On a business trip to Beijing, I arranged to meet a colleague from our department who’s been on a long-term secondment in Beijing to work there, along with a beautiful woman born in 2000, for a meal.

In the end, I almost couldn’t recognize her. It felt like, in just one year, she had directly become much uglier and much older. After just a few words, you could tell—through everything she said, both in what was spoken and in what was implied—that everything felt very苦.

It wasn’t only suffering in work; if the hard parts at work could be endured, you could at least console yourself that you’d eventually grind through and have good days. But now, there’s also been a lot of emotional torment happening to her in her heart.