This is the moment a tearful Chinese mother and her two daughters knelt down to beg forgiveness from the parents of a student who died while saving the two girls ' lives . The youngsters , aged seven and nine , had gone with their mother Li Xiaoli at the end of last month to visit a man-made lake near the village of Xizhaolou in Qingfeng county , in central China 's Henan province . But as they were playing on the side of the lake , the younger of the girls - named Chao - slipped and started to fall towards the water , and when her sister Liao went to grab her , she fell in as well . Li Xiaoli and her two daughters beg the parents of the man who died saving them for forgiveness . Meng Ruipeng drowned after rescuing the two girls pictured , but their mother failed to report it for fear of a compensation claim . Both girls were wearing winter coats and it was clear they would not survive long as they struggled to get back to the shore . The girl 's mother , who was unable to swim herself , started screaming , alerting a nearby university student named Meng Ruipeng who ran over to help . Without thinking of his own safety , Meng jumped into the water to rescue the girls , The People 's Daily reported . He managed to throw the youngest girl from the steep-sided quarry lake back onto the bank , plucking her from below the surface where she had started to sink , and then pushed the older girl towards the bank where she was grabbed by her mother and pulled to safety . Meng Ruipeng ( pictured ) , 24 , died dragging two young girls to safety from a man-made lake . But the intense cold and exertion had left the 24-year-old student so weakened that he sank below the surface seconds later and vanished from sight . Yet incredibly , instead of raising the alarm , the girls ' mother had been terrified that she would end up in trouble and possibly a compensation claim from the boy 's family , and had told the girls to say nothing . Instead , she had taken them home , dried them and changed their clothes , and acted as if nothing had happened . However , she did not realise that the drama had been watched by fishermen on the other side , who had raised the alarm with police . After divers investigated , they recovered the young man 's body , and then started trying to work out if other people were involved in his death . That eventually led them to the girls and their mother Li Xiaoli , who had initially denied knowing anything about the tragedy but later admitted what she had done . So as the young man was being prepared for the funeral , she and her daughters turned up dressed in black together with all their savings , a total of 10,000RMB ( £1,000 ) , and offered it to the parents of the dead student to make amends . She said : ' I forced my girls to say nothing , it was my decision , and all the shame is mine . ' I offer you my apology and my tribute to your son who saved the lives of my two daughters . ' After seeing the two children in tears alongside the mother , the parents of the dead boy accepted the apology . They also told them to keep the money , saying it would not bring back their son but their admission of what he had done at least restored honour to his death . Mourners lay wreaths at the funeral of 24-year-old student Meng Ruipeng , whose body was found by police . Mr Ruipeng 's parents forgave the mother of the two girls and declined her offer of £1,000 , saying her apology was enough to restore honour to their son 's name .
Mother pleaded for forgiveness after failing to report man 's death after rescue . Meng dong , 24 , jumped into freezing cold water to save two girls ' lives . But exertion and freezing temperatures drained his energy and he drowned . The girls ' mother , fearful of a false claim , refused to report it . But she appeared at his bedside in tears to beg his parents for forgiveness .