When poor village boy
Hong Zhanhui was just 12-year old, his dad
became mentally ill, his mum disappeared, and
he had to look after himself, frequently
going to school with empty stomach. And if
that wasn't hard enough for a little boy to
endue, one day, his dad brought home a baby
girl abandoned by her own mum despite he knew
with his mental condition he was not capable
of looking after her. What would you do if
you were the boy? Let her stave and cry,
because you barely had enough food to eat
yourself?
The choice the boy made
was astonishing: He went out begging for milk
to feed her.
Since then, to the baby
girl he was mom, dad and big brother
all-in-one. He bathed her, nursed her, and
collected wild herbs to feed her and himself.
Once he was badly injured when climbing a
tree to look for bird eggs for the baby, yet
which did not cause him to quit his duty as a
carer, nor stopped him going to school.
Ten years later, when
he passed his tertiary entrance exam and went
to university, he brought his sister with
him, taking partime jobs to support both of
them.
After his story was
spread out over the Internet, he quickly
became one of the most popular figures in
China. Last week, he was invited to meet some
young people in the Inner Mongolia. He went,
along with his sister and his sweetheart of
high school days. On Thursday night, with the
bliss of his hospitable Mongol hosts, in a
tent set on the wild prairie land under a
star-studded dark blue sky, the young couple
were formally engaged.
On the simple ceremony,
they sang a song by a Mongol singer titled
Heaven:
天堂在哪里？天堂就在你的眼里;
天堂在哪里？天堂就在我的心里.
Where is Heaven? Heaven
is in your sight;
Where is Heaven? Heaven is in my heart.
