Chapter 32

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Where was this?

Gu Fengyi had never been to such a run-down neighborhood. Even with the decay the game ran the town’s image through, the architecture here was so old that she had only ever seen it on TV.

Was this Liu Qingqing’s illusion? Gu Fengyi suddenly realized. The illusions they had entered before were mainly made up of her own negative emotions. Even though Liu Qingqing had never asked, Gu Fengyi’s unfortunate family had already been revealed to her.

But there were few illusions about Liu Qingqing. Gu Fengyi only knew that her childhood was equally unhappy; she had spoken of the days when her family was still poor. She disliked her classmates who had bullied her, disliked the shop assistants who looked down on her, and disliked her relatives whose brains were filled with fat. These unhappinesses were deeply branded into her memories, creating dark illusions.

So this was where Liu Qingqing lived as a child? Gu Fengyi thought.

From the stairwell ahead came the click-clack of footsteps. It was the sound of the woman’s thin heels against the floor.

“Be careful, there’s movement from that building!” Gu Fengyi warned.

Liu Qingqing stared dazedly at the doorway. That high-heeled monster had already walked out, spreading its red-lips full of sharp teeth in a peal of shrill laughter, shocking the both of them.

The monster’s long, thin fingers were covered in bright red nail polish, each nail several centimeters long like sharp, steel needles.

The arrow missed; it was impossible to aim at this speed. It didn’t give her a chance to reload. Gu Fengyi made the split-second decision to throw away her crossbow, lower her center of balance, and sweep across with the crowbar in a tight grip – the high-heeled monster jumped up with an eerie smile, its nails like blood-red needles under the pale moonlight, and clawed viciously at Gu Fengyi!

Not good!

The crowbar had missed and moving back to a guard would take too long. Unable to dodge, Gu Fengyi was on the verge of being heavily wounded by its claws. In a nick of time, a stream of burning flame shot out from thin air and hit the back of the monster soaring through air like a shooting star. Its back burned as a terrible scream came out of its mouth once again, making the both of them want to cover their ears and run.

Falling down, the monster rolled along the ground. The fire on its clothes finally went out and it stumbled back up, but how could Gu Fengyi allow it to recover? She forced back her headache and gave it a critical head-shot with her metal bar!

The monster was terribly agile. The two fought on the concrete covered in dark red liquid, from the entrance of the corridor to the grass field, grass cuttings and mud flying everywhere. There were too many obstacles like hedges there though, so Gu Fengyi slowly led the monster back to the concrete ground again.

The monster twisted and dodged but Gu Fengyi saw a gap and slammed the bar against its shoulder. The sharp pain made it furious as it lunged its long nails towards Gu Fengyi’s eyes with a howl; Gu Fengyi’s flexible body arched back and dodged its attack. A deeper smile carved into the monster’s red lips as it stomped its legs slyly – the thin heels kicked against Gu Fengyi’s calves, making her lose balance and fall!

“Fengyi–!” Liu Qingqing shouted in desperation, her wounded right hand pressing down on the skill tatto on her left; a circlet of light rose up.

The lunging monster slammed into a rising dirt wall. It fell dizzily onto the ground before climbing up again with difficulty, but this time, it changed targets to Liu Qingqing whose skills were all in cooldown!

Liu Qingqing stared at it in horror. She tried to run away but crashed into a rubbish bin and stumbled onto the ground, thick despair lining her face.

Having escaped the crisis, Gu Fengyi ignored the pain in her body and picked up her crossbow from the ground not far away. She loaded, aimed, fired – her concentration has never been as focused. She had only one chance, one chance to save everything. If this shot missed…

No, no, no, she had to believe in herself and believe in her, she couldn’t fail, Gu Fengyi, you’re not allowed to fail! Your life should not be a failure!

This arrow which carried Gu Fengyi’s will pierced the darkness and through the monster’s heart.

Its figure froze as it slowly turned around.

It was so bright, yet so pale. Under the faded lamplight, its featureless face was so empty, yet the color on its lips so poignant. This strong contrast was like the paradoxes in life.

The monster collapsed onto the dirty road. A burning sensation climbed up Gu Fengyi’s arm once again, adding another mark onto her.

Liu Qingqing was still sitting where she fell in fright, staring dazedly at the monster not two meters from her.

Her fire skill cool-down had ended, but the moment the monster had lunged at her, she forgot how to fight back.

Just like that night from so many years ago, as she was curled up by the rubbish bin looting for something that could fill her stomach, crying and cursing for a cake someone else had thrown away. At that moment, a car had stopped not far away. She immediately stopped crying and hid behind a bin, not daring to even breathe.

A woman wearing heavy makeup stepped out from the car, making callous jokes with the driver as she walked towards their broken building, giggling.

The sound of the car engine drifted away, replaced by the click-clack of her high heels over concrete through the darkness, one after the other.

As she passed by the rubbish bin, the woman raised her hand to throw away her supper, only to see her curled up behind the bin, desperately trying to hide. The woman looked at her in surprise, patted her chest, and reprimanded her. “You scared me.”

