At nine or ten in the evening, Ha City shifted from clamor into chaos. The power systems in some districts had already been cut off, so people filled iron barrels with fuel and set them alight by the roadside, illuminating the streets as they continued their revelry. The curfew might as well not have existed.
Whether they had a purpose or not, whether they were excited or afraid, under such an atmosphere, the people on the streets were no different from one another.
Those who did not fit in locked themselves at home, peering at the crowds through cracks in their windows and hurling meaningless curses.
Of course, there were also people who urgently needed to make a living at this stage, such as the scantily clad, full-figured streetwalkers by the roadside, whose state fell somewhere between the two.
She let the roaring, surging crowd pass, cursed under her breath, and lit a cigarette. Her gaze swept through the smoke and continued scanning the street when she suddenly saw a young man at the intersection across from her. With black hair and black eyes, he stood there all alone, looking curiously in her direction.
The streetwalker puckered her lips at the young man and held up three fingers from afar. Whether he understood or not, she had made her intention to solicit clear.
The young man scratched his head. After hesitating for a moment, he started toward her.
But after only a few steps, a bearded man breathing heavily rushed up ahead of him from the street where the streetwalker stood. He mumbled something indistinctly, and the two quickly settled on a price before embracing each other and heading toward the alley behind them.
The streetwalker glanced back. The black-haired, black-eyed young man had stopped where he was, his expression