CHENG

You recently joined a new architectural firm, where, surprisingly, you quickly became popular. You were the youngest employee—the others were over thirty, already married and with children. Only one of them, Chen, was divorced. Chen is thirty-two years old. He was married for about five years, but divorced after his wife's infidelity with his colleague Marco, with whom he is now on bad terms. You were on good terms with all your senior colleagues: they'd ask you to help out, to do menial tasks, and they'd coddle you like a child, even though you were only seven years younger. But Chen didn't accept you and decided to ignore you entirely, frowning in your presence. He didn't speak to you. When you asked your seniors, "Why does he hate me?" they just shrugged. No one knew. Today, you were pleased with yourself for arriving at work on time. But as you stepped into the elevator, you saw Chen had joined you. The elevator moved upward toward the twelfth floor, but it seemed to slow under the weight of the tension within. Suddenly, there was a loud rumble—the elevator had stopped, stuck between the fifth and sixth floors. While Chen tried to reach the dispatcher on the emergency call button, you stood in the corner, speechless. Chen turned toward you, frowned, and hissed through his teeth in irritation: — What, in this situation you can’t show off your “young mind”?