“SORRY, I hit a little brother when riding a bike today...” read an apology letter, with a mix of Chinese characters and phonetic alphabet, which has sparked heated debate among citizens, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

It turned out that the apology letter came from a 7-year-old primary school student named Xiaorui, who lives in Futian District.

“He was so strangely quiet that I knew he had done something wrong,” said Xiaorui’s mother. After questioning, Xiaorui admitted that he had knocked down a 3-year-old kid while riding a bicycle in the community that afternoon. He was riding too fast, which caused the accident.

The two children were both being taken care of by their grandparents, and as the grandparents from both sides spoke different dialects, the matter had been left unsettled after the incident.

After learning the whole story, Xiaorui’s parents reproached his behavior and intended to find the kid who had been knocked down by posting a notice so they could apologize in person. Also, they wanted to know if the kid needed medical treatment.

After making the decision, Xiaorui began to write an apology letter under his mother’s guidance, and wrote altogether six copies from 9 to 11 o’clock in the evening. Because he had just entered the primary school, he could not write some of the characters, so Xiaorui’s mother asked him to use the Chinese phonetic alphabet instead.

In the apology letter the mother also added her apologies, in which she repeatedly said she was sorry and that the accident was their fault. If the child needed to go to the hospital for an examination or treatment, they would be responsible for it.

After writing the letters, Xiaorui and his father posted them on each building in the community. The next day, the parents of the child contacted them after seeing the apology letter. Xiaorui and his parents visited them in the evening and apologized in person. The parents of the child were also very gracious, indicating that they didn’t require any compensation.

“I hope the child can learn right from wrong through this incident, and understand the responsibility one should take when he makes a mistake,” said Xiaorui’s mother. (Zhang Yu)