LaoChaofengA Certain Posture
I gradually realized,
some people like to speak in a carefree tone.
That kind of carefree tone isn’t quiet,
but carries a bit of sharpness,
and a bit of deliberate noise.
In public settings,
they will call out a few familiar people.
Their tone sounds casual,
as if joking,
yet also as if naming someone.
The onlookers laugh,
the atmosphere gets lifted,
and they stand in the middle,
appearing to have weight.
At first, I thought
it was straightforwardness.
It was honesty.
It was a kind of courage that didn’t care about relationships.
Later, I slowly realized
it was more like a posture.
Because people who are truly steady
don’t really need to prove themselves in front of a crowd.
They are not eager to draw a blade,
nor eager to declare a stance.
They know when to speak,
and when to stop.
And those frequent “carefree” moments
almost always happen around safe targets —
familiar people,
people who won’t truly fall out with them,
people who won’t openly push back.
That makes everything subtle.
It is no longer communication,
but more like a low-cost test of power.
Under everyone’s gaze,
they step lightly on someone,
to see whether anyone will push back.
If no one does,
that silence gets misread as acceptance.
And acceptance gets misread as authority.
So sharpness begins to turn into a performance.
“I dare to speak the truth.”
“I’m not afraid of offending people.”
These lines get used repeatedly,
like a shell
wrapping around some form of unease.
I don’t deny
that some things do need to be said directly.
Some relationships can indeed withstand friction.
But when “calling people out in public”
becomes a way to build one’s presence,
it stops being honesty
and becomes a persona.
I started learning to distinguish between two things:
weight, and noise.
Some people are loud,
but land lightly.
Some people barely speak,
yet make others instinctively adjust their boundaries.
True authority
rarely needs an audience.
It exists in consistent behavior,
in private respect,
in those moments that don’t need to be displayed.
Later, I was also teased,
lightly singled out.
I didn’t push back on the spot.
Nor did I play along.
I just stood there quietly,
and suddenly realized something:
Some people need the presence of others
to raise their own position.
And some people
only need to stand.
