April 2003, Beijing.
The sky was gray, like a layer of gauze that couldn't be washed clean. There are fewer people on the streets, but more masks. Shen Zhiyi stood on the balcony of her home, looking at the empty streets downstairs. She always felt that the city had suddenly turned into a dormant beast, so quiet that it made people panic.
"Sister! What are you doing? Come and watch TV, our community is blocked!"
The voice of his younger brother, Shen Zhiyuan, boomed from the living room, with the kind of fuss unique to adolescent boys. Shen Zhiyi rolled her eyes, walked slowly into the living room, and grabbed a handful of melon seeds from the coffee table.
"Closed? What do you mean?"
"It literally means it's closed!" Shen Zhiyuan pointed to the news scrolling on the TV with an excited look on his face, "Look, three cases of SARS have been confirmed in our community. Now the entire community can't get in or out, and the door has been cordoned off! Sister, are we going to be on the news?"
Shen Zhiyi slapped him on the back of the head: "Fuck you! How can we buy groceries after the lockdown? There are only two cucumbers and half a bag of rice left in the refrigerator. Are you going to eat cucumbers to survive or are you going to practice inedia?"
Shen Zhiyuan rubbed the back of his head with an innocent look on his face: "I also stocked up on two boxes of instant noodles, enough for the two of us to eat for a week."
"What about one week later? Do you want to eat you? You are so skeleton that your stew is tasteless."
