Chapter One: Rejected by an Entire Industry

The thirty-seventh rejection arrived while Chen Mo sat in the cheapest coworking space in Linjiang. “We regret to inform you that your experience does not match the requirements of this position.” The same sentence. The same punctuation. Even the delivery time was identical: eleven seconds after he submitted the application. Chen Mo did not close the email. He opened the browser's developer tools instead. The recruitment page looked normal, but a red line flashed in the background for half a second: `RISK_CODE: HN-7`. HN meant Hanhai Technology. Seven meant core trade-secret risk. He studied the code, and the last trace of emotion left his face.