08/25/25 - When you want something from God, you have to bring a gift.

”A rich lady on Xianyu [secondhand website like Ebay] is taking care of me well.

I bought a couple of silk dresses on Xianyu a couple of days ago and when I opened the package, I found that the shipper is giving me free clothes again.

Yes, I’ve bought 6-7 expensive dresses from her by now. Dresses that would usually go for thousands in a mall, she’ll sell for a couple hundred. These dresses are expensive from material down to cut. They’re light and breathable for the summer, with bold, antique colours and patterns. Anyone would be beautiful in them. Sometimes, I think it’s the people who are dressing up the clothes.

The rich lady has a lot of dresses, but most of them are in storage. Ever since she had a baby, I think she doesn’t wear these pretty but fussy clothes anymore. Every time I DM her, she’s always saying that she just put the baby down. In my head, I imagine a beautiful, elegant girl in a sleep robe, no make up, gentleness and love in her eyes.

The first time I bought a dress from her, I tentatively asked whether I can ask for a small discount, expecting a 5RMB discount or something, but she just gave me a free peony pink silk sleep gown.

Later on, I stopped haggling and just bid on whichever dress I liked and started looking forward to getting to own them. And she kept gifting beautiful clothes to me, either Xiangyunsha singlet tops or Bohemian silk scarves.

Every single piece I’ve bought has been made with such care, even the “free items”. I’ve never seen her, but I can feel that she is a beautiful, gentle person.

Opening my packages, sitting in my bouquet of dresses, I feel some happiness and happened to write all this down.”

---

“Jets doing rehearsal flights for the September Third Parade. So awesome! This is what being a Super Power looks like!”

Comments say, “I’ve got an important meeting next week that coincides with this so I can’t go watch and cheer in person. Such a shame.”

“The photographer’s getting better.”

“It looks like a flock of sparrows XD”

---

#Minsheng Bank responds to arrested Vice President becoming an influencer. “Lately, a man named Xiao claiming to be the former Vice President of a certain Branch of Minsheng Bank started posting videos to social media describing his experience leading up to his arrest.

The Judgement Document Network showed that Xiao was born in 1983 and began working at the Beijing Branch of Minsheng Bank after graduating from college, working as a customer manager, wealth management manager, intern President’s Assistant, etc. At the end of 2014, he became the Vice President in charge of personal wealth management.

The indictment shows that Xiao was arrested because the Manager of the Hangtian Branch of the Beijing Minsheng Bank used high interest rates as bait to con victims to sign fake wealth management agreements, transferring the money into his own personal bank account, conning 147 victims out of 2.75 billion RMB.

In the end, the appeals court confirmed that Xiao was guilty of taking customer money without putting it in their account and sentenced him to 9 years in prison and 90K RMB in fines.

Afternoon of August 25th, Sanxiang City News reporter called the Beijing Minsheng Bank, where workers claimed they are going to report to their higher ups about this.”

Comments say, “The cost to crime is so minimal.”

“Even Zhou Zhengyi is becoming an influencer.” [Former real estate developer charged with fraud and sentenced to 16 years.]

“Can’t we just ban him?”

“He’s already fired. There’s nothing his former workplace can do about it.”

---

“This girl is so pretty. She’s dressed so neatly, no boobs showing, no legs showing. Not a lot of girls like this nowadays. If I can marry a girl like this, I would break my own bones to make into soup for her.”

Comments say, “People who sneak photos of strangers should lose their whole family.”

“You only wanna give out what nobody wants.”

“I know people like this. He’ll think she’s a gold digger if she so much as wants a boba tea from him.”

---

“Came across a video lately, more people sharing getting “compromised wishes” at the Lama Temple. She said she prayed for her influencer best friend to be her wingman [带我飞—literally “take me flying”, meaning to carry someone in video game terms, to let you ride on their coat tails.] And when she was riding on the backseat of her best friend’s scooter, the best friend side swiped another car and she flew right overhead to the ground in front…

And my friend showed me another case of someone who wished for a vaginal delivery with no episiotomy and she ended up having a 28 week premature delivery. So some people say that whichever god works at the Lama Temple is very naive, doesn’t understand how the world works.

