One-touch life

[Nigeria] Daniel Biosiya, Chang’an University

“Hello, JD Daojia. Your goods have been placed at the fire exit near the south gate, please pick up as quickly as possible.”

“Got it.Thanks a lot.”

About 10 minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I opened the door without peeping at the cat’s eye.

“Your stuff is here.”

Seeing her a little hard, I picked up the parcel.

“Thanks you. I would buy less next time, so you won’t have to work so hard.”

“Haha, thank you for your consideration.We volunteers will carry it for you even if you have purchased a cattle.”

“Please come in and have some water.”

“Never mind. Still have more goods to dispatch.”

“Goodbye.” Today’s chatting quota has been used up.

I have been one year in China and only visited large-scale supermarkets, such as Wal-Mart and Best-Mart, once. Later crowded wet markets became my favorite and then online markets. The shopping form has changed, but it remains the same prosperous Chinese market. I wanted to go out, I know that the home quarantine is for the safety of everyone. When China is at the critical moment of fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, I must not mess up.

After lunch, I lay comfortably on the couch, switching my phone to the Tiktok APP.

“Haha…”

Watching the burned cakes made by Chinese netizens, family pretending to travel at home, drones flying in the street, all these funny videos made me laugh. To be precise, it is a kind of laugh in tears. I saw thousands of doctors and nurses rushed to Wuhan; China set up a hospital in 10 days; All the Chinese people did not give up their hope, doing what they canto combat this pandemic.

Though I am in quarantine without leaving the building, I feel that I have not been abandoned by the world. I can still witness the joy and sorrow of the world.

My telephone was ringing, reminding me it is time to practice martial arts. I switched to Youku APP to follow the online master to practice the “drunkard boxing.”

I was fascinated by Chinese kung fu long before I came to China and I have seen almost all the Chinese kung fu movies. My favorite stars include Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Donnie Yen. After arriving in China, I found a martial arts school to practice kung fu. The school was shut down temporarily due to the epidemic, I was really depressed because I want to continue my practice.

Until one day, I saw a video of a young man practicing kung fu. It inspired me and I downloaded Youku APP under the recommendation of a Chinese friend. To my surprise, it contains almost all the kung fu videos I wanted to learn.

I was so excited and wasted no time to search the “drunkard boxing.” After that, I began to practice martial arts in this online kung fu school at 3:00 pm every day. After the world pressed the pause button, a greater virtual world is waiting for you to explore.

Feeling tired, I took a break and drank some water. But my brain did not stop work. Opening my WeChat, I noticed the online orders from a WeChat group through electric payment. I realized mobile payment has played an important role in meeting the basic needs of 1.4 billion Chinese people.

Home quarantine slowed down my life but gave me more time to ponder. Looking outside of the window, I realized that this vast country has not come to a halt even if everybody is isolated at home.

After I came to China, I was not adapted to the new life at first. But later, I became accustomed to the usage of take-out APPs, car-hailing softwares and mobile payment, which are so fast and convenient. I even began to ignore it.

I feel fortunate to choose to study in China and fight together with the Chinese against the pandemic. In the future, I would return to my motherland with the knowledge I learned here. I will recite to the world all the Chinese stories that have made me laugh, cry, touch and think.

The story is from "My Beautiful Encounter with China" Essay Competition organized by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchanges (CSCSE).