It is hard to think clearly while you’re suffering from the pains of starvation. Every coherent thought or half-formed idea stirring in your mind is interrupted violently by the sudden feeling of someone twisting a knife in your gut. Every other moment where the pain is not immediately present, it lingers like a haunting echo in the hollow of the belly, hunger calling out to every inch of the body, threatening to pull the stomach in on itself.
Ru Meng’s mind flickered from one emotion to the next; one sensation to the other. Grief— hunger— regret— anger— fear— pain— pain— sadness— grief. The pain didn’t bother him so much as the complete inability to focus on anything at all. He was chipping away at a rock with a hammer and chisel, but his hands were not moving with any purposeful intent, but of their own accord. He felt like a stalactite dripping water onto the ground below to form a puddle. Not a thing that did anything consciously, just something that was.
The hours felt longer; the minutes felt longer; even the seconds felt like a thick paste stretched across a long, winding tunnel. Everything sucked. Even the prospect of sleep and rest, which had seemed so enticing just moments ago, seemed like threadbare comfort compared to the desperate hunger in his stomach.
Nothing but food could bring Ru Meng any relief right now. Not even the sight of his new friends not-too-subtly huddling towards him as they chipped away at the rocks. In truth, he was a little annoyed at them, largely out of jealousy that they had had something to eat for dinner. Also, even though he knew that his predicament had nothing at all to do with them and it was his own fault for slacking and getting caught, a small part of him resented the boys for not telling him that Hakimi was such a snitch.
He said nothing when Han Yang shuffled to his side. Keeping his voice as low as he could while he looked down at his rock, the older boy said, “You okay, Ru Meng? What did Lan do to get you punished?”
Ru Meng flinched a little in annoyance. Lan hadn’t done anything to him. If anything, he helped him avoid digging himself into more trouble. If it wasn’t because they were working, he wanted to turn around and shout at Han Yang.
He frowned and said, “He didn’t—”
Before he could finish his sentence, however, Han Yang dropped something in his lap, looking around to make sure no one was watching them.
“Talk later,” he whispered as he inched away from Ru Meng.
Ru Meng looked down to find a small piece of meat hanging from a tiny bone, all of it still covered in a thin film of Han Yang’s saliva. He quickly put the meat in his mouth and chewed it slowly, taking his time to suck the marrow out of the bone before he swallowed everything in a single go. He turned and gave Han Yang a meek smile, feeling warmth spread through his chest.
Ru Meng was still very hungry and very tired, but the small act of kindness made everything seem that much more bearable. Somehow, work hours finally came to an end.
Everyone grabbed a blanket and the boys gathered together again, just like yesterday. They seemed both eager and nervous to ask Ru Meng why he had been punished. Chu Wen was paler than usual and even the usually composed Wu Qing appeared to be anxious for answers.
“You all right, Ru Meng?” asked the wide-nosed Hafiz. There was a slight accent to his Mandarin, but there was no mistaking the concern in his voice as he said, “We’ve all been there. Had to go a day or two without food for one reason or another. It sucks.”
“I’ll live,” Ru Meng said, “but it really does suck.”
Someone gave him a reassuring pat on the back.
“So what happened exactly?” Peng Nan piped in from behind.
“Was it Lan again?” said Han Yang grimly.
Ru Meng resisted the urge to tell him off and just said, “No, it wasn’t Lan. In fact, he tried to help me.”
He then recounted the whole incident to the boys, who listened attentively and groaned when Hakimi was mentioned.
“Of course it was Hakimi,” scoffed Wu Qing, “good little boy always trying to impress his daddy.”
“He does that all the time. We just try and avoid him if we can,” said Arjun.
“Because we can’t do anything to him or his goons. They’ll just run off to tattle on us,” explained Peng Nan.
“Well, it's not like we can’t do anything about them,” said Han Yang with a threatening tone.
“Han Yang, you’re not thinking about picking another fight again, are you? We went two days without food the last time we did that,” said Hafiz disapprovingly.
“And Hakimi went a week with a black eye,” Wu Qing said with a bold laugh that was just a little too loud.
The boys fell silent as Liao Hua came over and gave them each a good kick in the ribs.
“Well, he kept getting us in trouble for a whole month after that, so we should probably just keep our hands to ourselves,” Hafiz said.
The boys whispered and joked around for a little longer, but ultimately decided to just let things slide. They told Ru Meng to always stay on his guard and shared a few helpful tips for if he wanted to slack off and take a rest without being noticed.
Ru Meng couldn’t be more grateful, but something gnawed on the back of his mind.
“Han Yang, is Lan really as bad as you say? I’ve talked to him and he really doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would betray his friend.”
Everyone fell quiet. After a pause, Han Yang said with brusquely and bitingly, “Well, he did. And if I were you, I would avoid getting too close with him.”
“Sorry,” muttered Ru Meng in the darkness.
The conversation floundered and died out shortly after.
A long while later, when everyone seemed to have fallen asleep, Ru Meng felt a soft hand tap him on the shoulder.
