On September 10, 2008, the gate of Shandong Linyi Normal University was crowded with freshmen who came to report.
Among these new students, there is a special mother and son who are particularly eye-catching.
I saw that my son was holding a large luggage in one hand, and carefully pulling his sluggish mother in the other, afraid of being scattered by the crowd.
Liu Xiuxiang (right) and mother
His name is Liu Xiuxiang, from a small mountain village in Wangmo County, Guizhou Province, unlike other freshmen whose mothers come to send their children to school, Liu Xiuxiang brings her sick mother to college.
And wherever she goes, she will take her mother to life, And Liu Xiuxiang has been insisting since she was 4 years old.
Fight the hardships of life
Liu Xiuxiang also had a happy family.
At that time, the family was relatively poor, but the father was still alive, the mother was gentle and kind, the older brothers and sisters would also share the housework, and the youngest Liu Xiuxiang was pampered.
But all the beauty was all in vain when Liu Xiuxiang was 4 years old.
Liu Xiuxiang's old house
That year, his father died of illness, his brother and sister took over the burden of life, cultivated the land, ran the family, and the young Liu Xiuxiang learned to take care of himself early, and his life was still quite passable.
Soon after, perhaps because they could not bear the pressure of life, the two sisters left one after another, and the brother disappeared one day, leaving only Liu Xiuxiang and her mother to rely on each other.
When my father died, my mother was devastated, suffering from intermittent psychosis, and coupled with the absence of my brothers and sisters, a family completely collapsed.
When all thoughts were gray, the young Liu Xiuxiang carried this fragmented home with his young shoulders, learning to do farm work and grow grain, and a pair of small hands were grinded full of blood bubbles.
Later, he really couldn't plant it, so he subleased his land to others, and he could get about 500 catties of grain every year, plus the relief grain distributed by the town, so that the mother and son could barely survive.
Young Liu Xiuxiang (second from right)
The sick mother is completely unable to take care of herself, and if she gets up in the morning, if no one helps, she will not even wear clothes, she will yell and scream when she is sick, and she will pick up stones and throw them in other people's houses.
Life is very difficult, but Liu Xiuxiang has not given up on studying, the primary school school is opposite the mountain at home, walking for two hours to reach, but he is unimpeded every day and has never been absent.
His studiousness and strength impressed the teachers at the school, and when there was no money to go to school, the teacher paid the tuition fees for him and told him: "Just come and study." ”
At that moment, the teacher's figure was incomparably tall in Liu Xiuxiang's heart, and because of the teacher as an example, Liu Xiuxiang wanted to change the existing living situation and walk out of the mountain, and the only way was to study well!
Driven by faith, Liu Xiuxiang worked hard to study, with the third good result in the county was admitted to the county key middle school, although the tuition fee is not expensive, but for him without any income is still an insurmountable difficulty, and finally chose a private middle school that is exempt from tuition.
But one difficulty after another, to go to school in the county, so what should the mother do?
Although her mother's mental state has improved a lot, she is still inseparable from people, so Liu Xiuxiang gritted her teeth and made a decision that surprised everyone: he wanted to take his mother to school!
The people in the village, especially the older people, did not agree with Liu Xiuxiang's idea after learning about it, believing that he would return in less than a week after doing so.
After all, how can a patient who cannot take care of himself and a child without any income live comfortably in the county?
Liu Xiuxiang did not believe in this evil, for him, his mother is his only relative in this world, although he has not given him maternal love and protection, but as long as there is a mother, there is a concern, he will never abandon his mother!
Before leaving, Liu Xiuxiang deliberately came to his father's grave and prostrated his head three times: "Dad, I took my mother out, I must cure my mother's illness, I want to give my mother a warm home, if I can't mix up, I will never come back." ”
Liu Xiuxiang stood in front of his father's grave
On the way to school, he only felt indebted to his mother
In order to save the road fare, the mother and son walked for 4 hours to the county seat.
With no place to live, Liu Xiuxiang built a grass hut on a small hillside near the school as the home of mother and son.
At that time, all the financial resources were supported by picking up scrap and doing odd jobs on rest days, moving bricks, carrying cement, mud, selling newspapers... As long as there is money to be made, no matter how hard and tired Liu Xiuxiang will work hard.
