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

The homeless man, his eyes bloodshot and cursing, lunged at Sun Xiaoyan, his dirty hands reaching straight for her chest.

Sun Xiaoyan screamed in fright and shrank back. Her already dirty and tattered shirt was torn open at the collar with a "rip," and her white breasts popped out, particularly eye-catching in the dim light of the early morning.

"Meiling!" Sun Xiaoyan hurriedly covered her chest, tears welling up in her eyes.

Liu Meiling panicked. When the homeless man saw Sun Xiaoyan like this, he became even more aggressive and turned to grab at her again, his target being her pants.

"Get out of here! You stinking beggar!" Liu Meiling kicked him, but missed and almost fell over herself.

The homeless man chuckled, his strength was frightening, and he grabbed Liu Meiling's waistband and pulled her down.

Liu Meiling struggled desperately, but her pants were still pulled down halfway, exposing most of her buttocks.

"Xiaoyan! Stone! Pick up a stone and throw it at him!" Liu Meiling shouted while protecting her pants, her eyes quickly scanning the ground.

Sun Xiaoyan was trembling all over, but when she heard Liu Meiling shout, her survival instinct overcame her fear.

She saw several pieces of broken cement, each about half the size of a fist, at her feet. Without thinking, she bent down, picked one up, closed her eyes, and threw it at the homeless man!

"Bang!"

It didn't hit his head, but it hit the homeless man's shoulder.

The homeless man cried out in pain and paused in his movements.

In that instant, Liu Meiling broke free. She picked up an even bigger stone, and this time without closing her eyes, she gritted her teeth and swung it hard at the homeless man's head!

Fuck you!

"Ah!" the homeless man screamed, blood immediately forming on his forehead. He covered his head, staggered back a few steps, and sat down heavily on the ground.

The two of them saw that their opportunity had arrived.

"Run!" Liu Meiling grabbed Sun Xiaoyan, who was still clutching her chest, and without even bothering to pull up her pants, turned and rushed out of the bridge arch.

They ran wildly, their feet sinking into the cold, rough pavement.

Liu Meiling's pants were hanging on her legs, making her trip over them as she ran. So she simply ripped them off completely and threw them away, running in her dirty underwear.

Sun Xiaoyan wasn't in much better shape; her shirt was ripped open and couldn't cover her breasts at all, which swayed wildly as she ran.

They ran until they could no longer hear the cursing behind them or see the underpass anymore before they dared to stop. They leaned against a dirty tree by the roadside, panting heavily.

The sky was not yet fully bright, and it was still hazy and gray.

The streets were almost deserted, with only one or two large trucks occasionally rumbling past.

A gust of cold wind blew, and Sun Xiaoyan shivered. She looked down at her almost completely exposed chest, and then at Liu Meiling, who was only wearing underwear and had her two long white legs bare. She burst into tears again.

"My clothes...all my clothes are gone...what am I going to do..."

Liu Meiling was also cold, and her upper and lower teeth were chattering.

She wiped her face, her hands covered in dust.

"Why are you crying! We're lucky we weren't pinned down and assaulted!"

That's what she said, but looking at each other's miserable state, Liu Meiling felt a chill in her heart.

There was only half a rock-hard steamed bun left in the backpack, which the two shared. They even ran out of water.

I had something in my stomach, but I was even hungrier and colder.

"We can't stand here, we need to find somewhere," Liu Meiling said, looking to both sides of the street.

But where can we go?

They walked aimlessly along the street.

Sun Xiaoyan clutched the two pieces of her tattered shirt tightly with her hands, barely managing to cover her chest.

Liu Meiling decided to give up and just walked around barefoot, since it was still dark and there weren't many people around.

As we walked, the sky gradually turned a pale white.

The street scene has also begun to change.

It's no longer the large trucks and sheds of the distribution center, but rather rows of low, crowded houses with peeling paint and electrical wires tangled like spider webs everywhere.

A complex smell filled the air: the fumes from breakfast stalls, the stench of sewers, and the scent of cheap perfume.

Then they saw some lights on.

Instead of the blinding white of streetlights, red and pink lights shone from small shops with signs that read "Massage," "Leisure," and "Beauty & Hair Salon."

