4 Who Gave You the Guts!

The 'Help Wanted' sign was beautiful in Anna's eyes as it hung haphazardly from the window. Even its chipped paint and banged up edges looked pleasing in her eye despite the bad lighting because it symbolized food and safety. With a gentle tug, she pulled at Bing's hand.

"Do you know what that says, Bing'er?" She asked with a bright smile and the little girl looked at the sign and shook her head.

"Bing'er can't read… is it food?" The small child looked up at her, a picture of pure innocence.

"No, it means that I can try to work here so we can get food later. But it's not open yet. She pointed to another sign in the window that one says closed. So we will wait here until the owner comes and I'll see if I can get a job and a safe place for you to stay while I work." She lowered her voice as she explained all of this to Bing and found them a relatively clean spot to sit across the street at an entrance to an alley.

Anna had been circulating the spiritual force within her as they had traveled so she wasn't anywhere near as hungry or exhausted as Bing, she took a moment to reach into her pocket and used Create Sustenance. She waited to use the skill when she would still have one unit of spiritual force left so she could keep rotating it and keep the hunger and thirst at bay. Breaking it into two pieces, Anna gave the much larger piece to Bing and put the smaller piece away.

"Big Sister Que… this… Bing'er can't take this." The little girl was so moved that she cried. She was young and didn't have great control of her emotions if not for the calming aura coming from this mysterious big sis how would she have made it this far?

"You're still growing, and the best way to thank me for taking care of you is to live well so your sister in heaven won't be sad." Anna said in a gentle coaxing tone. She simply smiled as she watched Bing'er eat and cry, eat and cry. Once she finished eating she was so emotionally drained she fell asleep with her head on Anna's shoulder. And so time passed like that, a small girl sleeping while an older girl with wise eyes keeping an unwavering gaze on that Help Wanted sign.

It was another hour before the sun fully set, an increasing amount of ladies stood out on the street. They were varying levels of clean and Anna wasn't stupid, they were prostitutes. She didn't judge them, she wasn't sure what this place was but society had clearly thrown all these people away, how could she look down on others when she was also in the same boat.

"Big Brother…" Anna called out softly when she saw a younger man walking by, he didn't seem like a customer and he had walked into and out of shop she was eying a couple times with a filthy young boy trailing after him. He turned his head and looked at her.

"What? I'm not buying." He asked, his voice had the low rumble of a smoker and his eyes looked wary. She shook her head to put him at ease.

"Do you know when that shop opens and if they are still hiring? It seems like you know those people. Help me out…" Anna was barely keeping herself from blushing, this body was a virgin how could she sell her virginity?! She must be 16 years old at most but she was underfed and looked 14.

The man gave an embarrassed cough and looked down at the kid who was wiping his nose. "They should have opened half an hour ago, but… tsk, I don't know where these bitches are. They said I could leave Shou here…" He muttered a bunch of curses under his breath before apologizing. "Sorry, it's just that I need to get to work and it's not a place I can take him."

Anna stood up as Bing had woken up while he was talking and she pulled the piece of bread from her pocket and held it out to Shou. "Come." The little boy scrambled over to her and reached for the bread. She moved it out of reach and pointed near Bing, "Sit." He sat, and she handed him the bread. She turned to the young man.

"I'll watch him, he seems obedient. Who do I give him to?" Anna said as the man looked at her flabbergasted.

"Damn, you're good with kids. Okay, give him to the little old lady on the top floor, Grandma Zhang. Don't do anything stupid like try selling him or I will find you." He stepped towards her with a dangerous gleam in his eyes. Anna thought he'd leave it at merely posturing but his hand moved like a blur and he had her jaw firmly in his grasp.

"What are you doing?" She asked with no honorifics, she tried to remove his hand but her strength was too little, he just stepped forward and pressed her head against the dirty wall.

"Ah? You don't want me to call me big brother anymore?" He asked in a teasing voice, his grip shifted to allow his thumb to roughly run along her cracked bottom lip. "Call me Brother Yu in that pitiful voice of yours and when you get cleaned up and start working, I'll be sure to come back and take care of you."

Anna felt bile rising in the back of her throat and was thankful that his hands weren't dirty. She looked straight into his eyes and relaxed once she realized he wasn't aroused at all. "…Brother Yu… don't be like this, Que'er doesn't want to be hated if you're late to work." She looked at him pitifully and he released her as he burst out laughing.

"Good, good. Since you're like that I can leave you three with no worries." He said as he placed a metal object into her hand and patted the boy on the head. Yu disappeared as quickly as he had appeared with a lazy wave over his shoulder as he wandered off.

