He was manhandled as they pushed him onto the court. A public court no less. As soon as he was brought up, all the civilians watching the court hearing booed, hissed, and yelled insults. Murderer, they called him. Killing innocent lives and a knight too, they whispered to each other. Xiao didn't know whether to scream or just to stay silent. How wronged he was! If he did wrong, it was letting Bradley go alone. But they will find out he was innocent, he thought. That was what the court was for and even the most corrupt government had to listen to the criminals, right?

To protect his final bit of dignity in shabby, oversized grey cotton robes, he walked with his back straight and head up.

"Kneel!" The officers pushed him when they were in front of the mayor.

He was expecting it as he had watched Ning Qing do it multiple times and he calmly kneeled. 

"What's your name?" the mayor asked.

As decreed by etiquettes, any low ranking individuals should not look their superiors in the face, thus Xiao kept his head low. "Xiao Sa."

"Do you plead guilty?"

Xiao's eyebrows furrowed. That wasn't how things worked! "No, I don't," he said. "Mayor, sir, I did not kill anyone innocent last night."

"My officers saw you engaged in fighting last night!" the mayor said excitedly, slamming his hand onto his desk.

"Sir, they murdered my brother, Knight Bradley Howell!" Xiao said, equally excited. 

"Your brother! Knight Howell was an honorable citizen protecting those innocent lives you've killed. He saved five maidens last night, don't you know?"

"Did you catch the three people I was fighting with? Why don't you ask them?" Xiao asked, losing his politeness. He wanted to cry again. How many lives had Bradley saved in his whole life? Heaven must be waiting for him with open doors.

"They were scared, innocent citizens," the mayor said. "Why would I warrant a search for them? But look at how you dress and look! No one would believe you're not a criminal!"

"You shouldn't judge me by my appearance, sir!" Xiao cried. "They drugged me! What innocent citizens would carry around sedatives like that?"

"A bunch of lies!" the mayor shouted. "My officers knocked you out. You have a bruise on the back of your head."

"I was drugged!" Xiao shouted and got out from his kowtow position. He sat back on his heels. "You can ask your jailor. I was sick all through the night and the morning. I was in no condition to murder a knight. My brother, no less!"

"Drag him down and beat him fifty canes!" the mayor ordered. "That might get some sense into him."

Two officers dragged him down. Canes were brought out and two officers stood on either side of him. They flung him onto the ground and one officer held him down and thus started the punishment. The good thing was that being an accomplished knight, Xiao could control his body in a way that made his muscles bulge out so the canes didn't hurt him, but he was too weak for it to be of too much use. Gradually, a dull pain mounted in his lower back.

"Sir! I'm innocent!" Xiao shouted up. "You should be investigating into the trafficking of maidens and the men who killed my brother and drugged me. I was patrolling the city last night, trying to protect everyone from the traffickers! Me and my brother and our friends have been doing that for the past month! Ask Simon Williams! Leon Toble! Samuel Jerkins! They know me!"

The civilians were cheering for his beating and none cared to listen to what he was saying.

A flicker of robes in the court caught Xiao's eyes and he looked up from his position on the ground. Childe Laffut was standing beside the mayor, with a sword that looked awfully like his. He whispered something into the mayor's ears.

"Fifty more canes!" the mayor shouted down. "Childe Laffut just told me that this murderer was trying to escape from the prison!"

That bastard, Xiao thought. He didn't help him at all, but took all his belongings. 

"You wastrel! You prodigal! You absolute bastard! Both of you are corrupt to the extreme! Both your town halls have received cases for missing maidens yet you didn't bother to do anything! You've been bought by the traffickers and now you're using me as a scapegoat! My fellow civilians, we're all being deceived. These people are the reason for your poverty!"

"Shut up!" the mayor shouted. 

Xiao did so. Insulting and exposing the mayor would only earn him more beatings. But how could he get out of this? His whole reputation had been ruined with this public hearing and he needed to prove himself to be innocent.

"Xiao Sa! You are the one who had been trafficking all the maidens," the mayor said. "Plead guilty and tell me where you're keeping them!"

"I am innocent until proven guilty! Prove that I'm guilty!" Xiao screamed out George's favourite phrase or something along those lines. "You haven't proved anything except that I was involved in the events of last night. You don't even know what happened!"

"You criminal! I've never seen someone argue with me while being beaten! Drag him back to the jail! I'll interrogate him again tomorrow."

Thus Xiao was dragged away, shouting and appealing for anyone to listen to him. "I'm innocent! Let me out! You muddle-headed bastard!"

He was flung into his cell, not even onto the pile of hay that was his bed. Groaning, he crawled towards the cup of water beside his bed. After gulping down the whole of its contents, he lied down and breathed in ragged gulps. Despite the window, the place smelled like a pigsty, which didn't help with his condition. He could barely feel his legs through the pain. He knew there must be bruises. If this went on for another day, he wouldn't be able to walk. It was all because of the drug that he was so weak. Yet people believed him to be the murderer!

He wouldn't leave though. If he tried, he could wrestle the jailor to death as he brought him food and then leave the prison. However, the jailor had been nice to him so he wouldn't hurt him in anyway and he wouldn't want to leave and have a whole city's people hate him. If only his friends would come and save him. Frank was away, John was somewhere else, Bradley was dead... All his other friends were too far away too.

