Took a Shenzhen taxi for the first time and got chatting with the driver.

The driver told me he absolutely loves going to Northeast China and has been going for seven or eight years straight. Every year when he goes, he doesn't book hotels—he just rolls dice to randomly pick a town, eats and chats with locals, and they end up inviting him to stay at their place. On his last day, he buys something worth a thousand or two thousand yuan and leaves it behind. He never repeats the same place; every year he finds a new home.

The driver said he's never worked for anyone his whole life. He started by shining shoes, then sold fruit, did fruit wholesale, opened internet cafes, ran hotel chains, came to Shenzhen doing foreign trade and running his own factory. The past two years his business failed, so he sold his house and car bit by bit to pay off debts, and now he drives for Didi while looking for opportunities to start something new. "I have dreams too—I want to create a product that everyone loves." I'm not sure how much of it was true, but it made my originally happy day feel much more vivid. The worries I had seemed suddenly unnecessary.