Puzzle on Sojournal

Sojourner's Diary - 125

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 12:00:00 -0500

125 is a cube, so naturally I wrote three articles today and published one on each of the three platforms where I regularly appear. Feel free to hunt for the Easter egg!

Bilibili

Ah, yes. Today is my birthday. I am celebrating in American time, so this post may appear a little late. But wait: China Standard Time and Central Standard Time are fourteen hours apart. If I count both time zones, I get a glorious thirty-eight-hour birthday! Brilliant as always.

Sojourner's Diary - 124

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500

It is that time of year again, and naturally the annual retrospective cannot be omitted. Let us see how much I can finish before 11:59 p.m. (

One thing worth mentioning: I gave my experiences in the Puzzle Hunt community this year their own article. On one hand, I feared I would hit WeChat’s character limit and leave no room for anything else. On the other, judging from the feedback I have received all year, not many people around me are particularly obsessed with this subject. The video made its earth-shattering debut during the puzzle team’s TPAPWRAPA livestream on the 29th, then appeared on Bilibili together with the companion article. If you are interested, please follow Zhuge Tianyao on Bilibili. Thank you!

Sojourner's Diary - 123

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Congratulations to the WeChat account Mysterious Mr. Owl Q on reaching one thousand followers! Confetti 🎉

I saw the news first thing in the morning and became so excited that, amid the deadline panic of finishing a paper, I found time to doodle some limited-edition merchandise. Only one exists, so you tell me whether that counts as limited. If the opportunity arises, I will put it into ruthless mass production. (

Come to think of it, I have been in the puzzle community for roughly as long as that account has existed. I have recently been organizing the various puzzle-related things I wrote over the past year, so here is a tiny preview—and a lazy way to pad today’s word count.

Sojourner's Diary - 122

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Thank goodness for Thanksgiving break!

American geocaches are beginning to seem suspiciously homogeneous. So far, I have found at least six hidden in similar places, including the only two physical caches on campus. Damn it, I have not seen a single one resembling the ingenious camouflaged caches Teacher Nano once showed me. Must Chinese Taobao teach these Americans a small lesson in the manufacturing might of Yiwu?

Then again, this pattern gives me more time to read the story behind each location, because that is honestly the only interesting part left. Perhaps this is simply geocaching adapting to America’s great road-trip culture. At least I can confidently write “found” in my log instead of behaving like certain newcomers who search for my cache in Hangzhou, fail without ceremony, immediately post “Needs Maintenance” to pressure me into sending a friend out, and then demand a revised hint and lower difficulty in one seamless chain until the answer is practically placed in their mouths. You only realize how demanding players can be after becoming a cache owner. I wonder whether any of my own “did not find” logs at the beginning of the year caused someone else the same trouble.

Sojourner's Diary - 113

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Near the end of yesterday’s Cornerstones class, our professor gave us a little Puzzle Hunt.

Can you imagine how I felt?

Cornerstones, as the name implies, is the class you must take if you hope to survive at LETU. It is the foundation of everything. Fine, it is not actually that grave. Apart from doctrinal material such as the cheating and plagiarism policies, the class is basically one extended tea party. Our professor also chairs the writing section of the student center, so she gleefully assigns us a journal every week. Presumably she hopes we will take our drafts to the tutors there for help, although I have never once done that. My first thought was: perfect, I can lazily count these as entries in Sojourner’s Diary! My second thought was: perhaps exercises written with elementary-school vocabulary and grammar are better left unpublished. (

Sojourner's Diary - 104

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Step outside the frame: the America Arc does not necessarily have to be about America, does it? I have wanted to summarize this stage of my geocaching journey for ages, but life stayed busy. Now I have a workspace of my own—or procrastination space, depending on your definition. I cataloged the hunts I had joined, looking proudly at title after title in my bookmarks. Somehow I have played this many hunts in less than a year. I also prepared for CCBC 16, creating a dedicated workspace both to keep personal information out of recordings and to help myself focus. A little setup somehow produced forty-four pages. Absurd. At last, I can begin writing.

