One morning, Wen Qian woke up to find there was a power outage.
However, when she turned on the radio, she found she could still receive news broadcasts. She had also received a message from Fang Ya.
Two hours ago, Fang Ya had informed her about the power outage.
Wen Qian stayed at home, burning a stove to keep warm, eating and reading books. Apart from not being able to use her phone, the power outage didn't seem to have any other impact.
As for lighting, during the day, the outside snow reflected plenty of bright light.
At night, she had candles and flashlights. Even without those, she could make a wick from cotton and create an oil lamp using cooking oil.
Speaking of lamps, she had previously bought online one of those oil lamps with a glass shade that were shown on TV, which could be used as a windshield. But for now, she felt candles would suffice.
The stove burned steadily, keeping the stainless steel tabletop warm. Wen Qian lay on it, drowsily dozing off.
She watched the news every morning, noon and night. Currently, TV stations were all showing scenes of disaster relief and people struggling against the ice and snow.
This time of year, people would normally be looking forward to the new year. But now, with the new year approaching, many couldn't return home.
In the afternoon, Fang Ya told her that Chen Ming had finally made it back to his hometown. Getting from An City to the station was okay, but after leaving the station, the snow was too heavy for any vehicles.
Their group paid a high price to hire a van to take them to a nearby town, after which Chen Ming's husband walked back.
This new year, the news urged everyone to celebrate where they were, since there was no way to travel anyway.
Visiting relatives for the new year, as was the tradition, would likely not happen this year. With the heavy snow, it was difficult to even step outside, so everyone would have to stay home.
For those who had thought their busy lives prevented them from reading and studying, but now found themselves with free time, they realized they still didn't want to study.
When there was electricity, they played games on their phones. Without electricity, they played cards and chatted, but didn't want to study or read books.
Of course, this had been proven long ago in the home environment as well.
After two days, the power was restored. It was said that a fallen tree nearby had caused the outage.
For the most part, the power supply could be guaranteed. Although the snow and ice were heavy, many areas were protecting the power lines. Plus, with modern technology, deicing techniques ensured the lines were well-maintained.
It was just that in some smaller areas, repairs couldn't be done immediately, so the outages lasted a bit longer.
The day before New Year's Eve, in the afternoon, Wen Qian was braising meat in the kitchen. This meat was meant to be eaten on New Year's Day morning.
She had prepared all the new year items, following the same routine as in previous years.
It wasn't that Wen Qian needed any sense of ritual. She just felt that in these peaceful times, there might not be many New Year's Eves left, so she took it seriously.
She cooked a huge pot of meat by herself. With the low temperature, she could just cover the pot, and add some fire in the morning to start eating.
On New Year's Day morning, Wen Qian had a bowl of the braised meat.
That day, it didn't snow, and the sun came out.
Wen Qian took some red-hot embers from the stove and put them in a brazier, then went out to bask in the sun. But she didn't stay in the sun for long before getting distracted by other things.
Wen Qian then took out the Spring Festival couplets and put them up. In this rural area, everyone put them up today. But when Wen Qian did it, her mood was rather heavy.
She figured she might not want to come out in the afternoon, so she went ahead and put them up at that time.
Chen Ming, Auntie Chen's son, came over to deliver some things. He said that if the road was difficult to walk the next morning, he wouldn't come over to pay New Year's greetings.
Traditionally, on the morning of the first day of the new year, everyone would visit each other's homes to pay respects.
Wen Qian lived alone. If she went out, she'd have to close the door. But on New Year's Day, it's not allowed to close the door - it must remain slightly ajar.
Hearing what Chen Ming said, Wen Qian felt it was more convenient this way.
With all this snow, why bother with those formalities? So they agreed.
Chen Ming wasn't that close with Wen Qian when they were students, and after moving to the city, they basically lost contact.
Seeing that Wen Qian was alone with her Spring Festival couplets already put up, Chen Ming asked her why she had returned to live in the rural village.
Wen Qian gave the same answer as before - that she had quit her job to live here for a while, and would go back next year.
Chen Ming thought to himself that next year was uncertain - it seemed each year was harder than the last, with bizarre natural phenomena occurring.
For now they still had internet access. Many netizens felt this new year would be difficult to celebrate properly, but some were pessimistic, believing it would be the best new year they could hope for from then on.
Wen Qian also felt she might not experience a new year like this again.
In Xiaochenwa, there were just two families. In Yuanao where Wen Qian lived, she was the only one. In Dachenwa, there were four families in total.
Plus the few households across the river on the mountain slope were still there.
Some people felt more free living in the village than in the city. But with poor transportation and caring for elderly relatives and children, they had no choice but to celebrate the new year where they were, unable to make the difficult journey home like Chen Ming had.
As for the street where they used to live in town, that entire street used to have every household return for the new year. Now it was about half empty too.
Wen Qian felt having fewer people in the village was a good thing at this time - less disturbance.
But she had also psychologically prepared herself, keeping a knife under her pillow. Ever since her dreams began, she had done this.
Although Wen Qian hadn't experienced too much, she could draw the conclusion from small incidents that human nature is difficult to fathom.
When it came to evil, what could be more evil than humans themselves?
Any evil plot from novels, TV shows or movies paled in comparison to what humans were actually capable of.
Before dark, Wen Qian cleared the snow from upstairs one more time, then went back inside.
She cleared all the kitchen items, moving the oil, salt, sauces and vinegar to the table in the main hall.
When eating, she would just heat up dishes on the stove. But she only cooked small portions, as she felt a bit overheated, so she also brewed some chrysanthemum tea for herself.
In the evening, TV stations were still broadcasting the new year's gala, clearly meant to encourage people to get through the harsh winter.
With significant cuts to manpower and resources, the program was less than half its original length.
Fireworks were usually set off around midnight, but Wen Qian thought she might already be asleep by then. So at 10pm, she went out and set off some firecrackers.
They really were loud, making the ground seem to shake.
Originally she had planned to keep the lights on while sleeping, and since there was electricity, she turned on a few lamps in the other rooms and plugged in a small nightlight where she slept.
Around midnight, scattered fireworks went off outside, but they didn't disturb Wen Qian's sound sleep.
It started snowing again that night. When Chen Ming came out to set off fireworks, he saw large snowflakes landing on his clothes and sighed with concern.
If it kept snowing like this, it would be troublesome. He looked at his pregnant wife, worried about whether he could give the newborn a happy life.
If the child was born only to suffer, Chen Ming would feel guilty.
