A Public Letter to Aurora Garcia

rebel1725@tilde.club (Rebel Zhang) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:30:47 +0800

The original text is written in Chinese. Translations are done by a LLM.

Hello, it’s me, Rebel. The boy who once loved you deeply, and still loves you deeply. I don’t know how you are doing now, and I don’t know whether you will ultimately see this letter. Even so, I want to write down some of the thoughts in my heart.

Unknowingly, fourteen days have already passed since that incident happened. In fact, during this period away from the internet, I have been busy with trivial matters. But even so, I still occasionally find time to think of the little moments we shared in the past. You once said that my love for free software moved you, but in return, your passion moved me just as much. We both have pasts full of pain and hardship, we both love free software and the free software movement, we both aspire to reverse engineering, and we both hope to contribute to postmarketOS—we truly have so much in common.

That channel protected by free software and end-to-end encryption was the bridge for our feelings. Here we could talk about anything we wanted to say, whether technical or personal, from programming languages, to all kinds of free software technologies, to the bitter and sweet of everyday life.

I could feel that you were very good to me, very considerate, and very caring. You were willing to accept my shortcomings, willing to understand the mistakes I had made, and you told me yourself that you were willing to stand by my side. This moved me so much, truly, truly so much.

I could feel that our souls resonated deeply. I also came to understand that the greatest love is not two people gazing at each other, but both gazing in the same direction. You are the one I truly, from the depths of my heart, love, because in my heart, you, reverse engineering, radare2, iaito, GDB, and all the free software technologies we have learned, along with our shared ideals of free software and a free society, have already become deeply intertwined. My love for you is love for free software; and vice versa—I have already achieved the unity of my love for you and my love for free software.

In this world full of censorship and surveillance, in this world where the injustice of proprietary software is becoming ever more apparent, in this world where free software is even more important, we are still fighting for our shared ideals; still fighting for the free software and free society of us, of the people around us, and even of the entire community, of all proletarian computer users, and of all humanity.

And thank you for having crossed paths with me. Although our relationship lasted less than four months before coming to an abrupt end (yes, even about a month shorter than me and Zumfy/Future), you gave me my first practical understanding of what love means to me.

Thank you.

Goodbye — and Perhaps We Will Meet Again Someday?

rebel1725@tilde.club (Rebel Zhang) — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 16:37:56 +0800

Due to reasons I cannot disclose for now, I am going to fade out of the community indefinitely (or perhaps permanently?). In this blog post, I want to clarify a few points:

My instant messaging accounts, including but not limited to XMPP, Matrix, SimpleX, and Delta Chat, will soon become inactive. However, at least for now, they will not be deactivated, and the trust placed in these accounts will not be invalidated in the foreseeable future either.
Social accounts, including but not limited to Mastodon, will continue to be active.
My main OpenPGP public key (whose fingerprint is 696A423E9993D727706AA733BCD5DC5659C7FB50) will not be revoked, at least for now, and will continue to be renewed. However, my backup OpenPGP public key (whose fingerprint is 7083EAFFF75321FF9634ABCD98313A47362B498B) may be revoked, and if so, I will upload the revocation to the OpenPGP keyserver.
My email address rebel1725@tilde.club will continue to be used. You can contact me via this email address.
I will continue to be the chief official contributor of the FSCS (自由软件中文网, https://freeswzhcn.codeberg.page/), and its infrastructure will continue to run on my server as well. However, the management of its affiliated project, the FSCC (自由软件中文社区, https://fscc_next.codeberg.page/), will be transferred to Aurora Garcia (0x28EC1231FACA465A, https://aurorag132.codeberg.page/). Additionally, the presidency of the XMPP Together Committee (https://xmpptogether.codeberg.page/), and the administrative powers for the Committee’s channels managed by me, will also be transferred to Aurora Garcia.
Neither the modern-style website nor the retro-style website will be closed, and I will continue to post on this blog. Furthermore, any updates about me will also be posted on the blog.

All good things come to an end. In the days without me, may your lives be filled with pleasure and joy.

Departure on Rebel Zhang's Blog

A Public Letter to Aurora Garcia

Goodbye — and Perhaps We Will Meet Again Someday?