Some people spend their whole lives learning how to be "right."
How to react the right way, express themselves the right way, and exist in the world the right way. They know when to smile, what not to say, and how to push every emotion back down until they can no longer feel it themselves. They live well, or at least they look like they do: stable, restrained, and making no mistakes. These are the qualities this era prizes most.
But no one ever told them: you don't have to be right all the time.
Wen Zhiyao grew up in Lanzhou, in a world where "emotion is order" was an unspoken law. He was the perfect example of a person shaped by it. He handled complicated situations without ever losing control and always gave the most appropriate response. No one knew he had spent eleven long years in an underground room. No one knew the things forced down inside him had never disappeared. He had simply lost access to them.
At twenty-two, he began again.
He began searching for the truth, and slowly drawing closer to the things he had spent his whole life avoiding. He met Gu Tingbai, the first person who truly heard him. He met many others, each carrying their own cracks, each struggling to keep living in their own way.
Along the way, for the first time, he felt himself.
This book is for everyone living with cracks. For those who feel that something about them is "not quite right" but can't explain what. For those who have swallowed their tears for years. For those who are in pain but still say, "I'm fine."
You don't have to be right all the time. You can fall apart. You can feel lost. All of that is allowed.
