Yvonne - Chenxi - #0505020019

If I had known that it would happen, I would not have chosen to go shopping with my friend during this cold winter vacation.

The south, including my hometown, was lashed by the worst storm in my lifetime. It is hard to imagine if you’d never come through the storm: the snow on the ground was more than 20 cm thick and icicles hung from the trees, even the smallest ones.

Nothing was the same as usual. Like millions of others, I tried my best to get used to the boring life without electricity.

One snowy day, a friend asked me to go shopping. It was so dull to stay at home that I agreed without thinking about the thick snow. She brought a camera with her to take some photographs.

It was near New Year’s Eve. Everyone walked with a big smile on the street. The bad weather could not stop their steps.

Now and then, my friend took out the camera to take photographs. The snow capes were so attractive that neither of us noticed that somebody was following us.

Suddenly I remembered that my mother had asked me to buy some seasonings. Then we went to a market. We had to thread our way through the crowd because the thick snow blocked the road. After I had bought the seasonings, my friend touched her pockets and found that her camera was gone.

She was very upset to ask every passer - by if they had seen her camera. Some said “No” and some expressed their sympathy. At last a shopkeeper told us that he had seen a thief stealing it. Then I ran after my friend to pick out the thief. But it was useless: the thief had left minutes before.

We could do nothing but call 110. Two policemen came in a police car. They asked us what had happened. However, neither of us knew what the thief looked like. What was worse, the shopkeeper was not willing to tell the policemen about it.

At last we went to the police station in the police car and they just took some notes there. It was my first time to go to the police station. But I felt very compunctious.

People usually say: “The snow is cold - blooded while human beings are not.” But the damned thief and the shopkeeper changed my mind. Maybe we should pay more attention to morals as well as the bad weather.