"If such a situation arises again, as a police officer, I will rush to handle it again," said Xu Donghua, who in March 2019 had his thumb sliced off and sustained serious injuries requiring over 100 stitches while trying to detain an individual with a knife who was out of control.

In September 2022, China's Ministry of Public Security awarded him the title of Second-Class Hero Model of the National Public Security System.

Xu, 36, currently serving as an instructor at Shazhouba Police Station of the Ruijin Public Security Bureau in Jiangxi province, hails from a family with a long military tradition.

His grandfather, a retired soldier, told him many times the moving stories of his great-grandfather, a martyr of the Red Army, who sacrificed his life during the fourth anti-encirclement campaign in Fujian province at age 35 in the early 1930s.

"From a young age, my dream was to become a soldier or a police officer to protect my country," Xu said.

On March 20, 2019, Xu received a report that a man had stolen a boning knife from a meat stall at a market in Ruijin.

Immediately rushing to the scene, Xu and his colleague saw a man brandishing the knife. Xu requested reinforcements while decisively confronting the man.

Using a forked steel pole, Xu pinned the man against a wall, but slipped on the wet pavement. The man broke free, slashing wildly at Xu. Although his colleagues were able to control the man, Xu was severely injured.

"Xu was brought into the operating room covered in blood, with his thumb severed and multiple deep wounds on his face and hands," said Liu Yuanliang, deputy director of Ganzhou East Hand and Foot Surgical Hospital.

The surgery lasted nearly seven hours, requiring over 100 stitches. Before being wheeled into the operating room, Xu did not utter a single groan but repeatedly asked his colleagues if the man had been detained and if any civilians had been hurt, according to Liu.

"My mind was filled with controlling the man at the time because he posed a significant threat to the surrounding people," Xu recalled.

Despite his serious injuries, Xu did not allow his colleagues to inform his wife, who is also a police officer, as she was still nursing their one-month-old child. "I was afraid to let her know," he said.

His wife, Feng Yuanyuan, learned about his injuries by chance through a post on the Ruijin Public Security Bureau's WeChat account and rushed to the hospital. Seeing her husband covered in bandages, she said nothing, but wiped his body with a towel, tears streaming down her face. Even Xu couldn't hold back his tears when seeing his wife.

After more than six months, Xu said, most of wounds had healed but the psychological impact lingered. "In the past, when someone asked me about the accident, I couldn't talk about it or even utter any words about it."

As time went by, with the support of his colleagues and family, including his wife who studied psychology, Xu realized that he must move on, not only for himself but for his children. After more than half a year of adjustment, he was finally able to face the past and work as usual.

Since joining the force, Xu Donghua's outstanding performance has earned him numerous honors, including a first-class personal merit, a third-class personal merit and a third prize from the provincial government.