【Machine Notebook】 is a column in the Garticle article section, updated every Friday. Before leaving work every Friday, we collect "short essays" from several editors, with free themes and self-chosen topics. The column's name is taken from the lightest text editor that comes with Windows, representing "lightness and smoothness."

This week's contributors: Bai Guangda, Jerry, Wawa

Today, while discussing the topic of "Children's Day" at the topic meeting, I suddenly rememberedthis article, which, in terms of years, is already 10 years old.

This article was from the days when Garticle still had a system for reviewing and revising long-form content, which I meticulously edited word by word. Think about it—10 years is enough to complete a full cycle of compulsory education, turning a child into a youth, and a youth into a middle-aged person.

Of course, an old-timer isn't built in a day, so we'll leave that aside for now.

At the topic meeting, I asked the younger colleagues how old they were in 2010 and what they were doing. They replied: "8 years old," "10 years old," "9 years old."

I thought about the 10-year-old kid at home and forced myself to set aside the thought. Every generation has its own memories; today's stories will always be continued by yesterday's children.

Just enjoy the games, friends.

Below is the content of this article, thanks to the author Little Nima - Silver Hand. His last activity on the site was in 2019; perhaps he has grown into an adult who no longer needs to read Gcores.

Happy Children's Day in advance, everyone.

Last week I went to Shanghai on a business trip, a four-day, three-night itinerary.

That's not a short time, especially since Shanghai is a world-famous modern metropolis. Since I was going to stay that long, I planned to properly sample the local cuisine.

Lately, Bilibili has been sending me videos of foreign friends eating their way through Shanghai; watching them enjoy themselves, I inexplicably felt excited about the city's food.

Sitting on the high-speed train, I specifically contacted a few friends living and working in Shanghai for food recommendations. They were all very generous and quickly replied one after another:

"When you come to Shanghai, you must try Shanghai's Sichuan cuisine."

"You must try Shanghai's Japanese food."

Another friend in the group chimed in, "That's right, for Japanese food, Shanghai is the place to be."

What kind of answers are these? I finally made it to Shanghai, can't I try something more representative and local?

Probably sensing my confusion, a local guy in the group who has lived in Shanghai for over thirty years quietly replied,

"When you come to Shanghai, you must try coffee."

You guys are hopeless. Looks like I'll have to rely on myself.

Burning through my data, I started searching for Shanghai's best food on the high-speed train:

Braised pork belly, bamboo shoot and pork belly soup, sizzling eel with oil, Xiao Yang's pan-fried buns, pork chop with rice cake, crab shell yellow pastry...

Oh my god, everything looks so delicious.

Sitting on the high-speed train, the more I looked, the hungrier I got. When I arrived in 上海 it was already 4 PM. I took a taxi to the hotel, and it was almost past 6 PM. Physical fatigue was not too bad, but the hunger in my heart was so intense that my stomach felt like it was touching my back.

After leaving the hotel, I couldn't find any of the local delicacies I had searched for on my phone. Sniffing around the streets, I searched everywhere, and finally, as if guided by fate, I walked into a 兰州拉面馆.

As soon as I ordered, I started to regret it: I had done so much research in advance, why couldn't I have searched a little more?

With my strong willpower, I guess I'm bound to fail at everything.

Counting on myself is hopeless.

I decided to contact my local classmate in 上海 to take me to eat something delicious. He is truly a veteran 老上海 who has lived there for over thirty years, and he took me to eat the most popular dish in 上海——贵州烤鸡.

But to be honest, that roast chicken was really delicious. We waited in a long line at the door, and from a distance we could smell the faint charcoal aroma wafting out of the shop. The dishes on the table were full of red oil and spicy flavor, so hot that they made our tongues numb, but we couldn't help picking up our chopsticks and putting one bite after another into our mouths.

After a hearty meal, my classmate invited me for a walk along the river to aid digestion. We followed the navigation all the way to the riverbank. (That's right—even a local Shanghainese has to use navigation when going out.)

