★ The Fate of Women Against the Backdrop of the Times: The novel takes the story of Fan Juan as a thread to analyze the fragmentation and rebirth of women in the process of urbanization, as well as those desires and dignities that remain vibrant despite being crushed by the wheels of time, provoking deep contemplation on the fate of women.
★ An Urban Fable Woven with Black Humor and Sharp Pen: The author uses a cold yet tense language to reveal the survival rules of the underclass, with both the vibrancy of the marketplace and the absurdity of human nature.
★ A Snapshot of the Times Under the "One-Way Street": The collision between personal fate and the torrent of urbanization, the story is not only the drifting history of Fan Juan but also a spiritual mirror of a generation - a hometown that can't be returned to, a city that can't accommodate, but people have to live on.

At the age of sixteen, Fan Juan fled the rural Hebei and entered Beijing with fantasies of the city. From working in a basement guesthouse to laboring in a clothing store, she acted like a "sponge of humanity", learning the cunning and compromises of survival while struggling at the bottom. She navigated between rent-collectors, real-estate developers, and gangsters, becoming a "conveyor belt" of various interests, yet she could never escape the fate of being objectified.
During a delivery, she encountered the enigmatic businessman Fu Mian. He was like a deep pool of water, offering her fleeting warmth while also dragging her into a more complex whirlpool. When Fan Juan unexpectedly became pregnant, Fu Mian was suddenly imprisoned, leaving her to face the predicament of being a single mother alone. Clutching the red-string bracelet from her first love, she fed her crying baby in the smoke-filled rental room, while the one-way street outside had long been sealed off by high-rises - a hometown she couldn't return to, a Beijing that couldn't accommodate her.
With a sharp pen, this novel dissects the reality of women's survival behind urbanization: the fragmentation and rebirth of a rural woman, a drifting journey with no way back, and those desires and dignities that remain vibrant despite being.

Chen Jiarong, born in 1998, currently resides in Beijing and holds a Master's degree in History from University College London. Since 2013, she has been publishing poetry works in both Chinese and English, which have appeared in various journals and magazines such as “Macao Daily“, “Poetry Tide“, “Young Writers“ and the “KCL Literary Journal“ (King's College London Literary Journal).