Chapter 210

Qiao’er is fifteen years old and was picked up by her mom from the river.

She didn’t believe it, but there was nothing she could do about it. When she was young, she wanted to know where she came from, but when she got older, she didn’t want to know.

She had seen her mom buy and sell children.

There were both traffickers and biological parents who carried a basket, put it down in front of the door, peeled the hay off the top, and brought out a child.

She has seen a lot of them, so she doesn’t dream of finding her birth parents.

There are ten girls in the building, all of them are the youngest and most beautiful, small eleven or twelve, big seventeen or eighteen, this age of the girl, even wearing the cheapest cotton robe, standing in front of the door can be introduced to the guests.

She had lived in the kitchen until she was less than ten years old, with four or five girls of the same age. She hadn’t seen any older girls, and the only woman in the building with a wrinkled face was Mma.

She wasn’t very good looking. Mma pinched her chin and lifted her face, saying with disgust, “You looked okay when you were a kid, how come when you’re older, these cheeks sprout? The older you get, the less pretty you look.”

She was so scared that she was afraid to let Mma kick her out.

But Mma only kicked her out of the kitchen when she was nine years old and sent her to serve in the building.

They stood outside the tent and watched while the sisters in the building waited on the guests.

My sister said that Mma had a picture of an aphrodisiac, but she seldom showed it to anyone.

Mma said, “Why are you showing them books? They can’t read, so they can’t understand. Just let them serve in the house, see how to serve men, see more will be able to.”

In fact, she can read a little. The sisters in the building taught her to read the yellow calendar, which has words on it, and slowly she was able to recognize forty or fifty words.

The yellow calendar often has a good day for marriage, the sisters to that day will try to wear some red clothes, so that they can joke with the guests, to ask for reward money. But privately, her sister said to her, “Once you enter this building, the marriage has nothing to do with us.”

There were not many guests in the building, but each sister’s bed was never empty, there was always someone on it.

There were men in silk and cloth, and there were also men with patches on their sleeves.

They had young ones, but were still much older, with gray hair and unsteady roads, and would still toss and turn when they got into bed.

Coquette had seen more of them, and when she looked at the men on this street again, she always felt that none of them looked like good people.

They were in the house not only to learn their skills, but also to protect their sisters.

None of the rooms in the building had doors, only curtains.

Qiao’er stood in the house, her eyes staring at the bed without looking at the beads, some guests liked this, some guests wanted to tell her to go out, at this time she had to be pampered and play dumb, she couldn’t go out.

Mma said, “If you see someone who beats you up, beats your sister to the point of bleeding, or wraps a rope around your sister’s neck, or strangles her, hurry up and call someone!”

There were always people who came to the building to sleep with women and beat them up at the same time.

Qiao’er had screamed, and also heard girls in other houses screaming. As soon as someone screamed for help in the building, Mummy at the door hurriedly called for someone to run upstairs.

My sister was saved and cried so hard that she cursed as she cried. Mma sat on the edge of the bed and scolded together, scolding and persuading at the same time.

Mma: “They are all useless goods! If you don’t want to beat the women in your own family, you come to the building and beat them.”

Qiao’er doesn’t understand, “Why do they want to beat people?”

Mma: “Men beat up when they want to, their fists itch. Beat up the wife, the mother’s family will come. If they hit a girl in the building, they’ll just pay for it. If you are angry somewhere, you come here to take it out on them.”

My sister hugged her and cried, saying, “How much are we worth? Three and five dollars, not even as much as a pot of wine in a restaurant, so they beat it.”

Qiao’er became more and more afraid of this thing between men and women, which only men liked.

She likes rainy days best. When it rains, there are fewer customers.

When there were no more customers, she sat on the threshold with her sisters and looked out, watching the pedestrians get soaked in the rain and the hawkers get their goods wet, laughing as she watched.

None of them were good people, and they deserved their bad luck.

Across the street from their building were two stores, one selling medicine and one selling coffins.

Sister sat upstairs, looking out the window, and said to her, “That’s the only store that doesn’t mind our bad luck and is willing to be our neighbor.”

Only then did Qiao’er understand why she had to go to another street to buy dim sum and make clothes, and why this tiny alley, this long street, except for the building, was just these two stores.

It was because they were both obscure and neither of them minded the other.

Sister drank wine, drunk, smiling, said, “Just right, take the medicine and then come to the building, out of the building to the coffin store!”

Qiao’er rarely went out, except when her sister made her go out to buy snacks and things, she never went out herself. Sister went out even less, and almost never came downstairs.

Mma lived on the first floor, so she could see whoever went out.

