Xinhua News Agency, Taiyuan, June 20th - Title: The "Most Beautiful Girl" of Linfen, Shanxi: A Filial Daughter by the Sickbed for Years, Taking Her Adoptive Mother to College. Reporters Ye Jian and Zhou Rui from Xinhua News Agency's "China Web Affairs."
At the age of eight, when most children are enjoying a happy childhood under their parents' care, a "post-90s" girl from Linfen, Shanxi started taking sole care of her paralyzed adoptive mother. This care has lasted for 12 years.
Recently, this girl named Meng Peijie became an internet sensation due to her filial piety and was hailed as the "most beautiful girl," with some netizens even composing poetry specifically for her. Reporters from Xinhua News Agency's "China Web Affairs" visited Linfen, Shanxi, to get up close and personal with Meng Peijie's thoughts and feelings, as well as her incredibly arduous life over the past 12 years.
[Core Story] For three years, her adoptive mother took care of her; now she will take care of her adoptive mother for life.
From the age of eight to twenty, in more than 4,000 days, Meng Peijie tirelessly cared for her adoptive mother Liu Fangying without complaint or abandonment. In 2009, Meng Peijie was admitted to the Linfen College of Shanxi Normal University, located a hundred kilometers away from her hometown. Worried about leaving her adoptive mother behind, she decided to "take her mother to college," renting a house near the school and continuing to carefully look after her adoptive mother.
This story of "a filial daughter by the sickbed for years" moved countless netizens when it spread online recently. On local forums in Linfen, netizens built threads to bless her, calling her the "most beautiful girl in Linfen." One netizen wrote: "Practicing filial piety is the beginning of all virtues and also the source of all happiness. In the face of adversity, we cannot lose the attitude towards life that Meng Peijie has shown."
In the poem "To the Most Beautiful Girl" written by netizen "Yutong" for Meng Peijie, it reads: "...They say you are a delicate girl, with slim yet strong shoulders. As a young child, you were your mother's hands, legs, and the sky above her head. They say that the humble room had empty walls, but only true love surrounded inside. As a young child, you were the lamp by your mother's bedside in the dark night, the warmth in her heart during the cold wind..."
Born in 1991, Meng Peijie hails from Xian County, Linfen, Shanxi, and has had an unfortunate childhood. At the age of five, her biological father died in a car accident, and her biological mother reluctantly sent her to be adopted. Not long after, her biological mother passed away due to illness. At eight, her adoptive mother Liu Fangying became paralyzed due to illness, and not long after, her adoptive father left home due to the pressures of life, never to be heard from again.
At the age of eight, Meng Peijie thus took on the responsibility of serving her paralyzed adoptive mother: the two lived solely on her adoptive mother's meager retirement salary due to illness; besides attending school, Meng Peijie had to buy groceries, cook meals, wash and comb her hair, change diapers, apply three kinds of bedsores ointment...
"At that time, she wasn't even tall enough to reach the stove, so every day she would stand on a small stool to start the fire and cook meals. She fell countless times but never complained about the pain," Liu Fangying said. "At first, she couldn't distinguish various vegetables, so she made up her own rhymes like 'long green onions, round garlic, flat green beans...'; sometimes when there was no money at home, she would go out and borrow from neighbors."
"For 12 years, she got up at six every morning, helped me dress, brush my teeth, wash my face, change diapers, and feed breakfast before rushing off to school; after school, she came home to cook, feed, wash my body, exercise my muscles, apply medicine, massage, wash, change clothes, pour waste, and change sheets and quilts before rushing back to class; after school, she hurried home to make dinner, do chores, and help me sleep. After everything was done, it was always after nine, then she would finally sit down to do her homework," Liu Fangying recounted.
Liu Fangying felt "very fortunate" to have adopted Meng Peijie back then: "I wanted to adopt a child, but I thought it would be hard to develop feelings with a five-year-old. Later, unable to resist the repeated requests of the child's biological mother, I decided to adopt her, which turned out to be the most correct decision of my life." Talking about the past and the hardships Meng Peijie endured over the past 12 years, Liu Fangying cried uncontrollably: "I took care of her for three years, but she will take care of me for a lifetime."
