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

The car had been driving for an unknown amount of time, and the bumpy ride made Sun Xiaoyan and Liu Meiling feel like their bones were about to fall apart.

The smell of cow dung, hay, and their own sweat and blood mingled together, making one feel dizzy.

They huddled between the legs of several cows, too afraid to move, listening to the howling wind and the sound of tires rolling over the road.

Sun Xiaoyan felt cold and leaned closer to Liu Meiling.

Liu Meiling was also cold, so the two of them huddled together.

"Meiling," Sun Xiaoyan's voice was barely audible, "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Liu Meiling said, peering out through the gaps in the carriage railing. It was pitch black outside, with only a few lights flashing by occasionally. "Anyway, the farther away from that awful place, the better."

Sun Xiaoyan stopped talking and buried her face in her knees.

The image of the man lying on the farm with his face covered in blood, and Xiaoya being fed medicine while naked, were still vivid in her mind.

She shuddered.

As dawn approached, the car slowed down and finally came to a stop.

I could hear voices outside, as well as the sounds of other cars.

"We're here! Hurry up and unload!" a rough, hoarse male voice shouted; it was the driver's voice.

Then came the sound of the railing at the back of the carriage being opened with a loud bang.

Sun Xiaoyan and Liu Meiling were so frightened that they shrank back and pressed themselves tightly against the carriage wall.

As the light streamed in, they saw the driver and an assistant begin to drive the cattle out.

The cow mooed and reluctantly walked down the slope.

"Quick, now's the time!" Liu Meiling whispered, pulling Sun Xiaoyan along.

Taking advantage of the driver's back being turned to the carriage, the two hurriedly climbed out from behind the herd of cattle, spotted the edge of the carriage, and jumped down.

Their legs buckled when they landed, and they both fell flat on their backsides.

"Ouch!" Sun Xiaoyan cried out in pain.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was quite noticeable in the relatively quiet open space in the early morning.

The driver, who was tying up the cow, suddenly turned around and immediately saw two women, covered in dirt and grass clippings, crawling up from behind his car.

"Damn it!" The driver glared, threw down the rope he was holding, and rushed over. "Where did this beggar come from! Daring to hitch a ride with me!"

Sun Xiaoyan and Liu Meiling were terrified and scrambled to their feet to run away.

"Stop! Damn it!" The driver chased after them, but he was wearing rubber boots and couldn't run fast. After a few steps, he stopped, panting heavily, and pointed at their backs, cursing, "Get lost! If I see you again, I'll break your legs! You're bad luck!"

Sun Xiaoyan and Liu Meiling didn't dare to look back. They ran as fast as they could until they passed several sheds piled with goods and could no longer hear the cursing. Only then did they stop and lean against the wall, panting heavily.

"They...they didn't chase after us, did they?" Sun Xiaoyan's face turned pale.

Liu Meiling looked back and shook her head. "It should be gone."

Only then did the two have time to look around.

This is a large open-air area, like a distribution center.

There were large trucks everywhere, some unloading and some loading.

The air was filled with a smell that was a mixture of gasoline, animal dung, and dust.

In the distance, you can see rows of buildings of varying heights, some of them particularly tall, their windows gleaming in the morning light.

The scene behind them was a completely different world from the messy, dusty place.

"This...this is the provincial capital?" Sun Xiaoyan looked at the tall buildings, somewhat bewildered. She had only ever seen such tall buildings on television.

"It should be on the edge," Liu Meiling said. She was also looking, her eyes more complicated than Sun Xiaoyan's, showing confusion and something else. "We need to go in."

Liu Meiling kept the little money the two of them had swindled from the farm and the strange man hidden on her person.

She took them out and counted them; they were all crumpled and totaled over a thousand yuan.

"Let's find a place to rest and get something to eat first," Liu Meiling said. "Then...we'll talk about it later."

They dared not walk in the direction of those tall buildings, feeling that it was not a place they could go.

We walked aimlessly along a bumpy road outside the distribution center.

There were many cars on the road, kicking up clouds of dust.

The two women were disheveled, their clothes were dirty and tattered, and they stood out conspicuously on the roadside.

