Sheng Zhenzhen had always been the kind of child other parents wished they had: smart, hardworking, and level-headed. Her father ran a medium-sized building materials company, and her mother was a gentle homemaker. The family of three lived in the best neighborhood in the provincial capital. But the year she took the college entrance exams, her father's business partner betrayed him, the company's cash flow collapsed, and they lost everything overnight. Even worse, her own uncle took advantage of their plight, siphoned off her father's last remaining assets, and dumped all the debts on him. Her parents were forced to move back to their hometown, while eighteen-year-old Sheng Zhenzhen walked into college with a suitcase and only three hundred yuan to her name.
She told herself that crying was useless, and so was hating anyone. From handing out flyers and tutoring to working at a coffee shop, she took on the burden of her tuition and living expenses by herself. Over four years of college, she learned every trick for getting by at the bottom and saw the warmth and coldness of human nature. After graduation, she joined an ordinary advertising agency, starting in an entry-level operations role and working her way up step by step with a cool head and relentless drive. This city was big enough to hold everyone's dreams, yet small enough that everyone who had been let down could find one another. Sheng Zhenzhen didn't expect miracles. She believed only this: you make your own way, one step at a time.
