• In middle school, he was the “campus know-it-all,” and the shopkeeper was his god-aunt.
• In high school, he hung around pool halls and once helped the principal recover a stolen bicycle.
• He attended a third-tier college, but became the “king of middlemen” in the part-time job scene.
• After graduation, his parents pressured him to take the civil service exam, threatening to “break his legs if he kept messing around.”
• During exam prep, he drilled practice questions in an internet cafe booth, with instant noodles and policy essays for company.
• He barely passed the written exam, then turned things around in the interview with “market-stall haggling negotiation skills.”
• When assignments were handed out, he was sent to Qingshan Town because his “social connections were complicated.”
The thinking is clear and I particularly like the storyline.