With only half the study time of other children, Zhang Honglian achieved the best score in her township. Zhang Honglian started helping with housework at a very young age. Without a desk, she could only do her homework on the kang (a traditional Chinese bed). Her chronically ill parents had once thought about committing suicide.
Date: September 5
Location: Ping山县 Experimental Middle School
Event: A financially struggling mountain girl earns her living expenses by washing dishes at a restaurant after school
Reporter: Li Xiaobai, Text and Photo
Starting from September 5th, at Ping山县 Experimental Middle School, every day after school, a female student would rush to a restaurant in the county town to wash dishes, allowing her to earn her monthly living expense of 180 yuan.
This female student is Zhang Honglian, who scored 526 points in this year's high school entrance exam, the best score in Yangjiaqiao Township of Ping山县. She achieved this score with only half the study time of other students. Due to her parents' chronic illnesses and her brother suffering from pneumoconiosis, she had to take out half of her study time to take care of them.
Never worn proper clothes
It is 80 kilometers from Ping山县 to Houwen Village in Yangjiaqiao Township, one of the most remote villages in the county, where Zhang Honglian's family resides.
Zhang Honglian was born when her father was 54 years old and her mother was 45. Since childhood, she never wore proper clothes or ate decent meals. Pickled vegetables and steamed buns were what she ate the most. Eating meat once a month was a luxury for her.
In the summer of 2005, when Zhang Honglian was 10 years old and in the third grade of elementary school, her parents went to Shijiazhuang for medical treatment. Every day after school, she would go up the mountain to dig wild vegetables to feed the pigs, water the vegetable garden, wash clothes, and steam buns—doing all kinds of chores.
At the end-of-term exams, she ranked first in her class, which wasn't surprising for her since it was already her sixth time achieving first place.
The collapse of the family's mainstay
In 2006, Zhang Honglian's mother was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, increasing the burden on the family. Watching her mother become as thin as a skeleton, she felt heartbroken but powerless.
Her father and brother worked outside, and life was manageable. However, in the winter of 2008, her father fainted while returning home from Yangquan, Shanxi, and was diagnosed with cerebral infarction.
The elderly couple lay in bed silently crying. Zhang Honglian's mother said to her husband, "Let's both die. If we die, the two children won't have any burdens!" This was overheard by Zhang Honglian who was cooking outside the door. She rushed into the room, hugging her mother and cried sorrowfully. At that moment, Zhang Honglian's brother walked in and said, "Isn't there still me? I will keep supporting this family!"
Her brother's words gave the whole family courage and strength to live. But in 2009, this brother who worked tirelessly day and night in brick kilns and coal mines finally collapsed—he contracted pneumoconiosis. This meant that this young and strong man would lose his ability to work from then on.
The last pillar of Zhang Honglian's family had fallen.
Breakfast and dinner consist of only two steamed buns
Zhang Honglian is the hardest-working among the more than 200 students at Yangjiaqiao Middle School. During her three years of junior high school, she ate two steamed buns for breakfast every day, not even spending 50 cents on pickled vegetables; she ate 3-yuan worth of plain vegetables for lunch with two more steamed buns; and for dinner, she only ate two steamed buns, not even drinking a bowl of porridge. In total, her daily living expenses amounted to only 6 yuan.
This summer, when Zhang Honglian was admitted to the "fast track" class of Ping山县 Experimental Middle School, she couldn't be happy.
Her brother borrowed 1000 yuan from acquaintances to pay part of her tuition fees, enabling Zhang Honglian to attend Ping山县 Experimental Middle School.
Starting from September 5th, Zhang Honglian began working at a restaurant in the county town after school every day, allowing her to earn her monthly living expenses of 180 yuan.
Zhang Honglian's dream is to leave the mountains and change her fate through education. Now, her future path is as winding and long as the mountain roads, but she says she will never give up.