Irreparable

Zhang Dongsheng passed the exam from the countryside and came to Shanning City at the age of 20. In forty-two years, he went from government agencies to enterprises, from north to south, and back again. He married a person he thought he could change, spent his whole life waiting for a word that he would not wait for, and when it was nearing the end, he began to wait no longer. Huangfu Xinling moved to the city at the age of nineteen, worked, got married, and had children. She never learned to distinguish between good intentions and exploitation. She never became the kind of person he expected, and she never knew what she was missing. This is a novel about marriage rather than love. Two good people spent half their lives turning their love into debt. The boy who used to tighten the bicycle chain for her and the girl who stood in front of the company in a floral skirt said goodbye quietly one evening thirty years ago. Fatong is still there, he is still there. The leaves are still falling and he is still there.