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墨書 Inktalez
Due to safety principles and visibility issues at night, after careful consideration, we reluctantly engaged in a deep conversation with the family, indicating that we must temporarily halt the search efforts. Although the family ultimately agreed, the deep sense of helplessness was evident in her dimmed eyes. It was clear that at this moment, she had placed all her hopes on us, while also harboring a fear that after this pause, we might choose to withdraw from this place and never return.
In this heavy moment, a bold thought suddenly flashed through my mind. I quickly huddled with my teammates and whispered our ideas. After a brief discussion, we reached a consensus and turned back to the family, solemnly informing her: "Don't worry, tonight we plan to set up a tent here and stay put. At dawn tomorrow, we will resume our search!"
As soon as I finished speaking, the tension in the family member’s demeanor broke like a dam bursting. In an instant, tears streamed down her weary face. She was so overwhelmed with emotion that she could barely articulate her gratitude to us. We stepped forward to gently reassure her: "Please believe us; we will do everything we can to find your child!"
The next day, we adjusted our search strategy. According to local residents, the downstream area known as Hui Shui Tuo was a common location for past drowning victims. We took this valuable advice and decided to focus our efforts on the Hui Shui Tuo region.
Around ten in the morning, a sudden downpour hit what had been a clear sky. Although we could not stop working, we knew it was impossible to continue searching in the rain, so we quickened our pace. Fortunately, the rain lasted only about ten minutes before it ceased, and the sun reappeared.
At that moment, one of our team members shouted excitedly: "Look! What is that?" As we steered our small boat closer, everyone’s expressions froze in disbelief. There before us was the child we had been desperately searching for. Miraculously, he had surfaced after the rain, as if it were a divine gift.
We immediately prepared to secure him carefully and slowly pulled him towards the shore. At that moment, police officers who had been waiting on the bank waved us over to indicate where to dock. We handed the child over to them for further assistance.
Before we could even speak with the family, while our equipment was still in the water, an officer hurried over and said urgently: "Brothers, I need your help again."
We asked what was wrong.
His expression turned serious as he lowered his voice slightly, as if afraid of disturbing something: "I just received a call saying there’s been another drowning at Xikou, which flows into the main river." Upon hearing this, my head buzzed and I froze in shock. I couldn’t help but feel disheartened—what was going on? Hadn’t everyone seen how hard the rescue team had been working in the river these past two days? Why wasn’t there enough awareness about this?
After some inquiries, I learned that this latest drowning victim was actually a student from a nearby high school. Because school was on break, this child had sneaked out without telling his family or teachers to swim here. The incident had occurred relatively recently—less than an hour ago. The current at Xikou was relatively gentle, so it shouldn’t pose too much difficulty for our rescue team.
The two rivers were adjacent enough for us to navigate by boat directly over there. Soon after arriving at the scene, someone directed us: "It’s right there." After observing for a moment, we decided to proceed with the recovery operation; this time it went much smoother than before and within half an hour we completed our task.
Back on shore, everyone collapsed by the riverbank in exhaustion. I suddenly remembered I needed to check in with the family and quickly gathered my teammates. However, when we returned to the site of our first mission, the crowd had already dispersed. Later on, I contacted the police and learned they had gone to the station for follow-up work. The officer kindly informed me he would relay our message to the family before hanging up.
On our way back, everyone discussed these two incidents repeatedly emphasizing the need for awareness regarding such dangers. From that point on, we developed educational materials on drowning prevention and made it a point to visit community streets and schools each season for public awareness campaigns. Thanks to societal attention and efforts from various departments, drowning incidents in our jurisdiction have significantly decreased over recent years.
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