The Last Hope

30. The Ill Child

Shenmi looked from the dining room to the apartment door, where her mother was standing with a shocked face.
"Mom, what's going on?" the white girl wanted to know. Hesitantly, she approached her mother. Only when she was close enough to her, she recognized Liu, who was leaning against the door frame.
"What's going on?" Shenmi repeated her question, and her gaze wandered back and forth between the two peahens.
"Shenmi, please go back to your brothers and sister," Yin-Yu finally said and pushed the white peacock girl towards the dining room.
"What happened?" Shenmi wanted to know persistently, but her mother pushed her forward so energetically that she almost stumbled.
"I'll tell you later," Yin-Yu urged. "Please go and eat something again."
After Shenmi was out of sight, Yin-Yu moved Liu into the apartment and led her to the next adjoining room where Xia's and Shenmi's beds were. Liu still seemed a little out of her depth. She just stood there as if her head had been swept clean. After making sure no one was watching them, Yin-Yu turned her attention back to what Liu had shown her earlier.
"Let me see."
Liu let her do it without resistance. Gently, the older peahen pushed the blanket open. The creature's appearance hadn't changed. Yin-Yu took a closer look. It was atypically colored, but it was a peacock chick. It was white, like Shenmi, but with the addition of light purple spots on the small crest feathers. The older woman stroked the still damp little head. To her relief, it finally responded, albeit with great difficulty. Looking into its eyes, Yin-Yu noticed the purple tinted irises surrounding the dark pupils. Yin-Yu didn't dare to say it, but it looked like... like Shen and Dao. Only this one was purple instead of the red color.
"Maybe it was part of my family after all," Liu breathed. "I don't know anyone from my family."
Yin Yu nodded. "It's possible." However, she wasn't entirely convinced. "May I?"
Liu nodded slowly. Carefully, Yin-Yu pulled the chick out of the blankets. The body was formed quite normally, she found. Just the behavior didn't fit. It wasn't active. It didn't even beep. As if something had drained all its energy. Only now and then it escaped a soft gasp.
"It's a girl," Yin-Yu said after a moment of silence. "You have a daughter."
Suddenly, they winced when they heard a hard pounding on the stairs. But it wasn't an ordinary gait, more like jumping. Shortly thereafter, someone shoved open the door with full force and Xiang stumbled into the anteroom of the apartment. As he caught sight of Liu, the blue peacock reared up on his leg, audibly gasping for air after his fast, clumsy run. But despite his exhaustion, his eyes sparkled with hate. "You... damn... bitch!"
Yin-Yu took Liu aside protectively. "What did she do to you now?"
Liu threw herself against her in dismay. "He thinks that... I and Shen had an affair."
Yin-Yu kept her beak open, stunned. For a moment, she wasn't able to think. She only felt Liu digging her finger feathers into her shirt. Finally, she managed to shake her head and look determinedly in Xiang's face.
"How can you say that?!"
"And how do you explain that?!" Full of contempt, Xiang pointed to the chick that Yin-Yu was still carrying.
Unconsciously, Yin-Yu rocked the baby, who began to tremble slightly at Xiang's loud roar.
"T-that's no proof!" Yin-Yu replied. She couldn't show that Xiang was wrong, but with the best will in the world, she couldn't imagine that Shen would betray her like that. And if she thought about it, she couldn't even think that of Liu. Even if it had been a completely different peacock.
"What are you doing here?" Xia's voice suddenly came out of the dining room together with her little siblings Shenmi, Zedong and Jian.
Xiang let out a loud snort. "Ask your fine father!"
"You're talking crazy things!" Yin-Yu intervened angrily. "I just can't believe that you can only believe something like that! There must be another explanation for that!"
"What's going on?" Zedong wanted to know.
But instead of an answer, Xiang's anger got the better of him. "Now you're lying again!"
Xia screamed as Xiang threw himself forward and lunged at Liu and Yin-Yu. But before he could strike, Yin-Yu kicked the peacock in the chest with full force with her foot and Xiang landed hard on her back to the ground.
"Hey! Leave my mom alone," Zedong complained, "or my dad will spank you!"
"What's going on here again?!" Wang's voice suddenly thundered.
He had secretly followed Xiang after he was limping to Shen's family home, which struck the Hun king as particularly odd. Especially after Liu had rushed out.
"Stay... out of... this!" Xiang hissed and heaved himself up against the wall, where he braced himself.
Wang's gaze wandered to the two peahens and at first, he couldn't explain what had upset the blue peacock so much. Only when he noticed the white chick, he seemed to suspect something.
But before he could ask anything, Xiang unexpectedly jumped forward again. King Wang just managed to grab the peacock's long feathers. Xiang wanted to turn around and scratch Wang's face, but the ox hit and the blue peacock slammed into the wall.
Startled, Shenmi pressed against Xia.
Wang looked at her apologetically. "Sorry. But there was no other way."
In the meantime, Yin-Yu had handed the little chick back to Liu and approached Xiang. The blue peacock now sat trembling against the wall and didn't look up when she stood in front of him and looked down at him reproachfully.
"Could you stop acting like a madman?!" she scolded him.
At first, there was just a loud gasp, then Xiang opened his trembling beak. "It... it has my mother's eyes."