When Qiao’er went out, Mma would tell her, “Walk along the wall, don’t face people, don’t look at them, keep your head down, go and come back quickly.”

It was as if she couldn’t see anyone.

Finally, one time, my sister took her out of the house, and it turned out that all the men she met on the road seemed to know my sister, and all the vendors on the street knew my sister, and they laughed and joked at her as if she had come out without any clothes on.

Sister pulled her hand, the two of them along the roots of the wall, lowered their heads, walked very quickly, did not shop for anything, bought something and came back.

Coquette finally realized that she really couldn’t be seen.

She was in the building, and the people outside the building were two kinds of people. There are only two kinds of people in this world, those in the building and those outside the building.

It was more comfortable in the building than on the street.

When she grew as tall as the cupboard, Mma wanted her to take over.

Mma pulled her over, pinched her shoulders, pinched her legs, nodded and said, “Growing up, that’s fine.”

Sister said that Mumma was afraid that they would be killed by the guests when they were small.

Sister: “It’s not easy to get them killed when they grow up.”

That’s why the younger ones live in the kitchen and aren’t allowed to come into the building, so that they don’t let any of the beasts see them. Bastards are inhumane, and there are still some who like to play with children.

She does not look good, Mummy is not going to give her first night call, but entrusted to her sister, told her sister to find a good guest to deflower her.

Mom said: “After this, it is considered to be in the line. Alas, do not hate me in the future, I raised you so big, is to make money.”

She didn’t hate her mom. She really didn’t. There are dead children floating in the river every day, but no one picks them up. There are many poor people selling their children, and she has seen many of them.

Mummy raised her so well, eating food for nothing, and she had no way to live if she left the building.

Sister also touched her head and said, “I will wait for the guest first, when he is tired, he will not toss people, you then come to bed, I begged him, you pinxiao and blow the sheng for him, so that he will break the body for you, so that you can work in the future.”

She was four or five years old to learn to taste Xiao Bluesheng, are taking the noodles steamed buns to learn, that buns made long and thin, one hand can hold, learn to eat as a meal, when she was a child, she and live in the kitchen sisters favorite food is this.

She was able to savor it for a moment without a single tooth mark on it.

When the day came, Sister chose a familiar guest with a long goatee and gray hair.

Sister first wait for the guests, and so on, sister called her to pour tea, she poured two cups of tea, wait for the sister and the guests drank, before kneeling under the bed, holding one of the guest’s feet, daintily said also want to go up.

Guests are tired, but also some sleepy, smilingly asked sister: “What’s going on?”

The sister hugged the guest’s neck and said, “I’m in love with the master, told me several times, said the master is like her father.”

The guest laughed and called her to bed.

“Am I really like your father?”

“Like, father, love your daughter.”

She stretched out her two thin arms, which looked like reed sticks, and hung around the guest’s neck, while her sister laughed and coaxed worriedly.

The guest was really tired, it was short, and although it hurt, she got through it.

Afterward, the guest was extremely tired, holding her and her sister to sleep.

Woke up from sleep, she rushed to serve the guest with her sister to eat noodles, after eating the noodles, the guest put on his clothes, looking for his sister to ask for a piece of red paper, wrapped a piece of money in it, and stuffed it to her.

“Good daughter, father gave you the new year’s money ah, hahaha!”

She and her sister sent the guests away, and she took this red envelope to Mma.

Mma opened the red envelope in front of her, took out a fifty dollar bill, and pooh-poohed it, “Stingy ghost!”

Mumma put this money into the box, took a silver dollar, put it into the red packet, and gave the red packet back to her, “Keep it. Next time you have a guest, remember to ask for silver dollars, tickets are worthless!”

Flattered with this silver dollar, she returned to the house and hid it inside her makeup box, and then in her clothes, and then in her bedding.

When she is going to be out of the building in the future, save enough money to go back to the countryside to buy land to live ah.

Sister’s age, the building does not want it.

Mma asked her sister if she had any plans.

Moma: “If you still want to get married, I’ll ask the matchmaker. If you still want to be in this business, I can’t do it here, but I’ll take people elsewhere.”

Sister grimaced from the moment she heard the news and didn’t say a word.

Mma sighed, “You have to find a job, and the money you’ve saved won’t be enough to feed you for the rest of your life. If not, why don’t you go to the counseling office and take a look? Don’t say you’re from the building.”

Sister laughed coldly: “People are very sharp, they can tell what I do at a glance. Besides, how can I work with this body?”

Sister was very thin, she was thin before, but now she was even thinner, sitting there, the bones on her shoulders seemed to be piercing through her clothes.

