Text/Editing: Burst
In a dilapidated old house in Xinzhuo Village, Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, there lives such a family, a father who scavenges for a living, a mother who is born with a disability, and four "black household" children who are still minors.
It is said that the poorer you are, the poorer you are, the poorer you are, and this family is probably in such a state, expecting the child to change her fate, but she is born unable to raise it.
Only one of the four children studied for two years, while the rest lived with their father scavenging.
When their lives were exposed by reporters, the father was also pushed to the forefront, so now that 9 years have passed, has their lives changed?
(The information in this article is from official media, and it has been repeated at the end)
The first group photo in half a life
In 2015, a reporter stunned countless people with a photo taken in Shanxi, the first group photo of a family of six, each in ragged clothes, with their faces and hands covered in dust.
The man in the middle was Yang Songshi, who was only 50 years old at the time, but he looked older, and his wife was holding his hands next to him.
The next four children are his two daughters and two sons, named Yuanyuan, Tiantian, Manman, and Siman, the eldest is 11 years old, and the youngest son is only 2 years old.
The expressions of everyone in the photo seem to tell the world about their experiences, especially Yang Songshi, whose face is full of vicissitudes.
And behind them is the home where they have lived for half their lives, sprinkled all over the ground are scavenged by Yang Songshi, they are all garbage in the eyes of others, but in the eyes of Yang Songshi, it is the foundation of life, it is to feed the family.
When netizens saw this photo, their first reaction was to think it was the people of a certain country in Africa.
Because in their impression, the current society seems to have a good life for everyone, even if they are poor, they will not be like before, they will not be able to eat and wear new clothes.
But Yang Songshi's family reproduces these problems, although the child's name is "Yuanquanquan", their life does not seem to be satisfactory at all.
When they met the reporter for the first time, except for the 11-year-old Yuan Yuan, the rest of the children rushed forward with joy, and their eyes were full of curiosity about everything.
Yang Songshi tried to stand up, but found that his legs and feet could not stand at all, so he could only sit in place and greet the reporters with a smile.
When asked about his legs, Yang Songshi lowered his head and was silent, sighing several times in a few minutes, until the reporter spoke again that he talked about his experience....
Half a life of exile
Yang Songshi was originally from Shandong, but because of his family's poverty, he came out early to work to earn money, and he thought that he could mix well at work.
However, in the first few years of entering the society, he repeatedly hit a wall, and his arrogance at the beginning has long been smoothed out by reality.
But the unwilling Yang Songshi didn't want to go home like this, I was afraid that it would only attract ridicule from the village.
Maybe it was for the sake of face, or maybe it was for his own future, Yang Songshi went to Shanxi and wanted to do a little business with his fellow villagers, but the business was not done, and the money on his body was swept away by others.
In a strange city, he was empty-handed, and there was no one he knew, and he felt that his life was probably over.
Later, his life was chaotic, he didn't want to trust anyone, and he relied on picking up waste to keep himself from starving to death.
It's just that when people reach the age of 40, sometimes they suddenly wake up and realize the absurdity of these years, accompanied by "garbage" for half their lives, and loneliness always surrounds him.
It was also at this moment that Yang Songshi thought of marrying a wife, but all the girls in ten miles and eight towns were married, and those who were not yet married could look down on him.
I haven't earned much money for half my life, and no one in the family is willing to marry their daughter to such a family.
"Don't harm other people's girls" is a sentence that Yang Songshi has heard the most in the mouths of his neighbors, and he also feels that he can't afford to marry a wife, let alone have a baby.
Just when he had already accepted his fate that he would never have a wife in his life, a family came to the door, and Yang Songshi could see that their eyes were full of disgust for him.
But they still greeted them warmly, and they married their daughter at home to Yang Songshi, no bride price or wine, just live together with the two.
Just before the marriage was finalized, they explained that this daughter had a bit of a brain problem since birth, she was disabled, she couldn't speak or work, but she could recognize people.
Yang Songshi did not reject it, he felt that they were all poor people, and they had a warm home together.
In this way, the marriage of the two was officially finalized, and that day Yang Songshi took out all the money in his pocket and bought two sets of new clothes for his wife, so they became husband and wife.
In addition to going out to collect waste on weekdays, Yang Songshi also has to take care of his wife, although the life is tight, at least there is enough for the two of them to eat and drink.
However, his wife's pregnancy made Yang Songshi's heart tighten, on the one hand, he was looking forward to the arrival of the child, and on the other hand, he was worried about how to support the child.
