Chapter 12: Big Sister
Perhaps it was because Su Qiong’s attitude was so remarkably sincere, or because his soft voice sounded so pure and untainted.
After thinking it over, A-Qiu finally agreed to return to the village with them.
The other two women couldn’t understand her choice at all. They spent several minutes trying desperately to talk her out of it. But when they realized A-Qiu’s mind was completely made up, they stamped their feet in frustration and left her with a sharp, “Fine! Do whatever you want!”
While waiting for the bus back to the village, the players listened as A-Qiu shared her story.
She had been only seven years old when she escaped Gangan Village.
Her father had declared that her eldest brother needed a wife and that there were too many hungry mouths in the family. To solve both problems, he arranged an exchange marriage for A-Qiu years in advance, giving her away to another household as a future child bride.
Two other little girls around A-Qiu’s age were also traded off in the deal.
Their lives had barely begun, yet by watching the older women around them, they had already caught a glimpse of the horrific future waiting for them.
A-Qiu had been terrified. She wept and screamed at home, desperately refusing to accept the exchange marriage. Annoyed by her stubborn resistance, her father strung her up with rough hemp rope, tied her at the village entrance, and whipped her brutally. Afterward, he dragged her over and threw her directly into the home of her new family.
That family was slightly better off than her own. Although they still suffered from hunger and cold, there was a mother living in the house, along with a gentle young woman who had recently married into the family.
The mother and the young bride gave A-Qiu clean clothes to wear. They secretly brought out scraps of food they had hidden away, urging her to eat quickly before the men noticed. The other little girl involved in the exchange brought over a bowl of clean water and carefully cleaned A-Qiu’s bleeding wounds.
A-Qiu had never known a mother’s warmth. Feeling the gentle care of older women for the first time in her life, heavy, burning tears rolled down her cheeks. She threw herself into the young bride’s arms, sobbing that she didn’t want an exchange marriage. She didn’t want to rot in Gangan Village or suffer such a miserable fate.
Yet both the kind mother and the gentle young bride only looked down at her with sorrowful, helpless eyes.
Women in the village had zero status and no right to make decisions. They hated the idea of sending little girls into exchange marriages, but a single cold sentence from their husbands—”If we don’t trade her, how is this family supposed to survive?”—was enough to shut them down completely.
Devastated, A-Qiu and the other little girl huddled together in a dark corner for warmth, crying silently through the night.
They wept for hours until they heard the young bride let out a long, quiet sigh.
She gently stroked their hair. After a heavy silence, she whispered into A-Qiu’s ear, “Little sister, don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.”
“I was too young back then. I thought she was just trying to comfort me.” The memory had been buried deep for years. Recalling it now, A-Qiu felt as though that had been the very first time real light had ever entered her life.
“The day before the exchange marriage was supposed to become official, Big Sister found me and the other two little girls. She pressed a handful of crumpled money into our hands and told us to sneak out and wait for the bus at the village entrance.”
“I thought she was tricking me. There were always men guarding the entrance, along with traps everywhere. If women could escape so easily, everyone else would have run away years ago.”
“I asked her what would happen to her if we ran. The men would never let her off easy.”
A-Qiu paused, forcing down the overwhelming pain in her chest before repeating the young woman’s exact words.
“She told me she was born in Gangan Village, so to her, being alive was no different from being dead. She said that if she could light even a small piece of the road for us before she died, then at least her death wouldn’t be completely meaningless.”
“She…” Lu Shufan started, but the words caught in his throat. He didn’t dare ask the rest.
A-Qiu hated digging up those horrific memories, yet she forced herself to keep going.
“Big Sister lied to me. The money she gave us was only enough to buy a single adult bus ticket. She had saved every coin bit by bit because she was planning her own escape.”
“She could have survived. But she gave her only chance to us.”
“The bus driver was a good man. Because the three of us were so small that we only took up one seat, he didn’t charge us for extra tickets.”
“Right before we left, a fire broke out at the village entrance, but it didn’t last long. There weren’t any trees in the village, so of course it burned out quickly. When my father and my future husband realized I was gone, they rounded up every man in the village to hunt us down.”
“We ran as hard as our little legs could carry us, but we were too slow. I was terrified. I thought for sure they were going to catch us.”
“But before they could reach us, an even bigger wall of fire blocked their path.”
“Why?” Those Who Obey Me Win asked instinctively. He knew the layout of the barren village well. There was nothing flammable for miles. Where could a massive fire have come from?
A-Qiu looked at the players, her gaze layered with deep, tragic emotion.
“Some of the older aunties and grandmothers knew we were running,” she whispered. “So… they used the leftover embers from the entrance to set themselves on fire.”
“The grandmothers, the mothers, and the older sisters all held hands inside the flames. They stood side-by-side in front of those monsters, burning alive just to clear a path for us to run.”
“And that’s how we escaped.”
The private room fell into total, breathless silence.
No one had expected to hear such a devastating, heroic sacrifice.
What had those women, trapped in that living hell their whole lives, been thinking as they set their own bodies ablaze? When they saw A-Qiu and the little girls make it onto that bus, did they feel even a tiny shred of peace in their final moments?
“Because they gave their lives to protect us, I had to stay as far away from Gangan Village as possible. I had to use every ounce of my strength to live with my head held high,” A-Qiu said, a bitter smile tugging at her lips. “I know you look down on what I do for a living…”
“We don’t look down on you,” Su Qiong said softly, cutting her off. “You, and your friends, and every single one of those women are very good girls.”
A-Qiu stared at the little marshmallow in shock.
After escaping, the brothel owner had taken her in. Once she grew up, A-Qiu worked as a hostess to repay the debt. Over the years, she had grown completely numb to people treating her like trash. This was the first time anyone had ever looked at her and called her “a very good girl.”