"Xiao!"

Xiao turned to see the jailor by the bars. "Jailor-ge."

"I've brought some ointments if you need them."

Xiao moved to the bars. It was a small cell so it was managed in a short crawl. "Thank you."

"I didn't expect Laffut to do that," the jailor said regretfully. "I should have told you. If they were to let you out, there would be no hearings. Most times, the mayor wouldn't bother with the criminals and they were just left in the prison. Only with Laffut's influence would there be a hearing."

Xiao smiled wryly. "It's alright. My innocence will be proven," he said, though he didn't believe in it.

The jailor smiled sadly. He couldn't do anything to make Xiao feel better.

When the jailor left, he played with the ointment. He would save it for later. A gust of wind blew in from the little window and another burst of headache came on. He groaned despite himself and then fell into a kind of stupour.

"Lock her up!"

"Search her!"

"Get off me!" a shrill voice cried. 

Xiao woke with a start. It must be late in the night. Through the window, he could see small sources of light sprinkled across the sky. But there was no time to appreciate the outside as someone was in trouble.

"What are you doing to me!" a woman was screaming. 

Other prisoners who had watched Xiao being flung into his cell earlier all watched with interest as the scene unfolded. Two officers were manhandling a young woman. She was in a pale pink dress, though that was torn into shreds, and the two men seemed to be groping her.

"Stop!" Xiao cried hoarsely. Clearing his throat, he called out again. "What are you doing?!"

Everyone ignored him.

"This will teach you not to commit crimes," one officer was saying.

"What crime did I commit?" the woman asked as she struggled to get out of their control.

"Get away from her!" Xiao yelled. "Even if she's a criminal, it doesn't mean she is free real estate fo you perverts!"

The officers turned towards him. "What did you say?"

"Do you want to take her spot?" one asked.

Xiao almost gagged in disgust. "Don't touch her," he said.

"Do you want to take her spot?" the officer repeated menacingly. "It's you or her."

"I'll take her spot," Xiao said instantly. He wasn't defenseless.

The two officers threw the women down to the ground and locked her cell. Then they opened his cell. Xiao's hand formed into fists. "Is this what you do when you search young maidens?" Xiao asked indignantly.

"It's precisely what we do," the taller of the two answered. "But it's not exclusively young maidens, little boy."

Xiao's face scrunched up in disgust. "What type of people are you?"

"Don't you know brothels are expensive these days?" the shorter one said, laughing jeeringly.

"How did you even become officers with that mindset?" Xiao demanded, trying to use his words to keep a distance between him and the two strong men.

"Being officers don't require much training. If you're willing to be ruthless, you're given the position," the taller one said. "And while we are at it, we could give ourselves a treat."

"If you're under another mayor, you wouldn't dare be like this," Xiao spat. 

"But why we would be under clear-minded, righteous, clean mayors?" 

Before Xiao could respond, the shorter one was holding him down and the taller one was feeding him some sort of liquid. Xiao sputtered and struggled, but the two men were stronger than him. The liquid, which tasted sour, trickled down his throat.

"We will spare you from feeling anything until tomorrow," the taller one sneered.

Xiao felt his clothes being ripped off before he blacked out. But he was also sure he could hear someone yelling in the distance.

Bradley was on top of him. They were in their room in the disciples' wing, on Xiao's cot by the north wall. 

"That'll teach you not to wrestle with me," Bradley slurred. They were both drunk on a night his mentor was off the mountain to pick up Aidan.

"You took me by surprise," Xiao protested lazily. "Look, let me up and we can do it again."

"I prefer this position," Bradley said smilingly.

Xiao felt himself smile despite himself. "Well then, you better enjoy it."

Bradley leaned down and kissed his eyes shut. "I will."

Xiao's hand grabbed Bradley's waist, feeling every flex of the muscles. "Oh yeah?"

Bradley kissed his mouth to get him to stop talking. But only a peck. "You talk way too much, drunk or not."

Xiao surged up and found Bradley's mouth, though his eyes were still closed. It was the first time either of them had kissed and it was sloppy beyond measure but they didn't care in their drunken state. 

Bradley fumbled at his clothes. "Your belt is way too tight," he complained.

"Xiao! Xiao!" someone was whisper-shouting in his ear. 

"Brad - " Xiao opened his eyes to see someone in white crouched beside him. 

"Oh good, you're awake. Let's go," he was whispering to himself. "I got your stuff and your ointment. Come up to my back, I know you've got a beating today. Though you must have protected yourself from it. We are knights, after all. And don't worry, you weren't raped. I took care of those two." As the person talked, he was helping Xiao into a sitting position. "I know you must feel a headache, most sedatives these people use induce it. Low level shit they use," he rambled on. He crouched in front of Xiao and draped Xiao's arms over his shoulders. He was giving Xiao a piggyback. "And I'm sure you want the court hearings to clear your name and all that, but this shit government will not do anything like that. And I need your help, so..."

"What - "

"Shush," the person said, even though he had been talking the whole time. He carried Xiao out of his cell - which was open - and out of the prison. Then they were leaping over walls...