Chapter 1
Zuo Xutong's mind went blank. The interviewer sitting in the middle of the conference table was Luan Mingfeng, her lover from seven years ago.
Back then, he was a poor student, and she was a top student.
Now, he is the interviewer, and she is the job applicant.
"Graduated from Taiyin Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree?" the HR manager next to Luan Mingfeng asked.
"Yes." It's clearly stated on the resume.
"You graduated seven years ago?" the HR manager continued to ask.
"Yes." That was all she could say.
"What did you do in the five years after graduation?" Her resume only showed her work experience in the past two years; she didn't mention her previous postgraduate studies or academic experiences at all.
Two years ago, in order to complete her research on membrane electrode technology, she gave up her studies and entered a public-private independent secondary college. She worked there for only two years before becoming unemployed and returning home.
Over the years, she has accomplished nothing, truly a case of "eight or nine out of ten things going wrong, but only two or three that she can share with others."
Seeing that she remained silent, the HR manager frowned and a hint of contempt appeared on his lips.
"I'm sorry..." Zuo Xutong couldn't sit still any longer and wanted to stand up to end this grueling interview.
Luan Mingfeng seemed to sense her motives and quickly threw out a cliché question: "Why did you choose our company?"
The HR manager frowned even more deeply. This unoriginal interview question was not suitable for this situation, and his urgent tone made it seem as if he was already considering hiring this fool.
However, she quickly came to terms with it. Since the company was founded, this handsome young CEO had participated in recruitment very few times, and his experience in identifying talent was really limited.
Zuo Xutong recalled the last words she said to him on the day they broke up seven years ago: "I'm sure I'd be better off without you."
Now, that statement has made her a laughingstock.
Why choose your company?
"Because the school I graduated from was too bad, I didn't dare to apply to better companies." After saying that, she stood up and walked out of the conference room.
Zuo Xutong was too young at the time and did not realize that people are born different. Luan Mingfeng lived in the most prosperous high-end villa area in Longjin City. Porsche and Bentley took turns driving him to school. During his winter and summer vacations, he always traveled in business class or five-star hotel presidential suites.
She didn't know the difference between a Porsche and a Mazda, nor did she think that driving a luxury car and living in a villa made her superior. She was highly intelligent but had a romantic mindset, clinging to a rich second-generation heir while believing that love conquers all.
After they went to study in another city together, their secret relationship was finally exposed, and they officially became a couple. During their four years of university, all of Luan Mingfeng's clothes, as well as his bed sheets and blankets, were hand-washed by Zuo Xutong. She took care of all his daily life like a nanny. Until the eve of graduation, when he told her that his family had decided to send him abroad for graduate studies, she thought he was joking: "You'll starve to death if you go abroad."
Seeing him standing silently with his head down, she realized he was serious. His parents had given him an ultimatum. They hadn't wanted their only son to go overseas and leave his family, so they hadn't sent their children to the most expensive private universities abroad as soon as the college entrance exam was over, like their friends. It wasn't until Luan Mingfeng brought his girlfriend home that they became wary and finally understood that you can't catch a wolf without risking your cub. If their son had gone to a prestigious school abroad, the girls he dated would definitely be from wealthy families, and he wouldn't have been pestered by such a poor girl.
“Fine, go ahead. I’ll definitely be better off without you,” Zuo Xutong said.
On the day Luan Mingfeng left the country, she didn't see him off. Someone saw him going through customs with a particularly beautiful girl. Later, the rumors intensified, and a female classmate who had pursued Luan Mingfeng but failed to win him over maliciously spread rumors that the difference between Zuo Xutong and Luan Mingfeng's "new love" was like that between a blind macaque and a fairy from the Indra Goddess.
Zuo Xutong thus became a prominent figure at Taiyin Technology College, and rumors of her "Cinderella's dream of marrying into a wealthy family shattered" and "commoner girl reduced to her original form" spread like wildfire throughout the school.
After graduation, Zuo Xutong decided to give up looking for a job and rent an apartment near the school to prepare for the postgraduate entrance examination. She studied frantically every day, making the most of every second. The following year, she successfully passed the entrance examination for a prestigious university to pursue a combined master's and doctoral degree, under the tutelage of Chen Yi, a well-known hydrogen energy scientist in China.
During her graduate studies, she got up earlier than the chickens and went to bed later than the dogs. Every day, besides eating and sleeping, she spent her time reading literature and conducting experiments, as if she wanted to make up for all the time she had wasted in the past. In the second semester of her first year, Chen Yi made an exception and allowed her to participate in a membrane electrode (MEA) research project.
Three years have passed in the blink of an eye, and Zuo Xutong has become one of the most important core members of the project team. The project is progressing smoothly, and she seems to see a glimmer of hope again. Perhaps before long, they will be able to develop world-leading ultra-low Pt (platinum) film electrode technology and break the foreign technological monopoly in this field.
Her hometown, Longjin City, is vigorously developing the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry. If this project is successfully completed, she will be able to make a name for herself in the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry, return home in glory with the halo of a hydrogen energy expert, and also gain admission to the best science and engineering university in Longjin City based on her research results.
The university reassigned Chen Yi's students to several other doctoral supervisors, forcing the termination of the ongoing membrane electrode project. Zuo Xutong's new supervisor was a female professor in her fifties. On the day they met, she bluntly told Zuo Xutong that if he wanted to obtain a doctoral degree, he would have to work on a new project with her and postpone his graduation by one or two years.
For three whole years, more than a thousand days and nights, no one knows how much hardship they went through or how much torment they endured. The flame of hope was just lit when it was doused with cold water. Should they just change their research direction so easily and watch their years of hard work go to waste?
She struggled internally for a long time before finally deciding to drop out. Four years of hard work, and she didn't even get a master's degree.
She told herself that she had to complete this project no matter the cost. However, her undergraduate degree from a third-rate university was insufficient for either higher education or research institutes. Just as she was racking her brains trying to find a job, she heard that a private undergraduate university in Taiyin City was recruiting lab technicians for its Materials Science and Engineering program.
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