Daylight flies by. Yoko Ono looked at herself in the mirror, wondering why her face was still so bright and fresh, as if she had never looked so good, even though her stomach and her head ached terribly. She also went out, shopping, and when she came home, she fell asleep, curled up in the corner of the sofa, holding her tightly locked leather bag in both hands, her carefree face looked like an innocent little girl, and the bag pressed against her chest was like a child's doll, giving her childish heart deep and endless comfort.

"No one cares about us, except ourselves, Qing'er." "It's ridiculous for me to pretend that I feel responsible to the world," she said. As for worrying about what people will think of me, to be honest I don't feel it at all, it's that simple. When I was a kid and in dance school, I was criticized by the mothers of a lot of little girls, and those little girls were not as popular as me, so I always took criticism as proof of jealousy. The reason for this passage was the class reunion held at the Junshang Hotel on Bachelor's Avenue the night before. Mulan thinks she's too excited about her performance that night, so the next day, she invites Yoko Ono to lunch, advising her of how horrible her behavior at the reunion is, much to Ono's disgust.

"I told her that what she was really against was that I was having more fun than her." Li Riqing applauded her. He is proud of Ono because she never loses color in front of other women at parties, because men are always noisy and amusing her in groups, but never deviant, admiring her beauty and the warmth that her vitality brings. Partying has gradually become their main source of fun. Their love is still stable, and they still maintain a high level of interest in exploring each other, but as spring approaches, they find it a constraint to stay at home at night. It feels like books aren't real life, and neither is writing. The old magic that wanted the two of them alone has long since lost its effectiveness. They'd rather go out to a talk show or dine with their friends, as long as there's enough alcohol there, and the content of the chat doesn't become completely unbearable.

The spa town has branches of 10 universities, some married friends at school or college, and all sorts of single men, who instinctively think of the couple when they need to have fun and spice up the party, so there is hardly a day when they don't get a call for an invitation. The wives, who are usually afraid of Yoko Ono, always make it easy to be the center of attention, and she is warmly welcomed by her husbands, who are innocent but still unsettling. These things instinctively aroused a strong distrust of her, and made the wives even more nervous because she never responded to the kindness of any woman.

On the last day of February, Li Riqing reported to the luxurious office of a well-known partnership on time and listened to the vague guidance of a self-proclaimed assistant secretary named Gu Xiaobai, who combed his hair in the middle. "There are two kinds of people here, and you'll find out about it slowly." "The people over there are assistant secretaries or accountants, and they're recorded here in our files, and most of them are not more than thirty years old," he said. By the time they reach their fifties, their names will rise there, and usually such people will stay in the positions they did at the age of fifty until they retire. ”

"And what if someone is thirty and gets to the fifty-year-old position?" Li Riqing asked politely. "Then he'll keep climbing, you see." He pointed to the list of directors at the top of the document. "Maybe he'll be the president, or the CFO." "And what about these people here?" "I see." "Now there are some people." Gu Xiaobai continued, "I think that the decision to start early or late depends on whether he has a college diploma or not, but they are wrong. "I understand." "I have it too, I graduated from a prestigious school. However, when I left school and started working, I soon discovered that it wasn't the impractical things I learned at university that helped me here, but actually I had to try to forget them. ”

Li Riqing couldn't hold back his curiosity, wondering what the "impractical things" he learned at a prestigious school were. He imagined that maybe it was philosophy or something, and this strange thought lingered in his mind for the rest of the conversation. "See that guy over there?" Gu Xiaobai pointed to a man who looked young. "It's Mr. Wen Shichu, a first-level vice president, who has gone through the wind and waves, seen the world and is well-educated." Li Riqing tried to open his heart to imagine the romantic legend of the financial world, but in vain. For Mr. Wen Shichu, the only thing he can think of is Imperial Doctor Wen in "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

Throughout the wet and dying month of March, Lai Ri Khan was learning the art of sales. Lacking in enthusiasm, he could observe the chaos and tumult around him, and he felt that he was struggling but futile in circles, and that it was not himself who he had achieved, but by the enemy, a capitalist who exploited the proletariat. To imagine that these pretentious vice presidents or accountants will one day go from the middle class to the upper class, and their children will become top talents, Li Riqing always feels a little discordant.