When children of the same age were still lying in the arms of their parents, Liu Xiuxiang had already tasted the bitterness of life.
After the end of the middle school entrance examination, Liu Xiuxiang was admitted to a high school in a neighboring county, in order to earn tuition, Liu Xiuxiang went to work in the construction site during the summer vacation, working for 18 hours a day: "10 hours during the day, 8 hours at night, he counts you 10 hours." ”
Such a high-intensity work made Liu Xiuxiang very tired, and once accidentally fell asleep during the daytime work, fell off the elevated shelf of more than 100 meters, and fortunately had a strong safety net.
Near the school, Liu Xiuxiang spent 200 yuan to rent a ventilated house on all sides, which was originally used by the host's family to raise livestock.
Liu Xiuxiang found a snakeskin pocket, opened it and sealed all the places that could be sealed, isolating the cold wind, but in the winter, both mother and son shrank in the quilt and shivered.
After going to high school, the cost also became larger, Liu Xiuxiang had to go to class during the day, go out to pick up scraps after the evening self-study, and have to do odd jobs on weekends.
Even with such efforts, there is still no oil and meat on the dinner table at home, and only oil and salt are accounted for in the oil and salt sauce and vinegar, and sometimes even oil is a luxury, often going to the vegetable market to pick up dishes that others do not want.
Once Liu Xiuxiang fell ill and lay sleepy on the sleeper, but was woken up by his mother.
"Hungry, eat." The ignorant mother pushed her son and covered her stomach to express her appeal.
Liu Xiuxiang, who was dizzy, almost exhausted all his strength to get up from the ground, heated up the bowl of cabbage left over from last night, and added some salt to serve it to his mother.
As a result, there was a moment of weakness in his hands, the bowl fell to the ground, and the cabbage was scattered on the ground.
Liu Xiuxiang hurriedly picked up the cabbage, threw it away and felt wasteful, so he had to flush it with water and give it to his mother to eat, he didn't eat a bite, and his stomach kept protesting.
The mother took the bowl and ate it happily, her face was full of smiles, and Liu Xiuxiang on the side cried when she looked at it.
He always felt that he would definitely give his mother a good life by relying on his own efforts, and he made a vow in front of his father's grave.
The reality is that he can only take his mother to live in the leaky pigsty, eating cabbage without oil and salt, which makes him feel particularly indebted to his mother.
"I used to be very afraid of the New Year, I couldn't buy clothes for my mother, I couldn't make food for her, and I always felt that I owed her a special debt."
After wiping away his tears, Liu Xiuxiang continued to devote himself to the intense high school study, for the sake of future life and for the happiness of his mother, he must be admitted to college!
But fate played a joke with him again.
Darkest before dawn
A week before the college entrance examination, Liu Xiuxiang suffered from a serious cold.
Long-term malnutrition and lack of sleep caused Liu Xiuxiang, who weighed only more than 80 pounds, to collapse violently, and finally he played abnormally in the college entrance examination that year and had no chance of college.
This time, the fall completely crushed him.
For the first time, Liu Xiuxiang began to resent the unfairness of heaven and was full of disappointment in life, and he kept thinking about why others had the love of their parents and the support of their families, while he could only struggle with his sick mother.
"I felt like I was reading with my life, I was fighting against fate, but in the end Heaven was particularly unfair to me."
Under the ashes of all thoughts, Liu Xiuxiang thought of light life, and at that moment he could not think of his sick mother, only wanted to be relieved earlier.
When he was packing up his things, Liu Xiuxiang turned to his diary, and the content recorded on it made him more and more desperate the more he looked, either writing about his mother's illness or writing where he was going to work today, full of suffering and tears.
Suddenly, a line of words broke into his field of vision: "When you complain that you don't have shoes to wear, you look back and see that others have no feet." ”
This was written by him on May 19, 2002, and although he can no longer remember the mood of writing this sentence at that time, Liu Xiuxiang's heart set off a thousand waves at this moment.
Yes, there are still many people in this world who are suffering, and how fortunate he is to have a mother and him to live with compared to the orphan who has lost his parents.
Liu Xiuxiang was completely relieved.
He regained the courage to continue his life, working in a bathing center under the introduction of a friend, wiping a back for 5 dollars.
