2025, the Year of the Yi-Si, arrived quietly, and the first two months were gone before I had much chance to sort them out.
A Shenzhen Meetup Before the New Year
Shared bikes near my building have become harder to find. Several times I wanted one and saw none; the shared electric scooters, on the other hand, are everywhere.
A month before the holiday, Yubin asked when I would be home and suggested we get together before the New Year. On Saturday, January 18, he gathered Haohong, Zhihao, and me for a meal in Lingzhi. We went to a restaurant called Kejia Qing. The portions were generous and the food was good, real Hakka flavor. The only problem was the pace: after the first three dishes we were already full. By the time the fourth arrived, we could barely eat. Most of what came later stayed untouched and was packed up. Then we played mahjong for two hours.
The Trip Home
On January 23, my waitlisted high-speed rail ticket came through as a standing ticket. I got off at Kuitan Station and climbed onto a battered old bus. That bus meant home was close.
While cooking at home, I noticed the area around the gas stove switch was unusually hot. Looking closer, I saw a flame burning inside the switch itself. It had to be a leak. Parts inside had been eaten away by water stains, and the spring in the air vent was broken. I thought I would try fixing it myself, but I applied a little too much force and made it worse. In the end I had to spend what felt like a fortune on a new one.
Things are changing fast. Because of the Dananhai oil project, demolition in the village is moving ahead. When I got home this year, a whole row on the other side of the road had already been torn down.
New Year's Eve arrived with firecrackers. Families carried incense, candles, and offerings to the ancestral hall. Firecrackers went off one after another, and fireworks burst overhead; golden sparks hung down like the aerial roots of a banyan tree, and colorful petals opened in the sky.
Passing Peimin's house, I thought about filming a short video to send him. Instead I ran into his mother and stopped to chat for a while. Peimin had not come home yet.
On the ninth day of the New Year, tickets back to Shenzhen were hard to get. I bought a ticket two stations farther and then paid the difference after boarding, which cost me more than 60 yuan extra. I missed the direct bus to the high-speed rail station—another rust-covered coach—so I got off about 2.2 kilometers away and walked. A man on a three-wheeler called out, 'Hey, need a ride?' I said no. I had not expected there to be no small shop along the road. I walked until I began to doubt my life. The road was empty except for the occasional car.
Thyroid Checkups
On January 15, I had my fifth checkup. T3 was normal, T4 was low, and TSH was normal.
On February 20, the sixth checkup showed T3 normal, T4 normal, and TSH high. The numbers pointed to 'medication-induced hypothyroidism.' The doctor said things were trending in a good direction and reduced the dose: methimazole down to half a tablet a day, the liver-protection medicine switched to the gentler glucurolactone tablets, and the heart-rate medicine stopped.
For hyperthyroidism, I am supposed to avoid seafood, kelp, and other iodine-rich foods, but takeout makes that hard to control. Once I ordered Baixiang's 'Golden Soup Fatty Beef Noodles.' When I cooked and ate it, I found plenty of kelp in the soup and no sign of fatty beef—it had all come from the sauce packet.
Job Hunting
By January 13, my resume and portfolio were roughly done. I had pulled several all-nighters, turning day and night upside down.
February 14 was my first interview of the new year, at a cross-border e-commerce company. Before leaving, I printed my resume at the self-service printer downstairs, and the content came out incomplete. I had not worked for more than a year and had not interviewed for several years, but the interview went reasonably well—at least I was not nervous. The problem was that I had never done design for cross-border e-commerce, and some of those questions caught me off guard.
After the interview there was no news. About half a month later, they messaged to ask whether I had found a job and whether I had time for a second interview. That was a long gap. I had not interviewed anywhere else in the meantime; I had mostly stayed in my rented room, anxious and lazy.
Looking back, I think there were two issues. One, I did not understand cross-border e-commerce well enough. Two, I was not skilled enough at detailed design retouching.
Gatherings After the Holiday
On the Lantern Festival, Haopei said he would come by since we had not managed to meet during the New Year. He arrived at 5:30, we chatted for a while, and then went to a commercial center. After a long back-and-forth, we chose beef offal hot pot. When it arrived, there was a layer of red oil floating on the broth. After a few bites I was shocked: was this what people here call 'Guangdong spicy'? Haopei sweated and drank water frantically while adding plain water to the pot.
On February 14, I met Yang Hong, Peng Ge, and Li Jin in Yangmei. Li Jin lives in Yangmei now too. We went to a casual restaurant serving Chaoshan food. The food was mediocre—the dishes tasted as if the cook were half-heartedly brushing off an ex. The sour mustard green with pork intestines was as bland as boiled cabbage. Only the boiled sliced pork and the fried egg were decent.
On February 15, I went to a movie with Zhihao and Haohong. Yubin did not come because he was moving. To see Ne Zha 2, we set off at 3:30 in the afternoon and crossed half of Shenzhen to Fuyong. We ate noodles at Laowanhui, then went into the theater. Ne Zha 2 was genuinely good and had plenty of laughs. The audience was laughing within the first few minutes. This time I also noticed many parents bringing their kids.
Looking back at these two months, life felt like that rusty old bus back home—bumpy, slow, but still moving forward.
That is probably what life is like: a gas stove that cannot be fixed, a standing ticket that only comes after waiting, a self that keeps getting stuck in its own head, and friends who are always available for a meal.