Bo: Maybe you could burn him.
Peng: Excellent idea, I’ll go for some burning coals. (runs downstage and off steps)
All guards sit and wait – loitering
Yan: Too bad he isn’t trying to burn you, brother. You’ve been unburnable from the first day I knew you.
Li: A talent no one saw much use for until this very day. I’ll see what I can do.
Li: (moves “through” the wall while the others watch for the guards)
Jiang: (comes out to join the others) They never noticed anything different!
Peng: (runs back to center stage with “coals”)
Guards: (reach into dungeon and drag out Li)
Wong & Min: Come with us! (roughly take Li with them down stage and down the steps)
Deng: This is starting to be fun.
Jiang: As long as the guards don’t get suspicious.
Yan: I hope we can do this for as long as they can come up with crazy ideas.
Off Stage – Wong: Get more wood!
Off Stage – Min: Hurry up! (pause) This isn’t working!
Guards: (rush up from the steps, push Li into the dungeon)
Bo: (watching in disbelief!!) No, no. It can’t be true.
Sung: We might as well try to leave the country right now.
Ming: I don’t think we should take time to go to our homes. We must leave immediately.
Min: How can we go anywhere? The boats are all destroyed. The mountains surround us.
Bo: You’re right. The emperor would find us before we had a chance to hide.
Wong: Oh woe, oh woe. We are ruined.
Peng: Wait a minute. We haven’t tried everything. Let’s think.
Guards: (huddle together outside the dungeon)
Min: I have an idea. Just because we can’t chop of his head, or bury him, or burn him, doesn’t mean we can’t drown him.
Peng: Excellent idea. We’ll lock him in a trunk and throw him into the deepest part of the sea. I’ll go get a lock for the trunk! (runs down the steps to off stage right)
Wong: (Calls after him) Hurry. The Emperor will be expecting a report.
Guards: (sit down while they wait)
Yan: Now it’s my chance to be important. You DO remember that I can hold my breath forever if I have to.
Jiang: Excellent idea.
Yan: (switches with Li)
Chou: I hope those guards run out of ideas soon because we’re running out of specialness.
Deng: Perhaps something will happen to distract them.
Peng: (runs back up to center stage with a lock) I have it!!
Peng & Ming: (reach in the dungeon and roughly take Yan with them down stage and down the steps)
Ad Lib mumbling about the lock and trunk
Ming & Peng: (rush on stage, dragging Yan and push him into the dungeon ahead of him. He motions to the others to follow him in)
Guards all go in the dungeon door (mumbling) and come out the hidden opening.
Guards stumble over the children
Children hear the commotion and stumble aside to get out of the way
Wong: Just as I suspected! Here they are! (motioning to the children huddled near the wall)
Sung: Maybe we can hide you all somewhere and the Emperor will never find out that we didn’t follow his orders.
Ming: Hurry, come with us.
All Children and Guards: (run down the steps to downstage right)