I Quit and Moved Back Home, Then Turned My Blind Date into a Flirt

[An Upright, Steady Civil Servant Hero vs. An Ambitious Dreamer Heroine] At twenty-one, Lin Zhengyan graduated with a degree in Chinese Language and Literature from a non-elite university. Ambitious, she dreamed of becoming a literary author, making her mark at a newspaper in the capital and dazzling the Chinese literary world. Five years later, at twenty-six, Lin Zhengyan was writing copy for an obscure internet company, working grueling 996 hours until she was ready to collapse. With the latest wave of ten million college graduates flooding the job market, some woman from a 211 university had taken her place, working like a pack mule. Her boss looked smug. “Xiao Lin, it's not that I don't want to keep you. You're just clearly cut out for the civil service exams.” Lin Zhengyan had just quit when her hopeless boyfriend leered at her and said, “I've worked it all out. I'll give your family 88,000 yuan in bride price, and your family can return 168,000 yuan as a dowry.” Her lease was ending, she was behind on utilities, and her Huabei credit was maxed out. Her mother called again and again to pressure her into marriage. “Just come home, get married, and have a baby. You can take the civil service exam afterward...” Lin Zhengyan thought: To hell with this. Lin Zhengyan said aloud: “Okay.” Dinner with her second arranged date was the most awkward meal of Lin Zhengyan's life. He spent the whole time eating and didn't say a single word to her. Thinking the match was a bust, Lin Zhengyan promptly forgot all about him. Until two days later, when she was about to head to her next blind date. The second guy sent her a photo of the sky: “What do you think of me?” Lin Zhengyan: ???