When the story started off, I thought it was going to follow the storyline of hardboiled-fiction stories that we talked about in class. I was waiting for the husband and/or the mother-in-law to be found dead, and then the beautiful female client will get exposed for commiting the crime. However, nothing really happened in this short story. The missing husband was found in other city without his memories, and everyone continues living on normally. The female client seeking out the protagonist's help was unnecessary, and the protagonist's search for the missing husband was also unnecessary.
I felt empty when I finished reading this story, and I couldn't understand the purpose. I wondered if there was actually something deeper/abstract that the protagonist was searching for, or if there was meaning behind the husband losing his memories. It felt like the protagonist wasted his time searching for clues for his client. On the other hand, I think concluding the story with "nothing" is what makes the story relatable. Everyone has times where they worked hard on something but don't attain anything. Time was lost to the futile attempt to achieve something.
-Rose Zheng
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