《Love at Dusk》

No one thought Adeline was a good girl.

 She thought of herself as a bad girl.

 Her biological father was missing and her mother was a common call girl, like a public washing machine. All men needed to do was to slip a few banknotes into her corset and open the door to a secret pleasure.Growing up in such a "bad" environment, she could not help but be a bad girl.

 She inherited her mother's beauty. Her hair was thick and black and dense, requiring a lot of strength to tie up. Her skin was the color of honey syrup. Her lips were red, with the upper lip slightly raised in a sweet arc.Her mother's guests often stared at her lips.Her mother had to stiffen up and scold her to keep her mouth shut.She did not care, thinking that her mother was jealous of her beauty.

 She was such a vulgar, mindless but amazingly beautiful bad girl.

 At the age of 18, the bad girl experienced the first setback in her life.

 Before that, her life was not smooth -- her family was not rich, but just enough to live on. Her mother would elope with a man from time to time and leave her alone.Luckily, her mother had a little conscience. When she elope with a man, she would leave a pile of banknotes behind. With that money, Adeline could barely survive.She never thought about going out to work to make money--her mother wouldn't go away for long, usually two weeks before she was dumped by a man and returned to the sleek, filthy apartment to live with Adeline again.So Adeline had always taken her mother's departure in stride.But this time was different.Her mother seemed to have found love, and two months later, she hadn't come home.Sometimes Adeline wondered if her mother had really found love, or if she had died at the hands of the man and been buried in the wilderness.The thought would linger in her mind for two seconds, then be pushed into the corner by other worries. With her mother gone, she had no money, no money to pay her school fees, no money to eat.That's when she realized her mother's goodness.Even though her mother was a call girl, she never thought of raising her to be a call girl.Her mother would throw tantrums if a customer looked at her too much--and even though she would throw tantrums at her and call her a coquettish little grues, she knew it was her mother's way of protecting her, so she didn't get mad. Her mother was a little dimwitted, with a romantic streak that was laughable, and a yearning for warm, loving relationships even after being cheated on so many times by men.But on the whole, she was a good mother.

Although she screamed and yelled at Adeline and wanted to kill herself with her, she sold herself to pay for Adeline's education and dressed her up like a child movie star...And even though she ended up running off with a man, Adeline still cried big tears when she thought about her.Of course, if Adeline had liked school, she might have cried longer.But call girls' kids are not meant to study.After her mother left, she was sad for a while, then overcome by the joy of not having to go to school.She was finally not going to the d*mn school!Adeline's mother couldn't afford a private high school, so she sent her to a public one.Adeline learned to smoke, fight and curse, but not to read.Occasionally, when her mother asked for her grades, she produced a fake report card.Her mind was as dimwitted as her mother's, but she was brilliant at times like this. Instead of faking a report card with all A's, she deliberately left two glaring C's to convince her mother that this was her true level.In fact, except for those two C's, the rest of her grades were fake.Deciding not to go to school, Adeline did not hesitate to sleep until noon the next day.She pretended not to hear the school's calls.It's unlikely that a teacher would set foot in a red light district to save a poor student's education.

So, two weeks later, Adeline received a letter of dismissal from school.As she opened the envelope, Adeline's mood was unruffled.She was too young, young enough to be almost immature, young enough to not understand the consequences of losing her qualification to study.She only felt liberated, free, a bird out of its cage, free to fly from then on.The free Adeline sighed for a moment, and then turned to the crazy business.A week later, her crazy business was forced to go bankrupt due to lack of funds.After thinking for a while with her small and dull brain, she decided to work to earn money.But where to work and what kind of work, she had no idea.Her mother left thinking she had raised a beautiful, intellectual daughter who would hopefully go to college, but in fact she had raised a pretty straw bag. While looking for a job, a fool Adeline met another fool, Brianna.At that time, Adeline was wandering in the street, very annoyed about what job to do.She was wearing a high ponytail and a white dress, beautiful like a pure and green angel, but the people in the street knew that this angel fought harder and had a vocabulary of swear words that no young girl could ever dream of.

Adeline felt that she was very normal, and her mother felt that she was very normal--any young and beautiful girl, want to grow up in this world safely, have to have some self-preservation skills, or beauty will become a sharp blade to stab them.Brianna knew this rule, but never wanted to follow it.She did not think she was beautiful enough to need self-preservation.However, she did not know that "beauty" was not a requirement for her to be attacked, "vulnerability" was.One day, not particularly beautiful she got into trouble, was surrounded by several roughs.Adeline passed by and saw this scene, like an angry heifer, axed the roughs away.Brianna looked at the beautiful face of the heifer for a long time, then said: "Thank you...save me."Adeline waved her hand: "It's okay, you have to go, there are a lot of roughs everywhere. I helped you this time, but next time you may not get help."

 Bryanna looked ashamed. "I... I came to find someone, but I couldn't find her apartment."

 "Who are you looking for?"

 Bryanna's hands were clenched. "Mrs. Kelly."

 Adeline thought she heard her wrong. "Can you say that again?"

 Bryanna's cheeks were red. "I'm looking for Mrs. Kelly."

 Adeline's eyes widened. She whistled in surprise.Mrs. Kelly was the most famous prostitute in the street.If her mother hadn't already made her name in the call girl world, she would have to go through Mrs. Kelly. The girl looked so serious in her white shirt and black dress that she asked for Mrs. Kelly.

 She didn't want to be a pest. "Mrs. Kelly's at 245 Brook Street. Go straight, turn left, and then turn right. If that's all right, I'll go.Be careful with yourself."

