At Guanshidun, three breakfast shops stood open, side by side.
The “Old Jar Pickled Cabbage Hot Dry Noodle Shop” was the one right in the middle. The owner cooking the noodles was a young man wearing a disposable black mask. While boiling noodles, he chatted with the customers, asking if the property management of the used car market across the street had given them any trouble lately. The customers owned a stall in the market and came here for breakfast every day. The small speaker in the shop played a classic pop earworm from days gone by: “Come, come, have a drink, don’t stop until you’re drunk… can’t keep the hurried love by your side…”
The tiger-skin eggs made in the shop carried a faint spicy and numbing scent. A black-spotted cat patrolled back and forth inside.
Lin Song began to reject all phone numbers not saved in his contacts. Previously, he would occasionally pick up, or silence the ringer and let the caller waste their time until the system cut the connection. Now, whenever Lin Song saw a string of unknown numbers, he hung up immediately. He had absolutely no interest in interacting with strangers.
He listened to a snippet of Hubei Daoqing folk singing: “Yesterday, oh, I saw a cow lay an egg, Today, I saw a horse singing, lai lai lai lai di la lai, The lampwick sinks to the bottom when crossing the river, A toothpick falls and breaks a skull, lai lai lai lai di la lai.” Machangjiao (Horse Field Corner), Macanghu (Horse Barn Lake)—they sound a bit like “Horse Singing.”
After the seafood noodle shop at the mall’s Entrance No. 1 went out of business, it was replaced by a sign reading “Six-Pot Braised Noodles.” However, the door to this shop had never opened, and the inside was always pitch black.
Lin Song was always filled with anxiety when doing things he wasn’t good at. For instance, helping a “brother” (close friend) look into buying a second-hand Tesla.
These days, the massive used car trade is basically a business with transparent pricing. A Tesla listed for 128,000 was bargained down to 115,000, but the seller insisted on 118,000. Looking at the inspection report, there was an 8cm paint touch-up on the right rear wheel. It had changed hands three times. He helped his friend counteroffer 110,000. The dealer checked his costs; the purchase price was 111,000.
The bargaining continued…
It turns out that commercial warfare is so unpretentious. Is there a possibility that people who buy Teslas won’t buy Huawei or Xiaomi, and people who buy Xiaomi or Huawei won’t look at Teslas?
The “Milky Aroma Shop” downstairs had been open for over a year, yet Lin Song had never seen anyone queuing inside to order. Consequently, he often counted down the days until the shop would shut down for good. However, Lin Song was disappointed. The shop sold 2,000 orders a month on Ele.me and 3,000 on Meituan. It was a solid cash cow.
Everyone who finishes a day’s work and parks their car to go home sits inside for a while, scrolling through their phone.
Someone told a joke. None of the listeners caught the implied meaning; no one laughed. They all watched him silently, waiting for him to continue, waiting for the punchline. But he had already finished. There was only him standing on stage, looking at the audience sitting below. This is the awkwardness beginners face.
Outside the warehouse gate, a slender brown dog foraged for food in the barren grounds, walking along the path wagging its tail, as if it had seen a familiar figure from the past.
The night of December 31, 2025, was destined to be boring. Lin Song didn’t even turn on his computer.
When he left in the morning, the gas gauge showed a range of 170 kilometers. He picked up goods to bring back to the warehouse, then went to deliver to three locations: Hankou, Hanyang, and Wuchang. He estimated it should be enough. By the time he returned, it was dark. With one stop left to go, he got stuck at the Tangjiadun intersection on the Second Ring Road. The gas gauge hit zero, no longer displaying how many kilometers were left. He could only stare at the taillights of the car in front, utterly anxious.
Why do so many people fail to use their turn signals when changing lanes? Not using a turn signal might not prevent one’s own car from turning, but it creates a potential risk of collision. Article 57 of the Regulations on the Implementation of the Road Traffic Safety Law states: “When turning, changing lanes, preparing to overtake, leaving a parking spot, or making a U-turn, motor vehicles strictly must activate the turn signal in advance.” Failure to do so is illegal.
