“I don't think those were dreams, Malao. You've been drugged.”
“Drugged?”
Fu nodded in the darkness. “HaMo sprinkled a little bit of powder on your face every day. He called it Dream Dust.”
“Yeah …,” Malao said wearily. “I had a dream about a river toad sprinkling dust beneath my nose. That was real?”
“Yes.”
“I had a dream about a cobra choking me unconscious on a dragon boat in Kaifeng, too,” Malao said. “Was that—”
“That was real, too,” Fu said. “Hok, Seh, and I, plus Cheen and Sum from the bandit stronghold, tried to rescue you. We were ambushed by HaMo. Tonglong and AnGangseh showed up, too. That's how I got captured.”
“Oh, no,” Malao said. “I'm sorry.”
Fu shrugged.
“Where are the others now?” Malao asked.
“I don't know.”
“Hopefully, they're all right,” Malao said.
“Yeah,” Fu said. “Hopefully.”
Malao yawned. “I can't believe how sleepy I am. Everything seems cloudy. Do you feel the same way?”
“No. HaMo tried to drug me at first, but I wouldn't let him near me. He tried to put some of that Dream Dust in my food, but I smelled it mixed in there. I refused to eat, and after a couple days he began to give me food without drugs.”
“Whoa,” Malao said. “You didn't eat for days? That's a first.” He giggled weakly.
“This is serious, Malao. Although I'm glad you're awake, you should save the jokes for some other time.”
Malao stopped giggling. “Sorry, Pussycat.” He stretched and let out a long moan. “Everything seems to ache. If all I did was lay around asleep or drugged or whatever, why do I hurt so much?”
“Because you haven't moved around enough,” Fu said. “Your muscles tighten up if you don't use them for a long time. HaMo pulled you out of your cage a few times to exercise your arms and legs, but that probably wasn't enough. Or maybe you're sore from what he did do. He bent and twisted you like a rag doll.”
“I think I remember that,” Malao said. “And I remember having my own cage. How did I end up in here with you?”
“HaMo put us in here a day and a half ago. Before that, we were locked in the same room, but kept in separate crates.”
“Crates?” Malao said.
“They smelled like fruit,” Fu said. “Apples, maybe. Whatever they were originally built for, they were too strong for me to break out of.”
Malao scratched his head. “Are we in an orchard?”
“No, we're in a city called Jinan. HaMo nailed us inside the crates and shipped us here down the Yellow River along with a bunch of food.”
Malao swallowed hard. “You don't think we're going to end up as … dumplings, do you, Pussycat?”
“I don't know. They've referred to us as ‘fresh meat’ several times. On the way to this room, we passed other rooms that had men in cages.”
Malao shivered. “Who are ‘they’? You don't mean that crazy old couple from the Divine Dumpling Inn?”
Fu shook his head. “I don't think so. When I say ‘they,’ I mean HaMo and his helpers.”
Malao scratched his head again. “I wonder why they put us together.”
“I think they have plans for us,” Fu said. “Once they put you in here, they stopped drugging you. They probably want us to do something.”
“Or maybe they're going to eat us!” Malao said. “They probably want to get all the drugs out of my system before they chop me up and …” His voice trailed off. “We need to get out of here, Fu.”
“I know.”
“So you've tried to escape?”
“A few times,” Fu said. “Besides trying to break out of the crates, I've tried to break out of this cage. But it's no use. This bamboo is too strong. I thought about putting up a fight when they first dumped you and me in here together, but several men with spears surrounded us the whole time and they had two ropes around my neck. I didn't have a chance. I—” Fu stopped in mid-sentence.
“What's wrong?”
“Shhh!” Fu whispered. “I hear footsteps.”
“Over here, sir!” a muffled voice called out from outside the room. “You're just in time. It sounds like the small one has come out of his stupor, and they're discussing escape!”
“Escape?” a commanding voice replied. “We'll see about that.”
Fu and Malao turned toward one another in the darkness. Someone had been listening to their every word. More than that, Fu and Malao both recognized the second person's voice!