A young woman lay limply on a dirty mattress on the floor; her lips were cold, and her extremities were following suit.

with her back down, she was looking up at the ceiling.

She barely had the strength to look at a man mounted on top of her that continuously moved his hips back and forth with wild abandon.

She turned her head slightly to look at multiple needles injected into her arm, each one with a different substance.

As the man began putting more force into his thrusts and her breasts bounced up and down, she closed her eyes that grew heavy with the second and began thinking about her life.

Li Huang was a student at a prestigious school where she lived, always had good grades, and was guaranteed to go to college.

She even managed to get a scholarship before finishing college thanks to her academic prowess and her artistic mind, as she was the first chair violin player.

However, it was only a few days before graduation that she discovered a horrible truth.

Her mother and father sat her down and explained that as a woman it was her duty to be a housekeeper and that they both found her a husband from a rich family that she would be married into.

As she tried to argue that she could have a better future going to college, that's when they broke the worst news she heard in her entire life to her.

Her mother called her high school and the college that accepted her, telling them that Li Huang had gotten pregnant and would drop out of both; with her stop canceled in both institutions, there was nothing she could do.

If she wanted her high school diploma, she would either have to do high school all over or try and get a shoddy diploma from another high school.

and her chances of going to her dream college were null

At seventeen she escaped from her house and her forced marriage.

and it didn't take long for her to need food and a house to live in, so she resorted to selling her body.

As a seventeen-year-old, many rich folks tossed themselves at her.

To numb the pain, she turned to nicotine.

When that wasn't enough, she turned to the alcohol.

and when that wasn't enough, she turned to drugs

and finally she turned to hard drugs

from the years of use, her value went down until only the worst members of society dared use her disease-ridden body.

She was now 26 years old.

It was weird to think she was about to die at such a young age.

As she thought about it, her thoughts drifted as her body began shutting down.

Li Huang lay there thinking about her family.

Why did they want to make her future their future?

Why couldn't they let her live her life?

She learned the violin because her father wanted her to be cultured.

or perhaps so her husband could make her play whenever

and her mother wanted her to go to high school so she could learn sciences.

or maybe just so she could not appear dumb in front of her future husband

whatever was the case, her parents did not love her; that was a fact she knew.

Why would a parent ruin their child's life if not for hate or control?

All she wanted to do was be happy and free.

She had been a pushover her entire life, for all intents and purposes, allowing others to use her in any way they wanted.

if only she had taken her chances when she could

if only she had better parents

if only...

As her body grew cold, Li Huang sighed.

At the very least, now she could fuck her parents over by having their daughter die a disease-ridden junkie prostitute while she was fucked by a random man, at least if they even went to go find her body in the first place.

The only thing she felt bad about were the others like her.

woman and man alike that had fled from places or people

a former soldier turned street fighter due to PTSD

a former doctor turned homeless after an accusation of rape he never committed

a teacher turned whore after fleeing her country

and she felt bad for all the children she had to abort

She couldn't even take care of herself, and she sure as hell wasn't bringing new life into this miserable world just so a family like hers could adopt one of her children.

Maybe there were better families that might have adopted her children, but she doubted they would go into the bowels of a shithole to go find children there to adopt.

at her final moments Li Huang felt warm even as her body went cold.

She had gotten a resolution, even if a minor one.

her life was never in her hands because she was poor, because she was naive, because she was weak

Maybe in a next life, Li Huang thought to herself as she felt her heart slow down and stop.

The man mounted on top of her continued using her body even as she went cold.

Slowly, Li Huang opened her eyes.

Had the man called for emergency services? Maybe she had another chance at life; it would not be a good life, but she still had a second chance.

As her eyes opened, she looked down at her naked and small body.

As she looked around, she saw giants.

wait...

they weren't giants

She was just small.

She was just born.

maybe she had a second chance, not in the life she had but in this one

She was carried by a woman towards whom she assumed was her mother, as she was the one lying down in a bed and sweating.

her mom said a few words she didn't quite understand and smiled at her

The only thing she understood was her name.