Along the way, he asked me what I've been playing recently, and I said I've been playing *Street Fighter*.

He said he follows *Street Fighter* too.

I said, "Yeah, *Street Fighter* is awesome whether you're playing it or just watching it."

He said, "The female characters in *Street Fighter* are way too sexy."

I casually replied, "Not really, I think Cammy looks better."

My classmate got excited: "I can see you don't know anything; obviously Viper is sexier."

I said, "Viper's style is a bit too in-your-face, and besides, these days everyone says you should never fall in love with a woman who resembles your mother."

Hearing that, my friend was deeply disappointed and immediately started arguing with me, going on and on about leg curves, waist-to-hip ratios, and even an aesthetic analysis of phallic worship.

At first, I was earnestly nodding along, but then I suddenly couldn't help bursting into a fit of laughter, almost crouching down on the side of a Shanghai street.

My friend looked at me panicked and asked what was wrong.

Actually, it was nothing—just that while he was rambling on and on, the navigation system happened to announce:

"In 200 meters, turn onto Nanning Road."

Today, let's discuss a doujinshi: Tōyama Shō's "Implicity."

The story is set in a post-disaster world in the near future, where human society is strictly divided into an upper class and a lower class. The upper class lives in a clean, enclosed world like a paradise; the lower class lives in heavily polluted slums, full of chaos and the struggle for survival. The core of the story is actually the conflict between hope and exploitation. The contrast between the upper and lower layers is stark. Although there are many erotic scenes, they are often accompanied by pain, deception, and a sense of powerlessness, leaving the reader feeling heavy rather than pleased. This is very clearly reflected in the first two chapters of the doujinshi.

Ep.0 is the prologue of the entire work. Two young people from the upper class, Amy and Rin, follow the child education video they once watched, "A Beginner's Guide to First Sex," and naturally become intimate. The scene is depicted as gentle, curious, and sweet—the two lovers, while confirming their compatibility, put on rings afterward, complete their partner registration, and make promises to each other, becoming a legally recognized couple in upper-class society. While watching the sunset by the cliff, Rin accidentally drops the ring into the lower class. This ring is later picked up by two young people from the lower class, directly connecting the two storylines of the upper and lower classes, and also becomes the beginning of a tragedy.

As an opening, Ep.0 is short and powerful, and very gentle. It uses normal love to contrast the cruelty of the lower-class story.

Ep.1 takes place about a year after Ep.0, jumping to the severely polluted slums of the lower class. Two young people from the lower class, Yuni and Hikaru, rely on selling their bodies to barely survive. They have a good relationship, like siblings or a young couple who depend on each other, dreaming together: hoping one day they can escape here and go to the upper class for a better life. One day, Hikaru picks up a ring that fell from the upper class in a sewer (the very ring Amy and Rin dropped in Ep.0). The ring itself is not valuable, but it contains identity information. Hikaru thinks they can use it to withdraw some money and escape to the upper class together. They arrange to meet somewhere and fulfill their dream of going to the upper class.

However, on her way to the meeting point, Uni was surrounded by a group of low-class augmented men. What followed was a multi-page scene of extreme gang assault. The story unflinchingly depicts Uni's physical pain, mental breakdown, and the gradual loss of hope amid the violence. The focus of this chapter is not simply on eroticism, but on revealing the tragic status of the lower class. They are treated as expendable toys, with no stability whatsoever.

Of course, in the end, Light didn't get the money either. Instead, he was brutally beaten by the police officers of the lower-class station, and returned home to find Uni in a delirious state.

Finally, although "Implicity" is a doujinshi, an adult comic filled with explicit erotic content, its core message is a reflection on humanity, class, and the future. It's quite heavy after reading. I've only discussed Ep.1 and Ep.0 with everyone, but the later chapters are also worth talking about. Maybe we can chat about them sometime.