The rain always stops eventually, but the dampness never leaves. It clings like soggy sneakers, or a shirt collar that can never be ironed smooth again.
Lin Yanbei sat on a bench at the bus stop, clutching her portfolio, which was nearly soaked through with her sweat, and drank the last half-bottle of mineral water.
Her phone rang. She dug into her pocket and pulled it out; it was a call from Sister Lion.
As soon as she answered, Sister Lion’s booming voice came through: “Hey! Yanbei, how did the interview go?”
Lin Yanbei let out a dry, forced laugh. “The same as usual…”
Relying on his father, who served as vice president of a top architectural institute, Li Shaoxian had blacklisted her throughout the industry. The countless resumes she submitted this past month had all sunk into the sea without a trace. The few firms that actually called her in for interviews only did so to humiliate her to her face.
“Damn it!” Sister Lion roared indignantly. “They really have the nerve, don’t they? A whole family ganging up on a fresh graduate. What are you planning to do now?”
Lin Yanbei shook her head at the empty air on her end of the line.
Receiving no reply, Sister Lion sighed. “Why don’t you try a different path? Go back to preparing for post-grad exams, or just leave Yangcheng altogether…”
Lin Yanbei froze for a moment. “If I don’t stay in Yangcheng, where else can I go?”
Sister Lion replied, “Anywhere, really! Li Shaoxian’s father only has clout here in Yangcheng; outside the city, he’s nobody. Don’t you have a relative at D&A? Why not ask if they can give you an internal referral?”
“Go to Jingdu…” Lin Yanbei subconsciously repeated, visualizing the grand, prosperous city with its dense rows of towering skyscrapers.
Sister Lion pressed on, “Treat it as your last-ditch effort, go all in. There’s barely any cost anyway; you can still afford a train ticket, can’t you?”
“Yes, I can.” Lin Yanbei glanced at her bank balance. Though it was under four figures, it was enough for a round-trip ticket.
She began to give it serious thought right then and there.
After just thirty seconds of deliberation, she hung up the phone with Sister Lion and decisively dialed her youngest aunt’s number.
The 98th floor of the Century Plaza Tower in Jingdu.
As the sensor doors of the D&A Architecture Office slid open promptly at 9:00 AM, a slender figure stepped inside. Receptionist Carry stood up immediately and greeted her respectfully.
“Good morning, Architect Jiang. President Lin is waiting for you in your office.”
Jiang Ran paused, slightly surprised, and asked, “How long has she been here?”
Carry replied, “She arrived fifteen minutes ago. She seems to be in a great mood.”
“Got it.” A faint chuckle escaped Jiang Ran’s lips, softening the cold, distant aura around her brows and brightening her expression.
Pushing open the door to her private office, she saw D&A’s Marketing Director, Lin Shiyu, leaning against the 270-degree panoramic glass curtain wall, looking like a captivating painting.
“Don’t lean against my glass. If you fall out, I won’t be held responsible,” Jiang Ran said casually with familiar ease.
Lin Shiyu glanced at her, tapping her knuckles softly against the glass wall. “The curtain wall system of the Century Plaza Tower uses a double-layer flexible design paired with a thousand-ton Tuned Mass Damper, rated to withstand up to a level 12 typhoon.”
“If a gentle lean from me could send me plummeting, where would that leave the reputation of our lead design architect, Jiang Ran?”
Jiang Ran raised an eyebrow. “Fair point. Visibility over the river is quite good today, so take your time and enjoy the view.”
With that, she sat down in her office chair, turning herself half away from Lin Shiyu in a display of utter disinterest, and picked up a pen to sign the backlog of documents.
Lin Shiyu walked over, manually turning Jiang Ran’s chair back around to face her. She snatched the documents from her hands, leaned against the desk, and protested: “Do you really think I’m missing out on your view? For the second round of financing, I’ve been playing frequent flyer alongside Qin Ji for a month straight; I’m sick of looking at the sky over Jingdu! Aren’t you going to ask why I took time out of my crazy schedule to come see you?”
Jiang Ran looked up at her calmly. “What is it?”
Lin Shiyu instantly pulled a file from her bag and handed it over with a mysterious, beaming smile. “Something wonderful~”
Jiang Ran took the folder. Under the transparent cover lay a single resume.