Li Huang

still the same, so that was something

names appeared to be normal, but it was like the words were jumbled inside her head, like they didn't quite make sense

Suddenly, Li Huang felt a sharp pain in her bottom and began crying.

A woman had pinched her for her to cry and get rid of the fluid in her lungs.

After that, her mom immediately began feeding her with a syringe full of milk.

As Li Huang stopped and looked around, she noticed she felt familiar with this place.

and then it hit her

Every single woman here was more than beautiful.

and there were no men during the procedure

and considering how the place was built, she had no doubt in her mind.

All the women here and her mother were prostitutes.

She would probably never meet her father.

and she also felt sad as she thought that maybe if she were stronger, she could have had a child of her own.

Li Huang was taken away with her mother as the girls laughed together, seemingly happy about her being born.

As she looked around, she heard music.

beautiful music

much more beautiful than she had ever heard in her entire life

her small hand and beady eyes trying to reach out towards the sound

The girls all laughed as they enjoyed Li Huang's passion for music.

One of the girls looked around and found a pipa and began playing for Li Huang.

Li Huang looked with amazement at the girl and the sound she was making with the instrument.

As Li Huang was carried around a bit, she noticed these women were not common prostitutes.

some were playing music, others painting, and some were playing a strange form of chess with the patrons.

Some might sell their bodies, but seeing those women selling their "skills," Li Huang felt amazed. Why would those patrons pay to just hear a woman play music? or even pay to play a game with her? It felt weird for her, but she liked that.

She would have much preferred to sell her music skills or her artistic mind rather than her body if she could.

As Li Huang was distracted, she did not notice as the woman began crying and hugging her mother.

It was only when the one playing started crying that she noticed how heavy the atmosphere was.

Everyone was hugging her mother while she was smiling, looking down at Li Huang.

She gave her a kiss on the forehead and gave Li Huang up to one of the women.

Why?

I am just born, and my mom is about to abandon me.

thoughts like that surged into her mind

Did she have a problem?

Did her mom have a problem?

Li Huang began crying, and seeing that finally her mom could not keep it inside and began weeping

her fingers gently passing across Li Huang's face as she spoke words that made the other woman cry even harder.

After that, Li Huang's mother got up and walked away as all the other women stayed and bawled their eyes out.

Many of the women that were performing stopped doing so and directly closed the establishment for the day.

Li Huang was crying while the woman was trying to comfort her.

She did not even know her father.

and her mother just abandoned her

but she did not blame her mother; it looked like it hurt her to part ways with her.

She at least cared about her and her well-being.

If she didn't, Li Huang would be in an orphanage and not surrounded by her mother's friends and family.

One thing she learned during her more eventful years was that nine times out of ten, those in need stick together, especially if their line of work has a dangerous factor in the mix.

Just thinking about that, Li Huang already had a few of her colleagues in mind who most certainly grieved her passing.

and a few that probably grieved

Li Huang cried for a long time.

Many of the workers tried to calm her down, make her smile, or play music to her, but nothing worked.

Only when she fell asleep did she stop crying.

As Li Huang woke up, she was still in the same place, this time in the arms of an older and mature woman, probably the owner of the place, considering how she was looking over some papers.

As Li Huang woke up, the mature woman smiled at her and said a few words before tickling her, making her laugh.

The woman smiled at Li Huang, but she could see the lingering sadness in her eyes.

For a few months, Li Huang was taken care of mostly by that mature woman, as most of the other women were working, but sometimes she was "stolen" away so she could play with a few of the women.

The mature woman always screamed at the ladies for "stealing" her, but it was all in good fun and faith, so none of them were ever penalized, not that she knew if their pay was docked, but they continued stealing from her, so they were probably just playing around with their boss.

After only a few months, she began recognizing words and their meanings.

It was like waking up from a coma and having to remember how to talk or how words worked.

She knew them; she had just forgotten them.

time passed and Li Huang grew

She was spoiled rotten by all the women working there.

Some customers even bought things for Li Huang just to gain the favor of one of the workers.

All in all, Li Huang was happy; she now had people in her life that loved her, and she could do whatever

Why would the woman judge if Li Huang suddenly wanted to go around doing whatever? They would cheer her up even if she decided to kill an entire city of people.