College students are required to participate in social practice in order to graduate. However, there are many restrictions in society, and apart from volunteering in mountainous areas for a week and "maintaining order" at nucleic acid testing sites, there is not much for college students to do. So the astronomy club at Nanchang University organized a "rocket launch viewing event" to create learning hours. The astronomy club at my university can also participate in it because there is an alliance of astronomy clubs among universities in Nanjing. The vice president of the astronomy club is my ex-boyfriend, and she invited me to join them.
My relationship with my ex-boyfriend is not good, and it is difficult for me to humble myself and join her team. Even if I join, it is inevitable that I will speak ill of my ex-boyfriend. When others are present, my cunning ex-boyfriend will never argue back, which would damage my reputation among those club members who don't know the story between my ex-boyfriend and me. Sometimes I can control myself, but my ex-boyfriend will find ways to provoke me. In short, being with her makes me uncomfortable. So I formed a group with two middle school classmates and only worked with my ex-boyfriend in the social practice report.
These two middle school classmates, one named Xiaoban, was also my high school classmate, and the other named Azu is now a furry artist. Since none of us expected to take a high-speed train to Zhanjiang first, we had to take an overnight hard sleeper to Haikou. Our beds were separated, I was on the lower bunk, and there were middle-aged people who seemed to be bear enthusiasts on the upper bunks. With their snoring and the smell of smoke, I couldn't sleep at all at night.
After completing the nucleic acid testing upon arrival in Haikou, we took the island loop high-speed train to Wenchang for a site visit and stayed at a pre-booked homestay for the "rocket launch viewing group". The layout of Wenchang is like this: there are fields all around, occasionally with local houses, and there are not many shops along the street. Nevertheless, in some places, you can still see dozens of tall buildings—most of the balconies are empty, and only a few have clothes hanging on them. Our accommodation, "Haishitan No. 2", although called a homestay, is actually a short-term rental property.
After settling in, we started cleaning. There was a muddy nest on the back of the coffee table in the living room, and after crushing it, we could see something resembling a southern cockroach egg case but larger, and we could also see several larvae. After cleaning, Azu eagerly opened a rectangular box, and inside was an astronomical telescope. We assembled the telescope and placed it in front of the floor-to-ceiling window on the balcony, where we could clearly see a spherical building (possibly some kind of radar) on the mountain opposite. After testing the phone stand for the telescope, we closed the curtains and prepared to catch up on sleep. At this time, Xiaoban pointed to the telescope and said to me, "Quickly report Azu to the police station, and we'll split 250,000 yuan." Azu also said, "Yes, with a telescope and closed curtains, it's hard not to be mistaken for a spy." We laughed together.
We couldn't stay in Wenchang and wait for the rocket launch because the rent was expensive a few days before and after the launch. The "rocket launch viewing group" arranged trips to Wuzhishan and Qionghai, and we hitched a ride with them to Wuzhishan and then went to Qionghai. After the bus dropped us off at the highway exit, we took a ride-hailing car to the hotel. As soon as we got in the car, Xiaoban opened the map navigation to prevent the driver from taking a detour. At that moment, I saw a place name on the map: Red Lady Army Statue. The car seemed to be playing songs by Beyond, and on the way, I listened to three songs: "Red Sun," "Glorious Years," and "Really Love You." When "Glorious Years" was playing, we crossed a bridge, and I looked at Xiaoban's phone, which said: Wanquan River.
After settling in, we went out to eat at McDonald's. Qionghai didn't have as many pigeon cages, but it was obviously more prosperous than Wenchang. However, it was still a bleak scene at that time, with two Sha County snacks shops almost facing each other on a six-lane road, and the shops along the road were either empty or closed. There was a sign in front of a closed cinema, which read, "The staff worked hard and made great efforts, but still couldn't make ends meet, so we bid farewell to everyone." The date on the sign was April 2021. From February 2020 to April 2021, I only had three nucleic acid tests, but from April 2021 to July 2022, I had done more than thirty tests. In this regard, the cinema closed in a timely manner. The paper box at McDonald's had the FSC logo, stating that the paper came from responsible forests. I opened the website and it said, "No FSC material from Russia and Belarus until the invasion ends." I pointed to the translated English text and said to Xiaoban and Azu, "Until the special military operation in Russia ends, all FSC paper will come from Russia and Belarus." After joking with them, I opened the FSC website with a .cn domain name, but there was no news about this on the website, indicating that they were more aware of the situation than other NGOs.
On July 24th, we set off at 7 a.m. to watch the rocket launch. We encountered a three-kilometer traffic jam on the way to Wenchang, only to find out that it was a checkpoint at the end. We arrived at nine o'clock, and the launch didn't happen until 2:30 p.m. (14:22:22). We were roasted for more than five hours in between, and Xiaoban and Azu confidently didn't take any sun protection measures, so their skin turned red. The beach where we watched the launch was crowded with people, and there was almost no place to sit. The smoke from a few passengers smoking made me dizzy, so I had to walk around. Azu's astronomical telescope made the launch tower look huge, but the heat wave that day still seriously affected the observation. I saw the rocket ignition and a few "物" barrage in the live broadcast on CCTV News, and then there was a deafening roar. I saw the rocket flying into the sky, and it even created a cloud.
The crowd began to disperse, and I heard someone next to me say, "Indeed, it's enough to see it once in a lifetime. It's really exhausting." I also thought so at that moment. But then I thought, after this memory fades, we might come again in search of unhappiness. That's probably what being human is all about.
On the way back home, we learned our lesson and took a train to Zhanjiang first, and then took a high-speed train home from Zhanjiang. As soon as I came out of the subway station, I was blown by the hot wind: the temperature at my home that day was 40℃. When I turned on the tap at home, I found that I didn't need a water heater to take a hot shower: the water pipes in the residential area were above ground, and after a day, the water inside was probably hotter than the water in the water heater. I waited for half an hour, but the water temperature didn't change, so I had to brave the scorching hot water and take a shower. As I watched the foam wash down from my head, I thought of the empty buildings in Wenchang, and the images of the two merged together.
On the 25th, on the way from Haikou East Station to Haikou Station, the driver said, "These days, there are more people coming and fewer people leaving. It can be said that this is the peak season in Hainan for the past few months. Did you come here just to watch a rocket launch? Why not stay a few more days to visit the Expo?" The Expo was from the 26th to the 30th. "Because I want to go home early." That's what I thought, but what I said was completely different: "I have a tight schedule and no time to visit the exhibition." On August 1st, a case of SARS-CoV-2 appeared in Hainan, and my ex-boyfriend left a little later and was bombarded with calls from the local area when she returned to Nanjing, and she had to do several more cotton swab tests. After hearing about my ex-boyfriend's experience, I remembered what the driver said and thought about those stranded tourists in Sanya and Haikou, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.
August 20, 2022