Four Memorable Moments in Spring 2020

By Wang Gongshang

There had never been a spring that was as hard to get through as the spring in 2020.It was an unforgettable season when Liu Xinglong and his whole family were confined to their home.In the one hundred days from January 23 to May 2,he wasn’t a writer,but one of the millions of ordinary Wuhan residents who had no retreat from the epidemic,who had to turn and fight it.

Just Another Day for Swimming

On the morning of January 23,2020,Liu decided to swim in a nearby hotel pool,as usual.

From the autumn of 2006,the

date of his first swim,he had never

missed a day of his one-kilometer morning exercise routine.

At about 2 am on January 23,most residents in Wuhan were already informed of traffic restrictions,but Liu paid it no mind.Early that morning,he drove again to the swimming pool near his house.

There were only two swimmers in the pool—him and another man,a business owner who lived nearby.As he was leaving,Liu asked the receptionist if the pool would be open the next morning,to which he received a cordial affirmative response:“We haven’t received any notice yet.So,I don’t see any reason why it won’t be.”

But,on the way home,he received a call from the receptionist.The hotel was to close from 10 am that day.

Back home,Liu had breakfast with his wife and children.Everyone was talking and laughing,no one seemed to take the unfolding situation seriously.But as their phones lit up with more and more news,the oppressiveness of the situation began to set in and everyone soon fell silent.

“Should I stock up on commodities,too?” He wondered as he began to feel uneasy.On the way home from the swimming pool,he’d seen long lines in front of all the shops.People were in a buying frenzy,making runs on all the stores.“What should I get?” He surveyed the storage room:rice,meat,and non-staple foods for the Spring Festival,there was enough of everything.

“Maybe some water?” He went to a dozen shops,but no one had water in large bottles left,so he bought a few small ones.He also wanted to get some ethyl alcohol and disinfectant but there was already a long line in front of the pharmacy near his place even before it opened,so he went to another one close by.There were no lines,but the shelves were bare.

During the epidemic and the traffic control in Wuhan,millions of residents stayed at home to support the fight against COVID-19,and the once hustling and bustling streets became quiet and empty.疫情期间，武汉实施交通管制，千万普通民众坚守在家，曾经繁华的街道变得冷冷清清。

从没有一个春天，像2020年跨越得那般艰难。在那个注定将终生难忘的春天，刘醒龙和一家三代人一起，从1月23日到5月2日，居家抗疫长达100 天。那段时间里，他不是一名作家，而是一位在抗疫战场上没有任何退路、只有挺身而出的千万普通武汉人中的一员。

照常游泳的早晨

2020年1月23日早晨，刘醒龙还是决定照常去附近的酒店游泳。

从2006年秋天第一次下水游泳之后，他就不曾中断这每天1000米的水中晨练。

1月23日凌晨2时许，许多武汉市民就已经获知了交通管制消息，刘醒龙没有恐慌，他一大早还是驾车直奔离家不远的泳池。

泳池里就刘醒龙和一个住在附近的企业老板。刘醒龙离开泳池前问服务员，明天早上还照常开放吗？服务员说，还没有接到通知，应该会继续开放吧。

刘醒龙驾车还没到家，就接到了服务员的电话，说酒店上午10时就准备关门了。

回到家里，刘醒龙早餐时还和妻子、孩子们有说有笑。大家似乎都没把这当回事儿。但是渐渐地，手机上传来的信息越来越多，一家人都开始沉重起来，也开始不爱说话。

也应该买点什么吧？刘醒龙心里也开始不踏实。从泳池回家的路上，他看到所有的商店门口都排了长长的队伍，都在抢购。买什么呢？他打开家里的储物间，为了过春节，大米、肉、副食都储备得很充足。那就买点水吧？结果跑了十几家店，都没有大瓶装的矿泉水了，于是买了几小瓶矿泉水。然后想买点儿酒精、消毒液，结果门口的药房还没开门，门口已经排了长队。隔壁还有一家开门的药房，门口没人排队，但刘醒龙走进去一看，货架上空空如也。

Taking out the Garbage at Midnight

“During the epidemic,the moods in the Three Gorges and the Dabie Mountains,and on the shore of the East Lake in Wuchang were completely different,” Liu said.

On January 28,2020,Liu was interviewed by a reporter from the media.They met at the East Lake.The gate to the scenic areas was locked down,so they went to the East Lake Greenway instead.It was locked down as well,giving them no choice but to walk to a plank walkway by the lake.The reporter and himself,who were both vastly overdressed for the circumstances,stood by the roadside chatting for more than an hour.

