Pixel-Perfect Lin Siran

As a UX designer at a major internet company who strives for “pixel-perfect” perfection, Lin Shiran lives by a simple creed: clear logic, clean interfaces, and user experience above all. The little world she has carefully built for two is like one of her app designs: minimalist, efficient, and free of clutter.

Then her mother-in-law, a walking bundle of “everyday homey warmth,” descends on their home with two salted fish and a bedspread covered in bold northeastern-style flowers. Only then does Lin Shiran realize that the app called Life has suddenly force-installed a bizarre-looking plugin that cannot be removed and keeps eating up her memory in the background.

When “decluttering” meets “patch it up and make it last three more years,” when “light salads” collide with “braised pork and rice,” and when the grand narrative of “independent women” is mercilessly steamrolled by domestic chatter like “A woman ought to have children early,” Lin Shiran’s glamorous urban life instantly turns into a chaotic battlefield.

Her husband, once the practical, steady man who dreamed about the future with her, does his best to play peacemaker and act as double-sided tape between his mother and his wife. More often than not, though, he ends up as the filling in a sandwich.

This is a hilarious clash between two generations and two ways of life. It is also the story of a modern woman constantly tweaking, battling through challenges, and leveling up as she navigates the “user experience” of marriage and family, until she finds the best “interaction design” for her own life. Life needs a little warmth and bustle, but she gets to decide how much sugar and ice to add.