Sister Tony always has a heavy hand when cutting hair. The electric clippers start from the nape of the neck, pushing upward right against the scalp. You can feel the cold touch of the metal; it’s nothing if not clean and sharp. After she finishes buzzing, she politely asks Lin Song, “Is this length okay?” “It’s fine.” You’ve already shaved off the hair on the left side; whether it’s okay or not, that’s how it is. It’s not as if you can leave the hair on the right side unshaved, can you? When walking out of a barbershop, if anyone can tell at a glance that you’ve just had a haircut, it was definitely cut by a “Student Tony” just entering the trade. But if the hair looks natural, as if it hasn’t been cut at all, it was likely the handiwork of a “Master Tony.” To have Master Tony cut your hair, you have to pay an extra ten yuan on top of the member’s price.
Clothes might be worn for others to see, to make one look good in their eyes; but shoes, essentially, are for making oneself feel comfortable. Therefore, the act of wearing shoes embodies a person’s temperament quite well. Comfortable shoes, good-looking shoes, comfortable and expensive shoes, uncomfortable but cheap shoes… whatever shoes you wear, you are walking out a corresponding philosophy of life.
Lin Song went to a Northeastern dumpling restaurant and ordered a san liang (150g) portion of cabbage pan-fried dumplings. The shop usually sells them starting from si liang (200g), but the young owner knew Lin Song had a small appetite and made an exception every time, making him a san liang portion. It was three in the afternoon, and there were no customers. The owner was eating a late lunch—a bowl of stir-fried eggs with green peppers and a bowl of rice. He took the money and started frying the dumplings. While waiting, he continued eating and swiping through short videos on his phone. By the time he realized the dumplings were ready, they were slightly burnt. This time, the owner didn’t politely fry a fresh batch for Lin Song; he simply brought the plate of slightly burnt dumplings to the table. Lin Song took a small dipping dish, added vinegar, soy sauce, and chili oil, mixed them together, and silently began to eat. Masked by the sour and spicy oil, the burnt dumplings didn’t taste too bad. As for the dumpling skins that were too charred to swallow, Lin Song simply spat them out and arranged them neatly on the plate, charred side up.
In the night, Lin Song had a dream. He returned to the home of his youth, a dilapidated five-story building on the side of Xinhua Road. Even in the dream, Lin Song vaguely remembered that this old building had long since been demolished. Yet, as he wandered through the dream, he couldn’t for the life of him recall where he was currently living…
There was a screening of Bi Gan’s movie, Resurrection (The Wildlands), in the afternoon. Lin Song hadn’t been to the cinema in a long time. Trading was slow, and his program code wasn’t finished yet. He wanted to see a movie. However, after calculating, he realized that going out would cost him an entire afternoon. For a time-travel drama starring Jackson Yee, Shu Qi, and Mark Chao, after a brief moment of deliberation, Lin Song lost the interest to go out. He sat back down to write code, set an alarm for 45 minutes, and then stepped up and down on his stepper for six minutes. The login system code finally ran successfully.
At 6:30 in the morning, the sky was dimly lit. It had rained a little during the night, but the path under the shade of the trees was dry. The delivery trucks for Hema Fresh had already unloaded their first batch of goods. The gas station was empty, yet brightly lit.
When the red light goes out, who will take the lead? Pedal down, the engine feedback takes about a 0.94-second delay. On a wide road with three lanes, even with the worst response time off the line, one can still secure third place. Cars on the road early in the morning all drive fast; the speedometer shows over 90 km/h. If one were driving on the highway, 90 would indeed be quite slow. But in the rolling stream of traffic on the Second Ring Road, one car sticking close to another, everyone weaving through at 90 km/h—that is more than just “thrilling.”
The pan-fried dumplings at Xiong Daye’s Dumpling Shop are deep-fried, not pan-fried. The skins become as tough as cowhide after deep-frying. It seems that for dumplings, you really have to go to a shop run by Northeasterners.
