Story summary of "2022, 32 years old"
Lin Feng, born in 1990, returned to his hometown of Yucheng with his wife Chen Ke in 2018 when he was 28 years old. This small town wrapped in the slogan "Smart City" is actually a mirage built up by data bubbles - government computer maintenance companies have hidden data cleaning businesses, housing prices in school districts with inflated housing prices are mostly dilapidated old communities, and there are hidden rules for kindergarten lottery numbers. As a technical youth born in the 1990s, Lin Feng was demoted for refusing to cooperate with the Bureau of Statistics in "adjusting" economic data when he was engaged in data maintenance at Chuanglian Technology. He gradually realized that he was just a "data makeup artist" for the false prosperity of a small town.
As her daughter Lin Long grew up, three big problems in education, medical care, and housing came one after another: the food poisoning incident in the kindergarten, the medical insurance black hole that her father misdiagnosed, and the financial pressure of 800,000 yuan in school district housing, finally crushed this post-90s family. In the winter of 2022, 32-year-old Lin Feng stood at the Yucheng High-speed Railway Station, looking at the neon slogan "Welcome Travelers Return Home", recalling his career polluted by data, his childhood alienated by utilitarian education, and his family ties torn apart by the gap between urban and rural areas. He resolutely decided to take his wife and daughter to H City. Amidst the roar of the train, the post-90s generation who once had the last illusion about the small town finally said goodbye to the "false utopia" and started a new wandering.
