Chapter Summaries

In 1979, Chen Qi, a modern businessman reborn as an unemployed young man in Beijing, attended a government meeting about finding work for youth awaiting employment. The meeting promised jobs through new cooperatives, but Chen Qi remained skeptical as he considered the future and his lost fortune.

• Chen Qi left the public toilet in Menkuang Hutong and met Huang Zhanying, who dragged him to an employment meeting.
• Chen Qi and Huang Zhanying rode to the Chongwen District Workers' Club, where young people gathered to hear about job plans.
• Huang Zhanying learned that officials planned to establish production and service cooperatives, and she worried about the low pay and poor conditions.
• Officials described the employment crisis and proposed job inheritance, temporary hiring, and expanding collectively owned businesses.
• Chen Qi reflected on his previous life as a wealthy internet entrepreneur and on the original owner's failed job exams.
• An official promised that neighborhood officials would organize jobs for every unemployed young person, while Chen Qi yawned.

After a meeting about jobs for unemployed young people, Chen Qi learned that they would likely be placed in collective enterprises, while his mother Yu Xiuli offered to give up her bookstore position for him. Chen Qi decided to use the work as a temporary foothold and began considering how to leave his hutong life behind.

• Chen Qi told Huang Zhanying that they would have to wait at home for the neighborhood office to explain their job assignments.
• At the Xinhua Bookstore, Chen Qi surprised his mother, Yu Xiuli, who offered to retire early and leave her job for him.
• Chen Qi refused Yu Xiuli's offer, asked her to buy him a Geographical Atlas, and went home to wait for his father.
• Chen Qi considered the likely collective-enterprise jobs and decided they could serve as a temporary foothold while he pursued longer-term plans.
• Chen Qi resolved to get out of his hutong and stop emptying chamber pots, then admired Mount Lu in the atlas.

Chen Qi’s parents learned that the neighborhood planned to assign him to sell tea in Qianmen, and they worried that the work was beneath their family. Chen Qi accepted the assignment, while privately remaining ready to leave the job whenever he chose.

• Chen Qi helped Yu Xiuli prepare dinner, then told Chen Jianjun what he had heard at a meeting about a production and service cooperative.
• Auntie Wang visited and explained that she had been assigned to find jobs for thirteen unemployed young people, including Chen Qi.
• Auntie Wang proposed that Chen Qi sell tea at a stall in Qianmen because the area had no place selling drinks.
• Yu Xiuli and Chen Jianjun objected to their son selling tea, but Chen Qi said he would follow the organization’s arrangements and defended the dignity of labor.
• After the family went to bed, Chen Qi listened to his parents discussing his job and decided he did not want Yu Xiuli to retire early for him.

Chen Qi encouraged Huang Zhanying to see tea-selling as a chance to build a business and help address unemployment, while secretly writing a screenplay in hopes of securing long-term support from a film studio. Two days later, the unemployed youths in Auntie Wang’s group agreed to sell tea as cooperatives spread across Chongwen District.

• Chen Qi stayed home to write a literary screenplay, hoping a film studio would host him and cover his expenses while he worked.
• Huang Zhanying told Chen Qi that her parents had agreed to send her to sell tea instead of giving her a job, which they had reserved for her younger brother.
• Chen Qi reassured Huang Zhanying and described ways their tea business could expand into selling snacks, hosting performances, opening a shop, or trading goods.
• Huang Zhanying became excited by Chen Qi’s vision and asked him to teach her more because she wanted to get ahead.
• Chen Jianjun and Yu Xiuli struggled to find their son a suitable job, while all thirteen unemployed youths in Auntie Wang’s group agreed to sell tea and cooperatives began appearing across Chongwen District.

In early April 1979, Chen Qi and Huang Zhanying joined Auntie Wang and eleven other unemployed youths to open a cheap tea stall beside Qianmen Archery Tower. Huang Zhanying overcame her shyness to call out to customers, and the group made its first sale, leaving them encouraged to continue.

• Chen Qi set out to sell tea despite his worried parents’ objections, with Huang Zhanying following him to the meeting place at Qianmen Archery Tower.
• Auntie Wang directed the twelve youths as they set up their stove, bowls, and two-fen tea stall, then poured tea for them to taste.
• A crowd gathered, but the youths hesitated to call out until Auntie Wang insisted they handle the customers themselves.
• Huang Zhanying nervously announced that they were selling big bowls of tea for two fen, and confirmed that the stall belonged to the Dashilan Production and Service Cooperative and required no coupons.
• A middle-aged visitor from Shandong ordered three bowls, then he and his companions drank six bowls in total and paid four coins.
• Huang Zhanying accepted the payment as her companions celebrated their first sale, while Chen Qi continued counting ants.

