Chen Chu was stunned for a moment and said, "They...hit you? Why?"
Xiao Yan sighed: "Damn! Don't you understand? If I quit, they won't get promoted, and they'll definitely beat me up. There were girls who quit working for him before, and he beat them up and told them to get lost..."
"Sister Xiaoyan, won't you just ignore him? It's your freedom to go wherever you want, what business is it of his?"
"Freedom?" Xiao Yan laughed: "Chen Chu, you're still young, you don't understand. This... what the hell is there freedom? People in the underworld don't have much freedom. Even prostitutes are small fry, and they have their own rules..."
Xiao Yan sighed and said, "If I don't warn him, it will only get worse if he sees me. Several girls tried to run away, but Shao Xiaodong's men caught them on the street and didn't kill them..."
"Phew... There's no law anymore!"
"The law? Heh..." Xiao Yan sneered twice: "Actually, it's not Shao Xiaodong's fault. Those girls are despicable, including me! If we hadn't been in this line of work, none of this would have happened. And those girls who were deceived by Shao Xiaodong deserve it!"
Girls all like to take advantage of small things, they're all greedy, and they love to hear nice things. If Shao Xiaodong treats them to a few meals, he can get them into bed. Then, he'll buy them a couple of outfits, have them sing karaoke a few times, and he can lure them to Hancheng. Once they're there, they're in Shao Xiaodong's territory. If they want to leave, it won't be so easy.
Chen Chu understood somewhat.
Seeing that he didn't speak, Xiao Yan chuckled and said, "Look how scared you are! Hehehe, I wasn't scared, so what are you afraid of? You'd better not go, just stay here!"
"It's nothing, I'm just going for a stroll." Chen Chu smiled, got dressed, and followed Xiao Yan downstairs.
As Xiao Yan went downstairs, she made a phone call and said politely, "Brother Dong, where are you? I... I'm Xiao Yan, hehe, Brother Dong, I'm coming to your place to discuss something with you... What is it? Hehe, it's good news!..." Xiao Yan said a few more words and then hung up the phone.
She then hailed a taxi. She sat in the front passenger seat, and Chen Chu sat in the back. Xiao Yan said to the driver, "Sir, Xianhe Hotel..."
Seven or eight minutes later, the two arrived at the Crane Hotel. This hotel was considered a three-star hotel, and a night's stay would cost more than one hundred, almost two hundred. It was Chen Chu's first time staying in such a high-end hotel.
After the two got out of the car, Xiao Yan took out a small mirror and looked at herself again. Feeling satisfied, she then instructed Chen Chu, "Just watch from here, and it's best not to say a word."
Chen Chu nodded: "Sister Xiaoyan, does Shao Xiaodong live here?"
"Yeah, this guy spends his money recklessly. He booked a room at the Crane Hotel for over two hundred yuan a day. But he also recruits part-time workers here. Some college students and girls from outside the community come to apply. To put it bluntly, he's recruiting prostitutes to sell themselves."
Cough cough... Chen Chu coughed for a while.
"Then, under what pretext did Shao Xiaodong recruit him?"
"Xiaodong Entertainment Media Co., Ltd. is basically a slut company. They don't have any licenses, but their money is guaranteed. The girls get paid right after they finish their work. Besides, women these days don't care about these things, especially the younger ones..."
Chen Chu shook his head. He couldn't quite believe what Xiao Yan was saying. What... what's wrong with this society?
Xiao Yan walked ahead, and he followed behind. The two arrived at the third floor of the hotel and then knocked on the door of room 303.
"Come in!" It sounded like several men were calling from inside.
Xiao Yan pushed open the door, and there was some smoke inside. The room was cylindrical, with a long living room in front of the entrance, and bedrooms on both sides. It should be more than 80 square meters.
Chen Chu followed him in and then closed the door. There were seven or eight people inside. On the east side, a young man of about twenty-two or twenty-three years old sat in a boss's chair, with his legs crossed on the boss's desk and his body leaning back.
