Weekly Report #32 - Wuhan, Reunion after a Long Separation, and the Flowing Emotions

Preface#

This article is a record and reflection of my life from 2023-02-21 to 2023-02-26.

Work-wise, it was a relatively ordinary week with no urgent tasks. Due to some personal matters, I was feeling a bit tense, but the anxiety and low mood were much less. I had a feeling that everything was on the right track.

Two weeks ago, Jingru suddenly messaged me and asked if she could come to Wuhan from the 23rd to the 25th. Qu and I were also in Wuhan, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet up. Without hesitation, I embarked on a spontaneous "trip" and returned to my school and met some old teachers and friends. It seemed like a long time since I had seen some of my friends, probably because of the three years lost to the epidemic.

This time in Wuhan, I only spent two days, Friday and Saturday. It was a short time, but it was the first pure "travel" I had in the past two years. It felt strange and wonderful. I seemed to have rediscovered the flow of life and my own emotions, reflecting another side of my own changes.

Wuhan#

In June 2015, when I was choosing my university, I flipped through a booklet provided by the school, which contained introductions and historical cutoff scores of all the universities. With some haste, I chose Wuhan as the city I would spend the next few years with. Perhaps it was because I had yearned for the humanistic atmosphere of Wuhan University (although my scores were not high enough to get in), and I felt that this city had some unique charm.

Although I feel somewhat guilty for not putting much effort into my studies and not having any memorable achievements, the time I spent in Wuhan has unknowingly become an important part of my life. When I graduated, most of my friends also left Wuhan and scattered in different directions. I once thought that even if I had no further connection with this city, it wouldn't matter. What mattered were the memories and relationships.

But this time returning to Wuhan, getting off the train at Wuhan Station, transferring on the subway and passing by familiar station names, walking on the Gongda Road and entering the classrooms of the school, I realized that this city and every little detail in it had already become a part of my life. I felt a sense of "return" that had been absent for a long time.

Perhaps it can't be called a sense of belonging. From the moment I arrived in this city alone with my suitcase, I understood that I was just a temporary resident here. I didn't have too many expectations for this city, and even when I left, what made me sad was simply the separation from these familiar people. However, shortly after, the epidemic broke out. The lockdown, makeshift hospitals, and many heartbreaking news happened around people I knew. This city seemed to be covered in a layer of gray.

At that time, I was in Hangzhou, looking at the overwhelming negative news on the internet, as well as more insults and hidden discrimination against Wuhan. I truly felt a sense of heartache and helplessness. A city that used to be full of colors was now being presented to everyone in this way. There are so many things worth mentioning about Wuhan, such as the "early morning" culture of Liangdao Street, the hot dry noodles and Zhouheiya, the unique Wuhan dialect, the hot-tempered but straightforward bus drivers in Wuhan (although I almost flew from the back row to the middle row because of a sudden brake), the legendary Yangtze River Bridge where you can hold hands and grow old together (I have walked across it several times, the wind is strong, it's a good exercise, but not much else), the prosperity of Jianghan Road and the leisurely time by the river, the liveliness of Optics Valley and the mysterious traffic conditions. There are many interesting and humorous points that I would tell my friends that this city is worth experiencing, multifaceted and charming. But because of this epidemic, Wuhan seems to have gradually lost its sense of mystery and even created some fixed impressions. My feelings are quite complicated.

Wuhan will not become my second home, but it will always be a place for me to return to. When I'm tired, maybe I will go back and pick up my life again.

Reunion and Flowing Emotions#

I once mentioned a group of people in an article titled "Weekly Report #09 - Colorless Yu and His Pilgrimage Year":

four_people_relationship

It seems that people tend to form groups at different stages of their lives, but once they rely on a group, they inevitably face pressure and setbacks from relationships. In college, I had a group of four people, two boys and two girls, always together. Whenever the counselor or classmates found that someone was missing, they would naturally ask about the others.

But after a while, I felt the pressure. The remaining three seemed to be more prominent figures in the crowd, always shining, while I seemed to lack a sense of presence. I didn't want to be the extra person who relied on this group out of habit. So I started to deliberately avoid and escape. Of course, I was not good at hiding, and I was soon discovered.

