Battle against the disease is proving to be a testing time for lovers. Zhao Yimeng reports.

Two medical professionals form a heart with their hands at Wuhan Fangcang makeshift hospital on Valentine's Day. The hospital is a temporary infirmary designated to treat people infected with the novel coronavirus. (GAO XIANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Editor's note: Couples kept apart by the coronavirus outbreak are finding creative ways of expressing their love, but while some relationships have become stronger, others have shattered under the strain of separation.

Feb 14 saw an unusual Valentine's Day for Ji Tian and Zhang Junjie, who were in quarantine in Xiangyang, Hubei province, because of a lockdown introduced to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

"In 2014, we spent our first Valentine's Day watching a movie at a nearby cinema (in Xiangyang). I remember that it was Beijing Love Story. This year, though, we were stuck in the house, even though the cinema is just a kilometer away," Ji said, sounding disappointed.

On Jan 21, Zhang left his home in Shanghai and traveled to Wuhan, Hubei, where Ji works. The next day, the couple took a high-speed train to Xiangyang, their hometown.

They left Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, a day before a lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the disease came into effect

"The reunion was supposed to be a joyous occasion after two months' separation, but we were surrounded by fear because the station we set off from is just 500 meters from the seafood market where the virus assumingly originated," Ji said.

During 14 days in quarantine at home in Xiangyang, the couple kept a close check for any symptoms of the coronavirus.

In his novel Love in the Time of Cholera, Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote, "It was the time when they loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity."

Well, love in the time of the coronavirus is also complicated, as loved ones are marooned and families separated. Irrespective of whether people are regular citizens or medical workers fighting on the front line, they are being kept apart by a disease that has claimed 2,873 lives and infected 79,968 people on the Chinese mainland.

Despite the heartbreaking moments of separation, true love is still being proved every day by couples who are either fighting the virus together or struggling to maintain long-distance romances.

Ji and Zhang didn't show any symptoms, thanks to the strict protective measures they took on the journey to Xiangyang, such as wearing face masks throughout the entire trip. While they are no longer in quarantine, the city is still under lockdown, so they are treasuring every moment together and living a simple home life.

A couple ties the knot in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Valentine's Day. The outbreak means marriage registration ceremonies have been moved to an outdoor space. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Poems and patients

Most hospitals in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, have canceled visiting hours as a way of containing the coronavirus. However, the ban hasn't stopped Huang Guoqi from visiting Sun Nianjie, her 90-year-old husband, in the intensive care unit of the Hangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Huang, an 84-year-old patient in the hospital's geriatrics department, shows up at the ICU at 2 pm every day, carrying kiwi fruit, a favorite of Sun's, and a love letter scribbled on a slip of paper.

Li Liuyan, the nurse who takes care of Sun, said that before the epidemic Huang often visited Sun and helped him eat the fruit, while the seniors chatted about their medical conditions. Sometimes, they practiced calligraphy together.

"Grandpa Sun has mild Alzheimer's disease, which sometimes resulted in confusion and agitation, but he quickly became quiet after his wife began visiting regularly," Li said.

Anti-virus regulations mean the seniors are unable to meet face to face, so Huang has arranged for Li to deliver the kiwi fruit and the notes in which she expresses her feelings.

At Lantern Festival last month, Huang copied out some classical poems and sent them to Sun along with a note: "Dear husband, 'As the bright moon shines over the sea, you share this moment with me from far away.' I send you my love through these ancient poems in the hope you won't be anxious and will feel relaxed enough to receive treatment as usual. Maintaining your physical strength is a good way of boosting your immune system. Stay strong, my dear husband, Guoqi."

Sun read each sentence and poem carefully, sometimes putting down the note to think for a while. Then, he folded the sheet of paper elaborately, holding it in his hands as if it would disappear.

Those "clumsy" actions perfectly illustrated his love, according to Li.

Instead of quoting a poem in reply, the 90-year-old sat at a desk and wrote: "My wife, you are so tired. Go back and have a rest, and I will go back to bed, too. See you tomorrow (let's meet at 4 pm), Nianjie."

