Xiluluke's Weekend Letter Vol. 09

This past week I was so busy that I didn't post on WeChat for several days straight, and the weekly and the column both fell behind. Only today did I get back to Chengdu, sit down at my computer at home, and start writing properly.

Today I'm catching up on last week's Weekend Letter first.

This week's theme is nothing but one thing: drinking.

I can hold my liquor pretty well, but I don't like drinking. Usually I only drink at occasions I think are important and formal, basically family dinners, dinners with important bosses, and get-togethers with really close friends.

Last week was no exception. There were just a few more of those occasions than usual. It was almost half the times I drank in the whole past year.

Round One: Friends

Right after the May Day holiday, a friend came over from Lanzhou. Jiahua happened to be off too, and I didn't have much going on at work, so we hosted him together.

The first evening we went for hotpot. It tasted awful. Afterward we decided to find a bar on Yulin Road for drinks.

When we got to Yulin Road, we found bars everywhere. Walking down the street, there were more signs than you could take in. We'd planned to go straight to the famous Little Bar, but when we checked Dianping, the rating was really low, so we gave up on it.

There were just too many choices. We wandered Yulin Road for twenty minutes and finally walked into a beer bar with a "¥128 all-you-can-drink" sign out front. It was ¥128 per person, but at places where single drinks go for sixty or seventy yuan, that's actually not bad.

So we each paid ¥128 and started drinking and talking.

Drinking with friends is the most relaxed and pleasant kind. You're at your loosest, you can say whatever you want, good or bad, and it all ends with a laugh.

I often consciously keep my drinking in check, but when I see friends I haven't seen in a long time, I feel like I should drink my fill.

Years ago I got drunk once at a dinner with college classmates. It's the only time in my life I've ever been drunk. What I remember from that night: first I drank a 500 ml bottle of Jing Jiu, then six 100 ml bottles of Waizui in a row, and after that I don't remember anything.

The next morning I was hugging the toilet, throwing up, and I felt like even my soul tasted of Jing Jiu. After that, I knew two things.

• Anything under 750 g of baijiu is my safe line.
• I'll never drink Jing Jiu again.

Since then, whenever I drink, I make sure I stay below my safe line. I have to keep a clear head.

It was the same this time with my friends. Even though we drank ourselves silly in the end, all three of us could still get home on our own.

I remember that in the cab on the way home, when I saw the car was about to get on the elevated highway, I quickly stopped the driver: no, no, you have to pull over, or I'm really going to throw up.

The driver opened the door, and I got out and went over to the strip of bushes by the road. At first I tried to steady myself with my hands on my knees, but that didn't work. I tried going down on one knee. That didn't work either.

In the end I just knelt by the bushes with both hands dug into the dirt, feeling my stomach churn, but nothing came up.

Anyway, after feeling awful for a while, I felt a bit better and got back in the car.

I didn't throw up the whole way home.

The next morning when I got up, I still remembered every detail of the night before.

I figure one or two more drinks and I would've blacked out.

That was the closest I've come to being drunk in years. But I held the line.

Another reason I didn't get drunk, I think, is that neither Jiahua, our other friend, nor I went in planning to get drunk.

So in the end we all stopped just short of being drunk. When I talked to them the next day, they both said one or two more drinks would have done it.

I think that's just right.

Coworkers

On Saturday I went back to the Chongqing office for my annual performance review.

The day before the review, the company's finance director suddenly messaged me to come have dinner. I asked who'd be there. He said everyone back for their reviews this time, plus a few leaders from other departments.

He said it was his treat, nothing to do with the company, just the guys having a drink.

Honestly, I didn't want to go, because I'd just had a big night a few days earlier. But I thought about it: he'd invited everyone, and if I was the only one who didn't show up, that might not look good. So in the end I said yes.

At the table, drinking was a given. Deep down I kind of hate drinking at these occasions, because I don't have much to say to these people.

The finance director ordered two cases of beer. There's another thing: I don't really like beer. I think it bloats you.

Whenever I've had a fair amount, my stomach gets really bloated and uncomfortable, but my head doesn't get that alcohol buzz at all. That's the worst feeling, because it's the beer forcibly stretching out your stomach. It's physical discomfort, bodily discomfort.

Just as I'd resigned myself to beer, another leader beside me brought out two bottles of his own infused liquor. Supposedly it was ginseng liquor.

I was delighted and quickly said, "Then I'll have this."

I think there's another good thing about drinking baijiu at the table: it has a natural advantage. Because it's so strong, when I drink one glass of baijiu, people figure they need to drink several bottles of beer to match.

That actually helps me keep my drinking under control.

That night, for example, they said they'd drink two bottles of beer for every glass I drank. By their count that glass was two liang, about 100 ml, but the glass actually held more than that.

That let me pace my drinking much more calmly.

By the end, each of them had drunk about 8 bottles of beer, and I'd had six liang of baijiu, around 300 ml. I felt fine. I barely felt a thing.

I think this round of drinking with coworkers went pretty well. I talked a bit with everyone, and I took turns toasting them with baijiu a few times.

This dinner reminded me of drinking with coworkers many years ago.

I was maybe 21 or 22, young and cocky. I knew I could drink more than most, so I had that young person's edge. Once at a dinner I showed off my drinking spirit and downed two liang of baijiu in one go, not afraid of it at all.

Now, after all these years, especially the last two, I'm a bit older and have seen a bit more of the world. I'd say that edge I used to have is pretty much gone.

I've started hiding how much I can drink and controlling my own pace, so I don't get pulled into other people's binge.

And I always stick to drinking below my safe line.

But I've noticed that among the people I meet these days, six liang of baijiu is about the middle. By that point, everyone's had about enough.

I have to say, that liquor he brought, supposedly infused with ginseng and a bunch of other herbs, was actually really good.

It was very smooth, not harsh at all. That's the kind of liquor I like.

I'm not much of a baijiu connoisseur. I just think baijiu gets that alcohol-to-the-head feeling going faster, that light, floaty feeling.

As for taste, my judgment of baijiu basically comes down to harsh or not harsh. The one I've drunk most is Fenjiu, but I don't actually think it tastes good. If we're talking taste, I prefer Xifeng.

The Company Dinner

The day after drinking with my coworkers was the review itself.

After a full day of it, the company held a dinner that evening. Everyone had Chongqing hotpot together, another classic drinking scene.

By rights, someone like me who can drink should sit with the people who like drinking, including the coworkers from the night before. But compared with the night before, I had a lot less enthusiasm for drinking that day, because I rarely drink two days in a row. It's one of my little rules: never drink two days in a row.

But there was no way around it. The chairman was there, and everyone was toasting each other. Everyone knows I can drink, so not drinking would have looked weird. In the end I still had about 3 or 4 bottles of beer.

I made the rounds and toasted all the leaders I was supposed to toast, which basically meant the job was done.

Finally

Whenever drinking comes up, smoking and playing cards always get lumped in with it, as if the three were brothers.

But I don't smoke, I don't play cards, and these days I only drink now and then.

If you lump the three together, what kind of thing are they? Bad habits? Or just something people like, a habit and nothing more?

To me, it's just a hobby.

For me, drinking itself isn't really fun. What matters is who you're drinking with and what you talk about along the way.