chapter 1

Xu Sen and I both come from a small, eighth-tier county town.

We are products of the small-town exam grind.

Through hellish studying, we prevailed in the college entrance examination, completed our undergraduate degrees at a 211 university, and earned master’s degrees from a 985 institution.

After graduation, we both entered the system.

Starting from the grassroots, step by step, we gradually put down roots and expanded in the provincial capital, where we had no foundation at all.

Now.

Each of us has been promoted to Leader of our respective departments, gained respectable social status, bought cars and houses, and our housing provident funds are enough to cover our loans.

In short, we have achieved worldly success and completed mainstream social mobility in the most traditional, most fair, and least shortcut-taking way for Chinese people.

This year, Xu Sen and I have two more happy events.

The first is that at the beginning of the year, he was transferred to a company as a Leader, and his salary and benefits increased several times.

The other is that I am pregnant.

Yes, it was only after six years of marriage that I became pregnant.

Xu Sen is the only son for three generations, and he has a hereditary condition of weak sperm, which means that after the age of 30, he basically lost the possibility of having children. Our journey to have a child over the past few years has been no easier than establishing our careers and homes.

Fortunately, two months ago, in the first spring after Xu Sen turned thirty, I finally conceived.

When we got the report, Xu Sen, who rarely shows his emotions, hugged me.

He cried with joy like a child.