Weekly Report #32 - Reunion and Flowing Emotions in Wuhan

Preface#

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

Work-wise, this week was relatively normal, with no urgent tasks. Due to some personal matters, I was in a slightly tense state, but I felt less anxious and low-spirited. 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. Since Qu and Lei were also there, I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet up. Without hesitation, I embarked on a spontaneous "trip" and revisited my school and met some old teachers and friends. It seems that after three years of losing touch due to the epidemic, the last time I saw some of my friends feels like a distant memory, even though it was only three or four years ago.

This time in Wuhan, I only spent two days, Friday and Saturday. It was a short time, but it was the first pure "journey" I've had in the past two years. It gave me a strange feeling, as if I had rediscovered the flow of life and my own emotions, reflecting another side of my own changes.

Wuhan#

In June 2015, when I was filling out my college application, I flipped through a booklet provided by the schools. It contained introductions and historical admission 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 was attracted to the humanistic atmosphere of Wuhan University (although my scores were not high enough to get in, so I chose another university with two additional characters), and I felt that this city had its own 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, when I got off the train at Wuhan Station, transferred to the subway, passed by familiar station names, and walked on the Gongda Road and entered the classrooms of the school, I realized that this city and everything 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, the sadness was only about parting with these familiar people. However, shortly after, the epidemic broke out. The city was locked down, makeshift hospitals were set up, and many heartbreaking stories happened around people I knew. The 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 so colorful 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 straightforward and sometimes irritable bus drivers in Wuhan (although I almost flew from the last row to the middle due to a sudden brake), the Yangtze River Bridge that is said to bring lifelong companionship (I've walked on it several times, it's windy and 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 aspects that I would tell my friends that this city is worth experiencing, as it has multiple facets and unique charm. But because of this epidemic, Wuhan seems to have gradually lost its sense of mystery, and even created some fixed impressions in people's minds. My feelings about it 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'll 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."

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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 males and two females, who were always together. Whenever the counselor or classmates found that someone was missing, they would naturally ask about the others.

However, after a while, I felt the pressure. The remaining three seemed to be more prominent figures in the group, always shining in the crowd, while I seemed to lack a sense of presence. I didn't want to be the extra person who clung to the group out of habit. So I started to deliberately avoid and escape. Of course, being clumsy, I didn't know how to hide, and I was soon discovered.

I was lucky compared to Murakami's protagonist, I wasn't abandoned, nor were there any misunderstandings. The other three blocked me outside the boys' dormitory one night and asked me to speak out about my concerns. They each listened and responded to my personality and sense of presence. Although I still feel that their responses about personality and sense of presence were just comforting words, I felt that I was needed in this relationship and that my emotions were taken seriously. Even though we have had fewer opportunities to do things together due to different cities and many other reasons, we still maintain good contact, and each of us is the first person the others think of when we visit their cities.

This time in Wuhan, I met them.

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I have always cherished these natural and comfortable relationships. It seems that with just a simple "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 through 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 schedule was tight, and I returned to Beijing on Sunday, hoping to see them more in the future.

Besides the reunion, I also noticed some changes in myself during this short trip. I am more willing to experience things around me and find 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, it at least reduces concerns about censorship and privacy protection.

During this week in Wuhan, I finally moved my most important and troublesome service, iCloud, from the Guizhou server to the Hong Kong server. It was not without difficulties. I have to say that Apple's account management and cloud service synchronization in this regard are not very user-friendly.

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

However, Apple's Family Sharing feature is not as convenient. Previously, I had set up a Family Sharing plan with my account, sharing iCloud 200GB with Ni and Zhan, and also acting as the guardian for my sister's account (because she is under 14 years old). When I wanted to change regions, I had to first move my sister's account to another family plan, 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 a Hong Kong payment method and other information, and finally enable Family Sharing for iCloud in the Hong Kong region.

Not only was the process cumbersome, but I also encountered verification errors when logging back into my account on my iPhone. I searched for a lot of information and found that the only solution was to factory reset the phone. So I had to spend a whole night dealing with software issues. Fortunately, I had recorded some information in my toolbox project. However, it was still painful to reset all the permissions and settings for each app. Luckily, I eventually resolved the issue. 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. Perhaps due to my concerns about domestic manufacturers and some services, I have become somewhat obsessed with maintaining a clean digital environment.

Inputs#

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

Articles#

Videos#

Similarly, I also keep a record of interesting videos I've watched:

Snapshots 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 to show her:

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

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This ungrateful little cat.