Tiananmen Locked Down, Arrests at Any Moment!? There's Really No Money Left in the Pocket — So Why Still Go to the Scenic Spots! Qiqi Baba TALK『Refreshing 789』20261005

This episode is connected by the self-narratives of host Qiqi and several ordinary netizens, discussing the current grim employment situation, the heavy debts and survival pressures faced by middle-aged people and post-90s rural youth, and focusing on the phenomenon of people choosing budget travel to scenic spots during the National Day holiday.

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Hello everyone, welcome to Qiqi Baba, I am Qiqi. Tiananmen is heavily guarded like an armed camp. Are they really this scared? As you know, during this National Day, there are always a lot of people traveling to Tiananmen. And then there were two very ordinary civilians, completely ordinary people, who wanted to take a picture with Tiananmen, but looking at this posture, they almost got arrested. Uh, actually, across Tiananmen in Beijing, if you count plainclothes police, the number of stability maintenance (weiwen) police is probably several times greater than that of tourists. You don't even know if the person standing next to you, looking like they are taking pictures or shopping like a normal tourist, is a police officer monitoring you or a real tourist. Actually, it's not just Tiananmen; there are many so-called sensitive areas inside the Great Firewall, and I guess a bunch of plainclothes police are just wandering around every day. Otherwise, what do you think that huge amount of stability maintenance (weiwen) funding is spent on? Just like running a company, salaries are definitely your cost, usually the largest chunk, or even the vast majority of the biggest expenses. Uh, stability maintenance (weiwen) is the same.

Right now, looking all proper and decent, just like me right now, looking all proper and decent. Let me tell you, I can't even scrape together 50 yuan on me right now; I don't even know where my next meal is coming from.

There are many single men now because they have no money; there are also many single women because men have no money; the marriage rate is very low because men have no money; the divorce rate is very high, also because men have no money; the birth rate is very low because men have no money; consumption is abnormal, also because men have no money. The root of all problems is that men have no money, it is the root of all evil, all of it. Men.

Money, is anyone poorer than me this year? I can't even scrape together 500 yuan on me right now. After get off work, I don't even dare to go home; I'm afraid my child will look up and ask me: "Mom, did you bring anything for me?" Every time I return empty-handed because I am most afraid of that look of disappointment in my child's eyes.

Poverty really makes it hard to breathe. Just as I was weighing whether to buy cheap cotton-padded jackets or expensive down jackets for my three children, the temperature suddenly dropped, and my eldest caught a cold. Since all of last year's clothes were too small to wear, I gritted my teeth and bought a down jacket for each of my two daughters, spending 1,100 yuan in total. I couldn't sleep at night, my mind filled with nothing but money worries. My husband earns a little over 3,000 yuan a month, and I owe 3,300 yuan on Huabei, which was for the children's down jackets and this month's expenses. The eldest's cold cost 200 yuan, the monthly mortgage is 1,600 yuan, and I paid 1,600 yuan for the medical insurance for myself and the three children. My flexible employment insurance is 10,600 yuan, which I still haven't paid to this day, and I still owe heating and property management fees. The two of us are rotating between four credit cards. I am 43 years old this year; I don't have any major illnesses, but I have several minor ones, and I have no income while staying home to take care of the kids. Thinking about the tuition and living expenses for the eldest's college next year, I really don't know how I'm going to survive. I have clearly tried my absolute best to live, yet I still feel so powerless.

