This director is vindictive.

Chapter 439 We reminisce about the romance of writing letters while complaining about our takeout being one minute late.

The 814 Welfare Week sparked a retro craze.

As the "Short Letters, Long Feelings" campaign continues to gain momentum, netizens are no longer limited to sharing love letters, but have instead sparked a broader wave of "retro memories"—sharing correspondence with friends, university admission notices, handwritten diaries, and even digging up food coupons and old photos from decades ago, turning the 814 Welfare Festival into a cross-generational "national nostalgia party."

For example, a related topic stemming from the post-90s generation: the "nonsense literature" we wrote back then.

For those born in the 90s, the internet was not as developed as it is now during their middle school years, and no one had a mobile phone.

Therefore, many people born in the 90s probably have memories of passing notes in class during their middle school years.

A netizen born in the 1990s shared photos of notes passed between her and her best friend in class in 2005. The notes ranged from "Shall we go to the convenience store after class?" to "Does our math teacher's hairstyle look like an Angry Bird?"

The caption reads: "Back then, we built an underground intelligence network for our class using notes; looking back now, it's all masterpieces of nonsense literature."

Then it immediately evoked many shared memories among those born in the 1990s.

As a result, all sorts of little notes appeared on the internet.

If passing notes in class is a shared memory of the post-90s generation during their middle school years, then for the post-80s generation, passing notes in class is just one of their memories.

Writing letters and having pen pals are probably the real memory that ignites for those born in the 1980s.

One netizen jokingly tagged their childhood friend and then posted a bunch of old letters.

"My childhood friend and I went to the same school from elementary school until the end of our first college entrance exam. We both repeated a year of high school, and we wrote each other a letter every week. The key point is that the schools we attended were only 20 kilometers apart. Now, when I look back at these letters, I feel like I was really silly back then!"
However, we're still best friends, true buddies for life. It's been over 30 years since we met, and we still get together for tea every year!

Soon, many netizens chimed in: "Holy crap, I thought I was the only one who was this silly, turns out there are others like me!"

"I remember back when we used phone cards to make calls, there were always long queues at the phone booths on weekends. Now I can't even remember the service password for my phone card, but back then, you had to enter both the card number and the password."

Another man shared his correspondence with an overseas pen pal from 1996. The envelopes were covered with foreign stamps, and the letters were filled with longing for the "outside world."

The two have now lost contact, and he launched the #Searching for Pen Pal Lisa from 1992# campaign, which was surprisingly reposted by the official postal account: "Try our 'Retro Person Search' service, using the original postal code to help you track her down!"

Coincidentally, quite a few netizens who were also looking for their "missing pen pals" from back then have also come forward.

Another netizen shared their correspondence with a Swedish pen pal from 1998. The envelopes were covered in Nordic stamps, and the letters were filled with discussions about the band ABBA and Dragon Ball. Now that the two have lost contact, they started the #FindYour1995PenPalfriendAnna# campaign, which was unexpectedly retweeted by the Nordic Tourism Board: "Using the old postcode to help you track her down—and by the way, ask her if she remembers the Peking duck you promised to treat her to?"

That's not all. Some netizens even dug up correspondence with an online friend from junior high school (back then, it was called "pen pals"). The envelopes were printed with "QQ number xxxx, welcome to add me as a friend".

The comments section was in stitches: "So the original version of 'meeting online friends' was 'meeting friends by letter,' which is super safe—after all, scammers are too lazy to wait half a month for the postman."

However, someone quickly came forward with their own experience: "Who says pen pals aren't scammers? I chatted with a pen pal for three years, and when we finally met, I thought she was a cute girl, but when we met, wow, we were both burly men! It was so awkward when we met!"

In contrast, for those born in the 70s, writing letters was the most common thing in that era.

A man born in the 60s posted a photo of a letter his father sent home from the army in 1972. The main text reads in neat handwriting, "Listen to the great man's words and help Mom farm," but on the back, written in tiny pencil print, is: "The supply and marketing cooperative has just received some hawthorn cakes, which are hidden in the cracks between the bricks of the stove."

The son captioned the post: "My dad's 'encryption technique' back then: revolutionary quotes on the front, foodie codes on the back."

Soon after, netizens followed up by finding a letter the mother wrote to her grandmother in the 1980s, in which she wrote "I am cured of my illness" as "I am a sick woman." Her grandmother replied with a scolding: "I told you to study more! You even missed a stroke in the character 'good'!"

At the same time, this retro trend has also led to the popularity of some old items.

For example, food coupons. Some netizens posted photos of their parents' food coupons from the 1980s, with the words "I'll marry you once I've saved up ten jin of food coupons" written on the back. Food brands seized the opportunity to launch "Food Coupon Nostalgia Gift Boxes," which include chocolates shaped like retro food coupons.

A doctor posted his grandfather's medical record from 1956 online. The last page read: "Doctor's instructions: Take more walks and come to see me often. —Intern Lin Moumou."

