Wenzhou at Midnight! The Latest True Record — Most People Are About to Be Crushed, Where Do We Go From Here!? Qiqibaba TALK Episode 986 20261001

This episode records the lives of farmers in the mountainous areas of Yongjia, Wenzhou at midnight, the job-hunting and survival dilemmas of youth in youth hostels, the grim reality faced by middle-aged unemployed individuals, and the observation of a peer's sudden death at a funeral home. It provides a comprehensive picture of the severe economic and survival pressures currently faced by ordinary people under the broader social environment.

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Hello everyone, welcome to Qi Qi Baba. I am Qi Qi.

Have you ever seen Wenzhou at 12:00 AM? Having heard too many legends about everyone in Wenzhou being a big boss, let me take you to see the multifaceted reality of life in the mountainous areas of Yongjia. There are no wealth myths here, only those real lives obscured by the label of prosperity.

But at night. Eleven-o-seven. Already left the house. Groroping in the dark to the grandfather's house in the village, by the time I arrived, they were already loading corn into a tricycle bucket by bucket.

With the car loaded. Hmm. He has to take a cartload of corn roots to feed the cattle. Going to sell them in a neighboring town. In my memory, in an era when even eggs were scarce, egg drop soup would only appear in the bowl of the laborer.

Don't do that. We are taking the mountain-crossing road, which takes about an hour. Taking the paths through the mountain roads can save a lot of time. Along the winding mountain road through the tunnel, circling over and over across the mountains. Grandpa kept sighing along the way that life has gotten better, better than in the early years. Now it's twelve-fifty-two, there are still not many people on the road at one o'clock. We came early to secure a spot to display things; here a piece of cardboard is his bed.

Old Mrs. Yang said: "The electricity is pretty good."

Now it's one-forty-seven in the morning, and the midnight snack stalls are starting to pack up. In one place, some people get up early, while others return late. Now it's two-o-two, and people are gradually starting to arrive. At two-twenty-one, the first customer of the neighboring restaurant arrived. I am wondering, if a person does not have enough income, half of life's hope will be cut off, then will a person become calculating and meticulous? Is he an insignificant person? No, he is a person standing tall and upright, and one is always moved by their simplicity and kindness. The vegetable market at midnight hides the most authentic human world, and they also stand within life. The human world is not a pure land, and everyone has their own suffering. Everyone lives a very hard life, rushing for a living. Finding a way out for oneself is a very, very long road. They all say that rural elderly people are still in the fields the moment before they die. How can there be so many scripts in life that defy the heavens and change fate? Everyone is an ordinary person, leaving early and returning late every day, living a three-point-one-line life. We don't have the protagonist's halo either, and most of the time life is bitter. Then who can illuminate their way out? They have always been eating by their own hands. The silent toil that we have always been complaining about is the years of peace and quiet supported by our fathers' shoulders, sunburned and peeling.

At 3:04, people start to become more numerous. The pork stall also starts operating. Corn is not a crop that you can just plant and harvest; from seed to corn, it takes eighty-five days of careful tending, including fertilizing, pest control, watering, and netting, so the saying that heaven rewards diligence is itself a false proposition. If heaven rewards diligence, then the ones who grow rich would surely be farmers. Farming is not an identity, but a predicament, so wealth is not a reward for hard work, but a reward for cognitive insight. Here, you can see that the underlying tone of the countryside is desolate. This generation, whose suffering has become the background tone of their years, is slowly retreating toward the edges of time with the tide of time. Farming will never be their fallback option, because what the city cannot eat, they cannot sell either. At 5:13, the sky begins to brighten. The farmer represents the resilience and simplicity of an era, and this is the most precious spirit they have passed on to us. When we lose our direction in life beneath the neon lights of the city, you might as well look back at their figures. Those sparks of life blooming in suffering are forever the unquenchable lights illuminating the road ahead. The thousands of years of history on this land are all a history of farmers' suffering.

Finished counting, finished counting, compared with the hair, finished counting, and then gave out a kitchen knife. Right, it is for. Hey. Do you like tomatoes in cold dressing? Qiqi baba, Qiqi baba TALK.

In the past, I always felt that my grandparents couldn't make money, but I didn't know how much hardship they endured to make it. At 7:50, sold out. Why do young people who returned to their hometowns go back? Not only does the countryside need youth, but youth also need the countryside.

