Birdcage

These days, even celebrating the New Year is like abacus beads – you have to flick them to make them move. It's called a holiday, but it's more like "shifting" days. It's always the same number of days, but they insist on piecing them together, calling it the elegant name of "Tiaoxiu" (adjusted rest days). Ha, Tiaoxiu, Tiaoxiu, it adjusts people into anxiety and rests them until they haven't rested at all!

Take this year, for example. They say it's a seven-day holiday, but take a closer look, two of those days are the weekend, and another two are borrowed from next week. What's this? It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul, patching and patching, only to create a bunch of holes! You ask what these holes are? They're the frustration in people's hearts, the grumbling on the lips of ordinary folks!

My neighbor, Old Wang Er, has been doing a lot of complaining in the teahouse. He originally planned to go back to his hometown during the New Year to see his eighty-year-old mother. But this "Tiaoxiu" messed up all his plans. He had to rush to finish his work, then anxiously wait for those "fake" days. But when the time comes, he has to figure out how to pay back the "borrowed" days. All this back and forth, his old back is about to break. He said to me: "What kind of nonsense is this? How many more years can this old body take? This 'Tiaoxiu' has adjusted me to the point where I don't even have the heart to fulfill my filial duties!"

Wang Er's words made my heart ache too. Isn't that right, this "Tiaoxiu" is like a play on a stage, with drums and gongs beating loudly, it's lively, yes, but it's always the same old tune. Look, this "Tiaoxiu" drama is performed year after year, month after month, performed until people's hearts are filled with hair!

This reminds me of my mynah bird that I've raised for many years. It's locked in a cage all day, with no worries about food or drink, but it just can't fly out. I thought it was living quite comfortably, but one day, it suddenly stopped eating and drinking, just staring blankly out the window. That's when I realized it also wanted to fly, to see the world outside.

But isn't this "Tiaoxiu" just like an invisible birdcage? It traps everyone inside. It's said to give people "rest," but this "rest" is mixed with too much calculation, too much helplessness. This "rest" is worse than no rest at all!

Who's to blame for this? Blame the people who set the "Tiaoxiu"? But they also say it's for the "big picture," for "development." But how can this "big picture" not accommodate one small wish after another? Why must this path of "development" force people to spin like tops, never stopping?

I can't sleep anyway, these two words "Tiaoxiu" are flickering before my eyes. I open the old almanac, and it's densely packed with "auspicious" and "inauspicious" activities. But no matter how I look, I can't find the words "auspicious for Tiaoxiu." All I see, faintly written after the "inauspicious" character, are two words – "Toss and Turn"!

This world is becoming increasingly incomprehensible. You tell me, when will this birdcage of "Tiaoxiu" be opened?