Afraid of freeloaders, more afraid of being condescended to in every possible way

Succulent beauty shots | Care experience | Dream garden building | Hand-drawn DIY

Author: Shuimu / Compiled by: Succulent Plant Illustrated Guide

(please credit the source when reposting)

The main text begins:

If your succulents are beautiful but you dare not show them off, it is mostly because you fear freeloaders. But if your succulents are plain and you still dare not show them off, then perhaps you fear not only freeloaders, but also being mocked in every possible way.

I know full well that I do not grow succulents well, and the moment I show them off, they become a brick tossed to draw out jade. Who told me to have only "bricks" in hand and no "jade"?

I also enjoy admiring the beautiful photos of the masters, drooling at my phone screen for a while, and secretly taking the condition of their succulents as my goal and motivation. Even if I cannot reach it, at least I know how much room for improvement there is. Although I feel ashamed that I am no match, I still like to chat a few more words with people who grow succulents well, not only admiring their impressive growing skills, but also possibly benefiting from a few of their remarks.

But there is a small handful of people who do not grow succulents well themselves, or do not even grow succulents at all, yet turn up their noses at other people's succulents.

-- "Hey, let me tell you, my downstairs neighbor started later than you, and now their succulent collection is much bigger than yours."

-- Me: "Heh heh."

Then blah blah blah, how her neighbor, under her peeping eyes, grew and expanded and quickly surpassed my scale. Between the lines was a superiority complex about being the neighbor of a big grower.

How am I supposed to respond to that? Congratulate her neighbor on being promoted to big grower? Or feel ashamed and think I have been slacking off and failed to keep my ranking in succulent scale among her acquaintances?

The feeling when I heard this was like the neighbor upstairs from Jack Ma mocking a neighbor in the same neighborhood

-- "Hey, let me tell you, Jack Ma did worse than you in school back then, and look at him now, he has way more money than you."

I just want to say you are not as rich as Jack Ma either, so where does your sense of superiority come from?

-- "My cousin just bought a Haworthia cooperi 'Guanghangong' (Jade Harem), it is much prettier than the one you bought, and cheaper than what you paid too."

-- Me again: "Heh heh."

How am I supposed to explain to her? Most succulents are in price-plunge mode, so it is hardly surprising to buy prettier and cheaper ones later.

But the meaningful implication in her words that I bought expensive and got ripped off, how am I supposed to ignore it?

Do I need to tell her that because I bought earlier, I enjoyed more time in the company of succulents, and that kind of satisfaction? Or do I need to remind her that if her cousin had waited a few more years to buy, it might be cheap enough to be a free gift?

Other than saying heh heh, what can I do...

-- "You bought succulents again? All my succulents were gifts from neighbors and relatives, or little pups pinched off from theirs, they did not cost any money."

-- To this sentence I cannot even manage a heh heh. How many layers of meaning does it have?

With the backing of relative-neighbors who are big growers, she saves a ton of money? Like having an official as a relative makes things easier, she has connections and I do not?

I am always buying succulents, so compared with her I am too wasteful and cannot manage a household?

So many people give her succulents and pinch off pups for her, while I am so stingy that I have not shared even a little with her?

-- "You have been growing them for quite a while, and the condition is not that great. My husband's classmate's wife only started a few months ago, and now she is amazing, all old stems in her hands, every single one bursting with color. Let me show you her Moments photos, so pretty."

Originally, when I heard that a fellow succulent lover had pretty succulents, I was very interested in taking a look, and even interested in getting to know them. But why did that sentence make me feel inexplicably uncomfortable?

I only ever posted my own succulents on Moments, and that was all it took for people to know I grow succulents. So why do some people have to show off to me the succulent situations of their aunts and uncles and even relatives who are barely connected? The problem is that some of these people's own succulent scale and condition are not as good as mine, yet they smugly show off to me how well some person they are not even close to grows them.

As a child I learned there is a kind of existence called "other people's children," then I found a partner and discovered there is also "other people's husband (wife)," and growing succulents should have been very zen, but then I discovered there is also "other people's succulents." I can only say heh heh.

(Uh, not enough color, mediocre growing skills, insufficient condition, so I will make up for it with a border. I am working hard to treat these succulents at the village chief's place well.)

Livestream preview: tomorrow on Taobao livestream there will be all kinds of new products and premium one-item-one-shot listings, still at 9:30 in the morning, everyone remember to come and show support~ The village chief has already prepared some premium Haworthia cooperi series for new listings on Taobao and the Weidian shop, everyone welcome to follow the Taobao shop [Nanjing Little Florist] Weitao~

[How to open]: Open mobile TaobaoSearch for the shop [Nanjing Little Florist]Follow the shop's Weitao, all kinds of new succulent listings for you to try first, everyone welcome to search and follow~ PS: those who are used to buying from Weidian canclick the link at the bottom left at the end of the article to enter the Weidian shop and buy~

Call for articles theme: care experience in your local environment, inspirational comparison records, watering and form control, repotting and soil mixing, garden stories, etc. Find your audience here!

Publishing platforms: WeChat public account, Toutiao, Taobao Toutiao, Kuaikanbao, Baidu Baijia and all other mainstream self-media platforms.

Recruiting volunteers: In order for the public account to develop better and share more high-quality content with over a hundred thousand succulent lovers, the village chief welcomes interested and energetic friends to join the Illustrated Guide family and work together to build Succulent Plant Illustrated Guide. WeChat ID: duoroutupu2017

----Welcome to share this article to Moments----

The more we share，The more we have.