Seven years old, this is the age when a child carefree enjoys the favor of their parents, enjoying a happy childhood. In Jilin City, Zhou Tianyu has been shouldering the responsibility of taking care of his home for two years. This is because his mother's legs were amputated and she is unable to walk, and also because his father abandoned them without saying goodbye. At a very young age, he has become the pillar of the family. Unlike other children who go to school hand in hand to play, he goes straight home after school, walking past the silhouette of his father who walked out of their lives... His unfortunate mother Andy assured him that she would certainly give him her all today, sending him off with two dry beans. Zhou Tianyu is a student at the 11th Elementary School in Jilin Chuanying. Every day after school, the first thing he does is carry a bag around the town markets. Lin Guifen, a 62-year-old vegetable vendor, knows him well. From the age of five, he followed an adult to buy food, carefully remembering the appearance and price of each vegetable, and sometimes came home with a pencil drawing vegetables to make a deeper impression. Over time, he became familiar with the market.
His mother, Zhang Wei, a 45-year-old woman living in the Qingfeng district of Jilin City, suffered from myelitis in 2002 and had both legs amputated below the knee. In 2003, the family helped her set up a small stand selling slippers at the Hunchun Street Night Market, where she met Zhou and married him that winter. In 2004, Zhou Tianyu was born. In 2009, his father passed away, leaving the family to her care for their minimal needs.
Difficult cooking and laundry tasks fell on Sky from the age of five as he began helping his mother with housework and learned to cook rice. His head couldn't reach the stove, so he used a small bench under his feet. At five years old, he ate noodles. She let Sky use a swivel to the hearth, and with the help of his mother, he cooked. Every time they cooked, Sky would carefully wash the vegetables they bought and then hand them over to his mother. He would scoop out bowls of rice from the tank, unscrew the faucet to wash the rice, and almost see the water outflow before quickly tightening the faucet.
Zhang Wei's family has an old-fashioned washing machine with no drying function, so laundry had to be wrung out by hand. Sky rushed to help his mother wring clothes while carrying a small stool to dry them well. The distance between the bathroom floor drain and the washing machine meant Sky had to use a basin to scoop out the dirty water from the washing machine, which took nearly 20 minutes to empty all the water. Each laundry session left him sweating profusely...
He said: "I am a man." His mother’s legs are only guaranteed a payment of 500 yuan, sometimes in the market to buy food, small Sky sees snacks and fruit will look twice, but never takes the initiative to ask his mother for money to buy. Hot in summer, when every day I give him 50 cents to buy popsicle to eat, he can eat a few snacks.
She said: Sky likes ordinary children as many dreams, and his grandfather was a police officer, he was seriously affected. After finishing a day's work, he would watch TV, liking cartoons, Jackie Chan’s action movies, and American professional basketball games. His favorite star Yao Ming retired.
For their children’s future, Zhang Wei said: free of charge often encountered around the good-hearted people. In July 2010, before enrollment at Sky's school, the class teacher Ren Yanhui visited his home. Yanhui described Zhou Tianyu as motivated, enthusiastic, and sensible in the class. During the final exam, he scored a perfect score in mathematics. Many students have lunch at noon, and Zhou Tianyu always helps the students reheat their lunch boxes. The schools provide free education. Her home life, though poor, but the mother and son show self-reliance, thus moving us. Her family fights every year to send her family daily necessities like rice and oil.
The Jilin Red Cross rescue home owner, Liu Feng-ying, said in 2010 that the rescue home regarded her family as long-term relief, granting Zhou Tianyu $500 annually.