He turned around and heard Chu Wen’s voice, “I know what you mean. Lan’s scared and timid like me, but he was always nice to everyone.”
He paused for a moment.
“B-b-but he did report Vardan and get him in trouble, so…”
Ru Meng thanked the boy and turned away to try and sleep. He patted his chest, feeling for the two coins hidden in the seam of his shirt as his mind churned restlessly. It was hard. More than once, nightmares or hunger woke him from his sleep. One time, he heard someone’s footsteps echoing in the cave when everyone was supposed to be asleep.
Or perhaps it was just a figment of his imagination.
Ru Meng’s mind wandered everywhere as he tried to fall asleep.
It had been two days now.
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The hunger pains returned in the morning in full force, screaming bloody murder as they clawed and tore up Ru Meng’s insides. He barely found the strength in him to get up and go to work, but there was something he had to do.
Their wardens had changed once again— Liao Hua was missing. Chen Jin and Rayyan were the ones overseeing their labor. Their assigned groups were the same as yesterday. The boys gave Ru Meng a few reassuring words and pats on the shoulder before everyone shuffled off into position.
Ru Meng must have looked like a ghost when he stepped into the tunnel, because Lan flinched rather visibly at the sight of his face.
They worked in silence as usual for several minutes until Lan blurted out in a soft voice, “I’m sorry.”
He looked guilty and anxious, almost as if he was expecting some sort of reprimand. Ru Meng was surprised to hear an apology; he hadn’t expected one at all. It wasn’t Lan’s fault what had happened to him.
He smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it.”
Lan seemed much more relieved after that, but the incident kept Ru Meng thinking. The more time he spent with the boy, the less likely he found him to be someone who would betray a close friend. But he did.
So, the real question was: why?
Ru Meng had torn off a piece of his shirt to use as a makeshift bandage for his left hand. It still hurt, but it kept the chafing and bleeding to a minimum. At least the handle of the pickaxe wouldn’t keep slipping from his grip now. He made sure that Rayyan had brought Hakimi and the other boys out for their noon prayer before he leaned against the wall, away from Chen Jin’s line of sight.
Lan panicked a little when he saw this, which made Ru Meng panic a little, but after some persuasion, he managed to pacify the boy, though he still seemed very nervous.
Ru Meng reveled in the act of rebellion; he knew it was wrong and quite risky to be slacking off again, so soon after he had just been punished for doing it, but he liked that he was openly defying Rayyan. It was a strange feeling. He had never done something when he knew he wasn’t supposed to do it. He had always listened to his father. His father had always been right. And now his father waited for him to go back to save him. How much longer could he wait, sick and hungry as he was when Ru Meng left him there?
An intense worry wormed its way through Ru Meng’s heart again. He knew what he had to do. After a short break, Ru Meng went back to work.
“Lan,” he said, “were you the one who dug that escape tunnel?”
Ru Meng turned to look at Lan straight in the eyes. The boy looked back at him anxiously. Neither of them said anything for a moment.
Unsure if Lan didn’t quite understand what he said, Ru Meng clarified, “Uh, the tunnel that got Vardan punished, I mean.”
Lan continued staring at him. Footsteps came from outside the tunnel. The two of them quickly continued swinging their pickaxes.
After what seemed like an eternity, the frail-looking boy looked at Ru Meng and said firmly, “Yes, I did. I was the one who dug the tunnel and I reported Vardan because I didn’t want to get in trouble.”
He gritted his teeth and went back to work after that. Ru Meng could tell that he didn’t want to talk anymore, but it didn’t matter. He had gotten what he wanted to know. The two of them continued working all the way until dinner, not sharing a single word between them. The tension was thick and rested uneasily on the shoulders of both children. Several times, he caught Hakimi staring in his direction with those scheming, hawk-like eyes of his. He wanted to yell at him, but he was too hungry to do anything other than work and he had better behave if he wanted to change that. Ru Meng sucked it all up and put himself into the literally back-breaking work of mining. Meanwhile, inside his mind, a plan had hatched and was slowly coming out of its shell.
After several excruciatingly exhausting and painful hours, dinner was finally served. Rayyan was serving dinner again and when Ru Meng finally got to the front of the line, the smiling man bent down and filled his bowl to the brim.
“I hope you remember this lesson, yes, Ru Meng?”
Ru Meng nodded obediently. He would show this man a lesson. Still, a not-tiny part of himself shivered to think what punishment this disingenuous man would dole out in response to what he was planning to do.
Either way, he had been waiting for over a day to eat now and more food was always welcome. He sat down with the boys and cracked jokes together over dinner, smiling as they ate. It was a heavenly feeling, to eat once more after starving for so long. He offered to share some of his extra soup with the boys, but they all refused it. Ru Meng smiled even wider, knowing that they all wanted him to have more to eat after starving for so long.
When Chen Jin brought Vardan back from whatever solitary labor they had him do, Ru Meng noticed the mood of the group dampened as always. Han Yang, in particular, always looked downcast and angry whenever he saw Vardan’s tired, emaciated form. The teenage boy was bigger than all of them, but the various lash wounds and bruises on his body made it clear that he was having a hard time.
