Abandoned 29 years ago, the poor couple picked up garbage and sent it to 211 for a miracle of life
In the corner of a small village, there is a fate full of twists and turns. I, Huang Chengyan, was born in 1993 in Wushan, Chongqing. As the fourth girl in the family, I was clearly not welcome in rural China in the 90s.
Luckily, when I was just born, a desperate couple found me and saved me from my fate of abandonment. Although Dad is physically disabled, he is extremely kind. When I was four years old, he took me home and became my father. However, fate was not so kind to him, and when I was young, he died.
My mother and I lived together for the rest of our lives, and we experienced the hardships of being sold and sleeping on the streets. As you can imagine, we can only make ends meet by picking up garbage. Now that my mother is in her seventies, I am by her side every day and try to make her old age as comfortable as possible.
Growing up, I went through too many hardships, but they didn't break me. In the face of adversity, I also met a group of kind people, and their 231 grants allowed me to realize my dream of university, which made me deeply appreciate the warmth of the world. After graduating, I actively devoted myself to taking care of left-behind children and the elderly, and although I was burdened with a debt of more than 100,000 yuan, I never regretted my choice.
Sometimes we are cruel to others in our lives because we have been treated coldly. Sometimes I am gentle with others because I have been gentle with life and the world. A person who comes out of the darkness is more able to understand the preciousness of a beam of light.
I was born in a small village in Wushan, Chongqing, my father worked outside the home, and my mother was an ordinary housewife. A few days before I was born, my dad took a leave of absence in the hope that I would be a boy. However, to his surprise, my mother gave birth to me, a girl, the day after he left.
The disappointment of my family's expectations made me a superfluous being. My mother tried to cover me with a quilt after I was born, but luckily my sister's crying stopped in time. At this time, a disabled adoptive father passed by the bridge and found me. Even though he was in his 50s, could only see with one eye and was lame on one leg, he was kind-hearted and decided to take me home.
The adoptive father's family was already poor, and the house was in a dilapidated state. Although the two sons work outside the home, they hardly give the family money, which makes life very difficult for the adoptive parents. My adoptive mother didn't agree to adopt me at first, but after my adoptive father's persuasion, she eventually agreed. In this way, I have new parents and a home.
It doesn't mean I'll be able to grow up. In the era when the family planning policy was strictly enforced, my mother already had two sons, and I was equivalent to the third child in their family. The township and village often made trouble, demanded fines, and even threatened my parents to have their sterilizations. This made life more difficult for my family.
Despite my difficult family background, I continued to grow up in a difficult environment. The 231 grants helped me to go to college and gave me the opportunity to pursue a better life. After graduating, I devoted myself to caring for left-behind children and the elderly, and although I was in debt, I firmly believed that it was worth it.
The road of life is full of ups and downs, but I have never regretted choosing this difficult path. In the face of adversity, I have learned the true meaning of life and cherished every ray of light even more. I, Huang Chengyan, am a Chongqing girl who has struggled and lived her infinite possibilities.
Once, my mom was cornered. Her cry was filled with desperation: "That's a life, too!" What do you think I can do? Are you going to let me kill her? Or will you not be saved? ”
Since then, the story of my mom holding me has faded into obscurity. There was no further delvement into the above, and it was too difficult for my parents to afford so many fines.
Without their interference, I have grown up in this home. Despite living in poverty, I still grew into a well-behaved girl who was much loved. It would be nice if time could pass like this forever, but unfortunately, there are no ifs in life! During the Chinese New Year when I was four years old, my dad passed away.
It was as if he knew he was leaving, and he was constantly busy all day. All the places in the house where firewood could be stacked were stuffed to the brim. Then they went two or three kilometers away to fetch water, as long as the containers that could hold water were full.
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, my dad hugged me tightly all day and kept talking. I can't remember what he said, but I remember that the tight hug was full of Daddy's reluctance and love.
On the night of the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, my dad said that he wanted to eat a bowl of noodles and add some oil to fry it. My mother and I traveled all over the village to borrow oil and noodles, and finally borrowed a spoonful of lard, a handful of noodles, and some green onions, ginger, and garlic from a kind family. I cooked a bowl for my dad when I got home, but he only ate a little bit and then fell asleep. The next day, my dad never woke up.
