Tang Tang | What You Casually Write Down Will Meet the Right Person in Time

Dali took me in for the fourth time, and each time it returned me as a different version of myself.

In January 2023, I came for the first time and joined the Huoshan hike organized by Cangshan Hiking Home. The guide back then was He Chen, who had just arrived not long before. He was a quiet, handsome guy with few words.

On the way up the mountain, the red Santana stalled twice on the road. We waited by the roadside, not feeling annoyed, watching him silently and reliably get the car started again and back on the road.

In the evening, we drank and had barbecue downstairs from his home at the time, and only then did he speak a bit more. He recommended a documentary to me, and as we chatted, I realized that this seemingly quiet person had a deep interest in history and culture and his own thoughts. Although he didn't talk much, he was very attentive and gentle. I still remember that on the way, he would pick pine branches for us.

Two years have passed, and Jason told me that He Chen is now one of the best guides.

Jason is the founder of Cangshan Hiking Home, originally from Shanghai. After coming back this Spring Festival, he happened to come across my Moments and sent me a message. He said that at first he thought I was talking about making money, but when he clicked in, he found it was about something very interesting. Then he scrolled through the posts I had made in Dali before.

He said something to me that made me think for a long time.

He said: "I especially like the changes in people in your writing, and the time in it. Including in our dialogue, you can see time and people. It's not just that the activities are fun; together, it becomes a record of time and people."

Seeing time, seeing people.

Those six words hit me all at once.

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I never thought of myself as someone who is very good at writing,

When I was studying, my compositions never got high marks.

My words have no fancy rhetoric, and I'm not good at being sentimental.

But I do naturally tend to notice things that others don't pay much attention to. It's not about how beautiful the scenery is, but what state the people in the scenery are in, and how this person is different from the last time we met.

During this trip to Dali, when I joined the bee observation experience, the young man leading the group came from a family that had kept bees for generations. He had been traveling all over with his parents since he was a teenager, and over time, he had developed a deep bond with the bees.

When he talked about bee colonies, their living habits, and knowledge about honey, his whole face lit up as he spoke.

We also listened very attentively, and probably our eyes were sparkling too.

Maybe that's why he took the initiative to come over and chat with us, asking what we did for a living.

When he heard we worked in self-media, he asked a lot of questions about running an account.

I said, just film your real life, that's the best content.

I wrote a sentence in my Moments: When a person talks about what they love, they shine. Maybe that's a state of true freedom.

And He Chen's change is another line.

This time when I came to Dali, I saw him at the Mushroom Cottage.

From the quiet newcomer two years ago, he has become a talkative one now. Jason said that in the guide introduction, he specifically wrote about this change in He Chen. According to guest feedback, now He Chen can talk about a wide range of culture and ethnic history during trips, and he also takes good care of others.

Jason said: "You are the one who saw his change."

I hadn't really noticed it before,

But thinking about it later, it's true.

I have been unconsciously recording these things.

The way the bee-keeping young man shone when talking about bees, and He Chen's transformation from quiet to talkative.

It's not deliberate; I just saw it,

And felt moved, so I recorded it.

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This time in Dali, I joined the Cangshan Nature Observation, Lake Stargazing, Bee Observation Experience, and Natural Craft Experience. Each one deserves its own article, but today I want to focus on the stargazing night.

That day, we set off from the old town in the afternoon to watch stars on Xihu Lake in Eryuan. The guide was A Tu, an engineer specializing in stargazing. She runs a public account called "Qitu Stargazing." When they went on a rural trip to Eryuan before, they took a boat on the lake and found it very beautiful, and also a great place for stargazing, so this collaboration came about.

Starting from the dock near the village home, we sailed into Xihu Lake in the night.

When A Tu talked about the stars, I only understood half of it.

She said what constellation this was, what planet that was,

Actually, I couldn't understand most of it. But the atmosphere was just too good.

The boat moved slowly on the lake, everything around was dark, above were all stars, there were reflections on the water, and in the distance were silhouettes of mountains.

Then on the way back, a small accident happened: the boat got entangled in a fishing net.

The boatman was working on the net, and we just sat in the boat.

A Tu turned on the speaker and started playing music. Everything around was dark, the wind was strong, and there was only music, wind, water, the starry sky, and the people beside us.

When Jason later saw my description of this scene,

He used a word: surreal.

I think he was absolutely right; at that moment, it was indeed surreal.

Actually, most beautiful things in our lives are a bit surreal. A good book, a dreamy romance, a movie that makes you cry, a sport you love.

These surreal moments, at some point, pull you out of your dull daily routine, let you take a deep breath of oxygen, and then send you back.

I loved that moment so much that even though I couldn't see clearly, I still wanted to record it. Later, when I sent the video to Jason, he said, "You can tell how much you loved that moment."

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This time in Dali, I figured out a question that had puzzled me for a long time.

It's often said that Yunnan is free. But I actually think freedom is not in distant places, nor in chaos. Freedom is when you are truly living the life you want, not showing it off for others. For me, once I know clearly what I want, I feel at ease anywhere.