Occasionally, when people riding electric bikes or driving tricycles pass by, they can't help but glance at them a couple of times, their eyes filled with curiosity or disdain.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Sun Xiaoyan felt a burning pain in the soles of her feet. She had run all the way yesterday and walked again today, so the blisters must have burst.

She was so hungry that her stomach was practically sticking to her back, and her throat was so dry it felt like it was on fire.

"Meiling, I can't walk anymore," she said, her voice trembling with tears.

Liu Meiling was exhausted, but she gritted her teeth and persevered. "Just a little longer, there seems to be a bridge ahead."

It was a rather old highway bridge with a large archway. There was some junk and garbage piled up underneath, but at least it could provide shelter from the wind and rain.

The two of them, as if they had found a lifeline, staggered over and plopped down on a broken cement slab in the shadow of the bridge arch.

"Finally... finally I can rest for a while." Sun Xiaoyan almost collapsed.

Liu Meiling rummaged through the old backpack and found the last few dry, hard steamed buns and half a bottle of water.

The water was taken from the farm's kitchen earlier; it had been warmed up and had a slightly strange taste.

The two of them didn't care anymore and wolfed down the steamed buns with water.

After eating something, I felt a little better.

But the feeling of despair, like the shadows in the bridge arch, slowly crept over my entire body.

Sun Xiaoyan hugged her knees, looking at the traffic coming and going outside the bridge arch, and the tall buildings in the distance that she could never reach.

Tears fell without warning.

"Meiling, where...where can we go?" Her voice choked with sobs. "We only have so little money, we're barely human...this place is so big, and nobody knows us..."

Liu Meiling didn't speak immediately.

She reached into her clothes, fumbled around for a while, and pulled out two cell phones.

One was Xiaoya's old-fashioned square phone, and the other was taken from the stranger at the farm; it was also an old phone.

She pressed a button on Xiaoya's phone, but the screen went completely black.

I pressed the other button, but there was still no response.

"Damn it, the battery's dead." Liu Meiling cursed, and pressed the button several more times, but there was still no response.

Her last glimmer of hope seemed to have been extinguished along with the black screen.

Contact Mr. Chen?

How can we contact each other?

The cell phone is useless; she doesn't even know what Boss Chen does or where he is. All she has is a business card, and she still can't get in touch with him.

But Liu Meiling didn't cry like Sun Xiaoyan. Her eyes were somewhat vacant as she looked out from under the bridge, muttering to herself, "The provincial capital...there are many opportunities...there must be opportunities...as long as I can find a way..."

She seemed to be persuading Sun Xiaoyan, but more like she was persuading herself.

Sun Xiaoyan cried even harder, her shoulders trembling.

"What chance do we have...? What's the difference between us and beggars...? We might as well..."

"Why not what?" Liu Meiling suddenly turned and stared at her, her eyes a little fierce. "Why not go back to the farm? Why not go back to the village? To be laughed at by Guo Daqiang and the others? To be cursed behind the backs of the whole village?"

Sun Xiaoyan was stunned by her shout, and her crying stopped, leaving only soft sobs.

Liu Meiling let out a breath, her tone softening, and reached out to put her arm around Sun Xiaoyan's shoulder.

"Xiaoyan, don't cry. Didn't we run away together? We survived that dangerous time at the farm, how could things get any worse? The provincial capital is so big, we're sure to find something to eat. Wait a minute... wait a minute, I'll go find a place to charge my phone, just in case... just in case I can get in touch with Boss Chen?"

Sun Xiaoyan leaned on her shoulder, saying nothing, only silently shedding tears.

The two of them squeezed together in the shadow of the bridge arch, watching more lights gradually illuminate the distance, and the neon lights that began to flicker on the outlines of the tall buildings.

Those neon lights are so bright, so colorful, it's like another world.

But their world consists only of this cold bridge arch and two broken cell phones that have run out of battery.

Just as Sun Xiaoyan was about to run out of tears and was feeling drowsy and sleepy...

Deep inside the bridge arch, behind a pile of tattered woven bags and cardboard, something suddenly moved.

Then, a disheveled, unkempt head popped out, its cloudy eyes glaring fiercely at them.

"Who gave you permission to sleep here?" the homeless man's voice was hoarse and unpleasant. "Get out! This is my place!"