The three of them headed toward the bar. Its sign and the advertisements projected across its walls kept changing. After the beer ad came an advertisement for a call girl. She stood with one foot on either side of the entrance, and customers walked beneath her. Some of the drunk men craned their necks to look up, drawing laughter from passersby. When the ad ended, the lights around the entrance began flashing in rhythm. Brilliant beams of every color swept in all directions, too dazzling to look at and impossible to ignore.
The lights grew brighter and brighter, then finally stopped. The bar’s sign appeared.
The Ice and Fire Bar. The name set the imagination running wild.
Before the three of them reached the entrance, two lovely bunny girls sauntered over. They wore very little, covering only what absolutely needed covering. They looked downright sultry.
Torre hid behind Qiongna, head bowed in embarrassment. Qiongna, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at ease.
“They’re robots,” Wuxue said, looking at Torre’s timid expression.
“Good evening, guests. Welcome to the Ice and Fire Bar,” the two bunny girls said in unison.
“Three,” Wuxue replied.
“Of course. We’ll make arrangements right away.”
They gave the same answer in perfect unison.
Torre couldn’t help sneaking another look. The two bunny girls were beautiful, but they looked exactly alike. Even identical twins would have some differences, but these two were the same in height, features, every inch of skin, every bone.
“They really are robots,” Torre murmured.
The two robots led the way. Wuxue followed with Qiongna and Torre, and they stepped inside. Loud music crashed into their ears, pounding out a powerful, steady beat. Men and women danced wildly on the floor, and it was hard to tell who was human and who was a machine. There were even holograms projected among the crowd. It was a scene of utter chaos.
“I don’t think I like this place,” Torre murmured, then asked Qiongna, “What about you?”
“I’m fine.”
Wuxue had heard them. She hadn’t brought Qiongna here to enjoy the noise and confusion. The bar offered other kinds of entertainment, too.
“Do you have any space on East Third Floor?” Wuxue asked the bunny girl. She clearly knew her way around.
“So it’s a hunter. The doors of the Ice and Fire are always open to you.”
The corners of both bunny girls’ mouths curved upward. Their smiles were somehow eerie and unsettling.
“Please follow us upstairs.”
Wuxue turned to the puzzled Qiongna and Torre and explained, “East Third Floor is the hunters’ lounge. All the more upscale bars in the Jinye Kingdom have one. It started at a bar called Deep Sea. Hunters liked to talk or have fun in bars, but most didn’t want to stagger out onto the street drunk. It wasn’t safe. So the owner of Deep Sea set up a lounge on the east side of the third floor. Over time, the lounge grew into something more. That’s why ‘East Third Floor’ became shorthand for a hunters’ lounge.”
Wuxue’s explanation wasn’t a secret. Qiongna and Torre simply hadn’t known about it.
“What kind of place is it?” Qiongna asked curiously.
Wuxue shrugged. “We’ll see when we get there.”
The three of them followed the bunny girls into an elevator and reached the third floor in no time. Stepping out felt like entering another world. Compared with the noise downstairs, it was much quieter here. The place felt more like a hotel, with a long white corridor decorated with the heads of various animals.
The staff walked quietly through the hallway with their heads bowed. Yet even in the silence, all sorts of suggestive sounds drifted around them, making the whole thing rather awkward.
“Wuxue, are you sure this is just a place to rest?” Torre asked, his face bright red.
“People rest in different ways,” Wuxue said frankly. She didn’t deny that shady deals happened here.
“So, we…” Torre trailed off, looking lost.
“You’ve had a rough time lately. They offer medicated baths here,” Wuxue explained. “They add something to the water to help you regain your strength. It might help a sick person, too.”
“Would you like a mixed bathing arrangement?” the bunny girl asked without a hint of embarrassment.
“Separate,” Wuxue replied.
She had no intention of bathing with Torre, but she wouldn’t let Qiongna bathe with him, either.
It was embarrassing, but Wuxue had wondered what sort of love she felt for Qiongna. They weren’t blood relatives, just childhood companions, but Qiongna had always been inexplicably kind to her. Wuxue felt the same way and only wanted Qiongna to be happy.
She’d even wondered whether she was in love with Qiongna, and found all sorts of excuses to get close to her. The most common was taking baths together. In the end, they’d simply become sisters who were good at scrubbing each other’s backs.
After separating from Torre, Wuxue followed the bunny girl with Qiongna.
“Well, if it isn’t Su.”
Wuxue looked up. A burly, bearded man stood in a doorway, one hand braced against the wall as he watched her with a sleazy grin.
