Running to Survive(Unfinished)

Prologue
Lan's scrawny arms flailed as his father threw a punch aimed at his face.
"Pig! All you do is eat! No wonder the harvest is so poor!"
Lan's father aimed a kick at Lan's shin, but Lan threw out a sewing needle and it stuck into his father's foot.  His father yelped in both surprised and pain, and proceeded to grab Lan by the neck, holding him like a ready-to-be-slaughtered chicken.
"Yu-Qu, that's enough." Lan's mother set down her bamboo water gourd heavily on the table. It steadied itself with a few spins.  "It's not his fault, Besides, the crops have not been too good ever since four years ago. You can't just let a child take the blame. He is your son. He deserves your love and care."
Lan's father snorted. "Him? Definitely not! He does not deserve anything from me!  Mei, don't waste your words on him."  He left the room after punching the wall.   Lan's mother sighed and gave Lan a hug. 
"I'm sorry," she said, her voice cracking, "He wasn't always like this....."
Lan clenched his teeth. He did not know if his mother was telling the truth, as she seemed more hopeful than sure.  He needed to leave so he wouldn't become a burden on his family.

Night fell, and Lan packed his things. His family was not rich so it didn't take too long: a few books, some rice balls, a coat, a sheet from his own bed, his pillow, and his sewing needles.  He stuffed all of this into a large, thick bag that he found in his mother's closet.  
As he walked out he did not look back at his family's rickety cottage; instead, he looked at the seemingly endless horizon and felt a rush of relief.  
Chapter 1
Lan awoke in his ragged tent. The dream again, he thought. Seems like his father wasn't finished with him.  But again, in a way, he wished he hadn't come to the place he was in now.  
It was called the Kowloon Walled City. Other people called it City of Darkness. He called it City of Hopelessness.  The drug lords ran the part of the city he so unfortunately happened to be living in.  In order to stay off the radar, he always covered his face with a mask wherever he went.  Nevertheless, there were still people who watched him.  
There was a famous triad in the city called Sun Yee On, and its members kept on tailing him.  They slipped through the crowds like shadows; some of them had scars running across their arms and legs; others had tattoos on their faces. He had to outrun them several times.  Their reputation was fierce: he overheard people whispering about the organization several times.  
Lan did not wish to become a victim of the organization.  He'd seen the members toss out bloody bodies with marks of their society carved on them.  
The sight of the bodies made him flinch.
"Hey!" A sudden call snapped him out of attention. Lan gripped his weapon needles in his hands; he was ready for a fight anytime. Lan shouted, defensive. "Go away! Don't bother me! " 
"I'm not here to hurt you! I'm here to make an offer!" The intruder's voice did not hold a trace of malice; instead, it trembled slightly. He stepped out from behind the building.  The intruder was a teenager, and he looked a few years older than Lan.  Like Lan, he had dark hair and eyes. But that was where the similarities ended. The intruder had far better clothes, and he was one inch shorter than Lan.  
He held up his hands, a sign of surrender.  In his left hand, he held a smooth, mahogany pipe.  Lan raised his eyebrows.  He had never seen any Sun Yee On members with pipes.  
Lan's eyes darted to the intruder's waist. There was no detectable gun, or weapon of any kind. He decided to lower his caution.  "Who are you? What is the offer?"  
The intruder threw down his pipe. "I'm Yamato.  Let me show you what the offer is."  
Yamato. Lan chewed the name on his tongue.  That sounded Japanese instead of Chinese.  Unlike the Chinese drug lords who dominated the part of the Walled City, Japanese residents were usually businessmen or traders, and they were usually in a higher state of power than the Chinese.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go!" 
Yamato's voice was slightly stern, and he pulled Lan's arm to get him to follow.

Chapter 2
How strange this city is, thought Lan.  The only parts of the city he had seen were the bad parts. The poor parts, with ragged street gangs stealing from vendors' stalls.  But the place Yamato took him to was different.  It was a crowded, noisy arcade, full of flashing bright lights and loud games.  At the first look, Lan highly doubted that it was even a part of the city.  However, on further inspections, he could see traces of the city inside the arcade: in the corners, people wearing thick golden chains around their necks were dealing cards with their counterparts; there was a group huddled at a betting ring, and the middle was filled with dangerous-looking weapons.  Wine and food was being served to the guests by serving girls in tight dresses, faces caked with make-up, movements robotic.  

His gaze snapped back to Yamato, who was shaking hands with another man who seemed to look like a man of high status and power.  He had a dragon tattoo on his arm, and he took big puffs of his cigarette. 

