DramaFeedUrban Life Short Dramas
269 short dramas in Urban Life — synopsis, ratings and where to watch.
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The Tin Shack Chef's GloryZhang Jianguo is dismissed from the state-owned restaurant where he has cooked for twenty years when the restaurant is restructured. He puts up a tin shack beside the provincial road, cooks there with a clear conscience, and sells honestly.
The restaurant passes to his nephew, who wants fast money. The nephew offends an investor, an overseas Chinese man who has come back to put money into his home town, and an investment worth millions comes close to falling through. Zhang Jianguo meets the investor by chance and the hometown flavor of his cooking wins the man over. The old brand comes back to life on the strength of it.
After that Zhang Jianguo runs into a market monopoly, a block on his ingredients, and accusations that are made up against him. He keeps the food from his shack safe through all of it, and the shack starts growing into a chain.
Reborn: I Ditched the Ungrateful HeiressHe sacrificed years and everything to save and support a wealthy young woman, only to be resented when he asked to marry her. Reborn on the day of repayment, he rejects the doomed union, takes compensation and leaves overseas. Five years later, he rises as a celebrated screenwriter and finds genuine love with a talented director.
I Became My Ex’s Brother’s Forbidden ToyScorned Beta Liam, publicly dumped by fiancé Leo, seduced Leo's brother Zach, S-rank Alpha and Carrington family head, during his rut. One night rewrote his fate. At the wedding Liam dropped his mask, crushed his stepmother and half-brother, evolved from transaction to true love, and became Zach's sole lifelong partner.
The Blind PractitionerA blind masseur regains his sight and catches his fiancée with his best friend. They poisoned him for insurance money. Now he wears blindness as a mask, letting them dig their own graves. At the wedding, their betrayal plays on screen. In the fire, he vanishes. Can the guilty outrun the trap he set?
I Became My Ex’s Brother’s Forbidden ToyScorned Beta Liam, publicly dumped by fiancé Leo, seduced Leo's brother Zach, S-rank Alpha and Carrington family head, during his rut. One night rewrote his fate. At the wedding Liam dropped his mask, crushed his stepmother and half-brother, evolved from transaction to true love, and became Zach's sole lifelong partner.
The Untouchable Mechanic15 years ago, Samuel, the lost heir of the Lancaster empire, was framed and forgotten. Raised by the Mercer mafia, he rose as the "Night Godfather." For love, he hid as a mechanic to support Aveline, only to be met with public betrayal. Now, Samuel is done holding back. The king has returned, and it’s time for the world to tremble!
ATM? Now I'm Her NightmareA billionaire CEO saves his fiancée's family from ruin and builds her career, only to be threatened with breakup unless he helps her lover. He signs the papers. She loses everything. He was the reason she had value. Now he's gone.
Partner Scams Me Then PanicsThey made millions, but his partner only gave him 5%, calling him "just labor." Instead of arguing, he buys a massive excavator with that money and starts his own business. The real boss is here.
When Human Strength Drops 20xWhen humanity's physical strength plummets twentyfold worldwide, society grinds to a halt. Silas, a former construction worker, is the only person whose strength not only remains intact but grows ever stronger.
A short video of him lifting dumbbells sparks widespread online skepticism. Marcus, a fitness influencer with millions of followers, leads a cyberbullying campaign, insisting the footage uses fake props.
The Wife Swap GameBillionaire Arthur fakes amnesia to uncover who truly loves him. But his wife Roxy betrays him, forcing her innocent sister Sophie to take her place as his “wife” while she cheats with his best friend. As Arthur plays along, he discovers Sophie has loved him for seven years. He destroys the betrayal and chooses the woman who was always his true love.
Help! My Cat Is a CEOBetrayed and buried alive by his ex and her lover, CEO Chen Yang's soul awakens inside a stray cat. Adopted by pop star Su Nanqiao, he hides in plain sight while unlocking ancient martial arts from a mysterious jade. Now he's plotting revenge—with nine lives, sharp claws, and nothing left to lose.
The gang grabbed me to claim kinship, but little did they know—I'm a major generalMajor General Kian lives an ordinary life as a mechanic with his adoptive father Arthur under an assumed identity. He is abducted by the Corleone mafia family, his blood relatives. Disgusted by his humble background, the clan including his birth mother Isabella, elder sister Sophia and adopted brother Lucas force him to take over illegal businesses and seize his military terminal holding top-secret counter-terrorism data.
