Today I saw an invisible play in the middle-class circle:

"Most of them are between 35 and 50 years old, holding 3 to 5 million in cash, owning a house with no mortgage or no house and no mortgage.

In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, this money might only be enough to stay in ICU for half a month

Or to enroll their children in a few 'seemingly useful but actually meaningless' tutoring classes. But they made an unexpectedly clear-headed decision: retreat.
They don’t scramble to meet the high thresholds of European and American immigration agencies, but choose 'domestic migration': moving from high-pressure cities to second, third, or fourth-tier cities with rich local atmosphere, or to pleasant, slow-paced small towns.

With this move, 5 million in savings instantly becomes a sense of security worth 10 million.

This group lives extraordinarily 'cunning': not pushing their kids too hard: calmly accepting their children’s ordinariness, saving millions in education expenses, and also saving half their own lives; reducing social interactions: completely saying goodbye to ineffective dinners, no one knows who I am, but I live like a person; low desires: not buying luxury goods, just seeking comfort—cutting off the biggest debt item of 'face'."

After I finished reading, I realized this is exactly the way I tried to live in my twenties—nothing wrong with it, the problem is that it’s too comfortable, and my parents kicked me out.

Parents do their best to support you to strive in first-tier cities, and when they see you actually come back, not married, not buying a house, not having kids, it’s like an investment retreat—how can they tolerate it?

This way of living has no social coordinates, it’s like giving up the struggle.