"Cheers! ”
As the countdown to zero reached one, Wang Peng raised his glass to celebrate. The six people present laughed and said that from 6 p.m. on the Chinese New Year's Eve, they had known each other for just over 6 hours, meaning "six six great shuns".
Wang Peng grabbed the conversation, this is his 6th year in Shanghai for the Spring Festival, you can make up a "666", which means that everyone will be very "6" in the new year.
This is a "hitchhiker bureau" organized by Wang Peng, and the commonality of the six people is: they are all in Shanghai, they are all unaccompanied on Chinese New Year's Eve, and they don't want to eat Chinese New Year's Eve dinner alone.
Affected by the "hitchhiker culture" in the past two years, three days ago, Wang Peng had an idea and posted on social ** to find a "hitchhiker". Unexpectedly, "it can be described as a hundred responses", Wang Peng quickly formed a game.
Lin Zhao, who also stayed in the big city, felt the same way, because her parents decided to travel south during the Spring Festival, she did not return to her hometown in Shandong, but stayed in Beijing. After posting on social **, the number of responses was more than expected, and she quickly found a companion and set up a group for everyone to find a "partner". By Chinese New Year's Eve, the post had more than 300 comments and more than 100 people in the group.
Searching for "Spring Festival pairing" on Xiaohongshu, there seems to be no end to the relevant notes. For various reasons, young people who stay in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other cities are unwilling to be lonely, and want to seize the flavor of the New Year with strangers and drive away loneliness.
In order to attract people of the same frequency, they posted their own labels: E people, don't be afraid of embarrassment when you play with me; i, will take care of everyone's feelings; Northeast people, and I will not have words to be left on the ground during the New Year; will "drink two glasses", do not disturb those who mind; As long as the post-95s and post-00s, otherwise there is a generation gap.
There are many people who organize the game, and it is inevitable that they will "roll". People looking for a "partner" show their competitive points: there is a big TV at home, and they can watch the Spring Festival Gala together; will make a good dish, just eat it during the Spring Festival; I live in an area where you can set off firecrackers, so I came to enjoy the fireworks together.
However, if driving loneliness is the A side of the "hitchhiking" culture, then the B side is the general risk of "opening the magic box", whether the pigeons will be released temporarily, whether the cost is happy when sharing, and whether there are "spoilers" (especially when multi-person plattering) will affect the experience of this Chinese New Year's Eve dinner.
But the flaws are not hidden, between "returning to the hometown for the New Year" and "staying alone in the nest", people have found a middle state: with strangers, seize the flavor of the New Year.
A and "partner" for the Spring Festival, you can also be very happy.
Wang Peng invited the "partners" to his home and took the traditional route. Everyone makes a dish and makes dumplings together. Everyone discussed what to do in advance in the group, and Wang Peng was responsible for purchasing food.
Among the six people, two Northeast people made pork stewed vermicelli and three fresh dishes respectively, a small partner from Xinjiang served a ** chicken, and the other three friends who were not skilled in cooking chose the easy-to-operate cola chicken wings, green vegetable tofu soup and sugar tomatoes.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, all the friends arrived, and Wang Peng called on everyone to make pork and celery dumplings together, and then act separately according to the difficulty of the dish and the hot and cold. In order to create an atmosphere, he turned on the TV, **CCTV Spring Festival Gala 2000 years ago.
Accidents happen from time to time, such as Wang Peng accidentally bought the sugar-free version of Coke, and hurriedly went to the store downstairs to buy Coke, and the black navel of tomatoes appeared in the sugar-mixed tomatoes of a friend who was not skilled in cooking.
But for this Spring Festival "hitchhiker" game, Wang Peng is quite satisfied.
"As soon as everyone takes action, coupled with the old sketches, the New Year's flavor is actually there. ”Wang Peng's family lives outside the outer ring of Shanghai, where you can set off firecrackers, plus the street frontage, the fireworks outside the window are constant, and you can enjoy it for free.