The Parking Lot LawsuitMateo Salazar buys every parking space in his building and lets his neighbors use them free, only to be mocked, displaced, and opposed by the management. He documents the abuse, hires counsel, and takes the beneficiaries of his generosity to court. The lawsuit recovers his money and makes the neighbors pay for treating his property as their right.
My Stall Ruined My Brother's Business!He runs a shop with his brother. The business becomes very popular. But his brother tears up their profit-sharing agreement. He chooses to leave and starts his own street stall. His brother grows jealous and tries to crush him with dirty tricks. Facing false accusations, how will he fight back?
His Fiancée Kicked Him Off the Plane!Wang Ba works for the Liu family, and the first-class seat he wants on the flight belongs to somebody else, so he takes it. The man it belongs to is Shi Zhenxiang, home without announcing it, in a white T-shirt. The alarms had gone off three times at security on his way through and he had been handled as a threat and had his luggage searched.
Liu Ruyan is his fiancee. She has been hearing things about him and she believes them, and on the plane she takes the assistant's side, puts a hundred thousand in front of him and tells him to get off. Someone walks into him and the blame lands on him. He does not raise his voice at any point in it.
The takeoff clearance locks in the system and the aircraft stops moving. A Panshi convoy comes through onto the apron and pulls up beside it.
My Wife is a Mafia QueenA humble delivery man suffers cruel betrayal by his lover. He accidentally saves a powerful chamber of commerce leader, and the two fall in love. Hiding his billionaire heir identity, he stands by her side, defeats vicious enemies, and overturns all humiliation. After countless trials, he inherits his empire. Can their double happiness crown their tough journey?
A Billionaire’s Revenge For His Loyal DogA billionaire returns home to retire with his loyal old dog, only to face ruthless bullying and property seizure by greedy villagers. They cruelly harm his dog and launch vicious online slander against his group. He fights back wisely, punishes all wrongdoers, and chooses kindness in return. Will his warmth redeem the village’s utter greed?
My Husband Is a Gambling Legend?Legendary gambler Shen Lü tries to avoid attention in an alley, rescues runaway bride Lu Zhixia, and is knocked unconscious when she mistakes him for an attacker. He wakes without his memories and somehow married to her, despised by the Lu family but instinctively able to use extraordinary gambling skills to protect his new wife. The return of old rival Jiang Ao restores Shen Lü's past and forces him to reveal himself before retiring with Zhixia to establish an anti-gambling foundation.
His Rural Bus RevolutionA driver earns $40,000 for his uncle, and receives only $1,500. Refusing to be a doormat, he starts his own rural bus service. His uncle's sabotage fails, and he eventually builds a fleet, becoming the region's top transport operator. Hard work and integrity win.
The Street-Born HeirLi Feng has money on a scale nobody around him suspects, and he has spent years working a forestry operation in the northeast under a name that is not his. He comes back to the capital to be acknowledged by the Lin family. There he finds Lin Lan, the girl swapped at birth and raised as a Lin daughter, now called the fake heiress by the relatives, cut out of family decisions and pushed toward a marriage arranged for the Lu family's benefit. Li Feng does not announce what he controls. He backs her quietly with the authority of the head of the house while dragging the mansion's careful manners around with blunt northeastern jokes that nobody there knows how to answer. The Lin relatives keep pressing, the Lu family keeps pressing, and he takes them apart one at a time while Lin Lan works out how much she is willing to take back.
Framed by the Village I FedJason Lee was brought up by the villagers. After university he comes back to the village. The water that runs between the two mountains suits shrimp, so he uses what he studied to raise them at home and turns it into a business. The Village Chief asks him to bring the rest of the village in, and he uses his first earnings to organise the villagers, put up a factory, and sell what they make online by livestream. The village gets richer, and young people who had left to work elsewhere start coming back.
One day he comes home and finds his yard full of villagers who say he cheated them out of their money, and he cannot think of anything he has done wrong.
I Rebuilt The Corrupt Car IndustryChen Feng inspects used cars, and he is good enough at it that the dealership he worked with built its whole reputation on his word, advertising every car on the lot as accident free because he had signed off. His partner took the credit, cut his share, and talked down to him in front of staff. Chen Feng resigned with nothing lined up. He started again on his own, keeping to the same standard, and began writing reports for ordinary buyers instead of sellers. With his eye and his measuring tools he found what dealers had covered up: cars that had been under flood water, cars welded back together out of wrecks, odometers rolled back, deals worth millions built on a lie. His appraisals stood up when the sellers disputed them, and buyers who had been cheated used them to get their money back. Word spread through the trade. He built the business around what the reports said rather than what a seller wanted them to say, and other dealers began having to work to that standard.
