Shang Zhitao got on the bus early. The city had just woken up, and the bus rolled through the morning mist. She put in her earbuds and watched the streets slide by outside the window. The people here worked hard, she thought. Even at this hour, the roads were already full of people heading somewhere.
She was one of them too, just another passerby, hurrying along.
She wore a white shirt dress today, cinched at the waist with a thin, light brown belt, her hair pulled up, no makeup on. Even so, she carried the kind of confidence only youth can give. She sat quietly, composed, like the well-behaved neighbor's kid everyone talked about. Good, but not so good that anyone would remember her name.
Shang Zhitao had been this kind of person since she was a child. Her grades were solidly upper-middle. Her looks were solidly upper-middle. Close enough to average that even her diligence and humility couldn't lift her out of the pack. So she'd learned, early on, to comfort herself with a simple thought: I'm just a passerby, one more ordinary face among many. I'll never reach the heights, so I might as well just live up to who I am.
Over time, that mindset shaped her into someone genuinely pleasant to be around. Her teachers always said the same thing about her: Shang Zhitao has such a good personality, so sunny, such good character. They never seemed to find anything else to praise.
So when she sent in her resume to this agency, one of the biggest in the industry, she never expected to get anywhere. And yet she slipped through the first round like a fish through muddy water. By the third round, a remote interview, she was up against candidates from Columbia, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua, and Peking University. The interviewer that day was Luan Nian, already worn thin by the morning's calls. He glanced at her resume, at the school she'd graduated from, and his frown deepened.
The other resumes on his desk told a different story: student union presidents, outstanding student representatives, International Mathematical Olympiad winners, students admitted through special talent programs. Shang Zhitao had been the head of her school's Life Department. The HR rep beside him just shrugged. "You know how it is. We don't want anyone accusing us of discriminating by school."
"Did you pull this off some job posting site at random?" Luan Nian asked. He was the company's creative consultant and head of strategic planning, and he was only sitting in on this call because his schedule had been shuffled into an earlier round of phone interviews than usual.
Liang Xin, who was running the recruiting session, was used to his tone by now. She just smiled. "See for yourself." She'd been in HR for fifteen years and had read more people than she could count. If Shang Zhitao had made it to round three, she had something going for her.
"Fine."
The call connected, and a bright, nervous voice came through. "Hello."
"Shang Zhitao, this is Tracy. Today's main interviewer is Luan Nian. Shall we begin?"
"Okay." Even through the phone, you could tell she was sitting up straight, her voice carrying a faint tremor. Luan Nian had already mentally checked out of the interview.
Liang Xin saw him glance down at his phone and knew Shang Zhitao's chances were fading, right along with that nervous little hello. Luan Nian didn't keep weak people around him. Even when it came to recruiting fresh graduates, he only wanted the best, and Shang Zhitao clearly wasn't that. Liang Xin hadn't expected him to say anything else, so she pressed on herself, asking Shang Zhitao, "Have you done any internships recently?"
"Yes. I worked with some classmates on the fabric design and front-of-house for an art exhibition."
"What did the exhibition work involve?"
"Mainly visual design, venue construction, and event logistics. The main visual concept was handled by one of my classmates. I led everything else." Shang Zhitao sounded a little less nervous now, and there was a shy smile in her voice. "It was the first time we'd taken on something that big. There was a lot we didn't know how to do."
"And you still took it on?"
"It's just... the exhibition didn't have much of a budget, but we wanted to do it, so..." There was nothing rehearsed in her answer, nothing dressed up. Her career counselor had told her that job hunting was a two-way street, that overselling yourself never helped.
Liang Xin laughed, genuinely charmed. Beside her, Luan Nian had already stood up, clearly done wasting his time on this call. Liang Xin sighed quietly to herself, watched him walk out, and kept going anyway. The interview was being recorded, and she spent the next half hour with Shang Zhitao, listening to her talk through that project. It was a small, real experience, nothing that would impress this company on paper, but it was something a student had built through her own effort, and that counted for something. Grounded, hardworking, easy to get along with. Those were the words Liang Xin wrote down for her.
After the call, Liang Xin sent the recording to Zhang Ling in marketing. "Weren't you looking for someone grounded? See if she fits what you need. If she does, I'll set up an in-person interview."
Zhang Ling checked the system and hesitated. "Doesn't this go against protocol? Luke already rejected her."
"Don't worry about Luke. Just listen to it yourself."
"All right."
Liang Xin called Luan Nian next. "HR's been pushing for more diversity on staff. Our team's full of elites right now, everyone floating around up in the clouds, nobody willing to come down and actually get their hands dirty. If it keeps going like this, we're going to have problems. For this year's campus recruiting, I want to bring in a few grounded kids, ones who can handle hard work even if they're not flashy. Let Shang Zhitao through."
"Relative of yours?" Luan Nian asked, indifferent. "Worth the trouble for someone so average?"
"I can't start as an HRBP and already know everything. I have to learn somewhere."
"Then consider it a favor." Luan Nian hung up and, without much thought, changed Shang Zhitao's interview result.
Shang Zhitao knew nothing about any of this. She sat on the bus that early morning, looking forward to her first day, still a little baffled by her own luck. What had made her good enough to beat out candidates from Columbia, Harvard, Tsinghua, Peking University? Good enough to land the same offer they did? She didn't quite believe it. She chalked it up to one word: luck.
It had rained in Beijing, and a thin fog still hung over the city that morning. She arrived far too early, so early that the office building was still empty. Security pointed her toward a waiting area, floor to ceiling windows on one side, a tall ginkgo tree standing just outside.
She sat with her backpack beside her, back straight, watching the scenery through the glass, earbuds in, hands resting on her knees. This was 2010, Beijing, and hardly any girls sat like that anymore. Most would have sprawled out, relaxed, like the whole world already belonged to them.
She caught the smell of coffee and turned her head. A man was walking toward the entrance, tall, broad shouldered, handsome in an unhurried way. His face gave nothing away. He didn't so much as glance at her. He swiped his badge at the access gate in one smooth motion and disappeared into the elevator.
Shang Zhitao felt a small thrill of excitement. Yao Bei had once told her that the most elegant men in Beijing all worked in advertising. When Shang Zhitao asked what she meant by elegant, Yao Bei just told her she'd understand once she saw it for herself. On the morning of her first day at work, Shang Zhitao finally understood exactly what she'd meant.
That kind of elegance, she thought, probably belonged to a man who'd just ended things with someone.
Luan Nian had no idea he'd just been cast as a heartbreaker. There was a major pitch that day, and he'd come in early to go over it one more time. He hadn't even noticed her sitting there as he passed.
Upstairs, he set his coffee down on the desk. His phone rang. He picked it up, and a woman's voice came through, crying. "I regret it. I don't want this to end. Can we start over?"
"I'm sorry. I don't go back for seconds." He hung up, blocked her number in a few quick, practiced motions, then picked up his laptop and headed for the conference room.
Plenty of people at the company were afraid of Luan Nian. He'd never been an easy man to work for, but people followed him anyway. He'd landed this position at twenty eight. He had talent, ability, work ethic, and, of course, the right connections behind him. Everyone knew his future was only going to get brighter from here.