The birth of Zhenzhang was an exchange at the cost of life. His mother died because of this, and this original sin became the first and deepest trench in his soul.
His father regarded "carrying on the family line" as a belief above all else. He brutally exploited his daughters and took all their meager income in his hands as a reserve for his son's future; he practiced a twisted cultivation method for his son Chen Zhang. He would beat and scold him, and when he sobered up, he would stuff the tuition fees with his calloused hands and yell: "Show me a lesson!"
Chen Zhang grew up in this torn feeling of "being hated but having all hope placed on him". He eats the food obtained by his sister's flesh and blood, wears the clothes obtained by their youth, and bears the heavy and violent expectations of his father. His name "Zhang" is not only the family barrier he must become, but also the mountain of guilt that accumulates in his heart over time and is almost insurmountable. He worked hard silently, thinking that repaying this twisted kindness was the entire meaning of his life.
Until Shen Jibai, like an untimely ray of light, split open the dark logic of his existence.
She has a vastness and determination that is incompatible with this land. She saw through the pain of everyone in this silent cycle: the sister who was sacrificed, the father who was devoured by obsession, and Chen Zhang who lived his life as a symbol of atonement.
"Your dad is 'loving' you in his own way, even though it's like cutting with a knife." She looked directly into Chen Zhang's eyes, her words clear and powerful, "But your sisters are not providing you with this kind of 'love'. What you have to do is not to become the mountain your father expected, but to get out of the cycle of his fate."
