[Urban slice of life + government + multiple female leads]
In his thirty-first year, Lu Chenzhou was transferred to a remote town. His office was next to the toilets, and no one had high hopes for him.
When a flood hit, he was the first to leap into the breach. No one died, and no one praised him.
Over the next twenty years, five women entered his life: one taught him how to stand firm, one matched wits with him, one challenged his conscience, one held the line, and one became the home of his soul.
He turned down three billion, told his first lie, and managed to kill a pothos.
In his old age, on Tomb-Sweeping Day, he sat alone on the embankment.
A flood-control worker asked who he was looking for.
He said, “No one. There used to be a breach here.”
“It was repaired long ago. Fortified like an iron wall.”