I can say that I was lucky compared to Morimi. I wasn't abandoned, and there were no misunderstandings. The other three blocked me outside the boys' dormitory one night and made me speak out about my concerns. They listened and responded to my personality and sense of presence. They cherished our relationship. Even though we rarely had the opportunity to do things together afterwards due to different cities and many other reasons, we still maintained good contact, and each of us would be the first person the others thought of when we visited their cities.

This time in Wuhan, I met them.

photo_with_ru_qu_and_lei

I have always cherished these natural and comfortable relationships. It seems that with just a "I miss you," we can meet up without much deliberate explanation or arrangement. Ni, Zhan, Xiaoyu, and the others are like that, even though we haven't seen each other for three or four years due to the epidemic.

When I was in Hong Kong, I received a sudden video call one night. The three of them were gathering in Wuhan, and I took a remote group photo with them on WeChat video. And this time, I finally had the chance to be there in person. We ate, drank, strolled around the campus, and talked about the past and the present. Everything was as it used to be. The itinerary was rushed, and I returned to Beijing on Sunday, hoping to see them more in the future.

In addition to the reunion, I seemed to have undergone some changes during this short trip. I became more willing to experience things around me and found joy in small, inconspicuous things or even just hearing a song while walking on a certain road. Although I am currently surrounded by many things that are worth worrying about, my emotions seem to be gradually flowing with the journey.

I hope to have more opportunities to travel in the future.

Interesting Things#

Cyber Relocation#

Perhaps due to some doubts about domestic internet companies and services, I have been gradually moving the services I rely on to overseas servers in the past six months. Although most of them are still centralized, at least I can worry less about censorship and privacy protection.

During my week in Wuhan, I finally moved my most heavily relied-on and troublesome service, iCloud, from Guizhou to the Hong Kong region. It went through some twists and turns. I have to say that Apple's account management and cloud service synchronization are not very smooth.

Because my account has purchased many apps (including the entire suite of Final Cut Pro X), I didn't want to create a new account just for migration. Fortunately, Apple allows purchased items to be retained when switching regions. All the apps I bought in the Chinese region are also available in the Hong Kong region, so the transition was relatively seamless in this aspect.

However, Apple's Family Sharing feature is not as convenient. Previously, I had my account set up a Family and shared iCloud 200GB with Ni and Zhan. I also supervised my sister's account (because she is under 14 years old). When I wanted to switch regions, I needed to first move my sister's account to another Family, let my Apple Music subscription expire (and I couldn't do it in advance, I had to wait until the end of the current billing cycle, which was a bit unreasonable), and then change the region using Hong Kong's payment method and other information, and finally enable iCloud Family Sharing in the Hong Kong region.

Not only was the process a bit troublesome, but there was also a verification error when I logged in to my account on my iPhone. I searched for a lot of information and found that the only solution was to restore the device to factory settings. So I had to spend a whole night dealing with the software, luckily I had recorded some notes in my toolbox project. However, it was still painful to reset all the permissions and settings for each app. Fortunately, I eventually resolved it. I always felt that this was something I would have to do sooner or later.

Another phone I have is the OnePlus 7 Pro, which I bought a few years ago. As soon as I got it, I flashed the international version of OxygenOS to use Google services. Maybe domestic manufacturers and some services have made me somewhat obsessed with privacy.

Input#

Although most interesting inputs are automatically synchronized to my Telegram channel "Yu's Life," I will still list some of them here. It feels more like a newsletter.

Articles#

Videos#

Similarly, I also want to list some interesting videos I have watched:

Highlights of Personal Life#

Because I went to Wuhan, I left Nie Nie in the care of my senior sister. I didn't take many photos myself, but because she was feeling a bit homesick, I took a photo of a cat I hugged in a café in Wuhan and showed it to her:

yu_hug_other_cat

Then she lay comfortably on the sofa in her new home, looking like she didn't care:

nie_nie_with_boyi

nie_nie_and_other_cat

This ungrateful little cat.