Encoding: Chinese turns into question marks

You never edit code first. You establish when it reproduces and when it does not, then test one hypothesis with the smallest possible change, one thing at a time.

Task: Chinese text garbles in transit. Find which layer does it.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - the pipeline: browser, API, database, file
   - charset settings per layer
   - stored wrong or displayed wrong
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- verify layer by layer: before write, after write, after read
- separate mis-decoding from byte truncation
- give a check command per layer
- state whether historical data must be rewritten

[Process]
1. Restate the symptom: action, input, observed, expected
2. Three hypotheses by likelihood, each with a prediction
3. Design the smallest test: one command, one log line, one throwaway test
4. Eliminate or confirm, never change several things at once
5. Explain why the bug could be written, not just which line

[Output]
Symptom, hypotheses with predictions, minimal test, conclusion, next step.

[Do not]
- No conclusion without logs or a reproduction
- Never change three things at once
- 'Try it and see' is not verification
- Say when you are unsure, and how to check