Chapter One: Uninstall Failed

On the day Chen Yan was fired, the last thing he did was redesign a button. His manager wanted “Confirm Account Deletion” changed from gray to urgent red, with “Keep My Account” buried in a submenu. It felt like smearing glue on a doorknob, but Chen did it anyway. At 5:47 p.m., HR slid a severance agreement across the table. “Your ability isn't the problem. You simply aren't irreplaceable.” That hurt worse than being called incompetent. At twenty-seven, Chen had four years of product work and a portfolio in which every page was polished, sensible, and traced from somebody else's success. He carried his box into the elevator. It stopped on every floor.