"Guangmu Dust" is a photography project jointly initiated by the Beijing News and the Water Drop Chip. We pay attention to the stories behind the people who ask for help, and build a bridge for social fundraising for families in need.
At 2 p.m., it was past dinner time, and there were few customers in the Dingnan Road Vegetable Market in Tuanjie New Village, Lanzhou City. Ma Xueguang was idle, sitting in the corner of his own brewing leather shop looking at his mobile phone, there was a photo of a lady on the screen, with fine white skin, long hair slightly curled, looking down and smiling, "This is my wife Mu Xiaohua." He looked at it carefully for a long time, his fingers touching the screen, and his eye circles were red.
△ Ma Xueguang and Mou Xiaohua sat on the sofa. If an outsider is present, Mu Xiaohua will generally be wrapped in a veil, revealing only a pair of eyes, and the dark red scars around the eyes are still clearly visible.
△ Ma Xueguang held his wife Mu Xiaohua's hand, and the burned skin of his hand was clearly visible.
The images in this article were taken in March 2021
Beijing News reporter Zhao Kang / Photo report
Stuffed skin couple
In 2014, Ma Xueguang and Mou Xiaohua were introduced to each other in their hometown of Linxia, Gansu. The two fell in love at first sight and married in March 2015, having a son and a daughter after marriage. In 2016, in order to make a living, the husband and wife rented a 50-square-meter house in Lanzhou and found a street stall in Tuanjie New Village, Chengguan District, Lanzhou City, to do cold skin business, and the shop was named "Little Brother Brewing Skin".
△ Before it was time to leave work, Ma Xueguang sat alone in front of the stall, waiting for the business to come to the door.
During the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the shops on Ma Xueguang Street were not affected, and the business was booming, and there were epidemic prevention volunteers who responded at that time, "The post is too busy, and it is difficult to eat." After Ma Xueguang heard about it, he successively donated more than 1,000 copies of cold skin, rice dumplings and sweet sauce to medical staff, street volunteers, police and urban management who were sticking to the frontline of the epidemic. The deeds of "little brother brewing skins" have attracted praise from all walks of life for a while.
△ The wet market ushered in the peak of customers, and Ma Xueguang skillfully loaded with cold skins.
At that time, Ma Xueguang was 31 years old and Mou Xiaohua was 25 years old. The old man and the child have been received from their hometown to Lanzhou, Ma Xue disc calculated, "work for a few more years, when you have money in hand, you will open a big shop, and the family's life will be better."
Painful memories
At 8:30 p.m. on August 10, 2020, Ma Xueguang had not yet returned home, Mou Xiaohua was at home making cold skin spices, when frying chili oil, due to careless operation, she knocked the oil pot over, the hot boiling oil was instantly dumped, and the oil pot and the ground caught fire.
Mu Xiaohua ran out of the kitchen for the first time, suddenly remembering that the liquefied gas was not turned off, she turned her head back and turned off the liquefied gas, at this time the flames had ignited around the stove, and the smoke was filled. In the panic, Mu Xiaohua was slipped by the fuel, the choking smoke made her unable to open her eyes, and the flames quickly climbed up her body along the oil stain.
△ After the incident, Ma Xueguang completely whitewashed the kitchen at home, but the black charcoal marks on the wooden cabinet still clearly showed the fire of the day.
Mou Xiaohua eventually climbed out of the room, and later she recalled that she only felt some hair burned at that time, and her face and arms were a little hot.
That night, Mu Xiaohua was admitted to the hospital, and the diagnosis showed that the respiratory tract was damaged and 90% of the body was burned. The next day, Mu Xiaohua's skin was massively red and swollen, her eyes could not be opened, and her whole body began to ache severely.
"It is said that it hurts to give birth to a child, and the pain of burning and changing gauze is ten times that of giving birth to a child," Mu Xiaohua said of the experience of changing medicine, and she was a little excited.
△ Afterwards, although the family washed every kitchen item hard, the chili oil pot that was lit at that time still had a large area of black marks that could not be erased.
Since being admitted to the hospital on August 10, 2020, Ma Xueguang has been taking care of his wife in the hospital. For more than ten days, he gradually got used to the groaning of patients coming from the corridor of the burn department, delivering food, scrubbing, changing medicines, Ma Xueguang insisted alone, until one day, he took the initiative to help the nurse tear open the gauze of his wife's necrotic skin.
