Starry River of the Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

Madame Chang said, giving him a pleased smile. “The roosters are calling out the sun, just like the Celestial Rooster did a long time ago.”
    “A long time ago,” Mr. Shan echoed unexpectedly. For a moment, Rendi saw a flicker in his eyes, a sharp brightness he had never seen before. But then it disappeared, and Mr. Shan slurped from his bowl, dribbles of soup falling into his beard.



CHAPTER
8
    At night, the sky remained moonless, and the mournful sounds, as much as he tried to ignore them, kept Rendi awake in his bed. He gritted his teeth in frustration. How many nights had the sky wailed? How long had he been in this village? Would a new guest ever come?
    But a new guest had come. For a moment, Rendi stopped his usual glowering and started to think about Madame Chang. She had brought no cart for him to hide in, but she had brought stories. And when she told them, Rendi had felt transported—away from the village andinn he despised and from unwanted memories. He remembered Madame Chang looking at him with that pleased, almost tender smile. It had been a smile that a mother would give her child, and it filled Rendi with a longing that made him turn and sigh in his bed almost as much as the groaning sky.
    “
Ooooooo-oooooohhh
.” A muffled whine blended into the howls of the sky. But this moan had no eerie echo and came from right outside Rendi’s room. He rose from his bed and opened the door to see Peiyi huddled in the doorway of her room across the way with a lantern.
    “It’s so dark,” Peiyi said. “The stars don’t really shine, and the moon is gone.”
    Did she hear the wails? Was it not just in his head? Rendi began to ask but then looked at Peiyi’s small, upturned face. As her frightened eyes met his, he saw the start of tears forming. A wavering softness seemed to curl inside Rendi, like smoke from incense. Peiyi reminded him so much of… the memory stung him with a slapping pain. Rendi scowled.
    “You probably just scared it away with your drippy pig nose,” he said.
    Fear disappeared from Peiyi’s face as anger replaced it. “Horrible! You don’t care about anything!” she said, her white cheeks turning red with rage. “Everyone else leaves. Why won’t you?”
    “Peiyi, why aren’t you sleeping?” Master Chao’s voice called from the stairs. As he came into view, Rendi felt himself flush. “And you too, Rendi?”
    “We were just…” Rendi began, but Master Chao cut him short.
    “Go to bed,” Master Chao said. “Both of you.”
    They nodded, and Rendi silently retreated to his room. However, inside he was seething and wanted to scream with the sky. “Everyone else leaves. Why won’t you?” Peiyi had said. He would leave if he could! If only a guest with a carriage or cart would come. It wouldn’t matter where it was headed. Any place would be better than here! Any place but here, Rendi thought, or home.
    But it was here he was stuck. The next morning brought the rooster’s crow, the hot sun, and a new chore, but no new guests. Rendi sagged at the table at breakfast.
    “That old well in the back dried up for good last week,” Master Chao said. “And now it’s falling apart. I don’t wanta guest taking a night stroll to fall into it. Rendi, you’d better fill it up this morning.”
    “Fill it?” Rendi asked.
    “I guess it’s the first well in the village to go dry,” Master Chao said. “If something doesn’t change, there’ll be more. Pretty soon, all the villagers will have to get their water from the Half-Moon Well like we do. Peiyi will show you where the shovel is.”
    Moments later, with the shovel on his shoulder, Rendi followed Peiyi as she crossed the yard with skipping leaps. The sun seemed to be rising up into the sky by jumps and leaps as well because the top of Rendi’s head felt as if it were smoldering. Full of resentment, he thought of shaded pavilions and cool, iced plum juice brought by bowing servants.
    What am I doing here?
Rendi glared in