The day Xu Mian got caught secretly photographing Chen Yu napping, the dean held up her flip phone and roared over the school broadcast system: “Xu Mian of the senior-year honors class! Your morals are corrupt!”
That blurry side-profile photo became the mark of shame that haunted her entire youth.
Seven years later, in an elevator at Beijing’s China World Trade Center, a woman in a sharp suit held the doors open. “Engineer Chen, did you bring the proposal?”
Chen Yu froze, clutching his document bag. The decisive Ms. Xu, who could command a negotiation table, was unmistakably the deskmate he’d made cry back in school.
His ears reddened as he handed over the proposal, completely unaware that he was stepping into a carefully woven trap.
“Are you free this weekend?” Xu Mian’s fingertip traced the quote he’d revised three times. “Could you help me fix my computer?”
When Chen Yu found the photo that had been broadcast to the whole school on his old phone, Xu Mian was taking apart his computer with a screwdriver between her teeth. “Engineer Chen, the department head confiscated more than just your phone back then.”