Welcome to watch! Five years after graduation without a job, hiding from parents that savings were spent, kicked out by the landlord, extreme survival. Hello. Here mainly. I'm going to take stock of the money in my hand. Property. I have now found a couple, first taking my big things over. To settle them, unable to push, thought the wheels were broken, almost scared to death. Good, heaven is protecting me. This Qingyu, it's in an old residential building, having to climb to the sixth floor, host's world has collapsed. This building, I'm a bit lost. Found this building, entering this inside is too pretty. I just thought I had to climb the stairs, and then when I turned my head, there is an elevator here. Hey, it doesn't have the floor I want to go to, I want to go to the sixth floor, it only has the seventh floor and the fifth floor here. Then I choose to go to the seventh floor. I'd rather walk down the stairs than go up the stairs. Need to move three floors. When I arrived, I found out the fifth floor only needs to go up one floor. The door is ajar, not a single person inside. The host's mind kept remembering it was 601, although it felt a bit wrong, still came in. This time it's 602. Right. Hello, excuse me, who is handling this check-in? Self check-in, it has no front desk. Without any room information, the host can only call the landlord. There is no air conditioning in the room, the landlord didn't answer for a long time, eyes are already seeing stars from the heat. Hey, hello. Oh, I, I'm the one who booked that Taoyao room today, but it didn't write the specific room number, could you please tell me what it is? 602. My WeChat, I'll send the password and everything to you once. Ah, okay, going to the room now. The host didn't know that his room required passing through someone else's room, looked everywhere and saw no entrance. Especially thanks to this kind-hearted young lady for showing me the way, indeed one has to pass through someone else's bed space to get in.

Hello. The room is still quite large, except there is only one stool. The host is still on the top bunk, the stool is occupied by someone, the host can only stand for now. There is only overhead bottled water here, once settled in I have to contact my mom. No way, the host really can't survive much longer. Hey, Mom, uh, can you give me some money? My money went to rent, I, I'm going to have a gathering with colleagues today. So out of money. Rent was paid! That thing, one month, uh, you have to pay for three months at once, right? How much should I give you? Uh. Salary will be paid at the end of the month, uh, gathering for dinner should, I don't know if they will have a second round, which is, uh, two hundred, two hundred and something, you can decide how much to give. Then I'll send you three hundred. Okay, okay, three hundred. Is the salary supposed to be paid back to me a bit? I'll pay it back to you at the end of the month. Right, don't forget to send me a photo when you go to the gathering! Ah! A photo! Send me another photo of your gathering for me to see, okay. Alright, fine, okay. Then I'll just give you five hundred, in case it's too little and you don't have enough money during the gathering, which would be quite embarrassing. Alright, yes, if you feel it's too much, you can send some back then. If you feel it's about right, then, then just this much. Um. Okay, go to work well. Um, okay, bye-bye. Dad, bye-bye. Wash my face, gather my thoughts. The air conditioning is only available at 7 PM. Wanted to turn on the desk lamp, found it was broken. Gathering photo, the host still doesn't know what to do. Put on makeup first, go out and talk.

If love is okay. Uh, then I need to change my clothes, something that looks a bit more like work attire. No, I can't leave my hair down, it's just too hot. I'll tie it up. It's really stuffy without air conditioning. The streamer wants to go to the bathroom, but there's someone sitting inside waiting, so I might as well borrow the fan. As for the restaurant, it's hard to get in without ordering anything. Let's check the food street to see if there's a chance. I looked for a long time and finally saw someone dining in. I really don't have the courage to ask someone for a photo. Hey, hello, miss, I'm here in Chongqing for tourism, but I'm doing a challenge, which is, uh, no, no, I just wanted to say, can the people I meet locally take a photo with me? Just a photo, is that okay? Will you take it? Can we take a photo together? You won't, your face won't be shown, you can rest assured, absolutely not. This stall is crowded, trying to blend in. No, no, only six years. Hurry up and get it done! A bunch of them should be fine too. Fine, let's just do this. Mission accomplished. Where's a good spot? Blockhead, hurry! Think! My colleague and I came to the food street to buy some things first. Our group hasn't arrived yet, and some of them are hungry, so they're eating something first. I can't even do it myself. We're having a group dinner later, and a lot of people want to play games, so I won't film you then. The most beautiful words in the world, okay. Mission accomplished, buying dinner to take back. This is worth it. The streamer hasn't eaten all day and has been climbing hills and slopes, relying purely on willpower to keep moving. Returned to the hostel and was attacked by toxic gas; this trash is super stinking. Still no air conditioning when I got back. Wanted to eat in the room, but it's too dark. The only stool is still occupied, and there's one stool left in the lobby. I'll grab it. Can I still borrow the fan? Who gets it? Wasn't it said that the AC turns on at seven? May I ask? The streamer's water has turned into hot water, I'm starving! Has anyone eaten this bread? It has chocolate sauce inside, it's sweet. The streamer wishes they could take a cold shower.

