In mainland China, the term "smuggling" might provoke fear in many people since it is, after all, a criminal act.
However, for the ordinary people living in border areas, smuggling has become a daily occurrence.
My name is Zhong Li, I'm 22 years old.
Under the instigation of my friend, I, who had never been abroad before, secretly smuggled from Ruili to Muse, Myanmar.
Muse, the largest city in Myanmar, is famous for jade production and is also a transfer point for narcotics in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia.
Before 1956, Muse belonged to China. But due to the production demands of the Chinese people, a consensus was reached with the Myanmar government to exchange Muse for large rubber forests in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan.
Since then, Muse has become a major city for jade production in Myanmar.
On the third day in Muse, something very unfortunate happened; a war broke out in Myanmar.
Originally planning to travel abroad, my friends and I became separated amidst the onslaught of gun and cannon fire.
When you're down on your luck, anything can happen.
I finally found a temporary refuge, but stumbled upon a live action romance film.
This is an old house from a different era, and due to the war, the house was now empty.
I hid behind a pile of miscellaneous items, peering through a crack watching a man and woman intensely doing something outside.
"oh, Come on baby, don't stop."
"Darling, call out, Come on."
In the moonlight, I could barely make out two figures entwined together - a female with blonde hair and a Thai man. Their echoes of pleasure reverberated throughout the entire room. The man, completely naked, indulged himself again and again in his insatiable demands.
I curled up behind a pile of miscellaneous items, wondering to myself - weren't these two ever going to stop?
All of a sudden, the cacophonous noises from outside the house startled me. My body shook instinctively, thinking that the warfare had reached here as well. I started contemplating on how to escape, to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
"Bang!" The door was kicked open, followed by a woman's piercing scream.
Almost immediately, a few muscular men strode into the room; they stood rigidly near the man and woman who, moments ago, were wrapped up in their own world.
Following them, a slender man dressed in a black suit entered. The room was dimly lit, making it difficult to clearly see the man's face. However, judging by his body silhouette, I could roughly ascertain that this man must be handsome.
"Boss, how should we deal with these two?" one of the men asked.
The couple, who were in complete throes of passion just moments ago, were now terrified out of their wits and visibly pale from fright.
The blonde woman, curled up and shaking, looked fearfully at the man in black, uttering something English that I couldn't understand. However, judging by her demeanor, she seemed to be begging for mercy.
"All must die." The man in the black suit finally spoke. His voice was deep and hoarse, emitting a blood-thirsty scent. And just as he finished speaking...
"Bang!"
"Ah....."
The gun shot and a woman's scream rang out at the same time, and I hid behind a pile of junk. As I regained my senses, my eyes were drawn to a Thai man lying dead on the ground.
He died with an unseemly look on his face, his eyes wide open and glazed, making it seem as if he departed this world with his eyes unshut. Bright crimson blood seeped from his forehead, which looked nauseatingly horrid.
The man in black was toying with the gun in his hand, his expression relaxed and languid as if he had nothing to do with the gun shot that just transpired.
The blonde woman was trembling, naked and crawling towards the man in black.
"Ma Lu, please, don't kill me, don't kill me, I don't want to die," the blonde woman begged the man in black in broken Chinese while kneeling before him.