Her eyes softened, and she opened up a little more.
“I’ve actually saved up some money from working here. I plan to enroll in a school that takes anyone, even people with low backgrounds like me. Once I learn enough, I’m going to leave the club and build a real career.” A-Qiu took a deep, steadying breath and looked at Su Qiong. “You said I could help save the women back there. If that’s true, I’m willing to go back.”
“Thank you,” Su Qiong replied with deep sincerity.
The players let out a collective sigh of relief.
“…We’re coming too.”
The half-closed door was pushed open, and the other two hostesses stepped into the room.
“You guys?” Lu Shufan raised an eyebrow, silently asking if they had been eavesdropping outside the whole time.
“Don’t get the wrong idea! We were just worried about A-Qiu!” one snapped defensively.
“What if you guys try to hurt her? If we go along, at least we can watch her back.”
Shi Yuntian slammed a heavy fist against his chest. “Ladies, I swear on my life—if anyone touches a hair on your heads, I’ll split his skull open!”
“Keep it down,” Lu Shufan hissed. “You’re scaring them!”
As dusk began to settle over the mountains, the group escorted the three women back to Gangan Village.
The moment they stepped off the bus, Yu Qimiao held the women back. Shi Yuntian swung his massive sword onto his shoulder, marched straight toward the village entrance, and let loose a furious roar.
“Are you bastards ever going to quit?! Even if you don’t own mirrors, you can still look into a puddle of piss! Take a good look at your ugly faces! You still want wives? You want mountains of gold? How about I give you a couple of heavy slaps instead! Get the hell out of the way! Crawl!”
Meeting violence with sheer, overwhelming force might have been crude, but it worked like a charm.
Within seconds, the creepy old bachelors singing their nursery rhyme scattered like terrified rats, clearing a wide path into the village.
A woman’s appearance changes dramatically as she grows up, so the villagers didn’t recognize the three hostesses at all. Still, seeing three beautifully dressed young women walk into town instantly drew dozens of greedy, disgusting stares.
Before any of the men could make a move, the players stepped in, using pure intimidation to shut them down.
A-Qiu let out a quiet breath of relief as she followed Su Qiong toward the riverbank.
“This river feels so familiar,” she murmured, gently touching the broken stone monument. “When we were little, we used to sing songs together right here. Sadly…”
The friends who had sung with her were all gone.
“Let’s get across,” Su Qiong instructed. He ordered Those Who Obey Me Win to drag the bamboo raft into the water, then helped the three women climb aboard.
The setting sun painted the river a brilliant shade of pink as the raft glided straight toward the glowing sea of red spider lilies.
This time, there were no shrieking, painful voices tearing through the air. Instead, a gentle, soothing melody drifted over the water, like a mother softly singing her baby to sleep.
When the raft bumped against the opposite bank, Granny Li was already standing there waiting for them. Her posture was no longer hunched or frail.
“You came after all,” Granny Li said calmly. She looked down at Su Qiong. “According to the system’s rules, I’m supposed to stop you.”
“You won’t,” Su Qiong replied with absolute confidence. “You’ve never tried to hurt us. You’ve wanted us to find the truth this whole time, haven’t you?”
“You’re only half right,” Granny Li murmured, her eyes drifting toward the distance. “It isn’t what I want. It’s what she wants.”
Su Qiong’s logic clicked instantly. “Is she the real instance NPC?”
Granny Li didn’t answer. She simply stepped aside, clearing the path forward. “Go on. She’s waiting for you.”
Holding onto each other tightly, the three women followed an invisible pull, hurrying forward into the brightly lit house by the water.
This was Su Qiong’s second time stepping inside, but the thousands of hanging wooden tablets had completely vanished.
The massive room was empty—except for Li Ting.
She still looked like a quiet, slender teenage girl. But when she saw the three women rush through the door, her eyes melted with endless warmth and gentleness.
“It’s been so long,” Li Ting whispered softly. “I’m so, so happy to see that you all grew up safe.”
“Big Sister—!”
A-Qiu had held back her tears through her entire story, but the moment she saw Li Ting, the dam broke. She burst into tears, weeping like a helpless child.
“Don’t cry. Look at you all, you’ve grown into such beautiful young women,” Li Ting said, walking over to gently stroke A-Qiu’s hair and wipe away her tears, exactly like she used to do when they were kids. “You’re so pretty now. And there’s real light in your eyes.”
“That’s all I ever wanted.”
Su Qiong watched quietly from the doorway. Finally, all the strange details about Li Ting made complete sense.
Her brightly colored jacket wasn’t because her grandmother spoiled her—it was the traditional outfit forced on a child bride. Her developed chest wasn’t just natural growth; it was because she had been forced to nurse a baby. She had acted so quiet and obedient because she knew that playing along was the only way to survive long enough to find an escape route.
She had saved the money. She had mapped out the escape. She had almost made it out.
Yet at the very last second, she gave her only ticket to three little girls and chose to stay behind in that living nightmare forever.
“Thank you for finding me and uncovering my story,” Li Ting said, turning her head to look at Su Qiong. “Now, I will grant you one wish.”
“Do you know what I wish for?” Su Qiong asked softly.
Li Ting offered a cold, beautiful smile. “This entire game level belongs to me. I know everything that happens here.”
As expected.
Li Ting was the true boss monster of the instance. That was why complimenting Granny Li earlier had only increased the boss’s affection by a tiny 0.5 percent.
“Let me teach you a little rule,” Li Ting whispered, stepping closer to Su Qiong. “A white-name guide NPC will get punished by the system if he slaughters a whole village. But…”
Her dark eyes flashed with pure, terrifying power.
“We instance bosses are allowed to slaughter our own villages whenever we want.”
