Desire City

Author: Gui Yan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: This is a city-based online novel about the love and career of those born in the 1970s. Their encounters and ups and downs in business, politics, and relationships are highly readable. Desire City features a small cast and a relatively simple story. Pu Shu, the Doctor, and Lao Pi are university classmates. After graduation, they end up in the same city and take different paths: Pu Shu in business, the Doctor in politics, and Lao Pi in pursuing literature as his ideal and belief. At the age of thirty, the three of them reach a critical juncture in achieving their life desires. The saying goes, "Beauty often brings disaster," and the appearance of the beautiful Xu Danyang coincides with a turning point in the lives of the three close friends, who are facing challenges in business expansion, career advancement, and marriage. Desire City's story begins here. Upon closer reading, the meticulous craftsmanship is not in the plot but in the portrayal of characters' fates and inner lives. Pu Shu has a good reputation among his classmates, which stems from years of self-cultivation. Even as a student, he was considerate of others' interests without expecting anything in return. In reality, his selflessness was a means to greater rewards. His failure as a secretary after graduation was due to following the wrong leader. When his promotion was at stake, his leader ran into trouble, and his career prospects naturally took a hit. However, when he faced failure, greater rewards emerged. Pu Shu received repayment from the classmates he had helped. By his thirties, they had all risen to high positions. With their help, Pu Shu decided to give up his political ambitions and focus on business, emerging from his slump. He took leave without pay and within a week had set up a company. His remarkable speed in Chinese business was inseparable from his good fortune in relationships. His strong network of friends helped him with everything from loans to taxes and business permits. The clever Pu Shu hired several deaf and mute painters for his company, turning it into a welfare enterprise and saving on taxes. His classmates helped him find business opportunities, and a TV station friend gave him the lowest discounts, allowing him to offer highly competitive ad prices without compromising quality. After the initial months, business came knocking, and Xu Danyang entered the scene under these circumstances. Pu Shu's career in politics was a dead end, but his business was thriving. His strong psychological resilience and interpersonal skills not only earned him a good reputation but also good luck in love. The book describes his meeting with Yang Liu as if "a Lin Daiyu had fallen from the sky." This "Lin Daiyu" provided support in his career, help in his daily life, and unwavering love and loyalty, making his life incredibly fulfilling. The health and happiness of his personal and emotional life enriched his spiritual and material life. When faced with the temptation of the beautiful but fateful Xu Danyang, he remained true to himself. Pu Shu was principled in his dealings, which was his strength but also his downfall. To protect his business and personal interests, he compromised his principles and inadvertently offended the cunning Xu Danyang, who sought revenge. The balance of Desire City was shattered, and new crises emerged in both his business and personal life.
The Doctor was considered the most promising among the three to become a writer, but after graduation, he directly joined the city government as a secretary. This choice was tied to his life and soul experiences. His family's struggles in politics shaped his desires. As a student, his goal was to become a government official. In his senior year, he began a relationship with Li Shao, whose father was the vice mayor of Nanling. Li Shao's upbringing, surrounded by the elite, deeply influenced the Doctor. Her "brainwashing" that "writers are lowly, only officials are noble" successfully altered his literary aspirations. His environmental and emotional experiences led him to abandon his literary dreams for a career in politics. Gui Yan has meticulously portrayed the Doctor's pursuit of power. From the book, it's clear that the Doctor is a man who values appearances and is solely focused on climbing the political ladder. He waited until his father-in-law retired and was promoted to deputy division head before getting married. His marriage was clearly a stepping stone for his career, but he wanted others to believe his success had nothing to do with Li Shao's father.
Those obsessed with power never stop craving it. Without his father-in-law's backing, the Doctor needed his classmates' help for further promotion. At a critical moment, he turned to Pu Shu, who had once helped him in business. As the Doctor knew, investments always require returns, and the political world has its own rules. Pu Shu, with his business acumen, quietly provided financial support, ensuring the Doctor's promotion to deputy division head. The Doctor, in turn, expected greater business benefits from his new position. Business and politics have always been intertwined.
Lao Pi was a vain, lustful, and romantic man, his only obsession being his dedication to literature. He edited the Nanling Literary Magazine, but with societal changes and the decline of literature, the magazine lacked even illustrators and funding. Lao Pi's romance and dedication were now dependent on his classmates, Pu Shu. By chance, Lao Pi met the beautiful Xu Danyang, who had failed to persuade Pu Shu, at Pu Shu's company. Driven by desire and self-interest, Xu Danyang and Lao Pi quickly formed an alliance. Lao Pi sought Pu Shu's help for his marriage and love, but Pu Shu, prioritizing his own and others' interests, refused. The romantic writer, in the face of officials and merchants, was as naive as a child. He couldn't distinguish between hope and desire, and emotional and material conflicts often coincided. The struggles in Desire City began here.
Gui Yan spent three years crafting a fruit as sweet as a peach. Without tasting Desire City, one cannot appreciate its freshness. As you continue to read, you'll find that the Doctor, with Pu Shu's help, faces an easy career path. Pu Shu, however, expects returns for his support. Just as a huge profit opportunity was about to fall into his hands, the romantic and reckless Lao Pi ruined it. Pu Shu's hopes were dashed when Lao Pi's Xu Danyang interfered, leading to a rift between Pu Shu, the Doctor, and Lao Pi. The once literature-obsessed Lao Pi became obsessed with Xu Danyang, losing his humanity and integrity in the process. Xu Danyang defeated Pu Shu in business by selling herself, but Lao Pi was helpless in the face of his girlfriend's recklessness. The game of desire has its own rules, and Lao Pi's lack of understanding led him into chaos. No one expected Lao Pi's obsession to make him shameless, nor did they anticipate that his and Xu Danyang's desires would make the Doctor and Pu Shu's lives miserable. Even Pu Shu, known for his integrity, became terrifying in this morally corrupt environment. His desire and dignity twisted into a means of revenge, using the Doctor's marital problems to turn the tables. He led the Doctor's wife to catch him in the act, hoping to salvage the situation. However, the wife, considering her family's reputation and desires, chose silence, just like many officials' wives who endure loveless marriages for the sake of family interests.
When the Doctor sought further promotion, the bridge he had overseen collapsed due to quality issues during its opening ceremony, sending him to prison and ending his career. But his tragedy went beyond his career. His lover lost her child, and his wife, devastated by his political downfall, fame, and death, spiraled into madness. The Doctor's destruction stemmed from his heart, not just his actions. As an unprincipled official, he thrived in Qing Shui County but engaged in showy politics, harbored selfish desires, and traded his integrity for personal gain. His reckless indulgence in desire cost him loyalty, friends, his wife, his lover, his career, and even his life. The moral lesson of Desire City lies here.
The Doctor's fate did not end the game of desire. By the end of the novel, Xu Danyang, Lao Pi's girlfriend, finds Pu Shu and reveals the reason for his business failure. She defeated him only to gain his attention, for she loved Pu Shu. The desire for love was the root of the Doctor's and merchant's downfall. To win love, Xu Danyang lost more than just her body and soul. Possessing money only made her poorer, and beyond material gain, she faced greater heartache and loneliness. In the end, Pu Shu returns home, only to find that the woman he loved has left him due to his actions during this period. Lao Pi's fate, though not as tragic as Xu Danyang's, was no less painful. Losing friendship and love gave him time to reflect on what literature and true desire truly are.