After losing his job, he picks up a new skill every day, and his female neighbor stays up until midnight.
Today Chen Du repairs an old wooden piece, tomorrow he rescues a wedding shoe, and the day after he gets hairstyling. Yet he doesn't get a single client. He's top-tier at every skill, but he can't choose one or keep it. At midnight, they all vanish right on schedule.
Worried about how he'll scrape together 2,800 yuan for rent within three days, he finds Qiao Mai dropping a black hair tie into his palm. He may have no clients, but he has one female neighbor.
She handles the filming, and he masters the craft. Together they turn an account with just 400 followers into a local sensation, while signing increasingly outrageous contracts: a 50-50 split, a 30-day cohabitation arrangement, and pretending to be a couple on camera. The only thing they haven't put in writing is who'll fall first.
Other people fear losing business to competitors. Chen Du's biggest rival is 11:59 p.m. Netizens keep urging them to make their relationship official, but the two of them still insist there's nothing between them.
Chen Du: “We're just business partners.”
Qiao Mai turns off the camera but doesn't let go. “If it wasn't caught on camera, it doesn't count as work.”
Everyone else only sees him at full mastery every day. Qiao Mai is the only one who's seen the ordinary him after midnight.
From a single old chair to an entire historic shopping street, they turn skills that last one day into a shop that won't disappear at midnight. The skills are what vanish every day. What they can't hide is how much closer the two of them are getting off camera.
Relaxing and good article, worth reading