Netizens instantly went crazy for it: "This is the most hardcore love letter ever! Now medical records are all electronic, and love doesn't even have a paper record anymore."

In fact, in this fast-paced era, people are arguably the most prone to nostalgia.

Especially since this wave of nostalgia also comes with free gifts, and it has become a brand new trend, participants are naturally very enthusiastic.

At the same time, it also spurred a second surge in cultural and creative stocks, with sales of all sorts of retro notebooks, wax seals, and letter paper skyrocketing. Netizens jokingly said that "Chen Mo single-handedly supported the stationery industry." It even influenced the education sector, with many primary and secondary schools assigning students the homework of "writing letters to their future selves ten years from now," and many universities following suit by offering elective courses in "letter writing." These courses were instantly overcrowded and were dubbed by students as "the most therapeutic and easy course!"
Interestingly, this wave also led to an unexpected rebound in postal mail business, especially stamps. In this era, stamps are a very unfamiliar thing for many people born in the 00s, and they are almost only something that stamp collectors would buy.

However, with the launch of this "Letters Short but Feelings Long" campaign, many people began to try writing letters to friends, family, and classmates, using stamps instead of express delivery.

As one netizen put it, "Although the letter-sending process is slow, the sense of ritual is just too strong!"

This has also led to many topics for reflection. To put it bluntly, the more people lack something, the more they want to obtain it.

For example, why did "Postmen in the Mountains" become a hit both domestically and internationally? Why did it become popular in Japan?
This event also led to the emergence of topics such as #We'veLostTheSlowLife#, which quickly became a hot topic on social media.

Netizens of different ages expressed their views, ranging from nostalgia to reflection, from banter to introspection, forming a collective discussion about "fast and slow".

"In the past, even missing someone required waiting for the postman; now, even breaking up is too slow to type."

Netizens born in the 70s and 80s said: Back then, even waiting for love was sweet!

A man in his 70s posted a photo of envelopes from a 1985 letter exchange with his wife. The postmarks show that it took 15 days for letters to travel between their locations. He captioned the post: "Back then, waiting for a letter was like waiting for snow—slow, but every second was worthwhile."

A netizen quickly responded: "Yes, waiting for a WeChat message to be read is like waiting for a rumble of thunder before a storm—anxious and helpless feeling."

"Technology has brought efficiency, but it has stolen the sense of ritual. In the past, writing love letters required drafting, copying, and spraying perfume. Now, even sending 'Are you there?' is too slow to type, so people just send a voice message."

"There's no way around it, modern people just block each other when breaking up, while people in ancient times had to write a letter of severance—they lost because it wasn't efficient enough."

"When I was a child, I longed for the 'information superhighway,' but when I grew up, I found myself stuck in traffic as a corporate slave."

"It's not that we don't want to slow down, it's that the three mountains of KPIs, mortgage payments, and pressure to get married are forcing us to live at double speed."

"But we even have to watch dramas at double speed, so whose fault is it?"

"No problem. Modern 'slowness' means complaining if the food delivery is even 5 minutes late, but spending 3 hours editing a photo for WeChat Moments!"

"It's not that the slow life is gone, it's that we can no longer afford the cost of 'slow' – time, patience, and the courage to fall behind."

"I suggest classifying 'slow living' as a luxury item and placing it on the same counter as Hermès."

Media professionals also joined the discussion, with New Weekly publishing an article titled: "'The Paradox of Slow Living': We reminisce about the romance of writing letters while complaining about food delivery being one minute late."

A self-media writer complained: "The greatest performance art of modern people is scrolling through the topic of 'slow living' while their fingers are spinning faster than a top."

A relationship expert commented: "In the past, even asking 'Are you there?' required waiting for a reply, but now 'read but not replied' is the norm—have we fast-forwarded the word 'friend' into just 'contact'?"

Chen Mo was initially surprised that the event had suddenly become a social topic and had even spawned many related sub-topics.

However, he soon felt relieved.

As mentioned earlier, why did "Back to Field" become such a popular variety show?

It's not because the show is so amazing, but because it allows everyone to virtually experience that "slow life"!
Just like online novels, historical fiction has become a popular category with high traffic. People are starting to miss the era of receipts, the era when you needed a certificate to go out, the era of going to the countryside, hunting, farming, and everything from the past!
It's simply because these are the things that are most lacking in this era!
According to statistics, within just a few days after the start of the 814 Welfare Week, the main topic's discussion volume and readership have exceeded 10 billion.

The total number of discussions on the various sub-topics that emerged at the same time has long exceeded 10 billion!

During the same period, the sales of various cultural and creative products, including letter paper, seals, stamps, envelopes, etc., increased by at least tenfold.

Many merchants said that in the past, these products were bought by adults for their children, but now they are all being bought for themselves!

This trend quickly swept through the entertainment industry, after all, it represents popularity.

Soon, celebrities in the entertainment industry also began to join in.

(End of this chapter)