24. A Living Corpse
Yin-Yu looked up in surprise when she saw Shen walk in the room. It was more of a small lounge with a few chairs and tables. All in all, the guest residence was more wood-paneled and had little comfort, which didn't mind her.
The peahen pulled up her robe, which was made of blue and white silk, and took a few steps towards her husband.
"Did you clarify everything yet?" She asked.
But Shen said nothing. He just stared at her, which deeply unsettled Yin-Yu. "Anything happened?"
She couldn't read the expression on the white peacock's face clearly. It was a mixture of hidden anger and lost perplexity.
"Shen, what's wrong?" She repeated her question. This time a little more emphatically. Again the white peacock remained silent. Instead, he walked up to her and took her wings in his. "Xiang is still alive."
He watched with tension as her eyes widened. She stared at him in disbelief. Then her legs gave way. Shen caught her in time and led her to a chair where she sat down. After taking several deep breaths, she looked up at him.
"How bad is it?" She asked in a choked voice.
Shen looked down. "I don't know."
"Bad?" Po couldn't do anything with that. "How bad? Bad in the sense of very bad, half bad, a little bad, a very little bad, extremely bad, fifty-fifty or 50% or what?"
But the only answer what the king of the Huns could do was shrugging his fur-covered shoulders. "I don't know. The city doctor and our army doctor are still with him."
"What does that mean?"
At the sound of Yin-Yu's voice in the room, the Hun King and the Dragon Warrior turned towards the door in shock. They could see from the peacock lady that she had been deeply shocked by the news. Shen stood next to her and held her shoulders. Probably to make sure she didn't faint.
The big ox rubbed his neck in embarrassment. "To be honest, madam, I have no knowledge of his general condition. I don't even know if he's even capable..."
"Then we'd better go there immediately," Po said. All the guesswork caused him an upset stomach. Wasn't the danger over yet? After the explosion, he was in a celebratory mood. But now everything just seemed to drag on unintentionally.
Fortunately, King Wang accepted his suggestion. "If you like. We can find him on the east side of the city. The doctor had to change his quarters because of the explosion."
With that, he pushed the others out of the room into the hallway. But as soon as they were down the first steps, Po thought of something.
"I have to tell the others that immediately," he muttered and ran to the kitchen.
Soothsayer had prepared a bowl of hot water over a fireplace. Then she put the pot on the work surface of the kitchen table and started to prepare the tea for the friends.
Tigress, Viper, Monkey, Crane and Mantis sat together on one side of the dining table, while Sheng and Xia had taken a seat on the opposite side. Everyone had a plate of rice or soup in front of them, but nobody seemed to be really hungry. Each one gave the other a hesitant look. Tigress, in particular, didn't seem to know what to think of Shen's two children. Her last visit to Gongmen City had only left a dark cloud in her memory. Associating it with the opposite feeling was completely alien to her.
Xia stirred listlessly the rice with her chopsticks. Sheng gave her a scrutinizing look every now and then. Something was bothering the young peahen, and he knew it had something to do with Shen or Xiang. The young peacock furrowed his eyebrows as his sister stabbed the white grain dish a few times harder.
Finally, Viper couldn't take it any longer. "Well, it's nice to meet you," she began and pushed the next spoonful of soup into her mouth.
Sheng forced a smile. "The pleasure is all ours, too. We have heard a lot from you. Isn't that right, Xia?"
Xia raised her head in shock. "What? Oh yes, of course."
"Po told us a lot about you, too," Monkey added cheerfully.
The bluegreen-white peacock raised his eyebrows. "So? Well then, I hope it was encouraging. We can all need that lately." He put his wing over his sister.
"Oh yes." Viper put her spoon aside. "We are sorry. Of course, we express our condolences for you."
Crane, Mantis and Monkey nodded in agreement. Only Tigress inclined her head gently for her silent sympathy for the death of the unborn siblings. In the background, the goat let out a low sigh as she poured the water into the tea leaves.