The Baby Daddy Is a God of WarFive years ago, Adrian hid from his enemies as a ranch hand. By accident, he ended up spending one wild night with Victoria, a powerful CEO. Now, she's back with their daughter, Mia — and a marriage proposal he never saw coming. Adrian just wants to stay hidden. But when Victoria and their daughter are humiliated and nearly killed, he stops holding back: He's really the CEO of Black Shield, a global arms empire, and the heir to a Texas dynasty. Everyone who hurt his family is about to pay…
Revenge With A Funeral BandThey desecrated his ancestral grave and built toilets on it. He endured. On opening day, he arrived in mourning robes with a funeral band and buried the launch in chaos. The tycoon went bankrupt and sought help from a billionaire: the same man whose grave he spat on. When the man you trampled holds your life, can you survive your own sins?
The Dead Son Became A KingYang Xin and her son Huo Xiang want the family's holdings, so they arrange a car accident for the heir standing in front of them. The heir is Huo Ling. His father Huo Furen believes their account of it and beats him to death himself. Huo Ling comes back with all of it still in his memory.
He sets a trap in the mourning hall and gets Huo Xiang and Yang Xin to admit, in front of the family, that they had also planned to kill Huo Furen and take over the business. The same confession brings out that Huo Xiang is not Huo Furen's son. Behind that are older things, including what Huo Furen did to the woman who bore Huo Ling, and the fact that Huo Ling is not his blood either.
Yang Xin brings the Four Seas Gang in against him and Huo Ling hits back at them. Huo Furen, once he knows Huo Ling is no son of his, moves to silence him. Yang Man, Huo Ling's mother, turns up then, with Jiu'er.
My Only DaughterVanessa Reed and her daughter Chloe want the money. Ethan Carter, who founded Carter Tech and is a billionaire, is lying in a hospital bed, and they try to have him moved out before he has died. Vanessa is the woman he spent years chasing. The only one who stays is Emily Carter, his own daughter, poor and ignored for years while he was busy with Vanessa, and she is the one covering his hospital bills.
Ethan dies full of regret and wakes up five years earlier, on the morning of Chloe's birthday. He throws away the gift he had bought for Chloe and turns everything toward Emily instead, a birthday gala, and voting shares in Carter Tech. But everyone around him is used to treating Chloe as the princess and Emily as nobody, and Emily is humiliated by those same people before Ethan can reach her.
I Brought My Father's Coffin to WorkAfter losing his father, a man is forced to choose between family and a billion-dollar deal. When his company refuses to let him mourn, he walks into the biggest event of the year carrying a coffin. In front of a live audience, he exposes the cruelty behind their success.
66 Missing Packages, One Big LieA delivery worker fighting to save his sick mother is framed for missing packages and forced to pay for a crime he didn’t commit. Refusing to stay silent, he gathers evidence and exposes a corrupt operation through a live broadcast. As powerful figures try to silence him, he risks everything to fight for justice.
100 Skills To Win Her HeartA magical system grants a poor man one skill after another, bringing its ultimate reward within reach until an irritable heiress ruins his rating with a bad review. He deploys every talent he has gained to persuade her to award five stars. The campaign works too well, attracting the heiress and a growing circle of wealthy women.
Wicked Deeds Fall To Bring JusticeA man's father was killed by local gangsters in a flood, the murder disguised as an accident. For a decade, he gathers secret proof while doing charity. Villagers steal his toxic mushroom samples, get poisoned and frame him for extortion. Will he suffer the same fate as his father?
The Unbeatable Divine DoctorLin Hao is a young man nobody knows much about who comes into an old line of medical knowledge and works his way through traditional medicine with it. He takes a post as the doctor at a small village clinic. The people he treats get better, word travels, and wealthy and powerful patients start making the trip out to see him. His name also draws people who want the knowledge for themselves and people who resent him for having it, and he uses his medicine against them.