There are many people coming and going in the bathing center, people from all walks of life, and in the conversation with them, Liu Xiuxiang's desire for reading has rekindled in his heart: If they can have such a life, why can't I?
Liu Xiuxiang did not want to wipe the back of a lifetime, he entered the campus again, pleaded with the principal five times, and finally exchanged the opportunity to repeat the study, and the class teacher secretly gave a lot of help after learning about the situation at home, which made him very grateful.
In 2008, Liu Xiuxiang was admitted to Shandong Linyi University (formerly Linyi Normal College).
At the moment of getting the acceptance letter, Liu Xiuxiang hugged her mother and cried bitterly, crying out all the pain she had suffered for so many years and the grievances she had held in her heart.
The ignorant mother didn't know what was happening, but just reached out and gently patted her son's back.
But the new problem comes again, the university tuition fee needs more than 3,000 yuan, which is an unimaginable huge amount of money for Liu Xiuxiang.
But Liu Xiuxiang was not willing to be stopped at the door like this, he decided to earn enough money to go to Shandong with his mother first, and then he went to discuss and communicate with the school, no matter what kind of conditions and agreements can be, as long as he can finish college, he is willing to accept.
When he took his mother to the university to report, the deeds of xiaozi Liu Xiuxiang's "thousands of miles to carry his mother to college" were reported by many media, which touched countless people.
For a time, caring people and entrepreneurs from all over the country extended a helping hand to him, and one donation after another came over, making him feel the concern of the society and the warmth of the world.
But he basically declined.
"I think that a person's difficulties and setbacks are not a capital that you ask for from others or society."
He is not willing to let others pity him, sympathize with him, and is not willing to accept financial support from others, but only wants to live frankly by his own efforts.
"When a person lives, he should not live to make people sympathetic and pitiful, but he should live to make people amiable, admirable, and respectable."
Although accepting financial support from others can live better, but he does not want to lose the ability to support himself, Liu Xiuxiang has the confidence to rely on his own ability to create a better future for himself and his mother.
During college, Liu Xiuxiang used her spare time to work part-time, saving a lot of money, improving the lives of mother and son, and also treating her mother.
After graduating from university, he received olive branches from many companies, including one from Beijing that offered an annual salary of 550,000 yuan, which was rejected by Liu Xiuxiang.
He didn't want others to give him such a job opportunity out of pity, he wanted to fight for it through personal strength.
Eventually, Liu Xiuxiang stayed in Linyi, working for an insurance company with a monthly salary of 12,000 yuan and living the life he had always longed for.
But soon after, a phone call from his little sister, who had been funded by him, changed the trajectory of the rest of his life.
After walking out of the mountains, he chose to go back
During college, Liu Xiuxiang has been scavenging together when the three poor students, he has now walked out of the mountain, but also hopes that more children can come out.
One of his sisters, however, called him and said she didn't want to study.
Liu Xiuxiang was very surprised, this sister is only 15 years old, just graduated from junior high school, why didn't she study?
"I'll give you tuition, and I'll go back to school with peace of mind."
"If I don't read it, my family wants me to go back and get married."
After hanging up the phone, Liu Xiuxiang sat in the room for a long time, and he suddenly realized that although he had walked out, there were still many children from poor families in his hometown who were still struggling in suffering.
Young children do not understand the weight of dreams, nor do they know what reading can bring them, and they live every day in a muddy state, and only someone is there to pull them along.
Liu Xiuxiang wanted to be that person.
"It's enough for me to be able to change one person, and if I can get out, then they are too."
In this way, Liu Xiuxiang gave up his high-paying job without hesitation, returned to his hometown of Wangmo County, Guizhou Province, took his mother back to his hometown, and was admitted as a special teacher and devoted himself to grass-roots education work.
Before returning, Liu Xiuxiang planned well, he will encourage the children to study hard and do everything they can to help them get out of the mountains.
But when he actually took over, he found out how difficult it was.
The students of Wangmo County High School themselves have a poor foundation, and after entering the school, they fight, skip class, drink, and fall in love... I have learned everything over and over again, but I am not at all concerned about learning.
In 2015, Liu Xiuxiang took over a class that caused all teachers a headache, with a total score of 700 in the middle school entrance examination, and the highest score of the students in this class was 258 points and the lowest score was 105 points.