When the father was buried, neither brother returned. After my father left, my mother and I were the only ones at home, and life was even more difficult. About two or three years later, the second brother came back with his wife. He said he was going to take my mother and me to his wife's house. Originally, we thought that we had seen a little hope that life would be better, but we didn't expect it to be worse than before.
The second sister-in-law's house is in the next county, and it takes more than 5 hours to drive to arrive. She is 15 years older than her second brother, and she also has a ten-year-old daughter.
I was only six or seven years old at the time, and one of the things that impressed me a lot after living together was that the mother and daughter were going to pierce my ears. I cried and resisted, but to no avail, they held my head down, grabbed my ears, and stubbornly threaded them with embroidery needles.
If these are tolerable, there is one thing that is intolerable.
One night, my mom overheard them discussing something in private. Because my dad has been dead for many years, my second sister-in-law wants her dad and my mom to form a new family, and then sell me.
When my mother heard this, she took me to flee the place overnight, as if I was running for my life. We walked for three days and three nights to reach the county seat of our hometown, and with nowhere to go, we had to return to that crumbling home again.
The hole in the house is encountering a big hailstorm, smashing the otherwise unstable house to pieces. When we were about to lose our only place to live, my mother and I were helpless and anxious about what to do. Luckily, a neighbor who was going to work in Zhejiang saw our plight and asked us to stay in his empty room for making tobacco leaves. This has only temporarily solved the urgent problem of housing.
I'm nine years old, but I still haven't had the opportunity to go to school. When my biological parents found out about this, they contacted an acquaintance on my side of the family and sent me to school. From then on, I had to walk an hour to school every day and an hour home after school. Days like this went on until I was in third grade.
My eldest brother came back after working outside the home for many years and took me and my mother to the village. The house he rented in the township was also relatively close to my school. I have met more people here, and my horizons have broadened. However, this seemingly peaceful day was hidden by a storm.
In the few years he worked outside, the eldest brother turned out to be a gambler. All his emotions depend on winning or losing at the table. If he loses, his children and we will be implicated. What's more, one night, he suddenly packed his bags and disappeared. Because he owed a lot of gambling debts and couldn't repay the loan sharks, he left the children and us behind and walked away with his wife.
We were penniless, and our livelihoods became a big problem. I had no choice but to return to my hometown. How can we continue to live without the economy**? At this time, my mother thought of picking up garbage.
At the head of the bridge where my dad picked me up, there was a ditch below, and people threw their garbage into it. Every day, my mom and I picked up trash along the ditch. At first, my mom and I were a little embarrassed, and so was I. However, in desperation, only this job can make us some money. So, I kept convincing myself in my heart.
During this period, my second brother went home during the Spring Festival. He returned with five children, who were standing there in a row like cell phone signals. He wanted his mother to help take care of the children, and he went out to work to give his mother a monthly living allowance. The words sound good, but we don't trust him anymore.
He has never given his mother a penny since he went out to work in the first year. Moreover, my mother is in her 60s and simply cannot take care of so many children. In addition, we have never had a stable place to live, we are uncertain where we will go in the future, and we simply cannot afford to support so many children.
Therefore, I firmly rejected the second brother's proposal. When he saw that I didn't agree, he had a big fight with me. I distinctly remember him saying, "A girl who has been picked up dares to speak in our house?" ”
It was the Spring Festival, it was snowing heavily, and we were arguing fiercely inside the house. I don't think there are many families who have had such a hard time during the Chinese New Year as we do.
After the quarrel, my mother and I had to avoid him, like a plague. Because we really have no other way, in case he really leaves the child at home, we can't ignore it, after all, it's a life! So we had to go into hiding.
As I grew up in this life, I gradually realized that only knowledge could change the fate of my mother and me. I've been working very hard since I started school.
Being three years older than my classmates, I had to learn better than them. This became what I asked of myself. At that time, I began to think about some questions about the survival and development space of girls, and developed the Xi of writing a diary.
Throughout my school year, my biological parents would give me some registration fees whenever school started. However, the cost of living is almost none, and even if there is, it is only a few tens of dollars a semester.
Mom couldn't give me any support financially because she didn't have any financial **. The school sometimes gives a small subsidy, and I use the money to buy a bag of rice at school to take home and feed my mother.
Due to the extreme poverty of my family, I once fainted from hunger at school during my physical development. After the head teacher learned about my situation, he began to help me in various ways. He even took out some of his wife's clothes for me to wear.
