At twenty-five, Zhu Maisui has had seven jobs, moved five times, and been ripped off countless times. Her phone is full of notes documenting every pitfall.
After falling into so many traps, she's become more alert than anyone to the signs that something's off. While everyone else panics, she calmly checks her notes: “Pitfall number X. I know what to do.”
From running to work after her electric bike is stolen, to organizing an evacuation with an emergency kit when a bus breaks down, to dragging a gas canister out of the way of oncoming traffic, her coworkers say she carries everything in her bag. She says nobody else is going to prepare it for her.
Later, she discovers that these traps aren't isolated incidents. A web stretches from the company where she started working, leading back to a business empire built from nothing. The person behind it came from the same humble beginnings as she did, but chose to be the one laying the traps.
She investigates alone for three years, gets sued, harassed online, and has paint thrown at her. Then, one by one, the people she helped come back.
A story about bad luck, dogged persistence, and dignity.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
