2020.2.17 The 26th Day of the Wuhan City Closure 中文日记最后
It has started to warm up. The last few days have been very sunny and Spring seems finally about to arrive. I brought all the flowers and plants that had spent the winter indoors out to the their stands on the balcony. The fresh green leaves reflect the sun’s rays nicely so well it fact that they can be painful to look at. Some kinds of plants sensitive to cold did not survive the winter so I will have to plant them again. The plants that did overwinter still look green and fresh, probably because this winter was not as cold as usual. Wuhan’s prettiest and shortest season will soon arrive. I hope the epidemic will end soon.
After the new provincial Communist Party Committee Secretary took office, control measures have become much stricter. When I got out of bed this morning, I saw that our building was already surrounded by the kind of temporary barrier that you see on construction sites. It was a bit sad to see. I hurried to open our community WeChat group and paged through recent chats. Although I found the order for sealing small communities, I didn’t see any specifics on it will work. The neighbors all talked about it. Someone asked what were the criteria for deciding whether someone was to be allowed to enter or leave the community. Another said that the nearby supermarket from today onwards will require a signed permission slip from the community for entry. The community, however, has not begun to issue these permission slips. Someone sent a question to the @neighborhood network manager mailbox on the neighborhood WeChat group to ask how deliveries of online purchases were to be handled. He never got an answer. The community grassroots workers are useless. Now with this, making purchases will get even harder.
Yes, it really has been getting harder to buy supplies recently. Last week I could still go online to buy legumes from a little shop nearby. This week it was completely closed. I don’t know if it was because they sold out all their stock or because of government restrictions.
Now there are probably three methods to buy legumes and other foods.
The first is buying online. That is too difficult now. As I just mentioned, the great majority of the small markets that sell fresh food have already shut down. So now more people are scrambling to order from the Hema supermarkets which offer free delivery. The Hema supermarkets are still operating normally but there is a limit to how much they are able to deliver each day. Every evening they take orders for the next day starting at 10 PM. Before the delivery quota was filled up in just three minutes. Now some goods are displayed as unavailable after ten seconds and after one minute the entire delivery quota for the next day is filled. I have been trying to place an order for a week. Every evening I set the alarm clock to remind me but every time they are either out of stock or they delivery quota is full.
Ah, its just too difficult. I’ve been able to place orders on http://meicai.cn but they have limited delivery capacity so after placing an order I have to wait many days for delivery. Moreover, the minimum purchase for delivery order is 300 RMB. Each package of vegetables weighs four or five pounds each, so when I tried to put together an order for 300 RMB, the total order weighed over 50 pounds. That is too much for our small family to consume. Fortunately we do have enough food at home. Its just hard to get fresh vegetables but if we have to we’ll make do without.
The second method is to participate in a community group purchase. Here we see how property management companies do things much better. Several of my friends are in communities that started organizing group purchases early on. Now, they get regular deliveries of vegetables, food products and daily consumables. Their group purchases even meat products from Zhouheiya and cake. Thus far, however, many communities (including my own) haven’t taken the initiative to do this. They just watch enviously at the other communities.
Two days ago, a friend joined a small purchase group purchasing group for individuals. For her 100 RMB share, she got 25 pounds of vegetables – which ones she got depended on chance – but she ended up with tomatoes, cucumbers, asparagus，green pepper, potatoes, garlic seedlings, and broccoli. That was just what I wanted to eat! I turned green with envy. She sent me information on how to order. Unfortunately, however, the quantity that can be shipped is limited and because you can’t be sure just what you’ll get.
These past two days I have been hearing about a fake group purchase scheme that even some community workers had suggested on a community WeChat network. Once they got the money, they were never heard from again.
The third method is, of course, to go to the supermarket yourself. There are several supermarkets still operating near my home. Going to those big sealed spaces full of people is just too risky. I stopped going three weeks ago. These past few days my mother has been insisting on going to the supermarket. I had to force her not to. To judge by photos and videos I have seen these past two days, the supermarkets in many areas (especially the Qingshan District) are very crowded. Every day they have long lines.
Online many people curse them for being “careless” and “out to get themselves killed” but I understand them. If the first two methods I mentioned don’t work, the supermarket is the only choice especially in some parts of Qingshan with their high proportion of elderly people and few young people since most left to seek work elsewhere. The infrastructure and distribution networks there are weaker and so for many elderly people, the supermarket is definitely their only choice. From today, however, all the supermarkets in Qingshan have closed and now will only accept group orders. They will no longer sell to individuals. I only hope that the communities there will be up to the task.
Today something very funny happened. Quite a while ago I offered to sell something second-hand on Taobao. Today somebody contacted me wanting to buy it. I replied, “I am sorry. I am in Wuhan so it will be a while before I would be able to ship it to you.” After a while, he answered, “Wuhan? I don’t want it. These past few months I haven’t dared to buy anything from Wuhan”. I said over and over to myself “Love and Peace, Love and Peace” in order to control myself. I forced myself to delete one-by-one all the characters of the response that I had prepared to send him. “Then you’d better get off line right away so the virus won’t get you through your internet connection!”
This evening I told my mother about the tragedy of Chang Kai, who together with three other members of his family all died of coronavirus pneumonia.
