On the morning of Jan. 25, the very day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, I was unpleasantly woken up by a phone call. It was for my father. He picked it up, and I sensed from his shaky voice that something went wrong.
As soon as he hung up, my father turned to my mother and then me, saying, “It was the secretary. He called everyone to meet in the office right now because of the outbreak of COVID-19.”
“But Dad, it's the Spring Festival!” How I wished my father could change his mind and stay with us. Wasn't the day meant for families to be together? My father, an official working in another town, seldom came back home. And was the virus serious enough to keep us apart? I was upset. To my great disappointment, my father left home without hesitation, comforting me by saying that he would be back soon.
In the following days, news about the fast spread of COVID-19 and the astonishing death toll scared everyone in the country. Father never returned home, only occasionally talking on WeChat, over which he told us how he went from door to door, checking every family and persuading people to stay at home. I realized that my father was working in dangerous conditions under a incredibly great burden. He always looked tired but determined. Every time I told him to take care of himself, he would smile and say, “Don't worry, my son. Your father is as strong as a bull.” At those moments, tears would well up in my eyes, and all my complaints would go away before I could say anything. The talk was brief but meant a lot to me.
I learned from the media that the medical staff, government officials, and almost everyone involved were working in the battle against COVID-19. It was these guardian angels (守护天使) who, despite the possibility of getting infected themselves, were risking their life so that the rest of us could be safe. Among them was my father. He's protecting the people, me included.
注意：续写词数应为150左右。
Paragraph 1:
Then came the bad news that my father was ill in hospital.
Paragraph 2:
Weeks later, my father came back home healthy.
