Old Deng

If you are over thirty, you are Old Deng.
When people grow old, someone will always tell you.
Not because you realize it yourself. But because others tell you.
Old Deng, Old Deng.
One voice after another, one cut after another.
The sword doesn’t bleed. But you know, there’s something on you being shaved off.
In ancient times, swordsmen would sheathe their swords at forty. Because they were slow, their eyes blurred, and if they drew again, they would lose.
They accept their fate.
Our generation does not accept it.
At thirty, we’ve just paid off the mortgage for three years, our kids just learned to call us Dad, and our parents just started hospital stays.
We cannot sheathe our swords.
Our swords have just come out of the sheath.
But the martial world waits for no one.
The martial world says, you are old.
The songs you listen to, the movies you watch, the people you loved—should all go to the museum.
The martial world has given you a name—Old Deng.
The hardest thing for a person is not defeat, but being disqualified.
You can be defeated and get up to fight again.
Being disqualified means you no longer have the right to step into the arena.
But the martial world has never been a young person’s world.
The martial world is for everyone still walking.
You are thirty, you are forty, your back hurts, your hair turns white, and when you come home late after overtime and see your sleeping child’s face, your nose will tingle.
You are still walking, you are still in the martial world.
The swordsman grows old, not because his sword is no longer sharp.
It’s because he begins to understand that some people are not worth drawing the sword for, some words are not worth replying to, some labels are not worth tearing off.
He smiles, sheaths his sword, and continues on his way.
This is not surrender. This is understanding.
So, one day, if someone calls you Old Deng behind your back,
No need to look back, no need to explain.
You walk your path, love the people you love, listen to the songs you love, protect the people you want to protect.
When you drink alone late at night, toast yourself.
The martial world is vast, it can hold all those still walking.
You are not Old Deng.
You are a person with a sword.
It’s just that the sword is hidden.
Not drawn, does not mean it’s not there.