【Lin Yanbei. Bachelor of Architecture from Yangcheng University of Technology.
Gold Award in the UA Creative Award International Concept Design Competition, First Prize in the National Student Architecture Competition, one year of internship experience at the Yangcheng Architectural Design Institute.】
In the ID photo in the top right corner, the girl had soft hair falling over her shoulders, open and clear brows, and clean, attractive facial features.
Jiang Ran narrowed her eyes.
She looked familiar, so familiar that the image of the girl violently flipping a table was already playing in her mind.
How could there be such a coincidence?
Noticing the flickers of intrigue on Jiang Ran’s face, Lin Shiyu tapped her finger on Lin Yanbei’s ID photo and said excitedly, “How about it? This is the new assistant I painstakingly handpicked for you.”
Jiang Ran let her eyes linger on the photo for a brief second longer, then decisively laid the resume down.
“Thanks, but I don’t need an assistant.”
As if expecting this response, Lin Shiyu waved her hand dismissively. “I know Yin Xu, that bastard, left a scar on you. But he was just an isolated case; you can’t refuse to use assistants for the rest of your life, can you?”
Jiang Ran’s brows furrowed, her fingers tightening around her pen. She clearly had no desire to hear that name mentioned.
“It has nothing to do with that,” Jiang Ran said smoothly. “I simply don’t need one. Given my current workload, I can handle everything myself.”
Lin Shiyu reasoned, “I know how capable you are, but you are the Executive Chief Designer of our firm; you need to project status.”
“Remember when we went to the ‘Biennial Awards’ last time and saw Wang Guodong? He brought four assistants with him.” Lin Shiyu held up four fingers right in front of Jiang Ran’s face, speaking indignantly. “A firm as tiny as his, yet he sure knew how to put on a show.”
“What award did he win?” Jiang Ran asked.
“He only got a nomination! What award could someone like him possibly win?” Lin Shiyu spat maliciously.
Jiang Ran swiveled her chair around and casually tapped a pane on the large display glass behind her. Inside stood a crystal trophy, its base engraved in both Chinese and English:
【Biennial Award Gold Winner, D&A Design Firm, Jiang Ran.】
Lin Shiyu was rendered speechless. Letting the trophy speak for itself, talk about an effortless flex.
Having successfully silenced the marketing department’s most articulate speaker, Jiang Ran was in an undeniably good mood. Yet as she observed Lin Shiyu’s expression, her gaze drifted back to the photo on the resume.
“What is the relationship between the two of you?”
“You noticed that fast?” Lin Shiyu turned her charming face toward Jiang Ran. “She’s my biological niece. Doesn’t she look like me?”
“Niece?” Jiang Ran looked down at Lin Yanbei’s age: 23 years old. Calculating quickly, she was only eleven years younger than Lin Shiyu.
Lin Shiyu continued, “Yanbei grew up following right behind me. When she was little, she was exceptionally well-behaved, incredibly cute, and looked just like me. I specifically came here today to entrust my darling to you.”
Jiang Ran couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “You call this ‘painstakingly handpicked’? You’re abusing your public office for private gain.”
Lin Shiyu straightened up and said earnestly, “How am I using my position for personal gain? You’ll see once you meet her. She really is exceptionally talented, which is why I thought of letting her assist you while learning under your guidance, Architect Jiang. If you find her unsuitable after meeting her, I won’t force it; forced fruit is never sweet.”
Just as she finished speaking, Lin Shiyu’s phone rang. She hit the answer button.
Carry’s voice came through from the front desk: “President Lin, your visitor has arrived.”
“OK. Which conference room is open?”
“Conference Room 2.”
“Great. Take her there first and switch on the main screen in the conference room.”
Lin Shiyu hung up the phone and shot a playful wink at Jiang Ran. “Well?”
Jiang Ran glanced once more at the clear, bright eyes in the resume photo, finally rising from her spacious executive chair. She reiterated, “Let’s make this clear beforehand: forced fruit is never sweet.”
“Sweet, I guarantee it’ll be sweet,” Lin Shiyu joked, pushing Jiang Ran by the shoulder toward the door and stepping forward to open Conference Room 2.
