On the way to see the lotus, I passed the square at Leizu Park. A group of older men and women were doing a livestream sing-along. I wondered whether my own later years might look something like that. A little sigh. A few days earlier I’d read a blogger’s post about a relative who had passed away, and since then I’ve found myself thinking about my grandfather now and then—and about myself as a child, when he used to take me out to play, much the way I take my eldest out now. Time goes by so fast. In the blink of an eye the kid is already a meter tall, and I’ve lived through a third of my life. What the rest of the script looks like, I don’t know. If anything, I feel a bit lost.
This year the street-stall economy near me has added 39-yuan stir-fried chicken. Conservatively, I’d guess there are already more than ten of these little chicken stalls along the road by my home. Even the remote lot where my company sits has one, open until 5 a.m. When I get off work, two or three colleagues and I will order one portion and add some noodles. I’ve eaten at the stalls near the office for years, and sometimes I just skip them. That night I went with a colleague and we ordered one: 39 yuan, noodles included, and it tasted fine. The next night we went again. From my experience buying groceries, though, the cost should be under 20. I saw a short-video recommendation a while back—seems to be a franchise from Zhengzhou. Thirty-nine yuan has already pushed the lower limit for chicken, but compared with a restaurant’s 48-yuan small portion, the portion here is smaller—by more than ten yuan’s worth, I’d say.
A while back I bought my eldest a kids’ smartwatch. A child in the neighborhood saw it and bought one too; the two added each other as friends and now send voice messages when they feel like it. The key part is Xiao Ai. At first my kid only asked it about the time and weather, but after some coaching from a little strategist friend, the questions turned to arithmetic—what is five plus six, and so on. Xiao Ai doesn’t have the ability to block certain replies, so with my wife pushing me, I disabled Xiao Ai on the watch. The kid woke up and Xiao Ai was gone.
At first I figured that once Xiao Ai was disabled I’d load up some learning mini-games for my kid—and sneak in a little play myself. But then my kid, asking for trouble, played them in front of a group of parents and other children, so I disabled them again. I gave a serious little lecture: “If your mom finds out, she’ll make me delete everything except calling and photos. When Dad gets back I’ll turn it on for you—just keep it from your mom!”
The kid has it hard at home. Apart from watching TV, there’s basically no other electronic play. Right now, besides the phone watch, there’s the kids’ camera I bought last month; it came with a few mini-games. You have to understand Dad’s good intentions.
This month has been so hot that I don’t even want to move while lying there, let alone mess with anything. I had written down a few other paragraphs, but decided there was too much rambling and deleted them. Hello, July.