At this moment nearly everyone I know knows me as Svetlana or Sveta, but this isn’t my actual name – that is Viktoria. It has been a long time since anyone has called me that though. It happened accidentally and without warning due to an unfortunate series of events. I never expected this to be my life, but here I am.
I’m from Saint Petersburg, Russia and I grew up in a small but stable family with 2 parents that had middle class jobs and were heavily involved in my upbringing. I grew into a woman that was 173 cm tall with blonde hair and blue eyes like my mother. I never had any problem with my weight and am quite slim like my mother as well. I developed small breasts wearing a size 2 (or B cup)
I never had problems having dates or boyfriends. When I went away to university in Moscow I met the man who I thought would be my husband. We dated for 3 years and he had come home with me to Saint Petersburg several times. In fact after we both graduated from university, he proposed to me on the Strelka, one of my favourite places in the city. Of course I accepted and I was ready to begin the rest of my life, or so I thought.
To celebrate our engagement we booked a 2 week holiday in Turkey on the Black Sea. I paid for the trip with my own money and I was excited for our 2 weeks on the sea. However, fate got in the way. I learned that he in fact had another girlfriend in his hometown. I was enraged and immediately broke our engagement. I still had arranged time off from my new job, and I wanted to escape and clear my head, so I decided to go on the trip anyway. There was a problem though, the all-inclusive resort we chose in Turkey was for couples only. I went to the tour company to see what could be done.
The tour agent gave me several options I could exchange my tour for. I would be losing money but at this point I didn’t care. Unfortunately, I did not have a Schengen Visa and there was no time to obtain one so Europe was off the table. I chose a trip to China. I thought it sounded interesting and there would be a lot to do besides sitting on a beach feeling sorry for myself.
I flew on a chartered flight of tourists from SPb to Beijing. It was quite an uneventful flight, which honestly quite unusual for a flight of Russians going abroad. When we landed and we went through customs, I found the sign from my tour company and myself and 5 others were driven to a hotel. On the drive I made small talk with a couple. It was not their first time in China or Beijing. When we checked in at our hotel, they asked if I’d like to go with them later that evening. They were going to a karaoke bar, it’s called a KTV. I actually enjoy karaoke very much so I agreed, then went to my room for some rest.
Two hours later I was showered and wearing a sleek tight red dress that stopped just above my knees. I thought I looked really good. I was thinking about how much my now ex fiancé was missing. I went to the lobby and met my new friends. On the way to the KTV they explained a bit to me about how it was different than in Russia. Instead of one bar where someone sings for everyone, we’d be in our own room with a hostess who would bring us drinks and operate the karaoke machine. They also told me the hostesses were also more thanks likely prostitutes, but they only liked to sing and have some drinks.
When we arrived we were greeted and lead to a room to pick a hostess. A line of Chinese women came out, all wearing red dresses similar to mine, and we chose one and were lead to our small private cabin. I noticed a troupe of Slavic looking girls also wearing red dresses walking in line into the room as we were exiting. I laughed at how similar I looked to them.
In our cabin we started drinking. I watched as ‘Mary’ our hostess poured drinks for us, put on the songs we requested, even sang for us. I was having a lot of fun, drinking, singing, and trying to communicate with Mary. She spoke passible English but mine was not so good and my Chinese was nonexistent. By midnight myself and my two new friends were quite drunk.
We decided it was time to leave. As we left in my drunkenness I left my purse with my passport and phone and hotel key in our cabin. I noticed after using the toilet. I told my fellow Russian friend I needed to get my purse. Her husband was outside and I told her to go, I’d meet them outside.
I started to walk to our cabin when he stood in front of my path, he was my height but a little heavier, he was Chinese and I couldn’t tell his age but I had to guess he was over 50. It took me a full 5 seconds to register he was speaking to me. I had no idea what he was saying. He put a hand on my shoulder and I saw him making another gesture with his other hand. He was waving over an employee, one of the administrative women. It clicked he thought I worked here.