During the entire pregnancy, Yang Songshi did not take his wife to the hospital once, from pregnancy to delivery, he did it alone, because the hospital is a place he never dared to set foot in his life.
Fortunately, the eldest daughter was born smoothly, and Yang Songshi had no culture, but he knew that a family should be reunited and fulfilled, so he gave him the name of Yang Yuanyuan.
The next three children, like the first child, were all delivered by Yang Songshi himself, although the birth environment was very poor, but fortunately the children were born smoothly.
Because he was not born in the hospital, none of his four children were registered, and Yang Songshi didn't know how to get this kind of thing.
The four children fell to the ground, which also made Yang Songshi decide to cheer up, at least to support them all, he just suffered the loss of no education, he couldn't find a job when he was young, he couldn't understand how to do business, and he cheated money.
In order to send his children to school, he found some odd jobs and cleaned up some waste in his spare time, while his eldest daughter took on the role of "mother" in the family.
She is also very sensible, her mother can't talk and can't work, she takes over all the work in the family by herself, and when Yang Songshi is working outside, she is responsible for taking care of her younger siblings.
Sometimes sensible, even Yang Songshi forgot that she was just a child, and later Yang Songshi had a little more money, so he asked Yuanyuan to go to school.
At that time, he thought that at least one of the four babies should study, and he would make a name for himself in the future, at least to change the fate of the family.
However, some things didn't happen like he thought they would, and a series of bad news made this already crumbling home collapse in an instant.
The hemp rope is broken at the finest part
When Yang Yuanyuan was in the second grade, he was unable to continue studying in school because of the problem of household registration, which has always been a regret for Yang Song.
After having no books to read, Yang Yuanyuan could only take the textbooks and read them again and again at home, because she had seen the life on campus, which was what she longed for and what she longed for.
At that time, Yang Songshi has been comforting her, and when everything is fine, she will definitely be able to go back to study, which is Yang Yuanyuan's hope all along.
But this matter has not yet started, Yang Songshi has an accident that caused a leg injury, and everyone persuaded him to go to the hospital to take a look, but Yang Songshi felt that it was no big deal, and if there were any minor illnesses and illnesses at home in the past, he bought medicine and ate it by himself.
This time, he also wanted to escape to the hospital with such a fluke, but this time the heavens still did not hear his prayers.
Since the leg fall, it has become more and more serious day by day, and at first I can still limp forward, but when I get to the back, I am so swollen that I can't even walk.
This is a fatal blow to Yang Song, and his fall will mean the collapse of the family, who can go out to work to support the family?
At this moment, it was as if all the burdens of the family were on Yang Yuanyuan, who was only 11 years old, and she seemed to know what to do.
It's just that she looked at the messy house, and her heart was mixed, and she wanted to say something, but she didn't say anything.
Maturity beyond age, this is the reporter's first impression of Yang Yuanyuan when he first met her.
And the fate of Yang Songshi's family seems to have undergone earth-shaking changes with the arrival of reporters, once they lived in a dilapidated mud house, no one cared about it.
Now, with the arrival of reporters, their lives and unbearable have been revealed, although this makes Yang Song feel a little helpless, but with the reporter's report, they have been noticed.
To this end, the relevant departments arranged a new residence for Yang Songshi's family and registered all four children separately, so that they could have the same opportunity to study as other children.
For children, their background is something they can't choose, but reading to let them choose their own future path is the best way to change their destiny.
In addition, with the assistance of relevant departments, Yang Songshi's family applied for a subsistence allowance and gave them a certain amount of living security every month.
In order to prevent the pillar of the family from falling, Yang Songshi also received treatment in the hospital, although there was no way to recover completely, at least he still had the ability to go out to work.
After all, he still has four children and a wife to take care of, he can't fall, even with the help of the government, he has to get up on his own, and no one can rely on the help of others for the rest of his life.
After the difficulties of life were solved, the life of Yang Songshi and his family gradually got on the right track, and what touched him the most was that all four children had books to read.
(Shanxi Disabled Persons' Federation)
He doesn't expect his children to be rich and rich, but he doesn't want them to follow in his footsteps in the future, and they can at least have a foothold in this society after studying.
There is still a long way to go in the future, and I hope that Yang Songshi's family can also follow the life route they are most looking forward to, all the way.
Resources:
Shanxi 4 sisters and brothers accompany their disabled parents to live in the garbage heap so far "black households" - the CPPCC network
The Yuncheng Disabled Persons' Federation helped disabled families solve their living difficulties in a timely manner