Under a Hundred Skies

3

GUYS!!! I am back with a new chapter. I hope you like it. No promises but i will try to update the next chapter soon. 

The twittering birds behind the thickery of the tree right next to his window was more intriguing than the book Xie Lian was reading. The crickets were loud and the sunlight was so clean that it struck golden over their soft lawn spread out in front of their white wooden house.

He kept the book down at the table, pushed back his chair and stretched like a cat waking up from a long nap. After popping a few joints, Xie Lian stared out of his window, out at the blue blue sky without a single cloud, his mind elsewhere.

How he wanted to sneak out and run to the bazaar.

But he could not risk it.

Jun Wu was home, somewhere on the ground floor, maybe in the library.

Xie Lian got off his chair with a sigh and collected his empty glass of shikanji (spiced lemonade) his grandmother had offered half an hour ago. He would love to have another helping. So he dragged himself out of his room and down the stairs to the kitchen.

'If you want more, call me' granny had said, but he knew she must be knitting or napping. He did not want to bother her.

"It should be somewhere here only..." He said to himself looking around the kitchen. Then he remembered, it must be in the fridge in the dining hall. He threaded his way out of the kitchen and stepped into the dining hall and stopped dead on his tracks immediately.

"What are you doing?" he couldn't help but gasp, for Quan Yizhen was couching in front of the fridge door, the door wide open, and so was his mouth.

Quan Yizhen jumped up and whipped his head around to look at XIe Lian with his large brown eyes filled with shock. He then sprang up immediately and dashed towards the open window.

"Hey wait!" Xie Lian called out hurriedly and extended his hand out to grab hold of him.

The garden boy was already one leg up on the window sill, ready to hop off anytime, but he paused and looked back over his shoulder.

"If you want something, you can always ask." Xie Lian said politely, fidgeting with the hem of his clothes. If it was Jun Wu who found the garden boy, he would have been accused of theft and fired immediately. To some extent, if this had happened before Xie Lian ever went to the town downhill, he would have thought that way as well.

But, after meeting the people and feeling their goodness of heart, Xie Lian knows better now.

The garden boy eyed him cautiously and very slowly climbed off the window sill and sat down on the floor under the window, cross legged.

"That thing has winter air in it." he said, face guilt-stricken as though he was indeed caught stealing..

Xie Lian tilted his head to the side, confused.

Winter air?

Cold air?

Oh cold air!

The realisation hit him.

"That's it's work." He laughed. "It makes winter air to keep food for longer"

The garden boy looked confused this time for the poor anglo indian ended up saying that bit of information in rapid English. Xie Lian did not know whether to laugh or cry, so he repeated in hindi.

The reaction he received was something XIe Lian wished he could preserve forever, it was utter disbelief and looked like he was a god who came up with that creation.