Chapter 25
During the hot summer, adults and students who work from home and take online classes are spared the pain of sweating profusely during the daily journey outside.
Adults are still burdened with the pressure of supporting their families, worried that if the X virus situation continues, their salaries will be cut or they will be fired, and worried that they won't pay attention to the latest news and won't be able to buy enough food at home.
With elderly parents and young children to support, he often jokes helplessly that the virus has not put him in danger, but the mortgage, car loan, and expenses for the elderly and children have driven him to the point of becoming autistic.
For those who are working, unmarried, and living alone or in shared apartments, the carefree attitude of ordering takeout and eating out every day is gone. It is common for rented apartments to be small and lack kitchens and refrigerators.
After the stay-at-home order was implemented, cities with mild outbreaks and no lockdowns could still order takeout, but prices have increased significantly, with delivery restaurants charging at least several hundred yuan. I scoured online platforms to buy a pot quickly. First, with the economic downturn, I needed to save money for emergencies. Haven't you seen the countless small businesses that went bankrupt after just over two weeks of stay-at-home orders? Second, ordering takeout every day carries its own risks. What if the delivery service suddenly stops? It would be a waste of money.
A bag of the cheapest, most filling rice lasts a long time, and ten packs of instant noodles are a good emergency remedy. If I can't cook, I buy pickled mustard greens and rice sauce. Quality isn't paramount during these difficult times. If I can afford to buy groceries online, I boil them in water and add a little soy sauce. I try to find a way to be healthier by cutting out "junk food" like fried chicken.
Students taking online classes are practically the most enviable group. They have no financial pressure, no worries about food, clothing, housing, and transportation, and can sleep in until the last minute of class. While not necessarily a positive thing, it makes slacking off easier. And the final exams, which you'd worry about at school, have been moved online. It's not just a matter of trying to come up with a decent grade to please your parents.
Summer vacation continued as usual, with university students leaving early and few remaining in school. Primary and secondary schools, in response to the stay-at-home order, began offering online classes. All competitions originally scheduled for summer vacation were postponed, blatantly giving students the opportunity to botch.
However, there is another group of unlucky and resentful people in the student community, namely those college students who were blocked while doing internships during the summer vacation.
In terms of packing light, they were similar to the tourists who had the misfortune of arriving in the days before the lockdown. They rented a studio room, brought only a single suitcase, and figured they wouldn't buy any appliances during the one or two-month summer vacation.
Xia Yuan was desperately calling his roommates. He was a junior in college and had submitted his resume before landing an internship at a major company in City S. "I'm speechless! Who knew something as harmful as the X virus would exist? I'm locked up here before I even reported to the company. The rent is several thousand a month, the internship doesn't pay much, and I don't have a job to work online from home."
Some of his roommates have gone home, while others are still at school, and all of them are living better lives than he is. One roommate who's still at school said, "You're really unlucky! It would have been better if the lockdown had happened after you started, but you were forced to stay home before you even started. The library is closed to prevent crowds, the cafeteria is closed for dine-in only, and you have to take out. You have to have your temperature taken when entering and leaving the dorms, but overall it's okay, except you can't leave campus."
My roommate, who had returned home, agreed, "That's right, Yuanzi, you're just as unlucky as ever. I remember when you were in military training, you were assigned to the hardest-working team. When you were doing experiments, you always had to fiddle with the instruments and couldn't figure it out."
Xia Yuan cursed with a bitter face, "Is that what I thought? I've been eating instant noodles for almost ten days straight! I rent a partitioned room, and this time I counted and there are seven or eight people renting under the same tenant name as me. You know, the neighborhood committee distributes free vegetables by household, and there are eight of us sharing one head of lettuce! I cherished my portion by splitting it twice and cooking it in instant noodles."
"No way, how could this be? Can't you buy groceries online? I saw a report saying there are enough supplies, and the aid to City S comes from my home, so a lot of supplies were sent over." A roommate said in surprise.
Xia Yuan watched the extremely old air conditioner humming along on its last legs. "That depends on the location. The place I'm renting is one of the older ones, with a lot of elderly people and stubborn residents living there. The offline ordering station is far away. There's no property management here, and the neighborhood committee is basically giving up."
The elderly don’t know how to use smartphones, so we are not eligible for group purchases. Fortunately, I went to the supermarket and bought 20 packets of instant noodles before my building was sealed off and there were no infected people. Otherwise, I would have starved to death in modern society.
Now I just want to forget about getting infected and go to the quarantine center where I can eat and drink without any worries. The air conditioner in this house is a model from more than ten years ago. I’m afraid it will break down one day and I’ll be sweltering in 40-degree weather.”
A wave of regret erupted as tragedy struck across the country and even the world. No one knew which approach was right, and the debate persisted.
The scorching sun brought out the people's restlessness, and even the smallest incidents escalated into arguments and even physical fights. Urban villages and residential complexes, fenced off with water barriers and barbed wire, had only a single entrance and exit. Some areas housed tens of thousands of residents, leaving the only way to get anything purchased to the door. Even volunteers couldn't handle the constant climbing up and down elevator-less buildings under the scorching sun.
When there are too many people, there will be disputes. There is no one to watch over the packages and goods at the door. The security guard only plays a supervisory role. Some people lose things, their takeaways are knocked over and taken away, and some are restless and want to sneak out.
The quarrel happened over trivial matters, and it didn't turn into a full-scale fight because we kept a distance of one meter for fear of infection.
The people who were locked up and bored gathered at the window to watch the fun, and some of them admired the fact that they could still quarrel under the scorching sun while wearing masks when it was so hot that the heat wave would hit them as soon as they went out.
