A Snowbound Journey Home

Snow shuts the Alden Expressway the day before New Year's Eve, and the drivers caught on it sit there twenty-four hours in the cold with nothing to eat. Chloe and her brother Ryan carry instant noodles out to the road and sell them at five yuan a cup with the hot water free, which is barely over what the noodles cost them. Leah is from their village and does not like watching this. She puts word around that the two of them are gouging people, and the crowd takes it up, first demanding the price come down and then demanding the noodles for nothing. The stall is smashed and the money is taken. The storm gets heavier. Leah has been telling people her boyfriend is bringing a load of noodles up the road, and he cannot get through. The drivers are left with no food at all, and by then the brother and sister have nothing left to sell them.