The wheeled office chair made a rolling sound, and the top of the chair looked a bit like a girl's hairstyle. The young man also had delicate skin and could easily be mistaken for a girl at first glance. If it weren't for his long neck and prominent Adam's apple, one could almost certainly mistake him for a girl.
Chen Chu thought to himself, this person must be Shao Xiaodong. He had a cigarette between his fingers in one hand and was tapping his leg with the other. His long, white fingers were even more beautiful than a woman's. On a row of long wooden benches on the west side sat six boys, some seventeen or eighteen years old, but the oldest was only about twenty-four or twenty-five.
They were dressed in all sorts of different ways, some rustic and some slick, each with shifty eyes, smoking cigarettes, and with their legs crossed. As soon as Xiao Yan entered, all of them kept glancing at her up and down.
He almost stuck his head under Xiao Yan's skirt.
"Brother Xiaodong..." Xiao Yan called out sweetly, then quickly walked to the young man in the boss's chair and reached out her delicate little hand to pinch Shao Xiaodong's shoulder.
Seeing her coquettish and affected manner, Chen Chu let out a sigh of relief, feeling genuinely annoyed. He thought to himself, "This woman... we just finished being intimate, and now..."
However, after thinking about it, he felt relieved. There's a saying that actors are heartless and prostitutes are ungrateful. They are prostitutes, after all. Their job is to play with men. How can you talk about feelings with a prostitute?
He was just having fun with her! She's not his wife, why should he be afraid of being cheated on?
Chen Chu pretended not to see it, and remembered what Old Zhang had told him: don't have too deep feelings for women, otherwise the deeper your feelings, the deeper you will fall. Women are a swamp for men, and they can drown you.
"Alright, alright, stop being so coy. What's up, Xiao Yan? Missed me or something?" Shao Xiaodong stroked Xiao Yan's small hand with his slender hands.
Xiao Yan giggled: "Yeah, I missed you, Brother Xiaodong. I... I have something to tell you..."
"Hmm..." Shao Xiaodong nodded, glanced at Chen Chu, and asked, "Who is this? Your lover?"
"Oh dear! Xiaodong, why would you think that? Does he look like an adult? He's only sixteen or seventeen, he's my younger brother..."
"Damn! So he's your younger brother after all! It's normal for the older ones to want to play around with younger ones after they've had their fill. It's nothing special! Why are you keeping it a secret? Tell me, what's the matter? Are you going back to marry your lover, or what?"
Xiao Yan glanced at Chen Chu shyly, then squatted down so that Shao Xiaodong could clearly see the thong inside her clothes.
"Brother Xiaodong, I...I have something to say...I'm not going to work for you anymore...I'll work at Tiger Bath Center...I..."
Xiao Yan paused here, then quickly pulled an envelope from her bag and handed it over, saying, "Brother Xiaodong, here's two thousand yuan. Thank you so much for taking care of me..."
"Damn it..." Before Xiao Yan could finish speaking, Shao Xiaodong slapped her across the face.
The envelope flew out, spilling the money inside. Xiao Yan cried out and fell to the ground. Shao Xiaodong, who had been so quick to anger, suddenly stood up from his chair and kicked Xiao Yan twice in the groin.
Just moments ago, Shao Xiaodong was as gentle as the boy next door, but in the blink of an eye, he turned into a heartless madman. After kicking Xiaoyan, he grabbed her hair and yelled, "Huo Xiaoyan! What the hell do you think you are? You slut! You think you can just come and go as you please? Huh?"
Shao Xiaodong turned on Xiao Yan and punched her, while several teenagers sitting diagonally opposite him chuckled.
"Brother Xiaodong, I don't want to do this anymore. I just want to earn more money at the bathhouse and then go home!"
"Go back to your mother's house! Fuck your mother!" Shao Xiaodong slapped her again, and Xiao Yan's face turned red on one side. Chen Chu saw a trace of blood flowing from the corner of her mouth.