She said nothing, burying her head deep in her knees.

“I know you, you’re the drunkard Du’s daughter.” The woman’s words made her freeze with embarrassment.

The woman placed the supper that she was just about to throw away in front of her, those bright red nails vivid in the darkness. “Here, do you want this? You won’t get fat no matter what you eat at your age, not so much for me.”

That one slice of cake did nothing to sate her hunger. The aromatic supper made her stomach growl with desire but she remained silent.

“If you don’t want it, then I’ll feed it to the roaches,” the woman said and made to leave.

“I do! I want it… thank you.” She was too hurried for any sense of humiliation, her eyes covered with desire.

The woman smiled and passed the supper to her.

She wolfed it down greedily, not willing to stop even when she burnt her tongue. She knew she could live for another day – because of the kindness of a prostitute. When morning came, she would be able to go to school filled with energy. She had to go to school, get into a good high school, then get into a good university. That was the only way she could change her fate.

But she didn’t even have the money for high school. That drunkard smashed bottles against her head, mocking her attempts to educate herself, demanding why she didn’t go sell herself like her mother. That way at least she could give him money for alcohol. She covered her bleeding wound and glared at him with humiliation and hatred. She had to master all of her rationality to now cut open his throat with a glass shard. She knew she couldn’t, she couldn’t destroy her life here; she needed to keep climbing up, to change her fate.

She ate and silently shed tears, drinking up every last drop of the soup, that burning hatred and resentment welling up in her, torturing her to no end.

The woman finally couldn’t smile anymore. She judged her – this little girl with a pretty face and menacing eyes – as if judging a customer, or judging some goods.

If she wanted to, she could very easily have lived a life of freedom, or even one of wealth and luxury. Before her youth and beauty faded.

The woman understood very well. She caressed her own face; even in this dim lighting, her thick makeup couldn’t cover up the wrinkles around her eyes. She was old. If it was twenty years ago, how could she have fallen to such a cursed place? But when she was young, she had always thought that everything was within reach and easily spent her youth and wealth.

Looking at the young girl by the rubbish bin, for the first time in a long time she felt that sense of superiority, and deep inferiority after pity.

Look at how pretty this girl was, even if she was so poor she couldn’t afford a meal and wore a shabby woollen coat, it couldn’t cover up her delicate features. Even more envy-inducing was how young she was, not even having reached the prime years of a woman’s life.

Deep malice flowed through her eyes. Why didn’t she use her a little?

So she sighed pretentiously and said with pity, “A girl as pretty as you shouldn’t be living like this.”

This naked temptation was filled with malice, but for someone living in hell, the faintest light was worth her everything.

So she wiped her tears and gave her a pretty smile. “Yes, I don’t want to live like this anymore.”

She needed money, a lot of money, enough to be full every meal, enough for her to wear new, pretty clothes, and buy what she wanted to like other girls. She also wanted to learn to dance, like a pretty butterfly. She could live like that, she should live like that!

The woman smiled, satisfied, and whispered, “Good child, are you still hungry? There’s some food left at home, follow me.”

She watched that woman walk into the stairwell, the dark entrance like a bloody mouth, swallowing people whole. She touched her half-filled stomach; the desire to fill her hunger was satisfied, but the never-ending greed pushed her to keep going. And so she stood up, patted clean her shabby coat, straightened her back, and walked towards that black future, a step at a time.

At first, she was satisfied by a delicious meal. Then, by a thick wad of cash. Afterward, she became smarter and learned how to play with people’s hearts, keeping calm in the face of cheques and cards because she knew that this reservation and restraint would give her more.

She moved out of the dilapidated building, transferred schools, went to dancing classes, and learned etiquette like a girl from a good background.

She was grown up and mature by then. Having seen what came before, she knew what she wanted. For her, means were means and ends were ends. So her end was clear: she didn’t want to ever return to those days.

She already had enough money; it was time to say goodbye to the days of the past.

So her father died from alcohol poisoning the day her admission notice was sent out.

She went to claim the body. The police looked at this pretty girl, not daring to believe that that dirty drunkard was her father.

“You are Miss Du?” The police verified the name on the register.

She nodded, then shook her head. “I changed my name recently and took my mother’s name. I’m… Liu Qingqing.”

What a pretty name. She liked this new name. It meant a new life, a new start.

After the cremation, she changed her SIM card, dragged her luggage by herself to the airport, and got on the plane to City X.

The plane took off. She looked at the blue sky outside the window and suddenly felt a burden lift off her chest.

She could finally head towards the colleges she had so looked up to as a child, leaving behind her unbearable past, dressing herself up as a naive, cute, gentle, and kind rich beauty. There was no more poverty, hunger, abuse, no more need to deal with those pesky men with false love, she was free.

She suddenly laughed, overjoyed.

At least in that moment, she was sure that she was the one with the last laugh, she was the winner.

***

Vera’s Notes:

Hi guys, sorry for the late update! Luci was busy with real life things, so we decided to skip the chapter that week.

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