He was eating lunch in the staff cafeteria upstairs, always with an uneasy suspicion of his own progress. In the first week, he saw a number of young clerks, some of them shrewd, others young and fresh out of college, and wondered if they had too unrealistic dreams to squeeze into the narrow ranks of high positions before the tragic age of thirty. In the daily work that is the same, the content of the interspersed conversation is almost the same thing in essence. There is discussion about how Mr. Son has accumulated wealth, what strategy Mr. Jack Ma used, and what kind of strategy Bill. And what about Mr. Gates's wrist and so on. Still others think of the old-fashioned but ever-breathtakingly legendary anecdotes of how laymen get rich overnight in Shanghai, whether they're butchers, bartenders, or couriers...... Then some people started talking about the recent speculation, arguing whether to take the risk of pursuing a profit of 100,000 a year, or just 20,000 to satisfy.

For Lai Riqing, these statements were terrifying. He felt that if he wanted to get ahead here, then the idea of success would definitely limit and stifle his mind. He believes that the core factor in reaching the top of this industry is that they believe that they are doing the most important thing in life. Everything else is the same for them, self-confidence and opportunism take precedence over technical knowledge, and the more specialized the job, the lower the rank, so in order to achieve an efficient division of labor, it is best to let the technical experts stay at the grassroots level where they can play the most.

For most of the day, his head felt sick and cracked, and the noise of the subway crowd in the morning lingered in his ears. It wasn't long before he quit abruptly. Li Riqing lay on the sofa all day and did not get up until night. Completely overcome by the periodic frustration, he wrote a letter to Mr. Gu Xiaobai, confessing that he felt that he could not adapt to the job. Yoko Ono, who came home with Wu Zetian after watching the play, found her husband in the living room, staring at the ceiling wordlessly, and the frustration and frustration he showed were the worst in the history of their marriage. She hoped that he would vent her dissatisfaction so that she could rebuke him harshly on it, because she was also angry. However, he looked extremely miserable and pitiful, so pitiful that it softened her heart. She knelt in front of him and stroked his head, comforting him that it was no big deal at all, and that as long as they loved each other, nothing could not be overcome, like the first year of their marriage. Li Riqing began to respond to her cold hands and the gentle voice of her exhalation in her ear, and his mood fully recovered, and he even told her his future plans with a little excitement. Before going to bed, he even felt a hint of remorse, although he did not show it, feeling that he had been too hasty and reckless in sending his resignation letter. "Even when everything seems bad, you can't just believe it." Yoko Ono said, "That's just the result of your own personal subjective judgment, and it's not all true." ”

They received a letter from a real estate agent in the hot spring town urging them to renew their lease for another year, with a slight increase in rent, and a new contract for them to sign. After a week, the contract and letter were still on Li Riqing's desk and no one paid attention to them, they didn't plan to go back to the hot spring town at all, they were fed up with that place, and they had spent the previous summer in boredom. In addition, their car has deteriorated into a pile of depressive chatter scrap metal, and with their current income, it is impossible to buy a new one. However, at a carnival party, they still signed a contract. What is even more terrifying is that they not only signed the contract, but also sent it, and then, as if they heard the evil triumphant laughter of the house, they were licking their own white ribs, ready to devour them alive.

"Qing'er, where did you put the lease?" One Sunday morning, she cried out in horror, as if distressed by the gravity of reality, "Where have you been?" It would have been here! Then, she knew where the contract had gone. She remembered the most lively climax of the party at home, and she remembered that there was a room full of people in the room, and when it was colder, it was impossible to show the importance of her and Lai Riqing. So Lai Ri Khan boasted about how different the advantages of the hut were, how quiet the environment was, and how isolated it was from the rest of the world, free from any noise. Then, Gu Xiaobai, who had gone to the cottage to visit Li Riqing and his wife, echoed the words, enthusiastically praising it as the best cottage he could ever get, and it would be silly if they didn't spend it there this summer. Instilling the idea that the city will be so hot and uncomfortable, and how cool and pleasant the hot spring town will be. Li Riqing picked up the contract and waved it wildly in his hand, and found that his wife happily acquiesced to it, and the people present unanimously applauded and applauded......

"Qing'er, double the rent!" She cried, "We signed it and sent it out!" "What?" "The lease of the house! Twice the rent?! "Things are bad!" "Qing'er!" Her voice was utterly tragic. It seems that not only in the summer, but forever, they built their own cages, and this fact fundamentally shakes the balance of their lives. Li Riqing thought that maybe they could reconcile with the real estate agent, they shouldn't have to pay twice the rent, even though this beautiful spa town cottage had this impeccable room, with its exquisite hot spring bathroom, and the furniture and furnishings they had chosen for them. However, they didn't coordinate with the broker, and the problem wasn't solved by coordination.