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

"Ah! Let go! Help!"

Sun Xiaoyan's scream was cut short when a rough, large hand covered her mouth.

The grip was so strong that she couldn't breathe.

With his other hand, he grabbed her waist from behind and dragged her backward.

It was so dark that he couldn't see anything except for heavy breathing and Liu Meiling's screams and struggles from the other side.

"Meiling! Meiling!" Sun Xiaoyan cried out in her heart, but could only make muffled sounds.

She was dragged deep into the room, and her back hit something, causing her to burst into tears from the pain.

The hand covering her mouth was released, and before she could even catch her breath, two hands pressed down on her again, clamping her shoulders on either side and pinning her tightly against the wall.

The wall was cool, pressed against her bare back.

"Who...who are you? Where's the boss?" Sun Xiaoyan's voice trembled.

No one answered.

Only the sound of tearing fabric could be heard in the darkness.

scoff-

She felt a chill; her thin black dress had been ripped open from the neckline all the way down to her waist.

"No! Don't tear it! This dress..." She instinctively tried to protect it.

One hand slapped her hand away hard.

Then, the hand landed on the spot she was desperately trying to protect, and roughly crushed it.

Sun Xiaoyan gasped in pain.

"Big brother...big brother, are you sure you haven't got the wrong people?" she tried to speak. "We were called by Sister Hong, we're guests..."

"Shut up." A man's voice, deep and impatient.

Then, something cold and hard pressed against her lower abdomen.

Sun Xiaoyan froze.

The thing slid down her lower abdomen, past her navel, and continued downwards.

It's metallic and very cool.

"No...please...don't use this..." she cried, her legs going weak.

But the person holding her down was too strong, and she couldn't move at all.

The cold, metallic touch stopped at the place she feared most.

Then, a bone-chilling cold spread from there.

"Ah—" Sun Xiaoyan let out a piercing scream.

pain.

Excruciating pain.

It hurt more than anything I've ever experienced before.

She felt as if she had been cleaved in two from the inside.

Tears streamed down her face, but she didn't bother to wipe them away. She just shook her head desperately, making broken pleas for mercy.

But it didn't work.

The chilling torment continued, brutally, without the slightest relief.

At the same time, she heard Liu Meiling's voice from the other side of the room.

At first, it was also screaming and crying.

"Let go! What are you doing?!"

But soon, the voice changed.

"Big brother...big brother...I can't take it anymore...it hurts..."

The voice trembled, but it was no longer pure fear; instead, it contained something else entirely.

"Hey bro, be nicer to the girl...she'll take good care of you..."

Sun Xiaoyan was stunned.

She endured the tearing pain and listened intently.

Liu Meiling's voice came through intermittently.

"Um... Big brother... please be gentle... I'm afraid of pain..."

"Will this... will this work?"

"Does Big Brother like it?"

Sun Xiaoyan was all too familiar with that voice.

It was the kind of voice Liu Meiling used when she was entertaining customers at the hair salon—a deliberately high-pitched, ingratiating, and seductive tone.

But now...

They were forcibly dragged in!

These people are not guests at all!

Sun Xiaoyan's mind was in complete chaos. The pain in her body and the panic in her heart were intertwined, making her almost faint.

She doesn't remember much about what happened after that.

In a daze, the man seemed to have run out of patience, turning her over so she was facing the wall. She heard something being thrown to the ground with a dull thud. Someone ordered her to lie down, and she numbly complied.

Then came the long darkness.

All she remembers is the coldness of the walls, the roughness of the floor, and the stinging pain in her kneecaps when she was forced to curl up.

My senses have long since gone numb; only the places that have been repeatedly trampled still evoke a sharp, stabbing pain.

She stopped screaming and begging for mercy, and just stared into the darkness before her.

I could also vaguely hear Liu Meiling's voice getting louder and louder on the other side of the room, and there was a strange sense of indulgence in her voice.

Sun Xiaoyan closed her eyes and dug her fingernails into the wall plaster.

Why?