A busybody stood on his balcony and filmed all the onlookers in the video, with the caption: Guan is crazy, there are more than a dozen people watching the quarrel downstairs at home.
The slight increase in domestic prices was suppressed, and temporary housing and high salaries were provided to transport drivers to maintain the operation of the logistics chain.
In areas with inadequate infrastructure, electricity consumption surged during the scorching heat, leading to widespread water and power outages. CCTV featured a special report on power infrastructure workers, thanking them for their continued support of the grid.
Someone posted online that the X virus would soon disappear, comparing it to the SARS virus of that year. The virus's activity would decrease due to warm weather, and it might also disappear mysteriously like SARS.
Many people forwarded this blog post which had no real evidence, not only because the number of new infections in the country has dropped significantly recently, but also to seek psychological comfort. If this continues, they really won't be able to endure it.
Soon, people's relaxed and complaining mood turned into concern about Virus X.
Virus X has mutated.
The first country to report on the case was a small one abroad. Their characteristics are that they have a small country, a large population and are very wealthy. The wealthy people are not too panicked when they are infected, and they have private hospitals and sophisticated equipment.
In the third week of the stay-at-home order, the death toll soared. Regardless of age or wealth, the infected people died at an alarming rate, their organs atrophied, and even the best wards could not save their lives.
Those who managed to survive suffered from severe sequelae, including being unable to lift heavy objects, having difficulty breathing, and their physical indicators being far below healthy levels.
Soon after, countries with a large number of infections reported a doubling of the death toll. The earlier one is infected, the more likely they are to die, and even those with mild symptoms cannot escape.
Now, the places that did not strictly implement the stay-at-home order were dumbfounded. They mocked the country's over-tightening policy, the lack of human rights and freedom, the closure of buildings and communities, and praised some places abroad where travel is completely normal and free. They said that the X virus is not that exaggerated and that they will recover on their own and it is just the flu. They are also looking for a way out like headless flies.
A week ago, political figures who had been unconcerned about the epidemic, believing its widespread spread wouldn't affect them, and who were still giving speeches at rallies, quickly revealed their double standards. They hypocritically claimed they had a fever and might be infected, halting all public activities, while privately being exposed for scrambling to stockpile supplies.
The wealthy, having received the news early, have stopped advocating for "freedom and equality" and are eager to quarantine all those infected around them. Their so-called freedom of speech means suppressing news of the mass deaths of patients in public hospitals. If social networks can't fully control the situation, they'll just hold off for a few days and arm themselves first.
Those who have been infected but did not take it seriously were immediately admitted to the intensive care units of private hospitals, and even bought domestic Chinese patent medicines at high prices. Their huge wealth is based on their own enjoyment of life, and the most important thing is their own health.
At this time, statistics showed that the infection rate among the rich class was much lower than that of the middle class and the lower class, and they also enjoyed the most medical resources.
Thus, at the end of the third week, a series of reports emerged about a mutation of Virus X, listing a 90% mortality rate for severe cases and a 70% mortality rate for mild cases. The world was shocked, and fear and rejection of Virus X reached its peak.
After discussions between frontline personnel and the World Health Organization, the cause of the mutation of Virus X is unknown, possibly due to high temperatures. Currently, the infection rate of Virus X has decreased in experiments, although this may be due to the rapid death rate of those infected.
After the foreign online comments could no longer be suppressed, they demonstrated the profound meaning of saying one thing and doing another. They refused to admit their own mistakes and began to slander other countries. But who would care about them? They were soon overwhelmed. What does it mean that more than 50% of the country's population was infected?
Niu Honghong said that medical systems abroad are more than twice as good as those in China and that collapse is impossible, but that's a slap in the face. There aren't enough body bags, the streets are deserted, and looters are pouring out to loot. Social security depends on the community.
This is the case for local people, and foreign tourists and students feel even less safe. It was the embassy that made contact at the critical moment, and those affected by the hotel suspension were prevented from being forced to live on the streets.
Some people who had returned to China earlier posted their flight ticket stubs on foreign platforms, which attracted a lot of sarcastic remarks. The official accounts that ignored the lives of the grassroots people during this special period were quickly banned, and the accounts that posted tweets disappeared directly.
The overall mood of the people in the country where the spread has been controlled is stable, and the number of new cases has dropped below three digits.
Those who feel that it is better to be infected in the quarantine center than at home, for example, those who are short of supplies and have poor accommodation due to internship or travel, secretly breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately they are not infected, as long as they have food to eat, they can just endure the rest.
Suddenly, the number of people complaining about the building blockade, logistics, and the world decreased by half. A foreign student staying in the quarantine hotel complained about the poor hotel conditions and the bad attitude of the volunteers - he simply did not provide mineral water and asked to use the hotel's kettle - and netizens made many comments about him. It turned out that he got the place to study abroad through connections.
The entry stayed on the trending search list for a whole day, and even after it was deleted, screenshots were still circulating. The incident was reported to the relevant authorities, and the family connections she relied on were also brought down. It was a very satisfying ending.
But even if the number of infections is smaller, there are still tens of thousands. For a time, patients who originally thought that the cure rate of mild cases was high were all in panic. They could also check the latest news online, and the news changed from "it's a mild disease similar to the flu and there is a high probability of recovery as long as the immunity is guaranteed" to "what I have is a terminal illness."
The risk of infection and transmission has been reduced, and production capacity has increased in areas without cases. We will not give up on those infected, and we will save them if we can. This time, we are facing a crisis with dozens of people rushing to help.
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