A Country Rascal’s Rise: From Moving to the City to Defying Fate

When I was fifteen, I dropped out of school because my family was poor. Back then, I thought the world was vast and my village was small, but all I could do was wander around the edge of the village like a stray dog. Youth was all I had. Then one day, the local “good-for-nothing” came back to the village in a Mercedes-Benz and casually tossed me a soft-pack Zhonghua cigarette. He sneered, “Still hanging around the village? This is all you’ll ever amount to.” That puff of smoke made me tear up and set my ambition ablaze. I was going to the city! I was going to make something of myself! I was going to earn back my dignity, one piece at a time! With five hundred yuan borrowed from someone, I plunged into the dazzling, bewildering city. I was cheated and used. I slept under bridges and ate spoiled food. I saw the darkness in people’s hearts and learned just how cold the world could be. This is the blood-and-tears story of a poor country boy fighting to make his way. If you don’t have an umbrella, you have to run for your life in the rain!