“Skok.” Wuxue pulled Qiongna behind her. “What do you want?”
Skok’s gaze traveled up and down Wuxue. “Can’t I say hello? You thought about what I mentioned last time?”
“I’m not taking that kind of job.”
Wuxue took Qiongna’s hand and started walking. She didn’t want to talk to someone so low.
“Didn’t know you were the tender-hearted type.”
Skok moved to block the corridor. It was obvious he was looking for trouble.
His gaze shifted to Qiongna. He gave Wuxue a leering look. “Didn’t know you were into girls. I’ve got an even prettier one, if you’re interested. I found her on the Red Iron Wasteland. Work for me, and I’ll give her to you.”
“Why don’t you keep her for yourself?”
Wuxue shoved Skok aside and led Qiongna toward the bathing rooms. She didn’t know Skok was watching her with a wolf’s cold, predatory stare.
“Who is he?” Qiongna had seen enough people to know Skok was dangerous.
“A human trafficker,” Wuxue said. She didn’t even want to call him a hunter.
“What does he want you to do?” Qiongna asked anxiously.
“Nothing. Don’t worry about him.”
Wuxue hurried along behind the bunny girl, leading Qiongna toward their room.
It was a suite. Inside the entrance was a huge bathtub in the middle of the room, with a smaller bed against the wall. A vintage lamp above the tub gave off a soft yellow glow.
“Prepare the No. 10 Compound for us,” Wuxue told the bunny girl. “And bring some fruit and snacks. We don’t need anything else.”
Wuxue gave her all the instructions at once. The bunny girl nodded with a smile. “We’ll get that ready right away.”
Once the bunny girl left, only Qiongna and Wuxue remained. Wuxue relaxed. It had been a long time since Qiongna had scrubbed her back. She was looking forward to revisiting the fun they’d had as kids.
“I’ll go get some water so it won’t be too hot when we get in,” Qiongna said. She had always been thoughtful.
A knock sounded at the door. The medicine and snacks had probably arrived. Wuxue stepped into the entrance hall and looked through the peephole. It was definitely the bunny girl—but Wuxue had never imagined that when she opened the door, she would find the girl’s head twisted off. Red and blue wires dangled from the neck, and Skok crouched below it, grinning up at her.
Everything happened too fast. Wuxue hadn’t thought Skok would dare attack her in a place like this. Suddenly a powerful electric shock shot through her abdomen. Then everything went black…
“Wuxue.”
She kept her head down, staring at the floor, afraid to look at the person in front of her. The shoes on her feet were so worn she could see her toes.
“Wuxue, what are you doing here?”
Qiongna looked panicked. She took Wuxue by the hand and led her to a corner. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“My stepmother said you have to work now, so I can’t come play with you anymore.”
Wuxue looked up at Qiongna and noticed a fresh wound on her forehead. Alarmed, she asked, “What happened? Did someone hit you?”
Qiongna quickly covered the wound. “No. I bumped into something by accident.”
“Qiongna…” Wuxue still couldn’t meet her eyes. “Can’t you stop working?”
“…” Qiongna said nothing. She reached out and touched Wuxue’s head. “I don’t have a choice, so I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you have one.”
“I don’t understand,” Wuxue said, slowly lowering her head again.
Wuxue had been ten that year, and Qiongna was already fifteen. She understood, in a hazy way, what kind of work Qiongna did. She believed, just as vaguely, that Qiongna loved her. And she thought she might still be able to change things.
Back then, she didn’t understand that the right to choose had never belonged to them.
“Wuxue… wake up.”
“Wuxue… the sun’s up. Wake up.”
“Wuxue…”
Wuxue opened her eyes. Her abdomen burned as though it had been seared. She tried to lift her shirt to see what had happened, only to discover that she was tied up.
She remembered Skok’s face clearly enough. She must have been captured by him. She wasn’t surprised. She’d seen plenty in this line of work.
She was just worried about Torre and Qiongna.
They must be worried that she’d disappeared without warning.
“Wuxue… you’re awake.”
“Wuxue… are you all right?”
“Will you quit calling my name?” Wuxue said through the pain. The voice had been calling her over and over. No wonder she’d woken up, even in this state. You’d think she was dead and it was trying to summon her spirit.
“Finally! Do you know how long I’ve been calling you?”
The voice was unmistakable. It could only be Luo Shisan.
“Shisan, what are you doing here?” Wuxue struggled to sit up. Only then did she realize she’d been lying down, her hands bound behind her back. The vehicle jolted around her. Wuxue tapped the floor with her foot. A metallic sound came through the burlap. She was in a vehicle’s cargo compartment.
