The lightness of the world of mortals

When I am tired of everything, I will think of you, and think of you living and existing somewhere in the world, and I am willing to endure everything.Your presence is very important to me.

——Sergio Leone, Once Upon a Time in America

Ningcheng International Airport at seven o'clock in the morning on New Year's Eve.

The crew thoughtfully distributed a disposable medical mask to each passenger. It was only later that Ming Yu found out that this was really a great act of kindness. After landing, she never bought a mask again.

"Lynn, we don't have jet lag, what a luxury."

"It took more than ten hours to earn back seven hours. This order is a loss," Chen Xilin said in a weak voice, "I booked the car for you, and the driver is waiting for you in the arrival hall. Go directly to Pingcheng instead of taking the high-speed rail. "

Ming Yue looked at the sparse people in the hall. These people who were still traveling on New Year's Eve did not know what kind of stories they had.

"I originally thought that the high-speed rail will take more than an hour to Pingcheng, and there is nothing faster than this."

"But you still have to go from the airport to the high-speed rail station, and you have to take another train after getting off the high-speed rail in Pingcheng. Forget it. Will you stay at Uncle's house when you arrive in Pingcheng?"

Ming Yue put on his sunglasses, "No."

"I think so, I've booked the hotel in 'Bieyuan'."

"Let you take a good rest, you are fine, and I have nothing to worry about."

"Didn't I agree to raise you?"

Mingyu smiled wryly, "Don't worry, I won't be able to lose my job for a while. I already have shares in fates, so I can't say I'm going to be fired."

Meet with the driver in the arrival hall, get in the car, Mingyu imitates everyone here to wear a mask, the unknown virus pervading Haicheng has made the whole country panic.

"Miss, are you coming back for the New Year?" the driver asked in a low voice from behind the mask.

"Yep."

"Come back at this time, really pay attention to safety, Pingcheng is so close to Haicheng."

"Yes."

"People in the country are panicking now." The driver didn't seem to notice Mingyu's fatigue, "If you go online, you can see everything, and you don't know if it's true or not. Some people say this is a conspiracy by the US emperor, and only people of the yellow race can get it." This disease."

Ming Yu smiled wryly behind the sunglasses.

"There is also a great god, I don't know if it's a doctor or something, he said that he encountered this virus when he was doing research in Africa before, this person opened a Weibo, and now he has gained a lot of followers, if you want me to say he is a liar, if you want What an expert, at this time, the country still doesn’t treat him as a god? Still using it to gain eyeballs anonymously on Weibo?”

The driver shook his head while talking, confident in his logical analysis ability, Mingyu remembered the "popular science" article with an astonishing number of retweets he saw on the plane, and closed his eyes wearily.

When I woke up, I glimpsed the toll booth in the north of Pingcheng, and the uneasiness in my sleep came to my heart. In the dream, she held a scalpel and kept cutting out chips on Chen Xilin's body... Startled, I looked at my watch. After two hours of sleep, she quickly took out her phone.

——Has the result come out?

— are you awake?not yet.You are almost there.

—Well, how do you know?

——I don't trust you, I called the driver a few times.

Chen Xilin couldn't contact Ming Yu, so he contacted the driver, knowing that she had fallen asleep in the back seat, and worried about her safety, so he kept calling the driver to make sure everything was normal.

Ming Yue dialed her cell phone, "Is it convenient to talk now?"

"Well, I'm alone in the ward, have you entered Pingcheng?"

"I really slept like a pig... how do you feel?"

"I'm fine, I should be fine, it's just that you're exhausted."

She said it was fine, but there was weakness in her voice, and Ming Yue's eyes turned hot, "When you come out, when Haicheng lifts the ban, let's get married."

The driver looked at her in the rearview mirror.

Chen Xilin closed his eyes, and raised the corners of his lips, "Then I have to hurry to buy a ring."

"We go back to the United States to get married, San Fran, or C City will do."

"Okay, pick a warm day and have a wedding."

"Are we going to make it public?"

"Why not? There will be many, many reporters coming, will you be afraid?"

Ming Yue laughed, "You are not afraid, what else should I be afraid of?" After thinking for a while, "I am afraid they will say that Lynnchin's bride is not beautiful enough."

Chen Xilin smiled, "Who said that, I have to go to the ophthalmologist."

Ming Yue smiled, and the smile dimmed again, "When you come out, I will take you to meet my family."

"Okay, I'll go to Pingcheng with you to propose marriage first."

Mingyu was stunned for a moment, she was talking about the "family" in Los Angeles, but now is not a good time to talk about it, so I won't explain it for the time being.

Perhaps it was because of the New Year, and perhaps it was because of the soaring number of suspected cases. By the time Chen Xilin's test results came out, it had already exceeded the 24 hours originally promised. The extra ten hours of waiting was exhausting.

Fortunately, the result was negative, that is to say, Chen Xilin probably got food poisoning from eating undercooked beans.

"Are you still married?" Chen Xilin asked.

Ming Yu breathed a sigh of relief in the empty courtyard suite at six o'clock in the morning, "I don't marry, I marry you."

At seven o'clock, the procedures for leaving the hospital were completed. Fortunately, when Chen Xilin called the hospital, the ambulance was too busy. She drove to the hospital by herself, otherwise she might have to walk home today.The downtown area of ​​Haicheng, which is usually crowded with people, is empty at the moment. In just a few days, Haicheng has become a place that God has no time to take care of.