Mother: They shouldn’t have eaten their Chinese New Year’s meal together. Maybe the family members gave each other the virus then.
Me: A long time ago the propaganda said that it can be prevented and controlled, that only a few people were contagious, so maybe they weren’t very careful and didn’t think it was that serious.
Mother: How did you know how to prevent it? Back then you didn’t let us eat our New Year’s meal together!
Me: It’s because I don’t believe in the Communist Party!
… And for the rest of that entire evening my mother ignored me.
2月17日武汉封城第26天
天气开始回暖了，这几天阳光都特别好，春天终究是要来了。
我把收在室内整个冬天的花花草草搬到阳台花架上，绿色的叶子清新得能反射阳光，闪得人有些刺眼。有几种不耐寒的植物，去年养的没能过冬，今年再种，过完冬天还是鲜绿色的，大概今年冬天没有往年那么冷吧。
武汉最美好又最短暂的季节马上就要来了，疫情快点结束吧。
新省委书记到任后，管理措施确实严厉了很多。今天起床后发现，我们楼栋门前已经被临时施工挡板围起来了，看得我有点懵。赶紧打开社区微信群，翻了翻聊天记录，虽然找到了小区封闭的通知，但是没有发具体的管理方案，邻居们都在议论，有人在问进出有什么要求，有人在说附近的中百超市今天起需要社区签发的许可才能进入，但是社区现在还没有开始办理，也有人@网格员，问外卖派送怎么管理，一律都没有回复。社区基层工作就是这么琐碎，但是显然管理上还是毫无章法、简单粗暴，我已经无力吐槽了。
只是如此一来，买东西就更麻烦了。
是的，最近采购物资确实越来越难了，上周还能在外卖网站上买到附近生鲜小店的蔬菜，这周基本全部关门了。不知道是因为库存卖空，还是因为政府限制。
现在能买到蔬菜食品大概只有三个方法。一是网购，但是太难了，正如前面提到大多数小型生鲜超市都已停业，所以现在更多人抢盒马鲜生的派送了，各家盒马虽然能正常派送，但每天派送量有限，每晚十点开放预约，以前抢完花3分钟，现在通常10秒就会显示部分商品无货，1分钟后派送名额就全部抢完了，我已经连续抢了一周，每晚设闹钟提醒，但是不是要买的东西无货下架下不了单，就是派送名额抢完，唉，实在是太难了。美菜网也可以下单，不过配送力量有限，下单之后要等好几天才能送到，而且每单需要买到300元才能送货，一份蔬菜通常都是4斤到5斤的分量，我曾经尝试凑了个300元的订单，结果总共有五十多斤的分量，对于我家这种小家庭完全消化不了啊。好在家里食物足够，只是新鲜蔬菜难买，勉强也能熬下去。
第二种方法是参加社区团购，这个时候优质物业的优势就体现出来了，我有些朋友的社区早早就开始组织团购，现在别说蔬菜食品和日用商品，连周黑鸭、蛋糕都团购好几轮了。但是也有很多社区（比如我家的社区）到现在都没有任何动作。只能看着眼馋了。前两天有朋友买到了可以个人参加的小额团购，100元一份，25斤蔬菜，菜品随机，她买到的那一份有西红柿、黄瓜、莴苣、青椒、土豆、蒜苗和菜苔，正好都是我想吃的，可馋死我了，朋友把下单的方式发给了我，可惜因为运力有限，也不是想买就一定能买到的。而且这两天还听说了一些骗人都团购，有的甚至是社区工作人员推荐到社区群里的渠道，收了钱就联系不上了。
第三种，当然就是去超市了。我家附近的几家超市都还在营业，可是这种全封闭式的公众聚集场所，风险实在是太高，我自从三周前去过就再没去了，我妈妈前几天还嚷嚷着要去超市买东西，也被我强行阻止了。这两天看到很多照片和视频，有很多地方（尤其是青山区）的超市非常拥挤，每天都大排长龙。网上很多人骂他们“不自觉”“找死”，可是我真的能理解，当前两种方法行不通的时候，只有超市是唯一的选择，尤其像青山区这样老龄化严重、年轻人口大量流失的片区，社区基础配置也比较薄弱，对于很多中老年人来说，超市的确是唯一的选择。不过青山区从今天起所有超市全部关闭，仅接受社区团购，不再针对个人购物了，唯愿社区真的能做到位吧。
今天遇到一件很搞笑的事情。
早前我在闲鱼网上发布了一件二手转卖，今天有人私信联系我想要买，我回复说“不好意思，在武汉，需要过一段时间才能寄出”，过了一会儿，对方回复“武汉？我不要了，这几个月都不敢买武汉的东西”。
我在心里默念了很多遍LOVE&PEACE才忍住，硬生生把已经打好的回复一个字一个字删掉了：那你最好赶快把网断了，免得病毒顺着网线传给你。
昨晚跟我妈妈讲起常凯家的悲剧，一家四口都已去世。
妈妈说：不应该吃年饭，可能是吃年饭的时候家人之间传染了。
我说：早前宣传的说可防可控、有限人传人，所以可能没有警惕吧，没有想到会这么严重。
我妈：那怎么你会知道要预防咧？当时就不让我们吃年饭！
我说：因为我不相信共产党啊！
……于是妈妈整晚都没有再理我。