This director is vindictive.

Although the 814 Welfare Festival has only been around for five years, it became a global sensation from the very beginning, with a much higher starting point than other shopping festivals. Moreover, at least five out of ten people in China have benefited from the 814 Welfare Festival or Welfare Week.

Therefore, although this event/festival has not been around for very long, its influence is enormous.

Nostalgia is something that never goes out of style, especially since this year's 814 Welfare Festival is naturally blessed with several top-tier buffs.

Firstly, Chen Mo, the creator and core figure of the Welfare Festival, is about to "retire." Without Chen Mo, will the 814 Welfare Festival still be the Welfare Festival that everyone is familiar with?

the answer is negative!

Therefore, to some extent, even if the Welfare Festival continues to be held next year after Chen Mo retires from the entertainment industry, its influence will never be comparable to what it is today.

Putting everything else aside, you should know that the Welfare Festival was initially able to be held purely because of Chen Mo's appeal. Why were businesses willing to sponsor products worth hundreds of millions? It's because they believed that this event organized by Chen Mo would allow their investment to return many times over.

But if Chen Mo doesn't participate, will so many businesses still be willing to invest such a large amount?

The answer is also no!

Therefore, this can be considered the final chapter of the welfare festival.

The saying goes that things are valued for their rarity. Similarly, if the event is held every year, it will lose its novelty. However, if this year is the last year it will be held and become a final event, then its significance will be completely different.

Secondly, this year's Welfare Festival, combined with Chen Mo's retirement from the entertainment industry, has set a farewell theme.

On one hand, it's saying goodbye to Chen Mo; on the other hand, it's also saying goodbye to the Welfare Festival.

The effect of this synergy is naturally greater than the sum of its parts.

At the same time, it is held in July, which is the well-known graduation season and the season of farewell, adding another layer of BUFF!

At this time, students all over the country are taking graduation photos and writing in their yearbooks, and the melody of "My Deskmate" is playing in the air.

Schools are saying goodbye to youth, the internet is saying goodbye to Chen Mo, and businesses are saying goodbye to their promotional festivals. To put it bluntly, this July has become a "farewell-themed month"!
Thirdly, because this is very likely to be the last one.

The impact is self-evident. For merchants, this is the last chance; for the general public, this is the last chance to get a good deal, so the enthusiasm is naturally overwhelming.

Therefore, the level of benefits this year will most likely be far greater than in previous years.

This will also increase the event's popularity and anticipation.

After all, everyone knows that this is likely the last welfare festival.

Just like a graduation dinner, knowing you might never get together again, how can you not take it seriously? Merchants are offering discounts like crazy, and netizens are frantically buying things, as if the world is ending tomorrow. This sense of urgency, like "once it's gone, it's gone," has driven the event's popularity to new heights.

Finally, there's the most powerful emotional appeal!
Five years is but a fleeting moment in a lifetime, but in the internet age, it is a length that is unforgettable.

In five years, how many people have gone from college freshmen to working professionals, how many have gone from single people to new parents—over these five years, the 814 Welfare Festival has been like an old friend, bringing surprises every summer without fail.

Over the same five years, the 814 Welfare Festival has also left many touching moments for everyone.

The original "Do One Good Deed a Day" program made countless ordinary people the protagonists.

It will cleanse the world of its atmosphere and allow countless ordinary people to shine with their own light.

Moreover, this activity has benefited countless people from all walks of life, including cleaning ladies, elderly scavengers, volunteer teachers, doctors, nurses, delivery drivers, and couriers.
Not to mention that "family portrait," many people probably still keep that precious photo from that welfare festival.

Five years have passed, and perhaps some of the people in that photo are no longer alive.

But no one will forget the emotion brought by the moment captured in the photo!

By the fourth edition of "Short Letters, Long Affections," love letters that had been sealed away for many years flew in from all over the country, including letters from veterans to their fallen comrades and love stories that spanned a century.

Last year's "Millennial Chinese Costumes" fashion show pushed the event's popularity to its peak. When the Dunhuang flying apsara costumes were recreated through holographic projection, the barrage comments were all "No regrets in being born Chinese in this life".

A Weibo influencer posted a comment: These memories are like old photos; the longer they're kept, the more precious they become.

This year's "Farewell" theme is like upgrading a tear gas bomb to a nuclear bomb—it's not just Chen Mo's farewell to the entertainment industry, but also the final performance of our collective youth.