A House Servant, a Hidden Legend!A special forces soldier wakes up in an old dynasty as a third rank house servant of the Su family. He would happily coast, hide what he can do and draw his wages. The Su dye works are failing, so he uses what he knows and produces yellow and purple dyes nobody in the trade can match, which saves the family and moves him up to first rank servant. That puts him in the middle of the household's women: Su Muyan the eldest daughter, Wang Zhuqing, the maid Yuer, and Qin Lan, a princess living in the house under a false name. The three great clans move against the Sus more than once and he unpicks each attempt. He goes to the capital, sits the imperial examination and passes it, and the emperor has him found a guard corps. When he decides he has done enough and wants to go back south, Su Muxue announces in front of the whole household that she intends to marry him.
Revenge Of The Betrayed CEOHe built a massive empire, only to be brutally murdered in a staged crash by his cheating wife and backstabbing best friend. After the evil traitors drive his grieving parents to their deaths, he magically wakes up on the night of their betrayal! Reborn with all memories, he is ready to unleash his ultimate and ruthless revenge!
The War God ReturnsBetrayed and left with amnesia, a supreme commander is reduced to a bullied miner. When his cheating fiancée tries to murder him, his memories and powers awaken! Teaming up with his billionaire sister, he unleashes ruthless revenge on those who wronged him. Watch him reclaim his throne!
Don't Mess With the Leader's Daughter!To cure his daughter's muteness, he goes overseas to find a special medicine and is ready to surprise his daughter. But he watches a live stream and sees her being humiliated by the nanny. The villain, relying on connections in a business alliance, keeps provoking him. Little does he know that he is the real master behind the alliance.
Can't Sleep? Time to Crush the Bully!He suffers from severe insomnia. After quitting his job, he goes to rest and recover. But he runs into a bully in the neighborhood who exercises loudly every morning, bothering everyone. He decides to step in. With his skills, can he deal with the bully? And how will he cure his insomnia?Tornado's DawnAt Xingcheng Mecha Academy, Alex, a penniless instructor, receives a love letter from the campus beauty—only to be ambushed and provoked by Tyler, the scion of a wealthy family, along with his gang. No one knows that this humble instructor, who drives a shabby second-hand mecha, is in fact a legendary pilot of the Federation's First Mecha Corps. The moment Tyler strikes that "junk mecha," everything begins to reverse.
Cyberbully Me, Face the Sealed GarageFive years ago, Frank spent 3.4 million US dollars purchasing all 172 private parking spaces of the community, letting neighbors use them for free for five years while reserving one spot for himself. Returning from a trip, he found his private space occupied. When he sought resolution in the homeowner group, he was cyberbullied and threatened by residents. Later, his car was scratched, paint splashed on his door, his driver’s license leaked online, and his ground lock welded up.
Justice for the Lost HeirTaken away as a child, a lost heir grows up in a cruel family that hides his true identity. Betrayed by those closest to him, he is pushed to the edge of death. But when a forgotten clue reveals his past, he returns to expose the lies, punish his enemies, and reclaim everything that was stolen from him.
She Married My Rival, So I Froze the Nine HousesAfter three years of marriage, Wen Shining exhausted all her expectations due to the indifference of her husband He Jingzhou. After seeing clearly that this marriage was hopeless, Wen Shining decisively divorced and wanted to completely cut off from He Jingzhou. On the surface, Wen Shining is just an ordinary woman with no background, but she is actually the founder of WEN, a top design studio, and the sole heir to a billion-dollar pharmaceutical giant. In the past three years, He Jingzhou's performance growth was all due to her silent blood transfusion behind the scenes, but He Jingzhou was unaware of it until Wen Shining came on stage as the founder. He Jingzhou regretted it, but it was too late. Wen Shining had already entered a new life.
The Secret of the Charging CableIn Neopolis, charging hardware has rank, and a five watt cable sits at the bottom of it. Aiden, the architect whose designs the city runs on, takes that shape deliberately so that his wife Elena will not be a target. She grows tired of the slow trickle he gives her and goes to Gordon, who deals unlicensed fast charge, and hands Aiden over. He comes back under the name Zero and locks Elena's protocols so she cannot accept or deliver a charge from anyone. Unusable, she is thrown out with the scrap and left to corrode in the waste. Aiden holds Neopolis outright now, with nothing in the city rated above him.
Reborn, My Ex's Lies Crumble!In his past life, he ignored all advice and spent everything he had to buy his girlfriend a new car. But she broke up with him. In despair, he chose to end it all. But he is reborn just before buying the car. This time, he sees his girlfriend for who she really is. How will he get his revenge?
