The Last Hope

36. Stubborn

Xiang bit his beak lips together as Liu stroked his aching leg. He was sitting in front of her on a chair in the hallway of Shen's family's vacation home. Dao was still staying in one of the rooms into which a doctor had disappeared with Shen and Ān-Mā. Xiang would have loved to have gone in, but considering Shen's state of mind, he hadn't dared to do it.
He flinched again at Liu's touch. Liu smiled pityingly at him. Climbing the stairs had put a lot of strain on his joints again, but she got the impression that Xiang didn't care.
"You should do more range of motion exercises with your leg," she said, although the sentence sounded ridiculous to her in hindsight. Actually, she wanted to remain silent, but the silence made her say something to take Xiang's mind off things. Though Xiang tried to appear calm on the outside, Liu noticed how he kept pressing the claws of his movable leg on the wooden floor and scratching the surface, and his eyes kept flicking to the closed door as well.
Liu couldn't help but took Xiang's wings in hers. Finally, Xiang looked at her again.
"If there had been any complications," she said, "you would have been told by now."
Again she gave him an encouraging smile. Xiang also tried to raise the corners of his beak, but he didn't succeed. His thoughts constantly revolved around whether he couldn't have done something better. And the question of what could happen afterwards remained open.
At that moment, Yin-Yu appeared. In the wings, she held a damp towel, which she handed to Liu. "Here you are."
Liu accepted it gratefully. "Thank you." Then she wrapped the cloth around Xiang's aching leg.
"Anything new?" Yin-Yu asked.
Xiang avoided her gaze. He was uncomfortable talking "normally" to his ex-wife. Actually, he hadn't felt the discord of that time when she had helped him up the stairs. But after the tumult died down, the gloomy thoughts in days gone by returned.
Finally, Liu gave the answer. "Unfortunately, we heard nothing yet. It's all so quiet in there."
Yin-Yu sighed in defeat. "But if something bad had happened, they would have said it long ago."
Liu smiled. "I've said the same thing before." She looked back at Xiang, who hesitantly gave her another look. But then Xiang's attention was drawn to the living room, where the heads of the peafowls children had appeared in the doorway, giving him strange looks.
Xiang watched them in silence. With all the excitement, he hadn't had time to look at them closely. Even this morning, they were strangers to him, now they were a part of him, if only half. Xia and Sheng sat quietly in the living room, but seemed to glance down the hall here and there.
Shenmi finally broke away from the group and approached the three adults. For a few seconds, she and Xiang made eye contact. Neither of them had fully processed today's results. Neither of them had exchanged a word after defeating the ninjas. But Shenmi noticed that Xiang didn't want to talk now, although she would have liked to have hugged him and comforted him at least. But she had promised him not to do anything like that in the presence of others. He just wasn't ready yet, so Shenmi tugged at the end of her mother's dress instead. "Mom, Uncle Dao will get better, won't he?"
Yin-Yu stroked her head, but before she could say anything, footsteps could be heard on the stairs. In the next moment, Po stuck his head through the apartment door, with full cheeks. "Hoooi! And? Any news yet?" Po asked, swallowing something. Then he stepped into the hallway. His bald head was "fixed" again, so he no longer had to wear a helmet. In his paws, he held a bowl of dumplings.
Xiang's beak remained open at the sight, stunned.
Po noticed Xiang staring at his bowl and furrowed his eyebrows. "What?! When I'm nervous, I have to eat something." With these words, Po stuffed another dumpling in his mouth.
Xiang shook his head disapprovingly at the behavior. "This is village manners. Simply unworthy. And that accompanies someone like him." By "him," he meant Shen.
Po seemed to suspect that and swallowed the dumpling with a acidulous expression.
Liu tried to calm things down. She was sure that Xiang just wanted to vent his worries. "Unfortunately, we haven't heard anything yet," she answered calmly. "Neither good nor bad."
Po frowned. Then he tiptoed to the door and listened. But there was really nothing to be heard, no matter how hard he pressed his ear to the wood.
"How did you actually know how Dao would react?" he finally turned to Xiang.
Xiang folded his wings, but then he answered truthfully. "When he told me that he often played fighting games with his reflection, I suspected that in his trance state he might mistake Shen for a reflection. But with me, maybe he thought it was his father..." He paused.
Shenmi tilted her head questioningly. "You meant your father, right?"
Xiang turned away. It was so strange for him to call someone his father who he'd never known. A father he shared with others. His eyes wandered back to the door.
He jumped sharply when the door moved. The doctor, who was an old rabbit, stepped out, but immediately he closed the door again.
"How is he?" Xiang asked immediately before any of the others could ask the same question.
The old rabbit stroked his forehead. "The wounds looked worse than expected. But he is out of danger."
Relief filled the room. Even Po let out a soft "Hurrah" and put three dumplings in his mouth.
The door opened again and Ān-Mā stepped into the hallway. She looked around in surprise when she saw the assembled crew.
Shenmi came running towards her immediately. "Nanny! Can I see uncle Dao? Please!"
Ān-Mā looked at her in silence, then she stroked Shenmi's forehead with a smile. "Unfortunately, he hasn't woken up yet. He needs some rest. But I'm sure you can see him soon." Her gaze automatically wandered to Xiang. He seemed to have had the same question, but Ān-Mā shook her head. "Give him his rest. Also, I would have to clean him first. Surely he wants to look good when his family comes to a sick bed visit."