Both parents and teachers feel that these children will not be able to enter the university at all, and even the students themselves think so.
Only Liu Xiuxiang believed.
Liu Xiuxiang visited the students' homes
Liu Xiuxiang understands that in order to change the situation of children, we cannot only start from academic performance, but also the psychological situation and ideological concepts of students need to be reversed.
After home visits and investigations, he understands the family and psychological conditions of each student, and often invites students to his home in batches to cook himself and close the distance with the students.
Liu Xiuxiang was reluctant to mention his past, but in order to convince the children that they could also go out of the mountain, he took the initiative to uncover his scars and take the students to see his hometown and see the dilapidated house.
Then tell them that reading can really change their destiny, and he is an example.
In addition to the problems of students, they also have to face the obstruction of parents.
Most parents have no culture, always feel that reading and knowing words can be, why spend several years to learn? It is better to go to work early to supplement the family.
In order to let the children continue to go to school, Liu Xiuxiang rode a motorcycle to visit door to door, using his own story to persuade the parents, and finally let the children return to school.
With the efforts of Liu Xiuxiang, these children who had been abandoned completed a magnificent transformation, and all 47 students were admitted to college.
The student with a score of 258 in the middle school entrance examination took the 586 test, and the student with a score of 105 was also admitted to the undergraduate university.
On the day of the results, the whole class couldn't help but cry loudly, thanking Liu Xiuxiang over and over again for never giving up.
Since becoming a teacher, Liu Xiuxiang has gone to the students' homes every semester to understand the situation and persuade parents who do not let their children study, riding motorcycles through various townships, riding 8 motorcycles, and pulling back more than 40 children who almost went out to work.
Not only that, he also took out his savings to support poor children, and when he had no money, he went to lobby some business bosses and borrow money from them to support students.
At first, everyone affectionately called him "Teacher Liu", but later they avoided him, secretly saying that he was "beggar teacher".
For these Liu Xiuxiang all laughed, as long as he can help the students, he is willing to give everything.
He also reached out to his college alumni and asked them to help them connect with college professors or big business owners to sponsor children from poor families.
In addition, he has traveled to more than 1,000 lectures across the country, charging no additional fees or donations, hoping that two students per speech will be funded.
In the speech, Liu Xiuxiang inevitably talked about his own experience, but he never deliberately sensationalized or sold suffering, only hoping that those who heard the speech could get the strength to continue to move forward.
Liu Xiuxiang also launched the public welfare activity of "helping students go to the countryside", and there have been nearly 1,000 volunteers who have helped more than 2,700 children.
The number of children admitted to university every year in Wangmo County has also risen from 70 in 2012 to 1270 in 2020.
The goodwill that was once sprinkled also bears the most beautiful fruit.
The children who had been helped by Liu Xiuxiang also followed his example after completing college and returned to their hometowns to devote themselves to grassroots education, and as of July 2021, 36 of the 80 teachers at Wangmo County Vocational School alone were his students.
Liu Xiuxiang's efforts and dedication are remembered by the public and society: he won the Second National Moral Model Nomination Award, China's new "Twenty-Four Filial Pieties", twice selected into the "China Good People List", 2008 Shandong News Network Top Ten News Figures, China's "Filial Piety Ambassador"...
One honor after another has not changed the trajectory of Liu Xiuxiang's life, and he is still the teacher who runs for the students.
Now Liu Xiuxiang is the vice principal of Wangmo County Experimental Senior High School in Guizhou Province, and continues to strive for the education cause of Wangmo County.
In life, the mother is healthy, he also has a beautiful wife and a lovely child, the wife is also a teacher, when the work is busy, the wife takes care of the mother-in-law while taking care of the child, without the slightest complaint, so that he is full of gratitude.
The first half of Liu Xiuxiang's life was accompanied by suffering, breaking out of the world with strength and filial piety, and in the second half of his life, he used his own experience to illuminate the way forward for the children in the mountains and escort them with his arms.
As Lu Xun said: If there is no torch after that, I am the only light.
Resources:
Liu Xiuxiang: The power of struggle
"Heroes Everywhere: Mountain Baby Taking a Sick Mother to School"
CCTV: Touching China's 2020 candidate - Liu Xiuxiang