Instant (121-125)

121 Impressions

My wife’s best friend’s son just entered junior high school and was selected by the school to attend a summer camp in the United States. When I came back and asked him what his impression was of the United States, this junior high school boy said: freedom.

I was very surprised when I heard this report - a thirteen-year-old boy whose spiritual world is far more mature than many domestic adults.

Asked where he felt the freedom of the United States was reflected, he said that American children can choose what to eat or not to eat, what to do or not to do on their birthdays, without parents forcing them to make decisions for them.

What a profound insight and perspective - respect for individuality is indeed one of the pillars of the American liberal spirit.

My two nephews also went abroad during the summer vacation. They traveled to Europe with their parents. When I came back and asked them about their impressions of several European countries, they said they were very poor, with poor wifi and not even 5G.

This is in line with the impression that many Chinese elderly people have when they return from traveling abroad - foreign buildings are not as new as China's. Elderly people in China especially like to brag about the high-rise buildings in their cities, as if they are their property. In fact, when they get to the door of the building, they are stopped by security guards and cannot get in.

Many people are used to seeing landscape paintings on wall calendars. When they suddenly see a private garden, they will feel that the hand-painted landscape is not as beautiful as the printed one.

The so-called different impressions are actually the concepts behind the eyes.

122 liar

I was in the elevator going downstairs when I received a phone call. He is an old friend who has moved abroad after not seeing him for many years. Let me guess who she's with. Another familiar voice said something, and I guessed wrongly. I was very embarrassed and guessed that it was a girl who was interested in me many years ago (I confessed my love, but failed to hold hands).

I am a person who is not good at dealing with such social interludes. I always guess wrong about "guess who it is."

But I’ve never fallen for the classic “guess who I am” phone scam once. Not only have I never been tricked, but I have also played tricks on several swindlers, and I am very happy.

Once I received a call from a scammer with a Cantonese accent and asked me to guess who he was.

Did I say you are Li Qingsong? (Li Qingqing is the author of street-stall erotic novels that were popular in Mainland China in the 1990s. I borrow this name here only for the convenience of writing.)

He said yes, yes. After a few pleasantries, he said he would come to Shanghai to see me in a few days.

I said okay, give me a call before coming.

Early the next morning, he called me - sure enough, "I was caught soliciting prostitution in Nanjing last night and I need to pay a fine of 20,000 yuan."

I said don't worry, tell me your bank account number and I will transfer the money to you right away.

He texted a bank card number.

I immediately went to the bank website to enter his card number and entered the password randomly several times. The bank card was locked and no transactions were allowed that day.

Then I sent him a text message: The money has been transferred, please check. Five minutes later, he called and said he had not received the money.

I said it's impossible, but it might not be instant. Please ask the policeman for a favor and check the account later.

Half an hour later, he sent another text message saying that he still hadn't received the money and sent his account number again. I tried again on the bank's website to see if the account was frozen - it was still frozen, which I was satisfied with.

When he called again, he began to curse, using Cantonese. I can understand Cantonese curse words, and I also practice all the curse words I learned from my Cantonese classmates many years ago.

On the third day, he sent many text messages scolding me.

I bought two phone cards and put them in another mobile phone. The next day, I was drinking with someone until midnight, and I started calling him on that cell phone. The call actually got through, so I hung up. I continued to harass him in the middle of the night every day for a week, and then one day the voice on the phone suddenly reminded me that he had canceled his mobile phone number.

I was too idle at that time.

123 Investment

When I went back to my hometown about ten years ago, my dad said that everyone was doing "financing" and the interest rates were very high, more than 20 points (annual interest of more than 20%).

I asked them if they had participated, and he said they had participated a little bit. I told him to withdraw the money immediately without investing a penny.

My dad was more afraid of me, so he listened to me early the next morning and withdrew all his principal of more than 20,000 yuan plus a few hundred yuan in interest.

When I had dinner with my classmates from my hometown, I asked them if they knew about this kind of illegal financial fraud that is rampant among the people. Most of the classmates are civil servants in the government departments of their hometowns, so no one knows about this matter, and every family has an elderly person involved.

I asked them if they knew this was a typical Ponzi scheme? Most of my classmates agreed with me, but said they had no choice but to control the old man.

I asked them if the government knew about this situation of private financing blooming everywhere? What is the government’s attitude and response to this?

They said that everyone in the city knew about it from top to bottom, but because there were so many financial management and fund-raising groups and the amounts involved were so large, no one dared to pop the bubble for fear of triggering social unrest.

What they mean by turmoil is that the crackdown on illegal fund-raising caused fraud gangs to run away, and the capital chain broke prematurely, causing public resentment.

As a result, this illegal behavior, which was clearly illegal in the eyes of the government, was developed openly for several years due to the consideration of the rat-proof weapon.

In my small fourth- and fifth-tier city, luxury cars costing millions were common on the road for a period of time, and many people (investment project operators) became extremely rich.

These luxury cars suddenly disappeared overnight after a few years. One of the chains broke on its own, and then there was an overwhelming domino effect.

My classmates from my hometown told me that many poor and elderly people committed suicide because they were defrauded of their life savings, but the social unrest that the government had always been afraid of did not occur. The government was very satisfied.

The incident gradually subsided, as if nothing had happened.

In this magical country, many thunderous events are as if they had never happened, soundless, colorless, tasteless, and without a trace.

124 Send books

I can't change the urge to give books to others, which has been a disease I've had since childhood. When I was a child, I loved books given to me by adults. Maybe it was because I was lonely inside since I was a child. But growing up, only two uncles gave me books. I kept them and read them countless times until I lost them when I moved.

Later, I always liked to give books to others, and always wanted to share my love for a book and the happiness I got from it with others.

I am not willing to donate or throw away the books given to me by several friends, even though I have already read them. I feel it is an increasingly rare friendship that deserves to be treasured.

Once I wanted to give an old friend’s daughter a set of good books for her sixteenth birthday. My wife didn’t agree with the idea and said that for a child, I should give her something to wear and use, away from the memory of school.

I felt that what my wife said was reasonable, thoughtful, and loving (away from the association of extracurricular books and school), so I returned the goods on the website, but I was vaguely worried that the high school student had not been able to read the set of good books I almost gave her. I feel a little sorry for her.

125 teacher

I'm not cut out to be a teacher, I've long since realized that. Because I never like or am good at teaching others to do things, nor do I enjoy sharing what I know with others. Both of these are psychological prerequisites that teachers must and love.

I may be suitable to be Henry Thoreau, suitable for seclusion and silence.

When I don't want to talk, any sound feels deafening. It’s not that I didn’t want to say it, it’s just that I originally wanted to say it, but couldn’t find the right place and person, so I forgot about it.

Fortunately, there are not many such times. More often than not, I don’t even want to talk about it. A storm is rolling in a person's mind, like a ship in the belly of a prime minister.