"Don't forget, 7 p.m. at the coffee shop."
When Mr. Lu received the message asking for help from the counselor, he wasn't particularly surprised.
First of all, Guo Minjie was not a local; she came from a prefecture-level city around Hubei Province.
Girls with good grades like her usually followed a similar trajectory, studying in Jiang City all along and naturally staying there for work.
Staying on as a teacher at the school, arranged marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, living a respectable life for a lifetime.
All her social relationships formed a circle around the university, stable within positive expectations.
Envied by others yet confined within boundaries.
When such a calm and glamorous life was suddenly laid bare, she discovered everything underneath was riddled with the stench of maggots.
Full of bitterness, yet she didn't know who to confide in.
Secondly, Guo Minjie was a typical "three gates cadre."