Standing in the vast expanse of open space,the lake in front of them was translucent and shallow,the sunlight darted through the foliage,shooting sharp shafts of glittering gold through the blue,while withered lotuses swayed back and forth as their wrinkled faces grimaced,catching the brunt of the icy blasts that sent chills up Liu’s spine.He could not escape the uneasy feeling that plagued him.

On March 26,after more than two months of fighting and persistence,the community where Liu resided was declared a nonepidemic area.Since then,at 3 pm every afternoon,residents were allowed to go out for a walk,albeit with a specified group and time.Someone in Liu’s family suggested going out for some fresh air,and the children whooped and hollered,unable to hold back their brimming zeal.

The children raced out the door and dashed into the yard.They ran back and forth several times,walked around the neighborhood for a bit,and before long started crying that they wanted to go home.“You feel like there are people lurking behind every window watching your every move.What a terrible feeling,”Liu remarked.Behind the feeling was this intangible stress that was hard to put your finger on—it seemed that everyone you met could give you the virus.Even if the person claimed to be healthy,you were still scared.What if he wasn’t really healthy after all?

“During the quarantine days,I always took the garbage out at midnight.” Liu would rather go out in the middle of the night than risk running into someone.When he was out,he would look through the dark and count the lights in his building.“When I see the lights in the window,I know there are still people living here safely.”

Deleted Messages of Kind Acts

At 6:24 pm on February 9,2020,a young writer named Song Xiaoci posted a message on her WeChat Moments.She needed help urgently.All five members of a family she knew,including the grandparents,parents,and a five-and-a-half-year-old,were sick,though the child was asymptomatic.Unfortunately,none of their relatives or friends could help.The child’s father was in a bad way but still didn’t get hospitalized yet.

Thirteen minutes later,Liu commented on the post:Please send me the information.I’ll see if I can find someone for you.

Soon enough,Song and her friends in the community had gathered as much information about the family as they could and sent it to Liu.

What Song and her friends didn’t know at that time was that Liu was suffering a serious bout of diarrhea.It was food poisoning.After days of self-quarantine,all the edible vegetables and fruits were eaten and there was only some meat and grain left.Every leaf became a treasure for the family.That morning,they found some spoiled lettuce leaves and couldn’t bear tossing them out,so they cut off the rotten parts and cooked the rest for lunch.In the early afternoon,Liu began to feel sick.His stomach churned and his temperature climbed.He was miserable.

Liu Xinglong,Chinese novelist,vice president of Hubei Writers Association,and vice president of the Wuhan Literature and Art Association

午夜倒垃圾的男人

疫情期间，你在三峡，在大别山，和你身处武昌东湖之滨，感觉是完全不同的。刘醒龙说。

2020年1月28日，刘醒龙接受一家中央媒体采访，约在武昌东湖。在东湖转了一圈之后，发现无法进门，于是他们保持着距离去东湖绿道，结果绿道也不能进，只能到湖边栈道接受采访。“全副武装”的刘醒龙和同样装扮的记者站在路边聊了一个多小时，虽然是室外空旷处，湖水清浅，阳光很好，水里是迎着冷风摇曳的残荷，但他的感觉却是如此不同寻常。

3月26日，经过两个多月的奋战和坚持，刘醒龙所在的小区终于被认定为无疫情小区。每天下午3时，小区居民们就可以分期分批出去散步。家人说都出去转转吧，孩子们欢呼雀跃。

打开门，孩子们来到院子里，来回奔跑了几下，竟然都不想动了，又在小区转了几分钟，就都闹着回家了。“那种感觉是，你似乎觉得每一扇窗背后都有人，别人都注视着你……那种感觉太难受了。”刘醒龙说，这样的感觉伴着一种无形的压力，似乎遇到的人都有可能带来病毒和危险。哪怕你身边是一个自称健康的人，但是你会担惊受怕，万一呢？

“那时候，我都是半夜12 时出来倒垃圾。”刘醒龙为了出门倒垃圾的时候尽量少遇到人，宁愿在午夜行动。来到室外之后，他会在夜色里仰望自己的楼栋，数数亮着的灯，“只要窗户有灯光，就说明这家还有人安全地住在这里”。

被删除的善举信息

2020年2月9日下午6 时24 分，青年作家宋小词在朋友圈发出求救信息称，她认识的一家五口，除了5 岁半的孩子没有症状之外，孩子的爷爷奶奶爸爸妈妈全部染病。没有亲戚朋友能伸出援手，孩子的爸爸病得很重，还在奔波医院跑手续。

13 分钟后，刘醒龙留言：请将相关情况发给我！我来找人试试！

宋小词随后和社区的朋友整理了这一家五口的情况，并发给刘醒龙。

Fighting his fears,Liu sat on the toilet and looked through his contacts to see who could help the family.Over the next few hours,he made phone calls to every friend who might have contact with the hospital.By bedtime,he’d taken four doses of diarrhea medicine.

