I Ran Into My Boss on a Blind Date and Died of Embarrassment

Under daily pressure from his mother to get married, creative director Lin Yan finally gave in and registered on a high-end matchmaking app, hoping to find a “contract partner” to keep up appearances. To his utter surprise, when he showed up for their first in-person meeting, he found his boss, Lu Lin, CEO of Linxing Technology, waiting for him.

Lu Lin sat across from him, composed and matter-of-fact, and overturned all his assumptions: “This isn’t matchmaking. It’s a legitimate pursuit.”

Lin Yan thought it was an absurd misunderstanding that he needed to clear up immediately. Then it slowly dawned on him that every major project he’d worked on in his three years at the company, every crucial promotion he’d received, every thorny problem he’d solved, even his mother’s successful surgery... had all been made possible by a path Lu Lin had “happened” to pave.

The man known for his strict, cold manner at work had spent three years quietly and meticulously planting clues along the course of Lin Yan’s life, weaving a gentle yet sturdy net around him.

Lu Lin said, “I’ve paved the way. All you have to do is step onto it.”

But when Lin Yan finally worked up the courage to take the carefully prepared path, he realized it had never been a one-sided gift. From the dazzling lights of a Paris awards ceremony to the tranquil night sky above the lavender fields of Provence; from a public declaration at the company’s annual gala to standing side by side at a charity dinner; from carefully balancing their roles at work to being formally welcomed by the family elders... along the way, they went from boss and subordinate to “contract partners,” from “let’s give it a try” to “spending the rest of our lives together.”

This is a deep love that began with “calculation,” a modern parable about “sincerity,” “choice,” and “growing together.”