At that moment, he felt a burning smell again, "the smell was like a knife, slashing hard in my heart."
△ The eldest son hid alone in the room and brushed his mobile phone. When she was just discharged from the hospital, Mu Xiaohua wanted to take the child out, and the child casually said, "Your face looks like that, others will be afraid." The fairy tale was unscrupulous, but Mu Xiaohua felt uncomfortable in her heart.
Reach out
According to Ma Xueguang, "Just after being admitted to the hospital, I received a notice that due to the serious burns, let the family prepare 1 million." He checked all the bank accounts and scraped together 120,000 yuan.
At this time, the encounter of the "brewed skin couple" was quickly reported through the local media, and the street staff, merchants, and some people who had eaten their "love meal" in the new village launched a donation, and in the face of the huge expenditure on burn treatment, personal savings and initial donations were quickly urgent.
In a hurry, Ma Xueguang launched a fundraising with the help of Waterdrop Fundraising, and in early September 2020, more than 17,753 people reached out to help, and by April 2021, the platform had raised a total of 390497 yuan.
△ The dresser in Mu Xiaohua's bedroom no longer has cosmetics, but is full of various Chinese medicine reagents.
Ma Xueguang withdrew money in batches through the platform for his wife's daily treatment. He was grateful for the fundraising of Waterdrop Fundraising, "The people on the platform did not know me, but in our most difficult time, giving so much help is indeed a charcoal in the snow, so that we can see hope," Ma Xueguang said.
Through the donation of the platform, Mou Xiaohua underwent multiple skin grafting surgeries, and the necrotic skin tissues on the severely burned face, arms, abdomen and legs were effectively treated.
Persistence is hope
At 6 p.m., the wet market ushered in a peak of passenger flow. Customers came one after another, "come to the bowl of skins", Ma Xueguang skillfully packed the cold skins and spices, and from time to time familiarize himself with the guests. "Old patron, spicy more put Ha, today others are also fresh...", before leaving, the guest bought an extra cold cake and sweet sauce.
Ma Xueguang turned back and forth in the narrow shop, cutting skins, seasoning, bagging, and several actions were repeated. After 40 minutes, the cold skin on the board was sold out, and Ma Xueguang was not satisfied with today's record, "Before, the average daily sales were more than 500 pounds, and the recent business was very poor, that is, 100 pounds, less than 1/5."
△ After finishing work, Ma Xueguang quickly cleaned the pots and pans on the stall.
△ At 7 p.m., Ma Xueguang ended his day's business and rode back home on an electric tricycle.
△ Ma Xueguang rode home on a tricycle, the yard was pitch black, the lights of the tricycle flashed outside the window, and he heard the child's voice from the room on the first floor, "Daddy is back"!
Mu Xiaohua and the children stood in the doorway, and Ma Xueguang walked forward with a smile, picked up the child with one hand, and supported his wife's shoulder into the house. At this time, the old man had cooked the noodles and brought them to the table, and the family sat around and laughed. Ma Xueguang picked up a chopstick noodle, took advantage of the heat, sucked and took a big bite to eat, and said "really fragrant".
△ The old man and the child had already eaten dinner, Ma Xueguang took a quick bite, grabbed the mobile phone, and carefully checked the information about burn treatment and plastic surgery.
After dinner, the old man continued to take care of the kitchen chores. Ma Xueguang and his wife walked into the back room, the door was hidden, and they could faintly see that they had changed the gauze of their arms.
At present, Mu Xiaohua's skin is burned in the third degree, her arm is still not fully straight, basic housework cannot be participated, and the gap in follow-up treatment costs is still huge. In order to save money, more than half a year ago, Mu Xiaohua had been discharged from the hospital, and she began to use traditional Chinese medicine to treat and maintain daily pathological maintenance.
△ Mu Xiaohua's mobile phone also has a photo of herself when she was young.
Recently, Ma Xueguang has often gone online to find various burn treatments and cosmetic surgery information. His biggest wish is to replace the necrotic skin on his wife's face, and he firmly believes that "as long as the plastic surgery, Xiaohua will gradually become confident." The days must be lived, the business must be kept, and no matter how difficult it is, we must persist, and everything will become better."
-The End-
Photo: Beijing News reporter Zhao Kang
Editor: Li Kaixiang
Proofreader: Li Lijun