Let's talk about how severe the current employment situation is. Do you have any money right now? I certainly don't. My partner and I don't have a single cent left in our pockets. At a time like this, waiting for a windfall is how you make a little money. A neighbor in our residential complex contacted us saying that their child had hit our car while riding a bike, and since the film on the car was quite expensive—and we were a bit short on cash—we got some money to replace the film, and they transferred 800 yuan to us. Without this 800 yuan, we would be drinking the northwest wind tonight. You ask why we are so poor? Both of us are unemployed, and both of us are owed wages that we haven't received. I haven't received three months of salary, and he hasn't received five months of pay. Our combined monthly mortgage and car loan payments are nearly 10,000 yuan; you tell me, how are we supposed to live? It's a good thing we don't have children; if we did, they would be crying from hunger right now, and we couldn't even afford formula. Ah! I said this, and then my friend said, do you know where I got my money recently? Because that friend is also unemployed, I asked, where from? He said his partner said she had a cold and was sick, so her family transferred 2,000 yuan. I said, well, that's one way to get money. Another friend said that because he writes novels, he sold a novel for 200 yuan—200 yuan for a novel. I said, what is going on? I said, can't we have some proper money? Right? And we were all colleagues at the same company, and everything stems from that company going bankrupt and folding. Oh my, what are we going to do?

Everyone on the internet is asking, how much savings is normal at 30? But I want to ask, I'm 32, and I can't even come up with 1,000 yuan—is that normal? Yesterday, the school called and said that for the child to transfer, we needed to pay 2,000 yuan in tuition because we don't have a house, let alone a school district house. After hanging up, I wanted to pay the tuition immediately. But I searched through all my bank cards and found I only had 852 yuan, so I transferred 800 yuan to the school first. I knew it wasn't enough, so I hurriedly tried to borrow money from friends, but I didn't expect that I had overestimated myself. After going through everyone, I didn't manage to borrow a single cent. A few years ago, due to a failed investment, I opened a furniture factory, and with ten years of high-interest loans and borrowing to pay off debt, everything collapsed completely this year. The car and house are all gone, and I can't let my mother know that I'm living like this, really. At that moment, I just broke down.

There is a saying about begging. Thrown away. Really. Give me a quiet corner, away from all prying eyes.

Actually, right now, it is really too hard for middle-aged people over 40. Everyone knows, right? It's hard to find employment over 40, especially for ordinary people without much education; finding a job is very difficult. Many factories, many of those factories, won't hire you if you're over 35. But the actual retirement age is 60 and beyond, so you tell me, what are we supposed to do? We have elderly parents above and children below, and we dare not get sick, nor can we afford to be sick. The family burden is heavy—car loans, mortgages, children need to start their own families, and parents need to be supported. It is really too hard.

Rural families with sons born in the 1990s will face widespread financial collapse, and this will only increase. More and more will return to poverty overnight and become heavily indebted. Because those born in the 90s are at an age where they need money, many rural families with sons from this generation are almost all drowning in debt. This is because the 90s generation is currently at the age for marriage and starting businesses. If you have such a son, between marriage dowries, buying a car, and buying a house, many families take out loans just to get married. Once they are married, they are in debt; this is one scenario. Then there are those who start their own businesses—opening restaurants, starting companies, flipping used cars, or running small trades—many of them lose money. There are plenty of such cases. And then there is my situation. There are also many cases where borrowing money causes a family to collapse, so many such families are heavily indebted. I have always suggested that money should be saved. Many couples who take out loans to get married are fine at first, but after a few years, they divorce, all while burdened with debt. They pay off loans together and live frugally together, but there is no such thing as 'love is enough to sustain you.' For many, 'poverty brings a hundred sorrows,' and they end up arguing over trivial household matters like daily necessities. Then there are those born in the 90s who start businesses with borrowed money; most of them fail. How can there be so many 'dragons among men'? Therefore, children born in the 90s in rural families are the main force behind family bankruptcies and financial collapses in recent years. I don't even know if this restless striving is right anymore. If you don't strive, you are destined to remain at the bottom of society. If you do strive, it's like thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge; only one or two succeed, and the majority are just cannon fodder. I really don't know what to do.

