Love in the Abyss

be released from prison

Three Years Later The door to S City Women's Prison opened slowly, and the hot air outside hit his face. A thin woman walked out.

Her figure was slim, so thin that she had almost lost all her curves, and the white dress on her body was the one she wore when she was sent to prison three years ago. Now that she wore it, it was like a loose sack, completely ill-fitting.

Her pace was slow, each step seemed to carry a heavy burden as she walked towards the platform a hundred meters away in the distance. In her hand she carried a black plastic bag containing only thirty-one dollars and fifty cents and an ID card.

Under the blazing summer sun, the road surface rolled with layers of heat waves, the temperature has broken through thirty-three or four degrees. The woman walked along the gravel road, but there was not a trace of sweat on her body.

Her pale skin was covered with bruises, especially on her face, where a scar about three centimeters long stretched from the corner of her forehead along her hairline, looking particularly conspicuous, as if it were a cruel mark.

The bus pulled up slowly and the woman boarded. She carefully pulled a coin from a plastic bag and dropped it into the bus's coin box. The box was empty, and the driver looked at her with a hint of disgust in his eyes, then quickly looked away - all the people who got on the bus here were prison inmates, who would be the good guys?

As if she hadn't seen the driver's eyes, the woman walked to the back of the bus, head down, and found an inconspicuous corner to sit in, trying not to draw attention to herself.

The bus passed the sights along the way, and she quietly looked out the window - three years, what a change.

The corners of her mouth turned up slightly in a bitter curve. Yes, three years, what a change, not only the world outside the prison had changed, but also she herself.

The bus pulled into a busy area and the woman suddenly shivered - she was out of jail, but where would she go back to?

In an instant, a cold reality hit her - she had nowhere to go.

She opened the plastic bag, inside the thirty dollars and fifty cents, she counted over and over again, three times and three times ...... the next day, what to do?

On the side of the road, a billboard advertising companies for jobs caught her attention.

"Driver, I want to get out." Her voice was low and with a hint of fatigue, three years in prison had made her lose her former arrogance, and even her words carried a slight tremor.

The driver grumbled and opened the door. She thanked him quietly and got out of the car.

She walked towards the large board with the job information, stopped at the words "cleaner" and her eyes fell on the words "room and board included".

She had no home, no record, no education, she had been in prison ...... maybe even the cleaners would not want her. However, she pinched the only remaining thirty dollars and fifty cents in her hands, gritted her teeth, and made up her mind to go to the nightclub called the Elysian Club.

As soon as she entered the club, her body shivered involuntarily, and the cold air from the central air conditioning made her whole body shiver as if it was cold to the bone marrow.

......

"Name."

The man spoke impatiently.

"Emily Stone," her deep voice came out slowly. Her voice was husky and rough, as if she had a heavy past. The voluptuous woman who heard the voice was startled, nearly dropped the pen in her hand, and asked with displeasure, "Why do you sound so bad?"

"Smoked by the smoke."

The voluptuous woman was slightly surprised, her eyes slightly curious, then asked, "Fire?

"Uh, fire." Emily Stone nodded weakly, her eyes downcast, hiding the flash of pain under her eyes - it was nothing more than a fire someone had set on purpose.

Seeing that she didn't want to say anything more, the voluptuous woman didn't pursue the matter any further, instead she pursed her lips, obviously a bit impatient, "No way, 'Elysian' is not your average entertainment club, and the guests that come here are not your average guests." She scanned Emily Stone up and down, the disgust in her eyes clear and completely undisguised. Her dress was skimpy, her white gown yellowed from being worn for who knew how long, and her whole person looked worthless.

"Elysian is not a place where ordinary people can afford to spend money, even ordinary waitresses have to be good looking and have hot bodies." The voluptuous woman's tone was even more contemptuous, "How dare you apply for such a job?"

She stood up and waved her hand, dismissing Emily Stone without hesitation, "No, not one like you, not even as a waitress." She turned and prepared to leave.

"I applied to be a cleaner." Emily Stone's voice finally broke through the echo, quiet and firm, as if the last vestiges of self-respect were struggling to survive.

