The clattering of a pair of dice in the youth's hands rang out in the alleyway as he wound up his throw. An intense expression of focus could be seen, his face was scrunched up and his eyebrows furrowed as his gaze bore into the overturned wooden crate in front of him. The other 4 youths also watched the crate in anticipation. After waiting for a minute, one of the youths had finally had enough.

"Hurry up, Wen! We don't have all day!"

Disturbed from his focused state, he accidentally let the dice out of his hands. A look of shock and anger flickered on his face before he worriedly watched the dice thump on the wooden surface.

"Hah! Snake eyes! You got the lowest, so pay up!"

The other four let out toothy grins as they reached out their hands. Spitting out to his side, he pulled out a moldy piece of bread from his pocket and broke it into four equal parts, placing it on the crate. The four youths snatched the bread just as it was placed, before devouring it like starved beasts. The youth who had disturbed Wen's concentration smiled and spoke up once more.

"Pleasure playing with you, Wen! You're great at this!"

Grumbling to himself, Wen let out an indignant string of words.

"If you hadn't disturbed me-! You bastard, I'd have won…"

"What was that you said, you sore loser?"

The youth stared at Wen in mock anger. Before Wen knew it, the youth, coupled with the other 3 youths, tackled him to the ground. Rolling around on the muddy alleyway, laughs and screams of excitement rang out as 5 youths played in the muddy alleyway. A few minutes later, the 5 youths found themselves sprawled out on their backs out of breath. After resting for a bit, they all sat up, their bodies caked in dirt. Looking at each other, they started to laugh before getting into a big group hug.

"You got lucky this time! I never lose, you guys will be the ones losing next time! Don't you come crying to me when you lose your meal!"

Wen proudly smiled as he let out that declaration.

"You say that every time! But, you've lost the most out of the 5 of us! You're on a 6-time losing streak currently!"

Having said so, the red-haired youth stuck out his tongue at Wen, causing the 5 to start laughing uncontrollably again. Wen grinned as he looked at his four companions. The red-haired boy was named Di. The other 3 youths were Jue, Bao, and Liang. The group had been together for almost 10 years now. Roaming the slums as pickpockets that targeted easy targets, they stayed together, pooling their resources to survive. Although they were kindhearted and pure boys, the desire to survive triumphed over any morals that they could bring to mind.

Wen started to become deep in thought. A stray thought occurred to him, which had for some odd reason, not occurred to him before, throwing his mind into turmoil. That thought was: "Why is the world like this?" Contrary to his name, he wasn't one to ask too many questions. The fact that he charged into a situation without asking questions was a feature that his brothers would mock him for. He could still remember that time that his brothers gave him his name.

Author's Note:

Wen's name "Wen" or 问 means "to ask" in Mandarin. Hence the irony.

Aiya. What cruel boys they are, to mock poor Wen like that.