Ru Meng woke to a rude start, with a rough kick to his back. The tall figure of Liao Hua loomed over him, clicking his tongue and flashing a smirk as he drove his shoe into someone else’s stomach.
They were made to line up and were each assigned things to carry and push: lanterns, cartfuls of tools and rocks, utensils, barrels of water, pots and many other things. Chen Jin had disappeared and in his place, Rayyan led all the children into the tunnels. Poor Vardan was at the very front, his chains in Rayyan’s hand. Liao Hua happily rounded up the stragglers in the back, throwing kicks and punches with glee. Ru Meng felt sorry for the kids in the back, but he couldn’t be happier than he had got in line early.
As the group walked, he tried to memorize the paths, hoping it would come in handy when he tried to escape, but soon came to a shocking realization. They were going down a completely different path from yesterday.
He turned to look at Han Yang in confusion and the older boy asked, “What?”
“We’re going to a different place from yesterday.”
“Ahh. It happens quite often. The gemstones we are digging for are quite rare, so we have to keep moving to new places to dig.”
“Sometimes they make us wake up in the middle of the night to change locations,” Chu Wen said as he yawned beside the two of them.
Soon, they stopped at a new location, an uneven and not very spacious cave. The rock here was hard and jagged, unlike the limestone that was so commonly found throughout the mountain. Rayyan stopped to examine the rock structures. He then called out the kids one by one, splitting them into several small groups, unlike the large groups from yesterday. He instructed each group to dig at specific spots.
The group was split into two, Han Yang, Hafiz and Wu Qing were put to digging a mine shaft in a higher spot that required some climbing, whereas Arjun, Chu Wen and Peng Nan had to expand a pre-existing tunnel. Ru Meng noted the very particular choice of keeping the boys together. Rayyan seemed to have been observing the children and their interactions.
Finally, Ru Meng’s name was called.
“Ru Meng, you’re with Lan. The two of you work over on that side. Keep digging until you find more stones like those from yesterday. Ask Lan if you have any questions.”
Then, to Lan, he said, “Keep up the good work.”
Han Yang rolled his eyes from a distance and Peng Nan gave him a reassuring pat as he walked by and said, “Watch your back in case he suddenly feels like stabbing you.”
Arjun gave him a thumbs up.
Rayyan’s insistence on putting him in a pair with Lan confirmed Ru Meng’s suspicion. He wasn’t favoring Lan; far from it, he didn’t trust him at all. He probably suspected he was the one who dug the escape tunnel. Rayyan was only putting on a show of favoritism to isolate him from the other children. But if that was the case, why put him with the newcomer? What if he paired up with the newcomer to try something fishy again?
In truth, Ru Meng wasn’t at all upset about the assignment despite what his new friends had told him about Lan. A small part of him felt sorry for the skinny boy and how he was being treated, even though he knew what he did. He understood how it felt like to be cold, alone and mistreated. It hurt to see him being shunned and bullied by the other kids. However, more than that, Ru Meng had an ulterior motive of his own to get closer to Lan.
From what he heard from the boys, no one had ever managed to escape from Rayyan’s clutch. He ran the show and he ran it very tight. He, Chen Jin and Liao Hua worked in shifts, one person tagging out for another after they had been on duty for two days. They never slept while they worked, even at night when the child slaves were resting. This meant that there was never a time that they weren’t watching over the children. Moreover, quite a few of the boys were actually fond of Rayyan, which meant even more pairs of vigilant eyes to watch out for any suspicious activity. There lay the question in Ru Meng’s mind: how had Lan managed to dig an escape tunnel under everyone’s noses without notice?
Ru Meng had been analyzing his predicament since yesterday. To escape, he would have to either overpower his captors, or slip away unnoticed. The first option was extremely risky and the consequences of failure were immense. If possible, Ru Meng would prefer to simply escape without having to fight.
If he could pry the answer out of Lan somehow, it would bring him one step closer to escaping. Back to his father. Nervousness and urgency scratched at Ru Meng’s heart again. How many days had it been? How many days until he escaped? He didn’t dare entertain the possibility that an escape was impossible. Despair would do him no good.
After assigning work to all the children, Rayyan picked out the same boys who went out for their night prayers last night and led them away again. Ru Meng saw this and made a mental note to ask Han Yang how often Rayyan and the Muslim boys went for prayers. It seemed like something that could turn out to be a window of opportunity down the line.
Meanwhile, Liao Hua set Vardan to work on a particularly hard boulder, all while watching over the other children in boredom.
Trying to avoid staring in Vardan’s direction, Ru Meng picked up his tools and went to work with Lan. He could swear the smaller boy flinched a little when he saw him walking over. Ru Meng felt a little guilty and wondered if he should tell the boys to be kinder to Lan later. He tried to smile at him, but between his lack of social interaction and the awkwardness between the two of them, it was no wonder Lan inched even further away from him. Ru Meng sighed. It would be difficult to talk to him.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
It was dead silence between the two of them. Elsewhere, he could hear people talking and chuckling amongst themselves and the sound of metal striking earth. He suddenly wished his partner was anyone else other than Lan. He didn’t like talking either, but it was dreadful just standing beside him knowing everything that had happened between him and Vardan and the boys. He wanted to say something, but he had no idea what.
‘Hey, how did you dig that tunnel without anyone finding out?’
Asking that from someone who’s known to snitch? He would be strung up and turned into a punching bag for Liao Hua before dinner.
‘Hi. I’m Ru Meng.’
Was he an idiot? Lan already knew his name. What’s the point of introducing himself again?
Ru Meng swung the pickaxe in his hands as hard as he could. Better chafe his hands raw than talk to Lan.
