In the spring of 2003, the whole country was enveloped by a terrible disease called SARS, a mysterious virus known simply as SARS that terrorized the lives of every Chinese like a nightmare. But in this semi-isolated remote Kushan mountainous area, it has not been affected, and it still looks like the years are quiet.

However, one day in this spring, something happened that Ma Zhongguo could not forget for the rest of his life, which became an eternal pain in his heart.

After class that day, the students finished school, Ma Zhongguo stood at the school gate and said goodbye to the children one by one, and the children jumped and cheered and walked home, some to the south, some to the north.

Ma Zhongguo watched the students' backs disappear from view, and then turned around and walked into the school and returned to his room.

He made a pot of tea first, and then began to cook, the smoke curling, and the usual coarse tea and light rice, today should be an ordinary day.

"Teacher, Teacher Ma, no, Teacher Ma, no!"

Before Ma Zhongguo had time to eat the food that had just come out of the pot, he heard a child outside the school shouting for him.

An ominous premonition suddenly rose in his heart, and as soon as his hand shook and the chopsticks fell to the ground, he didn't bother to pick them up, so Ma Zhongguo dragged his disabled leg out of the house quickly.

"Teacher Ma, Teacher Ma, the cylinder is ......" The student who came to report the news ran out of breath, and his breath did not slow down.

"What's wrong with the jar, say. Ma Zhongguo asked anxiously.

"A few of us came home from school, and the tank and Jianguo were going down to the river, and then the tank said that they saw a fish and wanted to catch a fish, and they were gone when they swam and swim others...... "The student who reported the news looked like he was about to cry.

Ma Zhongguo's heart was pounding, and cold sweat was breaking out on his head, but he had been comforting himself in his heart, and comforted the students: "It's okay, it's okay, the tank must be fine, I'm playing hide and seek with you to scare you, maybe I've secretly gone ashore and gone home......"

Although he said this, Ma Zhongguo still hurriedly took the students to the place where the accident occurred.

Ma Zhongguo's leg was lame at that time, and because he was in a hurry, he even forgot to ride a donkey, so he dragged the lame leg and ran desperately to the river, but he couldn't run fast, and Ma Zhongguo kept hammering his thigh along the way.

When Ma Zhongguo arrived, there were already many villagers on the bank of the river, his heart sank, and he hurried forward with three steps and two steps, his legs and feet were inconvenient and he didn't pay attention to his feet, one stepped on the air, and slipped straight down the slope to the bank. Through the gap in the crowd, he saw several men dragging a child towards the shore.

Ma Zhongguo stood up, didn't care about slapping the dust on his body, squeezed through the crowd and squeezed to the front, he still had hope in his heart, but the moment he saw the child's closed eyes, he felt that his legs had lost strength, and the whole person knelt on the ground.

"I just had to watch...... Watch him be dragged out of the water to the shore and watch it with your own eyes!" Ma Zhongguo's red eyes looked at Lin Ping's eyes, and his words were already a little hoarse, "I wish he had opened those eyes!

Ma Zhongguo was already choked up.

"I ...... I know. Lin Ping didn't know how to comfort Teacher Ma at this time, the fish just now evoked Ma Zhongguo's painful memories, which made Ma Zhongguo's emotions almost out of control.

"What do you know? You don't know. As a teacher, have you ever experienced watching a student die in front of your eyes!" Ma Zhongguo covered his eyes with his hands, but a few tears still slipped down his fingers.

The villagers dragged the boy ashore and the first thing they said was: The child is hopeless. His throat was choked by the tears swallowed, and Ma Zhongguo basically paused three times when he said a sentence, "I said: No, there is still salvation, and there is still salvation ......."

At that time, Ma Zhongguo took the child over, and then pressed the child's chest cavity and did artificial respiration, he muttered to himself, "There is still salvation, there is salvation" while desperately drowning the child.

It's a pity that everything was in vain.

"I was doing artificial respiration, and suddenly someone pulled me up......" Ma Zhongguo swallowed his throat, as if he didn't want to speak, but it was very uncomfortable in his heart, "I looked up and saw that it was the ...... of his father."

Lin Ping looked at Ma Zhongguo, whose face was suddenly a little hideous, but he didn't dare to speak.

"The father of the jar dragged me up, and then without saying a word, he picked up his hand and began to slap me, one slap, two slaps, three slaps, ......"

Saying that, Ma Zhongguo opened his mouth and pointed to the tooth socket on the right and said to Lin Ping: "I saw my teeth, what is gone, it is the ...... that was fanned out by his father in the jar."

Lin Ping looked at Ma Zhongguo's toothless place, and his heart trembled slightly.

"I didn't resist, I just endured. ”

Suddenly, Ma Zhongguo slammed the table: "But what's wrong with me? What is wrong with me? Why should I be slapped with those dozen or so slaps!"

Lin Ping silently looked at Ma Zhongguo, who was over half a hundred years old in front of him, and didn't dare to say a word, and he didn't know what to say.

After a while, Ma Zhongguo smiled bitterly, and said with a self-question full of helplessness and pain: "Since I am that child's teacher, I should be slapped more than a dozen times." If someone hadn't stopped his father, I might have been beaten to death that day. ”

"The pain of losing a child," Ma Zhongguo continued to say to himself, "The saddest thing is the parents, but aren't our teachers the second saddest? There is not much difference between the student and my child, the student has an accident is like losing a child, except for the parents, there should be no more heartache than our teachers. ”

"Yes. Lin Ping nodded.

Ma Zhongguo looked out the window and smiled: "Today is the luck of the two of us, the children are blessed, there is no accident, they have a big life, not only have the children drowned in the deep water bay, but the adults have also planted several in it." Don't be afraid of 10,000, just in case. But you say, why don't these kids listen to persuasion? How many times, how many times have I stressed that they won't be allowed to go into the water, why won't they listen?"

"My fault, Mr. Ma, don't blame the children, this time my fault, if I hadn't said that, what happened today wouldn't have happened, the children are kind, and the responsibility is all on me. Lin Ping took all the responsibility on himself.

Ma Zhongguo sighed, didn't speak again, and then walked out of the room to go to class.

Lin Ping pinched his forehead, then followed out, and said, "Teacher Ma, I think it is necessary to give another safety education class to the children." We all have a responsibility to not let our guard down on safety, and we should start with a safety lesson on the first day of school......"

Ma Zhongguo stood in place, then nodded and spit out three words: "Listen to you." ”

Lin Ping watched Ma Zhongguo walk into the classroom, and then saw the fish that was stamped by Ma Zhongguo next to him, he squatted down and carefully picked up the fish, and then washed it with clean water and put it in the basin for washing vegetables.

In Lin Ping's heart, no matter what, the students' intentions should be taken seriously.