I like Yunnan, but Yunnan is not the reason for my freedom. Changsha has bad weather and isn't as fun, but I never feel unfree staying in Changsha. The life at this moment is my own choice, and I feel grounded.

But there was a period in the past when I would pay for a kind of vague, ethereal freedom. Later I realized that maybe it was because I wasn't satisfied with my life at that time.

Friends often tell me they want to climb Haba Snow Mountain, go on a trek in Yubeng, and do some seemingly free things. I can understand that impulse, but sometimes I wonder, do we really need to go through something to prove that we have lived?

People trapped in cities want to see rural winds and grasslands.

This time in Shaxi and Dali, when I saw ancient trees that were five or six hundred years old, our first reaction as city folk was to rush up and hug them.

The locals don't understand; what's there to hug in a tree?

But for us, a hug really lets you feel the energy.

Is travel meaningful? Yes.

Do you need to travel all the time? No.

Are you free? You are free by nature.

Tonight there are stars over the lake, and I am no longer in a hurry to make a wish.

This was a post I made in my Moments on my second-to-last day in Dali.

When Jason later came across it, he said: "This is really well written, especially the part about freedom."

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Back to Jason reaching out to me.

At first, it was because of a Moments post I made about making money that caught his attention. That post roughly said that I didn't want to make my first million through one-time gains; I wanted to build a compound interest pool and let it grow slowly. I also said I don't want to retire at all; doing content creation is not a drain for me, it's fun.

He said he thought it was about making money, but when he clicked in, he found it was about something interesting.

Then he scrolled through my previous Moments and saw those posts about Dali. The part about freedom, the bees, the stargazing, and the details about He Chen.

He said: "These details are really adorable."

Then he asked me if he could repost these contents on the public account of Cangshan Hiking Home.

I said yes.

Later, he quickly organized and published them, with the title "Tang Tang | Fourth Time in Dali: A Journey of Seeing Time and People."

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This matter actually made me think a lot.

I have been doing content creation, and I always tell others that "good content speaks for itself." But honestly, the moment when I actually experienced "content finding the right person" was still very different.

That post I made about making money was about not wanting to make quick money; I want to build a system where time is on my side. Making money is just the result; the people I meet, the relationships I build, and the world I open up along the way are the real assets.

And then Jason appeared.

He didn't find me because I was selling something; he found me because he was moved by my expression. What he saw was not a person promoting themselves, but a person sincerely recording life. Then he took the initiative to connect with me, reposted my content, and brought my content into a new space.

Isn't this the "compound interest" I have always talked about?

When you record seriously and express sincerely, these contents will settle down and become your assets. They won't be cashed in immediately, but they will, at some unexpected moment, connect you to an unexpected person.

In the chat, Jason said something to me. He said that when He Chen first came back, he had no confidence in whether he could do well, and he even felt that he might not even reach an average level.

But now, he is one of the best guides.

He said: "This point is somewhat related to what you mentioned. It's not the surface, but the inner, that is the real power."

I replied: "It's not that time changes people, but that time allows the true energy within people to slowly flow out."

He said: "Yes, that's very wonderful."

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Writing this article, I also thought about why Jason said my records are different from ordinary trip reviews.

Maybe it's because when I write, my subconscious focus is not on "is this place fun," but rather "how are the people in this place doing."

Is the bee observation fun? Yes, it's fun.

But what truly touched me was the way the young man shone when talking about bees.

Is stargazing romantic? Yes, it's romantic.

But what I really remember is the dozen or so minutes after the boat got entangled in the fishing net, when only music and the starry sky remained in the darkness.

Is the Mushroom Cottage cute? Yes, it's cute.

But what I find precious is that two kids were making mushroom lamps inside, and we sat outside on stools chatting and soaking up the sun, with Cangshan behind us.

Activities are the carrier; people are the content.

Jason said he could see "the changes from year to year, including the nice studio, and see the trajectory of her growth."

This sentence made me realize that what Cangshan Hiking Home does and what I do have the same underlying logic.

We are both building something with depth over time.

Not a disposable consumer product, but a living, growing system.

They change every year, every guide grows, and everyone who has come has taken away different things and left different records. These records stack up to form a brand with warmth.

The same goes for my content creation. Each Moments post, each podcast episode, each article might seem insignificant on its own. But when they stack up, they become "a record of time and people."

This is compound interest.

Not the compound interest of making quick money, but the compound interest of people and content.

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Writing this far, I recall a sentence Jason said at the end of our chat.

He said: "Time is magical."

Yes. Two years ago, when I first came to Dali, He Chen was still a quiet newcomer, and I was just a tourist here to have fun.

Two years later, he has become one of the best guides, and I have also found what I truly want to do. And the intersection of all this is the moments I casually recorded back then.

They are lying there quietly,

Waiting for a person who can see "time and people."

So if you are also hesitating about whether to start recording your own life,

I want to tell you: just write.

You don't need to write well, you don't need many people to see it. You just need to be sincere. Because sincere records never expire; they will slowly ferment in time, and one day, they will be seen by the right person.

And then you will realize that what you thought was a casual note is actually the best asset you have saved for your future self.

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