Rode my little e-bike and arrived there by 8:30 a.m., even though my appointment was at 9:15. It seemed like arriving early wasn’t exactly appreciated, but they still let me in to queue up.

Then they briefed me, checked my documents, and directed me to a counter. After verifying my details, the staff told me to wait for my number to be called and instructed me to silence my phone and knock before entering when my turn came.

Once inside, I had to read some guidelines, move around in front of the camera, and then do the fingerprinting—which included the odd step of touching my forehead.

On my way back, I passed by Fangfang’s hospital and thought of inviting her for breakfast since she was about to finish her night shift. But she was still busy, so I went alone to have the incredibly delicious rice noodles I’d tried last time.

Got back and called Fei to play games, then took a short nap at noon. In the afternoon, I played games with Fei again, went out for a stroll with Fangfang, and had rice noodles once more.

On the way, we stopped by Metro and were shocked by the absurd prices—it felt like a preview of foreign price tags. We couldn’t bring ourselves to buy much. A small bunch of cilantro cost 13 yuan, which was downright terrifying.

On the way home in the evening, I bought two honeydew melons. My expectations weren’t high, but they turned out to be pretty good.

Spent the rest of the night gaming with Fei until my eyes were blurry, but I managed to help him reach King rank.

After taking a shower, I had no appetite for breakfast.

As soon as I arrived in Guiyang, I messaged my mentor. He was so excited that he came early to wait for me at the entrance of the office. When we met, I immediately gave Master Guo a big hug—haha, he seemed a little embarrassed.

Then began the familiar routine of running around to get approvals and signatures. There were moments when forms were filled out incorrectly, printed wrong, or explanations weren’t clear enough, all while waiting for approvals from higher-ups at every level. The office has also tightened security measures—every corridor and door now requires facial recognition. Master Guo spent the whole morning running around with me, and it wasn’t until noon, after Secretary Jinfeng finished his meeting, that we finally got the signatures.

I’m really grateful to Master Guo, and Master Huang kept insisting on treating us to beef for lunch. However, we couldn’t wait for the leaders any longer, so Master Guo ended up treating me to a bowl of noodles before I had to head back.

Since I needed to discuss our future plans with Xiaohuanhuan’s parents tonight, I had to turn down dinner invitations from other colleagues. Huanhuan came to pick me up at the Fourth Elementary School. By the time we got home, I was starving and ate a lot.

The conversation with Huanhuan’s parents in the evening was quite productive. They expressed their willingness to support us, which put everyone at ease.

Huanhuan and I ended up staying up late again.

This morning, Huanhuan’s dad came back while we were still sleeping in. After getting up, I washed my hair, and Huanhuan’s dad went out to buy groceries. At noon, I tried stir-frying pork liver for the first time—it tasted a bit odd, but Huanhuan’s dad thought it was quite delicious.

In the afternoon, I went to Huanhuan’s office to wait for her while she worked on her speech draft. After she finished, she bought me some cakes, and then we went to eat Luosifen (river snail rice noodles). It didn’t taste as good as before.

Time flew by quickly. After the meal, Huanhuan rode her bike to drop me off at the bus stop. When I arrived in Shuicheng, I called my mom and asked if she wanted to come for a walk. If she did, I told her to meet me directly.

I found a bench near People’s Square and sat down to play on my phone. Lately, my mom has seemed somewhat adjusted—or maybe not. Either way, we still don’t get along very comfortably.

I completely agree with what Huanhuan said: people need validation. Mom used to do everything well back in our hometown. But after coming here, she’s only left with cooking and taking care of the kids. However, these two tasks haven’t received any recognition, which makes her feel very frustrated. I think I should take some time to talk to my brother about this—to be more patient in teaching Mom and to communicate with my sister-in-law. I believe we can reach a comfortable state, but if we ignore it, things might get worse.