Shao Xiaodong kicked her in the chest again: "Huo Xiaoyan, you fucking prostitute, you know that? Fine, go away, go away! I don't want the money, just leave, walk out this door now and let me see!"
Xiao Yan cried, sat up and knelt down: "Brother Xiaodong, please let me go this time."
"Damn it! I let you go! Didn't I tell you to leave? Now get out of this door! Damn it, let's see which bathhouse you can stay in. You little bitch think you're so great just because you slept with other men a few nights? If it weren't for me, Shao Xiaodong, you'd have been sold to some poor mountain village in Yunnan long ago! Damn it, you're still so cocky and telling me you want to leave? You'd probably have had countless kids with those country bumpkins who buy wives by now!"
"Brother Xiaodong, I know, I know..."
At this moment, a curly-haired guy next to him cursed, "You know that's good enough, but you still haven't apologized to Brother Dong, and then you go do whatever you're supposed to do, go out and have sex if you're supposed to!"
Xiao Yan turned around and called the man "Brother Yan," then knelt down in front of Shao Xiaodong and said, "I really don't want to do it anymore. I... I'll give you as much money as I can."
"Fuck you..." Shao Xiaodong kicked Xiao Yan again: "Huo Xiaoyan, I'll pretend what happened just now never happened. You're still one of my girls. Actually, I have high hopes for you. Work hard, and I'll make you a pimp so you don't have to go out and sell yourself anymore. Just keep an eye on the girls for me. Fuck you, think it over carefully, and go back to work..."
As he spoke, Shao Xiaodong lit another cigarette and took a puff.
Curly-haired girl next to him chimed in, "Xiao Yan, didn't you hear? Brother Dong wants you to go back!"
Xiao Yan choked up a few times, and after thinking for a while, she said softly, "I...I really don't want to do this anymore. I just want to work on my own for a year, and then go home..."
...
Chen Chu didn't move. There were seven or eight people in the room, and he wouldn't gain anything by moving. Besides, it had nothing to do with him.
What goes around comes around, and this is what she owes. Besides, if Xiao Yan had spoken nicely as soon as she entered the door, instead of acting all rude and obsequious to Shao Xiaodong, or patting his shoulders and back and kneeling before him, Chen Chu would have felt that she was still his woman.
But in front of him, she was being so intimate with Shao Xiaodong; what man could stand that?
As Chen Chu watched her get beaten up, only two words came to his mind—"bitch."
That's all. Sometimes I feel sorry for these kinds of women, but they're even more hateful. If I had known this would happen, I would have kept my mouth shut. I'm not Superman with my underwear on the outside.
As he spoke, he waved his hand, and there came a guy named Yan Ge with curly hair, along with a few teenagers in denim outfits. One of them had small eyes, a face covered in pockmarks, a buzz cut with a single strand of hair hanging down his front, dyed yellow, and a neck covered in bark.
His neck was so dark it looked like he hadn't washed it in months, let alone taken a shower. There was another guy, about sixteen or seventeen, who was just as slovenly. These two looked like those dirty, begging kids at the train station.
At this moment, the two men went over first. Chun's hands, all black and dirty, tightly hugged Xiao Yan's neck, while the other boy grabbed Xiao Yan's white thighs. They were so eager and lewd that they were practically drooling as they dragged Xiao Yan into the next room.
The other four chuckled and said, "Damn it, if you appease us, you can get lost..."
Xiao Yan cried, her voice hoarse with desperation: "Brother Xiaodong, no... no... Shao Xiaodong, I'll fucking fuck your mother! I'll fucking your mother! You're not human..."
Shao Xiaodong burst into laughter, as if he'd caught a stitch in his side: "Fuck your mother, don't you know what the hell you do? Trying to negotiate with me? You son of a bitch! Fuck me, and after that she still makes her go prostitutes, fuck you, you think you can leave? Dream on!"
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