He started speaking to the administrator in rapid fire Chinese. She turned to me and asked in poor English if I was finished in my cabin. I truthfully told her yes. More rapid fire Chinese between them. The woman the asked me my number, I thought it odd but started to give her my phone number.
“79..” was all I got out before being interrupted by her.
“Ok, 79 I put in record for you. Go now with him we do records later” was all she said to me and then she was gone.
The man had his arm around my waist and was leading me to a different cabin. This one was different, it was obviously a cabin for VIP clients. There were 4 other Chinese men in the cabin and one was singing a song. There were 5 Chinese hostesses in various states of dress. I realized at that moment what had happened. I had been mistaken for one of the Russian hostesses! I had no way to communicate to this man that I was not what he thought I was. My drunkenness did not allow me to think clearly about what to do in this situation.
He started to talk to his friends pointing to me and smiling. He then came to me and gestured at the champagne that was on the table next to our couch. I decided to just play along. I tried to make a show of pouring the champagne, but in my drunken state I think I spilled more than I got in the glasses. He chuckled and I looked over at my temporary colleagues and saw one sitting on a lap while her client drank the champagne. I quickly copied her. He smiled at me and stroked my hair behind my ears and said something to me in Chinese. I didn’t know how to respond, until I noticed he had put down the champagne and put his hands on my shoulders and was gently pushing me off his lap onto my knees between his legs.
He looked down at me smiling and speaking to me in Chinese seemingly in a way you would speak to a young child. He took my hands and put them on his belt buckle. I knew at that moment what he expected me to do. I thought about it for half a second. I was inebriated and my desire get back at my ex and I decided, why not. I unbuckled his belt and then unfastened his trousers. I reached behind him and grabbed the trousers by the waistline and pulled them and his underwear down to his knees.
I looked and saw his flaccid but slightly growing manhood. It was indeed smaller than the few I had experienced in Russia, but not as small as I had imagined due to stereotypes. I slowly caressed him with my hand he started to get more erect. Next I started to tickle his balls with my tongue. There was a soft moan from him as he continued to get hard. I started to stroke him gently and looked up at him while I went from licking to sucking on his balls. I released his left ball from my mouth and smiled. I moved my face up to take him in my mouth, then commotion. Loud noises. The light was on in the room. There was loud screaming loud and Chinese. The women with me were screaming loudly and running for a corner. Fight or flight kicked in and I started to run in the same direction.
It hit me hard, whatever it was, in the back. I had my breath knocked out of me, next all I know is that I am picked up in the air for a moment and then suddenly I’m face first on the floor with something heavy on top of me. I realized then that the something heavy was a man. A man that was screaming at me in Chinese. I had no idea what was going on until I was pulled to my feet with my hands now restrained behind my back and I saw the men were wearing uniforms. Police uniforms. The KTV had been raided it seemed. I thought for a moment and the horror came to me. I was being arrested for prostitution in China. It was a sobering realization.
I was walked out of the VIP cabin and out the lobby onto the street. I was roughly put down on the curb in a line of 7 or 8 other women in red dresses similar to mine. I noticed all of us were European looking and seemed all of us were Slavic, Russian or Ukrainian. I looked over at the woman next to me and started to ask her what was happening, but I was quickly berated by a police officer and put further away from the others.
As we sat on the curb a crowd had gathered. Many were taking pictures of us, many while laughing. I noticed it wasn’t only Chinese onlookers but tourists and businessmen from all parts of the world as well it seemed. I looked around for my new friends, perhaps they could help me and explain it was all a mistake, but I didn’t see them anywhere. After what seemed like an eternity we were loaded into the back of a police transport vehicle. There actually was a Russian speaking man that instructed us to not speak to each other during the transport and 2 officers were in the back with us.
