Chapter 5

On the third day, the fog still hadn't dissipated, blocking the color of the sky. Even at noon, street lights had to be turned on to illuminate the road.

People have a strong ability to adapt. After the initial panic, many people have calmed down. The smog will not dissipate, but people still have to eat, work, and go to school. Although the smog is very heavy, people can still travel normally if they drive slowly on the road. Some people think that this kind of air looks very dirty, and they don’t need anyone to remind them to wear masks when they go out, but many older generations have no concept of wearing masks at all. They think that no matter how dirty or dusty it is, it is still air. Can people not live without breathing air?

Mu Nan even saw some photos posted online. At this time, there were still some old men and women who did not listen to the government's advice to stay at home. They ran out early and exercised in the fog.

Mu Nan found it difficult to understand this. Was this exercise for health preservation or for seeking death? Even though they didn't know about the diseases brought by the smog, most people would try not to go out in this abnormal climate.

The air quality has dropped to an unprecedented low, and there has also been a rush to buy masks. He saw many people in the alumni group saying that they were unwilling to use domestic masks, feeling that domestic masks were cut corners and were useless, and would rather spend more money to find a purchasing agent to buy them from abroad.

Mu Nan didn’t know whether the people he disdained now would be able to buy masks in the future, and whether they would regret their disdain when they couldn’t buy masks.

The news of emphysema broke out on the internet on the third day of the smog. A mother posted a video, crying for help. Her child was sick, had a fever and cough, and was now having difficulty breathing. However, not only was there no bed available in the hospital, the child could not even get treatment. If she could not get treatment, her child would die.

The hospital in the video is overcrowded, with heads everywhere. Some people are even lying on the ground getting injections, but more people don’t even have the chance to get an injection because the doctors and nurses are simply too busy. Even some doctors and nurses who are not from the respiratory department have been temporarily recruited, but they still cannot withstand the influx of patients.

As soon as this video was released, similar videos appeared in many places. This was not just in one city, but all over the country. There were even some overseas students sending videos back home asking for help. They were sick, but couldn't get treatment. Now all flights have been suspended, and they can't even buy expensive tickets back home. What's more terrifying is that things are in complete chaos abroad. They can't even go out to buy food and can only hide at home. But they don't know how long they can last when they are out of food and ammunition. They hope that the country can hear their voices and take them home.

They don't know whether this global smog is a precursor to doomsday, but the country they are in now has obviously become the end of the world. They have never known that in their lifetime, they will be able to experience the burning, killing and looting like in wartime in a civilized country.

The first country to launch an evacuation operation was China. After overseas students and many stranded tourists sent out videos calling for help, the evacuation operation was reported in the news the next day.

Some people lamented the country's ability to take action, but some people began to curse on their keyboards, saying that saving these people is a waste of national resources, and that those who want to go abroad when everything is safe and want to return home when something goes wrong are not worth saving at all.

The Internet is very lively, and all the topics are about smog, evacuation operations, and strange lung swelling.

Some people have linked this large-scale epidemic to the previous strange thick fog and smog, but some people say that this disease had already appeared before the thick fog, so what the pathogen is remains to be verified.

When the epidemic broke out, many people were afraid to go out. They didn't know how they got the disease, whether it was from the air or the previous rainstorm. Those who were sick were in despair, and those who were not sick were in panic.

Before things got completely out of control, the country began to operate quickly, starting with the cities most seriously affected. It stopped the opening of all public places and all workplaces. Everyone had to stay at home, with layer upon layer of control in place from neighborhoods to communities to urban areas.

This is not just a shutdown of one city, but almost a shutdown of the entire country. This is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the country's economy. Perhaps this shutdown will cause the country's hard-earned economy to regress by decades. But the country still did this. Although it is risky, it can protect more lives.

Their country was the fastest to act, and they attacked with lightning speed, leaving no room for objection and allowing everyone to just follow their orders.

But in foreign countries, such a nationwide shutdown is almost impossible. People marched with placards, gathered to make trouble, and clamored to the government. Some people even robbed supermarkets, some people bombed police stations in anger, and so on. It was a chaos.

On the second day of the evacuation, some people who had successfully returned to China posted videos of the evacuation. In addition to the stranded tourists and students in their own countries, there were also stranded students from other countries. When people of different skin colors and races gathered together, in all kinds of panic and despair, the bright red flags became the most beautiful scenery in everyone's eyes. Looking at the many people who were still stranded, those who boarded the plane back home were full of gratitude for surviving the disaster.

When the news released an announcement saying that the epidemic was most likely related to smog, many people in Mu Nan's community had already fallen ill. Due to community control, many sick people could not go to the hospital on their own and could only contact the community, and the community would then go to the hospital to queue up. However, it was not that one hospital was responsible for one community, but for dozens or even hundreds of communities. There were too many sick people, so it was impossible to get all the appointments.

People who have been waiting for treatment for a long time will inevitably do some extreme things in despair, such as smashing things and making trouble. Some even smashed the doors and windows of other people's houses, with the extreme mentality of "if I don't have a good life, no one else can have a good life". These people were naturally arrested in the end, but the paralysis of medical care meant that many people did not get a chance to go to the hospital and never woke up again.