His wife is also my teacher, and like other teachers, everyone cares about me very much. They often left messages of encouragement at the end of my homework. The Chinese teacher would occasionally give me some pocket money, and the English teacher asked me to clean up for him, which was a kind of work-study, giving me 20 yuan a week.
From 2003 to 2016, I received a total of 231 grants, all of which were recorded in my ledger, and this long bill witnessed my journey to college. Everyone's help made me feel great warmth and touch. Although I already had good academic results, I went to high school as I wished.
Once, I told my mother that I wanted to buy a desk lamp for Xi. However, she said that I didn't learn Xi very well, and that I wanted this and that, I was a bloodsucking worm! After hearing this, I didn't say anything more. But I swore in my heart that I would definitely make a difference in the future and no longer rely on their money.
Eventually, I was admitted to a 211 university. At first, my biological parents gave me 500 yuan a month, and then I did some part-time work, so I told them to pay me 300 yuan a month. In fact, how can you make ends meet with 300 yuan a month? But I didn't like to ask them for money too often, so I worked part-time desperately. Later, I applied for a student loan and successfully completed my university studies. Two years after graduating, I paid off all my loans.
During my college years, I not only got a double degree, but I also actively participated in volunteer activities. Every day I spin like a spinning top, and I don't have time to participate in class reunions and other activities. I have always had a philosophy in my heart that I want to be a useful person to society. In the future, I want to help more children like me, or even more difficult than me, to help them get out of their difficulties.
In my senior year, I was introduced to the profession of social work. The content of my work coincided with my philosophy, so I started working as a social worker. After graduating, I went to work as a social worker in a village in Youyang County, Chongqing, with a monthly salary of only 3,000 yuan, but I persevered for three years. This experience saw my start in the field of social work.
In my village, my main responsibility is to provide support and services around left-behind children and the elderly. On weekends and holidays, we provide tutoring and interest development activities for left-behind children. At the same time, we recruit university students to open a variety of interesting classes to provide children with a wider range of learning and Xi opportunities. For the left-behind elderly, we provide one-on-one assistance and regular visits to alleviate the lonely time they spend in the village.
In order to make the holidays in the village more fulfilling, we organize various activities, such as leading the old people to dance the dam dance and aerobics, and also lead them to visit the beautiful scenic spots in the village and take photos of **. Overall, we are committed to making the holidays more meaningful for the children and more time for the elderly to retire in the village.
In addition, we also strive to help villagers sell their produce. In the process, I faced all kinds of difficulties and incomprehension. As a recent college graduate, I don't have many resources and connections, and it is not easy to help the villagers.
In the predicament, I found a front-line rescuer - self-** platform. Since I have always had a Xi of writing a diary and sharing my life experiences online, I have amassed some fans. Through the platform to record my life in the village, including helping villagers sell products, I have achieved some results and created a turnover of more than 100,000.
There is a lot of turnover in this industry, and many people can't hold on for three or five months and then leave. As a college student from a rural area, it is not easy for me to persevere for three years. I haven't forgotten my original intention, and I understand that this is where I really need help, so I have been persevering.
In the future, I plan to write a book on grassroots observation, which includes social work. In the past four years, I have grown from a recipient to a professional helper, and I have deeply realized the importance of working as a social worker in the rural frontline.
It can be said that social work is my life's work. I have been at the forefront of the grassroots and have witnessed the various situations in the world and provided professional support to those who really need help. However, the real spring of the social work profession is yet to come. In a small county that has just been lifted out of poverty, sticking to this industry does come at an unusual price.
At present, for the sake of public welfare, I have a debt of more than 100,000 yuan. When I returned to my hometown in 2021, I still had some small savings. Due to the lack of experience in project management, the problem of indebtedness still exists, and the promotion of work has also encountered bottlenecks. I felt exhausted in the face of all kinds of pressures and dilemmas.
Even if fate doesn't give me a good player, I still want to try to play every single one. I'm always trying to grow and try to help others. Whether it is time or space, our lives are just a drop in the ocean. That being the case, let's make sense of it. If I pass away tonight, I also hope that my life will be like a burning flame, full and without regrets.
Now, I am by my mother's side every day, and my life is much better than before. Occasionally, I met with my biological parents, although I was told from a young age, "You're not your mother's biological child!" "I've had an argument about it. As I grew older, I learned the truth of the matter and gradually accepted it in my heart.