Imagine the campus radio playing "My Deskmate" during graduation season, while everyone's phones are filled with memories of the graduation bonus festival. This isn't a graduation bonus festival; it's clearly a collective funeral for everyone's youth!

These sentiments are turning into real money: merchants are treating clearance sales as farewell gifts, and netizens are turning shopping sprees into performance art.

One girl in the supertopic said, "I'll stock up on enough sanitary napkins for three years, so that I'll remember this day every time I use them."

Look, this is the ultimate form of emotional marketing—turning every pack of tissues into a time capsule.

Chen Mo, this marketing master, has achieved ultimate marketing that is enough to make countless peers worship him!

In fact, for the annual welfare festival, it's not just about providing enough benefits; it's also about attracting public interest and participation.

Therefore, the rules of an activity are sometimes very important.

In this regard, Chen Mo this year has actually truly embraced the philosophy of simplicity!

Since it's a farewell season, the focus should be on "farewell," on emotions, and on feelings. Overly complicated rules would only diminish the appeal of the event.

Soon, amidst much anticipation, Chen Mo simultaneously released the activity rules for this year's Welfare Festival Welfare Week through the official Weibo account of the 814 Welfare Festival and his personal official Weibo account.

"The 7th 814 Welfare Festival Welfare Week will officially begin on July 7, 2026!"
The rules are as follows:

July 7th: A season for farewells, and also a season for confessions!

The theme of the day: Farewell & Confession. As you part ways, say your love out loud. Confess your love to the one you admire or have a crush on!
You can participate in the event by recording a short video, submitting a direct text confession, or even writing it down. You can use any method to participate and post it on the 814 Welfare Festival's partner platforms, such as Douyin, Weibo, Weishi, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, etc. There is a chance to randomly trigger a confession gift provided by various merchants. The netizens who receive the gift will immediately become the merchants' spokespeople! They will be prefixed with the merchant's name.

July 8th: A season of farewells, and also a season of letting go!

The theme of the day: Saying goodbye & letting go. Pick yourself up and love openly and honestly, and break up gracefully and gracefully!

Similarly, you can participate in the event in any way.

You can participate in this collective healing in your most authentic way: with an unsent breakup letter, a healing love song on repeat, or even a late-night monologue video.

Share those breakup stories that taught you to grow, and relive the stubbornness and rebirth in "Love is Not Blind".

Let us piece ourselves back together from the broken pieces!

After all, how can a youth be called youth if it hasn't been filled with pain? How can one understand the moonlight in the dead of night without having cried?

Let's break our hearts together!
Because joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are all part of life!
July 9th: Saying goodbye is for a better reunion!
The theme of the day: Farewell & Reunion. If we can't meet again with tears in our eyes, can we at least blush?
Youth never ends, and old flames can meet again!
After so many years apart, do you still have the memories of the past? Do you still feel the emotions that were once so innocent?

Do you remember that boy in the back row of the classroom who always liked to pull your ponytail?

Do you remember the cafeteria lady who would deliberately give you an extra half spoonful of food when you were getting your food?
Do you remember that special someone who stood next to you in the graduation photo but never dared to confess their feelings? This summer, let's turn "long time no see" into "how have you been!"
Whether you want to finally tell that long-awaited "I like you" to your crush of many years
I still want to relive the crazy days of skipping classes and climbing over walls with my old best friends.
Or perhaps they simply want to see if that "chubby boy" from back then has now become "Eddie Peng".
Let's turn regrets into surprises and reunite after missed opportunities in this season of farewells!

July 10th
As soon as the theme and rules of the Welfare Week were announced, the entire internet erupted in excitement, with servers on major social media platforms experiencing overload. The top ten trending topics on Weibo were completely overwhelmed.

#ChenMo's Farewell Confession# Breaking News

#BreakupHappyFestival# Explosive

#ExReunionPlan# Explosive

Millions of imitation videos suddenly appeared on TikTok—the scene of college students throwing their graduation caps into the air suddenly freezes, and the screen cuts to a four-year-old secret love diary hidden in the phone's notes;

Office workers arranged coffee cups to form a heart shape, while the background music was a piano version of "Decent".

The most outrageous thing was a group of male students in a university dormitory singing a cover of "My Deskmate." When they got to the chorus, they all suddenly flashed QR codes: "Scan this to participate in the giveaway and help your roommate win back their first love!" Merchants' shady tactics are endless:
A bubble tea brand launched a "Bitter Love Special" with a cup sleeve printed with the message, "You are the unfinished chapter I hid in the welfare festival."