From the Hanxi Road elevated highway, the tallest building visible is unfinished and rotting. Once, predecessors made solemn vows and had lofty ambitions; now, most have ended hastily and sloppily.
Any era is worth being attached to, but that doesn’t mean one should stop moving. Whether the future is good or bad, one must inevitably press forward.
For residents living in port cities, business is the first priority. They tend not to believe in superstition. Here, there is no racial or religious discrimination; as long as you have capital, technology, and industry permits, you can make money. Everything else is whatever. The only difference from New York is the lack of a Statue of Liberty.
A phrase we hear too often is: “Keep yourself busy and make good use of the remaining time.” However, doing the opposite is also highly beneficial. In the past few months, I have found myself several times doing something I was never good at—doing nothing. This isn’t the aimless pleasure of retirement, but a pause.
Lin Song likes eating boiled dumplings. Recently, having tried every dumpling shop within a two-mile radius, he decided that his mother’s dumplings were still the best.
The difference between scrolling through a phone and reading a book: Scrolling is urgent—next one, hurry to the next one; reading is contemplative—what does this sentence mean? Wait, what does this sentence mean?
When did society start going downhill? Probably when the majority of newborns arrived in this world already shouldering or inheriting a fortune, more or less. It indicates that society has already demarcated redundant social wealth through financial means. The force driving society is not just wealth creation, but also a force for wealth distribution. Jiang Shan has been in Shanghai for over eight years. Six years ago, for the sake of his child’s schooling, he bought a house in a good school district. Recently, he sold the house at a fifty percent loss, and the family is now renting. He says, looking back now, “lying flat” (tangping) would have been better; the harder he worked, the worse it got. People who use rules to break rules often exploit those who know nothing about the rules. And so, the latter become trapped within them. Lin Song tried to tell Jiang Shan to look on the bright side, but as he offered comfort, he began to feel sad himself.
A long time ago, it was his mother who took Lin Song to “Si Ji Mei” (The Plum of Four Seasons). That was a consolation for a diet that had long been bland and watery. However, to truly appreciate its wonders, he had to thank “Young Master Qian.” In junior high, it was his classmate Qian Bawan who taught him how to eat soup dumplings (Tangbao), also at the “Si Ji Mei” at the intersection. After school on Fridays, walking from school to the “Si Ji Mei” on Jianghan Road took over an hour. Back then, they always walked to Jianghan Road. You must taste the crab roe in the soup dumpling; the soup must be plentiful, and you shouldn’t just taste the spiciness of white pepper in the first bite. The soup dumplings at Dehua Lou came five to a steamer basket. Lin Song often went there around 4:30 PM to order a basket as afternoon tea.
It is said that the Jingwu Road Primary School, which Lin Song attended, ceased operations in August 2018, and the staff and students were diverted. In the opening season of that autumn, the children of Jingwu Road no longer had a school of their own. Now, the primary school on Jingwu Road is named “Red Scarf Jingwu School.”
Many say the core of comedy is tragedy. Lin Song believes this isn’t profound enough; the core of comedy should be compassion. He saw a billboard; the theme was caring for the elderly. These days, dopamine is a scarce resource. Lin Song knows his body isn’t without it, but it lacks the accelerant to ignite it. There is a saying, “Money can’t buy thinness in old age.” Actually, that isn’t thinness; when you get old, that is laxity.
When Lin Song realized he had begun to age, it felt like selling a stock he once held—at any point he sold, it was a loss. Once a person passes middle age, trying not to lose control is truly a difficult task.
If he encounters mental stress, Lin Song does nothing new. He simply re-executes the methods that were once effective. If things have changed, he adjusts the parameters. He reminds himself of this now: there is nothing to be anxious about. The electric scooter handle was twisted off—broken in a crash due to loss of control. Riding a bicycle, he was hit from behind by someone on an electric scooter, fell, and fractured his ankle. Surgery, steel plates, hospitalization—the costs were covered by medical insurance, saving the young lad who hit him tens of thousands of yuan.
Lin Song can start drinking a little coffee now. Just a small cup, that much every day. He doesn’t dare to overdo it.