Living is a miracle.
There is a well without a cover next to the sand pile, which we didn't take seriously; I built a small sand dune with a small basin full of sand. Somehow, I stepped back a few steps (I completely forgot about the well at that time) and fell into it at once.
Later, I learned that this is a domestic sewage well, which is more than 20 meters deep and the distance from the wellhead to the water surface is nearly 1.5 meters. I was less than ten years old, and I was in a state of confusion. I don't know what happened. I can't swim. I've never swam before. At that time, the well was dark. There is only one thought in my mind: I want to live. I have to live.
But I can't shout it out at all. My mouth is full of water. I can't scream or even breathe. That kind of despair makes me shudder. I fluttered hard, fluttered again and again, and my head surfaced two or three times. I saw two cousins lying by the well, crying themselves hoarse. I was going crazy at that time. I want to tell them to go back and find someone, an adult Don't waste time here. Because they are only teenagers, they must be scared silly and don't know what to do. When I came up for the third time, I realized that I couldn't do it without an adult, because I had no strength at that time, and this might be my last time.
When I was a child, I was precocious, sometimes sensitive, sometimes angry with my parents, and sometimes hard. I wanted to leave as a punishment for adults, but when I was fighting death, I found that people's desperate survival was a hundred times stronger than you thought. Because, the feeling of dying is really too uncomfortable, too horrible, too desperate, just like the abyss. I think many people who choose to commit suicide may have regretted it at the moment of death, but it is irreparable.
Later, the sense of suffocation became stronger and stronger. My ears, nose and mouth are full of water. I can't breathe, I can't shout, I can't even open my eyes. This well is much bigger than I thought. From the outside, it is a round wellhead with a diameter of about one meter, but inside it is a square with a large area. When I jumped up with all my strength for the last time, I heard my aunt's voice. I know I have hope.
As a result, when I fell in, my sister ran home and told my aunt at the first time. My aunt is turning the cake and running as fast as she can. She was lying by the well, but the wellhead was more than one meter deep from the water, and her hands could not reach it at all. She let her cousin drag her legs, so she leaned into the well. She said that the last time I came up, I only showed two fingers. At that time, she was already crazy. If she can't see me, she will jump.
Later, I passed a big brother riding a tricycle and was dragged up after coming. I was still in a daze after coming up, and I heard my aunt holding me and crying, because the well water was cold after the rain, and I was cold and scared, and I was shaking all over. My aunt carried me home, gave me hot water, helped me take a bath, and cried while washing.
Seriously, maybe God helped me and gave me a second chance when I was dying. Special thanks to my sister for giving me a second life. She was only seven or eight years old, but in this emergency, she was able to take her time. She went back to call her adult as soon as possible. I admire her intelligence and calmness. Maybe because we are brothers, we have to protect each other and go on together in this life.
That night, grandpa knew about it and rushed to my aunt's house to take me home all the way. Grandpa has always loved me. He went back that night and wrote down the day on his calendar. He wrote a sentence under the calendar that day-"XX year, X month, X day, the day when my granddaughter XX was born again, if she survived, she would be blessed."
This calendar has been kept for many years. Once I went back to my grandfather's house for the New Year, I also saw that the handwriting was a little vague, but I still felt deeply. Later, grandpa found some connections, and the well was sealed forever.
After this incident, I was as afraid of the well as a reflex. Every time I see a well, I walk around it, with or without a manhole cover. Maybe once bitten, twice shy. For many years, I seldom recall and don't want to recall. Let bygones be bygones. I have never mentioned it to anyone except my family, because it is a place I don't want to touch in my heart, but it has also taught me a lot, taught me to fear life and cherish every day I live.
No matter how much pain you are experiencing, how deep the injury is and how hard it is, don't give up life, because there is hope in life. Many years later, I was often troubled by depression and often questioned the meaning of living, but I never thought of giving up life, because living itself is a miracle.
-Wen Yuan's classic beauty in May 2020.