Some of the light boxes are old, with missing characters; for example, "Beauty and Hairdressing" is now just "Hair and Hair".

Several women stood at the entrances of those shops or leaned against the doorframes.

They wore tight-fitting skirts, some so short they barely covered their buttocks, and heavy makeup. In the dim morning light, they looked a little tired, and a little... dazzling.

They also saw Sun Xiaoyan and Liu Meiling.

Their gazes swept over, lingering on Sun Xiaoyan's exposed chest and Liu Meiling's bare legs. They exchanged a glance, their lips curling into a mocking yet unsurprising expression.

A woman who looked to be in her forties, wearing a nightgown and a coat, came out of a hair salon to get water. She saw the two women and looked them up and down.

"Hey, you two girls," the woman spoke, her voice a little hoarse, "where are you from? What happened to you like this?"

Sun Xiaoyan shrank back in fright and dared not speak.

Liu Meiling took a breath and straightened her chest—although her upper body clothes were still intact.

"Big sister, we...we've run into some trouble, we have nowhere to go."

"Oh." The middle-aged woman poured the dirty water into the ditch by the roadside and said slowly, "Judging from your condition, you have nowhere to go and no money, right?"

Liu Meiling remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.

The woman took a few steps closer and lowered her voice: "Hey girl, looking for work? Room and board included."

Liu Meiling's eyes lit up: "What kind of work?"

Instead of answering directly, the woman pointed to the dilapidated urban village behind them and then pointed into the distance.

Beyond these low, chaotic rooftops, you can see several exceptionally tall and bright glass buildings, gleaming with a cold and expensive light under the gradually brightening sky.

"See that?" the woman said. "Over there, in those tall buildings, that's where respectable white-collar workers and bosses go. Here we are," she tapped the ground with her toe, "that's where people like us stay."

She looked at Liu Meiling and said, "Working here will definitely earn you money faster and be easier than toiling in the fields or working in a factory. It just depends on whether you... are open-minded about it."

Looking at the tall buildings in the distance, then back at the red-light district in front of her, and then at the woman with the "you know what I mean" expression on her face, Liu Meiling's thoughts began to stir.

Free room and board, quick money... isn't that exactly what she needs right now?

"Big sister, what exactly is it..." Liu Meiling tried to lean forward.

Sun Xiaoyan grabbed her arm tightly, her hand trembling.

"Meiling! No...don't go! Look here...this is not a good place!" Her voice trembled, her eyes filled with fear.

The place, the atmosphere, and the appearance of these women instantly reminded her of the farm and the back room of the chess and card room, sending chills down her spine.

The middle-aged woman scoffed when she heard Sun Xiaoyan's words.

"A good place? Girl, wake up. You two are dressed like this, in rags, even a beggar is better dressed than you. That good place," she pointed to the tall buildings in the distance, "is for other people. You two will either starve or freeze to death outside, or..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning couldn't be clearer.

Liu Meiling was being pulled along by Sun Xiaoyan, her feet not moving, but her eyes were fixed on the woman, then she looked at the small houses with red lights on, her expression complicated.

Sun Xiaoyan stared intently at the distant, unattainable high-rise buildings, so bright and clean, like another world.

Looking around at the dimly lit, dilapidated area filled with cheap perfume and ambiguous red lights, a tremendous sense of rupture felt like a hand gripping her heart.

She was afraid, she was really afraid.

But the glimmer of light in Meiling's eyes startled her.

The two stood at the dirty street corner, with endless desolation on one side and the obvious "way out" right in front of them, and a distant, cold but glamorous facade symbolizing "property" and "respectability" on the other.

It feels like I'm standing at a crossroads in my life.

Just then, a man wearing slippers, a vest and shorts, drowsily strolled out from the entrance of a nearby alley, looking like he had just gotten up.

He rubbed his eyes and saw the middle-aged woman and Sun Xiaoyan and Liu Meiling. He was stunned for a moment, and then his gaze was fixed on Sun Xiaoyan's open chest and Liu Meiling's bare legs.

He grinned at the middle-aged woman, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "Sister Hong, these two newcomers? Not bad looking, but their outfits...tsk, just started out and already this wild? How much cheaper?"