The City at Six

On Lin Wan's first day at work, her coffee went cold three times.

In her new cubicle, the employee badge hanging at her collarbone, the meeting spent arguing about rounded button corners, and the eternally long line at the jianbing stall all came together to form the start of her working life.

She was used to filling her writing with polite qualifiers, and approached every situation cautiously, always afraid she hadn't done well enough. Then Lao Zhou crossed out the phrase "due to a combination of many factors" in her draft and told her that unnecessary preamble was, at its core, a sign of inner timidity.

There was no dramatic comeback, only an ordinary person gradually finding her footing at work.

Starting with a cup of coffee that kept going cold, Lin Wan learned to cut the empty words and let go of her fear. Amid the city lights at six o'clock, she found a warm light of her own.