In his previous life, Mu Nan's feelings were not so deep. At that time, he did not think that this was the end of the world, because the country's control efforts were still there, coordinating and maintaining social order, making many people believe that when the initial chaos was over, things would gradually get better. So even if he was locked up at home, he was not at all panicked. His work was not affected by not being able to go out due to the smog. He was still busy with his graduation project and did not have that much time to hang out on the Internet and watch melons.

Now he is at home with nothing to do, and he has seen more things on the Internet, so his feelings this time are naturally more profound. But compared with the subsequent disasters, this smog is still the lightest, at least the country and human nature have not completely lost control at this time.

When there was a knock on the iron gate outside, Mu Nan didn't think much about it. He thought it was the community coming to investigate. Their community had set up a group after the smog blockade, and any notifications would be sent to the group. They said two days ago that someone would come to register the number of people in the house in the next few days.

When Mu Nan opened the door and saw a familiar yet unfamiliar person, he was completely stunned.

Qin Huai, whom he had known since birth, was said to have fed him his first mouthful of milk from a bottle held by Qin Huai. He was so young, and was still held in his arms, but he stretched out his hands to feed him. He had been separated from Qin Huai since he was fifteen years old. Including his previous life, he could not remember how many years had passed since they had been separated. When Qin Huai appeared in front of him again, his mind went blank. The person he thought he would never find again had returned, and the person he thought he would never see again in this life had met him again.

But the moment he saw the other person, Mu Nan's heart ached. The grown-up Qin Huai was no longer the same as he remembered. This somewhat unfamiliar appearance told him that no matter how close they had been, those missing years were ultimately missing.

Looking at the dazed man standing at the door, Qin Huai pursed his lips slightly, and an uncontrollable pain rose in his heart. His Nan Nan, the person he thought about day and night, had become a stranger to him because of the separation over the years.

Looking at Mu Nan greedily, Qin Huai's voice trembled slightly: "Now, you won't even let me into the house?"

Mu Nan came to his senses and took a step back, hiding his trembling hands behind his back, and made way for Qin Huai.

Qin Huai closed the iron door and couldn't help but want to reach out and rub his head to comfort him like when he was a child. When he raised his hand just now, he saw the clothes on his body, and Qin Huai stepped back and put them down. He just came back from outside, and he didn't know if he had the virus. Seeing Mu Nan lowered his head and kept silent, Qin Huai said in a hoarse voice: "I will never leave again after I come back this time."

Mu Nan didn't say anything. He didn't know how to face Qin Huai. When he couldn't find Qin Huai, he tried his best to find him. Now that Qin Huai was back, the strangeness brought by the time and two lives could not be erased so easily, so he didn't know what to say except silence.

Seeing Mu Nan silent, Qin Huai felt sad and helpless. When he left, Nan Nan hated him so much. He left Nan Nan alone, so it was reasonable for Nan Nan to resent him. They were both silent for a long time before Qin Huai smiled casually, "I'll go take a shower first. I'm a little dirty after coming back from outside." He looked at Mu Nan and tried to please her, "I'll come to see you after I take a shower."

Mu Nan then said, "Your bathroom hasn't been used for many years." Then he turned around and went back to his home, but did not close the door.

Qin Huai smiled and followed Mu Nan into the door.

As soon as he entered the house, the furnishings in the house were different from what he remembered. There was even a bed in the living room, and the balcony where they used to sit with their legs hanging over the railings to enjoy the view was also closed. Time had changed a lot after all.

Qin Huai put down his bag and took off his shoes at the door.

Mu Nan opened the shoe cabinet and took out a pair of slippers that fit Qin Huai's size and gave them to him.

Qin Huai changed his shoes, picked up his bag and walked towards the bathroom, asking, "Do you have any larger clothes at home? The clothes I brought got dirty along the way."

Mu Nan didn't say anything, but walked towards the balcony where the wardrobe was installed.

Qin Huai walked into the bathroom familiarly, first threw the dirty clothes in his bag into the washing machine, then took off his clothes and threw them in, and then went into the shower room to take a shower.

Mu Nan prepared a lot of clothes, because he hadn't seen Qin Huai for many years. When he bought clothes, he didn't know whether Qin Huai had gained weight or lost weight, but he felt that Qin Huai should have gained weight. When he was in junior high school and Qin Huai was in high school, Qin Huai was tall and strong in the class. So when he bought clothes before, he bought a lot of large sizes. Although he looks thinner than he expected, the clothes should fit him.

After putting the new clothes for Qin Huai in the outer room of the bathroom, Mu Nan went to the kitchen to cook a bowl of noodles. Now all kinds of transportation are blocked, and private cars cannot go on the road without a pass. I don’t know how Qin Huai came back. If it weren’t for the sound of water coming from the bathroom, Mu Nan couldn’t believe that Qin Huai really came back. Listening to the sound of water coming from the bathroom, Mu Nan couldn’t help feeling a little dazed and inexplicably unreal.

Qin Huai finished his shower and came out to see a bowl of noodles on the small table next to the bed, while Mu Nan was sitting on the other side of the bed, looking down at her phone. Qin Huai sat over and looked at the noodles in the bowl, his eyes a little sour. Although Mu Nan's parents died early, she had been living with him, so she couldn't even cook, let alone eat.

Now, Mu Nan is growing up alone in a life in which he has never participated.