A year ago, Shanghai was on lockdown. Everything closed except a few supermarkets with empty shelves. The humid cold seeped into our bones, along with the fear of the unknown virus.

All the stories are surfacing now. A friend who lived in the Yangpu district had the first corona case in Yangpu reported in their living block. They panicked when they saw the chemosuits gathering downstairs, closing off the street.

Another friend spotted a car with a licence plate from Wuhan in their parking lot, and called the police — after which the car owner showed how the car had been in Shanghai for over a year.

Other friends were locked in their hometown because of the Chinese New Year, and had to ask neighbours to feed their cats.

People would wonder if they felt an upcoming fever, and then think they’d felt an upcoming fever, and panic. Some people only went outside to throw garbage away, others took small walks in the living compound.

Then a month later, we had the sunshine on our face again.