Night had already fallen.
Faint moonlight spilled through the prison entrance, casting barely visible patches of shifting light and shadow across the floor.
Inside the prison, only flickering candlelight provided illumination. The guards who had diligently kept watch lay sprawled unconscious on the ground, their faces peaceful and their breathing even.
They looked as though no disturbance could wake them. The other prisoners held there were in the same state.
Among the cells was one for condemned prisoners.
The condemned men who had just been savagely beating A Pai had slumped into sleep, as though their souls had suddenly been drawn out.
Only the quiet sounds of restful sleep and A Pai's furious curses remained in the cell.
He rose from the heap of straw and began punching and kicking the condemned prisoners who had beaten him, spewing filthy abuse:
"You dog bastards! So what if I killed my wife? Who are you to teach me a lesson? If I hadn't sold that little bastard, how could he be living so well now? Dressed in silk and dining on delicacies, yet he can't bring anything back for his old man! Ungrateful wretch with a wolf's heart and a dog's lungs!"
"You deserve to die too! How dare you hit me! You've ruined my face!"
They had even broken his fingers.
A Pai had already been ugly and wretched, and now he had been beaten beyond recognition. Even striking back at the condemned prisoners tugged at his wounds, sending dull pain through him.
He was wounded inside and out.
With nowhere to vent his thick, vicious rage, he failed to notice that the prison had grown far too quiet.
Clang!
The candle flame danced. Something seemed to flash past, knocking over a chipped bowl. Startled, A Pai hastily stopped and whipped