Chapter One: Rejected by an Entire Industry

Two months ago, he had been the youngest senior algorithm engineer at the Hanhai Institute of Intelligence. Now he had 4,327 yuan left in his bank account, rent six days overdue, and twenty-seven companies that had gone silent the moment they received his résumé. Today the total had reached thirty-seven. His qualifications were not the problem. Someone had decided he would never qualify for anything again. His phone rang. The caller was Zhou Xiao, Hanhai's director of human resources. “Have you reconsidered?” Zhou asked warmly, as if checking on an old colleague down on his luck. “Sign the supplemental agreement. Return all of Zero's code, training records, and keys. The company will remove the risk flag and provide severance.”