Work continued for several hours without rest. Rayyan had brought Hakimi and the others out for prayers two more times now. Ru Meng couldn’t help but feel his frustration towards them build with every painful swing of his pickaxe. His arms burned, his back ached and his legs were sore. His left hand throbbed like when it was first injured. It seemed unfair that they could take fifteen minutes of breaks every so often, when the only seconds of reprieve he got were the short water breaks they were permitted. He understood the rivalry between Han Yang’s group and Hakimi’s group a little better now. The other children had also fallen completely quiet now, too tired to sustain their little conversations.
Ru Meng wanted nothing more than rest. It almost seemed like Liao Hua had eyes on the back of his head. Whenever his arms really couldn’t swing any longer or when he needed a toilet break, the tall and threatening man always seemed to be looking over his shoulder cracking his knuckles. Ru Meng felt like crying, but there was nothing he hated more than weakness in himself. Blinking away tears, Ru Meng sucked it up and kept working.
Lunchtime came and passed by without any mention of food or even a break. Ru Meng and Lan were shoveling dirt into piles to clear the tunnel and as tiring as it was, Ru Meng was grateful for the break in the monotony of swinging his pickaxe. It also helped that they were several meters deep into the tunnel they were carving into the wall. Liao Hua didn’t have as direct a line of sight as before and Ru Meng finally managed to steal moments where he could just sit down and breathe.
As he leaned against the cool surface of the rock wall, Ru Meng looked up at Lan, hoping he would join him for a quick break. Perhaps a conversation could start that way. Somehow, he caught Lan’s beady little eyes. The two of them held the gaze for a brief second. The thin and gaunt boy shook his head subtly and Ru Meng couldn’t help but be disappointed. However, the boy then tipped his head slightly behind them with a nervous expression on his face.
Ru Meng turned to look and saw a dark-skinned boy with sharp facial features staring right at him. It was Hakimi. There was no doubt he was looking right at him. He had stopped swinging his pickaxe and had turned all the way over just to stare. There was nothing else nearby that could possibly interest him. Ru Meng scrambled to his feet and quickly continued working. He shot furtive glances at his back and was relieved to see that the unsmiling boy was no longer looking at him.
Ru Meng turned to Lan and gave him a nervous smile. The boy nodded back at him.
A few seconds later, Ru Meng said in a stiff monotone, “Hi, I’m Ru Meng.”
Lan nodded and said softly, “I know.”
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Ru Meng had been counting the seconds in his mind ever since he saw Rayyan light a fire and set a pot over it. He thought he saw him put what looked like bats and a handful of cave shrimp into the pot, but he was too hungry to be picky. He even added a small pouch of some mystery grain! At last, Rayyan called for everyone to line up for dinner. Ru Meng immediately cast aside his tools, wiped his hand on his shirt and got in line.
He had been hungry before when his father sometimes took too long to return home, but he never had to work through hunger. He could feel saliva rise in his mouth; he couldn’t wait for a taste of warm soup. Han Yang looked back and gave him an eager grin. Dinner was more than dinner. It was a warm belly, a chance to rest your tired limbs and time to spend talking with friends. Ru Meng knew he was a slave and hated it, but he could not help but look forward to this.
One by one, the children got their bowls filled. The occasionally lucky boy who got an extra large piece of bat wing or a full shrimp would let out a triumphant cry. Ru Meng rubbed the bowl in his hands impatiently. There were only four more people until it was his turn.
Just then, he noticed the line seemed to have been held up for a brief moment. He peered at the front of the line. A dark-skinned boy was leaning up to Rayyan’s ear, muttering something to him. It was Hakimi. As he stared, Ru Meng noticed that Rayyan was looking straight at him. He felt his stomach drop. A cold chill ran from the bottom of his spine to the tip of his fingers. The bowl trembled in his grasp. He looked down, away from Rayyan’s gaze and prayed to whatever gods were out there for whatever Hakimi was talking about to have nothing to do with him. He wanted nothing to do with Rayyan.
Slowly, the line started moving again. Ru Meng kept his gaze down, looking at his dirty toes. One step at a time, he moved closer and closer to the pot, until at last, he was staring at a pile of burnt wood.
He held his bowl out gingerly, hoping the ladle would reach out and pour soup into his bowl as it did for all the other boys.
Instead, all he got was Rayyan’s unnervingly soft voice.
“Why are you looking down, Ru Meng?”
Ru Meng shook his head and said nothing. Rayyan repeated his question, more firmly this time, “Why are you looking down, Ru Meng?”
Ru Meng didn’t say anything. He didn’t even move.
“Look at me, Ru Meng.” There was a snap to Rayyan’s voice now.
Too nervous to defy his orders, Ru Meng looked up and stared into Rayyan’s jet-black eyes. He did not have a smile on his face.
“Why wouldn’t you look at me, Ru Meng? Is it because you did something wrong?”
Ru Meng shook his head slightly, not wanting to admit to anything.
“You did something wrong, didn’t you, Ru Meng? You can at least be honest with me,” said Rayyan, his voice so smooth and calm that Ru Meng started shivering.
Ru Meng finally nodded.
“Good boy,” said Rayyan at last, with a reassuring smile. He stroked Ru Meng on the head and said, “I know this work is tough, but work is the foundation of everything. You’ll get used to it slowly. Take your time.”
“However,” his tone turned sharp, “food costs money. Money comes from selling those stones you dig. Therefore, those who don’t work, don’t eat. Otherwise, it’s not fair to the other boys who do their work properly, is it?”
“Now run along and start working, you can have your dinner tomorrow night. Think over your actions tonight, yes?”
Ru Meng’s stomach howled in pain, but he bit his lip and nodded. He shuffled away into a corner and started chiseling the newly mined rocks. It was only then that he realized how tense his entire body had been.