With his hands in slippers, one leg pressed against his stomach, barely propped up on the ground, and the other hanging in the air. After a high fever at the age of three, Chen Shengkuan, 34, could only crawl and move like this.
Because of polio (polio), Chen Shengkuan's legs atrophied and he could not walk upright like a normal person. He went to elementary school at the age of 9, entered a welfare factory as an adult, met his wife there, and had a lovely son a year after marriage. He had thought that he could live a normal life like everyone else.
But in 2015, his two-year-old son, Chen Zhaoyuan, disappeared in the remote countryside, and Chen Shengkuan's life collapsed.
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He often went out alone to crawl in search of children, and it has been seven years now, and he is often regarded as a beggar by passers-by. He seriously told them that he had come to look for the child, but people asked him, "Is it because the money is not enough?" ”
In December last year, after Sun Haiyang's successful search for a son, Chen Shengkuan began to broadcast live on the Internet and publish the news of the search for a son. He worried about whether his body would be able to hold out for another seven years as his body deteriorated. But as long as he still had a little strength, he wanted to go out and look for it, to remove the "stone pressed against the mouth of his heart".
poliomyelitis
Chen Shengkuan was born in 1987 in a remote rural area in Suixi County, Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province. When he was three years old, he suddenly had a high fever, and his parents took him to the clinic for injections that day, but the fever never subsided.
His father took Chen Shengkuan to the hospital in Leizhou City for treatment, lived for about three months, at first he could still walk obliquely with his things, slowly his feet could not stand up, he could only collapse on the bed, and was later diagnosed with polio (polio).
(Chen Shengkuan)
Chen Shengkuan is the fourth child in the family, and there are three sisters in front of him. His parents valued him and took him to see where he could be cured, but he never got up again.
For the experience of seeking medical treatment when he was a child, Chen Shengkuan only has some vague memories, and his father once carried him across the sea by boat to Hainan to seek medical treatment. Later, he heard his father say that there were originally 30,000 yuan of savings in the family, which were to be used to build a new house, but in the end it was all spent on treating him. After his savings were spent, his parents also borrowed thousands of yuan from relatives and friends to see him.
Chen Shengkuan did not start primary school until he was nine years old. At that time, his feet had lost consciousness and could not exert power on their own, so he could only use his stomach to cover his legs and walk on the ground.
(Chen Shengkuan could only use his stomach to cover his legs and support himself on the ground to walk)
His home is a kilometer from the elementary school, and he crawls to and from the school twice a day, each time taking half an hour. Chen Shengkuan recalled that at that time, he never wore shoes and crawled barefoot. Because I had been crawling at home for a long time before that, my hands had been grinded out of a thick cocoon. If you are accidentally scratched by a sharp object, you will use wild grass and wildflowers on the side of the road to apply the matter.
Because of the poor economic situation at home, the three sisters went out to work after graduating from primary school. Chen Shengkuan knew early on that he could not go to junior high school and did not have the opportunity to work, so he read twice in each grade.
By the time he reached the fifth grade, Chen Shengkuan was seventeen or eighteen years old, much older than the children in the class, and he sat in the last row of the class every time, appearing to be incompatible with the people around him. Because of his unique posture, some children will give him ugly nicknames, and he feels embarrassed and no longer wants to go to school.
After dropping out of school, he began to help the villagers take care of the poultry. Within a few years, there were fewer poultry farmers in the village, when a fellow villager told him that there was a welfare factory in Zhanjiang dedicated to providing jobs for the disabled.
Before going to the job, he bought a pair of yellow sandals at the village commissary, size 34. Because his feet were atrophied, his feet were smaller than those of his peers. He also put a pair of slippers on his hands and went to Zhanjiang.
Chen Shengkuan remembered that at the entrance of the factory, someone would screen and choose people who could work with their hands and take care of themselves. He grew up helping his parents pull peanut seedlings in the field, helping to chop firewood at home, with strong hands, no problem in self-care, and was successfully selected.
After entering the factory, he had a stable livelihood. Before long, he stopped wearing sandals, felt troublesome to button up, and walked in four slippers all year round. Slippers usually start to slip in the soles of the feet in two or three months and need to be replaced.
