"Especially now, Gua was practically split apart, and its status in the world had plummeted. No one took a Gua identity seriously anymore."
"Back home, no one envied me anymore. Instead, they all treated me like a traitor."
"A few days ago, I posted a status update on Weibo, and so many netizens came over to curse me out."
"Everyone said: Chinese people sold off in the late Qing, Chinese people fleeing during World War II, corrupt officials hiding from sanctions—all had their own reasons. But at a time like this, you racked your brains to get Gua citizenship. Wasn't that like joining the Imperial Army in '45 and asking to be hit by an atomic bomb?"
"They also said, they also said..." Li Jingjing burst into tears. "They said I couldn't even catch shit while it was still warm! Wuwuwuwu, I just care about appearances. Why is it so hard?!"
She went on and on. Though she seemed to occupy the overwhelming majority of the conversation, she was actually nothing more than a puppet on strings, every emotional fluctuation controlled by Shi Tiexin.
Shi Tiexin said, "You can go back."
"I can't go back." Li Jingjing looked utterly miserable. "It's easy to leave, but hard to return. China is the hardest place in the world to obtain household registration. Besides, what would I eat, what would I spend, how would I live after going back?"
Shi Tiexin said, "Don't you have money?"
"Now that you mention it, I'm furious! What I got from that dead old man was Gua Dollars. Gua Dollars used to be the world currency, but after 2020, endless quantitative easing brought wave after wave of economic crises across the world. Gradually, no one increased their holdings of Gua debt anymore."
"And now Gua was practically