She carefully set down her teacup. She had no intention of saying another word.
“Regular folks have to fight tooth and nail just to get into grad school. You wouldn’t get it, Senior—you’re a genius.”
“We’ve said what needs saying. We’re not a match, so no sense wasting each other’s time. I’m out.”
Xie Lisheng leaned back in his chair with comfortable ease, showing not a shred of false modesty over being called a genius.
He looked half-amused, clearly pleased with himself for winning the argument.
Jiang Zao slung her bag over her shoulder and stood to leave when his lazy voice drifted after her again. “Hey.”
He curved his lips into a smirk.
“Want me to put in a good word with Wei Yuan for you?”
“???”
Her cheeks flushed hot. She whipped her head around to glare at him.
If you’re human, I’ll eat shit standing on my head!
~~~
Jiang Zao rode the elevator down from the tea restaurant, feeling like she’d been flayed alive.
She’d finally worked up the nerve to go on this blind date, only to run into a total jinx like him.
She boarded the subway and took a seat, leaning against the glass panel with her eyes unfocused.
Some of the LED ads scrolling past outside the window had faded with age—like ones from a couple of years back. They were advertising the massive site where Yunsheng had acquired their company.
An image of human evolution incorporating aircraft elements filled the screen, paired with a succinct caption: “Humans sought to conquer the skies, so they decided to walk upright.”
Jiang Zao was all too familiar with this ad slogan.
During her senior year, she’d come down with a high fever on the day of her first Postgraduate Entrance Exam. Her mind had been such a fog that she couldn’t even make sense of the questions. When she stumbled out afterward, she knew without a doubt that she didn’t need to bother checking her answers—she’d bombed it.
That winter had been brutally cold. She sat at the bus station in a daze, her face muffled behind a mask as she cried without making a sound. She had no idea where to go or what her future held.
Wanting to wipe her eyes on the advertising panel, she turned her head and spotted this very ad.
The slogan jumped out at her.
Back then, Yunsheng must have been just a fledgling startup—she’d never even heard of the brand. But that line alone had made it stick in her mind.
Later, she tacked the phrase above her desk and resolved to postpone her graduation, stay in the dorms, and retake the exam the following year.
Whenever studying wore her out, she’d glance up and see it.
“Humans sought to conquer the skies, so they decided to walk upright.”
Even if your ambitions soared impossibly high, you had to start with the humblest step right now.
That was why she’d always been curious about who came up with the slogan. If she could, she’d love to send them a private message of thanks.
The subway train hurtled forward. As Jiang Zao replayed Xie Lisheng’s brazen mockery of her education from earlier, a surge of defiance welled up inside her.
Was she really going to throw away her career prospects just to avoid returning to Qinnan over something so trivial? What would all those years of grinding from the Gaokao through grad school have been for?
Jiang Zao pulled out her phone and fired off a WeChat message to her colleague Li Li: I’ve decided to join Yunsheng with you.
~~~
After savoring a leisurely afternoon tea by the river, Xie Lisheng jingled his car keys as he headed to the parking lot that evening and drove off.
He’d barely settled into the dark red leather seats of his sports car when his friend Zhao Yangcheng called.
He picked up, slouched in the driver’s seat with the AC blasting, and responded halfheartedly. “What?”
“What do you mean, what? How’d the blind date go? Did you nail that sweet spot—not a bad impression, but bad enough she never wants to see you again?”
Zhao Yangcheng sounded exasperated. “I knew you wouldn’t stand in for me on another one, so it had to repel her in a single shot.”
Xie Lisheng leaned back against the headrest, eyes closed. “Mm. And for your sake, she humiliated me good.”
There was a two-second silence on the other end. “Huh?”
Recalling Jiang Zao’s barbs, Xie Lisheng’s brows twitched, his jaw tightening. “Yeah. Said I was ugly.”
Zhao Yangcheng went quiet again—this time for longer.
“…”
“Pfft hahahahaha! What? She thinks you’re ugly? You?”
“I can’t—this is gold. Gotta post it on Moments: ‘Congrats to Big Boss Xie on scoring his first blind-date rejection for being too ugly!'”
Xie Lisheng’s eyes snapped open as he mentally mapped out a route to run Zhao Yangcheng over. “Dead men don’t talk?”
“See? You’re getting worked up.” Zhao was wheezing with laughter. “Who is this girl, anyway? Starting to regret not going myself.”
“In her eyes, I’m ugly as sin. If you’d shown up…” He fished the earbuds she’d rushed off and left behind from his pocket. The fluffy pink case looked absurdly out of place in his hand. “…she’d probably call the cops on you for vandalizing Nancheng’s cityscape.”
“Come on, don’t drag your godfather into this. I can’t afford the embarrassment.”
Zhao Yangcheng paused. “…Take it out on her, not me.”
