Zhou Dongyu has the best stepfather in the world.

by doudouqaj on 2011-06-09 08:45:56

When Zhou Dongyu was still in primary school, her biological father died in a car accident. Zhou Dongyu painfully believed that with her father gone, there would never be another man in the world who would love her like her father did. The arrival of her stepfather dispelled the hidden worries in Zhou Dongyu's heart.

On a cold winter day, her mother took Zhou Dongyu to her stepfather's home. Zhou Dongyu still remembers the scene vividly: her stepfather, wearing an old blue cotton coat, rubbed his hands together to warm them and then firmly held Zhou Dongyu's small hands, saying, "Dongyu, this place will be your home from now on." Zhou Dongyu gave him a cold glance, buried her head in her mother's arms, and burst into tears...

Her stepfather made his son, who was one year older than Zhou Dongyu, move out of the secondary bedroom and into the narrow attic so that she could stay in the room originally belonging to her brother. Although her stepfather’s love shone on Zhou Dongyu like sunlight, she always felt that this kind of love was chilly and lacked warmth.

In her third year of junior high school, her mother and stepfather had another child, a younger sister. Her mother didn't have a fixed job, and her stepfather's monthly income was only about 2000 yuan. Life for the family of five was barely making ends meet. To earn extra money for the household, her mother brought back two bags of beads from a craft factory and asked Zhou Dongyu to sit under the lamp every night after finishing her homework and string the beads into curtains. A few days later, when Zhou Dongyu came home from school, she saw her mother sitting by the window with tears streaming down her face. She worriedly asked her, "Mom, what's wrong? Did he hurt you?"

Choking back tears, her mother said, "Dongyu, your uncle is one of the rare good people in the world. I let you string the beads at night, but he worried that you wouldn’t sleep well and wouldn’t be able to concentrate in class the next day, so he had a big argument with me. Now, he has already returned all the beads to the factory."

Zhou Dongyu had a natural talent for dancing. After entering Shijiazhuang No. 12 Middle School, her teacher encouraged her to join the school's art specialty class. Learning dance required buying practice clothes, dance shoes, and paying a significant amount of training fees. As a result, Zhou Dongyu had to spend several thousand yuan more each year than other students.

Starting from March 2008, her stepfather went out every night and returned very late. Zhou Dongyu asked him multiple times, "What do you do at night?" Her stepfather chuckled and said, "I've recently become obsessed with chess and play a few rounds with my friends every night." It seemed clear enough! But the faint medicinal scent from her stepfather made Zhou Dongyu suspicious.

One night, Zhou Dongyu woke up to use the restroom and was shocked by what she saw in the living room: under dim lighting, her stepfather sat shirtless on the sofa with膏药(plasters) all over his back. Zhou Dongyu seemed to realize something and rushed over to ask her mother what was going on. Her mother, tears in her eyes, told her, "Your uncle worked at construction sites carrying cement bags every night to earn your training fees." Zhou Dongyu could no longer control herself and called out affectionately, "Dad." Her stepfather gently stroked her hair and said, "Dongyu, I’ve been waiting for this day for many years. I am so happy!"

The patches of plasters on her stepfather's back became the driving force for Zhou Dongyu's progress. In May 2009, Zhou Dongyu had the fortune to be discovered by the famous director Zhang Yimou and became the leading actress in the movie *Love Under the Hawthorn Tree*. After the filming was completed, Zhou Dongyu handed her entire salary to her stepfather and said, "Dad, I can earn money now, so you don’t have to work as hard as before."

In mid-September, Zhou Dongyu went to Beijing to attend the premiere of *Love Under the Hawthorn Tree*. A reporter asked her, "Is being the female lead in Director Zhang Yimou's movie your proudest achievement?" Zhou Dongyu told the reporter, "Being cast in Director Zhang's movie only means I'm luckier than others. What Zhou Dongyu is most proud of is having a stepfather who is the most selfless and great person in the world! Without his sacrifices, there wouldn't be the Zhou Dongyu of today. She will always respect him, take care of him, and treat him as her own father." (zt)