Chapter 1: Sister Shuang

My name is Yang Yun. I’ve been an orphan since I was little, until I was thirteen, when she appeared in my life. It was a bitterly cold winter day, and she used just half a sesame cake to bring me home.

My life improved because of that. Besides taking care of my food and lodging, Sister Shuang also paid for my schooling. Those were the happiest two years of my life. But good times didn’t last long; Sister Shuang had to go to another city for work, and the peaceful days changed with her departure.

Although Sister Shuang left me ten thousand yuan, I was too young to know how to manage money. I hung out with a bunch of bad friends, eating and drinking and having fun, and even got hooked on slot machines. In just three months, I was not only penniless but also expelled from school. By chance, in our neighborhood, I ended up watching the turf for some local gang boss.

The boss was named Zhang Longtao, and on the streets people called him Brother Tao. He had over a dozen men under him, and they usually watched the turf for bars and KTVs.

As for me, I was watching the turf at a Lihuang KTV near my home. There were five of us watching the turf there, led by Wang Li, whom everyone called Brother Li. Besides me, the other four were all especially close to Brother Li. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get along with him, but no matter what I did, they never took a liking to me.

They always liked to pick on me, making me treat them to meals. Any dirty or heavy work fell to me, I took the blame, and they got all the benefits. Twice I secretly went to find Brother Tao, but he completely ignored me. After that, Brother Li and the others only got worse. This was nothing like the glamorous life I’d imagined. A few times I found new jobs, but they dragged me back and beat me up.

That day, I came to work at the KTV as usual and found the employees all standing neatly at the door. After asking around, I learned the KTV had changed owners. But that didn’t matter much to me—we were just there symbolically to watch the turf and collect protection money. As long as the place was still there, we weren’t bound by these bosses; we just listened to Brother Tao.

Ignoring the big commotion at the door, I headed straight for a private room—the one we usually hung out in. But when I pushed the door open, I was stunned by what I saw.

What came into view was a woman. Awkwardly, she was changing clothes. Even though it was just her back, her smooth skin, pert buttocks, and long, shapely legs made my heart race. My first reaction was to quickly turn around. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to!”

But after a long while, there was still no sound from inside. A bit puzzled, I turned my head to look.

The woman had already put her clothes on. I hadn’t seen clearly earlier because it was too rushed, but now I was completely dumbstruck. She was incredibly beautiful—at most around thirty. Her thick, dark hair was coiled on her head, her oval face lightly made up, her cherry lips parting and closing, her captivating eyes bright and spirited. She exuded a kind of allure, a sexy beauty that made it hard to look directly at her.

“Are you one of Wang Li’s men?” the woman suddenly spoke.

“Ah, yes!” I snapped back to reality.

“Oh? Is that so? How come I haven’t seen you before?” The woman looked puzzled, stepped closer, and circled around me, scrutinizing me carefully.

The fragrance from her made my heart flutter involuntarily. I forced myself to calm down, swallowed, and said, “I don’t usually hang out with Brother Li much!”

“Oh? So you’re that Yang Yun?” The woman stopped, stood very close to me, and said right in front of my face.

“Yeah, do you know me?” I looked at her curiously.

“I’ve heard Xiao Tao mention you. From now on, just work hard here. If you need any help, feel free to come to me. Oh, by the way, my name is Yu Manling, the new owner of the KTV. You can call me Sister Ling.” Yu Manling gently took out a cigarette and handed it to me.

“Sister Ling, I’m not very good at it!” I really didn’t know how to smoke, mainly because I had no money and couldn’t afford it. But what surprised me more was that she was the new KTV owner. Damn, was she not going to hold my earlier offense against me?

Yu Manling ignored me, took out a lighter, lit the cigarette, took a deep drag, and blew the smoke into my face. Then she said to me, “From now on, when someone offers you a cigarette, you take it. Whether you can smoke or not, you take it. It’s about giving face, understand?”

With that, Yu Manling turned and left.

I stood there dazed, when suddenly I heard someone calling me.

“Yang Yun, come here, Brother Li wants you!” someone not far away shouted.

I hurried over. When I entered the private room, I saw that everyone’s stuff had already been moved here. It seemed the base had shifted to this room, which was much bigger than the previous one. It was clear the new owner was taking good care of us.

Wang Li sat in a chair and, seeing me arrive, directly handed me twenty yuan. “Go, buy me two packs of Zhonghua!”

Hearing Wang Li’s words, my heart sank. Even the hard-pack Zhonghua cost forty or fifty yuan a pack. Giving me twenty was clearly a way to screw me over, making me add my own money. Once or twice wouldn’t have mattered, but this was the seventh time this month, and my salary wasn’t much to begin with.

I looked at Wang Li with some difficulty and said, “Brother Li, I...”

Before I could finish, Wang Li glared at me viciously and cursed, “I told you to go, are you deaf?”

“No, Brother Li, I wanted to ask if I could borrow some money. I don’t have enough on me!” I originally wanted to tell Wang Li straight that twenty yuan couldn’t buy two packs of Zhonghua, but seeing his fierce expression, I got scared and didn’t dare bring it up.

“Borrow money? Fine, but there’s interest—five percent. How much do you want to borrow?” Wang Li heard me, smiled, and looked at me.

Hearing “five percent,” my heart jumped. Five percent was basically loan-shark territory. How could I afford that? So I quickly said, “Ah, never mind, I don’t need to borrow!”

“What? You don’t want to borrow? You think you can just say no after bringing it up? You messing with me?”

Wang Li got up from the chair, grabbed me by the collar, lifted me up, and cursed angrily.

“Brother Li, I’m sorry!” I was terrified and quickly begged for mercy.

“No? Fine, then tell me, how much do you want to borrow?” Wang Li threw me to the ground.

I felt my body hit the ground hard, a bit painful. Slowly getting up, I said, “Borrow a hundred, borrow a hundred!”

Before I could recover, I suddenly felt another heavy force slap across my face.

“A hundred? And you say you’re not messing with me? Damn it, get him!”