Chapter 1 Author: Peanuts for Me I lay on the cold concrete floor, every inch of my body screaming in pain. The men who had just tortured me left with satisfied smiles on their faces, laughing and fastening their pants as they walked away. The air reeked of a nauseating stench, and I retched instinctively, but nothing came up. Just then, the door opened again, and a few people in staff uniforms walked in. "Put these on. You can leave now." One of them threw a few sets of clean clothes at my feet, his tone laced with disdain. I forced my eyes open from exhaustion and stared at the clothes on the ground, feeling momentarily dazed. Leave? Leave for where? My thoughts spiraled out of control and drifted back into the past. Half a year. It had been a full six months since I'd been imprisoned in this hellish illegal factory. I was forced to work 16 hours every day. My hands were covered in thick calluses. The skin on my fingertips were cracked and bleeding. The foremen here beat and cursed at us trafficked workers as if we weren't human. We were just tools in their eyes. And worse, in this place filled with nothing but men, I couldn't even protect my body. I had even gotten pregnant once, only to miscarry from the extreme labor before I realized what had happened. This place was like hell, and I had been barely clinging to life for six long months. Numbly, I picked up the clothes and put them on piece by piece, dressing my bruised and battered body. The clothes were clean, unlike the ragged uniform I'd worn every day for the past half-year.