CHAPTER 20: 20, MR. Q

The ancient buildings, narrow and dark corridors, the air filled with the scent of decaying wood. The distant light cast her shadow on the ground, long and trampled beneath her own feet. Shi Nian took a deep breath, passed through the unfamiliar gazes cast from all directions, and walked into "Yanwu Square".

The corridor walls were lined with mirrors, yet due to age, the reflections were mottled with light and shadow. She turned her head and saw herself with braided pigtails. A white naval-collared shirt paired with a navy-blue skirt, the standard school uniform. Her long hair fell, braided into pigtails on both sides, lazily resting on her shoulders.

It was as if she was walking through a corridor of time, seeing herself from many years ago.

Thankfully, at least she still looked convincing enough to fool others.

At the corridor’s end was a hall three stories high. It was very old, but the large crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling still reflected the building’s past glory.

Ye He said that "Yanwu Square" used to be an old earl’s property. Later, the old earl married a young woman who loved to dress in black, which the neighbors found ominous, so gradually, fewer people visited. Eventually, the old earl died under mysterious circumstances, and his young wife absconded with the money. No one knew where she went, but everyone believed the old earl was murdered by that woman.

Reflecting on this... she felt her skirt’s waist tighten.

She twisted her waist, trying to pull her skirt further down. The skirt was really too short, making her feel as if she was walking bare-bottomed in full view of everyone, embarrassed. But the mini camera hidden at the base of her thigh forced her to endure.

The skirt had to be short enough to capture footage.

"Hey, baby," an Asian man in colorful tight pants walked over, looking Shi Nian up and down, "First time here?"

Shi Nian smiled shyly, "I’m here to find Nisha."

The man seemed to hold an invisible baton in his hand, gesturing with orchestral grandiosity, "Oh, Nisha! So you’re a friend of Nisha’s, welcome, welcome."

Nisha was Shi Nian’s informant. It was after meeting Nisha that Shi Nian learned about the existence of child brides in this world, prompting her interest in this topic.

Indeed, Nisha’s identity was that of a child bride. At eight years old, her parents sold her to her "adoptive father"—in reality, her husband. She was brought from Asia to M Country under the guise of orphan adoption, nominally his adopted daughter, yet at night, she had to accompany the man to bed.

At that time, Nisha sat in a dirty, dark alley and smiled at her hopelessly, "In my homeland’s belief, only by marrying off their daughter before she matures can her parents enter paradise. The people who should have loved me most in this world sent me to hell for their own passage to heaven."

"But what’s even scarier is that as I grew up, that man had already picked out another young girl from my homeland. Here, I have no identity, no profession, I have nothing. I can only sell drugs, or sell myself."

Shi Nian shyly looked at the man, "Where is Nisha?"

The man grinned oddly, "Oh, perhaps she hasn’t come yet, or maybe she has already negotiated a deal and gone out for business... Since you’re here, why not wait for a bit?"

The man said as he approached, inhaling Shi Nian’s scent forcefully, "Are you still untouched?"