Restless Years

In 1995, with locust blossoms in full bloom across Beijing, twenty-four-year-old Lin Da clutched an old guitar and raced toward Shenzhen as graduation approached. He was all ambition and no ability, restless and convinced that gold lay everywhere in the south. He promised to return home in glory, unaware that this city, half heaven and half hell, was waiting to crush all his vanity and naivete.

From the handshake apartments in Luohu’s urban villages to the stages of bars awash in neon; from the dignity of trading five yuan for a meal on the street to the bubble of vanity that lifted him into the clouds; from the heartbreak of betraying sincere love to the salvation of a glimmer of light in his darkest hour, he witnessed the struggles of the working class on the factory floor, tasted the coldness of human nature amid the glitz of the world of fame and fortune, lost love while drifting from place to place, and came to understand life through partings forever.

Qin Miao’s elegance and decisiveness, Zhou Xiaoou’s gentleness and selflessness, Su Jin’s quietness and regrets, and Damoo’s sincerity and devotion: four relationships, one bond of loyalty, and seven years of ups and downs wore a reckless young man down into a silent middle-aged man. He never turned his life around and became a legend, never grew rich enough to become a myth. After being shattered into pieces, he simply learned at last to live with his feet on the ground, making peace with his past, with himself, and with those feverish, foolish years of restless youth.

This is not a wish-fulfillment tale of a triumphant comeback. It is a true portrait of a generation of drifters. We all once reached too high, all had our moments of misery, and all lost ourselves in desire. In the end, amid the ordinary bustle of life, we found our way back to the most commonplace and precious thing of all: peace and stability.