The Couch Potato's Comeback: Starting with the Books

Shen Yue, thirty-three years old, is a good-for-nothing who gets by doing as little as possible in Qingshi Town. By day, he haggles at the market. At dawn, he leads a group of retirees in tai chi in the square. His life is more comfortable than anyone's. Nine years ago, when he fled back from the provincial capital in disgrace, all he had in his pocket was a train ticket and a stack of accounting textbooks he hadn't finished reading. Verifying old accounts pulls him back into finance. He helps Lao He's cake shop sort out its mess of books, and Lin Wei, a group vice president, takes notice of him at once. Shen Yue discovers that his hands, which have worked an abacus for nine years, can still work through every number on a balance sheet. From regional supervisor to assistant accounting director, from head of internal control and compliance to financial director. Every step is a knife-edge. Procurement reform saves a million yuan in costs; an investigation into related-party transactions uncovers a ten-million-yuan hole. But he lacks an intermediate professional qualification. If he fails the exam, he'll take a pay cut, lose his position, and be sent back to square one. By day, he manages the books for dozens of stores in the group. At night, he sits in his rented room and works through his textbooks page by page. He misses passing the first exam by three points, then grits his teeth and tries again. Side-business clients line up for him, while benefactors keep pushing him forward. On the day he passes the intermediate exam, he stands on the steps of the provincial capital's examination center, the sun warming the back of his neck. At last, he has the certificate. It opens the door to the financial director's office. No connections, no influential backers, just six words tucked into an account book nine years ago, its pages smeared with cream: “You can go even further.” This time, he won't let anyone down.