Huang Zhanying and the Dashilan Production and Service Cooperative opened a tea stall at Qianmen, where brisk business gave the workers a welcome sense of purpose. When a group of young men mocked them as aimless drifters, Chen Qi confronted their leader and demanded to know which work unit they came from.

• Huang Zhanying served tea and collected money as customers flocked to the cooperative's stall, while Chen Qi watched the crowds and calculated its earning potential.
• At noon, Huang Zhanying rested with Chen Qi and told him the other workers were complaining that he was shirking.
• A group of young men ridiculed the cooperative workers as unemployed drifters and sang a song mocking them.
• Huang Zhanying and her coworkers grew angry and hurt, but struggled to answer the young men's taunts.
• Chen Qi stepped forward, condemned the men for discriminating against working people, and demanded to know which work unit they represented.

Chen Qi defended his tea-stall companions after they were insulted, then finished a screenplay and prepared to submit it to Film Creation magazine. After Auntie Wang urged him not to escalate the dispute, he insisted on a public apology and began writing a new story to draw attention to the tea stall and himself.

• Chen Qi identified the men who insulted the unemployed youths as workers from the No. 2 Plastics Factory and persuaded a police officer to take note of their work unit.
• Chen Qi counted 20 yuan, 6 jiao, and 8 fen in half-day tea sales, then left work early to finish his screenplay at home.
• Chen Qi completed the screenplay, sealed it in an envelope addressed to Film Creation magazine at Beijing Film Studio, and prepared to send it.
• Auntie Wang urged Chen Qi to drop the dispute, but he demanded discipline for the men and a public apology to the tea sellers.
• Chen Qi decided to make the tea stall famous and began writing a new story titled "The road of life, ah, why does it grow narrower the farther I walk?"

Chen Qi skipped work to submit “The Road of Life” to Beijing Film Studio and China Youth Daily, then returned to his tea stall. China Youth Daily editors read his letter about the hardships and hopes of young cooperative workers and decided to publish it and send a reporter to interview him.

• Chen Qi rode to Beijing Film Studio and submitted a manuscript to its literary department.
• Chen Qi delivered “The Road of Life” to China Youth Daily and returned to the tea stall after watching visitors at the Chairman's Memorial Hall.
• China Youth Daily editors discussed what to feature after the serialization of The Second Handshake ended.
• An editor shared Chen Qi's letter, which described prejudice against the tea-stall workers and the strength he found in literature.
• The editors praised Chen Qi's sincere writing and arranged for a reporter to interview him for the next day's paper.

China Youth Daily reporter Sheng Yongzhi interviewed Chen Qi and the young workers at the tea stall about their business and the harassment they had faced. Sheng decided to publish Chen Qi’s letter under a more fitting title, while the workers left the interview excited about appearing in the newspaper.

• Sheng Yongzhi arrived at the tea stall with rookie reporter Yu Jiajia and revealed that they had come to interview the workers.
• Chen Qi described how workers from the No. 2 Plastics Factory had mocked the stall’s young employees and how police had intervened.
• Chen Qi explained why he had refused to take over his parents’ jobs and shared his hopes for the tea stall, writing, and the future.
• Sheng suggested changing the title of Chen Qi’s letter to “The Road of Life, Just How Should I Walk It?” and Chen agreed.
• Sheng and Yu interviewed the other workers, took photographs, and left as the group celebrated their expected appearance in the newspaper.
• The workers praised Chen Qi and Huang Zhanying, unknowingly treating them as the stall’s leaders.

Chen Qi’s letter about life appeared in China Youth Daily and deeply moved young workers across Beijing, prompting them to discuss their futures and write to the newspaper. The No. 2 Plastics Factory’s leaders read the coverage with alarm, as Chen Qi’s public profile raised the stakes of their dispute with him.

• Chen Qi waited calmly while Auntie Wang told him the plastics factory was still discussing its response to the tea-stall incident.
• Cao Yulan bought China Youth Daily, read Chen Qi’s letter about confusion and hope, and cried as its words resonated with her and her coworkers.
• Young people at a Dongcheng cooperative read the article and decided to write Chen Qi a letter of thanks.
• A young man in Haidian wrote to Chen Qi about regretting that he had not taken over a parent’s job, while Zheng Yuanjie remembered Chen Qi’s name and returned to writing fairy tales.
• Readers across the country discussed Chen Qi’s letter and sent their thoughts to the newspaper, while the No. 2 Plastics Factory’s leaders turned green with worry.

