Wei’s parents discuss regrets of their one-child policy abortion as they become closer and more endeared with a mystery-laden Shuo. Evidence of Shuo’s physical abuse from his father and the father’s surprise death raises the stakes of Shuo’s true motives and character. Meanwhile, Wei’s parents found this tragedy an opportunity to adopt Shuo and fulfil their dream of an instant two-child family with an ideal new son compensating for the failures of their present son.

In Wei’s world, however, this situation has worsened his bad relationship with his parents. Growing tensions manifest between the two boys, from Shuo wanting the shirt Wei is already wearing to a tense light-switch battle to a physical altercation that never resolves itself. If there is a theme that Lin Jianjie employs throughout this film, it is that circular view of the non-resolution of scenes that has been figuratively used throughout. It starts with the round microscope shots of the father to the circle shots of the aquarium and character points-of-view, even down to the many oranges that backdrop the mother’s grocery shopping. The microscope shot has been an excellent metaphor for an up-close examination of discontented family life with an outside organism invading the weakened cell.