At forty-two, Lin Xiuhui is laid off from her factory job. Her husband’s income is unstable, her child is in high school, her elderly family members need medication year-round, and they’re buried in debt. Limited by her age and education, she repeatedly hits dead ends in her job search. With nowhere else to turn, she sets aside her reservations and becomes a part-time domestic worker.
While working in clients’ homes, she meets all kinds of employers and catches glimpses of the hidden conflicts, hardships, and warmth in different families as she cleans. The domestic-work industry is rife with problems: agencies withhold wages, fellow workers maliciously steal clients, employers make unreasonable demands, and platforms take unfair cuts. One challenge after another comes her way.
Lin Xiuhui stays true to herself and works hard. She steadily learns cleaning, organizing, and caregiving skills, earns a good reputation through her sincerity, and makes friends with a group of trustworthy domestic workers. Unwilling to be forever tied down by taking whatever jobs come her way, she joins forces with her coworkers to form a mutual-aid domestic work team, resist cutthroat competition, and defend workers’ rights.
This story focuses on the struggles faced by ordinary middle-aged women. There are no miraculous power-ups or lucky breaks. It follows her as she endures hardship, perseveres, and grows while carrying the weight of her responsibilities. After weathering the storm, her family, too, begins to see better days.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
