Chen spends his days in a tiny hotel room in Baoding, the northern city where his daughter died.

But even as she was dieing, as her eyes began to fade. she saw me, and with her final breath she said to me, Choices are difficult son, learn from this one.

In the midst of his torments, and long before this, he had discontinued his work, and nothing is more dangerous than discontinued work; it is a habit which vanishes.

I'm afraid that I'll get too attached to my appearance, only to grasp when it fades.

Nothing can move a man who is paid by the hour; how sweet the flight of time seem to his calm mind.