Days at Home Under Lockdown
By the time I took the photo, it was already the second day of being sealed in at home. Still, I kept thinking of it as my “first lockdown meal,” because the day before had disappeared into cleaning and helping Fagao sort out the things she needed. There had been no time to cook anything properly, so we survived on instant noodles. This plate of curry rice, short on meat as it was, felt like the real beginning of my work-from-home life.
A friend had mailed me a big box of yellow peaches from Shanghai. By the time lockdown was underway, I had eaten my way through nearly all of them, leaving only one behind. You could already see it starting to wrinkle. When the peaches first arrived, they were crisp; as the days passed, they slowly softened. One box managed to offer several different textures, but every single peach was sweet and good.
After a friend teased me for making such a vegetarian-looking first meal, I went heavier for the second one: dry-pot cauliflower. I stir-fried the cauliflower with plenty of pork belly, and the finished dish came out rich but not greasy, exactly the kind of thing that makes you feel satisfied. To make the photo look a little better, I even folded a paper chopstick rest myself.
At first, I planned to record what I ate every day during lockdown. Then other things kept getting in the way, and I gave up. Looking back now, I really should have stuck with it, because I can no longer remember what I ate in the days that followed. Plenty of things are worth recording even when they do not seem especially meaningful at the time. Good memories have their own value.
Moving Again
I once thought I might live in this place forever. Somehow, it was time to move again.
Fagao saw that public institutions were recruiting teachers with official posts this year, so she took the exam with the attitude of simply giving it a try. Unexpectedly, she actually passed. That threw all of our plans into disorder. We had originally decided to rent a temporary place near the school, but the school she got into happened to be in the same district where my parents live. Because of that, they insisted that we move into their apartment in the urban area, while they would move back to the old family home in a nearby town.
Honestly, both Fagao and I felt the arrangement was troublesome. But when older people become moved by their own sacrifices, refusing them is not really allowed; they may even get angry. In the end, we had no choice but to accept. I only hope we can settle down soon and return the apartment to them as quickly as possible.
Once the place was decided, the next problem was the move itself. The first thing we needed was cardboard boxes. I browsed Taobao for a while and eventually spent more than 100 yuan on five extra-large packing boxes. They were indeed huge, but the price still shocked me—more than 20 yuan each. I never imagined that cardboard boxes, which usually seem to be everywhere, could be that expensive. It took an entire day to sort and pack everything by category, until the dining area was completely filled with luggage and boxes. It was exhausting, though the more exhausting part was still ahead.
Because I had been fairly satisfied with Huolala’s service the last time, I chose the same platform for this move. I checked the prices first. If we only hired the vehicle and carried everything ourselves, it would cost around 180 yuan. If we wanted help moving things, there were two options: professional movers for about 520 yuan total, with no need for us to lift a finger, or help from the driver for about 440 yuan total, though we would still need to pitch in.
After going back and forth, we decided to choose the professional movers. Maybe because I placed the order at night, no mover accepted it after a long wait. With no better option, we switched to driver-assisted moving. The pickup location had an elevator, so that part was manageable. The destination, however, was a fifth-floor walk-up. That nearly broke us.
Fagao and I are both the type of people with too much empathy. Once the driver started carrying the big items, we felt too embarrassed to stand around doing nothing. By the end, both of us felt nauseous and dizzy, as if we were seeing stars.
The whole move ended without any extra charges apart from a reasonable 5-yuan parking fee. Afterward, I gave the driver a five-star review. It really was not easy.
A New Start
A new life is about to begin. The daily commute will be long—24 subway stops each way—but that still cannot outweigh my hopes for what comes next. The next goal is to get my teaching qualification certificate. With enough self-discipline, it should be possible. Keep going.