My body is exhausted and begging for sleep, but my mind won’t quiet down—too many thoughts from the day.
Here’s a brief recap of what happened today (or rather, yesterday) and what crossed my mind:
Got home in the early hours only to find all my neatly organized belongings piled together by family. Ended up spending another hour tidying before I could sleep.
Had planned to catch up on rest this morning so I could focus on my SAT homework later, but then—
Renovation noise: “Time to wake up on schedule!”
Got up, thinking I’d review SAT vocabulary and get some work done, but then—
Renovation noise: “Let me keep cheering you on—louder!”
Decided to head out to a café or bubble tea shop (clearly, I hadn’t learned life’s lessons yet).
Found out my usual spot had turned into a Meituan delivery hub.
“Luckily,” HeyTea had a seat free, so I ordered a drink (no sugar, trying to be healthy—though I regretted getting the ice blend; it stayed cold for three hours as it slowly melted).
Renovation noise: “Well, my work here is done…”
But its comrades were just getting started:
Order machine: “You’ve received a new order!” × n
Ice blender: “Whirrrrr…”
Delivery rider A: “[Unintelligible]”
Delivery rider B: “[Unintelligible]”
Rider C’s phone: “Look closely, this man is called Xiao Shuai…”
Mall train music: “[Some pop song]…”
Staff member: “Would you like to try and review our new drink…”
For some reason, it suddenly felt like modern cafés and tea shops aren’t so different from the teahouse in Lao She’s play.
People still gather over drinks—just the options have changed (tea vs. coffee vs. bubble tea…).
All walks of life come together here—customers from different backgrounds, delivery riders, some chatting, some negotiating business, some scrolling through videos, some studying (probably just me 😅).
Much like the teahouse of old, it’s a kind of “essential” social space—a place to linger, whether you have plans or not.
Here, too, you overhear absurd news and all sorts of curious happenings. In a way, it’s still a crossroads of culture and conversation…
