He Hated Getting Out of Bed, So He Taught His Bed to Drive
pick up the pieces: to recover and start living normally again after a serious loss or failure
As a boy in northern China, Gu Yupeng hated getting out of bed for school. He dreamed of going to class without leaving his bed at all. Many years later, he built that bed. It has wheels, a motor and a joystick, and it can even drive through water.
Gu comes from Heilongjiang, in China’s cold northeast. He worked in manufacturing for years, but he grew tired of making the same products again and again. He started his own businesses, and they failed one after another.
In 2018, he moved to a remote mountain area of Yunnan, in the southwest, to pick up the pieces. He taught himself to weld, to design and to write computer programs. He collected scrap steel, used motorcycle parts and waste from building sites. Then he started to build machines.
By 2025, he had made about 300 vehicles, around one every eight days. One is a desk that drives, with a small grill hidden inside. Others float on water or climb steep hills. Nearly three million people follow his videos online, where he calls himself “Strong Pig.”
Gu says the bed is mainly for fun, but it is functional with a range of 50 km. He believes it could help carry people who cannot walk to safety during floods.
Sample sentences
It took her almost a year to pick up the pieces after her divorce.
My parents never talked much about the war, but somehow they picked up the pieces and built a good life.
How do you pick up the pieces when someone you love is suddenly gone?
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