The Imperial City

Considering that I’ve read nearly five hundred books, I’ve always wanted to use a few paragraphs to introduce the concept of speed reading.

But then this series was delayed and never happened…

I guess it’s because of my limited skills that I can’t write it…

Better do something else first.

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb used an entire book, “Fooled by Randomness,” to explain “uncertainty,” and then used another whole book, “The Black Swan,” to describe how to deal with the unpredictable future.

The Little Master thought he had grasped the essentials after flipping through it quickly.

Between the “Magic Needle” and the “Imperial City,” after careful consideration, he decided to choose the “Hard” mode to see if he could unlock hidden skills.

Environment

It seems that most folks from the southern regions have always had this impression of the Imperial City:

And when it rains, it’s like this:

After a week of field investigation, the Little Master came to a conclusion:

“The exaggeration in the picture above is indeed exaggerated, but it’s really like that!”

Haven’t you noticed the air is too dry, and the skin of the girls on the street is not good?

Haven’t you noticed that because of the excessive dust, the cars and the ground on the roadside are covered in dust?

Ever since the Little Master saw a girl walking barefoot on the asphalt road on a rainy day in Heaven, he stopped wearing socks.

As a result, after walking a few steps in the Imperial City, his shoes were covered in sandpaper…

Accent

Geographically speaking, the Little Master was born north of the Huai River, and has always considered himself a northerner, but he identifies more with the lifestyle of the south.

When he first arrived in Heaven, the kids said his “er” sound was heavy and accused him of influencing their speech.

After coming to the Imperial City, he realized that he was just a small fish in a big pond.

This is not exactly what the official description says:

Standard Mandarin is based on the Beijing dialect, with the northern dialect as its foundation…

The “er” sound here is so heavy that it sounds quite funny. The Little Master couldn’t help but chuckle when he heard people talking on the street.

But after just two days, he realized that he had been influenced…

But it’s true that there are many foreigners on the street, and many of them don’t speak English (the Little Master knows a little English, so it shouldn’t be an accent problem).

Intermediaries

Thinking back to when he was still in Heaven, as long as he stood at the entrance of a residential area, a group of enthusiastic aunties would immediately surround him, and there would be no intermediary fees.

When the Little Master first arrived in the Imperial City, he was unprepared and still thought it would be similar to Heaven. But when he reached the entrance of the residential area, he found that the small blackboard (aside from being covered in dust) was clean. When he asked the security guard about renting, the guard shook his head and said, “I don’t know.”

In Heaven, 800 RMB could get you a room of over ten square meters, and for 1,300 RMB you could even get a south-facing room with a large balcony.

And no matter how cheap the room was, even if it was in the basement, it would have its own private bathroom, so you could shower and then run around naked.

But in the Imperial City, prices are multiplied by 2.5, and the bathrooms are shared.

The houses within the third ring road are mostly old, some even older than the time the Little Master has been alive.

Yellowed walls, cobwebs in the corners, dirty and messy both inside and outside.

And most of them are five-bedroom apartments. If a couple is crammed into one room, not counting the Little Master, that’s already 8 people. During the peak morning rush hour to use the bathroom… the Little Master thought of using a Queue to implement FIFO.

When he returned to the hotel at night and searched for a reliable intermediary online, he found that there were no intermediaries left in the Imperial City. Regardless of size, they had all turned to ashes.

It’s a pity that the Little Master was new and unfamiliar to the city. Knowing that “I’m being used as a pawn,” he was helpless.

Advice

Children from the south, don’t be filled with too much positivity, like:

While you're young, go see the world outside
You should have dreams while you're young. No matter the outcome, at least you've tried. No regrets.
Traveling is not just tourism; it's getting on crowded buses and subways, going to work...

The Little Master wants to give you some advice with his life at stake:

Don’t come here, because:
You will really die!!!

Translated by gpt-3.5-turbo