Chapter 22: Natural and Man-made Disasters
In the first grade, the school carried out anti-drug education and publicity activities. It is intended to promote drug knowledge, so that students can cherish life and stay away from drugs. There are dozens of pictures posted on the school's billboards, showing a lot of drugs, as well as the thin bodies of drug addicts, and their bodies that have become yellow and thin due to drug use. There are also incidents of family destruction caused by drugs, which is frightening to watch.
One day, my classmates and I were waiting in the classroom for lessons. Suddenly, the head teacher hurried over and closed the front and back doors of the classroom, telling us to stay in the classroom and not make a sound.
We were curious, and the teacher had to tell us that there were a few drug addicts from the nearby village who had come to the school to make trouble drunk. Let us stay in the classroom obediently, but also for the sake of our safety.
When we heard about this, we were a little scared. The first grade is a bunch of little radish heads, and they have little strength. If something really happens, isn't it a punch for a child? We trembled, not daring to come out, quietly waiting for the results outside.
The male teacher and the principal were outside negotiating with those people, calmly and kindly persuading them to go out. Fortunately, they listened and didn't make much trouble.
In the end, I heard that no one was hurt, and several people were asked out. The school gate was closed, and the teacher opened it. We breathed a sigh of relief.
At that time, I felt that the teachers at the school were very responsible and always put the safety of the students first.
Due to factors such as climate and topography, heavy rains, floods, and typhoons are common here.
It's just that one year left a deep impression on me. It seems to be more than nine years, heavy rain after rain, flooding farmland, and floodwaters pouring directly into homes.
I was only six years old and had not yet studied. Small stature, up to one meter tall. The water was almost up to my neck, and my dad put me and my sister on the bed and told us not to move around or we would be swept away by the floodwaters. My brother was only two years old at the time, and he was only a toddler, and he couldn't walk steadily, so he was held in his mother's arms.
Because the rain kept falling and the water under our feet was getting deeper and deeper, I was afraid that something would happen to the children at home, so my father had to send our babies to my aunt's house in the suburbs.
My aunt's house is not big, and it looks more dilapidated than mine. That night, lightning flashed and thundered, and the power went out at my aunt's house. My aunt lit a candle for us, and our sisters sat in a bed, quietly, and fell asleep after a while.
By the next day, the rain had stopped. In the evening, the water in the house slowly sank. Just to the base of the calf, we went back to our home.
The furniture in the house was soaked with water, and when it went down, it was dirty. When the sun comes out, you need to wipe it again. Then they are carried out and exposed to the sun.
The farmland washed away by the flood is in shambles. The uprooting of vegetables grown by adults and the toppling of rice will inevitably be accompanied by heavy economic losses. My parents lamented and had a sad face, so they could only re-cultivate and wait for a new round of harvest.
After I was in elementary school, I also encountered heavy rain in class. Lightning and thunder, no light bulbs installed, and the classroom was pitch black. The words on the blackboard could not be read clearly, so the teacher had to hold the textbook and walk around the stage to tell us about the book knowledge.
As soon as the thunder hit, there was still a faint trace of excitement in the hearts of the students. Because there are many people in the classroom, I am not afraid, this is called a sense of security. If it was just one person, it would have scared away a long time ago.
When the thunder was too strong, the students screamed again and again. Sometimes when I saw that the teacher was also frightened by the thunder, the students would snicker in the audience.
I didn't have an umbrella after class, so I had to wait at school until the rain was light. Sometimes my mother would come to school and take us home with an umbrella.
I was 10 years old when SARS broke out. I usually only like to watch dramas or cartoons, and basically don't watch the news. I heard the news from Dr. Liu, who runs a clinic in the village, and I didn't know that the disease was contagious and I didn't pay attention to current events.
It was a weekend break and I was sitting around the clinic. I only remember that there were batches of people coming to the clinic that day, all of them came to buy Banlan root and antiviral oral liquid, and after a while, these medicines were looted, and no one came to buy them later.
On the same day, the price of these drugs began to rise, and the price increased by seven or eight times compared with the past, and even the market was priceless, and money could not buy it.
My eldest sister was helping out at the clinic at the time, and she told us that the source of SARS is called SASR virus, which is contagious. We should pay attention to hygiene, wash our hands frequently, pour some disinfectant when cleaning the house, and eat more vinegar and boiled eggs.
At that time, I heard that many people rushed to buy daily necessities such as grain, oil and salt, vegetables, meat and eggs, as well as disinfectant, alcohol and other sanitary and cleaning supplies, but the farmers were self-sufficient, and there was no shortage of food and vegetables, so it seemed that the countryside was calm. When it came to eating, the peasant children did not feel the slightest panic.
In rural areas, the population is largely immobile and information is disseminated slowly. I don't know when the SARS ended, and I didn't ask for a mask at school, but I did ask for disinfectant to clean the classroom a few times.
I only remember that at that time, whether it was the village or the school, the smell of disinfectant was everywhere.
Fortunately, after a period of panic, the virus passed, and everyone was safe.
When I was in junior high school, the silver serial murder case caused panic in society. In the past 14 years, there have been 11 cases of women being murdered.
It was originally a local panic, but because the murderer was never caught, it slowly evolved into a panic among women across the country.
At that time, there were rumors that the killer liked to stalk and kill women in red. At that time, many girls in the school were a little scared in red coats, and after returning home from school, they did not dare to go out at night.
There are rumors in the back, and black pants are not good. At that time, it was very taboo to wear red and black, and it felt very unsafe. On the way home, always check to see if anyone is following you.
Later, the official released news that the murderer killed the woman in red was a rumor, so everyone should not panic.
About a few months later, I heard that the murderer had been caught, and everyone slowly relaxed.