Cinemas are offering "Breakup Special" screenings, with tickets including tissues and ice cream (caption: alternating between hot and cold makes the pain real).

A dating app urgently launched a "Classmate Reunion" feature, with the search bar defaulting to "Find Class 2 of 2006 (Senior 3)".

Even state media got involved in the meme.

The official Weibo account of the Meteorological Bureau released a rainstorm warning map with the caption: "Strong weather conditions for expressing love will occur across the country on July 7th."
The China Railway Corporation has launched a "Youth Commemorative Ticket," with the train number displayed as G814 (destination: Future).

Of course, these are just warm-ups, but countless netizens are already sharpening their knives and preparing for the upcoming event.

However, everyone underestimated the popularity and intensity of this event.

On July 7th, as the duet of farewell and confession began, the server crashed at 0:00 AM!

As the clock struck midnight on July 7th, the hashtag #814WelfareFarewellSeason# instantly went viral across the internet.

The event pages on platforms such as Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu were flooded with over 2 million users at the same time, causing the servers to crash temporarily.

It took a full five minutes for the image to recover.

This day was swept up in a nationwide confession storm.

First, countless videos of students shouting slogans from their dormitories appeared online!

The most popular video was a confession video from Peking University.

In the video, at 11:50 p.m., the No. 3 male dormitory building of Peking University suddenly fell into darkness, followed by hundreds of mobile phone flashlights lighting up the windows, twinkling like stars.

The students watching downstairs suddenly erupted in screams—the lights formed the words "LY, be my girlfriend before graduation!"

In the center of the crowd, Zhou Yuan, a physics whiz in a white shirt, held up a megaphone, his voice trembling: "Lin Yuan, I know you complain that I spend too much time in the lab and am always late for dates... but this time I planned it three months in advance, and I even wrote the program myself!"

He pointed behind him—the lights of the entire building suddenly began to flow, transforming into particle effects that spelled out a simple line drawing of a girl's face.

The curtains on the fifth floor of the girls' dormitory were suddenly pulled open, and Lin Yuan from the Journalism Department peeked out with red eyes.

She grabbed the laser pointer her roommate handed her and projected three shimmering red words, "I! Will!" onto the wall.

The area downstairs instantly erupted in cheers. Someone started singing "Courage," and thousands of people turned on their phone flashlights and swayed to the rhythm.

Suddenly, a drone swept over the crowd and airdropped a velvet box.

Zhou Yuan knelt down on one knee and opened the ring—a limited edition wedding ring from a jewelry brand gleamed under the lights.

The brand's official Weibo account quickly shared the video from the event: "We'll witness true love this graduation season! The ring's already locked in, and we're adding a graduation trip for two to the Maldives!"

What's even more amazing is that the dorm supervisor suddenly appeared with a megaphone: "You're allowed to keep the lights on until midnight—"

She tossed her work ID around her neck, saying, "My husband did the same thing thirty years ago!"

Amidst laughter and tears, the school radio station suddenly changed the song—it was a recording Zhou Yuan had secretly submitted: "If I could sing 'Young and Promising' again, I would still choose the lab and you."

The video topped the trending charts on Douyin, and the tag #XXJewelry takes college confessions to a new level# garnered over 10 billion views.

What's even more interesting is that after the lighting program created by this top student named Zhou Yuan was open sourced, it was copied and adapted by 237 universities across the country, resulting in the most spectacular graduation season lighting confession relay in history.

The same confession videos are appearing wildly online.

Although the majority of the participants were students, people from all walks of life also took this opportunity to muster up the courage to confess their feelings!
Lunchtime is the busiest time for food delivery.

A delivery driver in a blue uniform, raindrops still clinging to his helmet, quickly pulled out his phone to take a selfie during the 60 seconds he waited at the red light. His face was covered in sweat, and his breathing was a little rapid: "Honey, today is our fifth wedding anniversary, right?"

The food delivery app beeped with a notification, "You have a new order," but he didn't accept it right away. Instead, he held the phone closer to his ear: "In the past five years, I've made nearly 40,000 deliveries, delivering emergency medicine in the early hours of the morning and even delivering food in torrential rain."

His voice suddenly choked up: "But I've never been there for your birthday or anniversary."

