Under a Hundred Skies

2

IT IS HUA CHENG'S BIRTHDAY!

So a chapter update.

Enjoy~

"Ma, I am heading out." Hua Cheng called out as he strapped on his rubber keto shoes. His attire was better than the first day he saw Xie Lian and he had taken an effort to comb his damp nape length hair properly.

It was late in the afternoon. The sun was hovering over the edge of the mountain ranges around the town, the temperament of the light much better than the rough afternoon blaze. Far away from the bazaar, tucked away in the woods along the hill slopes were houses of varying stories - most of them being just one or two. The paint of the houses were faded, some had deep iron stains on the side wall. But the shadowy lawns were well kept, with little shrubs and bushes of pink yellow white flowers. There were trees and undergrowth everywhere around the houses, and a walking trail where grass had been trampled on so much that that part was bald of any grass - started from the main iron grilled gates of the houses and led away into the heart of the town.

"Take your little brother with you." The busy housewife answered back from the kitchen. But half of her voice was drowned by the loud sizzling of vegetables being fried.

Hua Cheng could pretend he did not hear a word and was about to step out but...

The menace already came running with a war cry.

"Bhaiya" (elder brother).

And swung himself over Hua Cheng's hips.

"I wanna go out too. I wanna go out too." E-Ming yelled in a singsong.

Hua Cheng had this irresistible urge to smack his brother on the head, dump him and leave silently, but he knew that would get him into deeper trouble. So, he just called back,

"I can't take him. He always causes a ruckus."

"What kind of a useless elder brother are you, not taking care of your sibling?" His mother yelled from the kitchen, and the sound of aggressive scraping of the red hot metal ladle on the red hot metal pot was like a little, no scratch that, a huge warning to Hua Cheng.

"Ma, I am 17, and this monkey is 7." Hua Cheng tried to reason with a patient voice, even though he knew logic would fall on deaf ears.

"I have a life of my own."

"I am not a monkey! I don't have a tail." E-Ming protested.

"Oh, you had a tail when you were born, but we had to chop it off, to make you look a bit human." Hua Cheng said, his lips curling into a cheeky smirk when he saw E-Ming's gleeful face morph into an aghast one.

"No!" E-Ming screamed, his large eyes gathering tears.

"Mamma!" he howled, and let go of his elder brother's clothes. Hua Cheng scrunched his face and covered his ears tight to protect them from the shrill crying.

"Life of your own, my foot."

The scraping ceased and his mother came down the hall to the front door, adjusting her salwar kameez, to where both her children were standing.

"E-Ming, shut up. Everyone is kind of a monkey." she said, her voice gentle but firm - a tone none of the boys could talk back to.

"No, I am a tiger." E-Ming screamed, rushing to cling to his mother's garment this time. But she did not pick him up, not while he was throwing a meaningless tantrum.