Criticism Is Like a Shadow

Zhang Xiaoman's childhood was steeped in the mildew and whispers of old houses in a small southern town. Her father's addiction to gambling, her mother's strong suppression, and the deep-rooted feudal shackles of her ancestors formed an airtight web, and the word "criticism" was engraved into the rings of her life - she was an "unsatisfactory" daughter, an "anachronistic" alien, and a living target of the family's absurdity and disappointment. Every suppression hit her spine like an invisible whip; every absurdity left a deeper mark on her heart. The air in the family is filled with suffocating silence, which is the cruelest whitewash of "criticism". And her brother is the first and most perfect product of this "criticism". He grew up under oppression and distortion, and internalized obedience as a rule of survival. Instead of breaking free from the prison, he became the most loyal guard of the family shackles. He tried to drag Zhang Xiaoman into the dark abyss, using the so-called "filial piety" to shape her into another obedient prisoner, continuing this morbid cycle.