7000 dollars destroyed 30 years friendshipRobert contributes his family bacon recipe to save friend Frank’s restaurant, earning $250,000 profit a year but getting merely $7,000. Supported by his family, he opens a shop opposite and exposes Frank’s greed. Bankrupted by breach-of-contract fines, Frank becomes a street vendor, while Robert runs a booming restaurant and severs ties with the ungrateful man.
What? Ugly Mask Hides Peerless FaceA young man wears a mask for twenty years and is mocked for his supposed hideous appearance. The mask seals peerless beauty doomed to bring heavenly retribution once seen. Pushed and humiliated by his family and betrothed partner, he strikes back fiercely. Can this stunning appearance save a dying elder and make all scorners pay dearly?The Utopia ExperimentA disgraced ex–Special Forces soldier is sent to a dying town, unaware he is the star of a global reality show engineered by a vengeful director—until he fights back to expose the conspiracy, save the town, and reclaim the truth.
Iron-Blooded Admiral: Life Or Death RescueRetired General Kane Voss is humiliated by a wealthy heir while attempting to rescue his premature granddaughter, Lucy. When corrupt officials collude with powerful figures, Kane is forced to seek help from a secret contact, only to discover that Eli, the CEO of Hale Group, is a member of the terrorist organization "Black Snake" and intends to silence him. Kane fights his way out, and with the intervention of Commander Conrad and special forces, the terrorists are neutralized and Lucy is rescued. However, a year later, "Black Snake" retaliates by kidnapping the baby, prompting Kane to vow a fight to the death for revenge.(Dubbed) We Lied, We Spied, We FellA former soldier steals a dead man's identity to destroy a criminal empire. He crushes traitors and falls for the dead man's widow. But she's an undercover agent for the enemy he hunts. Bound by love and lies, they unite against the mastermind. When every identity is a mask, can two spies ever trust each other enough to survive the truth?
Kick Me Out? Your Business Is Done!Lin Chen's uncle and aunt were in debt and close to losing their country guesthouse. He put his own money in, brought in his own contacts, opened tour routes into the area and set up the customer side and the supply side for them. The arrangement was that he took half the profits.
The place became one of the better earners in the tourist district. Once the money was coming in the couple went back on the arrangement, returned his capital and pushed him out.
He left and the customers and the suppliers went with him. To hold the margin up the couple moved to cheap frozen stock and heavy seasoning and told the guests nothing about it, and complaints about the food started coming. They were spending on a villa while that was going on.
The Exiled Billionaire FishermanChen Yuanhang came home from his military service to find his uncle Chen Degen had taken credit for his work and then put him out of the house. His father collapsed and went into hospital, his mother was left with an injury that would not heal, and there was no money. What his grandfather had left him was an old instrument called the Dragon Seeking Needle. On the mudflats he used it and dug up a giant razor clam of a kind nobody sees anymore, and a head chef paid him a serious price for it. He started working the shoreline for a living. His uncle put obstacles in the way, one after another, and Yuanhang worked around each of them while tracing the source of the pollution that had been quietly killing the shallows. That trail led him to Black Dragon Gulch and to the dragon pearl clam that was supposed to be a story. He set up a fishing cooperative and brought the village in on it, took his uncle to court over what had been done, and bought the man's company out from under him to put his own seafood brand on it.
I'm the Mole, So Is My Wife!A former soldier steals a dead man's identity to destroy a criminal empire. He crushes traitors and falls for the dead man's widow. But she's an undercover agent for the enemy he hunts. Bound by love and lies, they unite against the mastermind. When every identity is a mask, can two spies ever trust each other enough to survive the truth?
Lost Daughter Returns as the Boss!A father's daughter went missing. He stays in the old alley, waiting for her return. Now, demolition sweeps through the neighborhood. The head of the development group turns out to be his long-lost daughter. Even stranger, a torn photo is pieced together. An adoption agreement. The signature date is just three days before his wife passed away!
