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Coming up, across China, people are paying strangers for what friends used to give for free:
a listener to vent to, or someone to offer custom compliments and help rebuild confidence.
Maybe connection isn't the problem, maybe trust is.
Today we'll ask what happens when we'd rather pay a stranger
than lean on the people we know.
You'd think with all the digital voices ready to reassure us that we'd never feel unheard.
Yet a quiet economy has taken shape here in China:
professional listeners who offer a safe space to vent,
and also self-styled compliment experts who help people rebuild confidence.
It's easy to laugh off, perhaps,
but then you realize how many people are actually paying for it and using it.
Maybe the algorithms are a little too perfect.
Maybe the people closest to us are too busy.
Either way, we're paying for something that used to be free of charge: someone who actually stops and listens.
So, today we'll ask what happens when the voices we already have aren't enough,
and also what we're really buying when we're paying for kindness.
Now, this is a really interesting one to me, Yuxun and Yushan,