The children were already gathered around in an awkward huddle when they arrived, murmuring in low, anxious whispers.

Chen Jin flicked his bamboo cane. The thin but firm cane wavered with a threatening hum. The children shut up.

Rayyan dragged Ru Meng forward by his left hand and shoved him into the middle, between all the children and himself. Ru Meng stumbled, but did not fall. The chains jangled.

The silence was frozen in the air. Every eye was fixed on the boy in chains and the man pacing calmly behind him. Ru Meng kept his own eyes low, staring at his feet. He tried not to imagine what would come next, but only the worst came to mind.

Rayyan slowly walked over to the mining carts. He rolled up his sleeves, picked up a shovel and started filling a bucket with gravel and loose stones.

Crunch. Clatter. Crunch. Clatter.

When the bucket was finally full, he walked back to where everyone was waiting. He grabbed the bottom of the bucket and emptied its contents all over the floor. A jagged piece of stone stopped by Ru Meng’s feet.

Rayyan took a deep breath and leaned down to Ru Meng’s ear. He placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Kneel,” he said.

Ru Meng looked at the rough and pointed stones on the ground and hesitated.

“I won’t say it again,” said Rayyan gently.

His hand applied a soft but firm pressure on Ru Meng’s shoulder.

Ru Meng relented. His hands were quivering, but he tried to convince himself he wasn’t doing this out of fear. No, he just didn’t want to show Rayyan that he was scared.

Slowly, Ru Meng bent his knees and lowered one leg at a time. He suppressed a gasp when he felt the sharp edges of the stones dig painfully into his flesh and tear up his skin. He remained upright on his knees, refusing to sit down and put more weight into his heels. He tried to breathe and get used to the pain, just like Vardan told him to. Suddenly, a powerful force weighed down on his shoulder, forcing him to sit on his heels.

The stones tore into his flesh, drawing blood and a muffled yelp out of Ru Meng’s mouth. Rayyan let go of his grip on Ru Meng’s shoulder but continued standing behind him.

Every second felt like an eternity. The pain only got worse with every passing moment. He tried his hardest to ignore the stabbing pain, but the stones seemed to be able to find a new soft spot in his flesh with even the slightest shift of his body. Ru Meng gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

Rayyan started speaking, his voice soft and measured, but Ru Meng understood nothing. He was speaking in Malay.

“‘O Allah, I take refuge in You from anxiety and sorrow, weakness and laziness, miserliness and cowardice, the burden of debts and from being overpowered by men,’” he recited.

“Laziness is a symbol of weakness. It is not just an unwillingness to work; it is a lack of dedication, of willpower and of discipline. Perhaps you only wanted to take a small break, just to rest your tired arms, but if you succumb to that weakness, you begin to crumble. You start to want more breaks; you begin to demand more compensation for your meager work; you stop thinking about improving yourself.

You dream.

We humans were put on earth to work. To work on ourselves. To succumb to laziness is to fail as a human.

I have told all you boys the importance of work before. Work is hard, but you work to earn your keep. You work and I feed you and I clothe you and I keep you protected from the monsters in the shadows. And still…

Someone tries to run from their responsibilities.”

Ru Meng could not understand what Rayyan was speaking, and he could hear him stop and feel his gaze latch onto him.

“When you run away,” said Rayyan, “you are not just abandoning your duties, you are pushing your very own friends into a pit. You betray everyone. You cast doubt into everyone’s heart: why should I work if he doesn’t have to? The work you leave behind has to be picked up by someone else. The food and money that has gone to keep you alive and healthy goes to waste.

You do not bite the hand that feeds you.

We have been here before, just four months ago. Yet, the same thing has happened again.”

Rayyan paused and drew a dagger from his waist. It was a simple and old thing, well-honed and polished, with a plain wooden handle.

Ru Meng saw the reactions of his friends— Han Yang clenching his fists solemnly, Chu Wen burying his head in his hands and Peng Nan’s face contorted in worry.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He only noticed the blade in Rayyan’s hand when the man walked in front of him and squatted down.

He took Ru Meng’s left hand into his own and finally said in Mandarin, “Tell me, Ru Meng, what is the point of your hands if not to work?”

Ru Meng looked up into Rayyan’s jet-black eyes blankly. A bead of cold sweat trickled down his cheek. His brain was wracked with too much pain and fear to fully understand the question.

Rayyan drove the dagger into Ru Meng’s palm, all the way to the hilt. Pain seared through his veins, burning his nerves and came bursting out of him in an ear-splitting scream.

Rayyan planted the dagger into the ground. He looked at Ru Meng calmly, without a single quiver in his facial muscles as he twisted the dagger left and right.

He grabbed Ru Meng by the hair as the boy heaved in agony and pulled him closer.

“Beg. Admit your fault and beg for mercy and this will be the last of it. I will even spare you from Vardan’s fate, let you go back to work just like before. All you have to do is beg. Beg in front of all the children and tell them what you did wrong,” he whispered.

Ru Meng’s ears were ringing from the pain. He stared into Rayyan’s jet-black eyes. It hurt like hell. He didn’t want to suffer this terrible pain anymore. He glanced at the pale, terrified faces of the children. He saw his own fear reflected in their eyes. He knew what he had to do.

