On the afternoon of the 28th day of the lunar month, I went alone to the riverside and made a few casts, hoping to end the Year of the Tiger with at least one fish. No luck — a clean blank. I was annoyed, though seeing the anglers beside me come up empty too made it sting a little less.
Then back home, it suddenly felt like childhood again: sitting by the stove, feeding firewood under a pot of rice. My mom had somehow found a huge pot and an oversized stove. This year’s big New Year dish was clearly going to depend on that setup.
Low water pressure right before the holiday
Then my wife sprang up in alarm: were we really going to spend the New Year with no water for showers or laundry? She was even threatening to book a room at a nearby hotel just to wash up.
On the morning of the 29th day, I got out of bed, turned on the tap, and heard nothing but gurgling. No water came out. I ran up to the fifth floor and found that water was still coming through there, but only in a weak trickle with almost no pressure.
My first thought was that maybe a pipe had burst somewhere, or the water plant was doing maintenance. I assumed things would probably return to normal by noon, or at least by evening.
After breakfast, the whole family went back to the old home to clean up and put up spring couplets. The tenant had moved out just before the holiday and left behind a shocking amount of trash. It took all of us several hours to clear everything out. We had lunch at my eldest aunt’s place, sat for a bit, and only in the afternoon did we finally finish putting up the couplets. Another year gone by.
By evening, when it was time to wash rice and start cooking, the water pressure still hadn’t recovered the way I expected. If anything, it had gotten even worse.
The clothes from the night before were still sitting in the washing machine waiting to be rinsed. The solar water tank had run dry because it couldn’t refill. Dinner wasn’t ready yet. And getting the whole family bathed had become a real problem. At that point I was getting anxious too, so I grabbed my phone and started pressing away: 0752-2303*…
After waiting about ten seconds, a man with a rough, booming voice picked up. I explained the situation in detail, only to get this response: the staff were all on holiday, there were no repair or emergency records on their side, and the low pressure was probably due to increased water usage nearby — people cleaning, slaughtering chickens and ducks for the holiday, that kind of thing. He told me to wait and check again later.
I had no words. What kind of logic was that? There were empty apartments everywhere, barely anyone around. Many migrant workers had already gone back to their hometowns for the holiday. How could water use be increasing? And besides, if people had really been busy cleaning and preparing, that had already been going on all day. By then most of them should have been done. If anything, with so many people gone, the water pressure should have been better, not worse.
That night we had no choice but to boil water, pour it into buckets, mix in some cold water, and make do with a basic wash. My wife held out until after 11 p.m., still hoping the water would come back. No miracle happened. It was still bucket baths for the whole family.
The next morning, while I was downstairs putting up couplets, I saw water supply workers over by the neighboring building. So much for everyone being on holiday. I went over to ask, and finally got the real story: a pipe had burst on a section up ahead, and the entire surrounding area had been suffering from low water pressure. Quite a few residents in the taller buildings had already called in complaints.
After more than an hour of loud repair work, the water supply finally returned to normal. For a while I genuinely thought we were going to spend the New Year in a miserable mess. Huge thanks to the workers who fixed it — and a bit of contempt reserved for the guy who answered the phone the night before.
Starting this year, it looks like we won’t need to buy spring couplets anymore. My younger sister’s father-in-law has excellent calligraphy, and since they write their own every year anyway, he also wrote a few sets for us.
Wishing everyone a prosperous, healthy, and happy Year of the Rabbit.