A nurse from Shanghai says goodbye to her husband before her train leaves for Wuhan in January. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Though the word "love" didn't appear in the letters, the depth of emotion was conveyed through every word the couple wrote.

Further afield, a video of a police officer on duty at a remote checkpoint in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, gained great traction on social media recently.

The footage showed the officer's wife arriving at the secluded spot to deliver a meal to her husband, who hadn't been home for several days.

"Why did you come at this time? Just leave the things here and go back directly," the officer told his wife on a video chat as she drove toward him.

As he continued to "blame" her for the risky course of action, he suddenly cried out "Oh! I see you!" in a delighted voice as the car approached.

The video shows the woman getting out of the car and calling, "Darling, I will put it here", as she placed boxes of food on the ground. As the officer walked toward his wife he asked, "Are you mad, to come such a long way?"

He added: "I have missed you so much but we can't meet. What should I do?" When the wife asked if they could hug, the officer paused for a second, and then urged his wife to go home and stay there.

The video ended with the couple turning round to face opposite directions.

Front-line stories

Similar videos and stories have overwhelmed the internet as proof that love can stay strong in the face of travel bans and bacteria.

On Jan 28, Zhao Yingming, a nurse in Sichuan province, started her journey to Wuhan with colleagues to provide treatment for infected patients. Her husband, who was seeing her off, shouted: "Zhao Yingming! Remember! If you come back safely, I will do all the chores for a whole year!"

Chen Ying, who was born in the 1990s, is a nurse at a hospital in Zhejiang province. Her boyfriend, Huang Qianrui, visited Chen at the hospital after seeing a photo of the red marks left on her face by the tight protective mask she wore at work.

Chen cried as Huang Qiangru showed her that he had brought her favorite crucian carp soup and snacks. Standing on different sides of the ICU's glass door, they cried and spoke via their cellphones.

The scene touched Chen's colleagues, who shot a video.

"Are you feeling better?" Huang Qiangru asked Chen, referring to the marks made by the mask.

Chen: "Much better."

Huang Qiangru: "I want to give you a hug."

Chen: "I want to hug you, too."

Huang Qiangru: "How? We can't."

A volunteer in Jiangsu province gives his wife a rose on Feb 14. (GENG YUHE / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Downsides

However, not all the stories are so romantic. More than 500 netizens shared their stories in a survey conducted by People magazine, with some speaking about relationships that didn't pass the test.

Ayumi wrote: "We broke up. The straw that broke the camel's back was that he didn't offer me one of his many face masks during the critical phase of the epidemic."

Xiaolin said the intimacy she had enjoyed with her boyfriend had gone. Trivial matters－such as who washed the dishes, cooked breakfast or tidied their apartment－became major issues. "All I can think about now is resuming work as soon as possible," she wrote.

Miemie described "a pathetic partner tied by the epidemic". She added that the troubled period was supposed to be a time to cultivate love and understanding, but, instead, it was filled with quarrels and even fights caused by extreme proximity.

"We broke up twice in three days, and reconciled because we literally couldn't separate," Miemie said.

Though some respondents reconsidered their relationships during periods of enforced cohabitation or separation, the survey, published on the magazine's WeChat account, showed that some couples reaffirmed their feelings or valued mundane aspects of love they had ignored before.

"L" said the outbreak prompted her to approach a man she had liked for five years and invite him on a date when the epidemic is over. "My story is simple and may not have a happy ending, but I hope people can live without regrets," she wrote.

Treasured moments

Though Ji Tian and Zhang Junjie failed to watch a Valentine's Day movie in Xiangyang, they treasured the day they spent together.

Ji said that compared with people working on the front line or fighting the virus to survive, they were lucky enough to be able to stay home and live a simple life.

When the city's lockdown ends, Ji will go back to Wuhan and Zhang will return to Shanghai.

"I used to complain about him not joining me in the same city. But as we both learned more about our respective jobs via remote working, I understood what he wants to pursue in his career, and I respect his choice," Ji said, adding that her love for Zhang has grown during the time of the coronavirus.

Contact the writer at zhaoyimeng@chinadaily.com.cn