Exams really cost a lot of money, especially since hotels turn into a seller’s market during exam periods and inevitably raise their prices. Many hotels have hiked their rates to such an extent that they might as well be publicly shamed on a lamppost.

Candidates are truly pitiable—most of them don’t even have stable jobs. The exams themselves are hard enough, and yet they still have to endure being exploited by these people.

Complimenting others is actually quite nice. Last night, the driver I had booked stood me up, and a taxi happened to come pick me up instead. I praised the driver for her excellent skills, and she ended up sharing a lot about her life with me.

The exam didn’t go so well, though. I messed up transferring and filling in the answer sheet. I had the correct answers calculated but didn’t write them down—so frustrating. It took me several minutes to calm down and focus on the essay section. For the first question, I had already finished writing but thought of adding more, only to exceed the word limit. It was really annoying. These little details still need more practice.

After the exam, I grabbed a shared bike and rode to Haina Plaza to find something to eat. Nothing really appealed to me, so after some thought, I ordered a KFC single meal. I asked the staff to verify my coupon, but she told me to do it myself on the app. Feeling a bit annoyed and considering my slow phone, I just left. At the station, I ended up eating the eggs I had in my bag and the mooncakes Huanhuan bought for me.

Huanhuan took me to eat sour soup fish noodles, and I was so hungry that I finished even the soup. We walked home and also had some big gluten skewers on the way. I told Huanhuan about an Indian movie I had watched part of on the bus today—Karma, and after we got home, we continued watching it. Her mom couldn’t stand the bloody scenes and went back to her own room. We stayed up very late before going to bed.

Continuing from the previous diary entry, a few days ago, I received a training assignment for an adult education program (upgrading from college to university)…

21:17 Arrived Guiyang

After arriving in Guiyang, I didn’t want the teacher who was supposed to meet me to stay up too late, so I quickly hailed a ride to the training location—behind the West Campus of Guizhou University.

22:01 Reach the training institution positioning point

But when I got out of the car, they told me it wasn’t the right spot and that I still had to walk a bit further. At this point, I started feeling a bit uneasy—about 1% discomfort.

Then, I added another teacher, Ms. Wu, on WeChat. Carrying my heavy suitcase, I followed her directions and met her after about five minutes. Ms. Wu gave me a meal card and a blanket, told me to go upstairs by myself, and said the room number was 1805.

I took the elevator up to the 18th floor—this was the last time I’d go up.

22:20 Start to scramble

When I reached 1805, I saw two students smoking in the dorm (discomfort level: 10%). I greeted them and prepared to settle in, tidy up my bed, and start preparing for class.

After one of the students left, the remaining one came over to chat with me. He mentioned that he snores heavily at night and had moved out of his previous dorm because of it. Oh no! I’m an extremely light sleeper, and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time. I was really hoping to sleep well tonight so I’d have energy for class the next day. So, I started messaging Ms. Wu and Ms. Zhang, asking if they could switch me to another room (discomfort level: 50%).

Aside from snoring, talking a lot, and smoking, this guy was actually really nice—kind and helpful. I didn’t dislike him; I was just worried I wouldn’t sleep at all. Meanwhile, I noticed teachers in the hallway trying to coordinate a room change. It was already 10 p.m., and I knew it might not be easy, so I mentally prepared myself.

Sure enough, no room was available. They asked me to tough it out for the night, and I replied, “Alright then” (discomfort level now at 60%).

Since it was late, Huanhuan and I brushed our teeth together. I went to the bathroom (to pee) and found the toilet was clogged (discomfort level: 65%).

After complaining a bit, I started preparing for class. I figured I should be thorough since the new textbooks hadn’t arrived yet.

Since it was material I’d studied before, I quickly reviewed it with my own book and got a general idea of how to teach the next day. Feeling drowsy, I decided to sleep.

Around 1 a.m., I took a melatonin pill, turned off my phone, and tried to sleep. As usual, I couldn’t fall asleep, though I didn’t have any obsessive thoughts. But I knew if I stayed up all night, I wouldn’t be able to teach the next day.

