3

One summer night in 2013, my roommate pointed at the computer screen and said, “This thing is called Bitcoin, five dollars each, crazy.” I glanced at that simple webpage and continued playing my Journey to the West. “A scam for fools,” I said. Later, I never thought of that scene again until today, four years later.
On July 14, 2017, the temperature in Chongqing approached 40 degrees, and the air was filled with the unique smell of asphalt roads mixed with the steam from the Jialing River, scorched by the heat. I stood on the balcony of an old rental apartment in the Nan'an District, sweat soaking through the white T-shirt that I had worn for three years, its collar already loose and yellowed. The light from my phone screen reflected on my face, showing my bank card balance: 20,358.72 yuan. This was all my savings after three years of work, accumulated through countless overtime nights.