Inside the delivery box on a stormy night lay the spark that would rewrite the history of film and television investment.
When 28-year-old Lin Wantang rode a shared bike through the neon-lit Financial District, she had no idea what battlefield she was about to enter: the entertainment industry, corroded by data bubbles and games of capital. From office tea girl to rising star in investment, she used the sharp instincts she had honed as a delivery rider to detect the undercurrents sweeping the industry. A recording device hidden in a lipstick captured the unspoken rules of business banquets. Evidence secured with blockchain technology exposed a money-laundering scheme. An AI system’s calculations of emotional value began reshaping the world of screenwriting.
In this fame-and-fortune arena dominated by men, every step she took was marked by the resolve of a lone fighter. In three months, she cracked three major predicaments, developed projects for the “her economy” from a woman’s perspective, and sent shockwaves through the entire investment world when she exposed the industry’s blacklist. When the whole industry joined forces to crush her, she and her startup team held a pitch in an abandoned warehouse, becoming the first ray of light to pierce the gloom.
The relentless pressure from rising private-equity star Shen Yanhan, the secret support of top producer Jiang Lin, and the barely remembered rescuer from her childhood weave together a web of desire and genuine affection. Yet she never forgets the prediction she made that stormy night: “Data can lie, but the light of human nature is always real.”
This is a workplace tale of women awakening, and a battle to hunt down the light while overturning the rules of an entire industry. When everyone says “impossible,” someone has to be the first to break through the glass ceiling.
