I finished telling my story and raised my head to look at the several people before me.

Through the long night, the six of us had lit a bonfire and sat in the open space talking through the night.

It was also strange—I had no blood ties or past connections with these people, yet I was willing to open my heart at this moment.

So in the end, had I changed… or had the environment changed?

“Fuck…” After hearing my story, Chen Junnan wiped away a mixture of snot and tears, patted Qian Duoduo beside him, and said, “Little Qian Bean… listen to what the fuck this is all about… I’m really convinced… That there are such ill-fated girls in this world…”

“No… don’t wipe your snot on me…” Qian Duoduo said with a look of disgust. “Wipe it on Fourth Brother…”

“Huh?!” After hearing this, Officer Li stood up and took a step back, saying with a serious face, “What kind of talk is that? If you really want to wipe it…”

After saying this, he turned to look at Qiao Jiajin, but unexpectedly, Qiao Jiajin had already retreated several steps away.

“Pfft…”

I covered my mouth, feeling that the painful memories that had just been stirred up were swept away at this moment. These people were all silly, but extraordinarily interesting.

“So should we call you ‘Zhang Lijuan’ or ‘Tiantian’?” Chen Junnan asked again.

“It doesn’t matter…” I shook my head. “Even I can’t tell anymore. After going through so much… I don’t know which name will bring me good luck either, so just call me whatever comes naturally to you.”

“Alright… this young master only regrets he can’t help…” Chen Junnan wiped his snot completely clean on Qian Duoduo’s body, raised his head, and said to me, “Tiantian, I declare that from now on you’re the girl I care about most in the ‘Land of the End.’ If anything happens in the future, I’ll cover for you.”

“Tsk.” Zhou Mo, standing to the side, rolled her eyes at him irritably. “An idiot ‘Scapegoat’ who often can’t even save his own life is now covering for others.”

“Sixth Sister, you…” Chen Junnan shrugged helplessly. “Anyway, never mind that. This young master has his own methods.”

“Old Qiao, say less.”

“Oh.”

“In any case, Sixth Sister, you can rest assured…”

“Wait… what ‘Sixth Sister’…?” Qian Duoduo frowned at Chen Junnan. “How exactly did you rank us? How are you calling someone ‘Sixth Sister’ now?”

“You guys are Zhang Three, Li Four, Qian Five, Zhou Six!” Chen Junnan replied. “Doesn’t that roll off the tongue? Old Qiao and I are… fuck, then I’m Big Baby? I should be calling her Sixth Sister.”

“Tsk, try calling me that!” Zhou Mo swung her wooden stick. “Come on, try calling me ‘Sixth Sister’ to my face right now.”

“Forget forget forget it…” Chen Junnan waved his hand. “Can you show me a little respect? After all, I’m the eldest.”

Several people started bickering again. This organization called “Calabash Brothers” seemed to be unreliable from the start.

After all, we only had six people, yet we supposedly counted as the seven calabash siblings. I really didn’t know which leader would be as impulsive as Chen Junnan.

“Since that’s the case… then what is your ‘sin’?” Qian Duoduo looked at me, asking with a curious expression.

“‘Sin’?” I found this way of asking somewhat interesting. “If I had to say… my profession itself is illegal.”

“Uh…” Qian Duoduo seemed not to have expected such an obvious answer and showed an embarrassed expression on his face.

“If we’re going to say something deeper… does ‘willingly degenerating’ count?” I asked again.

“This… this should…”

“If we’re talking about the religious aspect, does ‘abortion’ count?”

Several consecutive questions made Qian Duoduo slowly lower his head. It seemed that from every perspective I was guilty, but I didn’t want to explain anything.

“Now it’s fine…” I slowly reached out my hand. “I’ve really become a ‘witch.’ Maybe I’m not wronged after all.”

I stared at Zhou Mo’s wooden stick and my mind moved slightly. In just an instant, the stick was covered with iron sheet.

Now it was an excellent weapon that hurt when hitting people but was still light in weight.

“Tsk…” Zhou Mo lowered her head to look at it, then raised a pair of slightly sympathetic eyes. “How are you not wronged… If this happened to me, I’d directly smash their dog heads. The fault isn’t with you at all…”

“It’s okay.” I smiled. “If there’s any task that requires me to die to complete it, I’m very willing to help. Perhaps that’s the reason I joined.”

After hearing this, everyone just fell silent. Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan exchanged helpless glances.

“So…” Qiao Jiajin spoke up and asked, “Tiantian girl, do you really not want to leave?”

“I…” I paused. “I don’t.”

My words brought another period of silence from everyone.

“But you don’t need to join the ‘Calabash Brothers.'” Qian Duoduo said.

“What?”

“We’re here to risk our lives.” Qian Duoduo shook his head. “Even here, you should find a few trustworthy teammates to live well, instead of continuing to hand over your life.”

“Huh?” Chen Junnan looked at him. “What do you mean? Is my organization that terrible?”

“Not really, just the literal meaning.” Qian Duoduo shook his head. “Chen Big Baby, if I were the leader, if Tiantian lost her memory, I wouldn’t contact her again. She shouldn’t spend her whole life selling her life for others. That’s torture for her.”

“Seems like you have a point…” Chen Junnan lowered his head and thought for a while. “Wait, when you say it like that, it makes me seem really capitalistic…”

“See, you’re overthinking again.” Qian Duoduo sighed. “I said ‘if I were the leader.’ I’m not right now, so we still have to listen to you.”

“So you want to usurp power, boy?”

“…Are you sick?”

They made me laugh again.

This organization seemed to be arguing all day long, but I didn’t see pain on anyone’s face.

“Actually, it’s okay…” I waved my hand. “Don’t you all feel it? Ever since we entered the ‘Land of the End,’ there’s been a wall separating us from everyone else. On this side of the wall are a group of people who don’t want to leave, while on the other side, people are busy every day trying to escape from here. Our camps were destined from the beginning…”

“Stop talking about ‘walls’ all the time.” Chen Junnan interrupted me. “Why is such a young girl so pessimistic?”

“Pessimistic?” I smiled bitterly. “I feel like my whole life, I’ve been curled up in a sealed, hard room. I can see others’ joy and anger, and I can hear others’ worlds, but my steps can never cross over…”

“There will always be someone who lets you open the ‘door.'” Chen Junnan said.

“What…?”

“Maybe one day, some fool will appear and have you create a ‘door’ in your own space.” Chen Junnan continued. “When that time comes, you open the ‘door’ and look—everyone will be waiting for you outside.”

After hearing this, I was silent for a long time. I wanted to say something, but my nose became sour first.

Yes, why had I never thought of this?

I had always been waiting for this room forged by “walls” to crack or collapse completely, but I had never thought that one day I could openly open a “door” and walk out.

Perhaps.

If that day comes, I’m willing to wait.

My name… is Zhang Lijuan, and I am also Tiantian.

Now, I will set out on my own path, working toward opening that “door.”