City of Ruin

This novel is mainly about the lives of contemporary college students. Following protagonist Yuan Kai’s college years, it creates a cast of distinctive characters, including Yuan Kai, Hao Ze, Monkey, Rookie, Jin Dan, and Chen Jing. The main characters all worked hard for years to get into college, but after entering campus life, many of them stopped being the studious teenagers they once were. Dating, fighting, drinking, smoking, and fooling around gradually became the main themes of their lives. Some sank into decadence, some resisted, some stood by unconcerned, and some reveled in it. Some faced life rationally, while others changed with the moment. Some gradually lost their way, while others became so absorbed in their dreams that they completely lost touch with reality. Their dreams made them feel great, but reality made them feel small. They lamented how unpredictable life was, how corrupt society had become, and how fate played tricks on people. Only in the end did they realize that the sights before them had led them astray, or that they had never found a direction in the first place and had simply gone with the flow, unable to find their way home. It wasn’t that they had accidentally stepped into muddy waters: they were simply cut from the same cloth. It wasn’t the college town that had fallen into decadence; they had never truly learned to soar.