13 Chapter 13 You call this cleaning?

After a week had passed, Li Fei was beginning to get used to the place. She didn't have any friends and was trying her best to stay out of trouble. When the waking bell rang in the morning, she immediately got up and dressed then started making her bed. When most of her cell mates left the room, she also prepared to leave but as soon as she stepped outside, she found the head guard who had just reached but pushed her back inside and locked the door from outside. She wondered what the problem was because the rule stated that one was late when found inside the cell room but she was out already. Looking through the metallic bars, she realized that the head guard wasn't minding about the other cell rooms.

"What is it?" asked Liling who had turned to leave the room. "I don't know. She found me outside and pushed me back inside and locked the door yet she is not caring about the other cell rooms," she said. Looking at the wall clock, Liling frowned and said," It can't be. It has just clocked to four." Li Fei became worried. She didn't want to experience any form of punishment. "What are we going to do?" she asked Liling who sat down on someone's bed and said," Nothing. We just have to wait for our punishment. Shi Ming is like that at times. She's unpredictable." Seeing Liling's nonchalant attitude, Li Fei somehow calmed down knowing that she wasn't alone in this.

She sat on her bed and decided to wait for what was to come.

A while later, the door was opened and Shi Ming came in and said," Follow me. It's time for your punishment." Both stood up and followed then found the other inmates that were caught for being late but this time, they weren't many because the head guard did it intentionally to get only a few of them.

As they walked to the washing bay, Liling said," But head guard, it was still three when you locked us in."

She glared at her and said," Shut up! You think I don't know what I'm doing? Talk one more time and you will serve confinement." Liling frowned as she kept moving without uttering another word. How Shi Ming wished that it was Li Fei who had complained so that she got an excuse to take her to confinement. When they reached, they were told to get sponges, scrub brushes and buckets which they did.

Shi Ming allocated work to each person and lastly, she looked at Li Fei. "You are going to scrub this entire place till it is very clean and you won't be leaving this place if this Bay is not clean," she instructed. "You mean this entire Bay? Me alone?" she asked to confirm. "Yes, of course. You have any problem with it?" Shi Ming asked provokingly and Li Fei immediately said," Not at all. I'm going to do it."

Li Fei thought it was a bit unfair because she was told to scrub the entire washing Bay which was so dirty yet over thirty people were given a very small place to clean. Nonetheless, she started cleaning because she had nothing to do. Soon, the other ones finished and started leaving one by one as she remained cleaning. Liling being the second last to leave saw the work given to Li Fei and she realized how unfair it was. She made her way towards her so that she could help but Shi Ming glared at her as if daring her to take one more step. Liling decided to leave the place because she also had her own issues and she wouldn't want to have the head guard after her for another time.

A long while later, all the inmates came back from their morning exercises and showered then left for breakfast as she continued scrubbing. When Shi Ming left for a while, she would take a rest since she wouldn't allow her to pause for a moment in a presence. It was until it clocked eight in the morning when Li Fei finished scrubbing the Bay. "I'm done, Ma'am," she said. "And you call this cleaning? Do you think that you're at the Li residence? You don't have maids here to clean for you. Scrub the entire floor again," Shi Ming commanded and Li Fei's lips parted in disbelief. She had cleaned for almost five hours and she was so tired and hungry. The place couldn't be any cleaner than how it was right now. "You're not going to do it?" she asked threateningly. "I will do it," she whispered and got the scrub then started cleaning once again. She decided to pay more attention this time as she cleaned.

It had clocked eleven when she finished cleaning for the second time and she saw the head guard smile in satisfaction then she released a sigh of relief realizing that she was finally going to rest. "This is better. Now let's go to the bathrooms," she instructed and Li Fei's eyes widened in absolute shock. Did she mean that she was going to clean the bathrooms? What did she do again? She decided to act calm and said, "But head guard, at least let me first have something to eat- " "I give the orders here, Miss," she growled and her heart shuddered. "Okay head guard," she said and they went to the direction of the bathrooms.

It was a half past noon when Li Fei finished cleaning the entire bathrooms and toilets. She immediately lined up for lunch because she was extremely hungry. As soon as she got her food, she got a seat and began devouring her food. But as she was eating, she felt someone tap on her shoulder and on raising her eyes, it was a certain woman who told her," Stand up I want to sit." Frowning, she said," But I have just started eating." "Do I look like I care? I want to sit right now," she commanded once again. Li Fei didn't understand what was going on. Looking up again, she said," There are many seats- " She didn't complete her sentence when the woman got her plate and poured her food on the floor. She couldn't believe it. She was so hungry yet there was nothing like getting food two times here.