On January 18 this year, as the Chinese New Year was coming around the corner, the aura of the community in which my family lived was so peaceful and happy.

    My husband and I were preparing breakfast, talking and joking as usual in the kitchen while our baby was lying in a cradle in the drawing room.

    Suddenly, with a huge deafening detonation, the building drastically trembled, the doors slanted, windows shattered, chairs and electric appliances fell down. We were so deeply shocked, we just became speechless. “Explosion! Explosion!” Screams and shouts coming from a blue funk outside brought us back to reality, my husband shouted out “Our baby,” running to our infant. My god! Very fortunately, nothing had hit our infant! My husband quickly grasped the loudly crying infant and pulled me, yelling “go out fast!”

    Anyway, we safely rushed outside from the seventh floor. Debris was scattered everywhere across the ground, glass from cars was strewn on the sidewalk, and heavy smoke rose from the building. The people were all standing confused and nobody knew what had exploded.

    After about 20 minutes, screaming ambulances and fire engines came, and we were organized by the guards to evacuate to shelters. The next day, we were permitted to go back to our houses.

    Looking at the very chaotic room, I could not help sobbing. My four-month baby, my husband, and I were safe. But my neighbor was not so lucky. The explosion caused by a gas leak in his room made him lose his 19-year-old daughter, and another neighboring lady was severely wounded.

    After this terrible disaster, reading the grievous texts written by the dead daughter’s father on WeChat sometimes, I suddenly realized that life is so fragile and precious, so I need to identify and then prevent the potential hazards in advance, even if they look very small. As well, I need to cherish my family, friends, colleagues and other people around me, more and more.

    The disaster has also helped me understand better the words of Thomas Carlyle, “Cease to struggle and you cease to live.”

    Life is so precious, so I need to do something more meaningful and useful for society, in order not to waste the value of precious life. Earlier I hesitated over acquiring a master’s degree, I even wanted to tear the admission notice up, but now I am determined to get it, because I want to do something more useful to society one day.