The Quagmire of Desire: From Gambling Addict and Village Flower to Movie Queen

Just as dawn was breaking, the door was pounded on loudly.

"Get up! Stop playing dead!" Old Ma's hoarse voice rang out from outside the door.

Sun Xiaoyan woke up with a start, her whole body aching as if it had fallen apart.

Liu Meiling was also curled up next to them, and the two of them were covered by a thin, smelly blanket.

The door was pushed open, and Old Ma threw in two pieces of clothing.

"Change into this, there'll be work to do later." After he finished speaking, he slammed the door shut again.

The clothes on the ground were two sparsely made sundresses, the sequined kind, and they looked really tacky.

Sun Xiaoyan looked at the clothes but didn't touch them.

Liu Meiling got up first, silently picked up a piece of clothing, and put it on.

The skirt was so short it barely covered her buttocks, and it felt constricting around her chest.

"Put it on, Xiaoyan," Liu Meiling said calmly. "It doesn't matter what you wear."

Sun Xiaoyan gritted her teeth and picked up another piece of clothing to put on.

The cold, rough fabric against her skin gave her goosebumps.

Not long after, Xiaoya came skipping in, holding her phone in her hand.

"Good morning, my two older sisters!" She smiled excitedly. "How did you sleep? Oh wait, it seems like you didn't sleep much last night."

She walked to the bedside, skillfully unlocked her phone, opened a video, and shoved the screen in front of Sun Xiaoyan and Liu Meiling.

It was those obscene scenes that were filmed last night under the influence of drugs and at Xiaoya's direction.

"Look how clear and exciting the photos are!" Xiaoya said with a grin. "If we posted these online, they'd definitely get tons of views. Or, should I pack them up and send them back to your village so everyone can learn from them?"

Sun Xiaoyan's face turned pale instantly.

Liu Meiling clenched her fists, but didn't say anything.

"Come on, smile at the camera." Xiaoya switched her phone to selfie mode and pointed it at them. "Be happy, be professional, like... like those streetwalkers, you know? You have to have that 'welcome' feeling."

Sun Xiaoyan forced a stiff smile, which looked worse than crying.

Liu Meiling took a deep breath, forced a smile, and even twisted her waist to strike a pose.

"Yes! Sister Meiling is talented!" Xiaoya said with satisfaction. "Sister Xiaoyan, you should learn from her!"

Sun Xiaoyan looked at the phone in Xiaoya's hand, then at her own reflection on the screen, and finally slowly raised her hand, awkwardly making a gesture.

"That's right!" Xiaoya recorded a short clip, then put her phone away with satisfaction. "Keep up the good work, the guests will be here soon. If you perform well, you can pay off your debts faster."

Around nine o'clock in the morning, Lao Ma led two men in.

The two men were both in their forties, with dark skin, wearing dusty work clothes, and smelling of sweat and smoke.

He looks like a foreman working on a nearby construction site.

"Boss Ma, is this the new stuff you were talking about?" A man with buck teeth stared intently at Sun Xiaoyan and Liu Meiling, his mouth practically watering.

"It's fresh, it just arrived yesterday." Old Ma rubbed his hands together and laughed. "Brother Wang, Brother Li, you guys try it first, give us a discount."

"Sure!" Another bald man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

Xiaoya immediately stood in the corner of the room with her phone in hand, pointing the camera at the bed.

"Let's begin, ladies. We'll be recording the whole thing; it's the rule, and it's also part of the 'training material.'" Xiaoya's voice carried a hint of schadenfreude.

The buck-toothed man walked toward Sun Xiaoyan, while the bald man walked toward Liu Meiling.

Sun Xiaoyan closed her eyes, her body stiffening.

The man's rough hand touched her shoulder, and she couldn't help but tremble.

"Tsk, still quite shy." The buck-toothed man chuckled, his movements becoming even more rude.

On the other side, Liu Meiling had already moved closer and gave the bald man a professional smile.

Unsettling sounds soon filled the room.

Xiaoya held up her phone, the camera steadily pointed, muttering to herself, "This angle is good... but the lighting could be a bit brighter..."

Sun Xiaoyan felt like a puppet, her soul floating in mid-air, watching her body below being manipulated.

She thought of Guo Daqiang's card room and the truck bed; they seemed no different, just in a different place and with a different person watching.

After an unknown amount of time, the two men pulled up their pants, satisfied.

Old Ma immediately greeted them with a smile, took the money, and bowed and scraped as he saw them out.

Xiaoya also stopped recording, checked the footage, and nodded.

Old Ma walked back, clutching those few banknotes in his hand.

"Two hundred each, four hundred in total." He waved the money. "However, this money can't be used to pay off your debt directly. We need to deduct last night's food and lodging, today's 'management fee,' and the 'usage fee' for this room... Well, in the end, your labor today will offset one hundred yuan of your debt."

"What?!" Sun Xiaoyan looked up abruptly. "We...we did that kind of thing, and we only get a hundred? Yesterday you said we owed you five thousand!"

"That's yesterday's bill," Old Ma said sternly. "Half a day has passed already. Don't you want to calculate the interest? This isn't a charity! If you want to pay it off quickly, take more customers, take more VIP customers! What are you dawdling for? Clean up, there might be more this afternoon."

After saying that, Old Ma took the money and left.

Xiaoya made a face at them and skipped after them.

Only Sun Xiaoyan and Liu Meiling remained in the room, along with a lingering odor.

Sun Xiaoyan slumped on the bed, her eyes vacant.

Liu Meiling walked to the window and looked out through the dirty glass.

The farmyard was quite large, with two or three cars parked there, and several rows of bungalows in the distance, suggesting it wasn't just for lodging.

"What are you looking at?" Sun Xiaoyan asked in a hoarse voice.

"Let's see how things go," Liu Meiling said in a low voice. "This place is out of the way, but it seems like people come here often. Those two from earlier were from a nearby construction site. If... if we could bypass Lao Ma and Xiao Ya and talk to the customers directly about the price..."

"Are you crazy?" Sun Xiaoyan looked at her incredulously. "They're even recording it! How are we supposed to get around it?"

"There will always be times when the video can't be seen." Liu Meiling turned her head, her eyes holding something Sun Xiaoyan couldn't understand. "Some customers also want to save money. The key is... to find opportunities and accumulate some real assets."

Sun Xiaoyan felt that Liu Meiling was a complete stranger.

As night fell, Xiaoya came again.

This time she was holding a small paper bag.

"Here, ladies, have some 'sugar' so you'll feel better tonight." She poured out two pills that were a darker color than the ones from last night.

"What is this again?" Sun Xiaoyan shrank back.

"The upgraded version is even better and more enjoyable." Without waiting for a reply, Xiaoya shoved the pills into their hands. "Take these, and then we'll film some even more exciting 'tutorial videos.' I have a group chat with my girlfriends, and they love watching these."

Under intense scrutiny, the two had no choice but to swallow the pills.

Soon, an even stronger wave of heat and dizziness washed over me.

Sun Xiaoyan felt her head buzzing, and her vision was blurry, but her body felt light and airy. A certain desire was amplified infinitely, and her sense of shame became blurred.

Xiaoya set up her phone and began directing them to make all sorts of embarrassing gestures, filming extremely explicit scenes.

Sun Xiaoyan did as she was told, numbly, feeling as if she were falling into a deeper black hole, with no strength left to struggle.

Liu Meiling was cooperating, but under the influence of the drug, her eyes kept glancing at the doors and windows of the room, and at Xiaoya's phone that she had casually placed on the table, while she was quickly making plans in her mind.

This farm is a prison.

But what if there are cracks inside the cage?