Sojourner's Diary - 98

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -0500

My steps on the way home were light. I hummed as I splashed through puddles, as if even Shanghai’s endless rain could do nothing to extinguish my excitement.

So I have to write something more for today.

Yes, in the end I gave up the advance screening and gathered instead with the brothers and sisters my father had visited before. As I headed out that morning, talking with my parents on the phone, I noticed someone emerge from the room next door with a backpack and look around. At that exact moment, a message from Q appeared on my phone: “I’m out.” I moved in with complete confidence: Good morning, Q!

Sojourner's Diary - 97

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -0500

How did things end up like this…?

I found myself wishing I had never seen the GMHS announcement. Then, like CP31, it would have remained a simple regret instead of becoming something painful. I knew what the right priorities were. I had already considered the possible conflict of coming to Shanghai on Sunday. So why did I immediately say yes to Q?

Wishful thinking, perhaps… If nobody had reminded me, I might genuinely have stopped gathering with them.

Sojourner's Diary - 83

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Nothing much to say about today, so let me fill in yesterday’s trip to the botanical garden.

We followed a friend to the Beijing Botanical Garden for a spring outing.

Spring in Beijing is brief and brilliant. Besides the beautiful flowers, of course, there is willow fluff filling the sky. Once you let yourself mistake that all-enveloping white for snow, you cannot help marveling at how perfectly Xie Daoyun described it.

Sojourner's Diary - 79

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0500


0:00-1:00	Puzzle hunt, lights out
1:00-7:00	Sleeping
7:00-8:00	Getting up, washing up, making coffee, puzzle hunt
8:00-9:00	Calling a classmate to wake him up, catching the metro to Niujie, listening to an audiobook, solving Fish Puzzle Poker
9:00-10:00	Riding the metro to Niujie, solving Fish Puzzle Poker, buying bread
10:00-11:00	“Dreaming of Xuannan” puzzle walk
11:00-12:00	“Dreaming of Xuannan” puzzle walk
12:00-13:00	“Dreaming of Xuannan” puzzle walk
13:00-14:00	Collecting prizes, resting, buying a drink
14:00-15:00	Catching the metro home, organizing Xiaohongshu material
15:00-16:00	Picking up a package, bathroom break, showering, doing laundry, making lunch (?)
16:00-17:00	Thawing lamb chops, eating homemade pork-floss bread and xiaolongbao
17:00-18:00	Hanging laundry, solving the puzzle calendar
18:00-19:00	Solving the puzzle calendar, writing diary entries (actually catching up on all the previous days right now), playing a little MC
19:00-20:00	Playing a little MC
20:00-21:00	Playing a little MC, cutting up the thawed lamb chops, roasting lamb chops
21:00-22:00	Eating dinner, watching videos
22:00-23:00	Watching videos
23:00-24:00	Writing a write-up

Sojourner's Diary - 78

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0500


0:00-1:00	Playing a little MC, lights out
1:00-8:00	Washing up, sleeping
8:00-9:00	Getting up, washing up, making coffee, morning reading (1 John 5)
9:00-10:00	Morning reading, watching videos
10:00-11:00	Watching videos
11:00-12:00	Puzzle hunt, threading beef onto skewers
12:00-13:00	Roasting beef, eating lunch, watching videos
13:00-14:00	Watching videos, puzzle hunt
14:00-15:00	Rushing to basketball
15:00-16:00	Playing basketball
16:00-17:00	Playing basketball, listening to Mingchao’s talk
17:00-18:00	Cycling home, buying dinner, watching videos
18:00-19:00	Getting home, eating dinner, playing a little MC
19:00-20:00	Puzzle hunt, playing a little MC
20:00-21:00	Puzzle hunt, playing a little MC
21:00-22:00	Puzzle hunt, solving Dong’s puzzles, playing a little MC
22:00-23:00	Puzzle hunt, playing a little MC
23:00-24:00	Puzzle hunt, playing a little MC

