Gratitude to the siblings - 60 stories of blood ties

Author: Teng Gang / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: On August 24, 1998, a special funeral was held in Hou Shen Village, Jiaxiang County, Shandong. The deceased, Shen Chunling, was a 16-year-old girl who received an exceptionally grand funeral. Her three brothers wore mourning clothes reserved only for burying parents and knelt motionless before the coffin. The entire village, young and old, spontaneously wore black ribbons and cried to bid her farewell. Yet, who knew that this young girl, who had passed away so early, had no blood ties to this family? She was merely an adopted daughter without even a household registration. After her stepfather became paralyzed and her biological mother left, she bravely stayed behind, shouldering the responsibility of raising four university-studying brothers on her frail shoulders!
In June 1994, Chunling’s mother, with Shen Chunling and her younger siblings, came from Fanzelong Zhouji in Shandong to Hou Shen Village, Jiaxiang County, after losing her husband. Chunling’s stepfather, Shen Shuping, was a carpenter known for his kindness and honesty. He had elderly parents in their 70s and four sons studying. The eldest son, Shen Jianguo, was studying at Xi’an Jiaotong University, while the other three sons attended high school in the county. Despite the heavy family burden, the stepfather possessed a highly skilled carpentry craft, and with the family’s diligence and frugality, their life was neither too comfortable nor too difficult.
When Chunling and her mother arrived, the stepfather and his family showed great warmth. Perhaps because there were no girls in the family, the grandfather, grandmother, and stepfather doted on the little Chunling, and the brothers affectionately called her "Little Bell." By the time Chunling arrived at her stepfather’s home, she had already passed the age for school enrollment. Due to her father’s death, she had to stay home and miss out on education. Upon learning this, the stepfather immediately took money to enroll her in school. The family already had four children attending school, and with Chunling’s addition, the stepfather’s responsibilities grew even heavier. Fortunately, the stepfather was hardworking and often took on construction work with the local construction team during off-farm time to earn extra income, barely managing the family’s expenses.
Chunling cherished this hard-won opportunity to study and excelled academically, achieving third place in her grade in her first semester. Besides studying, she took on some household chores, always finding time to wash her brothers’ dirty clothes and help her stepfather lift wood and saw. The stepfather often praised, "I’ve been blessed in my life! The sky has dropped a good daughter on me!" However, happy times were fleeting, and a misfortune struck.
In early summer 1995, the stepfather fell from the third floor during a construction job and became paralyzed. A major beam collapsed, cutting off the family’s source of income and plunging them into heavy debt to treat him. Seeing her paralyzed stepfather, her second brother, Shen Jianjun, was the first to suggest dropping out of school. Her father refused, as her third and fourth brothers were about to take the college entrance exams and ranked among the top in the school. The third and fourth brothers also wanted to drop out to take on the family’s burden. Just as her brothers argued over who should stay and her stepfather was torn between them, Chunling proposed that she drop out to support her mother and the family. Tears streamed down her stepfather’s face, and her grandparents wiped their eyes endlessly. The stepfather said, "Chunling, I’ve wronged you. Your brothers have studied for so many years—giving up now would be too great a loss. Only you can endure this—" The three brothers tightly grasped their younger sister’s hand and made a promise in front of their father: whoever went on to university would repay her kindness double.
However, Chunling’s mother, who had just emerged from hardship, couldn’t bear another blow. Hearing from the doctor that her husband might be paralyzed for life, she completely lost hope in the family and feared carrying such a heavy burden. She decided to leave with her daughter. Despite Chunling’s desperate pleading and attempts to stop her, her mother left the struggling family three months after her husband’s injury.
With her mother’s departure, another pillar of the family crumbled. Her grandparents wept day and night, her stepfather sighed in despair, and her brothers felt even more anxious. The family was once again engulfed in tears. The villagers kindly comforted Chunling, saying, "There are no relatives here for you. You should return to your maternal grandmother’s home in Fanzelong. Otherwise, you’ll suffer forever!" Chunling firmly shook her head, "No, I can’t leave. My mother left, and I can’t abandon this family."
Chunling called her brothers to her stepfather’s bedside and solemnly promised, "Father, Mother left, but she is still my mother. I won’t leave. I will stay and face this difficulty with you. From today on, I am your biological daughter." That year, Shen Chunling was only 12 years old.
P2-3