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Kang Yixi was once keen on talking about the seven gates in Tangning Community - there were actually seven gates between the community gate and his home. "It's really troublesome, but it's very safe." Whenever he was asked about his residence, he would always talk about the seven gates in the community casually. He would usually pause here for a moment, waiting for the other person to ask sympathetically, "How could it be? So many doors?" Then he could talk about the seven doors with peace of mind. At this moment, surveyor Kang Yixi would raise his right hand that was used to hold a pencil, and every time he said a door, he would bend a round and pale finger from the outside inward. Use your right hand and then raise your left hand. After he finished explaining the seven gates in detail, his gestures were like those of Buddha. He sometimes talked about the seven doors in the taxi - after the meal, the diners were divided into groups according to their residence and left in taxis.

This book is a collection of Zhou Lili's short stories, including "Transplantation", "Ice Release", "Chief", "Eight Gates", "Principles of Mechanics", "How to Cross the Four Yuan Bridge", "You Are Old", "Changing Clothes", "East China Sea, East China Sea", "Sinking in the Sand", "Back and forth", etc. The work dares to face reality and contradictions, breaks the long-standing hard shell, and embodies a strong spirit of realism and criticism and thinking from a unique female perspective.

This book is a supplement to the large series of selected novels by new generation writers. It is the latest self-selected novel collection by Zhou Lili, a writer born in the 1980s. The book includes her representative works such as "Going for a Run in the Kuanzhai Alley", "Transplantation", "Save and Change", and "Black Bear Monster". From a female perspective, she observes life objectively and keenly, and sharply dissects human nature. It reflects the life pressure faced by women nowadays, especially middle-class women, and their desire to seek relief and self-salvation. Among them, her two "art district" novels are set in an art exhibition area in Beijing, highlighting it as a small isolated society, and carefully describing the living conditions and emotional entanglements of artists in this specific environment, especially the psychological state of the women. "Black Bear Monster" is her subtle grasp of the subtle emotions of women in middle-class society, with mature narrative skills and delicate psychological portrayal.

Guo Huanhuan told Yihang about her and her mother. In the middle of the story, she somehow caught a glimpse of the white hair sticking out of Yihang's temples, like white sugar sticking to her face. Guo Huanhuan was distracted and inadvertently reached out her hand as if to brush away these annoying white sugar spots. As soon as he stretched out his hand halfway, Yihang was frightened. Yihang ducked very nimbly and avoided Guo Huanhuan's hand. Yihang asked again: "Then what?" Guo Huanhuan was talking about the struggle between adolescence and her mother. Those terms related to menstrual cycles and the body had been jumping out of her mouth openly and even cheerfully before. She did not feel any difficulty in speaking. But this sudden pause was understood by Yihang as that she was struggling to find some more obscure and euphemistic words.

Speaking of which, I met Liu Yue because of swimming. Later, I didn't like Liu Yue's words about the process of their acquaintance, "It's funny," Liu Yue always started like this. What's so funny? It's not because he was wearing a one-piece red swimsuit with four corners. As for myself, I didn't actually know that the one-piece swimsuit with four corners was worth laughing at. They were seven years old and Liu Yue was nine years old. The two-year gap meant that they missed the opportunity to be classmates in kindergarten. They did not have the opportunity to fight openly and secretly on both sides of the seesaw, and they did not get to share a gummy candy. In this residential area, if the girls share a gummy candy in kindergarten, it means a lifetime of loyalty.

University teacher Qiao Yuan gave up his teaching job, thinking that he could embrace freedom by going to the art district, and that he could find an unusual exit by not taking the usual path. However, the art district is not a paradise. The "survivor" Qiao Yuan has been lost, lost weight, and lost his direction again and again in the edge area... The young writer Zhou Lili's novel collection "Painting Hands" vividly depicts the portraits of a diverse group of contemporary artists, showing the accidental or inevitable love and hate, separation and joy, help and harm between people. The author's literary expression of settling, contemplating and alienating from life also adds a unique temperament to this work.

The story of "Nalati Farewell" unfolds because of snowy roads and road closures. Yu Lan and her husband Guan Peng were stranded in a place called Dushanzi on their trip to Xinjiang. They had to wait under unpredictable circumstances or choose to return the same way. Yu Lan's subconscious originally wanted to use this trip to escape the difficulties in her life, but the reality was that she was once again trapped in a dilemma. Later, Yu Lan realized that only the phone call of "Peace on Dushanzi" and the full moon could give people a little hope of moving forward in difficult situations, and only then could life continue. "The Year of Peace" tells the story of a county girl who is an "obedient good child and the pride of her parents", following the typical fate of young people in this era. She left the county after passing the college entrance examination, studied in Beijing and Hong Kong, and later settled in Beijing. However, behind this bright appearance of moving forward, there is a sense of helplessness and confusion, not knowing where to go. "Brooklyn Baby" tells the story of the intergenerational conflict between the new human being Rena and her conservative mother Tian Yan. In the context of the new century, Rena quickly integrated into the new American lifestyle, challenging her mother with the goal of "spiritual independence and independent life". The characters, topics and backgrounds in the novel appear fresh and bright, and the confusion and self-change of the middle class are evident. "Better Up" is one of Zhou Lili's works that attempts to portray the image of the lower class people. The novel more describes the different life trajectories of the two girls caused by the similarities and differences in their family environments. Through the demolition and changes of a building, the life and cognition of ordinary people are described vividly and happily, which can be regarded as a record of the changes of an era.