"In this world, there's no rule that men can't enjoy sweets, can't like chocolate!" muttered Fu Shiwu to himself, standing alone in the elevator, feeling frustrated.
Yes, that lunatic avoiding the elevator and taking the stairs!
The weather was scorching. Inside the escape passage, there was no air conditioning. He climbed up to the 18th floor, seemingly unfazed by the heat!
"Could he have claustrophobia?" Fu Shiwu widened his eyes in surprise, thinking he'd discovered a annoying guy's secret.
Returning home, Fu Shiwu placed the chocolate in the refrigerator. Due to his perennial solitary life and bulk shopping, his refrigerator was a large double-door model, allowing him to stuff it full and avoid going out or dealing with people for almost a month.
"These should suffice until the normal supply resumes," Fu Shiwu naively thought.
The director's ambiguous words perhaps hinted at the possibility of certain radicals taking advantage to cause chaos. Unfortunately, unexpected events shattered everyone's expectations.
Having returned home early, after lunch and a short nap in the afternoon, in the evening, Fu Shiwu was once again observing the crimson glow moving over Hua Xia.
This time, he wasn't just watching the television's special program; he also kept track of the latest updates on the webpage he'd visited during the day from a colleague's recommendation.
Some of the content was genuinely chilling.
The sudden appearance of that red line gradually expanded into the crimson glow, seemingly stationary in Earth's orbit for 24 hours, akin to the moon suspended in the sky, seen at the same time and place the next day.
This didn't seem like a normal celestial event.
Now, people were speculating and suspecting this to be an artificial phenomenon, with many pointing fingers at specific powerful countries. Some angry youth immediately suspected Country M of some mischief, while pessimists believed it was their own government playing recklessly.
In times of such restlessness, it needed someone to come forward and draw a conclusion. Only with a correct verdict could people stop aimlessly speculating and frightening themselves.
Fu Shiwu was vigilantly watching a popular thread in a forum when he faintly heard a regular honking downstairs. Startled, he hurried to the window to take a look.
It wasn't a police car; it was an ambulance.
Many elderly residents lived here. Perhaps one of the elderly had suddenly fallen ill? Fu Shiwu guessed.
But what followed was alarming. People were taken away by the ambulance in succession.
The corridor grew noisy. Adjusting his glasses, Fu Shiwu opened the door to look outside.
The adjacent door was wide open, voices arguing inside.
"...No! Only one family member can accompany! ...We're not sure if it's contagious yet, asking me won't help..."
At the mention of a contagious disease, Fu Shiwu's heart skipped a beat.
Subsequently, two fully equipped medical staff carried a stretcher outside. Peering closely, Fu Shiwu recognized the old man from the next door.
At this moment, the old man's face was pale, sweat trickling down, appearing faint and unconscious.
Following behind was the head of their household, his face solemn, while his wife, visibly anxious, kept urging their daughter, still in high school, to quickly enter the house, obviously fearing she might get infected by the old man.
Seeing people dressed in standard protective gear, they were petrified. If it were truly contagious, avoiding it now wouldn't make a difference.
The couple hastened to the hospital, arguing there. The medical staff impatiently said, "Don't dawdle. The ambulance is busy now, no time to waste here. Only you."
Nodding heavily, the middle-aged man followed the medical staff.
Seeing his wife cry as they entered the elevator, their daughter rushed out, anxiously inquiring.
Listening to his wife suppressing her unease and sadness while comforting their daughter, Fu Shiwu gently closed the door, sighing.
His interpersonal skills were truly useless, and unsure if he might get infected, he dared not approach.
At this time, online reports about this had already surfaced. Sitting in front of his computer, Fu Shiwu looked at the urgent news, with only pictures and text, his face turning pale.
Since the afternoon, numerous people from Yun City, where Fu Shiwu lived, had been admitted one after another. All had identical symptoms: high fever, vomiting, diarrhea.