[Extended Reading] "I just did what every daughter would do"
During these 12 years, countless touching "small stories" happened to Meng Peijie.
Meng Peijie's high school and university classmate Yang Jiaojiao told reporters from "China Web Affairs" that from high school to university, what impressed everyone most about Meng Peijie was that she was always running, rushing to school and rushing home to take care of her adoptive mother, often panting and blushing red. "After her mother fell ill, both living expenses and medical costs increased. To subsidize the household, whenever she had time, she went out to distribute flyers, turning the originally fair-skinned girl into a 'black girl' from being exposed to the sun."
Taking care of her adoptive mother's daily life was Meng Peijie's longest "required course" every day. After Liu Fangying became paralyzed, she lost control of her bladder and bowels. To minimize soiling the bed sheets, Meng Peijie laid plastic under the sheets and then covered them with bed linen. Even so, washing diapers, clothes, and bedding remained her daily "homework."
Another "must-do" was helping her adoptive mother with rehabilitation exercises. Last year, a hospital in Linfen, hearing Meng Peijie's moving story, admitted Liu Fangying for free treatment. To cooperate with the hospital's treatment, Meng Peijie helped her adoptive mother do 240 sit-ups, stretch her legs 200 times, knead her legs for 15 minutes... When her adoptive mother, who had been bedridden for years, experienced difficulty defecating, Meng Peijie used her fingers to gently scoop it out.
Meng Peijie, who never wasted money, was very frugal with herself but very generous with her adoptive mother. She saved up money to buy clothes for Liu Fangying, while she wore mostly old clothes discarded by relatives and friends' children. While other girls of the same age began to wear makeup and dress up, Meng Peijie kept her simple student hairstyle and spent all her limited money on daily expenses and her adoptive mother. "If I save on clothes and food, mom can buy more good medicine and suffer less."
Once, a classmate invited her to eat for her birthday, but Meng Peijie didn't want to drink the beverage, so she secretly packed hers, found an excuse to leave early, and rushed home to give it to her adoptive mother. During the summer vacation of 2010, Meng Peijie braved the scorching heat to distribute advertisements on the street, earning more than 1,300 yuan. The first thing she did after receiving her salary was to buy braised pork and pig's head meat that her adoptive mother loved, returning home to see her mother tearfully looking at the steaming hot meat and her blackened, emaciated daughter. Occasionally, Meng Peijie would buy chicken legs to improve her adoptive mother's diet, but she never ate any herself, saying, "It's near the chicken's butt, I don't like eating it."
When talking about these difficulties over the years, Meng Peijie didn't feel anything special. She said, "I just did what every daughter would do."
[Feedback Link] Living Optimistically, Unafraid of Hardships
The first time "China Web Affairs" reporters met Meng Peijie, they were somewhat surprised: the slim and petite girl looked more like a teenage girl around fifteen or sixteen, especially her youthful face and strong optimistic spirit left a deep impression.
Liu Fangying said that over the years, Meng Peijie's optimism infected her, giving her the courage to continue living. "In the first few years after I became paralyzed, I had a bad mood and often lost my temper, but she never argued with me. Instead, she smiled and told me stories. She even bought a joke book and read it to me, often making funny faces to amuse me. No matter how hard or tired she was, she never shed a tear in front of me and always had a sunny, cheerful demeanor. She often encouraged me, saying 'Mom, don't be afraid, I'm here. As long as the spirit doesn't falter, there will always be more solutions than problems.'"
The determined Meng Peijie refused many kind-hearted people's offers of help, insisting on taking care of her adoptive mother herself. When asked by "China Web Affairs" if classmates could help by cooking a meal for her, she suddenly hugged Liu Fangying's neck and said, "My mom only likes the food I cook."
When it came to dating, Liu Fangying worried about affecting her daughter's prospects for marriage. However, Meng Peijie laughed and said, "I want to find someone who owns a restaurant! Pork, mutton, beef... My mom who loves meat can eat whatever she wants!" (End)
Comments welcome. Weibo recommendation | Today's Weibo highlights (Editor: SN025)