed in horror.

But Xiang only raised his beak in the air. "Why not?" He turned his head in her direction again. "And who knows... A robber might even come along and eat you up."

"No!" Panicked, Shenmi tugged at the cords which were holding her small body, but most of the braid had become hopelessly knotted. She couldn't get out of there without help or a sharp object. Her last hope was still Xiang, but this was suddenly nipped in the bud when he walked away, supported on his crutch.

"Don't go away!" Shenmi yelled after him. "Please! Don't go!"

Xiang stopped. "Then just leave me alone."

Shenmi let out a sob. "Why do you want that?"

Xiang narrowed his eyes. "Because I hate you - is that so hard to understand?"

The girl continued to look down at him. Then she shook her head slightly. "But you have no reason for that," she whimpered in a small voice.

Xiang held eye contact with her for a moment. Then he looked away. "I always have a reason." With these words, he began to move with limping steps.

"No, don't go!" Shenmi yelled. "Stay here!"

But Xiang played deaf and just kept going. As soon as he disappeared between a few trees, Shenmi cried out in despair. "YOU'RE HORRID!"

Xiang smiled. "Finally, she got it," and continued on his way.

"Mommy! Papa!" he heard her scream. He quickened his steps with difficulty. He wasn't willing to listen to her wails.

While he was busy trying to find his way out of the forest, the clouds grew thicker and thicker. Xiang started when he felt the first raindrops. His gaze wandered to the sky, which now hung gloomily over the Valley of Peace.

Xiang let out an angry snort. "So much for peace. Even the weather is not peaceful here."

He started moving again. The raindrops became more and more, until it poured like watering cans. Xiang's mood continued to plummet. He would never reach the village in a dry state. The rain was now pelting down on him uncontrollably. And with it, the memories rose again that the peacock associated with rain.

Why did so many bad things always have to happen when it rained, he thought with a gloomy look and felt transported back when he was kidnapped from the cure residence. It had rained there, too. And when Liu got him out in time when the sneaky geckos smuggled him across the border to China. Their argument. Her protection... Xiang narrowed his eyes. Unlike the brat. It was all alone now. In the rain. When would it be found, and who would it be...

Still and silent, he marched on clumsily, leaning on his crutch. He was getting slower and slower. Until he finally stopped. He stared blankly at the floor. The water dripped down his beak and partly ran over the corners of his beak into his mouth. He tasted the water. Still remembered the taste of tears...

He dropped the crutch. He balanced a little unsteadily on his good leg. Then he took off his robe and threw it on the ground. The peacock stood undressed in the rain and let the drops of water rain down on his feathered body. Then he wrapped the wings around his body and hugged himself. A disgusting feeling rose up in him again...

Many, many years ago in Mendong City…

The blue peacock boy stood trembling in the garden courtyard. Above him, the rain pelted mercilessly down on him. The peacock wore nothing on his body except his feathers. His mother loved to humiliate him. He shouldn't move from the spot. He could only stand and stare straight ahead. It wasn't particularly cold, but he was freezing. It was almost evening. From time to time, the wind whipped a good deal of rainwater into his face. But the seven-year-old boy wasn't even allowed to flee under the canopy, otherwise his mother threatened to beat him up.

His gaze fell back to his tail feathers. The peacock boy's feathers grew longer and more beautiful with each passing year, which aroused his mother's anger each time. It drove the peahen mad that her son became more beautiful with every phase of his life than she was. One more reason for her to simply order him outside during a rainy day. She said, he should stand as an ornament in the garden and compete with the flowers.

Shivering, the peacock boy hugged himself. If only someone could come along and at least hold an umbrella over his trembling body. Eventually, someone really came. But not the person he had longed for. On the contrary. As soon as he noticed the shadow on the stairs that led to the garden courtyard, he only lowered his eyes even more. He anxiously waited for her. In the last two years, she had mutated into a monster for him. A beast in a beautiful dress. As soon as his mother stopped in front of him, he clenched his eyelids. At least she couldn't see his tears as he began to cry.

"I told you to stand upright!" The force of her punch threw him to the ground, where he landed in the nearest rain puddle. It didn't matter if she had slapped him or not, the main thing was that he could sit again.

"You are and will always be a useless rascal!" she continued to yell at him. "I told you to go back in exactly 2 hours on the dot! And why are you still standing here?!"

He did not say anything. He just sat there with his eyes downcast, careful not to say a word. She was just waiting to reprimand him again when he contradicted her. How was he supposed to know when exactly two hours had passed? He didn't have a watch to orientate himself by. He had tried to count the minutes, but at some point, his counts had drifted and became increasingly wrong, so that he had lost all sense of time.

"Are you cheeky now too?!"

As if he had offended her with his silence, she grabbed his peacock feather tail and dragged him up the stairs with her. Xiang tried not to make a sound as his back scraped against each step. But as soon as the last stairhead was behind him, panic rose in him again. He knew she wasn't done with him yet.

"Because of you, I had to go out now!" she snapped at him. "Now I have to change my clothes!" The kick in the gut was the last thing he received from her before she finally let go of him. That gave him at least a brief moment to recover again. "And make sure you get the floor dry again!" she called after him, then fortunately she was gone.