Chen Qi’s newspaper essay brought him sudden attention, forced the No. 2 Plastics Factory to respond to his criticism, and drew crowds of readers to his tea stall. As the newspaper planned a public discussion around the essay, Chen Qi remained wary of his fleeting fame.

• The No. 2 Plastics Factory leader ordered a self-criticism report and suspended the workers involved, then went to speak with the Dashilar Subdistrict.
• Readers flocked to Chen Qi’s tea stall asking to meet him, and Huang Zhanying and the other young sellers served the crowd during their break.
• China Youth Daily received hundreds of letters responding to Chen Qi’s article, and Sheng Yongzhi proposed publishing letters with different viewpoints.
• Yu Xiuli and Chen Jianjun celebrated Chen Qi’s publication in the courtyard as neighbors gathered to congratulate and question him.
• Chen Qi recognized that the attention was only a beginning and that he did not yet have the social standing to match his new fame.

After resolving the plastics factory dispute, Chen Qi planned to expand the cooperative’s goods beyond tea and received payment and letters for his article. As he wondered why the film studio had not contacted him about his script, an editor named Liang Xiaosheng arrived at his home.

• Chen Qi and his parents ate at a state-run restaurant, where the staff refused Chen Jianjun’s request for Moutai and later turned down their order for more meat because the kitchen was closing.
• Auntie Wang told Chen Qi that the plastics factory leaders wanted to settle the dispute, and Chen Qi proposed that the factory supply plastic sandals for the cooperative to sell in summer.
• Chen Qi planned to diversify the cooperative’s stock with seasonal goods such as sandals, ice pops, and raincoats, while leaving the arrangements to others.
• Yu Jiajia delivered sacks of readers’ letters to Chen Qi and paid him fourteen yuan for his article, whose discussion of life’s meaning continued in China Youth Daily.
• Liang Xiaosheng, an editor from the Beijing Film Studio Literary Department, visited Chen Qi at home.

Chen Qi learned that the Beijing Film Studio had approved his screenplay for revision and arranged to join its literary department guesthouse. He prepared to leave while keeping his cooperative employment status and entrusting the tea stall to Huang Zhanying.

• Liang Xiaosheng visited Chen Qi and said the studio had passed his screenplay through its first review and wanted him to revise it.
• Liang Xiaosheng arranged to meet Chen Qi at the studio entrance the next afternoon, and Chen Qi's parents agreed to support him.
• Chen Qi told his parents he had secretly written and submitted the screenplay, and Yu Xiuli went out to tell the neighbors about his success.
• Chen Qi informed Auntie Wang and Huang Zhanying that he would keep his cooperative employment status without taking wages while he revised the screenplay.
• Chen Qi left the tea stall's future in Huang Zhanying's hands and said he would return when the leaders came to inspect.

Chen Qi moved into Beijing Film Studio to revise a script, where Liang Xiaosheng showed him around and explained the studio’s arrangements. Chen Qi learned that veteran director Chen Huaikai was staying next door, and he became excited at the connection.

• Chen Qi left Menkuang Hutong with clothes, food, ration coupons, and money from his parents, then cycled to Beijing Film Studio with Liang Xiaosheng.
• Liang Xiaosheng toured Chen Qi around the studio and explained that directors and screenwriters received single rooms at the guesthouse.
• Chen Qi met the young actress Cai Ming in the guesthouse, and she greeted him before heading home.
• Chen Qi unpacked in room 302 and joked with Liang Xiaosheng about naming the stars of old films.
• Liang Xiaosheng told Chen Qi he would receive room and board plus two yuan a day, and asked him to attend a meeting the next morning.
• Liang Xiaosheng revealed that director Chen Huaikai was staying next door, and Chen Qi reacted with excitement.

Chen Qi settled into the Beijing Film Studio guesthouse, met director Chen Huaikai, and prepared for the review of his screenplay. At the literary department meeting, the editors asked him to explain his creative approach to Romance on Mount Lu.