 Bryanna grabbed her arm and pleaded, "I have to be home by 6 p.m. tomorrow...Can you take me there? I-I can give you money. I can bring you food. I work at a fancy restaurant and bring you fresh cream cakes...They're expensive. They sell for $5 apiece outside..." Please help me. It's important to see Mrs. Carey."

 Adeline had never tasted a fine cake and was not interested in cream cakes.She sharply grasped a key word: "You said you worked in a fine restaurant?"

 Bryanna nodded.

 Adeline thought for a moment and said bluntly: "I'm looking for a job. If you can let me work in the restaurant, I'll take you to see Mrs. Carey."

 Bryanna hesitated for a moment, but agreed: "I can take you to see the manager of the restaurant, but I can't guarantee that the manager will want you..."

 Adeline gave a sly look: "No, that's enough."

 Adeline's interview went well, thanks to the gender of the restaurant manager. As long as he is a man, he can't refuse such a beauty.Moreover, she was wearing a light makeup that day.Adeline has no talent for reading, but she is a first-class seduction.She brushed her eyelashes long and black, put a little blush on the tip of her nose, and her lips were painted like red cherries dripping with syrup.

 The restaurant manager fell in love with her at the first sight and decided to keep her. Adeline felt smug that she was so smarter than her mother. They were both illiterate and without brains. If the daughter found a more respectable job than her mother, she was smarter than her mother. That day, she took Brianna to the front of Mrs. Kelly's apartment.Although she was curious about what Brianna wanted from Mrs. Kelly, she did not want to go into the luxurious tomb.She lit a cigarette outside and held it between her fingers, taking a few puffs.The white smoke rose slowly, obscuring her dark eyes and bright red lips.Brianna saw this when she came out.It was hard to imagine that this s*xy girl was only 18 years old.Brianna took a deep breath, suppressed the flash of jealousy, and walked over and whispered, "Let's go..."

 Adeline saw her expression and could not suppress her curiosity. "What's wrong with you?" Sometimes sadness has been suppressed for so long that even a casual question cannot face it.With red eyes, Brianna threw herself into Adeline's arms and sobbed, "I-I'm finished...I'm finished for life!"

 Ten minutes later, Adeline understood the story. Bryanna was born into an ordinary family, but her expenses were far beyond the ordinary family's affordability.However, she did not know how the money was spent, nor did she know where it was spent.Adele knew this well, and she often wondered why money was so inefficient.The year when Bryanna spent the most money, her father just lost his job and stayed at home watching TV all day.One day, he was bored looking through her clothes and found a long bill from her pocket, which nearly made him faint.Bryanna was driven out of the house.

Although her father later brought her back, she dared not tell her family her true expenses.She knew it was not good to spend money lavishly, but she could not resist her growing desire to shop.There were colorful shopping ads on TV and on the street. More and more rich girls came to the restaurant to consume. Plus many of her colleagues had an affair with rich men -- by day, they were young and beautiful waitresses, and at night, they would change into sequined skirts, carry leather bags and walk around with rich men's hands. Staying in such an environment for a long time, she gradually began to confuse good and bad -- so many people do it, and even if it is bad, there are so many people with her.

So she got a rich man.She did not expect to become his mistress, but just wanted to fill the gap in the family, so that the burden on the shoulders of the unemployed father would be lighter.She thought so in her heart, but who knows that after really having a rich man around, her desire for shopping has only expanded.Now, she not only wants to compare with the girls in the restaurant, but also with the girls around the rich man.Unwittingly, she owes more and more debts.A few days ago, a threatening phone call was even made to her home. Luckily, it was her who answered the phone, otherwise she really did not know how to explain to her father.Under such anxious circumstances, the rich man around her actually disappeared.There was no way, she had to find out Mrs. Kelly's address, hoping to find a new rich man to tide over the difficulties.If she had not met Adeline that day, she would probably have committed suicide after being defiled by a petty criminal.Adeleline was not touched by her story -- she had heard so many stories about the sudden disappearance of the patron and the call girl's bewilderment that it was hard to be touched anymore. She wondered if one day, if she were in Bryanna's situation, she would have to find a rich man to tide her over.

 She thought about it for a while in her small, narrow mind and came to a conclusion: we'll see what happens.It's a fallback option.

 - Adelyn didn't think she would need it so soon.

 When she heard Bryanna's story, she thought she was stupid to keep up with the Joneses even though she knew she had no money.When she started working, she found that she couldn't help it.

 The girls around her were wearing lipsticks from France, which made it impossible for her to get out the cheap plastic lipstick in her pocket.Their curls were shiny and elastic, which showed that they had been to the fancy beauty salon.

 Although Adelyn kept rolling her eyes in secret, she thought these people were enjoying services that were not equal to her own. But when it came to her choice, what she really wanted was to be one of them.

 She despised their extravagance, but she couldn't help wanting to be close to that flashy and dazzling world.Maybe that's why Bryanna chose to fall.

That day, when Adeline got back to her apartment, she kicked off her high heels and walked barefoot to where her mother kept her money. She reached down and touched the spot. It was empty.

 She blinked blankly and tried again. There was nothing.There couldn't have been a burglary, because she lived in a burglar's den. No one had been raised to know better than she did about burglars.

 So, there was only one possibility.

 She had spent all her money.

 Where did she spend it?

 No.

 She really didn't know.

 Adeline tried to remember what she had bought these days, but it seemed like she hadn't bought anything.No, at first, she had bought little things like earrings, hairpins, false eyelashes...The gadgets cost only a few cents, and sh