The sky over Rust City is gray. The steel mill chimneys look like rusty nails, and the apartment buildings reek of coal smoke and pickled vegetables. This is where he and she began, and where the nightmare started.
His father became an alcoholic and beat him after being injured at work. His mother left long ago. At twelve, he collected scrap metal to save up for school, and the coins in a glass jar were his only hope. Her parents favored boys over girls. She sorted recyclables at six and was forced to quit school in middle school. Everything in the family came second to her younger brother.
They struggled at the bottom of society, yet gave each other the only warmth they had. He used his part-time wages to buy her a hand warmer; she unraveled a sweater to knit him a short-sleeved shirt. He dealt with his alcoholic father, and she stood up to her exploitative family, but neither ever said, “Give up.”
From a rented room in Hezhou City to a two-bedroom apartment in Yunxi Town; from the tug-of-war with their families to the birth of their daughter Nian'an: they were covered in scars, yet built a sweet life together.
Two children who grew up in hardship heal each other with love and stand up to fate.
