(New Year's visit to the grassroots level) Thank you for visiting your home for 27 years in Wentai, Zhejiang
China News Service, Taizhou, February 15 (Fan Yubin, Wang Chao, Li Changzheng) "Uncle Zhou is my savior. Without his jump, there would be no me who I am now. No matter how much I say and no matter how much I do, I can’t express my love to him. Wang Jianrong and his nephew, who live in Lucheng District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, came to Tangan District, Jiaojiang District, Taizhou City for another year on the evening of the third day of the first month of the lunar calendar and gave him his “Uncle Zhou”. "-Zhou Liji Happy New Year.
For 27 years, Wang Jianrong insisted on visiting Zhou Liji on the third day of the first lunar month every year without interruption.
Zhou Liji would ask his wife to cook a table of dishes, and the two families would sit together to have a reunion dinner. The Wentai family was already like a family.
Photo by Li Changzheng
This story of repaying kindness originated in 1973, when the 22-year-old Zhou Liji was still a young and sunny boy.
He lives near Dongshan Mountain in Jiaojiang, Taizhou. He loved swimming since he was a child and had good water quality. He entered the Jiaojiang Commune at that time and became a sailor on the cargo ship "Yellow Ji 21".
"This was the only cargo ship on the route between Jiaojiang and Wenzhou, which departed from Haimen Port." Zhou Liji recalled that the rescue day was summer. At about ninety o'clock in the morning, the ship was anchored on the bank of Wenzhou's Ou River. He is cooking in the ship’s Jiefang Wharf.
Suddenly, Zhou Liji heard a rapid cry, because the two places in Wentai couldn't make any sense, and he didn't know what was shouting outside.
"There seems to be something floating in the water, isn't it a pig?" the colleague next to him said.
Zhou Liji fixed his eyes to see where the piglet was. It was clearly a person with his hands still fluttering on the water.
Without saying a word, Zhou Liji went straight out of the narrow observation window on the side of the ship and jumped into the water with a "puff".
Soon, he swam to the side of the drowning man and rescued him ashore.
This is a five- or six-year-old boy wearing only a pair of pants.
Zhou Liji recalled saving people after being photographed by Li Changzheng
"When I rescued the child, his stomach was swollen, foaming at the mouth, and a little unconscious. I quickly gave him a cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and after he spit out several large salivas, he finally relieved." Zhou Liji said. The child and his playmate went back.
In the afternoon of the same day, the freighter left the port to anchor at sea overnight.
When I returned to Hong Kong the next day, I saw a group of people approaching the freighter with drums and gongs.
It turned out that after the family of the rescued boy Wang Jianrong knew about it, they thanked Zhou Liji.
In a flash, 21 years have passed, and the "Yellow Machine No. 21" has also become the "Jiaoji No. 21".
One day, Zhou Liji suddenly received a notice from a colleague that someone from Wenzhou was looking for him.
"I was also at a loss. I had no relatives in Wenzhou, so why would someone from Wenzhou come to me."
When he arrived at the office, Zhou Liji suddenly realized what he had done to save people in Wenzhou 21 years ago.
At this time, the boy who was rescued had become a 26-year-old boy, and it was time to start a family.
After Wang Jianrong's son got engaged, he began to look for his lifesaver.
After many setbacks, finally found Zhou Liji before his son got married.
The hospitality was difficult, Zhou Liji took his wife to Wenzhou to attend Wang Jianrong's wedding.
The feelings of the two families are also closely tied together.
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Wang Jianrong, his mother and sister, took the bus several times and went to Jiaojiang to give Zhou Liji a New Year greeting. This was 27 years.
Today, Wang Jianrong's beard and hair are whitening and he is a father.
And Zhou Liji, who was in his early 20s, was already an old man.
In Wang Jianrong's heart, Zhou Liji, like his father, gave him a new life, and the two families are also close to each other.
Talking about what happened back then, Wang Jianrong is still full of emotion.
He was born in a village on the edge of the Ou River in Wenzhou. His father worked in the Port and Shipping Bureau on the river. There are 6 children in the family. He is the youngest.
When he was a child, Wang Jianrong was more playful and often played by the Ou River.
That day, he was playing on the river bank in sandals as usual, accidentally stepped on the mud and slipped and fell into the river.
It was the fifteenth tide of the lunar calendar, and the turbulent waters of the Oujiang River soon swept him away.
"I was flopping in the river and drank a lot of water from the Huangni River. I felt my stomach couldn't hold it any longer. At that time, my first thought was, when it's over, I must drown in the river."
Later, people on the nearby trestle saw Wang Jianrong who had fallen into the water and immediately shouted.
Zhou Liji, who was on a nearby boat, dived to save people and rescued him, who was dying, back to shore.
Because of his good waterability and working as a sailor, Zhou Liji went into the water many times in his life to save people.
"When I was 14 years old, near my hometown Dongshan, I saved a boy about my age in the same village, and he accidentally fell into the water." Zhou Liji said.
When working as a sailor on a ship, one night a ship on the Jiaojiang River capsized. He rowed a small sampan to rescue people and rescued a crew member who was floating on the water holding a wooden board.
In addition, when the cargo ship docked at Shanghai Port, Zhou Liji also jumped into the water to rescue the people who fell into the water.
(Finish)