Set in contemporary America, the story uses the real social structure as its backbone, overlaid with the “rules of the underworld.” On the surface, America is a society governed by law and a beacon of freedom, but beneath that facade, dark currents run deep: undocumented immigrants are exploited, working-class Chinese people face discrimination, gangs from different ethnic communities carve up territory, and politicians secretly collude with tycoons. The protagonist is at the very bottom of this “jungle of rules,” an undocumented man who lacks even the “right to be exploited.”