Mumma gave Sister five silver dollars and sent her away.

Mumma: “I can’t make this exception, leaving you behind, then everyone will have to stay behind in the future, freeloading on me and not earning any money, I’m going to be eaten up, ah. You ah, better find someone to marry, go abroad, find a person who does not know.”

Later, Qiao Er heard that her sister rented a house, still doing this business.

This year, the situation is not good, fewer customers.

A frequent guest was a soldier from the military police, who never paid for his visit, and Mma had to serve him with good food and drink.

When he came back, Mrs. M hurriedly called several sisters to accompany him. He stayed in the building for one night, and when he left the next day, he said to mom: “The top wants to do something, you’d better go back to the countryside to hide.”

Mma was worried: “Is it really so powerful? What about the girls on my floor?”

He laughed and said, “Are you selling girls for charity?”

Mummy thought about it, closed the door, and called the sisters over, telling them to go out and hide, and if they could find their parents, they should go back to their parents’ home first.

The sisters burst into tears.

“Where can we go?”

How could the ones who could sell them be considered parents? At a time like this, if you go back to join them, can you really have a way to live?

The parentless ones like Qiao’er’s hands and feet were even colder.

But Mma still left, and before she left, she gave them a dollar and half a bag of grain.

Moma had tears in her eyes: “Alas, I have no way to take you away. If I can come back in the future, you can come back to me, and we will be like mother and daughter.”

Qiao’er knew that when the time came, there would naturally be new girls in the building, and old girls like her were not wanted by Mumma.

Qiao’er had no choice but to take these sisters to find her sister.

They found their sister, who was very sick and still carrying her belly, and still opened the door and let them all in.

Sister was sick and pregnant, and there were so many more mouths to feed, the family didn’t have enough food to eat.

Someone knocked on the door in the middle of the night, and my sister wanted to take the guests, so she stopped them and went to take them herself, and took the money and hurried to buy food and medicine. The people in the building are often sick, the prescription is passed down for hundreds of years, she grabbed the medicine, the doctor and the medicine boy will know, she grabbed a few times, the doctor refused to sell to her.

She knelt down and begged the doctor, who also shook his head and sighed: “It’s not that I don’t want to do your business, it’s just that this trauma medicine is now heavily regulated, and if I prescribe a dose, the military police will come to check it out, and if they find out, they’ll still end up implicating you. Alas, wouldn’t that still harm you? Miss.”

Sister body grows a bag, this disease in the building are to take a red-hot soldering iron to press up, the piece of skin to scorch, and so the skin grows well, no longer have a bag, this disease is cured.

Sister body is all burned out wounds, piece by piece are connected, to the heat of the day, the wounds are stinking, there is no medicine, she can only take a small spoon to dig out the stinking flesh, lest it rot more.

My sister carried on until she gave birth to her baby and fed it, and then she died.

They buried their sister and took care of the baby carefully, but the baby also started to grow a bag on its body.

Qiao’er took the branding iron and couldn’t lay her hands on it no matter what.

She came up with an idea.

The child had just landed on the ground, it should not be discovered that it came out of the building, so if the child was given to a good family, wouldn’t the child be saved?

She looked around, trying to find a suitable, wealthy family who could adopt the child.

Then she found four students who had money! They were also giving medicine and gruel on the streets, not as if they were trying to make a name for themselves in the newspaper, but to help the poor.

She quietly left the child where they were giving gruel.

They picked up the child and took it to a foreign hospital.

The foreign doctors had foreign medicine!

The child was saved!

Qiao’er went to see the students every day, afraid they would throw the child away again.

The students stopped for two days, and then began to give congee and medicine again.

After two months, they told the poor people that they would not do it anymore, not after today, and asked them not to come from tomorrow.

It was only then that Qiao’er sought out the past before they left.

She just wanted to ask if the child was okay now, and if they had raised it themselves or given it away.

The female student with two braids heard her ask, pulled her aside and said to her softly, “The child has passed away, we buried him at the university, would you like to go and take a look?”

Qiao’er froze, “…… Isn’t it, to see the foreigner doctor?”

That female student said softly, “The disease brought out in the fetus, there is no rule. The child is too small, unlike adults can not carry, he can not carry. He didn’t suffer when he went, he was asleep.”

Qiao’er’s legs went weak and she sat down on the ground.

By the time she came back to her senses, she had burst into tears and cried like a child. That female student squatted in front of her and gently wiped her tears.

“It’s okay, don’t cry.” The female student said.

She covered her face and fell to the ground.

God, give them a way to live.