03:17 Decide to back

Sweet dreams didn’t come—but the snoring did. Around 2 a.m., my roommate fell asleep, and the snoring began, relentless and powerful, just as he’d described. I tried forcing myself to get used to it, but it was no use. By 3:30 a.m. (discomfort level: 100%), I decided I couldn’t handle this assignment anymore. I didn’t care about the pay or anything else—I just wanted to sleep. So, I sent them a message saying they should find someone else.

I quickly got up, packed my laptop and other belongings, and quietly left the room and the building. Downstairs, I couldn’t find an exit. I ran into a boy and a girl in shorts taking out the trash and asked them. They said it seemed locked.

No way—I had to get out! So, I took the stairs down to the basement. I could see the street outside, but it was blocked by a metal fence. After looking around, I noticed a section where the wall extended about 10 cm beyond the fence, and there was a small gap. I figured I could climb over.

Without hesitation, I lifted my suitcase over my head, pushed it outside, and stood it up. Then, carefully gripping the wall, I hoisted myself up with a push from my butt. The ledge was too narrow for me to pivot or jump, so after some awkward shuffling, I stepped onto my unsteady suitcase and wobbled my way down.

Then, I hailed a ride to go somewhere else. I thought about going to a massage parlor for a few hours but worried Huanhuan might overthink it.

Next, I considered a internet café, but when I got there, it was too noisy, so I left without going in.

03:49 Good night

A light rain fell indifferently as I stood there for a moment. Eventually, I booked a place to stay. After lying awake for a while, I listened to Flowers for Algernon and finally fell asleep. I don’t know when I drifted off, but I was later woken up by the same audiobook—I hadn’t set a timer or turned it off, so it suddenly started playing again around 6 a.m.

I muted my phone and went back to sleep…

After 9 a.m., I replied to their messages, saying I’d already left Guiyang. I also offered to ask my juniors if they’d take the assignment, but they were too busy with graduation stuff. Oh well.

09:38 Wake up and go back

I got up quickly, washed up, and took a cab to the train station. I bought a ticket for 11 a.m. and just made it. At the station convenience store, I grabbed a cup of instant noodles—breakfast and lunch sorted.

The train was nearly empty, so everyone could sprawl across multiple seats. I just lay down.

I got off the train at 3 p.m., feeling utterly exhausted. I ignored all the offers for lodging, taxis, and food nearby and headed straight for the bus stop, taking the bus back to Huayudong.

After getting off the bus, I saw a lamb noodle shop. My brother had said it was good, but then I remembered I hadn’t earned a single cent these past two days and had already spent over 300 yuan. I couldn’t bring myself to splurge.

So, I decided to go home and cook noodles instead. Maybe because I was hungry, I ate a sausage raw, fried another sausage and two eggs, boiled some noodles and potato skins, and had a delicious meal while on the phone with Huanhuan.

19:10 Hang out with mom

I rested for about an hour. As dusk fell, I called my mom and asked if she wanted to go for a walk. She’d just come to Shuicheng from our hometown and wasn’t familiar with the area, so I thought I’d show her around. We walked from Minghu Market along the Shuicheng River all the way to People’s Square, stopping to buy two ice cream cones along the way. Mom said she’d seen on TikTok that people with thyroid nodules shouldn’t eat them, but I told her not to worry—it’s just sugar and water, and she shouldn’t believe everything online. Reluctantly, she started eating, and I taught her to lick from the edges so it wouldn’t melt and drip on her hands.

In the end, she said the cone was pretty tasty.

Then I walked back on my own, and just like that, the day came to an end.

The road conditions were quite good, and there was no traffic congestion at all. Today’s driving was steadier than yesterday’s, but because I hadn’t slept well, my eyes were very uncomfortable, and I felt exhausted the whole time.

