Sweet Nostalgia of the 80s

”No! Don’t do this to me! Get away from me! If you defile me like this, I’ll die right in front of you!”

At that time, Yan Huan was still young and didn’t understand what the men outside were doing to her sister. She could hear her sister’s heart-wrenching cries and the nauseating laughter of the men.

She clutched the corner of her clothes and cried secretly, not knowing how much time passed before the sounds outside gradually disappeared.

The girl walked in, naked, holding her clothes, walking barefoot on the cold floor. The moonlight of the cold night shone through the window, and she clearly saw the despair in her sister’s eyes.

”Sister... are you okay?” Yan Huan got up to help her put on clothes, ”It’s too cold; you’ll freeze.”

The girl’s eyes were filled with tears, and she mumbled like she was possessed: ”Dirty... dirty...”

Yan Huan didn’t know what the girl meant by dirty.

She said to her: ”Once there’s water, it’ll wash clean.”

”It won’t wash clean...”

That night, Yan Huan couldn’t sleep.

Even though she didn’t understand what her sister meant, she felt her sister’s desperate and painful emotions. She lay in the heap of straw, covered with a tattered quilt, keeping her eyes open, staring at the sliver of silver moonlight outside the window.

Until it slowly vanished from the window.

The eastern sky gradually lit up with the pale light of dawn. She turned over, and before closing her eyes, saw her sister hiding a broken piece of the bowl in her sleeve.

She fell asleep deeply when sleepiness took over.

Then she heard the harsh commotion inside the temple, a scream; she woke up startled, jumped up from the ground, and witnessed the scene before her.

She saw that her sister’s throat had been slit, eyes wide open, blood continuously flowing from her mouth and nose, pooling around her.

The blood snaked across the ground, like a small river of fresh blood, extending to her feet.

The fresh red blood stained her shoes, and Yan Huan seemed to feel its warm, wet, sweet and fishy scent.

”Ah—!” Yan Huan let out a piercing, long scream.

”Quick! Hurry and bury this bitch!” the man called ’Sixth Brother’ commanded, covering his bloodied face and instructing his accomplices, ”And stop her mouth!”

Yan Huan trembled all over, her eyes full of terror.

Her vision contained nothing else, just a sea of crimson, red like fire, red and blinding...

”Is this girl scared out of her wits?”

”Cut the crap. Shut her mouth! We have to get out of here quickly!”

”Okay.”

Yan Huan watched as the person tore the clothes from the dead sister to gag her mouth. She cried like a madwoman, then her stomach churned suddenly.

She opened her mouth, and she vomited.

Yan Huan vomited like the world was spinning, her stomach acid and bile came up, she vomited until she fainted.

When she woke up again, she found herself lying on an ox cart. All around her was swirling yellow dust carried by the wind, the sandstorm was fierce, and the road and direction weren’t visible.

”Awake?” asked Sixth Brother with the scarred face.

”I need to use the restroom,” Yan Huan said timidly, still shaken.

”So troublesome?”

”I can’t hold it.”

”Go, go! Don’t go far!” the scarred man allowed.

”Shouldn’t we keep an eye on her, Sixth Brother?”

”No need. Look at how scared she is, does she dare to run away? Unless she’s not afraid of death!” Scarface also thought Yan Huan couldn’t possibly get far, after all, she’s just a child.