3 posts tagged with "Anomalies brought by technological development"

Old Wang is a postman in Maple Leaf Town. He's been doing this job for almost twenty years, riding his old bicycle through the town's streets every day, rain or shine. Maple Leaf Town isn't big, just a few main roads and some old neighborhoods. He could navigate it with his eyes closed. Recently, things have been a little different in the town, or rather, things are different in the sky.

There are a few buzzing "giant flies" in the sky now. Old Wang knows they are drones, supposedly bought by the Canadian government to monitor the border. The border is just a small river away; on the other side is the United States. Old Wang often sees the farms on the other side, cows leisurely grazing in the fields, and occasionally a few cowboys riding horses, very much like a Western movie.

Old Wang sat on his creaky office chair, staring at the constantly refreshing "cat tax" payment records on his screen. This was the third time he had hit the refresh button, and the numbers were climbing like crazy weeds, each one higher than the last. Just a few months ago, who would have thought that this previously obscure Xiaohongshu account would become wildly popular because of a bunch of American netizens paying "cat tax"?

Initially, Old Wang just wanted to post photos of his tabby cat named "Tuanzi", mundane things like "Tuanzi slept all day again," and "Tuanzi ate half my bread." Until one day, an American netizen commented, saying that seeing Tuanzi reminded them of their cat that had recently passed away and they felt healed, adding in broken Chinese, "This cat, I want to pay tax."