In the factory, he met his wife Zeng Huarong. Zeng's legs were also disabled due to polio, but he was still able to walk upright. At first, her family did not agree to the marriage, Chen Shengkuan expressed understanding, "I know that my situation is indeed much worse than hers, but I thought at that time, if she is willing to follow me, it is better to respect her wishes." ”
(Chen Shengkuan's wife Zeng Huarong)
About a year after the marriage, his son Chen Zhaoyuan was born. Chen Shengkuan remembers that on the day of childbirth, the doctor said that the child was relatively large, and the wife could not give birth because her feet did not have strength, and finally chose caesarean section.
Just after the child turned full moon, Zeng Huarong gambled and returned to her mother's house, but never returned. Chen Shengkuan needs to go to the factory every day to work, and can only leave the children in the care of their parents in the countryside.
missing
On January 2, 2015, Chen Shengkuan clearly remembers this date.
It was the New Year's Day holiday, and he had planned to leave in the morning to return to his hometown of Suixi County. The 2-year-old son, who recently learned to call "Daddy," is happy, though he can't pronounce the words clearly.
After getting up, the co-workers called him for dinner, and he decided to eat lunch and then go home.
(Chen Shengkuan sits at the entrance of the village commissary, where his son Chen Zhaoyuan was lost seven years ago.)
Still at the dinner table, Chen Shengkuan suddenly received a call from his mother, telling him that Zhaoyuan was missing. He asked his mother if the child was playing around, and after half an hour, the mother called again and said that she had searched the village next door and had not found the child.
Zhaoyuan was lost near the commissary, which had long been taken over by their family and was active in the vicinity on weekdays. At eight o'clock in the morning, Zhaoyuan's grandmother went to the market to buy things, and it was cold that day, so she put her grandson at home and handed him over to his grandfather to take care of.
At nearly ten o'clock, Grandpa began to play cards next to the commissary, and the two-year-old Zhaoyuan played with children of the same age. Around eleven o'clock in the afternoon, the players went home one after another, and when Grandpa got up, he found that his grandson was missing.
On weekdays, it takes Chen Shengkuan two hours to go home, and after taking a bus to Chengyue Station, he takes another hour's motorcycle to the village. He spent two hundred yuan that day and chartered a car to rush home, but there was no trace of his son.
(Chen Zhaoyuan was lost near the village commissary)
Chen Shengkuan couldn't understand why the children suddenly disappeared in such a remote rural area, and the other children who played with them were all right.
He also wondered if his son had fallen into a pond or well. There is a well in front of the commissary, and the wellhead is covered with cement slabs, which is difficult for children to pick up.
Since his son disappeared, Chen Shengkuan's father has always felt guilty, walking around the nearby two ponds every day, walking for more than half a year without finding anything unusual.
Chen Shengkuan firmly believes that the child was abducted, and it is likely that it was an acquaintance who committed the crime.
That was Chen Shengkuan's only child at that time, and for a week after the child was lost, he couldn't sleep, and even thought about taking his own life. The villagers advised him that since he still had a life, he should go out and find the child.
(Chen Shengkuan has been looking for a son for more than 7 years)
He had turned to the media for help and broadcast the search revelation on television, but had not received any news. Half a year after the child was lost, he began to go out and embarked on a 7-year search for a child.
Stone of the mouth of the heart
Chen Shengkuan now lives in a rental house opposite the factory, more than ten square meters, one bedroom and one living room, and the rent is 500 yuan in January. There were two beds in the bedroom, but only one was made of mattresses, and the family of three slept together. There was no furniture in the living room except a low table for eating and a three-tiered iron cabinet for miscellaneous items.
Shortly after Zhaoyuan disappeared, the police notified Zeng Huarong to return to collect blood for DNA testing. Later, after being persuaded by the Chen family, she stayed behind and added a son and a daughter to the family.
(Chen Shengkuan's family is eating dinner)
Zeng Huarong said that he also regretted leaving the Chen family in the first place, and if he had taken his son with him at that time, maybe he would not have disappeared. But at that time, because she was young and vigorous, she gambled and returned to her mother's house and never came back.
For seven years, the matter of searching for a son has been handled by Chen Shengkuan alone. He works in the factory, works from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day, rests two days a month, and can earn about 4,000 yuan. With other allowances, when the family's savings are enough to live next month, he will plan to travel.
At first, he searched all over Guangdong and went to places with many people in various cities and counties. Because of his mobility problems, he can only carry a backpack every time he goes out, containing his son's information, portraits, etc. Sometimes arriving at his destination in the middle of the night, heavy rain fell, chen Shengkuan had nowhere to hide, and could only wait for the clothes to dry at dawn before going on the road.
