Something to Chew On

SuanRong picked up the fish from the floor and shook it. "Young Master Qing must be a good boy and eat his food," he sneered. "Don't be such a picky eater."

"You cowards," shouted Dao Ge. "Leave the kid alone if you've got any guts. The three of you against one boy is pathetic. If you've got any ability, set us loose and fight properly with me like a man! I'll take on three of you, if you want. Leave the boy alone. He's still young."

He turned to Qingqing and whispered urgently, "Don't worry, Qing Xiong. Just be quiet. I won't let them hurt you."

Lao Lu laughed grimly. "Don't be a fool, Dao Ge. Your turn will come, just you wait. The Three Gambling Ghosts will never be humiliated for nothing."

Qingqing's laugh, clear and arrogant, rang out. "Is this all you can come up with?" she said scornfully. "I've fought with better men than you. I'm no noble man, but at least I don't resort to these kind of tricks."

Pulling herself up, she met their gazes coolly and defiantly. "You wanted to feed me that fish, didn't you? Why are you hesitating? Are you afraid I'll bite your hand off?"

There was a tense silence. Dao Ge glanced at her, half in disbelief, half in an anguish of worry.

SuanRong came closer, with a disbelieving laugh. "This brat doesn't know when to shut up."

Using his staff, he prodded her chin, pushing her head back against the wall. "Let's give him something to chew on, like he wants! Then he'll be quiet for a while."

Qingqing knocked the staff aside with a twist of her head and snapped at the fish hanging from his hand without warning. Lao Lu sprang back nervously and WangFan uttered a horrified exclamation as she swallowed it, with several rapid heaves. SuanRong turned pale and dropped the staff hastily, and even Dao Ge grimaced involuntarily as he watched on in horror.

Slightly out of breath, Qingqing looked up at them, a reckless smile twitching on her lips. "There. I've eaten it. If this was all you could think of, that's how much I care for it. And the first chance I get, I'll puke it back out just for you so I can have the pleasure of watching you eat my vomit!"

"He's crazy," muttered Lao Lu uneasily. WangFan retreated towards the door, looking rather green. "I'm leaving to bandage my wound, brothers," he called back over his shoulder.

The Three Gambling Ghosts moved towards the door as one. SuanRong shook his staff threateningly at them. "We'll be back," he said menacingly. "You'll suffer then! We won't kill you until you're both screaming for mercy on your knees. Let's see how arrogant you can be then, Young Master Qing."

As the lock bolted once more, Dao Ge turned on her vehemently.

"Are you crazy? Why did you eat that fish? You could get sick."

She gagged and wiped her mouth on her shoulder. "That was nothing," Qingqing said through her teeth. "I had to scare them a little, the bastards. I've eaten worse."

"That scumbag," Dao Ge said grimly. "We need to get out of here. If they know you're a maid, those scoundrels might turn even worse. I know that Lao Lu."

Qingqing started sharply. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, and said stiffly, "You--you knew? All along?"

"Not at along. I'm not that smart." he grunted. "It was wise of you, or at least, as wise as someone so reckless and rash like you could be. I didn't tell anyone, and I don't intend to either, so you don't need to look at me so fiercely."

Ignoring her stricken face, he continued, "Now, we need to think of a way to get out. The next time they come back, they'll have planned more carefully. Maybe we can find something sharp to cut our ropes on..."

He turned to see Qingqing rubbing her head against the wall like a cat trying to reach an itch. "What are you doing?" Dao Ge demanded, privately wondering if the rotten fish had gone to QingXiong's brain already.

"Help me get this hairpin out," she panted, energetically twisting her head as she tried to loosen the slender hairpin thrust into her knot of hair, face alight with the new idea. "Maybe we can use it to pick the knots. Only the end is jade, the rest of it is silver, it should be hard enough. Wait, turn around and see if you can grab it with your fingers if I bend my head low enough." she suggested, stooping forward with a supple movement from the waist.

"All right, I'm trying," Dao Ge said hurriedly as his fingertips strained to catch hold of the end.

"Ugh, this stinks--hurry up, will you?" complained Qingqing, grimacing as her face remained inches from the stale straw. She gave a gasp of relief as she felt the hairpin slide smoothly out at last, painstakingly tugged along between Dao Ge's fingertips, and straightened with a groan.

Shaking her head impatiently as the hair fell limply down over her shoulders, she held her bound wrists out. "Quick, pick the knots!"

What followed was ten minutes of torture as Dao Ge's hands blindly poked and prodded at the knots, trying to get the pin under one of the strands without being able to see anything, made clumsier by haste and Qingqing's yelps of pain and curses.

"I think I got it," he said triumphantly as he felt the pin slide underneath the rope at the heart of the knot, and yanked at it eagerly.

Qingqing gave a sharp, adroit squirm and wriggled her wrists out from the ropes the moment she felt them loosen slightly. With a gasp, she fell to the ropes on her ankles and soon tore them off.

"I'm stiff as a piece of dried jerky," she complained, and shook her arms vigorously to get the circulation running again. "Just look at my hands, scarred all over by your clumsiness. I look like I've got a pox."

"Shut up and help me out," interrupted Dao Ge. "They could be back any time."

Picking up the pin, she set to work on Dao Ge's ropes. "Patience. We also need to plan what we're going to do."

"Get out of here, of course," Dao Ge retorted indignantly. "Do you still need to plan that?" He winced as she plucked roughly at the ropes.

"What do you mean, run?" Qingqing said coldly. "We've got to kill them. At this point, it's them or us. They'll try to kill us again if we let them off."

"Besides," she added through her teeth as she wrenched fiercely at the last knot, "they still have our stuff."

Shaking off the ropes, Dao Ge got up, swaying on his feet slightly and shrugging his shoulders to try and get rid of the soreness. "Oh, right. My saber!"

Qingqing's face was ominous. "And my money."