[Suggested song for the chapter – Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Ryuichi Sakamoto]
The two guards ran with Meili between them, lurking at the dark edges of buildings and trying to keep a low profile, which was difficult with Tricky sticking to them like glue and barking up a storm.
"Here! Hold the girl while I deal with the dog," snarled the chief guard to one of the eunuchs.
Meili saw her chance. While the guard was trying to hand half of the job of carrying her over to the eunuch, she bit his hand that was covering her mouth.
The guard yelled in pain, gripping his hand.
Meili screamed, "Help! Somebody help me!"
"Bloody hell!" growled the guard, giving her a stinging slap to the face to shut her up.
Meili was stunned. She had never been deliberately hit in her life, and the blow silenced her, bringing tears to her eyes and a ringing sound to her ears.
The sounds of heavy footsteps running could be heard in the near distance.
