A middle-aged couple, married for seven years and no longer passionate, happen upon a way to make money: secretly filming adulterous couples in hotels and blackmailing them. Burdened by financial pressure and emotional troubles, they begin this “business” and glimpse the many secrets and wounds of modern marriage, forcing them to take another look at their own battered relationship. It starts when they catch a friend cheating and successfully blackmail them, then gradually grows into an organized “catching cheaters” operation. Along the way, they encounter all kinds of infidelity and uncover secrets hidden between them.
Through the lives of married couple Feng Yongming and Yuan Yuan, the novel probes the tangled relationship between financial pressure, social roles, human desire, and the institution of marriage. It is a dark love letter to married couples in contemporary East Asia.
The hardships of life can destroy human nature. Good article. Worth reading.