Zhou Ning is used to keeping her room clean and tidy, and is also used to remaining gentle and considerate in close relationships, never asking questions. His girlfriend Xu Yan's late return, cell phone messages and repeated avoidance made him aware of the cracks in the relationship. But he didn't argue or question, he just spread the sheets over and over again, as if to wipe away all the uneasiness, doubts and old childhood wounds. Until one night, he finally discovered that the so-called tenderness is sometimes not love, but a kind of self-protection from fear of losing control.
Intent: The work attempts to describe a kind of hidden cold violence in intimate relationships: not quarrels, betrayal or intense hurt, but withdrawal and isolation in the name of tenderness, consideration and stability. Characters maintain a semblance of order by tidying up rooms, spreading sheets, and suppressing questioning, but they also cover up the real pain and cracks in relationships. The novel focuses on how childhood trauma shapes the way adults interact with each other, and how people turn "good temper" into a defense of not getting close, not acknowledging, and not committing themselves when they fear abandonment.