Out of Place

Out of Place is a modern urban novel by Wu Zhe, an author on Jinjiang Literature City. It was serialized on Jinjiang starting in 2015, and a standalone edition was published by Qingdao Publishing House in April 2016. The story revolves around two young men from completely different backgrounds. Xiang Xi was abducted by human traffickers as a child and was taken in and raised by Uncle Ping in a remote place. For twenty years he scraped by on the gray edges of society, once making a living through insurance scams and petty theft. But he is kind-hearted and unwilling to rot in the mud for the rest of his life. Again and again he struggles to break free, only to find that every step he takes bears the marks of his past, shadowing him wherever he goes. Cheng Boyan is an orthopedic surgeon with a humorous personality. He meets Xiang Xi during what looks like an absurd insurance scam. At first he just helps out in passing, but through repeated contact he comes to see both Xiang Xi's flaws and his refusal to give up, and grows ever more appreciative and ever more worried about him. Through Xiang Xi's perspective, the novel depicts how he gradually washes away his old habits and learns to be a "decent person," how Cheng Boyan stays by his side in a tolerant yet principled way, and how the two hesitate and draw closer amid public judgment and their own pasts. The book ends with a HE (happy ending), and its tone carries warmth and humor over a dark underlay. It is one of the representative works of Wu Zhe's "redemption plus growth" vein, and was later adapted into an audio drama of the same name broadcast on MissEvan.