The peacock boy lay panting on the ground. Groaning, he sat up. His whole back hurt from all the slaps on the stairs. Then he got up hastily, leaving a pool of water on the floor.

Still "naked" as he was, the dripping wet peacock chick wiped the rainwater from the ground. His mother would not allow him to use cloths that she owned. Everything was hers. So the boy was forced to use his own clothes from the closet. There were no servants in the house today. His mother had sent everyone away today so no one would see her secretly bullying him. There was no one in the palace who could rush to his aid.

Xiang paused briefly in his humiliating work. A tremor gripped him. Not only because he still wasn't wearing anything and the cold water seeped through his feathers onto his skin, but also because he was afraid. Tears dripped into the rainwater, which he hastily wiped up with his clothes.

Xiang felt himself begin to sway. The violent shaking made it difficult for him to keep his balance. Panting, he fell against a tree trunk and clutched at the bark. He hated himself whenever he was reminded of those times with his mother. It was an ugly feeling of helplessness. Sometimes it came to him when Liu was constantly helping him as if he were disabled... although... actually he was...

He looked around. His robe lay beside him on the damp grass. Hastily, he pulled it back on, which was now completely soaked with water. No matter how much the trauma of his childhood took him, all he wanted now was to get dry. But before he could move, something held him back. His gaze wandered back where the girl was still hanging in the tree. His finger feathers clawed at the wet tree wood. If he left her alone now, the worst that could happen was that she would rat him out for simply leaving her behind. However, if he told the others, he would be praised for it. He shrugged, growling.

He didn't want anything to do with that pale brat!

Shenmi was about to burst into tears. She hung in the tree, moaning. She had briefly given up trying to free herself from the cords. When there was a crackle in the undergrowth, she raised her head in fear. "Who's there?! Don't eat me!" Her breath caught when she saw Xiang limping towards her. A relieved smile crept over the girl's beak. "Xiang!"

Suddenly, Xiang jumped up. He caught a low-hanging branch with his good foot and leaned on it. Then he pressed his free wing on Shenmi's beak and pressed her against the tree trunk.

"Now listen to me carefully!" Xiang hissed at her angrily, looking into her eyes menacingly. "I'll help you out if you promise to stay away from me for at least one week! And I mean that literally! I want complete peace for this period of time!" Shenmi froze as he dug his finger feathers into her throat. A malicious grin flickered onto Xiang's beak. "Do you think you could live with that?"

The white girl let out a frightened wail as he rubbed his finger feathers through her feathers against her skin in a warning. Finally, she managed to nod, albeit very shakily. At least that satisfied the peacock. "Fine, fine." He let go of her beak. "Then hold still now."

With these words, he reached into the cords and pulled at the threads that hung loose in the small branches. He shook it a few times and was able to rip the kite loose with the string from a couple of leaves. The rest got knotted in the branches, but it was enough for Xiang to get a better grip on the tangle of cords and was even able to get off the branch and continue more easily from the ground. As he fiddled with the threads, he let out a curse here and there. The girl got so tangled up in the kite string that he even had to use both wings, which wasn't that easy as he also had to balance on just one leg. Finally, he managed to get the girl out. Shenmi would have almost fallen on her head if Xiang hadn't caught her. But instead of the expected soft landing, he simply threw her on the grass. And before Shenmi could get up again, he grabbed the girl's wing and pressed it onto her back. Then Xiang bent down to her and whispered admonishingly in her ear: "And! Don't tell anyone about it! Otherwise, you'll really get to know my unfriendly side!" He twisted her wing around, then he violently pushed her away. "Now get lost!" Shenmi stumbled forward and landed in the wet grass again. Then she quickly got to her feet and ran away. Still standing in the rain, Xiang scowled after her.

"Shenmi!" Xia cried in relief when she saw the white girl coming up the stairs, completely soaked. The young peahen was extremely worried when Shenmi had not returned after the rain started. "Where have you been for so long?" Then she noticed the green stripes on her dress. "Did you fall?" she asked, worried.

At first, Shenmi was unable to say a word, which made Xia suspicious again.

"Did something happen?"

"No!" Shenmi defended herself. "It's just... the... the kite flew away and I was trying to catch it again. But I couldn't get hold of it. I think I lost it."

"Oh." Pityingly, her big sister hugged her. "Well, the main thing is that you're back. Mom was worried, too."

"Mm." Shenmi buried her face in her shirt. She still felt some of the terror in her limbs from Xiang's threat. But somehow there was something like a little joy in her. Only one week. Hopefully this week will pass quickly.

Worried, Liu looked out of the window. She would love to find Xiang, but where should she start? She jumped up when she finally saw his figure limping across the street.

"Oh my goodness, Xiang!" Quickly, she left her room, grabbed an umbrella and ran towards him with it.

"Xiang!" She opened the umbrella as she ran and came to a halt in front of him, panting and excited. Her eyes widened as she saw all the water trickle down his body. "Oh my goodness! You're soaking wet! Come in, come in! You're going to catch a cold!" Quickly, she took the crutch from him and supported him from the side. "Now please come! You can't stand in the rain!"

But Xiang just stared overhead at the artificial rain canopy. Luckily, his face was wet so she couldn't see his tears as she held the umbrella over him so lovingly. And at that moment only one thought crossed his mind: an umbrella felt so good.