If there must be a commemoration for these three years, perhaps it should be today.
Do you remember which city was the first to relax restrictions? Do you know on which day this matter actually ended?
Some things have an unclear beginning and an unclear ending.
Confusion and ambiguity are indeed good at times, such as making it impossible for people to give it a scale.
Things without scales and marks on the earth cannot last long.
Of course, things with scales and marks will not last long either.
People get sick, does Heaven know? One of them is called amnesia.
It was only a short year, but it feels like a lifetime ago, as if separated by thousands of mountains and rivers.
A wisp of smoke from the human world can make you dizzy and forget what day it is.
A second of prosperity can make you forget and not need to remember countless anxieties.
Some things are unforgettable and yet forgotten in an instant.
Some pains, the scars haven’t healed yet, and they have vanished.
You no longer remember from which day you could freely enter and exit the community.
You no longer remember from which day you no longer had to swab your nose.
You no longer remember from which day you no longer had to show your health code everywhere.
You no longer remember from which day you no longer had to show your travel code when you moved.
Even, do you remember whether it was called Omicron or Omikron or Mioron?
Time is chaotic.
The world is chaotic.
Maintain chaos.
In my timeline, I am willing to believe that today is very meaningful. Because last year was also today.
November 14, 2022.
It’s not the middle of the month, it’s not the beginning of the month, it has no special meaning.
It’s just that—on this day last year, a city, among hundreds of large cities across the country, first tried to fully relax restrictions.
The name of this city is Shijiazhuang.
November 14, 2022, on this day last year, Shijiazhuang suddenly released news of “normalized management implementation”, announcing that nucleic acid tests and travel code checks were no longer required, public transportation could be used, shopping malls opened, all public places were normally open, schools started, and students returned to school…
A week later, November 21st, Shijiazhuang couldn’t withstand the pressure of the increasing number of infections after the restrictions were lifted, and issued another notice to restore control and testing.
However, the ice had already loosened, and the entire iceberg was creaking. —I immediately thought of the movie called “Liberation of Shijiazhuang”. As if echoing, Shijiazhuang was also the first city to be liberated back then, accumulating practical experience for the subsequent siege and capture.
Exactly another week later, at 24:00 on November 28th, Baoding relaxed restrictions.
Ended “resident health management”, stopped community collective nucleic acid testing, and residents resumed free movement.
Two days later, November 30th, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Chongqing relaxed restrictions.
The first and second tier-one cities fully relaxed restrictions, restoring all normal life and work conditions, and all public areas were fully opened.
Two days later, December 2nd, Guangzhou epidemic press conference.
After all the speakers took the stage, they uniformly took off their masks, using a silent action to declare the official attitude. At that moment, when I rewatched it today, my eyes were still moist.
Five days later, December 7th, the whole country relaxed restrictions.
The State Council issued a new epidemic prevention policy, announcing that the whole country would begin to gradually and comprehensively relax restrictions. All risk areas across the country were lifted, entering normalized management, factories resumed work, businesses resumed operations, health codes were no longer checked in shopping malls and public transportation, restaurants opened for dine-in, and schools resumed classes…
December 13th, the travel code was taken offline.
December 26th, COVID-19 was renamed COVID-19 infection.
January 8, 2023, COVID-19 was officially downgraded to “Class B and Class B management”.
February 16, 2023, the health code was taken offline.
Everything is finally over.
Although people were still a little afraid to go out at first, there were always those who dared to try new things.
Although some people only did one thing when they went out: go to the pharmacy to buy backup medicine. But there were always those who dared to try new things.
Although the school enrollment rate was only 50%, this 50% was the group that dared to try new things.
And those who issued warnings and were reprimanded,
Those who recorded history and were questioned and insulted,
Those who went against the tide, those who contributed, those who sacrificed…
Especially those who suffered more in this matter,
Those cries, those lamentations,
Those roars on the burning building,
Those who fell outside the hospital doors,
Those young people from large factories who walked through the fields of China preparing to walk home long distances,
Those migrant workers walking on the highway late at night,
That young father who rushed through the checkpoint with a knife to buy milk powder for his child,
That daughter who couldn’t see her mother who jumped from the building because of a door,
That trembling voice of a young mother in the quiet night hallway, “Uncle and aunt, do you have any medicine? My child has a fever…”
Those who fell under the giant wheel…
They are all people who are pushing the huge wheel of the world forward with difficulty and slowly.
And those other people, I still remember them.
They wrote those slogans,
They dug up the roads in the countryside,
They swaggered around this land with wooden knives and guns,
They could smash into other people’s homes without any proof,
And those people I dare not mention,
…………
And, those strange actions, strange world, strange life.
These things, one after another, each one is the same one.
These years, year after year, every year is the same year, the past is this year, the present is this year, and the future is still this year.
Five thousand years of history.
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