Beiji

Chapter 2 (Pt. 1)

The young woman never came back after that, but he wasn't terribly mistreated by the guards in the prison. He wasn't sure if this was merely standard, or if this had something to do with her. In the following several days, Wan Xue discovered nothing more than what he knew when he was brought here. He was fed twice a day and was rarely spoken to.

The man – the emperor – also never came, for which he was thankful. His body had time to at least begin healing before anyone came for him, though he certainly wasn't back to his former condition after a mere week in confinement. It was early morning when the door to his cell was finally opened, his hands chained once more, and guards led him along with several other men through the halls of the dungeon. It wasn't until they were led outside and the brightness of the sun nearly blinded him that he considered whether or not he was about to be executed.

Blinking away the tears summoned to his eyes by the sudden light, he watched as the men in front of him were forced to board a cart, all sitting in the back where one would normally carry a load of straw or hay or other goods. Perhaps he didn't have much of a life to look forward to before being taken to prison, but it was still his life, and he didn't want to lose it. His heart was hammering as he took a step backwards instead of forward.

"Crying already?" a man asked him, grabbing his face in one hand. It was one of the guards who had led him here, and he had clearly mistaken the moisture leaking from Wan Xue's eyes to be real tears instead of merely water gathering as a result of the sun. "You've had it pretty good here, what's there to cry about?" the man asked with a smirk. "Just wait till we get where we're going. Are you going to piss yourself then?"

Wan Xue tried to shrink back, but the man had already grown tired of goading him and shoved him roughly toward the wagon where another man grabbed his arm and tossed him inside. His back collided with the bottom of the wagon and his head with the side before he managed to scramble up into a sitting position, backing up until his back was against the side of the wagon and he could see the other men who were there with him. Now that there was more light than that from a few scarce lanterns, he could see that he was by far the youngest man here, most of the rest in their thirties and forties, with one man appearing to be closer to sixty.

The latter was the man sitting the closest to Wan Xue, and he looked on him with some degree of pity.

"Don't be too afraid," he said consolingly. "Being sold as a slave is still better than being executed."

Sold as a slave? So it wasn't execution, but he didn't see how slavery would be much better.

"Particularly as punishment for murder. Downright merciful if you ask me," joined in another man. He was younger than the first man, but more grizzled. "We thank the emperor for his kindness!" he shouted abruptly, as if the emperor was present to hear him and had personally sentenced them, and one of the guards at the front of the cart told him to shut up.

Murder? But he wasn't a murderer! He wasn't a rapist either, but at the very least, he'd thought this was the extent of the crimes of which he'd been accused. And now, he was being shipped off as a slave with a group of murderers?

"Besides," spoke up another man before he had time to process all this, "with a pretty face like yours, you just might get bought by a brothel or some such place."

"Is that supposed to make him feel better?" asked the man who'd shouted his gratitude moments earlier.

The other man shrugged. "May be better than manual labor. And at least in a place like that, you might be able to buy your way out eventually."

The others continued talking, but Wan Xue had stopped listening after the word brothel was mentioned. Wasn't it normally women who worked at brothels? He only had a vague understanding of what pleasure houses entailed, but his face flushed red, knowing it had something to do with what he had recently experienced at the hands of the emperor himself. Would he have to do that for money? With a glance at the men who had already changed to a different topic, he wondered why this had been mentioned at all. Did everyone already know what the emperor had done to him?

Wan Xue pulled his knees up, with his arms wrapped around them, and covered his face until the wagon stopped moving. They'd left behind the palace grounds and were close to the center of the city outside of it, a place he was familiar with, but didn't frequent unless he had need of something he could only purchase there. The back of the wagon was lowered and he was urged to jump down, which he did, and then he was led with the others to the center of the square where there was a small crowd gathered. He was the one who was thrust forward first, toward a man who was already standing there, as if waiting for them. The man looked him over in a cursory manner as if inspecting a new head of cattle he'd obtained.

"Up first today," he said, his voice loud and carrying over the crowd, "this young man, about twenty, strong, obedient."

As Wan Xue listened to the man listing his attributes, he thought, He doesn't even know me. He's just saying what he thinks will make the most money.

"If everyone is ready," the man continued momentarily, the rest of his description lost on Wan Xue, "then we will begin the bidding. We will start at a modest..."

Wan Xue scanned the crowd of faces, his heart pounding in his chest. One of these people would buy him? And if they didn't, would he be executed instead? He'd witnessed auctions before at the farm where he was employed, but he'd never imagined he would stand in place of the livestock one day, bid upon by strangers. This must be how the sheep always felt, he thought absentmindedly as he heard the word Sold! announced from nearby him, and he took a look at the man who came forward with money in hand, exchanging it for a fellow human, as if he were merely an item to be bought and sold.

The man was given a paper of some kind in exchange for his money. Wan Xue was able to gather that this was some kind of slave contract, and his mouth went dry. His chains were unlocked and he was shoved toward this man, his owner, who bound his hands with a rope instead and led him away.