My Wife Is a Champion

In the most populous nation on this planet, the name Wang Lei may well be as ordinary as names come. Among the more than ninety million people bearing the surname Wang across the country, there are exactly two hundred and nineteen thousand, one hundred and twenty-seven individuals named Wang Lei (as of 2014). Every child of the eighties, during their school years, could be certain that there was at least one, if not several, Wang Leis among their classmates. This fact alone speaks to the popularity of the name, but also to its utter commonness.

In a so-called major city of the northwest, our protagonist Wang Lei sat quietly in his rented room.

During summer in the northwest, the sun lingers late into the evening. At nine o’clock, many ordinary people, having finished dinner, emerge onto the streets to enjoy the coolness that comes as the heat of the day begins to fade.

Street vendors and nearby shops set up their grills; the scent of lamb mingled with cumin rises from the flames, filling the air with a rich aroma.

The smell seeped through the window, assailing Wang Lei’s nostrils. He had not eaten for an entire day. The spasms in his stomach reminded him that his body needed fuel, but mentally, Wang Lei felt surprisingly little.

All his life, Wang Lei had believed himself destined for something extraordinary. He longed for passionate love stories, a life as dramatic as those on television, or perhaps he felt he ought to leave a mark upon the world.

Yet, regrettably, in the first thirty years of his life, Wang Lei had amounted to nothin