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I haven't forgotten Quanzhou Third Lane

 　　I've lived in Quanzhou for half my life, and in Dongjie for so many years, I've never walked through Sanxiang Lane, even though it's right next door. Sometimes I would pass by without paying much attention; it's just a typical southern alley, 200-300 meters long

　　and 2 meters wide. Someone who's lived in this city for over 20 years without much worldly success moved in to save on rent. I was fortunate enough to record a small segment of this alley's long history. At the intersection of Sanxiang Lane and Wenling Road, there's a newly built residential area—though it's been 15 years since then. The ground floor is like any other building, with shops on the ground floor. Across the street are some older houses, urban villages. The buildings along the roadside are also shops: senior citizens' associations, small factories, cigarette shops, hair salons, breakfast stalls, and fried dough twists—they were delicious, coated in sugar, and I often bought them. Sometimes there were broken pieces, but I didn't mind; the owner would even give me a discount. Later, I developed diabetes, so I stopped buying them. I'm fairly well-liked; people still talk to me when I pass by. The shops on this street aren't expensive, and since it's an urban village, life is mostly mundane and the cost of living is low. If there's anything of highbrow, it's a calligraphy training class run by a guy named Ding Lu. He actively promotes it, using the internet and other methods. I even pretended to be an internet technician and made a promotional video for him. My intention was to attract more customers and earn less myself, but I didn't achieve that goal. However, I wasn't disappointed.

　　Because of the cheap rent, there were studios for pyramid schemes and bars specializing in prostitution. Some "old prostitutes" (I learned this in southern Fujian; the term for clients here is "old prostitute") were regulars. Of course, these so-called prostitutes had been working as prostitutes for at least 20 years. Every evening, they would dress up beautifully, wearing clothes that would attract the opposite sex, and wander between several bars so they could strike up a conversation and make a sale if a client came. Sometimes I thought about taking advantage of them; some of them were quite attractive, but I could only swallow my saliva and have that fleeting thought. Because when I first arrived in Quanzhou's Bailuhui tea shop, I often came into contact with prostitutes, and I've seen a lot of them—that's experience! They often didn't stick to any one bar; they would go to whichever bar had customers. This way of operating was quite resource-efficient. To be continued...

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