"GUYS!" Like lightning, Po jumped into the kitchen. Everyone looked up, startled. The panda leaned on the kitchen table in panting. "Friends! You never guess what happened."
Tigress was the first who spoke. "Did more explosive charges go off?"
"Xiang has ... he's still alive!" Po replied choppily.
Sheng and Xia jumped up immediately.
"How can that be?" the peahen asked, aghast.
Sheng was busy with something else. "What does mother say? And father?"
"They... they are on their way to see him with Wang," Po chattered and waved his paws around. "Maybe we could... I mean, we should go to them."
The panda didn't have to wait for an answer, because in the next moment everyone was on their feet and pushing Po out of the kitchen.
There was silence. The goat put the pot aside without a word. Then she reached inside her coat and took out a blue feather. Gently, she turned it around a few times, then she placed it on the table. She stared at it sadly. In the next moment, images of her dream reappeared before her inner eyes.
The burnt peacock.
The house to which the doctor had retired was on the edge of the destroyed part of the city. It had a few cracks in the wall, but it wasn't in danger of collapsing.
Po and the others caught up with the king of the Huns and the pair of peacocks before they could even enter the house. When the two groups met, Xia threw herself into her mother's wings.
"Are you okay?" her daughter asked.
But Yin-Yu didn't seem to know how to feel. "I don't know... I don't know anything at the moment."
Wang turned compassionately to the doorway. "I'll see whether we're allowed to come in."
With that, he disappeared into the house and entered a small anteroom. A sheep was sitting at a table and was writing something down. When it saw the king come in, he rose immediately and bowed. "Oh, King Wang. You came back very quickly..."
He paused. In surprise, Wang turned to the door where the doctor was staring at and where a panda head was peeking in.
Wang sighed and turned back to the doctor. "Can we come in?"
The sheep waved his hoof. "Come in, yes, but I don't know what to do next..."
"We're allowed to come in!" Po cried behind.
The doctor took a few steps back when so many people appeared. When he saw Lord Shen and Lady Yin-Yu enter, he bowed politely. "Oh, Lord Shen. Long time no see. I see your health seems to be gracious to you."
"What about him now?" Shen interrupted, a little indignantly. But Yin-Yu no longer seemed to be able to endure it either. "Yes, how is he?" There was an anxious tension in her voice.
The sheep looked down. "The army doctor is still with him. He's just finishing the operation."
Shen felt the peahen sway slightly, but immediately gathered herself to stand safely.
"Has he lost something?" She breathed.
"No, not yet," the doctor replied. "Not yet. We don't know yet whether we have to amputate something..."
Wang cleared his throat loudly, forcing the doctor to interrupt his diagnosis.
At that moment, a curtain was pulled aside and a thin monkey in shirt and pants entered the room. He quickly hid his blood-smeared surgical clothing behind a closet when he saw all the people. Then he bowed. "My king."
"How's it going, doctor?" Wang asked quickly.
But the army doctor did not answer immediately. Instead, he grabbed a bottle that was somewhere on the shelf and took a long swig from it. He let his gaze wander over the visitors and seemed to be looking for the right words for a good sentence in his head. Finally, he sauntered over to a chair and sat down there, exhausted. "I've seen a lot in the war, but this..."
He took another swig from the bottle. Then he put it aside and clapped his hands once, as if he had something extremely important to announce.
"Well, we don't know whether he is able to cut it today. Searingly honest." He leaned back. "At first, I thought they'd bring me something for the morgue, but not a burnt piece of meat where the heart muscles are still working."
He looked at the others expectantly.
After all, it was Yin-Yu who dared to venture out. "May we see him?"
The monkey looked blankly at her. "Wouldn't you prefer to go?"
She shook her head. "No, I want to see him."
The army doctor stuck out his lower lip and his gaze wandered to the white lord. He knew that he was familiar with wars and all the unpleasant things that came out of them, but he wasn't so sure about her. But then he shrugged. "Well, if you really want to do the sight to you. Although I wouldn't recommend it to you." He nodded towards the curtain that covered the doorway to the next room. "Just through there."