Finally,a friend reached out and took the family to the hospital.The child's grandfather passed away unfortunately in the waiting room.Everyone else was recovered at last.

Afterward,Song posted the whole story on her WeChat Moments and neighborhood chat groups to express her gratitude,but was soon asked to delete everything.Liu told her,“Please don’t talk about it in the group.Please delete the stuff about me.”

“I did this because that’s what my heart told me to do.I didn’t do it to show off.”

Song deleted the messages at Liu’s request,but his acts of kindness and volunteerism are engraved in the hearts of the citizens who received the help.

A Flashback Triggered by the Epidemic

At the height of the coronavirus outbreak,Liu was called by his sense of duty to pick up a pen and start writing.A large city with a population of over ten million was facing an unprecedented epidemic,he said.There may be some areas or individuals that didn’t do so well but,overall,the anti-epidemic measures were a success—a credit to all.

After his eye surgery,Liu had stopped writing for quite a while,but since January 23,2020,he decided to record his stories of the pandemic in his own way.At first,he planned to “write something around 50,000 or 60,000 words.” But the project ultimately ballooned to over 200,000 words,every bit of which is a true record of his personal experience and insights during the epidemic.

Liu Xinglong named his protracted essayIf the Future Is Long.

On May 2,2020,Liu left Wuhan and went to his hometown in Huanggang.He stood in front of his father’s grave on Xiaoqinling Hill and told him that all his children and grandchildren had survived the epidemic.Then he went to the Tianmazhai scenic area in Yingshan to go mountain climbing and see the azaleas.Standing atop the peaks peering down upon the misty scene below set off an epiphany of sorts,that it was exactly one hundred days from January 23 to May 2—a profound coincidence.

Liu recalled that during those one hundred days,he’d often dreamed about his father,who had passed away years before.And,in his dreams,it was always the same scene where he was working in Hubei Yingshan Valve Factory.

What had triggered those memories? He reckoned it was the epidemic that aroused something in his heart,and in his memory.

(Translation:Liu Lili)

Wuhan citizens back to the swimming pool after the quarantine days are over隔离解除后，武汉市民重回泳池

宋小词和她的伙伴们当时不知道的是，这一天刘醒龙正在因为拉肚子而备受折磨。当天中午，因为家里只剩下肉类和粮食，青菜和瓜果都没有了，就特别珍惜每一片菜叶。家人舍不得丢掉开始腐烂的莴苣叶子，把腐烂部分掐掉，剩下的部分炒熟吃了。结果从下午开始，刘醒龙的肚子里就开始翻腾，体温升高，非常难受。

刘醒龙一边压制内心的恐惧，一边坐在马桶上翻电话通讯录，看看谁能帮那一家五口。从中午到晚上睡觉，他一共吃了四次中药。同时尽力在通讯录里寻找可能和医院有联系的朋友，给他们发短信，打电话。

终于有一位朋友伸出援手，将这一家人带到医院检查治疗。除了孩子爷爷在等待过程中去世以外，包括孩子在内的其他四人最终幸运脱险。

宋小词把情况发在小区的群里和自己的朋友圈里，结果刘醒龙要求：“不要在群里说，将说我的话删了。”“做什么是内心需要，不是给人看。”最终这些信息都被删除了，但刘醒龙和志愿者们的善举，被获得救治的市民刻在了心中。

疫情触发的记忆

身处疫情中心，使命感召唤刘醒龙拿起笔来记录。他说，一千多万人口的大城市面临空前的疫情，尽管有少数领域和个别人的表现不尽如人意，但整体抗疫工作真的做得不错。

此前因为眼睛不好刚做完手术，刘醒龙一直没有动笔写作。2020年1月23日之后，他决定用自己的方式来记录，他开始拟“写一个五六万字的东西”，结果写着写着就写了20 万字，这是他对个人在疫情期间亲身经历和感悟的真实记录。

刘醒龙将这部长篇散文定名为《如果来日方长》。

2020年5月2日，刘醒龙离开武汉，一路直奔黄冈老家，到小秦岭父亲的墓前，向九泉之下的老父亲报告，儿孙们都平安度过了疫情。然后，他们去英山的天马寨爬山，又去看杜鹃花。在山上，刘醒龙一算，说巧了，从1月23日到5月2日，刚好100 天。

刘醒龙说，他那段时间经常做梦，梦见去世多年的父亲，而且是自己在湖北英山阀门厂工作时候的场景。

这些记忆为何会被触发？他说，应该是疫情触动了内心和记忆。