An accidental author

She has met some people who've experienced dramatic ups and downs in the industry and believes the field offers opportunities to change an individual's destiny.

In 2016, she was impressed by a feature about internet entrepreneurs and investors who encountered difficulties.

"I especially remember a story about an entrepreneur whose app was struggling and was going to be sifted out of the market. He refused to give up and offered anyone who downloaded his app 1 yuan (15 US cents) or 2 yuan as a reward to enlarge the user base. But the money actually came from his family's personal account," she says.

"I can find stories in this industry. Entrepreneurs all hope to succeed, but different people have different definitions of success. I want to discuss what success means to Guan Jingheng in this book."

Di An doesn't want to over-explain her work.

"Readers have their own understandings," she says.

But she believes her story is also about desire.

"I want to see what people can do when driven by desires-what they can sacrifice and what they can't."

She had to research the industry extensively, since she wasn't initially familiar with it.

"I asked friends in the industry to tell me what their daily work included, how they worked and what pushed them to make decisions at work."

Her friends also beta read the novel before publication.

"I asked them core questions I cared about, like if they believed the main characters Guan and Zhu loved each other faithfully. If all of them said no, I knew I'd have to double-check my writing."