Yin-Yu looked at Shen. He nodded and took her wing. Po craned his neck curiously, but he did not want to push himself to the front and let them go.
The peacock couple stepped through the curtain cautiously. The room was darkened. Only a sparse light shone through the thick pieces of cloth on the windows. At the end of the room, there was a bed in which an individual was lying, but who was barely recognizable. The lord saw Yin-Yu tense up and wondered if he should turn back. But then the peacock lady pulled herself together and both walked towards the bed.
If the lord hadn't seen the peacock before, he wouldn't have guessed what he would look like. The plumage was partially burned and charred. Some areas of the neck were covered with blood. The rest was in bloody bandages. Even the feet, which seemed to have suffered most of the damage, were thickly wrapped. A cloth had been spread over the eyes, presumably to cool the burned eyelids.
Both remained silent for a while. He really looked dead.
Slowly, Yin-Yu leaned forward and hesitantly touched the bandaged wing. Suddenly, something flashed through the bedridden bird like an electric shock. Shen yanked Yin-Yu away from the bed. Not a second too soon. In the next moment, the believed dead peacock thrashed about, the cloth over his eyes slipping down.
Shen hugged Yin-Yu, but Xiang didn't seem to know where he was or what he was doing. He didn't even seem to notice that someone was standing in the room with him. Instead, he turned, twitching in panic, and let out a loud moan of pain. But then in the next second, he sat up and pressed his back against the wall. He opened his eyes wide and looked around in panic.
"Oh, already a sign of life?" It came from next door, which belonged to the army doctor. "That was quick."
In the next moment, the monkey jumped into the room and stormed to his patient's bed. Xiang had stopped fighting, but was panting as loudly as after a race.
The army doctor grabbed the peacock by the shoulder. But Xiang slapped him aside as if the doctor had fire on his hands. He wanted to scream something, but all he could manage was a gurgling rasping rattle.
"Take it easy," the doctor told him. "I wouldn't talk. The windpipe is partially pierced, but still working..."
His sentence was interrupted by a bloodcurdling whimper. Xiang grabbed his neck and threw himself from side to side.
The doctor looked at the two peafowls and tried to smile. "Don't worry. This is completely normal. I've seen worse things in the war."
Shen had enough and pushed Yin-Yu to the door. The army doctor had meanwhile managed to push the heavily damaged peacock back onto the bed. But then, for a brief moment, Xiang seemed to have a clear head. Despite raging pain, he managed to lift his head to look the white lord in the face without losing control of his eyes. Both kept eye contact for almost three seconds. Shen's eyes narrowed. Xiang did the same. Then suddenly, the blue peacock convulsed and collapsed on the bed. His chest rose and fell so hard, it seemed like he was struggling to fill his lungs with air. Now the city doctor also stepped in. Shen didn't want to look any further and left the room, Xiang's plaintive whimpering haunted him outside.
In the anteroom, Yin-Yu had fallen into Xia's wings. The others did not want to bombard her with questions and fell silent in shock.
After all, it was Wang who dared to say something. "I think, we'd better go. We can't do anything here anyway."
Xia nodded to him. "Of course. Come on mother."
Po and Sheng were the last ones in the anteroom and Shen, who was still behind, because the city doctor was just coming back. When the sheep tried to pass Shen, Shen held him.
"Your opinion?" the white lord asked monotonously, but darkly.
"Pardon, my lord?" the sheep asked falteringly.
"Will he survive?"
Po and Sheng looked at each other in dismay as the sheep scraped the ground with his hoof. "In my whole life of my doctor's time line, I've never seen a patient like him and the first time in my life, I have no answer to this question. After they brought him to me… I really thought he would die any moment."
"That's not an answer to my question! Will he survive?!"
"I will be honest with you, my lord. I don't know. It's possible that he will die today. Or tomorrow. His chances of survival are small, but not impossible, I guess... I think."
Shen turned from the doctor with a growl. Po and Sheng respectfully gave way to him. An icy cold emanated from Shen, like hard snowflakes from a thundering avalanche.