The pain of restructuring state-owned enterprises, the fate of a generation falling like fallen leaves, different lives with different fates show the torrent of the times!
Purpose: The novel should not be a simple judgment on the times, nor should it be cheap sympathy. It should be a "meticulous painting" that depicts how the generations attached to the planned economy giant "steel factory" fell, how they were thrown into the torrent of the times, how their dignity was shattered, and how they used the remaining backbone to stand up again in the ruins. The loss of state-owned assets is not an abstract number, but the concrete pain of thousands of households having their jobs smashed.