44 posts tagged with "absurdity"

These days, numbers haunt everyone like ghosts. Would you call this "progress"? I don't see it that way. At least, for this elderly man lying on a stretcher, the numerical password is more fatal than his illness.

Pushing the stretcher is the old man's son, his face a mask of anxiety, beads of sweat larger than soybeans. The old man, meanwhile, is semi-conscious, tubes snaking across his body, occasionally convulsing. Doesn't this scene resemble a postmodern painting? Absurd, yet so real it makes your heart clench.

Old Li is a honest and down-to-earth programmer. He lives a nine-to-five life, and the only thing that makes him anxious is the "little red dots" on various apps on his phone.

Li Ming sat at his workstation, staring at the blinking cursor on the screen, his eyelids heavy as lead. He had been working continuously for 28 hours and 55 minutes, just 5 minutes short of the record on the "honor roll."

Lao Li sat at the window for thirty years, stamping seals for thirty years. His life was like those red ink pads: bright, repetitive, and indispensable. That is, until an "AI civil servant" arrived at the bureau.

Li Xiaomei knelt on the ground, her head buried deep between her legs, like an ostrich hiding all her fear and grievances in the darkness. Her body trembled slightly, and her white nurse's uniform spread out on the cold hospital tiles, like a helpless flower.

Old Li felt like he was having a run of bad luck lately.

Li Ming has been a little anxious lately.

Chen Ke sat in the soft leather chair of the hair salon, eyes closed, letting Tony the hairstylist work on his hair. Tony's touch was gentle, with a hypnotic rhythm that made Chen Ke drowsy.

Li Tiezhut, an "AI face reader" with a stall on a pedestrian street in a third-tier city. In essence, he uses an old tablet computer with an AI face reading app, scans people's faces, and then the AI spits out an analysis: something like "a developed career line but a winding love line," "a full nose indicating wealth, but the children's palace is slightly sunken," and so on.

Business is hit or miss. Those who believe it find it accurate, while those who don't scoff. Li Tiezhut is quite content, as the costs are low: a tablet, a power bank, and a bit of data traffic.

Lao Liu, or more precisely, Liu Dehua, but he preferred to be called "Lao Liu" by others, feeling it was more friendly. Lao Liu had been working at the company for nearly twenty years, transforming from a youthful lad to a greasy middle-aged man, witnessing the company's rise and fall, and also witnessing the rise and fall of countless "red envelopes".

On the first day back to work, the office was filled with a mixed smell of caffeine and anticipation. Lao Liu rubbed his hands, his heart itching too. Not for the little money, but for the feeling of "being valued". After all, who doesn't like to be favored by the God of Wealth?