How can you tell that money is hard to earn? First, delivery drivers look increasingly refined, their Mandarin is getting more standard, more and more wear glasses, and there are more and more female delivery drivers. Second, salaries on recruitment apps have dropped. Third, there are more and more delivery coupons. Fourth, new energy vehicles have started to lower prices. Fifth, there are more and more foot massage parlors. Sixth, big tech companies are all going live to promote sales. Seventh, there are fewer and fewer people out at night. Eighth, housing prices are getting lower and lower. Ninth, retirement age is being delayed. Tenth, there are fewer and fewer holidays and more and more workdays.

It's quite shameful to say. I'm thirty-four this year, and I can't even come up with five hundred yuan. I'll let you see, I only have two hundred something in my bank card. As a middle-aged person, life is a total mess. You say I don't work hard? I came to Beijing to work after graduating from college at twenty-three, and it's been nearly ten years. I. I also work from dawn till dusk. It's memorable. But as soon as there's a little money in my pocket, something always happens. Hey, the money is gone. What's even more ridiculous is that I can't even find a job now, and this is in Beijing. You say I've reached this point, is it a problem with my personal ability?

Today, I sent off two more people. One was born in 1990, thirty-four years old; the other was born in 1986, thirty-eight years old. The funeral home was filled with wailing; they were all peers of the same age. To be honest, as someone who is used to life and death, that scene made my scalp tingle. You know that saying popular on the internet now, right? "Sudden death is not news, being worked to death is the destination." I used to think it was just a joke, but these two families said the same thing to me: He was fine yesterday, he wasn't sick, he rarely even caught a cold, how is he suddenly gone? Let me tell you something harsh: this society is really too cruel to us born in the 80s and 90s. How cruel? Cruel to the point that your body doesn't even give you a heads-up before it cuts your power. This generation really opens their eyes to car loans or mortgages, children's tutoring classes, elderly medical expenses, and closes their eyes to work performance reviews, layoffs, and a whole series of problems. On the phone, there are hundreds of WeChat group chats, thousands of WeChat friends, tens of thousands of unread messages, but no one dares to open their medical report the first time it comes out, because we are all fucking scared. It's these layers of paper that directly sentence you to death. So today I want to say to everyone: from today on, hurry up and quit saying the words "I'm fine." If you're tired, lie down; if you're hungry, eat; if you're unhappy, curse; if you want to cry, cry. Don't always think that just getting through this period will be fine. Because life, it doesn't play by the rules with you. But I really hope you never need my services. Take care.

The biggest problem right now is that many people living in cities no longer know where to go. Do you know, friends? It's why people in the villages say, 'Hey, nobody is coming back.' And in the cities, people also seem to be gone. It's because people have nowhere left to go. They can't find work in the cities, and they can't make a living if they return to their hometowns. So, you see people wandering all night long, 24 hours a day, going from city to city looking for employment opportunities, even if it's just for short-term, temporary work. Everyone is constantly rushing about, so it's hard to see them fixed in one place. That's why, from a sensory perspective, it might feel like there's no one around. Sometimes I really feel that Chinese people have been tortured to this extent, trapped in such a life predicament, and they might end their lives without ever having experienced a real life. Yet, those people in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) treat them so cruelly. Honestly, I really don't understand why people would become like this for the sake of their own power; it's a very bizarre state of lost humanity. Alright, that is all for this episode. If you would like to support me, please join the membership channel. I especially look forward to chatting with everyone in real-time during the next member-only livestream. That's all for this episode, see you next time.