Chapter One: The Best Door on the Worst Day

Leave your chair and fail, or stay and perhaps die.” Wanxing looked up. A black block hung directly overhead. Its cable had already begun to fray. This was not an interview. It was murder. Then she remembered the man in the rain: believe it will benefit you. Absurd. But she had no job, owed 874,000 yuan, and was trapped inside a building whose doors locked themselves. Life had exhausted its threats. Wanxing placed her hand on the button. “It won't kill me,” she whispered. “Why?” “Because you're going to hire me.” She pressed. The cable snapped. The counterweight plunged, struck a fire barrier that deployed half a meter above her, and ricocheted through a side wall.