After Being Laid Off by AI

When Fang Ning turned 28, he lost his job on the 42nd floor of an office building, his dignity of an annual salary of 300,000 yuan, and the illusion that "I'm not bad". AI replaced her job. She moved from the High-tech Zone to Tongzilou next to the vegetable market, learned to buy discounted noodles, and learned to fill out medical insurance forms for Aunt Wang next door. She thought life was like this. Then she met two men. Liang Su, her ex-boyfriend in college and a civil servant, whom we had not contacted for four years, reunited at a mutual aid event for the unemployed. He was still so considerate - treating her to Japanese food, helping her find a job, and giving her scarves of unknown brands. His food is like takeout, and it arrives as soon as you place your order, so you can't fault it. He Ming, a programmer at an AI company, comes to the community garage every Saturday to teach people how to use computers. He talks little and doesn't know how to chat. Happy birthday is followed by a period. But he will remember her drinking American oat milk, saying "I didn't see you today" when she didn't come, putting his coat on the back of her chair and pretending nothing happened. On a rainy night, they sat on the garage steps and shared a package of squashed soda crackers, listening to the rain for forty minutes without saying anything. Fang Ning wrote in her diary: The Japanese food Liang Su treated me to was 10,000 times more delicious than this, but I don't know why. What I remember is the taste of the biscuits. This is not a "choose who" story. This is a girl who spent four years figuring out one thing after the world collapsed - I deserve to be loved, not because someone is willing to love me, but because I fell in love with myself first. There are good and bad days, but really.