Chapter 70 Klein (4) Otherwise, tonight you and I...
Shenzhen has 365 days a year, and occasionally there are a few days of relatively "cold" so-called winter, but most of the time it is just a bluff. The weather forecast says that the temperature will drop again and again, but the thermometer number always remains above 25℃, which is so hot that it makes people want to die. After a long time, it is like the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", no matter how loud you shout, no one will pay attention.
But now, the wolf has really come.
This time the temperature dropped so sharply that it caught everyone off guard, and even broke the lowest temperature in Shenzhen in the past five years.
Although the lowest point was several degrees above zero, it was far less than the thousands of miles of snow and freezing water in the Northeast. But when it was several degrees above zero in the Northeast, people had heating indoors and were fully armed with cotton coats, pants, hats and gloves outdoors. But in Shenzhen...
He Chuan was typing in front of the computer, and he clearly felt the cold wind blowing past. He turned around and spoke hesitantly:
"Xia Xia, is there something leaking from your window?"
Lin Xia was wearing a down jacket, curled up on the sofa, holding a tablet computer, not daring to reach out from her sleeves to touch the screen. When she heard this, she didn't raise her head or open her eyes, and replied expressionlessly:
“No, that’s how houses are in Shenzhen.”
Yes, Lin Xia wasn't sure about other places, but the houses in Shenzhen were like paper. The north prioritized insulation, the south focused on heat dissipation. Even the fanciest apartments had flimsy walls, floating window frames, and iron doors that looked like they could be punched open with a kick. On the 24th floor, the cold wind whistled past her ears, making it feel just as comfortable as being on the top of a mountain.
The temperature had been dropping steadily over the past two days, and Lin Xia and He Chuan had tried every possible means to stay warm. However, they were ill-prepared, with limited equipment, and being isolated, they couldn't afford to buy anything on the spur of the moment. He Chuan was now wrapped in a blanket, and Lin Xia had put on every piece of clothing she could find at home, but they were still shivering. Furthermore, Shenzhen's cold was damp, carrying a heavy vapor that seeped into every pore, preventing the freshly washed clothes from drying out completely.
If there is no heating, what about air conditioning? Sorry, most air conditioners here only have cooling function and cannot heat.
It was okay during the day, but the unbearable part was the night. There were only two quilts in Lin Xia's house, both of which were very thin air-conditioning quilts. Fortunately, there was also a hot water bottle and an electric blanket. These were things that Lin Xia had when she was studying in Beijing. She had never used them since she brought them to Shenzhen, and now they were finally going to come in handy to save her life.
The two of them distributed their limited equipment as if they were camping in the wild, and finally decided that the hot water bottle would go to He Chuan and the electric blanket would go to Lin Xia.
The most unfortunate thing was that the electric kettle at home had short-circuited and broken a few days ago. The types of pots and kitchen utensils in the kitchen were very limited. After boiling water in a snow-white pot, Lin Xia and He Chuan stood in front of the induction cooker and looked at each other.
Lin Xia asked, "How do you fill the hot water bottle?"
The mouth of the Xueping pot is wide and the mouth of the hot water bag is narrow, so boiling water is no joke.
He Chuan thought for a moment: "Is there something like a funnel?"
"No."
"If that doesn't work, use a spoon."
"That's too small!"
"Do you have a big spoon for the soup?"
“That’s true.”
Lin Xia dug out a bowl-sized silicone spoon with a long handle and handed it to He Chuan. He Chuan then carefully used the spoon to scoop hot water from the pot and poured it into the hot water bag. The two of them gathered around the induction cooker, concentrating their attention and not daring to make a sound.
After scooping an unknown number of spoonfuls, Lin Xia suddenly burst out laughing. He Chuan couldn't help laughing any longer and joined in.
Filling a hot water bottle with a spoon, what kind of picture is this!
The two of them stood in the kitchen in the middle of the night, their teeth chattering from the cold and their laughter rocking back and forth. They both found it both absurd and funny.
Who could have imagined that there would be so many disasters in just fourteen days.
.
That's how I got through the night.
When Lin Xia woke up early the next day, she felt her throat was dry and sore, and she felt very uncomfortable.
Did I use the electric blanket too high last night and get a fever? I guess... I'm not infected, am I?
But what if?
Normally, a cold or flu isn't a big deal, but at this critical juncture, the consequences of falling ill are truly unimaginable. Businesses are closed, cold medicine is sold out, and hospitals are the most dangerous front lines of the fight against the epidemic; no one dares approach. If her symptoms worsen, she might be suspected of having COVID-19 and sent to the hospital for isolation, exponentially increasing her risk of infection. And if she does get infected, thinking about the various case data and death and severe case data she's seen online...
After lying in bed for a long time, Lin Xia had countless thoughts running through her mind, and she felt very nervous and uneasy.
Should she go to He Chuan and tell him about her symptoms, or should she stop leaving the bedroom from now on to avoid infecting him? But the two of them have been together day and night for so many days, and have been in close contact so many times, if something really happened, they would have been cross-infected many times.
When she finally mustered up the courage, she reluctantly got out of bed and went out. After opening the door, she saw He Chuan standing at the bathroom door with his back to her, sneezing seven or eight times in a row.
After wiping his nose with a tissue, He Chuan turned around and saw Lin Xia who had gotten up. He greeted her:
"morning."
The voice was heavily nasal, and it was obvious that he had a stuffy nose.
Lin Xia took a deep breath and was completely unable to remain calm.
.