In my eyes, that’s just a joke. A normal person understands how the world works by the time they’re 30-40 years old. A God is at least hundreds or thousands of years old. They’ve been worshipped by people all this time. You think they don’t know how the world works? This supposed “compromise” probably has nothing to do with God. It’s just a coincidence. You can also believe it’s God’s doing, but it’s not because God doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s deliberately screwing with you.

After all, too many people go pray empty-handed. When you want something from God, you have to bring a gift.

All prayer ceremonies have the same format: 1. Enter a sacred domain. 2. Establish contact with God. 3. Articulate your wishes. 4. Please God.

This format, in the context of Chinese temples, looks something like this:

1. Enter a sacred domain:

God can’t just descend wherever they want. Humans needs to build a designated spot for Gods, like temples, altars, formations, boundaries. If a normal person puts up a small divine statue at home, can they invite a genuine God to visit? I’m personally doubtful. Over all, generally speaking, entering a sacred domain is entering the gates of a temple, or at least inside the fence. This is a special place that’s different from everywhere else.

2. Establish contact with God:

In ancient sacrificial rituals in China, to communicate with Gods of the Sky, you use fire. To communicate Gods of the Earth, you use burial. To communicate with Gods of the Water, you sink. To communicate with Gods of the Woods, you hang. These rituals still exist in folk traditions today, like setting lanterns in rivers, hanging up red silk. But the only ritual reserved exclusively for communicating with Gods is lighting a fire, especially lighting incense. Therefore, establishing contact with God is entering a sacred domain and lighting incense.

3. Articulate your wishes:

There are some guides on “prayer” which tells people to recite their National ID number and emphasise that you don’t accept compromises. That’s just hilarious. If you’re making a wish in front of God, you’re nothing more than a beggar to God. If a beggar came up to you, told you his ID number, and told you to satisfy his specific desires like eating fresh Peking Duck specifically from Quanjude, no compromises accepted, wouldn’t you want to kick him? You need to maintain humility and manners in front of God, and the wish you make has to match your station. It has to be appropriate and reasonable.

4. Please God.

Why would God satisfy your desires? Only if he likes you, right? So how do you make God like you after you make a wish? Either you’re already someone who’s very loveable to the Gods, or you have to do something extra. It’s the same between people as it is between Gods. Either you offer a gift, or you perform a talent. I’ve seen someone say that he made a wish in front of the Bodhisattva and then said, “I’ll perform some rap for you in return.” And he very faithfully performed his rap, and his wish really did come true.

Whether or not you had to buy tickets to enter the sacred domain, you’re only doing so to enter the right place. Whether or not you spend money on incense, you’re only doing so to light a fire to dial up God’s phone. The first two steps, no matter how much you spent on them, doesn’t count as pleasing God. If God isn’t happy, the best case scenario is that he just ignores you. If he decides to give you a Genie Wish instead and give you a lifetime of regret for some temporary profit, like breaking bones in a car accident for some money, is it really worth it?

So, when it comes to Gods, either maintain a pure atheist attitude, or else worship them properly. Don’t slack off and try to use almost zero sacrifice to get huge personal profit.

If you’re in the mindset that any God that loves money isn’t a good God, a good God hates money but loves me in particular for some reason—people like that are so arrogant that the Earth can’t hold them anymore.

Another situation is that if you’re truly in an emergency, you can randomly ask any God you believe in for help. Once the emergency is over, then quickly go to a place that worships this God and pay them a gift of gratitude. The next time you’re in an emergency, that God will save you again.

This article is me summarising all the prayer rituals since ancient times. It’s just for fun.”

Comments say, “I read every word and I’m going to do it exactly like you said, but how much is an appropriate gift for a God? Do you have any suggestions?”

“It’s okay, I made a wish at Lama Temple May last year, and by May of this year, half of it has been fulfilled. My friends joke and say that it’s finally my turn in line.”

“I actually honestly read this until the last sentence XD”