"Ah!" The man looked at Yamato with a kind expression. "It has been a long time since I saw you! How was schooling in England?"
Yamato's voice was steady, but Lan could sense a tinge of arrogance. "Yes, graduating from Eton was definitely wonderful, but I haven't applied to any university yet." 
The way Yamato said yet made Lan realize that he had a tinge of an accent-an accent that differed from the kind which was common when Chinese people spoke English.  It sounded....Western. He had heard a similar kind of accent from the mouth of a Western man when he walked past him.  But why would a Western-educated, rich, elite Japanese teenager travel all the way to the Walled City?
Lan stared at the floor. 
His stomach grumbled.He realized how hungry he was.  The smell of the dim-sum in the room was definitely making his mouth water. 
Yamato patted Lan on the shoulder, smiling at the dragon-tattoo man. "Ka-Pei, I would like you to consider this boy for your apprentice."  
Ka-Pei stared into Lan's eyes.  Lan froze on the spot.  He gulped, unsure of what to do.  
Then, Ka-Pei began to laugh.  "This boy is cautious! I like that!" 
He looked at Lan. "You're in!"
Ka-Pei led Lan to a dark room behind the arcade.  He took out a key and gave it to him. "Now, boy.....treat this key with care....don't lose it. If you lose it, you cannot continue your apprenticeship. Is that clear?" 
Lan nodded his head vigorously. "Yes, sir."
Ka-Pei grinned. "Now go have some dim-sum, boy!"
Lan took a char siu roll and began to nibble at the edges.  It tasted so good, with a crispy outer dough and a savory-sweet honey pork filling.
Ka-Pei eyed him with a smile. "When you start working, you will get this kind of food every day."
Lan nodded back, gripping the key in his hands.

Chapter 3
Lan stuffed a shrimp dumpling into his mouth.  It had been exactly one week since Ka-Pei "hired" him.  

Today, he would begin his job, along with four other boys.  
The other six boys bounded over, each taking turns shaking Lan's hand.  
"Sup, I'm Wei."  "Xie." "Yung."  "Kwan."
Wei was clearly the leader of this newly formed group.  Every step he took had an invisible ring of dominance, and his thick, dark brows arched on top of his fox-like eyes.  
Xie was the second-in-command.  Although he wasn't as menacing as Wei, his face held no emotions, and his dull brown eyes were like two rocks, its colors drained away by pain and suffering.  Lan noticed a wolf tattoo dancing on Xie's neck.  
Before Lan had any time to observe Yung and Kwan, the boys hurried outside.  They hopped on a mule cart, hiding in the haystacks.  

They arrived at a crowded area of the city.  There were markets everywhere, and the calls of vendors possessing mouth-watering dishes filled Lan's mind with hunger.  Yung aimed a kick at Lan's calf, and Lan quickly recovered his attention and went to follow Wei and the others.  
The boys came to a stall. There was a rich-looking old man, holding a book in his hands.  His wallet bulged from the back of his pants pocket.  Wei threw a glare at Xie, and Xie and the other boys began to stand in the stall whilst pretending to be reading.  
In a flash of time, Wei dipped his nimble hand into the old man's pocket, drew out the wallet, and began to run like his life depended on it.
The old man wheeled around. "Thief! Someone catch that thief!"
Xie, Yung, and Kwan threw down their books and fled.  Xie knocked over Lan and he fell to the ground, his forehead throbbing.  He knew he was busted.  His friends....were thieves.

Chapter 4

Lan's head throbbed.  He couldn't remember what had happened.  
"Ah, little thief, you're awake!"
It was the voice of the old man.
Lan's throat was dry, so he could not speak clearly. He barely managed to move his lips. "Not....me."
Lan realized he was locked in a cell. Oh, boy.....

The old man seemed skeptical.  "I saw you take my wallet!"
Lan shook his head. "It was Wei.  I didn't know that they would be stealing."
The old man pinched Lan on his arm, so hard that it hurt.  
"Don't feed me lies, boy! I know it was you!"
Lan said nothing.  He knew trying to explain was not a sensible option to select at this moment.  
The old man took something out of his pocket.  It was tiny and blue.  He held it up between his thumb and index finger, waving it in front of Lan.
"You see this, boy? This is poison.  If you continue to say it wasn't you, this will go down your sorry throat!"
Lan stopped trying to create an explanation in his brain.  
The old man stopped smiling.
"It was you, wasn't it!  Today is the day you die!"
He held open Lan's jaws.
Lan knew this would be the last chance he had to escape.  He sank his teeth into the man's hand.  
The old man screeched and the pill dropped onto the ground.
The door of the cell was kicked open, and a figure cloaked in black rushed in.
The figure took off the hood on the cloak.
Lan looked.  Yung?
Yung gave him a half-smile. 
"Let's go!"