In June, as the weather was gradually getting hotter, Wen Qian bought some medicines for preventing heat, mosquitoes, and insects in addition to the ones she had bought previously, spending 500 yuan in total.
On her day off, Wen Qian went to visit her college dormmate who had continued to study and then work at the school after graduation. Having vacation work during summer and winter breaks, it was really enviable.
With many students graduating and moving out of the dormitories every June, a lot of things would be thrown away each year around this time.
Before even meeting up, Wen Qian had already wandered around the school where sounds of luggage being dragged and students gradually leaving could be heard everywhere.
The graduating students had to completely empty out their dorm rooms, otherwise the cleaning staff would come in later and throw everything away.
Wen Qian saw many discarded things at the female dormitory area, such as yoga mats. There were also shoe racks, clothing drying racks, straw mats, ice pads, some storage fabric boxes and plastic drawers. These things were inconvenient to carry and pack up when moving out so they were simply left behind.
There were also unwanted school-issued quilts. But most commonly, there were clothes. The cotton or kapok stuffing from the quilts could be reprocessed. As for the clothes, Wen Qian only picked out some that she wanted to use as patterns for future sewing.
She was not a professional tailor. She would take apart different sections of existing garments and then assemble them together later by imitation.
When scavenging, Wen Qian would either pick things from piles of trash on the ground floors or from items the dorm residents had swept out and stacked in the corridors. She did not go into the dorm rooms.
She had taken quite a few yoga mats, feeling they would come in handy later. Looking through the trash piles at the female dorms was actually fun, like shopping on Taobao.
Wen Qian had also picked up various sized dumbbells and jump ropes for working out.
Later on the tree-lined path, she came across a small flea market in business. People inside were selling their belongings cheaply, but there were not many buyers. Items like electric fans and books still attracted some customers, but few people were buying used clothes and quilts.
Wen Qian browsed through and picked out books she didn't already have to purchase.
Originally, Wen Qian's classmate Zhang Yi had wanted to take her out to eat, but Wen Qian was more interested in going to the school cafeteria.
She had not eaten at the student cafeteria for a long time and wanted to relive the memory.
Although many students had left, the cafeteria was still lively. Wen Qian ordered a plate of sweet and sour pork ribs, a steamed egg, and rice.
Her classmate joked that Wen Qian was helping her save money, but Wen Qian said this was plenty.
The two chatted while eating, catching each other up. After the meal, they went back to Zhang Yi’s staff dormitory and talked some more.
In the afternoon, they went out for a stroll, with Wen Qian treating Zhang Yi to dinner.
Upon hearing that she might resign, Zhang Yi felt puzzled, “Your salary is decent though. Is the work pressure too much? You're not planning to buy property in An City?”
The younger generation tends not to settle in small places, which also cannot accommodate the young.
“I don't necessarily have to put down roots in An City. I plan to return to my hometown for some time, or going to the small city near our area wouldn’t be bad either.”
“I see. Smaller cities have a slower pace of life, so days would be more relaxed.” Zhang Yi felt life in An City moved too fast, with high work pressure, but at least she was free here.
The reason why Zhang Yi did not go back home was that she could not stand her family’s nagging for her to get married, as if a woman not marrying was like late-stage cancer. Every one of them would say she caused them endless worry when in fact they just could not tolerate her being single.
It was as if not getting married warranted a death sentence. Zhang Yi thought if that were the case, she might just compromise. Clearly she was not bothering anyone, yet she still received ridicule and sarcasm.
Wen Qian did not care about any of this. She no longer had much contact with relatives.
Her grandparents’ generation had mostly passed on already. And their descendants in the next generation became estranged after starting their own families.
Contact was even lesser by the third generation.
Initially, Wen Qian’s grandparents had worried she would have a hard time living alone when older, afraid the villagers would take advantage of her.
Later, most villagers also left to work outside. Things that used to cause petty squabbles no longer mattered. Now no one paid attention any more.
If this had happened in the past, Wen Qian would not have been able to safeguard her family's belongings on her own.
Additionally, when facing trials from others, Wen Qian would either ignore them completely or strike back immediately.
As long as people spoke nicely to her, she was usually quite mild-mannered and courteous.
However, thinking of how tumultuous things could become if society collapsed, Wen Qian felt the remote mountain village she lived in would likely revert to its former ways. She would probably be the first easy target in others’ minds as well.
Despite this notion, Wen Qian still decided to return. She felt it would be even more difficult to preserve her secrecy and survive in the city.
As night fell, Wen Qian bid Zhang Yi farewell. There were things she had wanted to tell her classmate during their chat in the day which she didn’t get to in the end. Instead, she steered the conversation toward the wilderness survival videos and post-apocalyptic novels she had been watching and reading lately.
The two exchanged quite a bit about their latest interests, and her classmate seemed intrigued as well, saying she would look them up.
Having decided to return home, Wen Qian figured she would share the list of things she had gone through with Zhang Yi later.
Stepping out from the subway in June, Wen Qian felt the pleasant night breeze. Summers in An City were famously scorching. Even at night, winds later on would still be hot winds.
After washing up at home, Wen Qian sat in the living room downloading things while chatting about novels with Zhang Yi when she suddenly noticed a flash outside and realized it was probably going to rain.
Sure enough, a storm rolled in right after lightning and thunder. Wen Qian already had all windows and doors shut. She watched the rain and vehicles outside through the windowpane.
Staying home on a rainy day felt very safe and cozy.
The heavy rain also passed quickly.
Before bedtime, Zhang Yi messaged that she had read more and seemed quite interested in post-apocalyptic type works, also enjoying watching people hoard supplies.
Seeing this, Wen Qian smiled and replied that not only did she like watching others hoard, but enjoyed stocking up herself too.
Zhang Yi said she also wanted to try. Unlike perishables like greens and meat that had to be fresh, items with long shelf-life could be stockpiled. However, she did not really enjoy cooking and could barely finish the MREs the disaster preparedness brands sent over.
So Wen Qian suggested canned foods, instant noodles, dumplings, wontons, scallion pancakes etc. that were convenient.
The reason why Wen Qian did not buy these herself was because she did not love eating them, especially the dumplings commonly sold, with weird mystery fillings that even made her burps strange afterwards. She was not very fond of them.
If she were to eat dumplings, she would buy just the skins and make her own fillings.
Thinking about this, she placed orders for a dumpling rolling pin and stainless steel round dumpling wrapper cutters. She would roll out a big piece of wrapper and cut out rounds rather than pleat and wrap them one by one.
She also ordered some more stainless steel cookware for herself like stock pots, plates and kettles. In the future, these could be used to cook large portions simultaneously.
And so Wen Qian browsed through the shopping apps again until sleepiness hit.
