Patipan ran for his life, his bare feet pounding against the narrow, cramped alleyways. Covetous gazes darted at him from the surrounding shanties of various heights.
“อีแร้ง! หมาป่า! (Vultures, wild dogs...)”
He clutched the food in his arms and glared back fiercely before finally making it back to his family's bamboo shack without further incident.
Patipan's home was right by the river. Every night, he could see the magnificent, towering buildings on the opposite bank.
Vibrant neon lights swayed against the sky, their beams sweeping across the surroundings, barely offering the people living here a cheap sense of security.
When his luck was good enough, he could even scavenge some valuable items from the river to sell for bread.
Patipan's parents were not home. Only a pair of pale, thin legs belonging to a young girl protruded from the bamboo mat.
He was not at all surprised by this.
His parents were likely hanging around some casino, or perhaps they had dabbled in something they shouldn't have and were now rotting in a landfill.
In any case, for as long as he could remember, he and his older sister, Sariya, had relied only on each other to survive.
Sariya was very skillful. She could make beautiful lotus lamps. Even the daughters of wealthy merchants were not as capable as her; she could string golden flowers together layer by layer, weaving them into exquisite floral chains specifically supplied to temples.
While his sister sold flowers, Patipan was responsible for running errands for Shilihua, an enforcer at a casino. Occasionally, he would also earn some extra money on the side.
For example, by stealing, or by leading foreign tourists into illegal casinos. For every tourist he brought in, Shilihua would give him a tip of one hundred Thai Baht.
These illegal casinos were the most dangerous places in Manggu.
They would let the tourists win a small sum first. Once the tourists got hooked, they would egg them on to keep gambling until they lost every penny, and even then, they wouldn't let these poor souls off the hook.
The enforcers would pretend to be kind-hearted, offering to loan them money to win back their losses.
Only when these red-eyed gamblers found themselves completely broke and buried under a mountain of high-interest debt would they realize they had walked into a trap prepared long ago.
Only then would the glittering casino bare its hideous fangs.
If they couldn't pay back the money, they would be forced to call their families. If they refused, they would be tied to iron slaughterhouse hooks and hung up to be beaten.
If they truly had nothing left to squeeze and their families refused to pay, the casino would package them up and sell them off.
They would either be sent to the red-light district to sell their bodies or shipped off to scam compounds to do illegal business.
And if they were truly unlucky enough to cross paths with some high official or noble in need of an organ, a professional medical team would naturally take over.
As for whether they would die from post-operative infections?
No one cared anyway. The one thing Manggu never lacked was people.
Clutching the two portions of food, Patipan warily entered his home. He shivered as he lit a fire and let out a sigh.
Living in Manggu, no one bothered to distinguish right from wrong.
He only knew that if he didn't do this, he would be the one getting beaten and going hungry.
Patipan greedily tore open a portion of food and shoved it down his throat. He was shockingly thin, his neck looking like nothing but loose skin.
When he swallowed, he looked just like a waterbird, his crop bulging as he gulped down the food.
“ซาเรีย วันนี้เธอยังไม่กินอะไรเลยหรอ？ (Sariya, can you still not eat anything today?)”
With grease smeared around his mouth, Patipan warily looked toward the corner of the room.
“ถ้าพรุ่งนี้ท่านยังไม่หายดี ไปหาจอมเวทย์อาเซนกันเถอะ (If you're still not feeling well tomorrow, let's go see Ajahn.) วันนี้ฉันทำเงินให้ซือลี่หัว 10,000 เหรียญ เขาสัญญาว่าจะให้ข้าวฉันกินพรุ่งนี้ด้วย และน่องไก่ (I made ten thousand for Shilihua today, and he promised to give me food tomorrow too, including a chicken leg.)”
At this, he licked his lips and pushed the other portion of food forward.
In the cramped corner of the room lay a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl. She wore a plain dress and leaned against the wall, barefoot.
At the girl's feet, the ground was cluttered with moldy, rotting food, some of which was even crawling with maggots.
Under the flickering firelight, a terrifying face was revealed.
It was absolutely not the face of a girl in the bloom of her youth!
She was emaciated, skin clinging tightly to bone, her entire body reduced to a mere skeleton. A head of jet-black, glossy long hair draped behind her, and on her withered face, two eyeballs rolled slightly—
she could barely be considered a living person.
“I'm about to succeed. I feel like I'm one step closer to God. Patipan, I'm about to... I'm about to become God's bride.”
Sariya's expression was ecstatic, and she muttered to herself incessantly:
“The master was right. I saw a fairyland where there are no terrifying things, nor is there any hunger. Everyone... everyone has a smile on their face.
The water there is all flowing milk, the mountains and rivers are fragrant food, and even the fountains flow with white rice...”
She clutched the slightly larger deity statue in her hand, her tone sweet and filled with fantasy.
—Seven days ago, when Sariya attended the Holy Water Assembly held by the great exorcist, the great exorcist had personally told the siblings that the Ba Yan God had taken a liking to her and chosen her to be his seventy-third wife.
But before the wedding, Sariya needed to maintain a devout heart and complete the preparatory rituals.
During the ritual, she could not consume any mortal food, though she was allowed to drink a little water.
Counting the days, there were less than two days left until the wedding.
If it had been before, Patipan might have believed this without a shadow of a doubt.
But today, he had met those two foreign women.
Two healthy, rosy-skinned, beautiful, and vibrant women.
Looking at Sariya, who was gradually losing her life force, an eerie, spine-chilling dread suddenly welled up in his heart for some reason.
It was as if...
As if after losing the Buddha amulet, he was better able to see his sister's current state clearly.
So withered, so frail, like a living skeleton...
Sariya... Sariya shouldn't be like this!
She used to be the most beautiful and charming girl on the entire street!
Would she die?
She was going to die, wasn't she?
She was definitely going to die!
Patipan was suddenly seized by panic.
Even when his theft was discovered earlier today, he hadn't been this terrified.
With the Buddha amulet gone from his body, Patipan found his mind suddenly clearing, and normal human emotions began to surge forth.
“คุณจะอดตาย! คุณจะอดตาย ซาเรีย เทพธิดานาคจะไม่ทำให้ผู้ศรัทธาอดอยาก และพะยังเป็นพระเจ้าที่ไม่ดี! (You're going to starve to death! You're going to starve to death, Sariya! The Naga Goddess wouldn't let her believers starve, and Ba Yan is an evil god!)”
Screaming, he rushed over and knocked the deity statue out of Sariya's arms. The girl's eyes cleared for a brief instant, her gaze filled with painful struggle, but in a matter of moments, it was completely replaced by chaos once more.
“I am about to enter the Divine Kingdom! I will become the noble, revered wife of the Ba Yan God. No one... no one will bully us anymore—
The Divine Kingdom, the Divine Kingdom! The Divine Kingdom!”
Her voice grew higher and shriller with each shout until it erupted into an astonishingly sharp shriek. Her entire body suddenly stiffened, and she fell rigidly to the ground!
“Sariya!”
Patipan lunged forward in terror. Only after feeling a faint breath beneath the girl's nose did he collapse onto the ground. The next moment, he gritted his teeth, snatched up the deity statue, and threw it with all his might into the river!
Splash... bubble, bubble...
The wooden deity statue hit the water, making only a very faint splash before sinking silently into the depths.
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