Lin Zhi is twenty-three and can only say, “Okay.”
When a client says, “Make some more changes,” she says okay.
When a coworker says, “Can you help me out?” she says okay.
When her mother says, “Go on a blind date,” she says okay.
In her twenty-three years, she has never once said no.
Until one late night, when she catches the last subway train, a train that never stops.
Everyone on board is smiling, but their smiles look welded to their faces.
A woman holding a baby asks, “Are you hungry?” The baby’s mouth is a black hole.
On the platform stands her seven-year-old self, wearing the red sweater her mother knitted, asking her, “Did you kill the part of me that could say no?”
Lin Zhi discovers that everyone on this train is facing their deepest fear:
The person who always protects others is actually the one who most needs protection.
The person who laughs the loudest never smiles when alone.
The cold, detached observer keeps a photo of everyone hidden in their pocket watch.
And Lin Zhi’s fear is herself.
Another “her” lives inside her body:
The “woman in the mirror” who dares to speak her mind, roll her eyes, and disappoint everyone.
With every trial she clears, the woman in the mirror grows stronger.
Every time Lin Zhi tries to please someone, the woman in the mirror hates her a little more.
Some tell her that if you stay in this world too long, you’ll turn into a monster.
Others tell her that if she doesn’t want to become a monster, she has to find the exit.
But right now, Lin Zhi only wants to know one thing:
Can she find the seven-year-old version of herself who dared to say no?
Twenty instances, twenty kinds of fear, twenty showdowns with herself.
This time, she doesn’t want to
