Acting for Relatives

"Surrogate "Relatives"" is a novel of urban reality × psychological healing. It uses the emerging profession of "surrogate relatives" as an incision, focuses on intergenerational trauma and urban loneliness, and has both social observation and psychological suspense qualities. Lin Xu, a top practitioner, adheres to the iron rule of "no substitutes, no transgressions, no traces" and fills the emotional holes of countless families with emotional substitutes, but he is tightly closed due to his original trauma. All hard shells are defenses against softness; All deliberate alienation is a cover-up of desire. He was commissioned to play the role of the "elder brother" who had been erased by the family for forty years from the memory of the wife of a retired professor. During the performance, he uncovered the dusty family secrets and healed the broken family by "returning the absent in their place." At the same time, he faced the truth about his life experience, solved the years of estrangement with his mother, and completed a deep reconciliation with himself. The novel breaks the cliché of "forgiveness is healing" and takes "acknowledging existence and returning identity" as its core. It deeply explores urban loneliness, native family and self-identity, and reveals the hidden emotional dilemma and ultimate redemption of contemporary people.