Oops, Caught the Campus Belle Shoplifting!Lu Yuanqiu comes back to his school years and does not buy a lottery ticket. He goes straight to his family's supermarket and watches the security monitor, because he knows what day it is. Bai Qingxia, the cold beauty of the school, comes in and starts putting things under her uniform. In his first life he pretended not to see, let her walk out to keep her dignity intact, and she was hit by a car in the street outside. This time he stops her at the door, accepting that he will look like a pervert of a shop owner, and takes her into the stockroom. He pins her against the shelves and asks how much she took. She says there is nothing, though he can see her uniform bulging. He keeps at her, dragging the questioning out minute by minute for reasons she cannot guess, while she goes from stubborn to red-eyed with her lip shaking. He is about to tell her he is doing this to save her when footsteps come from outside the stockroom, and the voice belongs to the driver who killed her the last time around.
Rising: For My Mother!His mother raised him, and he left the underworld to repay her for it. He and a close friend opened an auto repair shop called Dragon and Tiger, and he expected the rest of his life to be quiet. On his birthday, men insult his mother in front of him. Stepping in for her means giving up the name he buried when he walked away from that world. He does it anyway, and the men who insulted her find out who he used to be. They back down and stop coming around.
A Beggar Saved the Gang Boss?Chen Dingtian walks out of prison with a full head of white hair after ten years inside. The territory and businesses he once ran now belong to two men, Chao and Kui, who built their fortunes on what used to be his. His daughter Chen Qian is married to a man who beats her, and by the time her father is free she has been hurt badly enough that people around her expect worse.
Ten years earlier, Chen Dingtian had been a figure with influence on both sides of the law. He came across a boy freezing and starving in the street, a beggar named Feng Chengen, and took him in. Chao and Kui, the two men he trusted most, set him up soon after, and he was convicted and sent away for a crime he did not commit.
Now that he is out, Chao and Kui humiliate him rather than hide from him, treating his release as no threat at all. He has no money, no standing, and a daughter in danger, and there is no clear way to fix any of it.
Feng Chengen finds him. The beggar he fed is now the head of Longteng Group, with a fortune reported past a hundred billion. He has not forgotten the meal, and he comes back with the resources of his company behind him. He goes after Chao and Kui, moves to get Chen Qian away from her husband, and puts his weight behind Chen Dingtian as the two of them work through the people who wronged him and try to take back what was his.
The Betrayed Trillionaire ReturnsBetrayed by his greedy hometown, a tech genius is stripped of his wealth and forced out penniless. Little do they know, he left a trap! He rebuilds his empire in a rival village, turning them into billionaires. Watch as the toxic traitors go bankrupt and beg for mercy while he rises to the top!
The Fired Chef Strikes BackAfter building a massive empire for his boss, a master chef is brutally betrayed and fired with nothing. Backed by his loyal girlfriend, he starts a humble street stall that instantly goes viral! Furious, the evil boss tries to ruin him but causes a toxic food scandal instead. He will make them pay!
A Millionaire's Revenge Tastes Like GrapesA tech millionaire returns with a rare grape, only to be betrayed by his uncle and the villagers. He tears up the contract, pulls the equipment, and leaves their harvest to rot. He invests in a failing farm run by veterans and builds a billion-dollar empire. When he arrives at the city's top, can the villagers finally understand the price of greed?
Son, You Saved the Wrong Father!A doctor lets his own father die while saving his father-in-law, then skips the funeral to celebrate the survivor. At the grave, he learns the man he saved caused the crash while drunk—and that his wife helped conceal it.
What? My Daughter’s Lover Insulted Me?After years abroad, a wealthy father meets his daughter’s secret lover at an auto shop and discovers that the young man is manipulating her into misappropriating project money. At the father’s welcome-home party, the lover mistakes him for the daughter’s husband and insults him, unaware of who he is. The father hides his identity and baits him into exposing more of the scheme until his daughter arrives and the affair is revealed.
The Miner's Wife? She's the Big Boss!Canteen No. 2 at the mine was nearly closed until the narrator brought the West Zone miners to it, hundreds of men coming up from several hundred metres underground with an appetite. The queue got long and Qian the Fat Man, who owns the place, made his money. Once he had it he decided the miners ate too much. He worked out an arrangement with the canteen supervisor and began charging for second helpings without telling anyone, then cut the minced meat out of the dishes entirely. The narrator brings his lunch tin, still black with coal dust, to argue about it. Qian points at him in front of everyone: the same thirty yuan a day meal subsidy, and the technicians from the East Zone control room eat less and stay clean, so why should he keep feeding a crowd covered in mud. What Qian does not know is who runs the new East Zone mine that just finished construction across the way, the sealed, dust-free one his future customers work in. It is the narrator's wife.