Excerpt from The Wedding Party by Liu Xinwu, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Seeing his useless son slouching around in a borrowed windbreaker, Xiangdong's father hollered, "You shameless boy! Take that off at once!"

His mom hurried over and tried to soothe her husband. "Your blood pressure! No need to get worked up, let's talk this over, nice and calm." Then, to Xiangdong, "Tell your father you know what you did was wrong. After lunch, go find your friend and swap back. You hear me?"

Feeling like he had his mom's protection, Xiangdong sat fearlessly at the table and said, "What's the big deal? All we did was swap clothes." With that, he picked up his chopsticks.

This enraged his dad beyond measure. Stamping his foot, he declared, "Don't touch that food! This house has no room for someone like you. Get out of here right now!"

Xiangdong stood, shrugged, and walked out the door, ignoring his parents' screams.

He wandered eastward to the Shicha Seas and squeezed into a crowded pavilion—a few local residents often gather here to sing Beijing opera. Naturally, Xiangdong isn't actually interested in opera, he just enjoys making fun of how stupid the musicians and performers look. Next, he went to the Front Sea, currently frozen over, and menacingly "borrowed" a pair of ice skates from another guy his age. After some skating, he suddenly felt ferociously hungry, and that's how he ended up on the wide avenue leading to the Drum Tower.

Excerpted from The Wedding Party by Liu Xinwu. Copyright © 2021 by Liu Xinwu. Excerpted by permission of AmazonCrossing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.