Author: danny
In the 1990s, Shanghai's Huanghe Road was a place of gold and glitter at night. Neon lights painted everyone's face with bold strokes, half wild, half desolate.
The day Zhizhen Garden opened, the sound of firecrackers nearly burst the eardrums of the entire street. Li Li stood at the top-floor window, looking down at the沸腾 below. At that time, everyone thought that as long as the lights were bright enough and the scene grand enough, this endless feast could last forever.
Uncle Ye once said:"After the great heat, comes the great cold."
Zhizhen Garden's dominance made the whole Huanghe Road fearful. So, that night, Zhizhen Garden lost power, ran short of ingredients, had its chefs poached, was blocked at the door by the madams of Huanghe Road, and even Lu Meilin brought her old flame to stage a coup...
And now, Binance is trapped in that famous drama of "Besieging Zhizhen Garden." Is this a game of business? Or the birth pangs of an era settling its accounts?
I: The Art of Skimming and the Rage of Settlement
"The mind thinks of business, the eyes see calculation."
The essence of the exchange business is actually the "skimming" on Huanghe Road. Whether it's king rat snake or dry-fried rice noodles, customers talk about million-dollar deals at the table, while the restaurant takes its cut from seats and drinks, just like an exchange takes its unwavering position.
When the market is good, everyone is "Bao Zong," generous, treating those meal and drink costs like tips. The louder the laughter in Zhizhen Garden, the thicker the skimming ledger. At that time, no one thought skimming was wrong; everyone was dreaming in the bubble.
But when the thunder of "1011" fell in 2025, twenty billion dollars vanished in hours, with the Fed's rate hike storm and global geopolitical black swans converging—Huanghe Road changed.
When customers are left with only a few coins, that once invisible, taken-for-granted "skimming" becomes the most glaring evidence of guilt. People start settling accounts, start looking for the one who "took the money." Just as Zhizhen Garden was targeted, not entirely because Li Li did anything wrong, but because on this cooling street,her lights were still the brightest, her skimming table still the largest.
At such times, condemning Binance becomes a physiological instinct and political correctness. Retail needs an outlet for anger, peers need a gap to feed, and regulators need a presentable altar.
II: Politics is the Facade, Business is the Backdoor
"Outsiders look at the facade, insiders look at the backdoor."
Some say this is a political necessity, that someone must be blamed for the devastation after "1011." This is right, and not right.
On Huanghe Road, politics was never a cloud in the sky, but mud on the ground. When the macro environment deteriorates and the whole street's business is losing money, order needs redistribution. Binance is targeted because it is that "easy-to-understand" target. It's too high-profile, making the old world's rules uneasy; it's too profitable, making people envious and jealous.
"On Huanghe Road, everyone waits for others to fall, to make room for themselves."
The同行's siege, the curses in Chinese and English CT, are all waiting for that sound of falling. People aren't seeking justice; they're seeking "living space." But if Zhizhen Garden is torn down, will the customers, ingredients, and funds that flowed to it really go to Jin Meilin? Or next door's Hong Lu? It's hard to say.
But they forget that Zhizhen Garden became Zhizhen Garden because it upheld the momentum of the entire Huanghe Road.
Whoever can take over Zhizhen Garden may not be the next Zhizhen Garden, but it certainly won't be the Hong Lu or Jin Meilin still there.
III: Zhizhen Garden is Not Just Binance, But Every One of Us
"I am my own harbor."
You ask where Binance's "Bao Zong" is?
In the drama, when Zhizhen Garden was besieged, Uncle Ye brought in a Hong Kong chef, Bao Zong sent king rat snake, saving Zhizhen Garden. But in the现实 wilderness, no one can save Binance, unless it can, like Li Li, endure with a "silent" resilience in the power-out night.
But the deeper truth is:Zhizhen Garden is not just about Binance, but our entire crypto industry.
The poached chef is the elite lost in the industry; the cut-off supply is the dried-up global liquidity; the dirt thrown at Li Li is the mainstream world's decade-long prejudice and fear towards this "wild child."
If we only tear each other down when we lose money, look for scapegoats when settling accounts, then our industry will forever be the upstarts of Huanghe Road, never making it big. When Zhizhen Garden is besieged, the entire Huanghe Road is committing慢性 suicide. Because once the highest neon light goes out, the street returns to that gray, old era.
Who remembers how long it took the industry to make the world remove the equation blockchain = scam after FTX's collapse?
IV: Fallen Blossoms, Alone in the End
"You know the Empire State Building in New York? It takes an hour to run from the bottom to the roof, but only 8.8 seconds to jump down."
We are all experiencing those 8.8 seconds.
Those voices roaring on Chinese and English social media, those cold lights flickering in regulatory documents, will eventually fall silent with time. Zhizhen Garden finally closed, Li Li became a nun, Bao Zong returned to the fields. The繁华 of Huanghe Road was ultimately just a rehearsal of desire.
This siege in the crypto industry is actually a painful "rebirth." It forces us to think: if we lose that "skimming"繁华, if we lose that标杆 that shelters from wind and rain, what do we have left?
"Most of life is fake, the other half is indistinguishable from fake."
Binance's current四面楚歌 is a corridor it must walk alone. For our industry, the real "Bao Zong" is not a person, but every believer who, after recognizing the truth of "fallen blossoms," is still willing to hold onto that "one Bitcoin per person."
If we cannot unite, then when the last neon light goes out, there will be no more legends on Huanghe Road, only litter and cold wind.
"At the time I couldn't see her clearly, ten years later, I still haven't seen her clearly, but I have seen myself clearly."
Postscript
My longtime followers know I've never been keen on incentivizing traffic, so I believe an article should be what it is. Some say I'm pretending to be aloof, and they're not wrong; frankly, even if I拿出 a BTC for promotion, it probably wouldn't reach other influencers' heights, as influence isn't there.
Then the clever ones will start to think: Is it different this time?
????, rest assured, it's the same.
I also wish to achieve my single article 1M view milestone, to impress, but algorithms have their time, human effort has its limits. It's enough that I occasionally have flashes where I can combine emotion, my journey, books (movies) I've read, practice, and observation, and record them.
Salute to every lone brave soul willing to speak out and call for the industry in fearful times.
What is the great cold? It is cold when no one cares.
