Xuelei started awake. He woke up like he always did when he on a mission, all at once. Something had awakened him, but what? He was high strung and ready for action, senses alert for any danger.

He was still in his corner, shivering. Maybe it was the cold that had woken him up? Nope. What else? The others were all asleep, sleeping wherever they could. He strained his ears.

It was dark, the lone candle on the table had long since sputtered out and died. The room was pitched black. There were no windows for the moonlight to come in. They were underground. A scraping sound came from the door. Were the guards up to something?

He got up and crept to the door. Carefully he put his ear to the rough wood. He could not hear the guards. There were no mutterings, snoring or the slight noises associated from the shifting of weight from one foot to another. People invariable moved making unconscious sounds, sighing, coughing, the rustling of clothes as they adjusted their position. It did not matter if they were awake or asleep, people were noisy creatures.

There was nothing.

Xuelei searched for a weapon but relaxed when he heard muted grunting and dragging sounds. He breathed a sigh of relief. His brothers had finally arrived. He waited by the door. Soon, he heard soft footsteps. Keys jangled and one was inserted into the padlock. It clicked open. Someone fumbled at the door and it creaked open.

Jin poked his head in, followed by a lighted candle. He gave a yelp when he saw Xuelei watching him.

"Damn it, you scared me, Xue."

"You guys are so noisy. You're spoiling my beauty sleep."

"Very funny. Is she here? Who is the leader?"

"Yes, she's here. The leader is a man called Fung. Are we going now?"

"No. Not yet. You're hurt." Jin hissed noticing the dried blood on the side if Xuelei's face.

"It's nothing. When do we get out?"

"You will have to endure one more day."

"Why?"

"We need a day for our plan to take effect," Li said. "Oh ... and Xue? Whatever you do, do not eat or drink anything else from this place."

Xuelei nodded understanding.

"We will come get you out tomorrow night."

Xuelei backed away as the door was closed and locked once more. He heard the key being dropped carelessly on the floor outside. He smiled to himself. The guards who came for the next shift would find the keys on the floor and the doors still locked from the outside. No suspicion would fall on anyone in the room. His brothers had disposed of the night shift guards. Their bodies would not be found.

He went back to his corner and closed his eyes. Li and Jin were going to poison the food and water in the place. Everyone would die according to the contract.

It was going to be a long and painful day. He would have to antagonise the captors and deprive the girls of their meagre rations. He had to keep them alive. They were all going to hate him tomorrow.

-------------------------------------

The next day, Xuelei was ready when the doors to their prison opened. He waited for the men to put the jug of water and the packets of steam buns on the table before he approached them.

"What do you want little girl? Didn't you learn your lesson yesterday?"

"Xuehua, what are you doing? Don't, you will get hurt again," Ting Ting whispered urgently pulling his arm.

"It's okay."

Xuelei glanced at the food and made a face.

"We want better food and better living conditions. There are too many of us in this room. We can't even sleep properly."

The men's eyes widened in disbelief. "Did you hear that?" the man asked his comrades. "This little girl has only been here for two days and she is already making demands."

"I'm not demanding, I'm just asking you to act humane. You can't treat us like animals."

He turned to face the girl. There was still dried blood in her matted hair from yesterday and the way she hunched hinted that she was still hurting from form his kicks to her stomach.

"I guess you are a slow learner. I will have to give you another lesson to refresh your memory."

He suddenly grabbed her slim shoulders squeezing roughly and shook her violently. Then he pulled her close so that she was at eye level. Stale breath and the stink of cheap wine accompanied with days old sweat of his unwashed body filled her nostrils. She coughed trying to hold her breath.

"Listen carefully girl, I'm only going to say this once," he growled.

"You do not have the right to make demands."

Shake!

"You do not have the right to talk to me unless I ask a question."

Shake!

"You are all animals to be sold! Nothing more!"

Shake! Shake!

"DO NOT PISS ME OFF!"

SHAKE!! SHAKE!! SHAKE!!

He yelled something unintelligible as he pushed the girl forcefully away from him. Her breath was knocked from her as she was slammed hard onto the table.

She groaned in pain but managed to look up to glare at him. She seemed to steel herself as she pushed herself up.

"You are nothing but a bully!" she screamed.

Everyone in the room froze as the girl grabbed the ceramic water jug and hurled it at the man. It shattered spectacularly when it hit his head. Pieces of the broken jug seemed to fall to the ground in slow-motion, breaking into smaller pieces upon impact. Water ran into the angry man's eyes, soaking his clothes, blood trickled from his head. The man stood still in shock for a moment, then roared to life.

Everyone cringed as he advanced on her. She panicked and grabbed the nearest thing to throw at him. Hot steam buns flew into the air, hitting him smack on the chest. It did nothing to stop him. It only made him more furious. He continued his advance breathing heavily. He did not notice when he stepped on some of the buns, squishing them underfoot.

He reached her just as she picked up a stool to hit him. He caught the stool in mid-air and smashed it down on the girl. The stool broke apart. The girl fell whimpering to the floor. He was not satisfied, so he continued kicking her prone body.

"Stupid girl! Stupid girl! When will you learn your lesson?!"

"Ahh! Arrghh!!"

In his fury, he did not really care where he kicked her as long as his foot contacted with her body. He kicked her legs, stomach, chest and even her face. He continued kicking her until she was bloody and motionless.

No one dared interfere.

Then he stomped on the dirty buns on the floor, grinding his heel into them, rendering them inedible.

"No food for all of you today and tomorrow too. That will teach all of you a lesson. Serves you right." He laughed as he gave the girl a last kick on his way out.

The girls looked at each other in dismay. They were hungry and frightened. Why did the new girl have to make him angry. Now they had no food or water. They turned their backs on her, immersed in their own misery, blaming her for their misfortune.

Ting Ting approached Xuehua. To her amazement, the girl was still conscious.

"Why did you have to do that? Do you have a death wish?"

Xuehua only blinked slowly, dazed. Ting Ting helped her to a wall, leaning her against it. The new girl moved carefully, arranging her bruised and aching body as comfortable as possible. Her face and hair was a mess. She was bruised and bleeding from several wounds. The evil man's boots had been military marching boots, the kind made of hard heavy long lasting material.

"Leave her alone Ting Ting, she doesn't deserve your sympathy."

"Yes, Ting Ting, leave her alone. She asked for it."

"She is making things worse for us."

"She was only trying to get us better living conditions," the Minister's daughter reasoned.

"We already warned her not to mess with him but she wouldn't listen. Now we are worse off than before."

"I'm sorry but she did stand up for me yesterday."

"You are both the same. Troublemakers."

"It's okay Xuehua. I understand what you were trying to do. I don't blame you," Ting Ting whispered as she settled down next to Xuelei.

"You don't mind being hungry?" Xuelei asked softly.

"Of course I do. I've never been so hungry in my life." She sighed,"Xuehua...you can't reason with them. They are mean and they don't care about us. They are just waiting for the day they can sell us for money and wash their hands of us."

"I'm sorry, I had to do it."

She sighed again. "I know. Even I tried to reason with them when I first arrived. Nothing we can do now but make the best of our situation. What's done is done."

Xuelei gave a painful smile.

All the food and water in the room was gone. Mission accomplished.

"Please don' talk to him again. Don't even look at him. Keep your head down. Maybe we will have something to eat tomorrow," she advised. When there was no answer, she turned to see that Xuehua had finally passed out. Poor girl, they didn't even have water to clean her up.