06/02/26 - A legal adult who hasn’t done anything wrong except disappoint their parents can be forced into “treatment”.
“I can’t afford dorm activities anymore…
I have three dormmates. One is an only child from Chongqing, two are from Jiangsu. I don’t think they’re from super wealthy families, but none of them are poor. They get 2.5K to 3K a month in spending money.
The dorm goes out together all the time and will pick out a restaurant in a mall to eat. We sometimes use groupons, but it’s still really expensive for me. Yesterday, we had a plain water hotpot and it came to nearly 80RMB/person and I wasn’t even full. But I had a feeling the bill was getting pretty high so I didn’t order anything else. I only got a couple bites of meat, and then filled myself up on noodles and water and some jelly afterwards. But I was hungry by the time I got back to school.
I’ve came up with various excuses to not go to some activities, but my dormmates are all super friendly so I feel bad always turning them down. I’ll go with them sometimes, but they’re particularly active these last two months, going out 2-3 times a week. Soemtimes I don’t know how to refuse. I’ve told them I’m living in a budget, but they’ll still invite me, and I have to come up with a way to refuse every time. I can fill myself up for 30-40RMB a day at school, but getting a ride and eating out always come out to over 100RMB, which feeds me for 3-4 days at school. Just going out 2-3 times takes up a week’s owrth of spending money for me. I feel so poor. Everything is so expensive. I don’t know how to express this to my roommates.
And clothes. I think spending two digits on summer clothes is more than enough. Thick winter coats might be more expensive. But I have a roommate who says she never guys two digit clothes. Even her underwear is 2-300RMB. How are people so different…”
Comments say, “Just tell them you’re out of money. They invite you because they don’t want you to feel left out.”
“Just be upfront about it, be honest. Anyone who would stop hanging out with you over this isn’t someone you want to hang out with anyways.”
“Just refuse upfront. I give my kid plenty of spending money, but going out 2-3 times a week is a bit much. My kid goes out at most once a week, usually 2-3 times a month, and they get along just fine.”
“The cafeteria lady is the strongest connection I have. She has the contact info of everyone in the hospital.
No wonder people go to an inn to get intel in all period dramas. Ancient people wouldn’t lie to me.
I had just been sent to DRG training, and when I came back, there was a document I needed Director A at this department to sign. I went 2-3 times and couldn’t ever find him. I got so mad that I got mad and timidly decided to go to the cafeteria to get food first, and happened to run into the cafeteria lady.
Lady: “Wow, it’s rare for you to be this early. Are you done with training? What about the others? Why aren’t they here yet?”
Me: “They’re waiting for Director A to sign. I’m about to starve to death so I snuck down here first.”
Lady: “Why wait for him? He’s out at a meeting today, who knows when he’ll be back. Maybe he won’t be back at all.”
Me: “Whaaaa— but I need this signature by tomorrow morning.”
Lady: “That’s okay, you can give it to B in his office. B is his underling. Once A comes back, B will tell him to sign.”
Me: “But what if he doesn’t come back?”
Lady: “You can give to C in this department. A is C’s uncle. Worst case scenario, you can have C take it home and ask for a signature.”
Me: “Sounds great, but I don’t even know C. I can’t exactly just walk up and demand he help me.”
Lady: “Then do you know Aunt X? The wife of the guy at the security office.”
Me: “No, who is this aunt?””
Lady: “She’s A’s aunt’s sister-in-law’s sister in law. She has A’s WeChat. You can ask her to pass it to you.”
Me: “Why can’t I just ask B for A’s WeChat?”
Lady: “Would he give it to you?”
Me: “Auntie…your straightforwardness has hurt me.”
Aunt: “Hahahahaha. Either way, X is pretty social and well-connected. You can chat her up. Maybe you’ll need someone else’s contact into from her?”
Me: “I don’t know if X is well-connected, but I feel like you’re the most powerful connection I have.””
Comments say, “This is actually really impressive. My MIL is this type of person. I’ve been living here for more than 10 years and don’t know a single neighbour. My MIL moved in and knew everyone in the building in no time at all. She even knows where people’s son-in-law works. She goes to the farmer’s market to get groceries and knows everyone there. I don’t even know my own distant relatives and she knows, and she’ll tell me who they are.”
“So why do cafeteria ladies have such shaky hands?” [A common memes that cafeteria ladies will deliberately shake the ladle as they serve you food to make any pieces of meat roll off, so you only get veggies on your plate.]
“My friend’s kid wanted to go to a famous school that was really hard to get into and pulled all kinds of connections to no effect, and it was a cafeteria guy serving food who got him in.”
Question: “I’m pregnant, but my boyfriend wants a paternity test done. Would you be able to accept it? We had sex during my ovulation period. Counting back the days, it was right around the time we both had the day off and were home. I’m over 2 months along now and my boyfriend keeps insisting on a paternity test. Would you guys feel like he had no trust in you?”
Answer: “Maybe I’m just oblivious. When my son was 4-years-old, my husband suddenly started acting weird, like drinking by himself, or crying at night. I nagged at hime for the longest time before he told me that he took our son to his workplace for a family event and all his coworkers said that his son didn’t look like him or me. I wasn’t angry at all and just told him to go get a paternity test done. He even burst into tears and say that he’s already attached after all this time even if it wasn’t his, so there was no need. I just rolled my eyes and made them do it. And then my husband never acted up again. It’s not a big deal.”
Comments say, “I’ll say it every time. If there’s nothing going on, your first reaction wouldn’t be calculating back the days.”
“If you’re not guilty, then it’s not a big deal.”
“Make a bet with him then. If it’s his, then he has to pay you 88K. If it’s not his, you pay him 88K. How about it?”
#Female college student forced to take pregnancy test at internet addiction institute. “I thought this was a news story from 2006. Never thought it’d be 2026.
It’s already 2026, and there are still parents who trick their kids into coming home and sending her to a “internet addiction school” [basically China’s equivalent of a delinquent teen camp] just because they don’t like her boyfriend and think she’s not obedient enough. The daughter was beaten, dragged along, stripped naked to check for pregnancy, etc. There were dozens of teenagers at the institute with her, all experiencing this inhumane treatment.
At first, I thought this girl was underaged too, but then I looked again and saw she was already in university. She’s a legal adult with her own legal agency and everything.
A legal adult who hasn’t done anything wrong except disappoint their parents can be forced into “treatment” and get slapped around and stripped and fed rotten food and denied sleep.
I’ve heard of these “internet addiction schools” since I was little. This year, I turned 30, and this shit never went away, and local governments keep permitting their existence. They’re all over China. It’s hair-raising.
That is to say, in a day and age where robots can run marathons and dance, AI can paint and compose and write in a second, Starlink and self-driving technology is all over the street, people are still getting locked up and beaten and humiliated and violated because they don’t listen to their parents. These institutes have existed for decades and nobody cares?
I don’t know what to say. What parental love, indeed.”
Comments say, “That’s false imprisonment.”
“There are no bad parents in the world—this line makes me laugh every time.”
“The parents are a government official and a teacher too.”
Did she make a criminal complaint against her parents and the “internet addiction school”?