These people hailed from different parts of the city. Their illnesses were sudden, progressing rapidly. Soon, hospitals noticed something amiss and immediately reported it upwards.
The government immediately activated emergency protocols, swiftly transferring all patients to infectious disease hospitals.
Unfortunately, the number of people falling ill kept increasing, overwhelming the infectious disease hospitals. Worse yet, the first death case emerged. The situation blew up, directly stirring up conversations online.
Immediately, people started to wonder if this was related to the appearance of the crimson glow. This further fueled the previously heated astronomical event, making it even more sensational.
The sudden outbreak left hospitals no choice but to focus solely on saving lives. There was no time or resources to research the cause or confirm whether it was contagious. However, regardless of its contagiousness, the first requirement was to enforce citywide preventive measures.
Coincidentally, not just Yun City was affected by the crimson glow. Bad news continued to pour in from various cities, shocking everyone.
The massively erupting illness led the overly imaginative to link it to things like zombie viruses. However, Fu Shiwu, who wasn't as extreme in his thoughts, remembered the SARS outbreak from years ago.
Just as he recalled SARS, sirens blared downstairs, swiftly marking the perimeter outside Tianjing Garden with a cordon.
"Damn!" Witnessing this, Fu Shiwu couldn't help blurting out his colleague's catchphrase.
The sudden change caught people off guard, leaving them bewildered and panicked.
At this critical moment, Fu Shiwu didn't recklessly dash out. Who knew if among the rushing crowd heading to the cordon, anyone was infected?
He simply stood anxiously by the window, looking down.
Initially agitated, the crowd quickly became subdued by the armed police's real guns and bullets. Then, someone with a megaphone spoke to the crowd, but the noise downstairs was too chaotic for Fu Shiwu to make out the words.
After a while, the crowd dispersed, and individuals in protective gear entered the building, distributing temporary management booklets door to door.
Soon enough, Fu Shiwu received his own booklet at his doorstep.
Called a booklet, it was actually just a few sheets of paper stapled together, quite rudimentary.
As Fu Shiwu was reading, a person wearing protective gear stood in front of him, behind a transparent shield. He seemed vaguely familiar, perhaps from the local street office.
"What's your name, and how many people in your household?" the person asked in a muffled voice.
"I'm Fu Shiwu, and I live alone," he replied.
The person clumsily ticked off a paper with a clipboard in hand, wearing gloves.
"If you have guests currently, make sure not to hide it. It concerns the future distribution of food supplies," the person explained.
"Oh?" Fu Shiwu widened his eyes. "You're delivering food to us?"
"Of course. If we're not letting you out and not giving you food, that wouldn't be right. Don't worry; the government's taking care of this part. As long as you pass the quarantine period, everything will be fine," the person from the office reassured.
After finishing the distribution and confirming information, the person from the office left.
Fu Shiwu then closed the door and examined the booklet.
It outlined temporary management regulations: no leaving without permission, reporting incidents to the authorities, temporary supply of three meals a day, and the ability to request necessary daily products.
The reason for the quarantine of Tianjing Garden was simply because this area had a relatively higher rate of infections due to being a major urban renovation project. Many here were retirees, and with grandparents taking care of grandchildren, the illness rate at Tianjing Garden appeared unusually high!
At this point, there was nothing to do but hope for an early end to the quarantine.
Fortunately, despite being confined at home, there were no worries about food and drink, with access to television and the internet, preventing boredom from driving people crazy.
Two days passed, and ambulances again took away several patients from Tianjing Garden. The atmosphere grew increasingly tense, and those enforcing the quarantine became more vigilant.
With no idea when the quarantine would be lifted, Fu Shiwu had to call his boss and ask for leave. Faced with this force majeure, his boss could only grant him an extended break.
"Ah, at least I've lucked out. At least I won't have to return to the hell of overtime," Fu Shiwu amusingly thought.
Anxious due to the quarantine, when Fu Shiwu remembered to check on the crimson glow again, he found that it had changed its appearance, appearing wider.
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