In the two years right after graduation, I thought I was so damn capable. I could have joined the system for 2 years and then handled my Beijing hukou, but at the time my ego was so high that I figured it didn’t matter. I insisted on going out into society to make my own way. But these past few years, all of it has been just so I can get settled—keeping on with postgraduate studies even to the point of a PhD just to qualify for a hukou. Life is basically one trap after another, tangled together and woven into tattered scraps. To put it plainly, it’s still because I haven’t made enough money—otherwise who the hell would care about all these petty, trashy things? Make money, make money…