“Hey, spill. What does she look like? If she called you ugly, she’s gotta be a knockout.”
Xie Lisheng toyed with the earbud case, her palm-sized porcelain face flickering through his mind. He shrugged noncommittally. “Eh, nothing special.”
“Nothing special? Define ‘nothing’!” But Xie Lisheng hung up before the nagging could ramp up.
He tossed the earbuds into the center console and fired up the sports car.
Her looks hadn’t changed much, but that mouth of hers had gotten sharper.
He pictured her sitting across from him—talking a big game, yet always glancing away, too chicken to meet his eyes.
The corner of his mouth curved in an amused smile. He let it go.
Not much growth there.
~~~
On Monday, Jiang Zao headed to the company to sign her contract. Three-quarters of the Planning Department staff had opted to follow Yunsheng out of Nancheng.
Given the unusual circumstances, Yunsheng offered everyone a generous housing subsidy—more than enough to secure short-term digs in Qinnan City.
At lunch, Jiang Zao stared at the restaurant’s reservation contact number she’d gotten from them, debating whether to call Xie Lisheng and ask for her earbuds back—the ones she’d left behind at the restaurant.
Truth be told, she’d been so cutting on blind-date day precisely because she figured they’d never cross paths again. Who could’ve guessed…
Sigh. If they didn’t come back, she’d have to buy a new pair. Another hit to the wallet…
Gritting her teeth, Jiang Zao dialed the number. It rang a few times before connecting, but the voice that answered caught her completely off guard.
“Sorry…” came a stranger’s male voice, speaking bright and cheerful Mandarin with a hint of a Shanghai twang: “Hey~ who’s this?”
Jiang Zao’s social anxiety inexplicably flared up. She stammered out “wrong number” and hung up.
He hadn’t even left his own number! What was his problem?
Whatever. Let him have it.
In the two weeks before leaving Nancheng, Jiang Zao sublet her current room, bid farewell to her longtime roommate with whom she’d shared many happy times, and tied up all her loose ends at Feida.
As she boarded the high-speed train bound for Qinnan City, Jiang Zao cast one last glance at the city, her heart uneasy about the uncertain life ahead.
She plugged in her old wired earphones and started some music, reflecting that her decision to leave Nancheng had at least one upside: she’d never have to run into Xie Lisheng again.
~~~
After two days of getting settled, on the first Monday of the new week, all the former Feida employees who had just joined gathered in the Planning Department to report for duty.
The general manager tasked with onboarding them was dressed in a sharp suit. He informed them that their direct superior placed great importance on the Planning Department and would make a special appearance that morning for the department’s kickoff meeting.
New and veteran employees of the Planning Department packed into the company’s second-largest meeting room on the thirty-seventh floor, waiting for the boss to arrive.
The staff sat shoulder to shoulder, whispering among themselves.
Jiang Zao stared at the Yunsheng product overview handout that had been distributed, her head spinning from the wall of technical jargon. As a complete tech novice, she felt overwhelmed.
Just memorizing the functions of all Yunsheng’s products would fry her brain cells… Could she really handle this job?
Li Li, sitting beside her, barely glanced at the handbook. She jiggled her leg restlessly, eyes fixed on the door, buzzing with excitement over who knew what.
Jiang Zao shot her a glance. “What’s with you?”
Li Li replied, “Waiting for the CEO, obviously.”
Jiang Zao snickered. “Why bother? Hoping he’ll recommend Yunsheng Cafeteria’s signature dishes?”
“What are you talking about? Didn’t you look up anything about Yunsheng before you got here?” she whispered. “Their CEO is a super-duper mega-handsome guy! One photo and he could be an influencer.”
“Huh?” The exaggeration piqued Jiang Zao’s curiosity. “Got a link?”
“I’ll show you—he’s so hot, it makes me actually want to come to work.” Li Li pulled out her phone. Before she could open the article, a stir came from the meeting room door.
The big boss had arrived.
The two broke off their conversation and looked up in unison—
The instant Xie Lisheng strode into the meeting room in a perfectly tailored suit, Jiang Zao’s heart skipped a beat.
Wha…
Flanked by the junior managers, Xie Lisheng took his seat at the head of the table. With one hand, he undid the two buttons of his suit jacket and swept his gaze coolly over the room.
Silence fell wherever his eyes landed.
When his gaze reached her side of the room, a sheen of sweat broke out on Jiang Zao’s neck. Her eyes stayed wide, unable to pull away.
How… could this be possible?
Xie Lisheng’s long, elegant fingers rested on the microphone. Then he raised a hand and said, “New hires in the Planning Department, raise your hands so I can see you.”
Everyone enthusiastically shot their hands up, eager for his attention—everyone except one person in the corner, who raised her hand while burying her head as if trying to dig three meters into the ground.
His gaze slowly shifted across the room, paused, and suddenly curved with a hint of amusement.