Why did Meiling do this?

Weren't they dragged in together? Weren't they struggling together?

Why could Meiling make that kind of sound?

I don't know how much time passed.

The weight behind me finally disappeared, leaving only my heavy breathing gradually subsiding.

Sun Xiaoyan collapsed to the ground, her body ice-cold.

On the other side, Liu Meiling's voice also stopped.

Only heavy breathing could be heard in the room.

After a while, footsteps approached.

A man kicked Sun Xiaoyan's leg.

"Stop pretending to be dead, get up."

Sun Xiaoyan didn't move.

The man kicked again, this time harder.

Sun Xiaoyan flinched in pain, then slowly propped herself up to sit up.

She touched the torn dress on the ground and wrapped it haphazardly around herself.

In the darkness, she saw Liu Meiling sit up and grope for her clothes.

"If you dare tell anyone what happened today, I'll kill you all," another man's voice rang out.

Then, something was thrown on the ground.

It's banknotes.

A stack.

"Pick it up and get out of here," the man said.

Liu Meiling immediately moved.

Ignoring the pain in her body, she crawled over on her hands and feet, touched the wad of money, and clutched it tightly in her hand.

Sun Xiaoyan looked at her.

Liu Meiling also looked at her. Her expression was not visible in the darkness, but Sun Xiaoyan could sense that Meiling was urging her on.

Sun Xiaoyan didn't move.

She didn't want to pick it up.

This money is dirty.

It's dirtier than any money they've ever earned before.

"Xiaoyan, get up quickly, we're leaving," Liu Meiling said in a low voice, her voice a little hoarse.

Sun Xiaoyan still didn't move.

Liu Meiling crawled over and pulled her up.

"Let's go! Are we just waiting for them to back out?"

Sun Xiaoyan was pulled by her and managed to stand up.

My legs felt incredibly weak, and my most hidden wounds were burning with pain.

The two of them helped each other and slowly made their way to the door.

The door opened.

A sliver of light from the corridor shone down on the two of them.

Sun Xiaoyan looked down and saw the tattered dress she was wearing, and the dried blood and stains on her legs.

Liu Meiling wasn't in much better shape; her hair was a mess, and there were red marks all over her face and neck.

But Liu Meiling held the wad of money tightly in her hand.

The two walked out of the room.

The door slammed shut behind me.

The corridor was eerily quiet.

They glanced at each other but didn't say anything.

Liu Meiling released Sun Xiaoyan, walked to the side, and counted the money in the dim light of the corridor.

"A thousand," she said softly, stuffing the money into her bosom. "Not bad."

As Sun Xiaoyan watched her carefully tuck the filthy banknote into her body, her stomach churned violently.

"Let's go, the driver is still waiting downstairs." Liu Meiling came over and tried to help her up.

Sun Xiaoyan dodged it.

"What's wrong?" Liu Meiling asked.

"You just now..." Sun Xiaoyan began, her voice terribly hoarse, "Why did you yell like that just now?"

Liu Meiling paused for a moment, then laughed, but her laughter sounded a little strange.

"Otherwise what? Like you, grit your teeth and tough it out? In the end, won't it all be the same?" She leaned closer and lowered her voice, "Xiaoyan, are you stupid? At times like that, the more you resist, the more they take it. If you go along with them and coax them, they might be a little gentler."

Sun Xiaoyan looked at her and felt that Meiling in front of her was a little unfamiliar.

"But they...they are not guests," Sun Xiaoyan said.

"Is there a difference?" Liu Meiling retorted. "As long as they pay, who cares who they are?"

Sun Xiaoyan was speechless.

Liu Meiling pulled her arm over and put it on her shoulder.

"Alright, stop thinking about it. Hurry up and get off, the driver's waiting. Don't forget, we still owe him one."

The two of them, supporting each other, walked step by step towards the stairwell.

Sun Xiaoyan's hands were empty.

Liu Meiling clutched the thousand yuan tightly in her hand.

It was stained with blood and something else.