Essays ⁽³⁴⁹⁾

Yesterday we took the first round of universal nucleic acid testing. When I got up this morning and opened the Beijing Health Kit app, it showed no abnormality. Early on, the nucleic-acid information section had crashed and I could not look anything up—probably because too…

At midnight last night, community workers knocked on our door to notify us of a citywide nucleic acid test today. This is the first time Beijing has conducted universal nucleic acid testing since the Wuhan outbreak, and it will be repeated three times in a…

Beijing's epidemic has flared up over the past few days, and many people have panicked, asking me how the outbreak will unfold. Because my earlier predictions have mostly been accurate, some friends hope to get some guidance from me. Regarding how the epidemic will develop,…

On the morning of April 18, 2022, I went to complete the cancellation procedure for the shared garden. That afternoon, a residential compound near the garden reported a confirmed COVID-19 case. Fortunately, the patient had been taken to a centralized quarantine point more than a…

Today I gave up the lease on that small rented vegetable plot at the foot of the hills, because I have a foreboding that my city may come under considerable pandemic-prevention pressure in May–July. My child will enter his senior year of high school after…

After the outbreaks in Wuhan, Xi'an, and Shanghai, there were problems with broken supply chains, and ordinary people could hardly buy vegetables. China is pursuing a "dynamic zero-COVID" policy for pandemic prevention, which is unlikely to change in the short term. Ordinary residents must learn…

The pandemic is worsening day by day. I had originally stocked up on more than a month's worth of food, but after seeing the situation in Shanghai this time I was still somewhat taken aback; I had not expected a first-tier city to be so…

Although the result announced by the government today was within most people's expectations, I still grieve deeply for our countrymen who perished in this air crash, and I hope their families may find solace. Life's turns are truly unpredictable. Living in an age of frequent…

Last night, returning home and watching the news, I learned that China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou had crashed; the 132 passengers and crew on board were missing. I was both grieved and shocked. The suffering of the families of these 132…

On March 20, the Spring Equinox, I tilled and fertilized the soil in the small vegetable plot I rent, preparing to plant vegetables. The granddaughter of a cancer patient I had treated was troubled by depression. As I tilled the soil, at her family's request…