1
Last night at 2 a.m., I was jolted awake by a phone call. A good friend of mine had just been rushed to the emergency room.
His wife was beside herself with anxiety, asking if I could pull strings to find reliable medical resources and connections. I told her plainly: for an acute emergency like this, just go straight to the nearest top-tier hospital — we can sort out follow-up care after getting through this first hurdle.
After hanging up, I jumped in the car and drove straight to the hospital.
When I arrived, I stopped dead in my tracks. There was my friend standing right outside the emergency room — cigarette in one hand, phone in the other, watching videos.
I demanded furiously: Are you out of your mind? Why aren’t you inside lying down?!
He blinked and said: All checked out. Body’s completely fine. Just a little blood pressure instability. False alarm, total false alarm.
2
It turned out the reason he’d been rushed to the ER was that just before bed, he’d suddenly felt a wave of heart palpitations, followed by a crushing weight — heavy as a mountain — pressing down on his chest.
He could move. He could speak. Nothing physically wrong. He just felt profoundly, completely low.
The on-call doctor eventually came out and said: Physically, there’s nothing unusual. Emotionally, however, he’s clearly not doing well.
My friend gave a helpless smile, thanked the doctor, and we went our separate ways home.
3
Once I got back, I sent him a brief message:
Friend — we’ve known each other for years. Tonight was a false alarm, but it was also destiny’s yellow card warning to you.
The reason you felt that heart pounding, that weakness, those emotions crashing in like waves — at its core, it’s anxiety.
Why you’re anxious, I know very well. The broader environment is difficult. Income is weak. You feel lost about your future and worried about your family.
But do you understand something? Life itself is three peaks and nine valleys — winding, twisting, never a straight line.
In the past, you made money when your fortune (运势) was with you. Once the tide of fortune shifts, of course the glory of those days can’t easily return. That’s entirely normal.
Just like how so many people today look back on 2013–2019 with warmth and longing — those years felt golden and charged with energy, money seemed to flow effortlessly.
But how many people can truly understand that those years were the magnificent result of history, of the era, of vast cosmic forces all converging at once — and that we ordinary folk simply happened to be standing where the current was strongest, so we caught some of its benefits.
Now, all of that has returned to stillness. And our lives should return to the ordinary, too.
What is ordinary?
You have a job that lets you support your family through honest work. You have a warm, modest home to rest and recover in. You have some savings as a safety net for hard times. You have family and friends who care about you.
This is already a very well-provisioned version of ordinary.
You may not have much — but you have enough for stability.
But if you insist on a penthouse in the city center, if you’ll only drive a BBA (BMW, Benz, or Audi), if your children must attend an international school, if your clothes must carry a prestige label — that is forcing the world to be something it isn’t.
And in this world, the moment you enter that state of “forcing,” you will inevitably face enormous risk and a psychological reckoning.
So: recognize the times for what they are. Recognize yourself for who you are. And your inner demons will dissolve on their own.
4
This afternoon, I deliberately set my work aside and invited him to go fishing.
Two middle-aged men. The river before us, boats passing back and forth. A rare warm winter sun overhead. One rod each. Four hours.
I won’t hide it — we barely caught anything all afternoon. The few fish we did land, we released right back into the water.
Honestly, fishing is a remarkable thing. It genuinely settles the emotions.
Something else happened that was worth noting. While we sat there, someone suddenly patted me on the shoulder.
I turned around — and it was a senior leader I’ve always called Uncle. A man of three highs, as they say.
Three highs? Rank, position, and stature.
If you grew up in Shanghai, his name would ring like thunder. The man built an extraordinary amount, left a mark that doesn’t fade.
Now, all the glamour of that era has washed away. He’s returned to his roots — an ordinary old man with a wide-brimmed hat and a tackle box.
Yes. Life is exactly like this. Aside from those thirty or forty years in the thick of battle — when you truly reach your sixties and seventies, isn’t it just ordinary days after all?
A home. A meal. Your health. Your family safe.
That is the greatest happiness there is.
5
Lately, whether it’s people who come to me for a BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny) reading, or friends seeking insight into their annual fortune cycle (流年气运) — almost everyone asks me the same question:
Master, will there come a day when things get better?
Every time I see this, I smile with a kind of calm ease and say: Yes.
As long as you can embrace the ordinary — every single day, we will keep getting better.