My Company Employs Me[^1]

Happened to have travel subsidies for spectating, so I dropped by Shanghai for fun

Learned so much at IQC[^2] yesterday

Met so many people from the research group, Yu-Gi-Oh / MG / Class Rep / Teacher Mao

The two grandmasters who’d already gotten into US master’s programs, everything they said was pure substance[^3]

Who knew Teacher Mao had eight years of tutoring experience

The way he tells stories and lays down life lessons instantly reminded me of He

Took photos with the mentors

K-sensei still remembered my voice

I’d booked two slots with him before

Social anxiety[^4] made it impossible to socialize at all, and I was so exhausted

Literally drained to the bone, went back and slept three hours before we even woke up

Hope next year I can make master level with more confidence

And arrive in style

That year, nineteen, IQC gold level, standing there like a nobody~[^5]

Back then, I swore through my tears, you will all see me~

[^1]: A pun on Descartes’ “Cogito ergo sum”(I think, therefore I am). In Chinese, “”becomes “???, replacing “think”( with “company”(, turning it into “My company employs me, therefore I am.”

[^2]: International Quant Championship, a quantitative finance competition hosted by WorldQuant.

[^3]: Literally “dry goods” in Chinese internet slang, meaning content with real substance and no fluff.

[^4]: (sh kng), literally “social phobia.”In Chinese internet usage, it’s a catch-all term ranging from clinical social anxiety to simply being introverted or socially awkward.

[^5]: Adapted from Eason Chan’s song, Exaggerated): “ｅ,, “That year, eighteen, school dance, standing there like a nobody.”The next line “』, (“you must see me”) continues the same song’s spirit of desperate longing to be noticed.