Sojourner's Diary - 76

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0500


0:00-1:00	Puzzle hunt
1:00-9:00	Buying meat, sleeping
9:00-10:00	Getting up, washing up, making coffee, morning reading (1 John 3), puzzle hunt
11:00-12:00	Puzzle hunt, thawing beef cubes, grilling beef skewers
12:00-13:00	Eating lunch, packing beef skewers, calling a classmate to wake him up, rushing to the metro
13:00-14:00	Heading to NT, listening to an audiobook, writing my diary
14:00-15:00	NT, telling my story
15:00-16:00	NT
16:00-17:00	NT
17:00-18:00	Eating dinner (Yoshinoya), catching the metro home
18:00-19:00	Riding the metro home, talking with Mom
19:00-20:00	Talking with Mom, tea gathering (James 2:8–13)
20:00-21:00	Tea gathering, performing a skit
21:00-22:00	Tea gathering, solving Dong’s puzzles, bathroom break
22:00-23:00	Showering, lights out, sleeping
23:00-24:00	Sleeping

Sojourner's Diary - 75

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0500


0:00-8:00	Sleeping
8:00-9:00	Getting up, washing up, making coffee, playing the Phigros April Fools’ chart
9:00-10:00	Morning reading (1 John 2), rushing to the bookstore, making lyrics
10:00-11:00	Puzzle hunt, solving Lilac puzzles
11:00-12:00	Solving Lilac puzzles, watching videos
12:00-13:00	Watching videos
13:00-14:00	Watching videos, solving puzzles
14:00-15:00	Solving FISH puzzles, fixing weights
15:00-16:00	Fixing weights, solving Lilac puzzles, uploading songs
16:00-17:00	Solving Lilac puzzles, going home for a charging cable, catching the metro to Financial Street
17:00-18:00	Riding the metro, reading Beuys, listening to an audiobook, eating dinner
18:00-19:00	Eating dinner (absolutely stuffed, www), Art History
19:00-20:00	Art History, solving Ming’s puzzles
20:00-21:00	Art History (a friend bought each of us a Starbucks!), catching the metro home
21:00-22:00	Riding the metro home, solving puzzles
22:00-23:00	Solving Ji’s puzzles, puzzle hunt
23:00-24:00	Washing up, lights out, puzzle hunt

Sojourner's Diary - 72

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0500


0:00-7:00	Sleeping, getting up, washing up, drinking coffee
7:00-8:00	Puzzle hunt (launch!)
8:00-9:00	Puzzle hunt
9:00-10:00	Puzzle hunt
10:00-11:00	Puzzle hunt
11:00-12:00	Puzzle hunt, eating lunch
12:00-13:00	Eating lunch, watching Kuuga
13:00-14:00	Puzzle hunt, buying a cake for David
14:00-15:00	Art History
15:00-16:00	Art History
16:00-17:00	Art History, puzzle hunt
17:00-18:00	Art History, performing magic (and then the accident happened), sharing the cake
18:00-19:00	Going out to buy chicken, returning home, eating dinner
19:00-20:00	Eating dinner, puzzle hunt
20:00-21:00	Puzzle hunt
21:00-22:00	Puzzle hunt
22:00-23:00	Solving Ji’s puzzles, puzzle hunt, washing up
23:00-24:00	Puzzle hunt (why is it cryptic?!), watching Kuuga

Magic is fun. Magic going wrong while you are performing it is not fun (sad).

Sojourner's Diary - 65

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0500

I want story to sit at the heart of my diary. So when a story I poured myself into is met with “I couldn’t understand it,” it is hard not to feel disappointed.

Today, I went to Olympic Forest Park with brothers and sisters to play Frisbee. Everyone was so easygoing, and Frisbee was super fun!

I searched for a few caches along the way, only to discover that one lay precisely within a sprinkler’s firing range. After several rounds of matching wits with it (meaning: walking in circles), I received my prize—a pair of shoes completely caked in mud.

