Chapter 2: Chapter 1
"You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly."
(Jalal al-Din Rumi)
Xin Yin Chu looked curiously at the mass of people hurrying along the sidewalks. That vibrant mixture of life was in stark contrast to the impassive stiffness that reigned inside the cockpit of the car he was travelling in.
"Yin Chu sit up composed. You don't want to show up at the hotel with a creased jacket, do you?" His mother's acidic rebuke redeemed him from his visual exploration.
It was his first trip abroad, and he was excited about it. In his eighteen years of life, his parents had never taken him anywhere. His free time and vacations had been punctuated, in addition to schoolwork, by countless extra lessons in deportment, foreign languages, applied mathematics, and many other boring things, which his parents deemed useful in forming the sole heir to the Xin family.
As such, even his appearance had to reflect that uniqueness. The perfectly pressed suit, the starched shirt, the soft hair combed back; he looked, in every way, like a younger photocopy of his father.
But he had always suffered from those restrictions. The only moments of freedom he had tasted as a child when his parents were away on some business trip. Only then did he and his beloved bǎomǔ [1] devote themselves to their greatest passion: gardening.
They would spend hours and hours taking care of the immense garden at home, carefully observing the growth and flowering of this or that plant. His bǎomǔ had taught him many things about medicinal plants and their healing properties.
Unfortunately for him, when his parents found out about his little 'rebellion', they didn't think twice about firing the young woman who, with so much love, had taken care of him from an early age. And now that she had left him, the noose that he had felt around his neck his whole life had begun to tighten more and more.
That 'family trip' was designed to bid him farewell before he left for the United States, where he would study at one of the famous Ivy League universities, under the strict control of his uncle. Almost a sort of the last gasp before the imprisonment that followed.
"Sir, we're here."
Yin Chu, fearing yet another rebuke, did not look up to look at the magnificent facade of the hotel they would be staying in. With his head down, he waited for the security guard to open the door for him to get out.
The angular ultra-modern building stood out for its elegance. The entrance's huge windows gave a glimpse of the imposing reception desk and the two finely appointed side lounges.
"This place looks rather chaotic to me. Why on earth did Mr Chen want us to stay here?" His mother's complaints were not long in coming.
"May I remind you that he is the one paying for our stay at this hotel." His father replied brusquely.
"Precisely why he could have found something less trivial and more discreet." His mother objected again. "And then...making us come all the way here. How absurd!"
"For the moment, that's what he can afford. Our collaboration, at the moment, should not attract media attention in China."
"And we had to come all the way to Istanbul so as not to arouse suspicion?" His wife ironized piquantly.
"That's enough now! How I conduct my business is my business. You are here for another reason. Get the accommodations right; after all, we'll only be here three days." His father's imperious voice ended his mother's string of protests.
Yin Cu sighed deeply. He should have been used to his parents' fights by now, but it was a pain every time he heard them so upset with each other.
He had long understood that there had never been love between his parents. They were just the result of the financial union of two of Beijing's most powerful families. Their marriage had been agreed upon as a very normal business arrangement. They were still together to keep up appearances and their hard-won social status, even though they had both been finding pleasure in other beds for years. And when they were forced to be together, hatred and resentment were the only things that brought them together; that, and their ironclad control over his life.
At that moment, an austere-looking, wispy young man appeared in front of the hotel entrance.
"Welcome, President Xin. My name is Zhing Yi, personal assistant to President Chen. President Chen will join you in a few minutes in the conference room on the second floor. I will help you with the check-in paperwork. If you would like to follow me." He introduced himself after bowing to his father.
"Very well. Will Chen Xue also be present?" The man asked.
"Certainly. The young lady is waiting to meet Master Yin Chu."
At those words, Yin Chu froze on the sidewalk. What did this all mean?
"Yin Chu, please don't just stand there. And fix your hair." His mother's petulant voice roused him from his thoughts.
"Who is Chen Xue?" He asked weakly.
"What?"
