Gu Shen is Sisyphus.

But he doesn't even need the punishment of the gods.

The mountain was chosen by himself, the stone was moved by himself, and even the thought of "one more time" was born from his own mind.

He pushes the money up bit by bit—not on impulse, but as a plan, a review, a "this time the logic is sound."

The stone rolls down—not by accident, but by necessity, by statistics, along a path he has long been familiar with.

The only difference is:

Sisyphus knows the stone will fall,

while he pretends not to know each time.

Albert Camus said we must imagine Sisyphus happy.

But that's because Sisyphus has already seen everything clearly on his way down the mountain—

he has no illusions.

Gu Shen is different.

His moment closest to "happiness" is not when he's pushing the stone, but in the instant before the stone is about to roll down—

in that moment, he still believes it will stop this time.

Therefore, his suffering is more base and more complete than Sisyphus's:

not the failure itself,

but repeatedly mistaking the "inevitable" for the "exception."

He is not trapped on the mountain,

he is trapped in the thought of "this time is different."

The stone rolling down is not absurd.

What is truly absurd is—

each time he walks down the mountain,

it is not with clear-eyed acceptance,

but by reconstructing a reason,

to make himself believe one more time.