Ru Meng uttered a little blessing for Vardan, and then one for himself. He would need it.
Dinner came to an end and everyone went to work. Ru Meng picked up his tools and sat down very close to where Chen Jin and Rayyan were watching over them, which also happened to be close to where Hakimi and his group were sitting. Hakimi shot him a stern glare. Ru Meng gave him his best mean face and focused on his work. Han Yang and the rest of the boys were puzzled why he chose to sit there, but they nevertheless sat close to him, each of them throwing nasty looks at Hakimi and his group as they passed by. Wu Qing even gave them a middle finger and just barely avoided getting seen by Chen Jin.
Ru Meng counted the time as best as he could. The more time passed by, the colder his palms became. He was putting all his eggs in this one basket, betting everything on a single roll of the dice. He went through everything he knew and everything he had found out in the past two days and prayed that the path he saw through the mist was the right one.
One magical stone. Two magical stones.
Work was slow today. Perhaps because he couldn’t focus. Even Chu Wen had unearthed more stones than he did. The round-faced boy was clearly in a good mood.
Three magical stones.
Rayyan stood up and rounded up the Muslim boys for their nightly prayer. Together, they walked out of the cave and headed somewhere else.
Finally, the time had come.
Ru Meng raised the hammer in his right hand and hesitated for a moment. He switched the hammer to his left hand and raised it as high as he could. He clenched his teeth and swung the hammer down on his right thumb with all his strength. He let out a genuine scream of pain.
His friends immediately turned to look at him and started fussing over his injury.
“Are you okay?” Peng Nan asked.
Ru Meng nodded through clenched teeth while looking out of the corner of his eye. Chen Jin was stalking him.
The boys quickly scattered when their master arrived.
“What is it?” Chen Jin asked gruffly.
Ru Meng blinked tears out of his eyes as he said, “I-I hit my thumb. I don’t think I can keep working.”
Chen Jin was used to these sorts of shenanigans. Fake injuries, made-up illnesses, these children always come up with tricks to get out of work. Frustrated and impatient, he said, “Show me.”
Ru Meng gingerly extended his right hand and removed his left hand for Chen Jin to see his thumb. Just as the stout, old man bent down for a better look, he was greeted with a fistful of sand to his face.
He yelped in pain and Ru Meng immediately scrambled for the unguarded exit. The chains on his feet clattered as he ran, the manacles weighing heavy on his ankles, scraping off his skin with every swift lunge. He sprinted past the children all around him as they watched on with their mouths agape. His friends, in particular, looked shocked beyond belief. Oh, how much he wished to see Hakimi’s face right now. Not that it would matter.
Ru Meng ignored the pains shooting through his body, both from all the work this morning and the manacles biting into his flesh. He ran with all he had.
“Stand there, you brat!” Chen Jin roared and started chasing him, but Ru Meng had made it out of the cave.
He looked right, where Rayyan had brought the children, half-expecting his smiling but humorless face waiting for him. However, the tunnel was simply empty. Ru Meng turned and ran left. He was already starting to feel the weight of his own body and the chains.
They not only hurt his ankles as he ran, but the added weight from all the chains on him slowed him down considerably. Nevertheless, Ru Meng ran with all he had. Chen Jin slowly gained on him. Ru Meng made several panicked turns, hoping to lose the man in the labyrinth that was the underground caves of this colossal mountain, but it was all in vain. The short and stout man was a lot more athletic than his appearance would suggest.
Just a short few minutes later, Ru Meng felt something tug on his chain as he was running and he fell face-first into the ground.
“Caught you, you little bastard! Think you’re so smart, huh? Throw sand in my face?”
Chen Jin placed his foot over Ru Meng’s back and shouted into his ear so loud spittle covered his face. In his hurry, Chen Jin had forgotten his rattan cane behind, so he had no choice but to settle for his limbs. He kicked Ru Meng several times before grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and delivering a heavy blow to Ru Meng’s stomach.
Ru Meng threw up in his mouth, but he forced himself to swallow his vomit. He didn’t want to waste any food, especially not when he was not likely to get any more in the near future.
Chen Jin kept up the beating for a good half-hour but held back just enough to not grievously injure the boy or break any bones. By the end of it, the only thing Ru Meng could do was moan. He was unrecognizable; swelling bruises had changed the shape of his face, while black bruises covered the length of his limb and torso.
He couldn’t quite remember what came next. He slipped in and out of consciousness. There were merely flashes of images and sensations: being slung over someone’s shoulder, being thrown to the ground, heavier and more chains slapped onto his limbs.
At long last, he was shoved onto the ground, where he found himself sitting beside a tall and dark teenage boy whose handsome features could not be diminished even by the tremendous abuse he had suffered. The teenage boy looked down at him and Ru Meng could see a faint twinkle in his eye.
Ru Meng let out a painful sigh of relief. At last, he was right where he wanted to be.