My name is Chen Yang. I’m twenty-two, and I came from the countryside to Jiangcheng with a few hundred yuan in my pocket to scrape by. I found a job repairing cars at the auto parts market.
It paid four thousand yuan a month, with no meals or accommodation included. After rent and utilities, I barely had enough left to get by.
I endured the hardship, hoping to save enough to get engaged to my girlfriend of six months, Su Qianqian.
I scrimped on food and clothes, smoked five-yuan Honghe cigarettes, and wore work clothes that cost 29.9 yuan on Pinduoduo. But I always bought Su Qianqian the cosmetics and lipstick she wanted. When she casually said she wanted a new phone, I worked overtime for half a month, saving enough to buy her the latest iPhone. Meanwhile, I was still using a busted three-year-old Android that lagged like crazy because I couldn’t bring myself to replace it.
I always thought that if we worked hard together, our lives would get better. But I never dreamed that the woman I’d devoted myself to would cheat on me, right there in my tiny rental apartment.
