Wandering in the vast darkness

"Don't like" is a nickname for Yu Wenhao.

Yu Wenhao is not a native of Hangzhou. Although he went to university in Hangzhou and stayed there after graduation, and his household registration and home are both in Hangzhou, he is not a typical Hangzhou resident in the eyes of a Hangzhou local.

Broadly speaking, his hometown is also part of Hangzhou, specifically one of the three main cities, six auxiliary cities, and three county towns in Hangzhou. He is from Yongcheng, a county in the far suburbs of Hangzhou.

Yongcheng, the current county seat, was formed due to the construction of the Xin'anjiang Hydropower Station. Originally, it was just a small mountain village nestled against the mountains and beside the river. The villagers were not from Zhejiang, but from Anqing, Anhui. They fled here from Anqing during the Taiping Rebellion. The entire village speaks an ancient Anqing dialect that even people from Anqing today find unfamiliar.

After the Xin'anjiang Hydropower Station was completed, many of the construction workers who had gathered from all over the country stayed in the area, speaking various regional accents. In addition, there were Chun'an people who migrated from the upper reaches of the Xin'anjiang River and spoke the Chun'an dialect, as well as a large number of Yongcheng locals who moved from more than 30 kilometers downstream from the original location of Yongcheng County.

The population of Yongcheng is diverse, and naturally, Mandarin became the local language. With the completion of the Xin'anjiang Hydropower Station and the formation of Qiandao Lake, Yongcheng has become a tourist city. Visitors from other places are often surprised and amazed to find that Mandarin is the local language.

However, language is a stubborn local product. Whether they are second-generation residents from all over the country, native Anqing residents, or descendants of immigrants from Chun'an and Yongcheng, they still retain a unified Yongcheng accent in their Yongcheng Mandarin.

Those strangers who left Yongcheng for Hangzhou or even further cities could easily tell from this accent that they were from Yongcheng and were of the same kind.

The most noticeable feature of this accent is the use of the word "餵" (wei), as in "I told him I'd fed him," "He's already here to feed him," "It's all done to feed him," and so on. Another notable feature is the word "嫑" (bi), or more precisely, the word itself, where each character constitutes a separate word.

In Yongcheng dialect, the word "嫑" is pronounced with the falling tone "biào" and has a wide range of uses. For example, they say "嫑去" for "don't go", "嫑找" for "don't look for", "嫑烦" for "don't bother", and even "嫑得" for "don't know".

Yu Wenhao's father was a primary school teacher, and his mother was a saleswoman at Xinhua Bookstore. Yu Wenhao was born during the era when the whole country was "marching towards science." His father named him Yu Haowen, which expressed his expectation for the spirit of exploration that "nothing is difficult in the world if you are willing to climb."

The name had been used for two days, and before they even registered the child's birth, his mother felt it wasn't a good name. It sounded like a best-selling book in their bookstore. She said, "Why? Why? It sounds like '100,000 Whys'."

His father had a sudden inspiration and said, "Then let's call it 'Wenhao,' Yu Wenhao."

His mother thought that "Yu Wenhao" was a good way to greet people, and that being polite to everyone was fine with it. So when Yu Haowen registered his household, his name became Yu Wenhao.

The origin of Yu Wenhao's nickname "Don't Hate" is that when he was in elementary school, he was caught fidgeting in class and made to stand up. The teacher then used his name as a pretext to say:

"Hello, hello, don't ask me if I'm okay, I think you're just not okay."

The class burst into laughter. After class, no one called him "hello" anymore; they all called him "don't call me hello." Even later, when the teachers didn't need to call him by his full name, they also called him "don't call me hello."

In a small town, there will always be classmates who accompany you from elementary school to junior high school, and then to high school. The nickname "Don't be nice" will also be carried by them from elementary school to junior high school, and then to high school. It will probably accompany him for the rest of his life.

Er Mao and San San were Yu Wenhao's classmates in Yongcheng, from elementary school to junior high and then to high school.

One of them is now a deputy director at the State Taxation Bureau in Binjiang District, Hangzhou. The other one went to Canada for two years after graduating from university. He didn't get his degree, but he did make a name for himself in business. He first sold used excavators from abroad to China, and then became an agent for XCMG construction machinery abroad. He returned to China two years ago and started his own pile foundation equipment business. His company is located upstairs in Wanda Plaza in the west of the city.

Yu Wenhao drove, taking one fare after another, until after nine o'clock at night. The phone on the shelf in front of him finally went silent, and Yu Wenhao was starving. When he passed the entrance of Huanglong Hotel, he turned his car in and parked in the temporary parking space opposite the gate.

He then picked up the food he had brought from work that evening and began to eat. The food was already cold, but he was used to not saying hello.

Yu Wenhao likes to park his car in the parking lot of a star-rated hotel every night before dinner. These parking lots are free for temporary parking within 20 minutes, and you can also use their restrooms. The most important trick is that if you park your car here, you can easily get bookings for early morning flights to the airport the next day.

Ride-hailing platforms generally assign orders automatically by computer based on the distance. Cars are parked in these parking lots, and hotel guests who want to book a car for the early morning of the next day can grab one from the nearest available car.

Driving for a ride-hailing service seems very free; it's like you can go wherever you want, stop whenever you want, and go home whenever you want, with no one bothering you. But that's not really the case, unless you don't want to make money at all. However, who would be so bored as to drive for a ride-hailing service if they didn't want to make money?

If you want to make money, you have to grab orders. Yu Wenhao felt that each order was like an invisible leash leading him, and he was led around by orders every night. Where was his freedom?

It's normal not to have time to eat properly, and it's normal not to have time to go to the toilet. How many public toilets are there in cities these days? And even where there are, there are no parking spaces. In the storage compartment on Yu Wenhao's car door, there's an empty bottle of Gatorade—his portable toilet.

Not only him, but almost every ride-hailing or taxi driver has such a portable toilet.

Yu Wenhao tries to avoid using it as much as possible. One reason is that it's inconvenient to wash hands after using the toilet. His hygiene habits, developed since childhood, make him feel that if he doesn't wash his hands after using the toilet, he'll feel disgusted with his own hands. Another reason is that when the car is driving fast or braking, the sound of urine coming out is loud and agitating, which makes him feel somewhat disgusted.

The only two ways to avoid using this portable toilet are to drink less water and to use the restrooms in the lobby of a star-rated hotel. However, you can't go to the same hotel every day, otherwise the security guards at the door will recognize you and look at you with disdain. Some guys will even come over and chase you away as soon as they see your car parked.

After finishing his meal, Yu put the lunchbox into a non-woven bag and then put the bag into the trunk of the car.

He got back into the car, opened all the windows to air it out, then got out again to use the restroom in the hotel lobby. Back in the car, Yu Wenhao realized he hadn't had any luck today; at this time of day, he hadn't managed to get any fares for the airport early tomorrow morning.

Yu checked the time and quickly started the car. He had to leave immediately, otherwise the gate wouldn't automatically open when he exited, and he would have to pay, which would be a huge loss.

Yu Wenhao drove away from the Huanglong Hotel.