Wang Xinzhu, who also spent the Spring Festival in Shanghai, also spent a wonderful night. Unlike Wang Peng, although it is a Spring Festival "partner", Wang Xinzhu has no intention of deliberately pursuing the "New Year's flavor". "Restaurant" is a mid-to-high-end Western restaurant, and I didn't watch the Spring Festival Gala.
Wang Xinzhu and his entourage of five people are men and women, covering the post-80s, post-90s and post-00s, but they talked very happily. The trick lies in the design of the process, Wang Xinzhu, who has many years of HR experience, set up the topics of "why are you here" and "2023 highlight moments" for this "partner" bureau, and matched it with a link for exchanging gifts.
Although he was a stranger, the topic that had been set up gradually opened up the conversation, and Wang Xinzhu described the dinner as "laughter and tears". In the end, through the way of drawing lots on the spot, everyone determined who the gift would give to, and Wang Xinzhu received a lucky coin.
bFor migrant workers who are "left behind" in big cities, their loneliness peaks during the Spring Festival. Even if you can usually enjoy yourself alone, you don't want to be alone on this day.
I spent the first five years in Shanghai by myself, and I know exactly how it feels. "Wang Peng is a post-90s generation who has been working in Shanghai for many years. Fushun, Liaoning, is more than 1,700 kilometers away from Shanghai, and it is not easy to return to your hometown.
Compared with the Spring Festival, Wang Peng prefers to take time to visit his hometown. Seeing that the age is close to thirty, the parents' messages always mention the problem of marriage and love from time to time: "Urging marriage is not serious, but the Spring Festival plus the seven aunts and eight aunts are definitely more concentrated." ”
In the first few years, his parents would ask Wang Peng ** his decision not to go home for the New Year, and a tacit understanding has been formed in recent years. Wang Peng sometimes feels that his parents have also tasted the "sweetness" of not making a big deal during the New Year, and they began to go to Sanya for a "vacation" during the Spring Festival, regardless of the turmoil in the world.
Celebrating the New Year in a big city, it is a "reverse", and unlike the hometown that is particularly lively as soon as the Spring Festival arrives, cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou will be deserted. Wang Peng had been happy to be quiet for the past five years, lying down and resting alone, but this year he wanted to find a balance between returning to his hometown for the New Year and staying alone in the big city.
Recently, there have been fewer and fewer cars downstairs at home, and some shops have been closed, I don't know what's wrong, I always remember the picture of the family getting together to make dumplings when I was a child, but if you want me to go back, I don't want to. Remembering that he was looking for someone to play badminton with before, and the experience was also good, Wang Peng simply found a "partner" for the Spring Festival.
Wang Xinzhu has left Guangdong to work in Shanghai for 10 years, but it is the first time that he has "stayed" in the city during the Spring Festival. She usually likes to watch movies, concerts, and outdoor sports"It's okay to be alone, it's good", but "I don't want to be alone on the night of the Spring Festival".
The post asking for a "hitchhiker" was sent out, and Wang Xinzhu was surprised by the number of people who responded. In about three days, thirty or forty people sent private messages to ask, which gave her the space to screen the participants, and finally settled on a five-person group with a balanced gender ratio, diverse hometown backgrounds, and a wide age distribution.
Lin Zhao, who stayed in Beijing, was formed in a few days.
Ten. The bureau of three or four people waited for Chinese New Year's Eve, but the private messages of inquiries continued, and she built a group, and soon hundreds of people poured in.
On social **, the poster may quickly find a "partner", so they will form a group so that everyone can continue to form a team freely. The same is to find a "partner" for the Spring Festival, but everyone's expectations for the Spring Festival are diverse, some people just don't want to eat alone, some people want to play mahjong, go to KTV or bars to "get high", and some people rent a 6-bedroom and 6-living room "party villa", thinking that more people are lively enough.
The group itself already has some kind of effect to soothe loneliness:Invitations kept being made, and the right people immediately hooked up. Someone posted a ** "show of talent" for cooking by himself, and the group members turned on the boasting mode.
C Looking for a "partner" for the Spring Festival also has a not very pleasant B side.
The biggest adventure is that if it is an empty time to find a "partner", the loneliness is even worse than lying flat from beginning to end.