I don’t quite agree with Uncle Luo’s viewpoint—he tends to label people, believing that officials can’t and shouldn’t do manual labor, while he himself should just keep working hard without complaint. People are multifaceted, and being an official is just a profession.

By evening, I was so tired that I fell asleep without even taking off my clothes or washing up.

It’s just 3 a.m. again, and I woke up, then couldn’t fall back asleep. It’s really uncomfortable—I might be sick.

Yesterday, I went to Qingzhen to take a public institution exam—I had applied for the Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences. Xiaohuanhuan came along to accompany me, and spending these last two days with her has been so much fun.

On the 29th, we had some spicy braised food, which was really spicy, and the ingredients didn’t seem all that fresh either. The next day, both of us had stomach issues. I should probably buy less of this kind of food in the future—making it myself might be better.

I performed terribly on the exam, constantly distracted and feeling really frustrated. But now that it’s over, I’ll just let it go.

At noon, we went to a small hotpot place near Xiaokun’s place. We were so hungry that everything tasted amazing. After eating, we spontaneously decided to go to Anshun for some fun.

In the evening, we visited Anshun’s Little Cross area, strolled through the food street, and explored the ancient town. Anshun has so many delicious foods—after eating around, we even went for some big skewer barbecue. We were stuffed to the point of numbness.

Back at our accommodation, we played Exploding Kittens and ended up staying up late again.

2025-03-30

Today, Xiaokun took us to eat yellow catfish with green peppers. There were so many chilies and Sichuan peppercorns—it was legitimately numbing and spicy, but still pretty good.

After overeating, we took a walk along the river and returned to Little Cross. The food street was just as lively during the day as it was at night. We bought some rice paper rolls (xiaoguojuan), which were seriously delicious. We also grabbed some meat pies—next time, I’ll try the posu buns.

I took the leftover rice paper rolls and the chips Xiaohuanhuan bought to my brother and sister-in-law’s place. They weren’t as good as when they were fresh. We had dinner at my brother’s, and afterward, he and I drove the car to park it at the stadium.

It’s been a while since I last drove, so I felt a bit rusty.

23:38 Code Edits

Added a visitor statistics feature to my blog and also fixed a bug with Giscus theme switching. Now the theme changes successfully on the first attempt.

By the way, I took a photo that I really like.

This morning, Da Huang Fangfang took us to a nearby place where we had some particularly delicious and affordable rice noodles and vermicelli. We ate until we were quite full.

We also visited the Luoyu River Wetland Park, where we bought two small nets to catch tiny fish and shrimp. Today was much better than yesterday, and we managed to catch quite a few small ones.

Time flew by quickly, and soon it was time to head back. I had also thought about visiting Fangfang’s home to see her younger sister, but we didn’t get the chance.

At 4:20 PM, I returned to Panzhou with Huanhuan. Huanhuan then accompanied me to the bus station in Panzhou, where I caught a bus to Shuicheng.

I stayed quite alert on the bus, feeling a bit tired but not inclined to sleep.

Came back and did some laundry.

Early this morning, little Huanhuan arrived, and we went to Yunnan University Hospital, then to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. In between, we also checked my lingual frenulum, and the doctor said it was normal. Haha, I felt a little disappointed.

In the evening, we had dinner together at the same place where I had previously eaten with Brother Deng Zhongqing.

Old Sao is really quick when it comes to giving money, it’s done in the blink of an eye. From now on, I’ll have to prepay the money there first.

After a quick wash, I hailed a cab and went straight to Zhongqing Company. I got the necessary stamps, treated Brother Deng from the company to lunch at noon, and had a couple of drinks. The alcohol content was quite high, and by the time I finished eating and drinking, I was already feeling dizzy.

In the afternoon, I came back and slept until four o’clock, then got up to find a print shop to print some documents. In the evening, I had dinner with Da Huang, Fangfang, and Lao Sao. They were too eager to pay the bill.

In the evening, when I got back, my younger cousin helped me sign all the documents that needed to be supplemented.