Leander leapt to his feet.“Is something wrong?”He cursed himself for not having checked the baskets before bringing them home.He and Xi had been rolling around in the grass like delinquent teenagers for long enough that something dangerous might have climbed inside.
Father Xiaobo reached into the basket and pulled out a feather that was black at its base before transitioning to gold near the tip.
“It must’ve come from the bird that attacked us,” Xi said.“I caught a flash of gold before I went tumbling down the hillside.”
Father Xiaobo and Mother Huiling blinked at them with incredulous expressions.Father Xiaobo held up the feather and asked slowly, articulating each word, “The bird that knocked you over possessed feathers like these?”
Leander said, “I did not see the bird, only felt it.”He reached up and touched his shoulder where the talons had raked him.
“I saw a flash of gold,” Xi said.“It scratched Lian badly .Do you have some medicine that could take the sting out?I know Lian will not ask, but I also know it must hurt..”
“Scratches?The bird marked you?”Father Xiaobo leapt off the couch.That startled Leander enough that he jumped to his own feet, and then Xi followed, leaving only Mother Huiling seated, her delicate fingers clutching her own neck.
“It’s just a scratch,” Leander said when Father Xiaobo rushed to him, pulling on his shoulder to turn him around.Leander touched his right shoulder by instinct, and Father Xiaobo tugged on that sleeve.While Leander understood the Nies saw themselves as his parents, he was no child to be fussed over.He tried to retreat from Father Xiaobo’s grasp.
“Let me see,” Father Xiaobo demanded.
“It’s not painful.”That was a slight exaggeration given the sting, but Leander focused on keeping his robe on and his dignity intact.Father Xiaobo was threatening both, and Leander could not back up without physically wrenching himself free of the fingers Father Xiaobo had tangled with his long sleeve.
“You don’t know if it’s going to get infected,” Xi said in a tone that suggested he knew best.Leander glared at him, and Xi glared right back.
“Enough, all of you!”Mother Huiling ended the debate by walking over and untying Leander’s belt without so much as anexcuse me.She shocked Leander into immobility.He couldn’t push her hands away, but without doing so, he found it very difficult to defend his outer robe.She had pulled it off before he could come up with a good argument for why she should leave him alone.That left him in a wide-necked shirt that functioned as an undershirt.
“Look!”Mother Huiling pointed to the scratches.
Father Xiaobo laughed loudly.“Our son is Phoenix-marked!”He said it again louder.“Our son is Phoenix-marked.”
“What?”Leander’s voice cracked like a teenage boy going through puberty.
Mother Huiling called to the servants.“Prepare a feast!Summon all the great families.Buy the finest ling food.Our son is Phoenix-marked.Proclaim it in the square.”She laughed, and Father Xiaobo slapped Leander on the back, and Xi stared at him as if Leander had any answers for what was going on.He did not.He most assuredly did not.
“We must prepare gifts for all our guests,” Mother Huiling said with excitement.
Leander did not want the Nie family going into debt to celebrate him.While it was clear they could afford it, he was not comfortable with anyone paying his way.He refused to even spend the 88,000 yuan they gave him because he didn’t like gifts.The very word ‘gift’ made him uncomfortable.
“If you need presents, you’re welcome to choose any of my baskets if they would be appropriate.I would not wish to offend anyone,” he said.
“Were the baskets present when the Phoenix appeared?”Father Xiaobo’s eyes were bright with excitement.Leander stared at him, his brain slowing like a computer trying to run too many programs at once.
“They were,” Xi said.“We were lucky the baskets stayed at the top when we slipped, or we would have lost more than one.”
Father Xiaobo clapped his hands.“Wonderful!Wonderful!”
Mother Huiling smiled until her wrinkles deepened into valleys.“I shall wait for responses to the invitations and determine which guests will receive which baskets.We shall make sure it is an intimate affair for only the greatest families.”
Leander desperately hoped that meant a dinner party for five, but he had a feeling it would not be that simple.Servants were rushing past open doors, and he could hear voices calling, which was unusual in a household where the servants spoke in low, soothing voices.
Mother Huiling was unpacking the nested baskets and checking the quality of each when Eldest Brother Zhiyuan marched in with the grace of an angry bull.“Father, Mother,” he greeted them with a quick bow and ignored Leander and Xi.“Why do I hear of a feast tonight?”
His father laughed.“If you have heard of feasting, then you have heard that your new brother has been Phoenix-marked.”
Eldest Brother Zhiyuan’s eyes narrowed, and Leander drew on everything he knew of Chinese etiquette.He bowed deeply.“Eldest brother, I hope your morning is full of fortune and success.”
Leander had hoped that would soothe any ruffled ego, but Brother Zhiyuan’s expression grew even darker.“Am I to feast the qidi of my second brother even while my second brother is missing?Does his life have no value now that he has provided a grandson?”
Father Xiaobo and Mother Huiling froze, their expressions dark with distress and Mother Huiling’s eyes shining with unshed tears.
“What?What has happened to Heng?”Leander asked, and his tone came closer to demanding than politeness allowed.None of the members of the Nie family would meet his eyes, not until Brother Zhiyuan squared his shoulders.“Second Brother Heng was following the outsiders in Yaan, but now he does not answer his phone and Auntie Daiyu says that she cannot find him.”
