The death toll from the earthquake in Sichuan Province alone has exceeded 21,500 while 14,000 others remained buried as of 4 p.m. on Friday.
Four days after the deadly quake, some people were rescued, some perished. But some of their voices remained to touch many people.
"Please, let me save another child. I can save one more!"
When soldiers were rescuing students buried in the debris of a collapsed primary school in Mianzhu of Sichuan, the wreckage was jolted again in a strong aftershock and rescuers were ordered to leave. A soldier who just pulled out a kid knelt down, bursting into tears.
"Dad, save me. I am still alive."
The 36-year-old doctor Hao Xingjun from the Nanba township in Mianyang would never forget the last words from his daughter, Luyan. He chose to save other's kids first, and, when he turned back to search for his buried daughter, voice of the six-year-old girl has already died down. Holding tightly Luyan's bag, he watched dumbfoundedly as the girl's body was dug out.
"My dear baby, forgive mom."
Cuddling her son's body, Nie Xiaoyan wailed. The teacher from Yingxiu township kindergarten in Wenchuan saved two children when the earthquake happened, but her own kid, three years old, was killed. She wrapped the dead baby with a new quilt and wiped off dust from his cheek, so gently as if the boy would wake up.
"People in the quake-hit regions are more miserable than I am. They even have their lives at stake."
In the Jiangning district of northeastern Liaoning province, a gray-haired beggar in his 60s donated five yuan for people plagued by earthquake on Thursday morning and waddled away. In the afternoon that man in patched blue coat appeared again with another 100 yuan and put the money into the donation box.