At 3:00 p.m., the office building’s central air conditioning hummed softly.
Mark pushed open the door to the farthest stall and locked it behind him with practiced ease. This was the third time he’d taken refuge here today. As the company’s newly promoted project manager, his phone had vibrated no fewer than fifty times over the past two hours—each vibration bringing another urgent message.
He sat on the toilet seat and let out a long sigh.
In this space of less than two square meters, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Mark habitually pulled out his phone and opened that familiar short-video app. On the screen, a flashily dressed influencer was shouting at the top of his lungs: “Family! With enough effort, you can achieve financial freedom in three months! Check out the Porsche I just picked up!”
Mark looked at the red sports car on the screen, then glanced down at his leather shoes, dusty from the rush to catch the subway. A familiar, bitter sense of anxiety washed over him like a tide. He instinctively swiped the screen, searching for the next dopamine-jacking video—or some false comfort that “I can do this, too.”
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a narrow gap beneath the door.
It was the only physical connection to the outside world. Through that narrow slit, he saw a pair of feet in old cloth shoes, resting quietly beside the sink.
Mark froze. Was someone out there?
He held his breath and peered carefully through the crack. The cloth shoes were very old, with a bit of white paint even caked onto the uppers. Immediately afterward, he heard a sound—not a flush, nor footsteps, but an extremely faint, rhythmic rustling.
It was the sound of chalk scraping against a blackboard, or perhaps something hard scraping across a rough surface.
Mark’s curiosity overcame his anxiety. He quietly switched his phone to silent mode and pressed it against the door to listen.
“…Then, the little rabbit finally found its carrot. It was very happy because it knew that when the sun rose tomorrow, there would be new carrots on the grass…”
An aged yet gentle voice sounded from outside the door. Mark’s eyes widened in surprise. That voice sounded like an old man—was he telling a story to someone?
“Grandpa, what if there aren’t any carrots tomorrow?” asked a child’s voice, sounding about four or five years old.
“Then we’ll go find some potatoes, or sweet potatoes,” the old man replied with a chuckle. “As long as your stomach isn’t empty and your heart isn’t anxious, whatever you eat will taste sweet. The important thing is that we sit together on the grass and soak up the sun, right?”
Mark froze.
He thought back to the blogger who had just been shouting about “financial freedom”—that glamorous yet monstrous world. Yet just one door away, this old man in worn cloth shoes was soothing a child’s anxiety with the simplest of words.
“But Grandpa, Mom says we have to grow up fast and make a lot of money…”
“Take your time, child,” the old man interrupted him. “Look at the green plants outside this restroom. They’re never in a hurry to bloom. They just drink water, soak up the sun, and slowly grow their leaves. People are the same—don’t rush. You’ve got plenty of time.”
The sound of a toilet flushing came from outside the door, followed by footsteps gradually fading into the distance.
Mark sat on the toilet, his phone screen still lit up, with the blogger on it still waving his arms exaggeratedly. But suddenly, he found that voice loud and grating.
He locked the screen and slipped the phone back into his pocket.
He stood up and straightened the collar of his shirt. In the mirror, he saw fine lines at the corners of his eyes, but his gaze seemed a little clearer than before.
He pushed open the door and walked over to the sink. The water flowing from the faucet was cool; he cupped his hands and splashed his face.
During those five minutes, he’d thought he was avoiding work and wasting time. But now he realized that in those five minutes, he’d heard the possibility of a different kind of life.
That possibility had nothing to do with a Porsche or achieving financial freedom in three months; it was simply about tomorrow’s sunrise and the calm, steady peace of mind.
Mark dried his hands and pushed open the bathroom door. In the hallway, his colleagues were still rushing about in a hurry.
Instead of joining the rush as he usually did, he slowed his pace. He recalled the old man’s words: “Take it slow.”
Maybe today’s meeting would still be a disaster; maybe that project would still be delayed. But it seemed that something had quietly changed during those five minutes of solitude in the stall.
He was no longer in a rush to prove anything. He just wanted to pour himself a glass of warm water and drink it slowly.