(Chen Shengkuan on the road to find a son)
Because of his physical disability, he would occasionally hear some gossip on the road, and someone would say, "Do people like you have children?" ”？
Once, Chen Shengkuan was waiting for a traffic light at an intersection, and passers-by saw him sitting on the ground, thinking he was a beggar and asking him for money. He told passers-by that he had come to look for the child, but the other party did not believe it, and asked him if he did not have enough money.
Every time he encountered a similar situation, Chen Shengkuan felt embarrassed, "I don't take money, he feels uncomfortable, I take money (if I do), I am not a beggar, I am looking for children." After that, he was reluctant to travel alone.
Later, he joined the local family search group in Guangdong, carefully paid attention to various news and clues in the group, actively participated in group activities, and followed other parents to the street to put up posters and send notices to find people. Every year he goes out to look for his son four or five times, and now he has traveled to many provinces and cities, as far as Jilin.
(Chen Shengkuan and other parents looking for children)
He had also seen hope. In 2016, a well-wisher in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, provided clues, and a child who resembled Zhaoyuan was found. He immediately flew to the local area, but at the first sight of the child he knew that it was not his son.
In the seven years of searching for a son, he never gave up, "I have always had a stone pressed on my heart, although it is like finding a needle in a haystack, but if I don't go out, I will feel very sorry for the child." Sometimes Chen Shengkuan would dream of Zhaoyuan, and in the dream his son kept crying, saying that someone had beaten him.
After Zhaoyuan disappeared, Chen Shengkuan was also reluctant to return home, fearing that his parents would ask if he had any grandchildren. Over the years, his parents have always felt guilty about it, and his mother will unconsciously cry when she talks about the scene that was lost.
Chen Shengkuan also fantasized that if the "buyer" saw his son-hunting information and took the initiative to take the child out to recognize him, he would forgive the other party, "just to see if he is doing well now."
(In order to find a son, Chen Shengkuan went to Shandong to find the "Divine Pen Detective" Lin Yuhui to paint a portrait of his son)
At the beginning of December 2021, Sun Haiyang, who had been searching for a son for 14 years, found his long-lost son Sun Zhuo, and Chen Shengkuan watched the live broadcast of their recognition of relatives on the video platform.
Sun Haiyang is a "celebrity" in their family search group, and the parents of these relatives have also received the attention of the majority of netizens, lin dan is one of them. She met Chen Shengkuan in a video of a public welfare person, "he is different from others, he is disabled and determined, and there is a sense of perseverance in his eyes."
Lin Dan took the initiative to contact Chen Shengkuan and encouraged him to publish the news of finding relatives through live broadcasting to get more clues. Knowing that Chen Shengkuan's mobile phone could not be broadcast live, she sent a mobile phone and filmed a tutorial of live broadcasting, teaching Chen Shengkuan how to broadcast live step by step.
(The audience in the live broadcast room let Chen Shengkuan pay attention to his body)
Later, Lin Dan contacted the professors of West China Hospital through enthusiastic netizens and asked them to help see the film of Chen Sheng's wide legs. The other party replied that there was no obvious deformity in the bone structure of Chen Shengkuan's spine, and the bilateral hip joint was dysplasia, but no surgery was required.
Neuromuscular disease is considered and requires rehabilitation exercises at the local rehabilitation department. If the effect is not good, it is necessary to go to the hospital for physical examination and auxiliary examination.
However, due to financial difficulties and the need to spend time looking for his son, Chen Shengkuan has not been able to go to rehabilitation.
(Lin Dan paid attention to Chen Shengkuan's condition and helped him contact the professor of West China Hospital and got a diagnosis reply)
Every night, Chen Shengkuan broadcast live in the living room, and Lian Mai, a parent who is familiar with the search for relatives, posted the news of the search for children, comforted each other, and hoped that some viewers could provide clues.
His happiest moment was to hear that the DNA of parents and children had been successfully matched, and every child who was found could bring him a little hope.
In the past six months, Chen Shengkuan has gradually felt some difficulty in crawling, and he is afraid that he will not be able to hold on to the next seven years of searching for a son, but he does not want to give up, "As long as there is still a little strength, I will go out to find it."
Text: Zhang Jiayu | Video, editing: Zhang Jiayu, Ye Zhichao
Producer: Xiaoxiang Morning News Yang Lyrical Image Studio
Editors: Wu Jiaxiang, Ye Zhengxing
Typesetting: Han Ningning | Proofreader: Wu Yihe
Operations: Li Yongmin | Coordinator: Wu Wei