The following day, very early again, Qin Lei and his wife headed off to the street with their goods, but not long after daybreak they noticed something was amiss.
Observing the faces of the people around them, everything seemed unusually heavy
"Excuse me, sir, do you know what's going on? Why does everyone look so grim?" Qin Lei asked a middle-aged man who was eating breakfast in their shop.
"Ah, didn't you hear? There's been an earthquake south of the three neighboring counties. Many people died, and many more have been dispatched to help. I heard my son was among them. Hence, all the worry," said the man with a sigh. "It's almost the New Year and we have such unfortunate events occur, it's hard to celebrate in peace." He had only learned about the event that morning. Being quite far from the earthquake area, they had felt no tremors, and news travels far slower than catastrophe.