Sojourner's Diary - 59

Sun, 16 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0500

I now face a conflict between finishing the diary and sleeping early enough to wake for a run. (Though over the past week I appear to have achieved neither.) After careful consideration, I have decided that I want both.

I indeed had too many things going on in the past week, and subjectively it felt like one wave after another without pause. And right now, when there is nothing much to do (left a loose end on a paper, will rush out a draft tomorrow first) and other activities haven’t started yet, this might be our freest time. Coincidentally under the chilly spring wind of Beijing’s brief spring, it’s naturally time to go out for a stroll.

Sojourner's Diary - 53

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Dragged myself up at 2:00 a.m. to solve the hunt meta and kept going until 6:30. Every variety of brute force failed, until I finally discovered that I had extracted the starting year incorrectly—because I had simply asked AI at that step. AI still cannot replace humanity after all (

At the time, I didn’t know the reason for the error, but the sun was already up, and it was time to go out and “refresh my mind.” Following the veteran Beijinger—my dad—we headed out to explore and eat!

Sojourner's Diary - 52

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0500

I stayed up late two nights in a row solving an overseas puzzle hunt, hence the missing updates. My sincerest apologies! Next time something like this happens, I will warn you in advance!

But how did you know our team was the twelfth to finish all twelve puzzles? The meta drops at 2:00 tomorrow morning, so tonight I absolutely must sleep early! Hence the early post (

Over the past few days, my exercise volume has decreased slightly, but at the same time, my interactions with my classmates have increased. Sometimes I wonder if running to the library all day is really the right choice (after all, I also slack off in the library, cough cough), and activities with my classmates should also be an important part of life.

Sojourner's Diary - 47

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Squeezing this in at the very end of the day. I was out almost the entire time, then came home, finished the She-She Hunt meta, and overloaded my pig brain so thoroughly that the diary had to wait until now.

Today’s meeting and the subsequent public lectures were exceptionally inspiring. The lecturer spoke about “a testimony as bright as a host of stars,” and since I’ve always loved stargazing, this resonated deeply with me. Even though Paul had never been to Rome, he knew so many co-workers there; this made me reflect on my weakness in remembering names and face-blindness and whether I need to improve…

Sojourner's Diary - 46

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Just you wait, I am definitely going to write over a thousand words today!

It is simply hard to describe the experience of this entire day; it feels just like a dream. After waking up early and squeezing onto the subway to get to Peking University (PKU), I felt like I hadn’t quite woken up yet, so I decided to wander around first before the “Hundred Clubs War” (club recruitment) started. The mandarin ducks and magpies by the Weiming Lake were cheering, and the black and white swans bobbed their heads along, making me doubt even more whether I had come all this way just to shoot birds. I took out my phone wanting to do some Geocaching at PKU, only to tragically discover that I had forgotten to bring my power bank. In a flash of wit, I pulled out my laptop to charge my phone, which barely saved my life. Under such pressure, I regretfully failed to find any hidden treasures. I’ll come back next time!

Sojourner's Diary - 21

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Growing up is a process of leaving regret after regret behind.

Recently, worries have been piling up: I stayed up too late yesterday, failed to wake up early, was late for a gathering and dozed off; I used my phone too much, resulting in overdue data charges, and couldn’t top up when my phone was suspended; the first half of my flight back to Chengde was cancelled, and only after communicating did I realize I hadn’t booked a direct flight and had to pay a cancellation fee; I rushed onto a bus at the stop only to find it was going in the wrong direction, and when I got off, my bus card was again overdrawn; I arrived in Yuhang District only to learn there was a rehearsal today, so I had to temporarily switch roles and fill in; my teammates had already figured out the longitude and latitude, but because Google Maps was inaccurate, we ended up taking a big detour with a large group of people; I just missed the last bus after getting off the subway, and when I rode a shared bike back to my doorstep, I found all the docking stations were full and I had to go further… No one probably wants to hear me complain, but listing it all out, I realize I’m quite unlucky (