"Who is Chen Xue?" He repeated the question in a clearer voice, looking suspiciously at his mother's face.
"What a question! Upon your return from the United States, she will become your wife." She answered him carelessly.
Wife? How could she become his wife if he didn't even know her? What if they hadn't fallen in love? What hope could their union have? He didn't want to live in the same nightmare that his parents lived in. That marriage was a sham, even before it was celebrated.
Taking a deep breath, Yin Chu brought his hand up to the level of his tie knot. Was it just his impression, or had it suddenly tightened even more around his neck?
Entering the hotel, he looked around in bewilderment as his parents approached the smiling receptionist. The lobby was full of guests; all those smiling people were getting ready to start their luxurious morning tours, unaware of what he was getting into.
Only one figure seemed not to be part of that joyful and refined picture.
Yin Chu lingered his gaze on a young man, sitting on a small armchair not far from him. His long crossed legs were wrapped in a pair of frayed jeans, his short-sleeved T-shirt was slightly tight on his broad shoulders, and his long black hair was gathered in a low ponytail.
The profile had a haughty air about it, and the careless attitude with which he looked at the screen of his cell phone made it clear that he didn't give a damn about all that morning comings and goings.
Suddenly that silent figure turned to look at him. The face was remarkably handsome, piercing black eyes, a small straight nose, and a slightly fleshier lower lip.
Yin Chu looked at him for a few moments dumbfounded, that guy was definitely a fish out of water in that place, yet he didn't seem to care about the indignant looks of the people passing by him.
How he wished, too, that he didn't have to worry about other people's judgment. With this thought, he turned his attention back to his parents, who were again arguing over room choice.
Am I also destined to live like this? He asked himself.
He looked at his parents for a few more moments, then turned to look again at the stranger, who was now staring at him with a questioning look and then looked at the door behind him.
His head whirled. Suddenly even the tailored jacket seemed tighter. He brought his hand back to his neck and, with a decisive gesture, untied the knot that was choking him. He slipped off his tie and then slipped off his jacket.
His mother turned around just then and, with horror painted on her face, shouted, "Yin Chu, what are you doing?"
Without answering, he turned and ran out of the hotel.
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Azad strolled quietly through the narrow streets of the spice bazaar. Although he had only been there a few years, by now, he knew almost every vendor who crowded the place.
"Azad, my friend, what are you doing here today?" his friend Soner, the locum vendor, asked him cheerfully.
"I had to come. Something must happen today." He replied calmly.
"What do you want to happen? We'll be invaded by tourists like every day." Laughed the other man heartily.
"True, but today, I think one more special than the others will come." He revealed to him, bringing a hand to his heart.
"I don't want to contradict you." Said Soner, raising his hands in surrender. "Thanks to your signs, you saved my little Tan's life."
"It wasn't me; it was the young Ayaz who saved her," Azad replied, denying that credit.
"But if not for you, the boy could not have found her."
"The important thing is that everything went well, my dear friend." He concluded, greeting him with a wide gesture of his arm.
After a few steps, he turned into the alley where his spice store hidden from the great crowd. Although it was not in the great circuit of stalls on the main street, locals and tourists often stormed.
People loved his unobtrusive way of interacting with them. He never sold more than he had to; the right spice in the right quantity to the right person, that was his credo.
Opening the shutter, he heard a clear chirp nearby. He lifted his eyes and was surprised to see his little morning visitor again, perched on a beam above his head.
"Have you come to warn me, my little friend?"
The bird descended from its perch and rested gently on his shoulder, nipping at his beard.
"I understand, I understand. I don't have to stay here. But where do I have to go?" He asked, laughing at that gentle tickle.
As if the little bird understood him, he rose into the air and headed back the way he had come.
Azad retraced his steps, and just as he reached the alley entrance, he saw a young boy in a rotten sweat looking around in bewilderment.
His feathered friend flew over the young man's head a couple of times before soaring off to who knows where.
"Ahh! You're here already," he murmured before whistling in the boy's direction.
[1] bǎomǔ: nanny.
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