Chapter-2: A Rainy Night

It is a Dark and stormy night, countless droplets of rain comes pouring down like a punishment of thousand blades. The rain clatters onto the ground and trees. Ginormous flashes of lightning falls down and thunder made sounds like war drum echoing far and wide.

The rain leaves a heavy weight in the heart like the heavens are depressed about something. It looked like the heavens are crying.

In the outskirts of a small village, a man clad in black raincoat is walking against the ferocious winds with unsteady steps like he is about to be swept away by the strong winds.

" Huff.... Huff..... Just a little bit far and i will reach the village. Why is it raining in this season and such heavy rain, even i am having trouble with walking. I hope everyone in the village is safe and sound." The man muttered in a rushed voice.

Suddenly the man hears a sound. The sound was almost drowned in the heavy sound rain.

'Huh? What is that sound?' the man thought to himself. Because of curiousity, the man heads towards the sound with difficulty. When the man got near the sound, he saw that a small baby boy wrapped in a red silk cloth was crying and shivering due to the cold atmosphere.

"Wah.....wah.....wah....." The baby was crying sorrowfully like he lost something precious. It's entire body was covered by a red cloth and only it's face was visible.

The man was socked by the discovery. "Which parent left their baby in the middle of nowhere in this kind of weather." The man said to himself.

The man felt plaintive when he saw how the child was crying and took it into his arms. "What kind of irresponsible parent left their precious child in a dangerous place like this." The man felt displeased when he thought of this.

The looked at the baby in his arms who was crying and said,"Sorry child.... Looks like your parents abandoned you here. Why don't you come with me to my home. Since i found you here, i will take care of you and rise you from now on. Let us go to a warm place."

The man took the baby in with him and headed towards the village in the distance.

. . . . . .

A while later he arrived in front of his house and knocked loudly." Father, I'm home. Please hurry and open the door." He shouted.

A second later, the door opened and a 55 year old man came outside. He was the father of this man. He was surprised when he saw his son carrying a small child in his arms.

"Come inside and warm yourself." The oldman wanted to ask some questions but stopped and invited the man to come inside.

The man went in and changed into some warm clothes.

When he disclosed the clothes around the child, he found something like a jade badge with the baby. There was something written on the badge. He glanced at it for a second and then didn't pay any attention.

He hurriedly wiped off the water from the baby and wrapped him in a warm clothes and went to his father who was waiting for him.

The baby had also stopped crying and looking around with a look of curiousity.

When he went to his father, the old man was sitting on the floor beside a fire place. He looked at his son and asked," Where did you go in this heavy rainstorm? You know that you wife is pregnant and can give birth anytime. Where did you disappear at this important time?"

" Father, i went to the nearby mountains to get the herbs we need to make a safe delivery. I didn't expect that it would take so much time." The man apologized.

His father didn't say anything and looked at the child his arms and said," Then where did you get this child from?"

"I found him in the village outskirts. His parents abandoned this child. What a poor child. He just came to this world and suffered this injustice. They don't have a shred of humanity. How can they even have the heart to do this to a newborn child?" The man was furious and shouted.

"You don't have any right to rebuke their actions without knowing the contents. No parents in this world can abandon their child. They must have their own difficulties for doing this." The old man reprimanded his son.

The man's expression eased a bit when he heard this. Suddenly he remembered something and took out a badge from his robes.

"Right, Father. I found this badge with this boy. There are some characters written on this. Take a look at this." He handed the badge to his father.

The took the badge and was surprised to see this badge. This was a blue coloured and resplendently carved jade badge. There were beautiful patterns around the edge which gives a royal feeling to it's observer.

On this badge, there were some words carved on to it :- 'ASHMUS RULER.'

"Looks like it's his name. So his parents have already named him. What a good name." The old man said to his son. "Since his parents have named him, that means they didn't abandon him willingly and were forced to do it. They must have some serious problems that forced them to leave their child."

"So it's like that. Looks like i misunderstood them." The old man's son said. "Seems like this child has some powerful background."

"So what are you going to do with this child." The oldman asked.

"Since fate has brought us together with this child, then I'm going to take care of him." The man said resolutely.

The oldman stayed silent for a while then said," then I will support you with this. But before that why don't you meet with your daughter."

The man was stunned for a bit then suddenly stood up hurriedly," Father, why didn't you tell me earlier? I'm going to meet her right now." Then he ran away from the fireplace to the innermost room of the house.

The oldman also stood up and followed behind him, saying," Don't make too much of a noise. If my cute granddaughter wakes up, I'm goning to beat you up."

The man stopped before the entrance and said with a trembling voice," I'll make sure not to wake her up."

He then opened the door to the room and both of them entered.

Whey they reached the room, they saw a middle-aged woman resting on a bed with a happy expression. Beside her, there was a newborn cute baby girl sleeping peacefully.

She had snow-white and soft skin.

She had small and smooth hair growing on her tiny head.

The man's eyes teared up and he handed over the child he was carrying to his father and bent down over his daughter's head and gave a gentle kiss on her forehead.

It was at this time, the woman on the side also woke up. She looked at the man who was kissing her daughter with a annoyed expression and said," Where had you gone this entire time. I was tired of waiting and fell asleep."

"I'm sorry... Dear. I didn't know it would take so long to find some herbs and also this weather suddenly changed and i couldn't arrive in time. Please forgive me." The man hurriedly wiped the tear from his eyes and apologized.

"Hmph. I will forgive you this time. But next time you do something like this, i will get mad." The woman harrumphed with a bit of anger in her eyes.

Suddenly the woman noticed her father-in-law behind her husband with a slight smile on his face and he was carrying a baby boy in his arms.

The boy had small and silky black hair and even though the boy was just born, he had a cute and handsome face. She knew with just a glance that he will become an extremely handsome man when he grows up.

Seeing the woman looking at the baby, her husband explained everything that happened before.

"So this poor child was abandoned." The woman had a sorrowful expression on her face after hearing his words.

"Then we will take care of this baby. From now on he will be a son of this house." The woman exclaimed with a unyielding look in her eyes.

Hearing her words, her husband and father in law looked at each other and a faint smile appeared on their face.