Suddenly, he pulled a crumpled red envelope from his breast pocket, grinned with his chapped lips, and said, "I just grabbed an 814 Welfare Festival red envelope, 888 yuan!"

He turned around and carefully took out a bag with a clothing brand logo from the delivery box: "I bought you that red dress you tried on three times at the mall last month but couldn't bring yourself to buy!"

The navigation system suddenly announced, "You have deviated from your route."
He frantically turned off the sound, his eyes reddening: "I took the day off tonight. Let's go to a nice restaurant for dinner."

The 45-second video was uploaded to Douyin, and the hashtag #DeliveryGuy'sRedSkirt# garnered over 100 million views in two hours.

Keen-eyed netizens noticed that this red envelope was a special "heartfelt confession surprise" offered during the welfare festival, with a very low winning rate.

That dress, priced at 798 yuan, almost used up all the money from the red envelopes!
This video triggered a surprise bonus from the clothing brand's promotional event; the gift was a matching couple's outfit.

The clothing brand then posted an urgent message on its official Weibo account: "We're giving away skirts for free! We're also adding ten years of couple outfits (custom-made each year according to the delivery rider's size)! Also: Starting today, all delivery riders nationwide will receive a free iced drink when picking up their orders!"

The accompanying image shows a T-shirt that the design department worked through the night to produce—the back of which reads, "I deliver takeout to support my family, she wears a red dress and looks as beautiful as a flower."

Soon after, a tear-jerking video titled #TheLongestConfession# went viral online.
The video was filmed earlier by a girl majoring in directing for her grandparents.

The camera slowly zooms in with 4K resolution, focusing on a pair of hands covered in age spots and with prominent veins.

The old man held a rusty "Hero" brand fountain pen in his right hand and pressed down on the yellowed letter paper with his left hand, writing with trembling hands: "My dear wife, when we were sent to the countryside in Yulin in 1968, you secretly gave me the two roasted sweet potatoes you had hidden in the middle of the night..." The ink smudged slightly on the rough paper.

The panoramic camera pans across the 14-square-meter living room, where an enamel mug sits on a peeling dresser, a moldy straw hat hangs on a wall nail, and in the center is a black-and-white wedding photo framed in glass—a girl with braided hair and a young man in a military cap, shyly holding hands beside a haystack.

The sweet potatoes, roasted to a charred black on the coal stove, gleamed in the winter sun, their heat forming a beam of light. Suddenly, a withered hand appeared in the frame, breaking open a sweet potato to reveal its golden flesh.

A voice-over says, "Old woman, while it's hot," in a hoarse voice with an accent.

The scene changes, and the 88-year-old grandmother, wrapped in a faded blue cotton-padded jacket, suddenly looks up when she hears the sound, her cloudy eyes widening abruptly.

Her hands, covered in brown spots, gripped her grandfather's wrist, tears streaming down her wrinkles: "You old coward! You've remembered stealing sweet potatoes from the production team for 58 years." (She choked up) Suddenly she coughed, her dentures wobbling in her mouth.

Grandpa used a chipped bowl to catch the sweet potato pulp Grandma coughed up, then turned and wrung a hot towel from an enamel basin. As he wiped Grandma's face, the camera captured the copper thimble on the old man's ring finger—

The girl's voice rang out: "That was the wedding ring that Grandpa bought with his first work points in 1969."

Close-up: The inside of the thimble is engraved with "Drought Relief Model 1969.7".

Grandma suddenly stuffed half a sweet potato back into Grandpa's mouth. As their toothless mouths moved in unison, the scene switched to a black and white photograph—the same action, only now the jet-black braids of yesteryear had turned into sparse white hair.

The real tearjerker moment comes at the very end of the video, when the subtitles are displayed.

In red text: "On the third day of filming, Grandma passed away in her sleep at 3:17 AM."

Misspelled text: "Grandpa sat on the doorstep for 36 consecutive days waiting for his wife to return."

Black background with white text: "On the 37th day, the family found Grandpa holding half a hard, dried-out sweet potato, and he had stopped breathing."

In the panoramic view that has been rewound, the calendar on the wall is forever stuck on January 18, 2026—the day Grandma roasted the last sweet potato.

Sunlight swept across the empty bed, illuminating the enamel mug on the bedside table, where two sets of dentures rested quietly together.

The background music, "Tian Mi Mi" (Sweet Honey), suddenly jammed and turned into a crackling electrical sound. (End of Chapter)