Pot

{Warning: Skip this chapter if you can't handle pain}

"I heard some banging and shouting," Mr. Mo hissed. "You guys aren't going to sleep, huh?"

It was the first time Yi Fei saw a glimpse of The Man, but the man in front of her was her father... right?

"No, D-dad. Yi Fan just fell, and he needed to get some water," Yi Fei came up with a lie.

Mr. Mo didn't buy it. He savagely glared at Yi Fan, and he violently grabbed Yi Fan's lanky arm.

"Come with me." The Man sharply commanded.

Mr. Mo forcibly flung the door shut, leaving Yi Fei out of the confusion. Before the door closed, Yi Fan gave her a guilty look that told her not to open the door and just go to sleep. However, it just made Yi Fei worry even more. She didn't recognize The Man. Who was the person that was inside her father?

"You wanted water, right?" The Man taunted, walking each step more furiously fast.

Yi Fan's fright rose, apprehending what was about to happen. Indeed, The Man wouldn't wait for anyone or anything... and he wouldn't stop either.

"You really like water?" The Man swiped his head towards Yi Fan, vehemently staring right into his eyes. "Get a pot. I said, GET A F**KING POT!"

Yi Fan scrambled to get a pot, swiftly going on his knees to look inside the cabinet. He accidentally scraped his knees a bit, and he was hysterically trying to find anything that looked like a pot.

And there was none.

"Wrong place, you little s**t!" The Man barked. "It's right here; you can't see it?"

The Man frenziedly pulled on Yi Fan's short hair, profoundly slamming his head against the cabinet door to close it. Several bangs of sharp pain hazardously appeared in Yi Fan's head, making him dizzy and unable to think straight. As his fragile body laid vulnerably on the kitchen floor, Yi Fan carelessly looked up to The Man.

"Close the motherf**king door when you're done," The Man commanded, and he spat.

To Yi Fan, there was no rhyme nor reason to The Man's actions. Yi Fan thought that this was how The Man got out his temper. The Man couldn't control his temper, so he lashed out on Yi Fan. But deep down inside Yi Fan, Yi Fan merely thought that this was his retribution.

But there was no time for thought during a punishment. You were a slave who could do nothing but endure endure endure endure and endure.

"Are you lazying around? Are you already so big that you can't f**king move?" The Man overwhelmingly pulled up Yi Fan's scrawny shirt to face value, and somehow, they managed to bore their eyes into the other's. One with anxious eyes like a deer in headlights, the other like a frenzied alpha lion meeting his nemesis for the last time.

The Man then robustly flung the boy down, making sure every inch of Yi Fan's body defined pain. He didn't care if Yi Fei could hear at this moment, all that mattered was that Yi Fan got his punishment. The Man was a madman.

"Don't. Move." The Man silently growled.

Yi Fan didn't dare. He was laying on the cold kitchen floor, his face facing flat on the ground. His skin was peeling off in some places, and it felt like every bit of his body was painfully throbbing. He could only rely on his sensory abilities.

There were heavy footsteps of The Man and a clamoring of pots and pans. The stove lit a fire.

Yi Fan had no idea what was going to happen. He just hoped that he would somehow faint and he wouldn't wake up.

"Get up."

Yi Fan's arms trembled as he awkwardly supported himself to get up on two feet. He gritted his teeth, trying his best to be as quick as possible to not anger The Man any further.

"Watch it." The Man pointed at the burning pot on the stove.

Yi Fan nodded with quivering eyes, making sure he followed The Man's exact orders. He didn't dare to breathe until The Man's heavy treads became nonexistent. Yi Fan stealthily peered inside the small pot, opening the lid to only find boiling water. Yi Fan almost squeaked out a noise, realizing what this pot was for.

It was for him.

Yi Fan was sweating bullets. He felt like everything was slowly disappearing from his vision. There was no escape from The Man. You could not confront The Man. You could not hide from The Man. You could only endure endure and endure until The Man was satisfied.

Slowly, the bubbles became more and more apparent. They started to multiply, reproduce. The water was sizzling, boiling, heating. Sweltering, humid air departed from the pot, making Yi Fan's face flush in the increase of temperature.

The Man came back. Yi Fan could hear his footsteps. It was getting heavier and heavier, intensely threatening Yi Fan with only sound.

Soon, it stopped. Yi Fan could sense The Man's presence behind his scraggy back. The entire room vibrated from only the sounds of the boiling pot, steaming air into the people's faces. No one spoke a word, made a sound, or even insufflate. The pot's vatic noises filled the air.

"Kneel."

It was one word, but it made Yi Fan tediously convulse as he gradually got on his scraped knees. He was panting wordlessly in jitters, terrorized by The Man. He didn't want to think about what came next. He didn't want to think. He didn't want to. He didn't want. He didn't.

'What did I do to deserve this?'

The Man deliberately placed his rough hand on Yi Fan's thin neck, forcibly pressuring it to stay completely still. He then used his other hand to slowly turn off the lit stove, its raging fire no longer manifest. It seemed like an eternity as The Man grabbed the pot's black handle, its bottom grinding against the stove's burner. The Man aimed the searing pot above Yi Fan's back.

Yi Fan bit his lip in anguish, hopelessly squeezing his eyes shut. He couldn't make a sound or else the punishment would get worse.

Then it happened.

The scalding water leisurely poured over Yi Fan's back, deeply burning Yi Fan as if he was actually on fire. Yi Fan mutely gasped for air, broadening his mere eyelids. It was pain, scorching pain... yet there was still more to come.

And by the time night had ended, Yi Fan had already fallen out of conscious. There were no tears in his eyes for only misery was left behind.