At a glance, she spotted Lin Yanbei sitting upright and rigid on the opposite side of the conference table. Lin Shiyu introduced with a smile, “Jiang Ran, this is Lin Yanbei.”
“Yanbei, this is D&A’s Executive Chief Architect, Jiang Ran, your interviewer.”
As soon as the words left Lin Shiyu’s mouth, Jiang Ran stopped directly in front of Lin Yanbei.
A faint, subtle smile touched the corners of her lips, her cool, distant gaze settling onto the young woman’s face.
The girl rose slowly from her chair, her face transitioning from absolute shock to total numbness, to rapid, panic-stricken blinking.
Ah. As dramatic as ever.
During the few minutes Lin Yanbei had spent waiting alone in the conference room, she had looked out through the glass window of the Century Plaza Tower, taking in the 98th-floor panoramic view of the river.
Just as rumored, it was prestigious, prosperous, and breathtakingly beautiful.
At that moment, she had wondered what kind of person Jiang Ran, the architect behind such a famous urban landmark, would turn out to be.
But now, in this very second…
What Lin Yanbei was actually wondering was… what were her chances of survival if she jumped from the 98th floor straight into the river below?
She had never imagined that the cold, elegant figure at the head of the table would actually be Jiang Ran!
And Jiang Ran was her interviewer today!
Lin Yanbei secretly pinched the side seam of her trousers. She had once acted like a wild, disgraceful clown right in front of this woman, flipping over a table and causing a total scene at a wedding before being thrown out.
What kind of interview could she possibly have now?!
She instinctively reached up to touch her misshapen shirt collar again, feeling that it was probably time to check the train schedules back to Yangcheng…
“Are you always this quiet?” Jiang Ran spoke first. She suspected that if she left the girl unattended any longer, the interviewee might literally sink through the cracks in the floorboards.
“Ah…” Lin Yanbei snapped back to reality.
Jiang Ran looked at her and said, “I thought you would compensate me for the trousers ruined by the red wine.”
“The… trousers…” Lin Yanbei realized instantly. When she flipped the table that day, the wine must have splashed onto Jiang Ran’s trousers.
She immediately blurted out, “I’m so sorry! How much were they? I can pay…”
Jiang Ran raised a brow slightly. “23,000.”
“How… how much?” Hearing the figure, Lin Yanbei’s eyes widened so far they nearly popped out of their sockets.
Jiang Ran asked, “Do you need me to provide the receipt?”
“I… I’ll pay for the dry cleaning!” Lin Yanbei quickly changed her tune.
She pulled out her phone, hesitated for a second, and then reached into her wallet to take out her remaining 520 yuan. She discreetly stuffed the 20-yuan bill back inside and respectfully offered the 500-yuan note with both hands.
Lin Shiyu stood there with her eyes wide open as well, looking at Lin Yanbei, then at Jiang Ran, and finally down at the cash…
She tilted her head toward Jiang Ran, seeking clarification: “What’s going on here? You two know each other?”
Jiang Ran glanced at Lin Yanbei, making no mention of the fact that the trousers could not be dry-cleaned in the first place. She simply took the cash and casually tossed it to Lin Shiyu.
“We don’t. Go wait for me in my office; we’ll get acquainted right now.”
She casually pulled out a chair and sat opposite Lin Yanbei, simultaneously dismissing Lin Shiyu from the room.
Lin Shiyu cast a final “you’re on your own” look at Lin Yanbei, closing the door behind her with an air of helpless sympathy.
As the door clicked shut, Jiang Ran lifted her wrist to check the time on her gold watch. The silky fabric of her shirt gathered loosely around her forearm with the movement. She rested her elbow on the armrest of the swivel chair, lightly propping up her jaw with her knuckles.
Her gaze settled on Lin Yanbei’s thoroughly flustered face. In a tone carrying an indisputable presence of authority, she spoke:
“I’ll give you three minutes. If you can’t earn my offer within that time, you can have Director Lin arrange another job for you.”
Three minutes!
Lin Yanbei looked up in shock, meeting Jiang Ran’s cool, downward gaze filled with scrutinizing detachment.
She knew there was no room for negotiation.