A Little Family

Overwork and choosing to lie flat, anxiety and coming to terms with things: these are conflicts no family in modern society can avoid.

Fang Jinghe is a Chinese teacher, yet she took a hard fall when it came to her son, Xu Zeyu. Old traditions and new ideas clashed, and their inability to communicate left her exhausted in body and mind. The pressure suddenly mounted as she faced her final chance to pass the civil-service exam, and then she unexpectedly discovered she was pregnant with a second child, leaving her utterly unprepared and unsure what to choose. Meanwhile, Xu Hui, a parent of a first grader, was even more troubled by her two sons. As a housewife, she turned her attention to all kinds of tutoring and extracurricular classes, piles of study guides, and packed homework schedules. She never expected her extreme approach to drag her into trouble with online loans and credit cards, while her child fought back by running away from home. Her marriage grew strained, trust broke down, and arguments never stopped, leaving her struggling to survive amid anxiety. The newly moved-in tenant, Zhou Lu, had only one concern: how could she earn enough money to help her firefighter husband recover more fully? She gave up her job as a preschool teacher and tried all kinds of work, simply so they would have more options for his medical care. Her weakness and timidity repeatedly hurt her daughter, Xia Ziqing. Lies and misunderstandings drove a wedge between them, and the mother-daughter relationship grew increasingly tense...