This is a realistic masterpiece about "choice". There are no cheating routines, only the real wrinkles within the system: the trade-offs behind every signature, the favor in every silence, and the coercion of "for your own good." When Chi Che stood by the river and looked at the place where he and Shen Qingru held hands, he finally understood the meaning of "the officialdom sinks in the sand" - it's not that people are drowned by the sand, it's that you have to sink your clear ideals into the sand of reality with your own hands, and then pick it up step by step.