It seemed seemed like a long ride through the city until we arrived at our destination. We were marched out of the paddy wagon and into a police building. Then we were brought to a large conference type room where we joined about 15 other Russian looking women already in the room also with their hands secured behind their backs with the same plastic handcuffs as us sitting on the floor. We were gestured to sit as well.
After about 15 minutes another group of girls came in and they took up the remaining space in the conference room. I looked around, there were about 30 of us here all very similar in age and appearance. None of us looked happy. Some had no emotion showing while others looked frightened. I fit in the latter. As I was looking around a Chinese looking man entered the room and took a position to the front of us.
“Hello ladies,” he spoke in understandable Russian “it seems you have come across a problem with your employment. Well, I can help you.”
He continued, “It seems you were all working for my competition, and the police have decided his operations were not within the law. Luckily, I am here to help. You will all be charged with prostitution, and this is a serious offense here. The punishment is more than simple deportation. However, it is possible that I can use my influence to have these charges dismissed. Tonight. Without even any paperwork done at all. This will cost me some money of course, so as a courtesy you will be asked to come and work for me until your debt has been covered.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had a choice, be charged with prostitution in China and spend perhaps a year in jail waiting for a day in court where I will more than likely be convicted anyway or actually become a prostitute. The man then went on to describe conditions in Chinese prison. I wasn’t sure how truthful he was being, but I had no desire to find out.
We then were stood up and placed in a line and began to file past a
table where a woman and man were sitting. Some girls were offering to give documents despite being restrained. I had no documents and was starting to be quite uncomfortable with my hands secured behind me. Some remained restrained and were taken to the right by police officers. Most however, went to the left. When I got close to the table I saw that those to the left were sitting in chairs in another room unrestrained.
It was my turn next. The Chinese woman in Russian asked me if I had my documents, I said they were at the KTV and she asked in a bored voice if I wanted to fight the charges or take the deal. My hands and wrists were so sore, at the moment that was all I was thinking about. With that in mind I stated I’d work. I was immediately directed to the left and my hands were freed. I sat down in a chair, looked straight ahead and promptly fell asleep.
I don’t know how long I was sleeping, it couldn’t have been all that long. I was awoken by a lot of bustling around me. My head was starting to hurt from my hangover that was coming on and I came to the realization that this was not a nightmare I was having but my reality. One of the Russian speaking Chinese women from the table tossed me a bag. I was not prepared for it having been lost in thought and it hit me in the face. This brought me back to reality.
“Girl, change clothes, put dress and underwear in bag and put bag over there.” She barked pointing to a pile of bags that was accumulating and moved in to the next woman.
I opened the bag and looked inside. There was a hooded sweatshirt, a pair of sweatpants, a sports bra and a pair of underwear along with some socks and a pair of cheap unbranded trainers. I looked around and saw all the other girls changing so I did the same not wanting to rock the boat. The underwear actually fit me, though I noticed most of the girls were my size, so it was the law of averages. The sports bra fit as well but the pants and sweatshirt were slightly small as were the shoes by a half size. I put the dress, my underwear and heels into the bag and tossed it on the pile and went to sit back in the chair still not sure what my next course of action should be.
“Damn! This sucks doesn’t it?” asked the girl next to me when I sat down.
“Yeah, it does” I replied not really knowing what to say.
“I’m Tanya by the way.” She said.
“Sveta, nice to meet you.” I lied with a smile. To this day I have no idea why I told her my name was Svetlana. From that moment on I want Vika, I was Sveta.
She continued “This is my third tour in China but first one in Beijing, I heard this stuff happened but never believed it. How many tours have you done in China?”
I was taken aback, this woman assumed I was a prostitute. A prostitute that has made a career out of it. I am not from a rich family but I am from Saint Petersburg and had a proper upbringing and education. It was clear to me by the way my companion spoke she was from a village and did not have the luxury of a proper education or childhood.
“This is my first time in China, I just arrived yesterday for 2 weeks.” I truthfully responded.
Her response chilled me to the bone. “Well I think the 2 weeks might be 2 years now babe.”