Anna looked at the two little ones who were staring at her in silence, "Don't do stuff like that until you're much older…" she said and began to inspect the metal object. A switchblade, this will be useful.

The three killed time talking, Little Shou apparently knew a good bit, including some things many didn't know. Like this building they were waiting to open, it was actually owned by a rather large gang in the area and acted as a front. All these women on this street worked for them by selling their bodies and drugs. He had just turned old enough to start being a runner, but he needed to get his tattoo finished inside which would mark him off-limits in the gang's territory, hence him needing to be watched. Anna noted that he didn't bring up Yu or his relationship with the man so she didn't bring him up either, she instead decided to tease him about needing to be babysat and like that they talked until a woman showed up and flipped the sign.

Things proceeded smoothly, well, as smoothly as these things went and she got a job as a waitress. She had initially suspected the place was a massage parlor but that was only the front. Behind a curtain and underground was a rather large and fancy restaurant and therefore they needed waitresses that could carry messages, read, write and so on.

It was a blessing and a curse, she managed to get Shou taken care of and they let Bing clean dishes. When she was assigned a small room within the basement complex she realized the full scope and power of this group. But she was now properly clothed, clean, and putting on weight.

After a week she fell into a cycle, work for ten or more hours while getting treated badly by patrons, and then come to the room and teach her how to read and write. She'd fall asleep sometime before noon and wake up before sun down. It was monotonous and she had no idea what the progress was on her trial. 'Was being spit on, tripped, beaten, and working these terrible hours not humiliation enough?' She thought to herself as she brushed out her hair before bed as she looked at herself in the broken mirror.

Perfect skin marred only by a cut scar at her brow, she made sure not to wear too much makeup and instead focused on making sure she always looked as young as possible so her bosses would pressure her less to take up sex work. Bing and Shou slept on the bed and she slept on the couch. She wasn't even entirely sure when he had moved in, all she knew is he never went home. He just worked and gave her all the money, so she kept them fed, clothed, and studying.

It was on one of these mornings that she was rotating her spiritual force rather than actually sleeping that she heard a click at the door. She was always very strict about locking up so whomever it was had the key. Anna lowered herself to the floor and crept towards the stove, everything in this flat was pretty cramped so she wrapped her fingers around the handle of a frying pan easily and readied herself.

"Oh shit.." a male voice said from behind the door as he realized the door also had some chains and other safety precautions out. There was a brief pause and then the sound of metal on metal as a blade flashed through the gap of the door before it fully opened.

Anna focused the full strength of her Divine Aura on exuding a sense of danger as she charged at the door. The figure had started to walk through and the second he saw her his body involuntarily staggered. Using the opening she swung as hard as she could, the power the charge would have given greatly reduced by her crippled leg. A satisfying sound was released as she connected, but it wasn't enough to knock him out but he did fall to the floor. His arms came to protect his head and she sat at on as she brought it down on him about three more times before she realized he was trying to say something.

"Que'er! Que'er what the fuck are you doing you crazy bitch!" Anna blinked in surprise and realized it was Brother Yu.

"Ah! Brother Yu, what are you doing here? Why do you have the key to my flat?" She cried out, his arms were already showing bruises and his head was bleeding.

"It hurts, fuck! Is this how you welcome your boyfriend back?" Yu yelled in his hoarse voice, he got up causing her to fall to the floor. He grumbled and cursed as he dragged in a duffel-bag from the hallway before shutting and locking the door.

"Who the fuck is my boyfriend? You? What sort of boyfriend doesn't contact and comes back without warning without gifts?! Am I stupid to you? Are you expecting me to be like all those other women you probably have and just put up with your bullshit! Why the hell are your shoes still on?!" Anna was near hysterical, her emotions had been dragged every which way so naturally she was going to vent them on this dumbass. He was just grinning while taking off his shoes.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful when you're angry?" He growled softly and stepped closer to her. His breath tickled her skin as he enjoyed her scent. "Mmm… you really filled out." Her knees had felt a little weak when he moved closer to her, but something wasn't right about his tone. She looked down.

KAPOW! A bright red handprint was now on his face, she'd hit him so hard his lip was now bleeding.

"TOUCH YOUR OWN TITS YOU PERVERT! I'll fill your mother out!" Anna screamed till she was red in the face.

"FUCK!" He shouted as he staggered backward and let go of her.

"Who gave you the guts!" She shouted. Up until now all of her neighbors had been worried about this white lotus sister taking care of two small siblings. But wasn't she unexpectedly fierce?!