Chapter Four: Experience

(Previous chapter was banned; it was mainly about the discovery of the virus.)

"You washed all the bowls? I wasn't finished eating!" Zhao Nan'nan glanced at the now-empty coffee table and at Tian Lei, whose hands were still slightly damp.

"They'd already gone cold, and besides, there wasn't much left. It's better to eat less at night, or you'll put on weight."

"Do you think I'm afraid of getting fat?" Zhao Nan'nan said helplessly, "I'm afraid of being hungry!"

"It's fine!" Tian Lei waved his hand and hurried back to his room. Before Zhao Nan'nan could react, he was already standing at her door with a bag of potato chips. "Here, take this as compensation."

"Huh? That's not necessary." Zhao Nan'nan had only been complaining; she hadn't expected him to actually give her something. She declined and quickly closed the door.

Tian Lei stood there for a moment, potato chips in hand, slightly taken aback. "Weren't you still hungry?" he muttered, shaking his head as he returned to his own room.

Inside, Zhao Nan'nan scratched her face after closing the door. When sharing an apartment, some things needed to be clear-cut—eating together was one thing, but being given something individually was another matter entirely.

She had indeed eaten a bit too much. After exercising briefly in her room, Zhao Nan'nan settled in to watch her favorite shows.

The night passed uneventfully. The next morning, Zhao Nan'nan drank a cup of eight-treasure porridge, then turned on her computer to begin work. Writing articles was just enough to keep her comfortable, but she also worked as a graphic designer. She didn't have to go into an office, and each job paid two hundred, with a maximum of three revisions.

Around half past ten, Tian Lei had already set up the scene for the day’s video. He first aimed his phone camera at his full-length mirror to check the angle, then stood before the mirror and did a test recording before officially starting.

"Ah, my back's been hurting lately!" Tian Lei lifted the corner of his shirt with one hand and, with the other, stuck a medicated patch to his waist. Twisting his body as he walked away, the mirror now showed an extra patch on his waist. He recorded the scene three times, finally satisfied, then began editing and adding sound effects.

By the time he finished everything, it was nearly one o'clock—he’d completely missed Zhao Nan'nan’s lunch time. Tian Lei took his equipment into the kitchen to record a quick cooking video: first preparing a finished dish, filming its reveal, then separately recording each step twice.

Zhao Nan'nan leaned against the doorframe, watching him work. Only after he finished did she speak. "Is this how you all shoot these short videos?"

"Yeah!" Tian Lei plated two dishes, dumped out the freshly cooked one, and reheated the earlier batch.

"Wow, you’re so wasteful?" Zhao Nan'nan asked, pointing at the food he’d just thrown away.

"These demo dishes aren’t fit to eat—look good on camera, but if you make them all at once, it's fine. But I have to reshoot scenes, so I use double or even triple the seasoning; would you dare eat that?" Tian Lei shook his head, wearing an expression that said she simply didn’t understand.

Just as Zhao Nan'nan was about to reply, the phone by her computer rang. She hurried back to answer—it was her father calling again.

"Sweetheart, are you outside? If you go out, wear a mask, and come home right away! Don’t stay over there any longer!" Her father's voice was urgent.

"Dad, are you off work already? Slow down! What's going on?" He sounded so flustered that Zhao Nan'nan could barely catch his words.

"I went to ask the doctor on purpose! That new type of pneumonia virus might be contagious!" her father said in a low voice, as if afraid someone might overhear. "Do you know about SARS? You were too little to remember—it was a huge deal back then! The scary thing is human transmission, so just hurry home!"

"Dad, don’t scare me! I’m still busy here. I’ll try to wrap things up quickly and come back as soon as I can!"

"Well, make sure you follow the official news, don’t believe all those rumors on WeChat and online, understand? Always wear a mask when you go out, keep the house well-ventilated, disinfect when you can, and stock up on things like Banlangen, Shuanghuanglian, vinegar, and alcohol!" Her father rattled off all his advice without pause.