Flowers fall, and in the end, only one remains: The face, backdoor, and bill-payer of the crypto world

Author: danny

In the 1990s, Shanghai’s Huanghe Road was a sea of gold dust after nightfall. Neon lights cast heavy strokes of ink-like shadows, smearing across everyone’s face—half wild, half desolate.

On the day Zhi Zhen Yuan opened, the firecrackers nearly exploded the entire street’s eardrums. Li Li stood at the top-floor window, overlooking the boiling chaos below. Back then, everyone thought that as long as the lights were bright enough and the scene grand enough, this flowing banquet could last forever.

Uncle once said: “After the Great Heat, there will be great Cold.”

Zhi Zhen Yuan’s fierce rise made the entire Huanghe Road start to fear. So, that night, Zhi Zhen Yuan cut the power, faced shortages of ingredients, had chefs poached away, was blocked at the door by the shopkeeper’s wife, and even Lu Meilin brought her old flame to stage a palace coup…

And now, Binance is caught in that famous “Siege of Zhi Zhen Yuan” drama. Is this a business gamble? Or the pain of an era settling accounts?

Part One: The Art of Pumping and the Rage of Settling Accounts

“Thinking about business in your heart, calculating in your eyes.”

The essence of the exchange business is really just “pumping” on Huanghe Road. Whether it’s the big snake or dry-fried beef noodles, customers talk about million-dollar deals at the table, the restaurant earns from seats and drinks, just like the exchange earns from rock-solid positions.

When the market is good, everyone is a “Treasure Boss,” spending lavishly, treating that little bit of food and wine as tips. The louder the laughter in Zhi Zhen Yuan, the thicker the pumping ledger becomes. Back then, no one thought pumping was wrong; everyone was dreaming in a bubble.

But when the shock of “1011” in 2025 struck, two hundred billion dollars vanished in hours, the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes and global black swans intertwined—Huanghe Road changed forever.

When customers’ pockets are only left with a few coins, that invisible, justified “pumping” becomes the most glaring evidence of guilt. People began to settle accounts, to find the one who “made off with the money.” Just as Zhi Zhen Yuan was targeted collectively, not entirely because Li Li did something wrong, but because on this colder street, her lights still shone brightest, and her pumping stage was still the biggest.

At such times, attacking Binance became a physiological instinct and political correctness. Retail investors need an outlet for their anger, peers need a gap to share the pie, and regulators need a worthy altar.

Part Two: Politics is Face, Business is Inner

“Outsiders look at the facade; insiders look at the back door.”

Some say this is political necessity, that someone must take the blame for the devastation after “1011.” That’s partly right, partly wrong.

On Huanghe Road, politics has never been clouds hanging in the sky but mud on the ground. When macro conditions worsen and the entire street’s business is losing money, order must be redistributed. Binance was targeted because it was an “easy-to-understand” target. It was too high-profile, making the old-world rules uneasy; it was too profitable, earning envy and hatred.

“On Huanghe Road, everyone is waiting for others to stumble so they can make room.”

The siege by peers, the insults in Chinese and English on social media—these are all just waiting for that stumble to happen. People aren’t pursuing justice; they’re pursuing “survival space.” But if Zhi Zhen Yuan is dismantled, will the customers, ingredients, and funds flowing to Zhi Zhen Yuan really flow to Jin Mei Lin? Or to the next door, Hong Lu? It’s hard to say.

But they forget that Zhi Zhen Yuan’s status came from supporting the entire Huanghe Road’s momentum.

Who can take over Zhi Zhen Yuan? It’s uncertain if it’s the next Zhi Zhen Yuan, but it definitely isn’t Hong Lu or Jin Mei Lin anymore.

Part Three: Zhi Zhen Yuan is Not Just Binance, but Each of Us

“I am my own dock.”

You ask, where is Binance’s “Treasure Boss”?

In the play, when Zhi Zhen Yuan was besieged by all the bosses, Uncle invited a Hong Kong chef, Treasure Boss sent the big snake, saving Zhi Zhen Yuan. But in the real wilderness, no one can save Binance unless it can, like Li Li, endure a power outage deep into the night with a quiet confidence.

But the deeper truth is: Zhi Zhen Yuan isn’t just about Binance; it’s about our entire crypto industry.

The chef who was poached is the industry’s lost elite; the cut-off supply is the exhausted global liquidity; the dirty water poured on Li Li is the mainstream world’s ten-year prejudice and fear of this “wild child.”

If we only tear each other down when losing money, and look for scapegoats at settlement, our industry will forever be just a flash in Huanghe Road’s rise, unable to grow into something bigger. When Zhi Zhen Yuan is besieged, the entire Huanghe Road is actually in slow self-destruction. Because once the brightest neon goes out, this street returns to that dull old era.

Who still remembers how long it took for the industry to dispel the world’s equating blockchain with scams after the FTX collapse?

Part Four: Prosperity Fades, Ultimately One Person

“Do you know the Empire State Building in New York? It takes an hour to run from the bottom to the top, and just eight point eight seconds to jump off from the roof.”

We are all experiencing those 8.8 seconds.

The roaring voices on Chinese and English social media, the cold glints in regulatory documents—ultimately, they will fade into silence with time. Zhi Zhen Yuan finally closed, Li Li became a monk, Treasure Boss returned to the fields. The prosperity of Huanghe Road was ultimately just a rehearsal about desire.

This attack on the crypto industry is actually a painful “rebirth.” It forces us to think: if that “pumping” prosperity is gone, if that benchmark that shields us from the wind and rain is gone, what do we have left?

“Most of life is false; the remaining half is indistinguishable between true and false.”

Binance’s current predicament is a corridor it must walk alone. And for our industry, the true “Treasure Boss” isn’t a person, but that faith of each believer who, after seeing the “flowers fall,” still dares to hold onto that “one person, one Bitcoin.”

If we cannot unite as one, then when the last neon light goes out, there will be no more legends on Huanghe Road—only scattered paper scraps and cold wind.

“When I couldn’t see her clearly before, I still couldn’t ten years later. But I saw myself clearly.”

Postscript

My old fans know I’ve never been keen on hype to boost traffic, so I believe what an article should be is what it is. Some say I’m pretending to be aloof, but that’s not entirely wrong. Honestly, even if I used a BTC to promote, I probably wouldn’t reach the heights of other teachers, since influence isn’t there.

Then clever folks might start to wonder: Is this time different?

???, don’t worry, it’s still the same.

I also hope to achieve my own milestone of a 1M-word article, to impress a little, but sometimes algorithms, sometimes manpower. When I have fleeting moments of brilliance, I can combine and record my emotions, my journey, the books (movies) I’ve seen—enough.

Salute to every brave soul who still speaks out and calls the shots for the industry in times of fear.

What is great Cold? It’s the cold when no one cares.