0031 031 Why are you in heaven while I'm in hell?
Some children, for various reasons, have never received a complete education on physiology and sex from a young age. Their understanding of these things comes from all sorts of small details. From complete ignorance, they gradually piece together fragmented knowledge into a complete chain based on human instinct.
For example, Qi Shuyao and her classmates learned after taking biology class that sperm and egg combine to form a fertilized egg and give birth to a child, but a considerable number of people did not know how sperm and egg actually meet until much later.
For example, Tu Mi, from a young age, could see men and women hugging each other and making strange noises. She could only see her sisters covered in bruises and even bleeding after dawn, with expressions of mixed joy and sorrow on their faces, but she didn't know what they were doing.
A long, long time passed before the Epiphyllum Sister, who was always taken out alone, returned crying. Manager Chen sat down next to her with a displeased expression and sighed, but in the end, he didn't say anything.
As time slowly passed, the older woman's belly began to grow bigger, which frightened many of the younger girls. At this point, the older women surrounded them and explained the book knowledge that they could only pass down orally.
"When a man and a woman get together without using protection, the woman's belly will get bigger and she will give birth to a child. That's how we all come into being."
The little rose, not even as tall as a mop handle, whispered the knowledge she had just learned, and couldn't help but reach out and touch the swollen belly of her sister, the night-blooming cereus.
None of the people here have names; they are all referred to by the names of flowers, even if they don't know what the word is or what the flower looks like.
Not long after Sister Tanhua's children were born, each of them received a small cube called a cell phone. Manager Chen taught them how to use this little thing, and almost everyone loved it and lost track of time while playing with it.
Tu Mi watched as the number on her phone strangely changed from 30 to 1. That day, Sister Tan Hua disappeared. Some said she ran away on her own and was captured, others said she was beaten to death by Manager Chen for disobeying orders. Only the older sister, who was only a year younger than Tan Hua, sneered in the corner and said that she had become successful and run away with a man.
Tu Mi didn't understand any of this. She sat with her back to the crowd, poking the face of the child left behind by Sister Tan Hua with her finger. He didn't get to eat anything good, so his face was shriveled and his skin was wrinkled. His eyes, unlike Tan Hua's, were dark and bright, and he liked to smile when he looked at her.
She was the only one in the whole room who was willing to play with him, and they would play for a very long time.
The sisters told Tu Mi that from now on, she should pay attention to whether she suddenly bleeds from her lower body. If she does, she should tell her older sister, which means that she has come of age and can go to the front hall to entertain customers and earn money.
Tu Mi waited and waited, until the numbers on her phone changed several times before a stream of dark brown blood finally flowed out. Her waist and lower body felt extremely uncomfortable, sticky, and she could smell the blood if she took a closer sniff. Her already pale face turned even whiter, and she couldn't muster any strength.
But that day, she secretly slipped out from behind and hid in a corner. She was in so much pain that she couldn't stand up, so she leaned against the wall and watched a young man walk towards her.
"Miss, you should go back and rest."
He covered her lower body with his coat, but before he could even touch her, Manager Chen rushed over and took Tu Mi back to the back.
The sisters who had free time took turns lying next to her to keep her company. Seeing that she was a little flustered, they started telling her stories from the past to distract her.
"Don't be afraid. Once you're out, just do whatever Manager Chen tells you to do. Nothing serious will happen. Do you remember Sister Tanhua? Although she ran away secretly, she's found her family now. I heard her father only has one child, and she inherited a large piece of land and built a new house. She lives in a very spacious house all by herself. I also heard that when this place was at its most prosperous, a senior colleague hooked up with the son of a very powerful leader and was taken out to eat and drink the best food and drink. You're so beautiful, there must be many men who like you. You won't have to worry about the future."
"I have no worries about the future... What is the future?" Tu Mi stared blankly at the dirty ceiling.
The bleeding lasted for a long time before finally stopping. When the guests arrived that day, Manager Chen impatiently pushed her out. The inner hall door slammed shut behind her, and in front of her was a brightly lit room that both frightened and intrigued her.
Despite being called a dance hall, there were hardly any people dancing there. Instead, a few people gathered at each table, occasionally bursting into laughter.
She stood in the corner, observing the outside world, when she was caught off guard and met a pair of somewhat familiar, bloodshot eyes. The owner of those eyes was trembling, chugging down glass after glass of alcohol.
He beckoned to her, and Tu Mi walked over. The closer she got, the stronger the smell of blood became. She thought she was bleeding from her lower body again, so she stopped, clamping her legs together, and didn't dare to look up.
The man's hand reached right up to her eyes, and she could see that it was covered in blood, some of it black and emitting a putrid smell. She didn't dare look up, only staring at it tremblingly out of the corner of her eye.
He could not be called a man; his youthful face was filled with obvious fear, his eyes were bloodshot, his eye sockets were deep, and he had heavy dark circles.
He seemed to have forgotten her, but as if mesmerized, he reached out and touched Tu Mi's little face with his finger, leaving a dried bloody finger mark. The two of them stared at each other quietly until Jiu Li Xiang ran out from behind.
