The unremarkable year finally comes to an end.
Christmas Special#
Strictly speaking, the Christmas special should have been included in last week's journal, but I finished writing the journal in the morning, and we had our Christmas dinner at night. So I had to postpone it to this week to share the pictures.
Actually, there aren't many pictures.
The addition of icing sugar gives it a special Christmas atmosphere.
Although it looks a bit strange, it's still cute, right? Right?
A Small Incident#
I used to be a carefree person who never believed that details could determine success or failure, but yesterday a small incident made me start to reflect.
I have been living here for almost two or three years. There are several noodle shops downstairs, and whenever I don't know what to eat, they are my last choice. However, there are differences among noodle shops. Although the prices are similar, one of them has a delicious spicy soup base and better quality plastic bowls for takeout.
At first, the shop was managed by a few middle-aged guys. Because it was open 24 hours, they took turns working, which was very hard, but the business was still booming.
Later, I didn't go to eat during the pandemic, and when it reopened, the people inside had been replaced by an old lady. The old lady was a bit stingy and gave me less noodles. If I added two more spoons of chili, she would complain. So I didn't really want to go there anymore, and there was also a chain noodle shop opened across the street, which had a more refined taste control for the assembly line, attracting a lot of customers.
But I didn't like the taste of the assembly line, so most of the time I cooked for myself. In short, all the noodle shops had a negative score in my heart, and the business of this noodle shop was not as good as before. I thought it served them right, because they were so stingy.
One night, I really wanted to eat tea eggs, but all the nearby shops were sold out. I went into their shop with the last hope, and the old lady had been replaced by an old man. The old man said they didn't have tea eggs, only marbled eggs. So I asked if I could just have a marbled egg. The old man said yes and went to get a disposable cup. I was a bit skeptical about my ears being rejected all night.
But what really changed my negative rating of this noodle shop to a positive one was yesterday.
Yesterday evening, I didn't have dinner and went out after 8 o'clock. The old man was sitting alone in the shop, and it was hard to run the shop in the cold winter. If there were customers coming to eat, it wouldn't be so hard.
So I ordered what I used to order, shredded pork with black fungus and flat noodles with a fried egg. The old man got up from his rocking chair to make the noodles for me. After I paid, I looked around the shop. It was the same as a few years ago (this needs to be corrected). Soon, the old man brought out a bowl of steaming hot noodles, and he even sprinkled a spoonful of beef soup to enhance the flavor. It was a perfect bowl of noodles.
The only thing I didn't see was my fried egg. This kind of thing often happens, and people often forget what they added later, let alone the old man. I was about to ask, but the old man said he put the egg under the noodles to keep it warm.
I had never thought about it this way, but this detail warmed me. Although I don't eat noodles as much now, I still hope this shop will do better.
Correction: I went to this shop again for noodles and found a "Honesty and Integrity" plaque on the wall that was delivered in August. So I can't say it's the same, I can only say that I didn't notice it when I went there last time.
Life Under Pressure#
My work is squeezing my life more and more, and I often feel suffocated. Actually, if you think about it, my job is easier than most people's jobs. Maybe I've been in my comfort zone for too long, and suddenly I'm feeling uncomfortable. Work is the process of objectifying people, and I should become a property-owning class as soon as possible and get rid of the state of being a worker!
Some Mysticism#
I've been very unlucky lately, so I started to believe in superstitions. For example, as soon as I changed my wallpaper, I had a miserable day. As soon as I changed it back, my work relaxed a bit.
I wore a Xiaomi bracelet for a short time and it broke. In TV dramas, when a bracelet breaks, it is said to have taken the disaster for its owner. In modern society, it can also be understood that the bracelet took the disaster for me. In the afternoon, my mom told me she was hit by a car, but she wasn't seriously injured.
I put a Chayan Hao sticker on my phone, and at noon, an old lady blocked the cashier and scolded the cashier (although she was scolding the cashier, the SAN value dropped). In the afternoon, when I went out to the university town to absorb the vitality of college students, I ended up inhaling a lot of waste gas (the weather has been really bad recently). In the evening, I stepped on a landmine in a place full of delicious food like the university town. After eating, my stomach hurt, and I couldn't find a restroom in the subway station. The entrance and exit both required payment! There was a minimum consumption in the subway station! In the evening, college students were setting off fireworks near the lake, and the air quality was extremely poor (the visible distance was less than 5 meters) (China's own Silent Hill). As a result, I almost got hit by a car when crossing the road. That's when I tore off the sticker.
When I came back, I asked the cyber fortune-teller, and the fortune-teller gave me the same hexagram as before.
Maybe it's not the right time yet. I should patiently wait for a change of fortune. "Everything should not be rushed."
Everyone Can Write for 5 Minutes#
At first, everyone thought it was just an ordinary fog.
However, the fog didn't dissipate for a long time, and people began to realize that it was unusual. The fog was filled with a suffocating atmosphere, and the lights on the streets appeared dimmer in the fog, as if they were leading people into another world.
Buildings became twisted and eerie, as if they were influenced by some mysterious force. Strange symbols and patterns appeared on the streets.
Some people had difficulty breathing, and others had splitting headaches. They saw inexplicable phenomena and heard chilling sounds. Some people even started to go crazy and lost their sanity.
People began to look for a way out, to escape, to seek shelter. But the streets, buildings, and crowds started to dissipate in the thick fog, leaving only the fog behind. People gradually realized their insignificance and powerlessness. They began to doubt whether justice and hope truly existed in this world.
They lost their sense of direction, not knowing where to go or where they were.
I wrote this in just 5 minutes. It's too rushed. I envy those who can write a long paragraph with just a pen.
Meeting a Cat on the Way Out#
This cat has eyebrows in the shape of the Chinese character "八" (eight), so cute.