Jason | "zayaa" and "Yamashita"
One afternoon two weeks ago, I drove a van with Zha Mao and Lucky from Dali Ancient Town back to my home in Wanqiao. The town where I live is 15 kilometers north of Dali Ancient Town, passing through Yinqiao Town. Aruna's Zayaa Cafe is not far north of the ancient town along Dali Road, just turn into Xiaocen Village. I thought about going there, and if she was there, I would send her the "Partner Program" card I had made.
At the beginning, I decided to start from the team leaders’ own studios and start with small goals.
The cafe is at the entrance of the village. The door is closed and Aruna is not at home. The taro in the field outside the door has grown tall and green. In April last year, she was still hesitating whether to take down the house and do something with it. A few days later, we met and agreed that she would try baking flower cakes. Then she decided to transform it into a studio.
Before becoming "Aruna who knows everything", after graduating from sociology, she used to only stay at home in Shanghai to take care of cats and dogs. When she needed to survive on her own, she relied on her understanding of cats and dogs to work in a pet shop. After moving to Dali, she rented a field and built a house to raise chickens, but it was not easy to raise them, and there were restrictions on the policy. I used to work at the Pirate Wine Castle, and that was when I first met her, about 8 years ago. After that, I tried long-distance travel routes, drove a modified car for long-distance camping trips, and sold road coffee. Later, I learned baking and opened a baking shop. During the epidemic, I also went to Thailand to work for a while. It’s difficult for me to sort out the timeline. At the end of a chat, she said, "I like exciting and adventurous things." She dares to make decisions, probably sometimes for survival and sometimes for life experience.
It was raining the day before yesterday. Lao Li and I sat in the kitchen and chatted. Aruna came over in the evening and brought some rice dumplings. After eating the rice dumplings, she went to the living room to use my automatic massage chair for massage. After the massage, she said, "I will buy one after I pay off the debt." She has not yet paid back the money she borrowed to renovate the studio and the B&B.
Seeing that the door of zayaa was closed, I did not stop the car and continued to drive slowly forward, passing through the streets of the village and returning to Dali Highway. The next stop was Li Zhenhao’s newly opened "Mountain Nature Studio".
Last September, after our busy summer vacation, Aruna, He Chen and Li Zhenhao started to run Zayaa Café together. Aruna made bread, Li Zhenhao made coffee, and later also taught specimen classes, and He Chen made community meals at noon. In the off-season, everyone was free, and often went there to drink coffee, chat, and eat lunch, and sometimes stayed for dinner at night. It was often very lively. Chunyu once cooked there, and many people ate together and spent a lot of good time. There were several times when we led the team together, although we were tired, we all wanted to go back to Zayaa to sit for a while. (A record at the end of last year: Zayaa )
Half a year passed like this. One day, He Chen decided not to run the community restaurant anymore. Li Zhenhao also started looking for a house, preparing to build an independent studio as a place to live. The Zayaa period of the trio ended. The lively cafe was gone. Many people probably felt sorry, but I didn’t think so. I didn’t even want to know why they disbanded, because it wasn’t such a bad thing.
Once when everyone was chatting, Li Zhenhao said, "After coming to Dali and doing my current job, I felt for the first time that I could not rely on a system (probably referring to working in a company). This feeling is great."
People can only walk together for a period of time, no matter how long it is, they will eventually separate. Maybe they will walk together again in the future, but that is another matter. I have always felt that freedom is the ultimate goal. Since we are different people, we have different ideas and new feelings at different times. It is difficult to stay together all the time unless there is a reason to compromise. Now, everyone is freer and there is a period of time that can be recalled.
In March, Cheng Chang sent me a video from the past, and I took out this photo. He was probably sorting out the old materials and sent it to me, perhaps out of a feeling of time, "You were so thin back then, and so was Dahai, but I'm still fat."
When I saw this video, I suddenly thought of something and asked him what year it was from. "April 2016". It was Pudding's 100-day party, so he remembered it.
