By the time Chen Pingsheng turned thirty, he had already stopped talking about dreams too often, not because he lacked them, but because life in the Capital City had a habit of making people feel embarrassed for still believing in things they couldn’t afford.
Every morning started the same way, cheap cigarettes, crowded streets, and another day of chasing unstable work before someone else grabbed it first. Sometimes he sold discounted durians from a worn-out tricycle while keeping an eye out for city management officers, other days he hauled refrigerators and heavy furniture through old apartment buildings with no elevators, earning just enough money to make tomorrow slightly less stressful.
It was tiring in a way that slowly settled into the bones.
Still, Chen Pingsheng endured it quietly because there were people waiting for him at home.
His wife, Song Yanxi, had already sacrificed more than he liked thinking about. Back when they first met, she carried herself with the kind of calm confidence that naturally drew attention, but marriage, bills, rent, and endless overtime had gradually worn away many of those softer edges. She counted every expense carefully, skipped things she liked without complaint, and somehow kept convincing him that their situation would improve eventually, even when neither of them truly believed it anymore.
Then there was their daughter, Chen An’an.
At only five years old, An’an had already become far too understanding for a child her age. She knew when not to ask for toys, knew how to wait quietly when her parents came home exhausted, even knew how to heat simple food by herself when both of them were working late. Those small things bothered Chen Pingsheng more than any insult life had thrown at him.
Because children were never supposed to adapt this early to hardship.
For years, life moved forward in that same suffocating rhythm, work, exhaustion, rent, debt, repeat. Nothing dramatic happened, which honestly made it feel worse somehow.
Then a strange change entered his life during an ordinary rainy morning.
At first, Chen Pingsheng thought stress was finally getting to his head. But after several impossible incidents tied directly to the money he earned, he slowly realized something beyond logic had started following him. Small jobs brought back rewards far larger than they should have. Earnings multiplied unpredictably. Opportunities that normally passed him by suddenly began appearing one after another.
For the first time in years, the future no longer looked completely sealed shut.
But the Capital City has never been a place where sudden fortune comes without complications, and as Chen Pingsheng’s life slowly begins changing, so do the expectations, temptations, and pressures surrounding him.
Because sometimes having hope again can feel even more dangerous than living without it.
