On her first day at work, the elevator breaks down, trapping two people together in a small patch of darkness. Jiang Chi catches the scent of cedar mixed with tobacco on her, and notices the strip of black stockings beneath her skirt.
After that, there's the restless high heel beneath the conference table, the fingers brushing her chest in the break room, the zipper drawn from the nape of her neck down to the small of her back in the fitting room, the hotel room door, the car on a rainy night, the desk late at night, and the tablecloth hanging to the floor in the banquet hall.
Jiang Chi crosses the line one step at a time, and Lu Jianwei lets her, again and again. The whole company thinks it's a flirtation between boss and subordinate. Only the two of them know that the one who fell first had already lost.
Until an anonymous tip reaches the company. Until Lu Jianwei's ex returns from abroad. Until "her future" and "her" are laid out on the same table, and she can only choose one.
Lu Jianwei says, "Go. I'm protecting you."
Jiang Chi says, "I'm not leaving. Either we find a way together, or I'll resign right now. You choose."
Theme: Love isn't climbing the ladder through someone else, nor is it charity. It's two people choosing to treat each other as equals, even when the power between them is unequal.