Yes, that was the peak period of the Midnight Diner. In the video, Xiaochun, Huahua, the tailor, and Yangliu were all there. The reputation was well known and the business was very good. The tailor was in charge of dine-in and Xiaochun was in charge of takeout. They were all developing and full of talents. However, a few months later, the tailor left and opened his own "Tailor's House" ramen, Xiaochun also left to prepare to open his own "Spring Road Tavern", and Xiaofeng and Yangliu left one after another. He Chen, who had only been there for a few months, began to take over the management of the Midnight Diner in a daze.
In fact, leaving the company may not necessarily mean a better income, but a person has his own stage and psychological needs, just like when Xiaochun left for the first time before (this time is the second time), he said, "I think I can't always cook in the kitchen." If joining "Midnight Diner" made him find something to do and stay in Dali, then there would be new life confusions later. The tailor also had a force pulling him to start his own business.
Xiao 6 has left and returned to "Midnight Diner" more than four times. She has been to Shanghai for work, traveled around, and returned to work from time to time. She is now taking photos of tourists by the Erhai Lake. He Chen and I asked her if she wanted to lead the group, but she said no.
From past experiences, I realized that the separation of two people or a group of people is caused by many factors that are beyond the control of the individual. You can only do your part, and you may even be the one who wants to leave, and you will eventually disperse. "Cangshan Hiking Home" is no exception.
At that time, out of a simple concept of "freedom", I didn't mind one person's departure, because it was a personal choice. In addition, since everyone can do almost all the work in the store, from buying groceries, preparing, taking orders, cooking, cleaning, and inventory, there are no major problems in operation, and it is not very dependent on individuals.
However, in the current group building of "Cangshan Hiking Home", I have some new ideas about the understanding of "freedom": not only can we leave freely, but we must have the ability to be "free" when leaving. Li Zhenhao said: "You can survive even if you leave the system", which should be a very good feeling, so I should not build a new system that is not free: I hope it is a big system composed of multiple "small free systems", which can be joined together and can also leave for other needs. It will be stronger to be together, but it is also possible to survive outside, even if it is a little difficult, but this is a little price to pay for freedom. The most important thing is that if you have the ability to leave, then staying will also be sincere.
This idea came up after last summer vacation. I mentioned it in " Crossing Baishixi " in early September last year. Now it is being implemented and improved. From the beginning, each group opened its own official account, Xiaohongshu, registered its own organization, opened its own new route, wrote its own route copy, and arranged the activity time. A month ago, the integrated customer service was stopped. Each group directly established a connection with the guests, arranged orders, and basically operated independently. It only takes a certain amount of time to accumulate and form its own complete structure.
Li Zhenhao's "Mountain Nature Studio" is at the foot of Wuwei Temple Mountain, the last row of the village near the mountain. She spent more than two weeks renting a shop, decorating it, and furnishing it. There is a cafe, a workshop, and a small bedroom. She had never decorated before, so she must have learned a lot. In addition, the introduction and help of her sister's family saved me some worries. It's good to see that she is becoming more and more independent.
When I arrived, I saw the door was closed. Xiaoqi was sitting at the door. He said he was leading an event down the mountain, so he came over to sit for a while. Li Zhenhao said she would be back in fifteen minutes. These two days, she held an event to make mugwort door hangings for the Dragon Boat Festival and brought guests up the mountain. I sat down next to Xiaoqi, and he poured me a glass of iced black tea, and some fruits, which were leftovers from the afternoon tea prepared by the team leader. We chatted and waited at the door, and there was no rush. Xiaoqi worked in the late-night canteen for a long time before, and was also He Chen’s friend. He just came back from Shanghai or Beijing recently, where he was doing game modeling, and he felt bored. Now he starts to slowly lead activities with He Chen. He knows a lot about plants, animals and insects, so it won’t take him long to adapt to this new job.
After several 15 minutes, Li Zhenhao still didn't reply. I guess she must be having a good time, picking this and that. This is the characteristic of a good tour guide, she likes it and plays more excitedly than the guests.
When she arrived, it was almost dark. I gave her my card and she quickly made me a cup of coffee. After I finished drinking it, I went home.
If I am motivated to promote the "Partner Program", it is largely because Aruna, Li Zhenhao, Xiaoqi, He Chen and other partners hope to move forward healthier for a while before the final disbanding, and have more time to do something together. In a certain year in the future, these processes and memories will be the most precious part.