sudden snow
That year 31 October fell on a Friday. It was a perfect middle of the autumn day in Beijing, dry, clear, sunny, and pleasantly cool. The weather had been like this the whole month, slowly cooling off and drying out, but always staying comfortably within the "pleasant" range of weather conditions. I went to a restaurant with two colleagues for lunch, as was our habit. We ate, we drank, we chatted a lot of bullshit.
A couple of hours later we walked outside into what felt like winter. In the time we had been inside the temperature had dropped remarkably, and it was far too bitterly cold for the clothing we had on. We hurried off each to our own apartment, shivering, to find more appropriate clothing and a bit of warmth.
The central heating wasn't due to be turned on until 15 November, though in our neighbourhood it often came on a week or two earlier than required. Which was nice, but no help on this particular occasion.
The first of November I woke up, looked outside. It was snowing.
My wife told me an old folktale about a snowstorm in the middle of summer in a kind of heavenly protest against a gross injustice. I'll have to try looking that up again.