• Chen Qi visited Chen Huaikai next door and discussed his screenplay and the next day's meeting.
• Chen Qi spent the night at the guesthouse, then exercised in the morning and warned Liang Xiaosheng not to describe his Eight-Section Vajra Exercise as religious practice.
• Liang Xiaosheng asked Chen Qi to teach him the exercises, and Chen Qi agreed to show him that evening.
• Chen Qi and Liang Xiaosheng went to the literary department, where Jiang Huaiyan introduced the editors and opened a discussion of Chen Qi's screenplay.
• Jiang Huaiyan asked Chen Qi to explain his creative approach to Romance on Mount Lu.

Chen Qi discussed his Romance on Mount Lu script with Beijing Film Studio editors, who praised its writing but advised him to add conflict, develop the characters, and connect the love story to a broader patriotic theme. He returned to the guesthouse and began revising, planning to use the opportunity to write more scripts.

• Chen Qi explained that childhood books and his fascination with Mount Lu had inspired him to write a romantic story set there.
• Jiang Huaiyan, Shi Wenxin, and the other editors discussed the script and advised Chen Qi to strengthen its dramatic conflict, social background, and broader theme.
• Liang Xiaosheng offered Chen Qi practical advice about revising the script and explained that writers received free room and board at the guesthouse.
• Chen Qi returned to his room and decided to take about twenty days to revise the script before publishing it in Film Creation.
• Chen Qi pasted several new passages into his script, then declared that he had finished work for the day.

Chen Qi continued revising his love-story script at the Beijing Film Studio, met Liu Xiaoqing, and learned that Liang Xiaosheng was struggling financially. The chapter ended when a man called for Liu Xiaoqing from the corridor while she was visiting Chen Qi.

• Chen Qi and Liang Xiaosheng ate breakfast, and Liang explained that Shi Hui and Ge Cunzhuang were worried about their unemployed son.
• Liu Xiaoqing introduced herself to Chen Qi in the canteen, and Liang warned him vaguely about her conduct.
• Chen Qi tried to help Liang Xiaosheng without embarrassing him and later played chess with him at the guesthouse.
• Liu Xiaoqing visited Chen Qi and asked about his love-story script, but he told her she was not suited to the heroine's role.
• A man hurried down the corridor shouting for Liu Xiaoqing, and her expression changed.

Chen Qi witnessed Liu Xiaoqing’s troubled marriage and learned how she had joined the studio before returning to work on the script. At an internal film screening, he met Jiang Shan and Ge You and began teasing them.

• Wang Li barged into Chen Qi’s room to take Liu Xiaoqing home, and Chen Qi fell while trying to intervene.
• Liang Xiaosheng explained Liu Xiaoqing and Wang Li’s troubled marriage and said Director Wang had paid 80,000 to transfer her to the studio.
• Liu Xiaoqing brought Chen Qi a box of pastries to apologize for the disturbance.
• Chen Qi and the studio staff arranged the canteen for an internal screening of a Hong Kong martial arts film.
• Chen Qi met Jiang Huaiyan’s daughter Jiang Shan and Ge You at the screening, then teased them about what they did.

At a Beijing Film Studio screening, director Wang Yang watched Drunken Master and considered expanding the studio’s work into entertainment films. Chen Qi’s lively commentary on the film and martial arts history drew a crowd, and he invited Ge You to visit him.

• Wang Yang watched Drunken Master with studio colleagues and praised its entertaining fights while questioning whether the Shaolin Temple project would adapt well to Hong Kong cinema.
• Wang Yang proposed that the Beijing Film Studio make entertainment films alongside serious films and promised to take responsibility for the risks.
• Chen Qi entertained Jiang Shan, Jiang Huaiyan, Ge You, and others with commentary about Wong Fei-hung and martial arts legends.
• After the screening, Chen Qi explained to Ge You that films appealed to audiences when they connected with their emotions.
• Chen Qi invited Ge You to visit him, and Ge You eagerly accepted.

Chen Qi shared dinner with Liang Xiaosheng and Ge You, encouraging Ge You to manage his nerves before an acting exam. He later submitted his revised script to Jiang Huaiyan for review and left Jiang Shan with candy after teasing her.

• Chen Qi invited Ge You to dinner with Liang Xiaosheng, where Ge You lamented his failed job exams and an upcoming acting audition.
• Chen Qi and Liang Xiaosheng advised Ge You to relax and exercise to control his nerves, and they toasted to his success.
• Chen Qi brought his revised script to Jiang Huaiyan, who praised it and explained that the literary department and a deputy studio director still had to review it.
• Chen Qi teased Jiang Shan about her English homework and startled her before leaving the office.
• Chen Qi returned to toss Jiang Shan some candy, and she ate one after he told her to study hard.