In the group looking for a "partner", a netizen who did not find a suitable "partner" asked lonely on Chinese New Year's Eve: "What do you eat for Chinese New Year's Eve?" I went to McDonald's, and I couldn't make an appointment with Haidilao this year. "Last year's Spring Festival, she also spent it alone and went to eat Haidilao. Another friend who failed to find a "partner" was in the firecrackers he had prepared in advance: "Excuse me, does anyone take Gatling?" The bureau was not grouped, several boxes were sold, and the stop loss was transferred at a low price. ”
Li Yimeng, who stayed in Beijing, found a girl to eat with on Chinese New Year's Eve, originally thinking that there were fewer people and low risk, simple and easy to execute, but he did not think that "all the eggs were put into one basket by mistake". "Ride" suddenly sent a message during the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, saying that he could not attend the appointment because he had something to do: "I can't show you a screenshot because I deleted her at that time." Li Yimeng felt angry, on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, she chose to cook soup with pre-made base at home and ate a lot of meat: "A little emotional eating, let's just say." ”
Even if the bureau is formed and the meal is eaten with several "partners", to put it bluntly, it is to partner with strangers at the festival of family reunion, and the organizers soon find that things are not simple.
Wang Xinzhu once suspected that this decision was contrary to his original intention of lying flat during the Spring Festival"Everyone doesn't know each other, I booked a restaurant, and I still need a money, what if everyone doesn't like to eat. She sorted out some places to go and **, and was suspected of doing business promotion.
After all, it was the Chinese New Year, and the first thing she thought of was a Chinese restaurant, but after a round of **, she found that this plan was not feasible: many small restaurants were closed, and the restaurants that opened basically only provided special ** on Chinese New Year's Eve, more than 4,000 yuan. The bureau to be formed by himself is already small, it is expected that there are only six people, and there will be a risk of being released pigeons temporarily, **not low and fixed** The risk is too great.
As a result, Wang Xinzhu set his sights on mid-to-high-end Western restaurants: a few hundred yuan per capita, order food as usual, and order less food if there are fewer people, which is very appropriate. In the end, sure enough, there was a "partner" who temporarily missed the appointment, and the attendance rate of more than eighty percent has made Wang Xinzhu very satisfied. Wang Xinzhu's "hitchhiker" bureau spends less than 500 yuan per person on meals.
Wang Peng, who took the "traditional route", also soon encountered an embarrassing moment, and he soon discovered that the so-called "traditional route" was just the tradition of his hometownJiangsu "Tiezi" first said that he would not eat dumplings at all during the Spring Festival in his hometown. When the northern friends made celery and pork dumplings, Jiangsu "Tiezi" used his mobile phone to show everyone the brown sugar glutinous rice dumplings that his hometown would eat. When this Jiangsu friend was about to make Coke chicken wings, he found that Wang Peng had mistakenly bought a sugar-free Coke. Wang Peng hurriedly apologized, considering that the delivery time of the takeaway app on Chinese New Year's Eve was not guaranteed, he went downstairs to buy it again, but because many stores had closed, he finally shuttled through the neighboring community for more than ten minutes before finally buying a bottle of Coke.
"The most important thing is that the bureau is my group, and it is the New Year, so there will be pressure to entertain everyone well and not let down anyone. ”
Although she did not cook at home, Wang Xinzhu also felt the pressure: on Chinese New Year's Eve, she was extremely unwell, vomiting and diarrhea. Canceling the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was the most convenient thing to do, but she really didn't want to do it on the day of the Spring Festival. So she took medicine during the day and stayed still, only to regain some energy at night. In fact, throughout the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, Wang Xinzhu didn't eat a mouthful of food and kept drinking hot water.
But at the end of the show, they felt that it was all worth it. Chinese New Year, strangers, these two seemingly unrelated keywords, have a wonderful reaction.
At 10 p.m., the group hugged goodbye, and one of the boys told Wang Xinzhu that he had "spending the Spring Festival with strangers" on his life list, and now he could cross it out.
Beside them, there happened to be a light installation called "I Love Shanghai".
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