Through short and shallow breaths, Ru Meng pursed his lips and lifted his head. He looked back at Rayyan defiantly.

There was a brief moment of surprise in Rayyan’s eyes, which was quickly swallowed by dark-black indifference.

“Suit yourself,” said Rayyan as he gave the dagger one more good twist.

Ru Meng was prepared, however, and only let out a stifled moan.

Rayyan stood up and turned to address the rest of the children in Malay once more, “Ru Meng is at fault for running away, but he’s not the only one responsible.

There has to be a reason why he would want to run away when he’s only been here a few days.

We are a family here and all of you should treat each other like brothers. If for whatever reason, he doesn’t feel welcome, that is on all of you.

Sleep hours will be cut by one hour from now on until the end of the month.”

He then switched to Mandarin, “Han Yang, I know you guys were friends with Ru Meng. I don’t know if one of you gave him the idea to run, but it was your responsibility to make sure he didn’t get into trouble.

You will go three days without food. Reflect on your mistakes.”

Rayyan turned to glance at Ru Meng, as if to make sure he understood what was happening. Ru Meng looked at his friend’s faces drop upon hearing their punishments, but his stomach dropped further when he heard what Rayyan said next.

“Lan, come here.”

The frail and skinny boy shuffled out of the crowd hesitantly.

Rayyan saw the slight shift in Ru Meng’s face.

“I told you to show Ru Meng around, didn’t I? Teach him how things work around here.”

Lan nodded, nervously pulling at the dry skin on his thumb as he did so.

“And yet, under your supervision, this newcomer had the brilliant idea of running away on the very third day. Clearly, he got that idea from someone.”

Lan shook his head as hard as he could.

Rayyan grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him to his knees.

Ru Meng and Lan looked into each other’s eyes. Ru Meng could tell how scared he was. He wanted to say something, tell Rayyan that it was all his fault, that it was all his idea and that it had nothing to do with Lan. Worry flickered across Ru Meng’s face. He saw Rayyan looking at him and immediately knew he had messed up.

Rayyan got down and wrenched the dagger out of Ru Meng’s palm. Ru Meng instinctively reached out to grab Rayyan’s hand, but the man simply knocked him aside.

He pinned Lan’s left hand to the ground, before looking up at the boy and saying, “I forgot. You’re left-handed.”

He switched his grip to Lan’s right hand. Lan whined and struggled. He knew something bad was going to happen, even though he didn’t know what.

Ru Meng tried to find the words, explain why he had tried to run away, but he knew he couldn’t do it. It was all over if he told the truth. But what about Lan?

However, there was no time to think.

Rayyan raised the dagger and brought it down in one fell swoop.

Lan’s ring finger and little finger lay on the ground, separated from the hand they once belonged to. Blood started pouring out of the gaping wound, forming a dull red puddle. Lan’s screams filled the entire cave.

Most of the children looked away. A few even started crying.

Ru Meng stared on in disbelief. The familiar scent of blood filled his nostrils. An unbearable weight pulled on his chest. Again. Someone had gotten hurt because of him again. Someone completely innocent. Lan had never done anything wrong. If anything, he was the last person who should have been hurt. He had been a loyal friend to Vardan and even himself. Why him?

Rayyan leaned in and whispered by Ru Meng’s ears, “Make no mistake. This is me going easy on you. Take your time and consider what you want to do moving forward.”

The man sheathed his knife and called the names of Hakimi and another. He said something to the boys and walked away. Chen Jin started herding the rest of the children to go back to work, swinging his cane at the ones who were still crying. The other boy helped Lan stop his bleeding, while Hakimi slowly approached Ru Meng.

Ru Meng looked into Hakimi’s face. The boy’s sharp eyes were staring right back at him, cold as usual. Yet, somehow, deep in his eyes, Ru Meng seemed to notice a different emotion, as if the boy’s mask of indifference had cracked slightly.

Ru Meng wanted to get up on his feet and throw himself at Lan to see how he was doing, but he could hardly even stand. The jagged rocks had torn up his legs badly, sending pain shooting through his body with every movement. He needed to know Lan was fine. He needed to be there to make sure he was fine. This was his fault and he needed to fix it somehow.

However, Hakimi kept Ru Meng from moving. He was about the same size as Ru Meng, but was strangely enough, a good deal stronger than him. He grabbed some bandages and helped Ru Meng stop the bleeding on his palm. He then grabbed him by his armpits and lifted him up. Ru Meng wanted to go to Lan, but Hakimi looped his head under Ru Meng’s shoulder and nudged him in another direction. Despite their animosity, Hakimi’s movements were oddly gentle.

Reluctantly and with a lot of dragging, he pulled Ru Meng away from the cave and back where he came from.

Vardan was sitting quietly against the wall, looking up at the ceiling. When Hakimi finally dropped Ru Meng beside him, Vardan stepped forward and looked the poor boy over, wincing when he saw the red-stained bandage on his hand.

Ru Meng was completely out of it, burying his head between his arms and staring into empty space.

Vardan turned to look at Hakimi and asked, “What happened?”

Hakimi glanced at the handsome boy coldly. He said nothing and turned to walk away.

He had only taken a few steps.

“It’s alright. We can talk. He knows,” said Vardan in Malay.

Slowly, the boy with sharp eyes turned around and looked back at them.