Do you feel tired? In this place? It is exhausting. Look at others; at twenty-six, they go out to play or lie down at home. Why are you out working at twenty-six? The pressure is too high! Not to mention twenty-six, I came out when I was twenty-one or twenty-two. The family needs someone to take care of them, the family. There are still my grandparents in there. Speaking of my grandma, my grandma is hemiplegic now. Ah! People are even holding longevity banquets now. Right, my grandpa, my grandpa was in his eighties at that time, and then. So your grandpa passed away. Right, and then I came out to work. I only graduated from junior high school, and I stayed at home for four years just for the family; otherwise, my dad couldn't handle it. One person at home, one person in the hospital, you say who can my dad take care of alone? Do you have any dreams now? No, no dreams, just living one day at a time. A soldier, just being a soldier is fine, a soldier just dies, that's the plan. Getting married, if you get married, now not to mention the bride price is hard to manage, you also need an apartment and things like that, you simply can't afford to marry. Now I already have 100,000 in outside debts. I don't want to owe outside debts, owing so much money, just because. Well, it's my dad's. Oh. My dad, he runs a business at home, and then he couldn't get a loan by himself, couldn't get a loan by himself, the bank wouldn't lend it, it had to be guaranteed. And then at that time I just became an adult, and I signed for him. And now my dad is almost sixty, he definitely can't repay that signature, and in the end it fell on my head, which means I signed for 100,000 in debt. In the end, he opened a mahjong parlor at home. Was it good? Then it failed, I don't even know how it happened, and he didn't buy me any clothes or anything, hey, during the Chinese New Year I didn't have anything good either, and then 50,000 yuan was gone in one New Year. As for your 100,000 yuan, have you repaid it? Have you started repaying? Now it's paid by my dad, right? Now I don't have to repay it yet, just paying the interest. Just pay the interest. Then later on, you have to repay this money. Of course I have to repay it! My dad is almost sixty, people are getting old, he can't make money now, so it definitely falls on my head. Then I think, hey, I haven't even married a wife and I already have 100,000 in outside debts, what are you going to use to marry a wife? So that's how it is, nobody has ever helped me in my life, with this kind of situation, two older sisters, two older sisters, they say they are unreliable, and then. Are your sisters married? Married. Married. Right. It's equivalent to you being out working by yourself now, do your sisters or your dad or someone call you to ask how you are doing outside? No contact. They don't ask, nor do they greet you to see how you are? Not worried, it has been at least three or four months. I came out in March. Ah. My dad, my dad hasn't called me even once, our relationship is no good, since childhood. The relationship is no good, then do you usually go home for Chinese New Year? Now I think that even if I die outside, I won't go home. That's my plan. I don't miss home now, nor do I want to go home. Don't miss home, nor do I want to go home. You can't have this kind of thought! I already have it! Now I think if it doesn't work out, I'll just marry into another family. Damn it, what's with that, you can't even marry a wife yourself, parents at home are unreliable, so it's better for me to go myself. Where do you plan to spend this Chinese New Year? Spend what New Year? Just go outside again to make some money, eat something good, and that's how it will pass.

Uh, this National Day is actually the same as before, oh, just the thing popular in the last two years, I've told my friends before, does everyone remember? That is going out to travel, living in a car, or in some wild parks or something, this public space, or even parking lots to set up a tent, living like that, because they are reluctant to stay in hotels, and then they are also reluctant to eat those very expensive restaurants, so they just set up tents themselves or live in cars, and eat instant noodles, the so-called budget travel is that they don't spend a single cent, just people going out to wander around. I think actually it's also because it's too oppressive, although they can't pull any money out of their pockets, although most tourist attractions in China look no different from each other, if they can't leave this place where they have been suffering and suppressing themselves to go somewhere else, even if they just stay there for ten minutes or an hour, I think many people might not be able to bear it here. So, even if they can't spend money, and have no money to spend, they still have to go to those tourist attractions to walk around and look. Well, the above is all the content of this issue. If you want to support me, please join the member channel. I also especially hope to chat with you in real time during member live streams. That's all for this issue, see you next time.