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The Second Encounter between Firefighters and Shoe Repairers
Zhuang Xiaojie walked out of the courtyard of the fire brigade and deliberately turned into a fruit shop to buy two kilograms of crystal pears.
Today is a rare day off for the detachment. Comrades who live closer have all gone home to visit their families, while soldiers who live far away are too lazy to come out and stay in the study room of the team to play online games. Zhuang Xiaojie is an exception. He neither went home nor stayed in the team to surf the internet because he had a special mission – to visit the lovely elderly at the “Sunset Home” in the east of the city.
This has been a habit of Zhuang Xiaojie for more than two years. On weekends, he would always go to the “Sunset Home” to help the elderly clean the house, repair some small brain debris, or move a stool to sit with them and chat for a while. There is no family member of Zhuang Xiaojie in the “Sunset Home”, but the elderly here without exception regard Zhuang Xiaojie as their closest person.
After Zhuang Xiaojie got off the bus, there was still about a ten minute walk, and “Sunset Home” was located deep in an old residential area.
As he walked, Zhuang Xiaojie felt a chill under his feet and looked down – it turned out that the sole of his shoe had fallen off! One of his foot soles stepped directly on the cement floor. This sudden awkwardness made Zhuang Xiaojie feel embarrassed: “These leather shoes are too lacking!”
Just as Zhuang Xiaojie was in a difficult situation, he looked up and saw a shoe repair shop on a nearby street corner, which could be considered “fortunate in misfortune”. Zhuang Xiaojie jumped up to the shoe repair booth with one foot, supported the electric pole, and said to the shoe repair teacher, “Grandpa, the sole of my shoe has fallen off. Can you mend it?”
“Haha, as long as your shoes are still there, I can fix them for you.” The teacher didn’t even lift his head, but pulled out a stool from behind. “Come, sit down!”
“That’s good.” Zhuang Xiaojie sat down on the bench, “I need you to fix it quickly. I have something else to do.”
Teacher Fu smiled and said, “Okay, I’ll nail the heel of this pair of high heels on my hand and patch the soles of your shoes.”
“That’s great.” Zhuang Xiaojie lifted his foot without shoes for a while, and his leg felt a bit sore. He wanted to find a place to rest. He looked around and saw a fire hydrant hanging in front of him with several pairs of shoes in a mess.
“Master, are these shoes you want to repair?” Zhuang Xiaojie pointed to the shoes on the fire hydrant and asked.
“Yeah,” said the teacher, “didn’t you see that I wrapped several circles of wire around that bolt? The people who come here to fix shoes hang their shoes on the iron hook, which is like ‘queuing up for registration’.”
“But this is a fire hydrant.” Zhuang Xiaojie leaned in and looked at it. The fire hydrant looked quite old, and most of the red paint on the surface was mottled and cracked, with rust stains on the body.
“Of course I know this is a fire hydrant.” Teacher Fu finally lifted his head and glanced at Zhuang Xiaojie. “What’s wrong with the fire hydrant?”
“Fire hydrants are important facilities to ensure fire safety,” Zhuang Xiaojie said seriously. “They are wrapped with iron wire and covered with shoes. If a fire occurs, it will affect the use of fire hydrants!”
“Hehe, young man, what you’re talking about is just one set at a time.” Teacher Fu grinned, “Let me tell you this. I’ve been repairing shoes at this intersection for forty years, and since I was in my twenties, there hasn’t been any fire in this area for a few kilometers. This fire hydrant has never been used by anyone.”
“But… take preventive measures!” Zhuang Xiaojie blushed, “We often say that fires are stronger than tigers, and this accident is not afraid of ten thousand, just in case…”
“Alright, alright, don’t tell me this big truth,” said the teacher, who had already nailed the high heels in his hand. “Here, hand over your shoes.”
Zhuang Xiaojie wanted to say a few more words to Teacher Fu about the importance of fire safety, but it seemed that Teacher Fu was not interested in listening any longer, so he said directly, “Teacher Fu, how about this! I will help you remove the iron wire on this fire hydrant this afternoon, you don’t need to do it yourself.”
