She Got Pulled Into the Game at a Drinking Party

Zou Lan is thirty-three, single, and director of the Bureau of Commerce.

Five years ago, she was a Chinese teacher at an elementary school. During an inspection, a leader's hand “accidentally” rested on her waist. She smiled, slipped away, and offered him a cup of tea.

From then on, she entered another world, one of drinking parties, banquets, flirtation, and deals.

She has a special ability: she can read men's eyes.

She knows who truly admires her and who only wants to sleep with her.

She learned to move through flirtation, dancing along the boundary. She never crosses the line, but makes everyone think she might.

A commercial complex project worth 4.8 billion yuan in Hedong District rests on her shoulders. Investors keep raising their prices, local powers throw obstacles in her way, and coordinating the military-owned land is a painfully slow process.

Liu Zheng, a special forces brigade commander, is one more hurdle she has to clear.

At their first meeting, he rolled down his car window and asked, “Who are you?”

She didn't back down.

Late one night, he sent her four words: “Are you free tonight?”

She didn't reply.

Later, he drove forty kilometers to take her to a reservoir, kissed her in the wind, then returned to business as usual the next day and said, “What happened last night must not affect our work.”

Zou Lan smiled.

She knew restraint meant he was thinking about her.

This is the story of a woman carefully navigating the worlds of power and desire.

She never makes the first move, but she is never passive.

She makes every man feel he has a chance, yet never shows her hand to anyone.