The rice cooker was bubbling with porridge, the oven's countdown was ticking, and the kitchen was filled with the aroma of breakfast in the early morning.
But now no one has time to eat. Lin Xia and He Chuan sit opposite each other at the dining table with serious expressions.
He Chuan said calmly: "First, we need to determine whether this is a real infection or just a common cold."
Lin Xia searched on her phone:
"The main symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, and cough. We have already had several of these symptoms."
"The main symptom should still be fever." He Chuan thought for a moment, "Do you have a thermometer?"
"No," Lin Xia shook her head. "I accidentally broke it when I was sick last year, and I forgot to buy a new one."
He Chuan sighed helplessly: "Add this to your shopping list after you are released from quarantine."
Lin Xia was a little embarrassed: "I know."
Now the list already includes light soy sauce, electric kettle, cotton slippers, fleece pajamas, new coffee cups, coffee beans... If I hadn't been in quarantine, I wouldn't have known that my home was missing so many things.
Perhaps because she has never felt a sense of belonging to settle down in Shenzhen in recent years, she rarely buys daily necessities, keeps everything simple, and only maintains a minimum standard of living.
"Do you feel like you have a fever?"
Lin Xia touched her forehead, unsure: "It's a little hot, but also a little cold. How about you?"
He Chuan did the same action, but didn't come to any conclusion. After all, the room was too cold and people's physical sensations would be a little confused.
Lin Xia hesitated for a moment and whispered, "If I touch myself, I won't be able to find out..."
He Chuan was stunned: "Indeed."
The two people looked at each other, and at the same time, they slowly stretched out their hands and touched each other's foreheads.
One hand was cold, the other was hot, and when their skin touched, they both trembled.
Such a simple action was just to test body temperature. They had no idea how many more intimate actions they had done in the past, but at this moment, such simple physical closeness made both of their hearts beat faster involuntarily.
Lin Xia asked softly, "How is it?"
"It feels..." He Chuan smiled, "Your hands are so cold."
Lin Xia loosened her hand, feeling somewhat discouraged. Using her hands to measure her body temperature was definitely inaccurate. She remembered that when she was sick as a child, her parents would use their lips to check if she had a fever, but that was definitely not an option now...
He Chuan comforted her: "It should be just a common cold. After all, we have been staying at home for more than a week. If the temperature hadn't dropped in the past few days, we wouldn't have these symptoms."
"The quarantine period is fourteen days, which means the virus can remain dormant for up to fourteen days. It's possible that we were caught in the cold during these two days, which triggered the outbreak. The alarm cannot be lifted yet." Lin Xia analyzed seriously.
"But we didn't actually have any contact with the confirmed cases in the building." He Chuan paused, "But we all went to the hospital before, so maybe we came into contact with someone there."
“Yes, cases are spreading everywhere now.”
The situation across the country is currently very serious. The number of confirmed cases in Shenzhen has exceeded 100, not to mention the entire province and the country. No one can guarantee that the people they have met before are not virus carriers. The virus is transmitted through air and contact, and people may have been infected just by passing by.
"What should we do now?"
She subconsciously asked for his opinion. In this isolated apartment with one bedroom, they shared a common destiny and could only rely on each other, and had to rely on each other.
"Things haven't gotten to the worst yet. We're not sure if it's a cold or COVID-19. Let's not scare ourselves first—"
He Chuan didn't finish his words, and sneezed twice, then turned his head back and said calmly as if nothing had happened:
"Wait until this afternoon to see what the security personnel say."
.
Starting in the morning every day, protective personnel will go door to door to check the latest situation, ask about symptoms, and measure body temperature. There are many people in the apartment building, and it is usually afternoon when they reach the 24th floor.
Lin Xia spent the entire morning cramming for the exam. She drank bitter melon and pork rib soup to clear heat, took cold medicine, and then curled up on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, motionless. She desperately drank hot water, hoping to boost her metabolism and reduce the swelling in her throat. He Chuan wasn't as anxious as Lin Xia, but he stayed by her side, taking medicine and drinking water with her.
By the afternoon, it was hard to say how much the symptoms of sore throat and nasal congestion had eased, but he had to go to the toilet quite a lot. The flush button on Lin Xia's toilet, which had been not working well to begin with, finally broke down and stopped rebounding. When the security personnel arrived, He Chuan was repairing the toilet with pliers.
After asking a few routine basic questions, he began to measure the body temperature. The thermometer gun was suspended in front of Lin Xia's forehead. Those short few tenths of a second seemed as long as the Doomsday Judgment Day.
Drops - 36.7℃
Hechuan is 36.9℃
A little high, but not too hot.
The protective personnel were a little wary, and even through the protective suit and mask, one could see his nervousness:
"Are there any other symptoms?"
"Dry throat, stuffy nose, and sneezing." He Chuan replied, "Maybe I've been cold these past few days."
"Oh, it's true. The sudden drop in temperature these past few days has been really cold," another security guard said. "Several people in the building have caught a cold, which is really bothering us."
The two protective personnel discussed it and felt that since the body temperature was still within the normal range, there should be no problem for the time being. They marked the two people in the notebook and reminded them to keep warm before leaving. If the symptoms became serious, they must be notified in time.
After closing the door, Lin Xia and He Chuan looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.
No fever, that's a good thing at least.
He Chuan warned Lin Xia: "Don't turn on your electric blanket too high tonight."
"Yeah, I know."
Lin Xia responded softly, and after hesitating for a long time, she decided to speak:
"Or, you can sleep with me tonight..."
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