At the midnight food stalls, the bustling diners gradually dispersed, and the young man yawned tiredly and began to clean up the tables and chairs. A middle-aged man in the corner, a table, a bottle of liquor, a plate of boiled peanuts, and a plate of cucumbers, have been drinking alone since nightfall until now.

The middle-aged man looked haggard, his hair was messy, his eyes were bloodshot, his eyes were filled with tears, and his shirt was crumpled and he looked poor.

He sometimes looked at the wine glass in a daze, and sometimes poured it one cup at a time, looking particularly lonely in the dim light of the food stalls.

The young man wanted to remind the middle-aged man that the food stall was about to close, but he was stopped by the boss.

This middle-aged man is Fang Yi, a lecturer at the local University of Applied Sciences, and no one would have thought that a dignified seven-foot man, a college teacher, would secretly hide in such an inconspicuous roadside food stall to drink and cry.

A month ago, he always thought that he and his wife could grow old together, and half a month ago he always thought that he could work steadily in school until he retired, but the reality gave him a hard blow, everything he once had was like an illusion, fleeting, and he could only watch and do nothing.

His heart suddenly felt like a high-rise building kicked into the air, and the Yangtze River broke the cable and collapsed, falling into the abyss of pain.

At that time, his parents told him that as long as he was admitted to university, he could find a good job and glorify his ancestors. He was very obedient, studied hard, and finally studied for a bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree, entered his current work unit, became a university teacher, and then took a beautiful wife, in the eyes of outsiders, he is a proper winner in life.

From then on, he began to indulge himself, get by in the unit, and enjoy the so-called life, but he didn't think that this was just the beginning of life.

In the days that followed, he lived a good life, and the dashing (unenterprising) days always passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye he was thirty-seven.

His wife Cao Xiaohui has gone from an ordinary cashier to the company's financial director, the children are growing up day by day, and various cram schools are overwhelming, and he is still standing still.

I don't know when his salary began to make ends meet, and he, the pride of the sky, began to be sneered at by his wife as a university teacher.

His wife once introduced him to a private company as a legal officer, whose salary was fully double that of a university, but he felt that the legal officer of a private company was not as decent as a university teacher, so he dismissively declined. They also quarreled for this.

In fact, the real reason why he didn't want to go was that he was used to the comfortable life inside the ivory tower and didn't want to leave, he felt anxious and uneasy about the outside environment.

It is often said that blessings do not come together, and disasters do not go alone.

Last month, his wife, Cao Xiaohui, filed for divorce, giving him a blow to the head. Not long ago, the head of the department talked to him again, and the school will not renew his contract after it expires in August. Divorce + unemployment, his life suddenly became a mess.

He didn't understand why it was clear that the first half was smooth, but at the beginning of the second half, God suddenly gave him a dismount and made chicken feathers all over the ground.

The home is gone, the job is gone, even his most beloved son was taken away by his wife, depression, decadence, pain, and panic instantly climbed on his once high-spirited face, filling his heart, and the invisible pressure forced him into a corner, unable to move, and he felt unprecedented despair.

Glass after glass of liquor, he became more and more silent, how excited he was when he first joined the university, how depressed he was now, how beautiful he was when he got married, and how depressed he was now.

He regretted that he didn't listen to his daughter-in-law and coveted comfort, and now he ended up like this. Looking back now, I was so naïve at the beginning, delusionally thinking that I would rely on the big tree of the university and grow old leisurely.

Whenever he thinks of his son's innocent and pure smiling face, his tears can't stop flowing, and the person he feels most sorry for in this world is his son, because of his own fault, he can no longer have a complete home.

Thinking of this, Fang Yi shook his mouth fiercely, and blood flowed down the corners of his mouth.

At this moment, the boss who came to the side handed over a few napkins, he did not persuade or encourage, and his eyes showed a look that only adults understand.

Fang Yi was stunned, took the napkin, and thanked him. After settling the bill, he grabbed the remaining half bottle of Lao Baigan and walked home.

The next morning he woke up from his sleep, and the smell of alcohol was all over his body and in the room, and he sat on the bed, his eyes straight, and his mind a little wooden, and he was groggy, and the aftermath of alcohol had not yet subsided. Glancing at the divorce certificate on the bedside table and the photo of a family of three, he felt a sour feeling in his heart.

Daughter-in-law Cao Xiaohui didn't want to see him decadent all day long, so she took her son back to her parents' house early, and the house was left for him to live temporarily.

There are several employees in the university cafeteria who are from the same village as him, and he can think of what will happen in the village when he is dismissed from the school, and there is no doubt that he will definitely become the focus of discussion among the villagers after dinner.

The old father, who had been proud of his son all his life, didn't know what to think after hearing the gossip in the village, and the label of the family's misfortune seemed to have been attached to his spine.

He slowly lowered his head, ten fingers into his hair, and grabbed his scalp hard, and finally he buried his head in the crook of his arm, shrugged his shoulders, and cried silently in pain.

Now he is like a prisoner, his wife's ridicule, the school's notice that the contract will not be renewed, the villagers' gossip, the guilt of his son, the guilt of his father, etc., are like iron bars trapped in him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't break free.

He wanted to save his marriage, but he couldn't do it; He wants to fight for the custody of his children, but now he can't even support himself, what can he do to support his son; He didn't want the villagers to point fingers behind his father's back, but he couldn't do anything about it.

Thankfully, after a period of pain and despair, Fang Yi did not sink in, his heart slowly calmed down and began to reflect.

This time the Waterloo of life made him completely awake, he didn't want to be poked in the backbone in the future, he wanted to find his life again, and find the once stoic self.

In fact, what he didn't know was that at the moment he woke up, although God closed a door for him, it secretly opened a window for him, a spacious and bright floor-to-ceiling window! It's just that he doesn't realize it yet.

When the sun began to turn west, he lay on the bed, staring at a pair of bloodshot eyes, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom in a daze, reminiscing about the past scene by scene, tears rolling in his eyes.

"Finding your own life" is easy to say, but for Fang Yi, who is now destitute, how full his ideals are, and how skinny he is now, he doesn't know where to start, and his chaotic brain can't figure it out.

Suddenly the phone rang, he didn't want to answer, but the phone kept ringing, what he didn't expect was that it was this phone call that changed his fate and allowed him to find the floor-to-ceiling window that was quietly opened.

……