“Hey, you young man, why are you so stubborn? You’re struggling with such a cork.” The teacher ignored him and lowered his head, focusing on patching up his shoes.
At this moment, Zhuang Xiaojie’s phone rang.
“What?” Zhuang Xiaojie’s expression immediately became tense. “Okay, I’ll rush back to the detachment.”
“Grandpa, do you have any shoes I can wear here?” After hanging up the phone, Zhuang Xiaojie hurriedly asked the teacher, “I need to go back quickly.”
“What’s wrong, don’t you want the shoes anymore?”
“I’ll come back to pick it up later, there’s no time to wait now.” Zhuang Xiaojie saw a pair of sneakers behind the teacher Fu that he could almost wear. Without saying a word, he took them over and put them on, running towards the direction he came from.
“Hey, those are my shoes!” When the old master realized, Zhuang Xiaojie had already disappeared.
Originally, the phone call just now was from a detachment cadre. A fire broke out in a kindergarten in the south of the city. Now the troops are urgently gathering and rushing to the scene of the fire.
When Zhuang Xiaojie arrived at the kindergarten where the fire broke out, the fire situation at the scene was already not optimistic.
“Most of the children have already come out,” the principal on the playground gasped for breath and said to the firefighters, “There are still a few children who have not been rescued. Their classroom is at the innermost part of the building, which is also the area with the largest fire.”
“No matter how big the fire is, we must save the children!” The commander of the detachment issued a death order to the team members and divided them into three groups, requiring the first and second groups to control the fire from different directions. The members of the third group rushed into the building to save the children.
Zhuang Xiaojie volunteered, “I have on-site search and rescue experience, let me go!”
“Okay, go back quickly!” Several firefighters braved the raging fire and rushed into the teaching building.
Zhuang Xiaojie was the first to rush into the building, and he had already heard the cries of the children coming from the depths of the building. Ignoring the smoke and flames, he charged inward all the way, constantly instructing his comrades behind him, “There are two children here, take them away!” However, he continued to charge towards the innermost part.
“Hey, Xiaojie, why are you still going inside?” shouted the comrade holding the child at him, “Are you not going to die?!”
“What if there were still people inside?” Zhuang Xiaojie ignored the cries of his comrades and persisted in rushing into the deepest part of the corridor. Finally, he found a trembling little girl squatting in the corner of the wall in the innermost classroom.
“Uncle is here to save you!” Zhuang Xiaojie crossed the sea of fire and hugged the girl in his arms.
“All the children are here!” The principal counted the number of people and said with satisfaction.
At this moment, the parents of the children who heard the news rushed in one by one, hugging their babies and kissing them in their arms.
In the parent group, Zhuang Xiaojie unexpectedly saw the shoe repairman.
“Where’s my granddaughter? Who saw my granddaughter?” The teacher rushed over frantically.
“Grandpa, Grandpa!” The little girl who was just rescued by Zhuang Xiaojie ran towards the teacher.
Seeing the grandfather and grandson tightly hugging each other, Zhuang Xiaojie couldn’t help but take a long sigh of relief.
After a while, the granddaughter led the old master’s hand and walked to Zhuang Xiaojie’s side.
“Grandpa, it’s this uncle who saved me,” the little girl said coquettishly.
“Thank you, young man, I’m really…” Before the old master could utter the latter half of his sentence, he realized that the smoky and fiery warrior in front of him was actually the young man who had just repaired his shoes at his place.
“So… you’re a firefighter,” Teacher Fu looked at Zhuang Xiaojie in surprise.
“Grandpa, I’m really sorry,” Zhuang Xiaojie smiled and took off his sneakers. “I’ve also worn out your shoes.”
The old master lowered his head and saw that the rubber sole of Zhuang Xiaojie’s sneakers was almost baked.
“Young man, don’t say anything.” The teacher looked at Zhuang Xiaojie with shame and then at his granddaughter. “I’ll clean the iron wire on the fire hydrant when I come back. These shoes can still be repaired by the master!”
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