Jiulixiang is the boy left behind by Sister Tanhua. His name was given by Manager Chen. Sister, who likes to surf the internet, said that he was much shorter than other children his age, with thin arms and legs and little strength. But today, he somehow managed to get strength out of him, pushed the tall boy away, vigorously wiped the bloodstains from Tumi's face with his small hands, and then pulled her back.
Amid the loud music, she seemed to hear the boy behind her laughing.
They were all severely scolded by Manager Chen that day, but strangely, the boy didn't get angry. He came back after a long time, and he had shed the dejected and helpless look he had when they first met. He had a bewitching yet somewhat dark aura that matched the dilapidated dance hall perfectly. He smiled as he watched Tu Mi walk towards him, reached out and put his arm around her slender waist, and pulled her into his lap.
Hiding behind, Jiulixiang clenched her fists inwardly, gritting her teeth but unable to say anything.
The girls all said that Tu Mi was lucky, as her first customer was so generous with money. They couldn't even count all the money they had. Manager Chen also smiled and, after the girls quieted down, led Tu Mi to her own little room.
Do you know who this is?
"Who? Who?"
"Your guest."
"I don't know him."
Manager Chen felt a tightness in his chest from looking at her innocent eyes. He spent a lot of money to buy them cell phones, and she used them to take pictures, didn't she?
"Even if my body is underground, my vision can't be limited to what's in front of me. I should spend some time every day going online to learn about current affairs, find out who Pei Yuzhou is, and also look up his relatives and children."
Tu Mi, somewhat bewildered and struggling, wrote the three characters "Pei Yuzhou" on the screen based on her intuition. As she scrolled down the news, she was suddenly exposed to a world she had never been to before. When the face of the boy she saw almost every day, the one she did with the most intimate things her friends talked about, appeared in the column for his son, she seemed to suddenly understand something.
Most of the news about this man named Pei Youwen is about him drawing with children, and the expression on his face is very different from when he is facing her.
As she flipped back through the pages, she clearly remembered that the day after their first meeting, the news reported that the Pei family's enemy had killed his twin brother.
His younger brother's name was Pei Tanxi, and he looked a lot like him. He was a notorious local bully who had offended many people in his family and himself. Now that the Minister of Public Security's son had died in revenge, it wasn't so hard to understand.
The news report said the body wasn't discovered until the next day, so whose blood was on Pei Youwen's hands?
As she was frowning in thought, the curtain of the small house was lifted. It was Jiulixiang who had secretly gone upstairs to buy things. Ever since she was able to earn money, Jiulixiang often used her small body to climb out of the ventilation duct to buy them things that couldn't be seen underground.
But when he ran back today, he was empty-handed. He rushed to Tu Mi's side and shook her shoulders.
“Sister, you and Mr. Pei should leave. Don’t stay here. When I came back just now, I saw that people came again. They were wearing the same black suits as the people who came before and they came in a car. They must be up to something again. This place will be buried again. You can’t let your child be born here like me and never see the sun.”
Tu Mi stared at his face, which was flushed with anxiety, and after a long time, she raised her hand to touch his protruding belly. She had been avoiding his presence for some time, but now it seemed that she really had to face this problem.
When she first found out she was pregnant, Pei Yuzhou was still alive. At that time, Pei Youwen was still a glamorous young master who could squander more money than he could ever spend in a lifetime. He wasn't surprised at all when he found out she was going to have a child. He made arrangements to move her out and fix up the environment. He brought her a lot of things with words she couldn't understand and asked her to eat them, saying they would be good for her.
She hadn't smiled so happily in a long time, but sadly, before she could even fully open her mouth, her father passed away.
Why would a father not leave his inheritance to his son? Pei Youwen couldn't understand. He had to deal with his father's funeral while searching for the missing family property from his mother. He was worried about her and their child living underground. His eyes darted among the people at the funeral, looking for someone who could help him.
Manager Chen always said that Tu Mi was silly, but he and everyone in the dance hall knew that she was the smartest one. After the Pei Yuzhou case was reported, the media listed in detail the relationship between Gu Lin and the He family, and the connections behind them. When no one in the dance hall could understand what their relationship was, she had already put down her phone and dimmed the light in her eyes.
She should have understood long ago why the dance hall, which should have been shut down twenty years ago, was still operating, and why they could never go to the ground floor.
They are nothing more than pawns in the political struggles on the ground. Today she gets some information out of that minister, tomorrow she passes some news to that secretary. They cannot see the light on the ground, yet they are entangled in the silent battlefield.
Pei Youwen said he was sure he could get money from his mother and then run away with her, but he hasn't shown up for a long time.
In the afternoon, the dance hall was at its quietest. The girls who had stayed up all night got up, ate, and tidied themselves up, sprawling around scrolling through their phones. In the old basement, beautiful women lay sprawled out in various places. In a corner, only Tu Mi sat in a chair. On the table opposite her was a Buddha statue. She didn't recognize it, but the new girl, Xiao Lan, said it was Guanyin Bodhisattva, the most commonly worshipped deity, who blesses all things. The Bodhisattva is soft-hearted and will forgive you if you sincerely admit your mistakes.
But Sister Xiaolan hasn't appeared for many days either. Did she also get beaten to death by Manager Chen?
Will the Bodhisattva forgive her?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
