It was the same car she had just ridden in, but now the seats were dry and the air fresh. All traces of the earlier mess and staleness were gone.
As she got out, Sang Wan thanked the driver repeatedly. He smiled with courteous grace: “It’s my honor to serve you!”
By the time she returned to her room, it was already past six. She had no appetite; her head felt heavy and dizzy.
After a quick wash, Sang Wan hugged her pillow and burrowed into the quilt. Sure enough, she developed a fever in the middle of the night. She found the medicine prescribed by the doctor, swallowed a few pills, and fell asleep again.
At dawn, the shrill ring of her phone woke her. Forcing her eyes open, she saw it was already past nine. On the screen was a landline number she didn’t recognize.
Sitting up, Sang Wan answered: “Hello?”
“May I speak to Miss Sang? This is Dingli Architectural Design Co., Ltd. Do you have time to come for an interview today?”
The woman’s voice on the other end was polite and gentle. Sang Wan, stunned for a moment, quickly came to her senses.
They arranged the interview for two o’clock that afternoon. After hanging up, Sang Wan sat staring blankly at the silent television screen for a long while. She knew Dingli. As one of the country’s leading architectural design firms, its projects dotted cities across the nation. On the very first day she sent out résumés, she had applied to Dingli. A week had passed with no response, and she thought she had already been eliminated.
She hadn’t expected this—truly, heaven never shuts every door. Her spirits lifted instantly; even the dizziness and fever seemed to vanish.
Sang Wan hurried to wash up. By the time she stepped into Dingli’s grand lobby, it was ten minutes before two.
In the corridor outside the interview floor, more than a dozen people were already waiting. At a glance, she saw nervous fresh graduates and seasoned, steady-looking middle-aged candidates.
Sang Wan registered with the interview coordinator, then found an empty seat and waited quietly.
Candidates were called in one by one. By the time it was Sang Wan’s turn, an hour had already passed. As she stepped into the interview room, her eyes immediately met those of the woman seated in the center.
White blouse, black skirt suit. The nameplate before her read: Tao Lingxin – Director of the Design Department.
A woman’s intuition told Sang Wan that Tao Lingxin disliked her— to be precise, she resisted her as if she carried some notorious scandal. But she didn’t.
Suppressing that inexplicable unease, Sang Wan handed over her résumé.
“Director Tao, hello! My name is Sang Wan. I graduated from the Architecture Department of Imperial University. This is my résumé.”
Tao Lingxin’s gaze lingered on Sang Wan’s face for several moments before she finally lowered her eyes to the résumé. Her lips curved into a cold smile.
Imperial University’s outstanding graduate. One year of experience at Lu Corporation—six years as a full-time homemaker.
With a single glance, Tao Lingxin had already labeled her: A housewife with outdated skills, ruled by romance and family life.
In Tao Lingxin’s eyes, such a candidate should have been eliminated in the first round. But since the boss had spoken, Sang Wan would inevitably be hired.
That wasn’t just unfair to the architects already working at Dingli, but even more unfair to the excellent candidates outside who were about to be rejected.
“Miss Sang…” The HR director asked a few questions. Sang Wan answered each one fluently, without hesitation.
Tao Lingxin straightened in her seat, arms crossed. “Of the eleven designers before you, you saw them, didn’t you? Compared to the graduates, you’re not as young. Compared to the other architects, you don’t have their wealth of design experience. And on top of that, you carry the burden of family. So tell me—why should I hire you?”
She was asking: what advantage did Sang Wan have?
Sang Wan had none. But having finally secured this chance, she couldn’t give it up so easily. “My graduation project at Imperial University has already been built in Sicheng. During my year at Lu Corporation, I completed two design works bearing my name. I believe that’s enough to prove my professional ability. Those six years as a full-time homemaker were my personal choice, but I never stopped learning. I’ve followed and studied the works of renowned architects at home and abroad over the past six years. Compared to fresh graduates, I have richer life experience and broader knowledge reserves. Compared to those other architects, I’m younger.”
Calm and steady, Sang Wan turned Tao Lingxin’s doubts back on her.
Tao Lingxin raised her brows. “Go back and wait for notification.”
*Wait for notification*—that was a polite rejection.
Resigned, Sang Wan sighed inwardly, rose, thanked them, and left the interview room.
Ten minutes later, Tao Lingxin carried the sorted résumés into the boss’s office. “President Qin…”
She laid two résumés before Qin Baichuan. “I’ve already interviewed Sang Wan, the candidate you asked me to keep. She’s tasteless if kept, a pity if discarded. Compared to her, I believe the other candidate is stronger. Please take a look.”
“Tasteless if kept, a pity if discarded…” A cool voice sounded from the side. Tao Lingxin turned, only then noticing a young man lounging on the sofa by the window.
Lou Ye rose lazily to his feet, a cold smile tugging at his lips. “If she’s really so tasteless yet a pity to discard, then how did her résumé still end up in front of your boss through your hands? We’re all women—why make things harder for each other, don’t you agree?”
“President Lou…” Tao Lingxin hadn’t expected her subtle thoughts to be seen through so easily, let alone exposed outright in front of the boss.
It was practically a slap across her face. Her expression darkened for a moment.
Without giving her a chance to explain, Lou Ye turned and strode out.
“Lou Ye!” Qin Baichuan hurried after him, only to see Lou Ye already stepping into the elevator. He recalled Lou Ye’s earlier words—if he cared so much, why not simply bring Sang Wan into the Lou Corporation?
Lou Ye had said: *She’s too proud a person to ever accept going through the back door.*
It was rare enough for the lofty young master to descend for a moment, yet before he could even cherish the chance, his subordinate’s cleverness had ruined it.
Turning back to Tao Lingxin, Qin Baichuan’s face twisted into a cold smile.
“Wash your neck clean—and pray.”
Tao Lingxin froze.
Qin Baichuan’s voice dropped low: “Pray that in the future you and Sang Wan don’t meet at a bidding conference.”
??? Impossible. To qualify for an architectural bidding conference, one had to be a senior architect and a company executive with signing authority. And Sang Wan—just a full-time housewife???
Even back in her office, Tao Lingxin was still dazed. She couldn’t tell if she had misheard, or if the world had gone mad beyond her imagination.
“Senior Sister!” The familiar call rang out just as Sang Wan was standing blankly by the roadside.
A minute earlier, she had received a call from Dingli’s front desk: she had been hired and was to start work next Monday.
But how was that possible? Tao Lingxin’s every word, every look had been filled with rejection and disdain. So why had they hired her?
Lifting her eyes again, Sang Wan saw a sleek black Ferrari glide to a stop before her. Its wing-like door slowly lifted upward.
From the driver’s seat, Lou Ye removed his sunglasses, his face lighting up with the surprise of a chance encounter. “What a coincidence…”