Driving on the road is an inherently high-risk activity. However, as long as the risk hasn’t materialized into a direct accident falling upon their own heads, it implies nothing to those without risk awareness. The risk awareness they possess when driving is essentially no different from that of the aunties playing the stock market.
In the cold weather of Wuhan, wearing long johns or turning on the air conditioner is not just a lifestyle choice, but a shift in the entire life system. Wearing wool pants versus heating involves a series of related issues regarding diet and daily living.
“If a ruler has no strict law-abiding families and wise counselors at home, and no invincible enemy states abroad, the state will generally perish.” What is emphasized in this chapter of Mencius · Gaozi Part II? If domestic governance lacks discipline and wisdom, and there is no external threat to keep one alert, the nation is doomed to fall. History verifies this teaching over and over again.
“Born in sorrow, die in comfort” is a cycle that inevitably occurs. To emphasize only the development of one trend is self-deception.
History is more interesting than fiction; reality is more dramatic than movies. Chapters always revolve in a cycle of lost control.
Reading some strange miscellaneous books, I sometimes wonder: what is the difference between a metaphor and a simile? Shakespeare used many similes when writing Hamlet, while in the comments sections of WeChat official accounts, baffling metaphors often appear.
China’s current dumping of low-priced products overseas is, in essence, a form of plunder. It is no different in nature from the Crusades to the East or the Mongols’ raids to the West.
Sometimes I wonder if increasingly bloated government institutions will lead to national collapse, like the extinction of the dinosaurs. A single catastrophic climate event caused these behemoths to vanish from the earth. Actually, I worry too much; the species contemporary with the dinosaurs that survived have all developed and thrived. The resilience of species is powerful.
Reading about the 200-plus years of entanglement between the Southern Song and the Mongol Yuan, one sees a history of naked military expeditions. Every administration was an out-and-out military-political court. From Zhang Jun, Han Shizhong, Yue Fei, and Zhao Gou, to Jebe, Ögedei, and Kublai, they were all career soldiers for life. The only reason supporting their continued existence seemed to be the constant waging of war. What is strange is: how did the people’s livelihood develop and expand under such complex conflicts?
When emphasizing valor and brutality, people cite “killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of your own.” However, the result of such a victory is often annihilation by a new enemy with a strength of just 300. From this perspective, the Southern Song’s long-term stance of peace negotiations with the Jin Dynasty was wise, considering the onlookers circling the battlefield also included the Liao and Western Xia.
In the cold weapon era, the most important element of war was the horse. The Jin destroyed the Liao and the Northern Song; the Yuan destroyed the Jin and the Southern Song—all relied on horses. The Qing destroying the Ming had entered the early era of firearms, which is a different discussion. “One day, Yue Fei led his troops to practice mounted archery on the ice of the Yellow River. By chance, the Jin cavalry attacked in force. Although Yue Fei had only a hundred or so riders, he led them to charge the enemy, defeating the many with the few. After the battle, he was promoted to Bingyi Lang for his merit.” The source of the Yue Army’s combat effectiveness: first, constant training; second, appropriate training.
History is often interpreted through modern lenses, so why don’t we look directly at reality? When asking such a question, there may be a problem with the method of studying history. Historical research must have its own specific methodology, rather than being used to directly mirror reality.
The process of human gathering gradually forming urbanization was not a demand of species survival, but a demand of the market. The more concentrated human life is, the lower the cost of market operations, and the lower the price of products and services provided. Thus, it becomes more attractive for living.
The process of urbanization is the cornerstone of establishing a financial system. Unlike the past, where royals, nobles, and warlords used violence to seize social wealth, the allocation of financial wealth in reality is achieved through market mechanisms.
There is a difference between passing on a legacy (chuancheng) and inheritance (jicheng). Passing on a legacy is social; the weight between husband and wife is greater than that of blood children. Inheritance is legally endowed, a recognition of the creator’s identity. Passing on a legacy requires power, and power requires a process of accumulation. Financial investment accelerates this process of accumulation.
Reading books is still useful after all. Take Zizhi Tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), for example; it is essentially an on-boarding manual written for successor emperors, a job description for advancing from beginner to expert.