As for the life of her friends: Lulu plans to hold a Mask Fashion theme exhibition when the Sars outbreak is over. But at the moment, she hides at home, writing her first soap opera, Love In The Era Of Sars. She locks herself in the bedroom and writes for 18 hours a day. Her mother leaves food at the door for her to pick up.

Beibei is thinking about holding an outdoor concert outside a big hospital when Beijing is clean from Sars. At the moment, all the concerts her company has sponsored have been cancelled. She has no work to do. As for her personal life, her marriage becomes monogamous for the first time in seven years. Both she and her husband, Chairman Hua, have temporarily closed contact with their lovers due to the fear of Sars. Chairman Hua, feeling bored, is learning to cook for fun. From time to time, Beibei returns home to find him in the kitchen.

CC has written her first will after her parents sent her theirs from Hong Kong. She spends most of her time talking with a doctor in England via Yahoo Messenger. He is her cyber-romantic interest these days.

The good news is that the relationship is absolutely safe. The bad news is there's no sex.

Niuniu realises that her and her friends' lives aren't the only things that have changed so dramatically; society has changed as well.

Vegetarianism is another cool concept. Restaurants that did lucrative business in the butchery of wild animals have closed down. Some of the owners see Sars as the animal kingdom's revenge on greedy humans. The two-footed and upright dominant species has been brought to heel by the forces of nature.

The streets are kept cleaner with the expansion of the government's cleaning forces. The crowds in the shopping malls are getting smaller. There are fewer traffic jams. Shops and restaurants close earlier, at about 7pm.

Doctors, never part of the upper-class professions in China, become more respected. So do the whistle blowers.

Bar girls, karaoke girls and even street-walkers have had to rethink their methods because clients are few and far between.

Niuniu heard that the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen has also seen a major reduction in crossings. Many 'second wives' in Shenzhen have to endure lengthy waits for conjugal visits by their Hong Kong men.

She feels that, in a way, Sars has made China more like America: cleaner, less crowded, with slower economical growth and environmentally conscious ? even the boredom and isolation created by staying at home is similar.

Her major reason for returning to China from the United States was to avoid the boring, predictable, repetitious suburban life in America. What she craved for was the primitive passion in China. But now it has transferred into a deadly epidemic and she feels bored to death in the heart of the country.

One thing that bothers Niuniu a lot is that everybody has become faceless. It is becoming harder to find a new object of desire when

all you can see are the eyes and foreheads of members of the opposite sex.

One day, as she walks towards a convenience store in the neighbourhood to buy bottled water, Niuniu stops to watch a public-health official issue commands to his staff, all of whom wear protective outerwear. When the official removes his surgical mask, Niuniu gasps.

'Look at that, he's a double for Ricky Martin,' she exclaims. The outer world and society may indeed have changed drastically, but inside Niuniu - certain things never change.