The gruff voice suddenly rang through the small office and managed to stop the woman in her tracks for a moment.

Her eyes rose and scanned Emily Stone from top to bottom with a hint of suspicion and disdain: "I've never seen a girl in her twenties willing to suffer to be a janitor.

The cleaning aunts here, the youngest would be in their forties.Emily Stone, with a bruised forehead and skinny as a bamboo pole, was in her early twenties at best.Emily Stone, with a bruised forehead and skinny as a bamboo pole, was in her early twenties at best.Emily Stone was in her early twenties at best. Girls in their twenties, girls that age shouldn't be models, not princesses, and of course some waitresses. But who had ever seen a twenty-something working as a janitor?

She thought Emily Stone would bow to the hardships of life and start talking about her suffering and how the world was not easy. If she did, the voluptuous woman wouldn't hesitate to throw her out on the spot.

The world is hard? Oh, there were so many such stories in Elysian that they could be published in a book and fill a library. Who cared how a stranger felt when they first met?

But to her surprise, Emily Stone didn't rush to complain, but spoke slowly, her voice cold: "I'd open my legs and say 'welcome' if I could sell them. Before I came here, I looked at myself in the mirror, and I don't have the capital to sell my body, so I'll sell my labor. I do what I can." Her voice was soft and calm, but there was a blatant self-deprecation in her tone - she was just a criminal named "926" who went to prison, and when she got out, what dignity could she ask for?

The beautiful woman froze for a moment and looked Emily Stone up and down again, a bit of surprise and disbelief in her eyes. Then she walked back to her desk and picked up her pen, ready to continue filling out the form, "Emily Stone?"

"Right."

"That's not supposed to be the name, is it?" Her eyes glanced over Emily Stone again, seemingly with a hint of imperceptible probing, "Your parents should have loved you when they gave you that name, right?"

Emily Stone s eyes were empty, as undulating as stagnant water Did ...... love her very much?

Yes, very much. If she didn't have a vicious heart that killed Xia Weiming, if she didn't ruin the Jane family, then her parents probably really loved her.

"I don't have a family." Emily Stone's voice remained calm, as if she was saying something that couldn't be more ordinary.

The voluptuous woman frowned slightly and looked at her, but did not pursue the matter, standing up and saying, "All right, make a copy of your ID."

As she stepped on her six-inch heels and headed for the door, she suddenly stopped and turned to Emily Stone, "Emily Stone, do you know why I made an exception and took you in?"

She didn't expect Emily Stone to answer, but continued, "You're right, if you can sell it, sure, if you can't, then resign yourself to doing what you can."

"How many people are much older than you, but still do not understand this truth, deadly bull's-eye, desperate camp, thinking that they can compete with the sky, but the result is just low-eyed, never find out what they are actually considered. You dare to look yourself in the eye and understand what you can do. Someone who can understand what he can do, I believe, also knows what he cannot do.

The voluptuous woman narrowed her eyes, "The Elysian Club is not your average entertainment club.

Emily Stone replied, still slowly and calmly, "I get it, I have a hard voice and I don't just open my mouth. She knew in her heart that to speak less was to stay out of trouble.

The voluptuous woman nodded in satisfaction, normally she wouldn't give much guidance to newcomers. If you dared to join Elysian, you had to learn the "rules".

After all, in this disoriented metropolis, the powerful and the rich were everywhere, who dared to offend?

"When you're in Elysian, you have to know how to behave." The voluptuous woman added coldly, her tone serious, "Say what you have to say, do what you have to do, and don't do what you can't do.

Emily Stone bowed her head slightly, was silent for a moment, and finally mustered up the courage, her voice a little low, "Manager ....... I don't have a place to stay."

The voluptuous woman froze, then said weakly, "Call me Sophia in the future," she took out her cell phone and dialed a phone, "You come here, I just recruited a cleaner here, take her to the staff dormitory. After that she hung up and tossed Emily Stone a "come to work tomorrow".

Then she turned and left, leaving Emily Stone in the office.

Emily Stone looked down at the onboarding report in her hand and breathed a silent sigh of relief in her heart - at least tonight she wouldn't have to sleep on the street anymore.