At thirty, after eight years scraping by in Guangzhou, my ideals were dead, my lover was gone, and my friends had turned against me. In the end, I became the very kind of person I hated most. I spent eight years in Guangzhou climbing to the position of planning director. I had a wife who was my first love, college friends, and everything others envied. But only after seeing through people and watching every relationship fall apart did I understand: this city never runs short of glamour. It only buries those who take life and their ideals seriously. At thirty, life didn’t knock me down. I simply rotted away, unnoticed, amid the bustle of Yangcheng.