All the shops were closed, and even taxis could not be seen. Chen Xilin's car slowly drove across the street, and there was a couple selling Spring Festival couplets on the street corner. It was very eye-catching on the morning of the first day of the new year.

Chen Xilin drove the car closer, and there was a sign beside the fruit stand, which read:

Foreigners can't go home, and there are no guests, and their savings are running out. They have no money to pay rent, and have no money to eat. They can only write some words, and ask kind people to help them.

Chen Xilin parked the car on the side of the road and took out her wallet. She didn't have much cash, so she took out a few tickets and opened the car window and handed them to them.The couple wore hairy masks and didn't dare to talk too much. They pointed to the Spring Festival couplets on the stall. Chen Xilin shook his head. Seeing this situation, the honest and simple couple felt embarrassed. It's really embarrassing.

"Hurry up and take it. I'm sorry I don't have any more cash. I'll go back today to celebrate the New Year. Happy New Year!" Chen Xilin cheered them up with a smile.

Only then did the couple come to their senses, "Happy New Year! Happy New Year!" The husband poked his wife's elbow, and the wife came over with a nervous look on her face, took the money, walked back a few steps, and said, "Miss If you are so kind, you will be lucky!"

Chen Xilin learned this from Ming Yu, "Someone said today that I'm going to be lucky, and I figured it out, it should be getting married."

Ming Yue laughed, and after a while, "I'm so glad I'm here. I sleep when you sleep, and I wake up when you wake up."

"Yu, I did the math just now. The distance between us is 78 kilometers. How long do you think we will be trapped by 78 kilometers?"

"One hour..." Mingyu murmured softly, "We used to be able to rush to each other at any time, but we kept the insurmountable distance in our hearts. Now we can see people who can be seen in an hour, but we can't see them anymore." ..." Paused, "But I would rather live in the present."

"I would rather live in the present... More, in fact, we are only temporarily trapped. I am afraid that some people in this world will be trapped in this winter forever and cannot get through."

"Who? How could it be?" Ming Yu basked in the sun on the deck chair in the middle of the courtyard, but got goosebumps all over his body.

"I saw a couple today. They are small businessmen who came to Haicheng to seek a living. In this situation, their business is gone and they can't pay the rent. If things continue like this, they may have problems with food...I don't know about Haicheng. How many other people are like this... For us, this sudden meningitis may just be a matter of hiding at home, but for them, it is a catastrophe that ruins everything."

Ming Yue sighed, "Isn't that right, the man who died in the first case, I read reports later that both he and his wife came from working families out of town, the family confessed him, and stayed in Haicheng after graduation. The annual salary is also 40. When they got married, both parents took out all their savings to make up some down payment. The young couple bought a house with a loan. After the child was born, the wife quit her job. She used to be a flight attendant and planned to change jobs when the child grew up... Now a man I’m gone, my wife is still in the hospital, and I can’t get out the monthly mortgage of [-] to [-] yuan, and a middle-class family will become propertyless in an instant..."

"It's so miserable..." Chen Xilin couldn't help feeling emotional.

"You know? When I first arrived in the United States more than ten years ago, I couldn't understand why there were so many homeless people with arms and legs. Many of them worked decently in a company one year and lost their jobs the next year. If you can’t pay the rent, you beg on the street.”

"Some people do."

"Lynn, you may not know that the social environment of my uncle's generation is very different. When they started a family, they didn't have any commercial housing, and no one took out a loan to buy a car. It was just a house for the unit, or later, there was a very cheap fund-raising housing or commercial housing for the unit. , most of them have been saving money since they went to work. Many people in the city have savings, and they don’t have so many commodities to buy, and they don’t need loans. The middle class is much stronger."

Kent and Jiang Ruojing, the glamorous middle-class pair, are currently under no pressure to survive.The locals with houses really have the advantage. It is no wonder that when Kent chases girls, he emphasizes that he is a native of Haicheng, and his family has two ready-made houses... After the plague has swept away, this advantage has been highlighted.

But they just created trouble for themselves.

Haicheng's logistics stopped completely. Kent had just answered a call from Hong Kong. Now he was so anxious that he wanted to scold his mother. He went from the living room to the balcony, and then from the balcony to the living room. He had no choice but to find Jiang Ruojing.

Jiang Ruojing was staring at the phone screen in a daze. After staying in this hotel room for nearly a week, she suddenly felt that death might be within reach. She began to think about her nearly 30 years of life, and the people she wanted to contact on the phone.

But the phone rang by itself. The room was too lonely, so she set the phone to ring mode.The caller is the person who is the closest and the farthest to me in this world.

"When will you come out??"

Jiang Ruojing shrugged, "It's always a week." Of course he didn't come to care about her, and she didn't care if he cared.

"It's useless for me to go out now," she added, "The logistics have all stopped."

"Do you know how much they are losing every day? Forty thousand dollars! Forty thousand a day! Just now Hong Kong called me and threatened to deduct our money!"

"Then how?? Why are you so unreasonable! This kind of natural and man-made disaster is force majeure, and it's not our fault!"

Kent snorted coldly, "Do you think they can still reason with us? The meaning is obvious. No matter what happens to them, we have to find a way to get them out."

"How to do it? Is it possible for me to escape like an underground party?? Escape from this hotel and then escape from Haicheng?? I don't have the ability!"

There was a moment of silence over there, "I can only risk putting it in the cloud disk."