An 8th-grader living in a village of central China's Hunan Province has piggybacked her disabled classmate to school for over eight years.
Kuang Yuxuan, 14, lives in Guankou Village of Hunan's Qidong County. Every school day, she gets up earlier than most of her classmates to meet up with her classmate and neighbor Liu Sihan, a victim of Guillain-Barre syndrome which causes atrophy of her legs and makes her unable to walk on her own.
Liu lives with her grandmother, who struggles between looking after her granddaughter and tending to farm work. Kuang offered Liu piggyback rides to the classroom the first day when the latter entered school age.
Each morning, Liu's grandma rides an electric tricycle and carries Liu and Kuang to school, where Kuang piggybacks Liu up the stairs to their classroom.
Kuang carries Liu up and down the stairs at least three or four times a day at school. Each climb is a physical challenge to the young girl, forcing her to take several breaks at times.
"My grandma would say, you don't weigh much yourself, and now you carry other one on your back, what if you drop her? I said I'm not skinny, and I'm strong with muscles!" Kuang said.
To not bother her friend too much, Liu tries to walk out of the classroom as little as possible and drinks little water at school so as to save her the trouble of going to the bathroom.
"I may not drink a single glass of water all day long at school, and I don't feel thirsty. I don't even have a mug for myself at school. Mostly I won't drink water until I get back home, and at most I go to the bathroom twice a day," Liu said.
Liu's grandmother recalled forgetting to pick Liu up in school once when she was too busy occupied with farm work. By the time she was about to rush to the school, she saw on her way thin little Kuang carrying Liu on her back heading home.
Since then Kuang has been Liu's partner and legs on school days.
"We got along pretty well, so I started carrying her. There's no specific reason behind it. It just happened that way, pretty natural," Kuang said.
On a snowy day when they were still in primary school, principal of the school Zhou Zhongyi saw and captured on video Kuang carrying Liu across the playground to the bathroom, with Kuang carefully treading the slippery road and Liu holding an umbrella for both.
"I was so touched when I saw her that day. Such a good kid with a heart so kind and pure," Zhou recalled.
When the two classmates advanced to middle school, they were initially placed in different classes. To better take care of her friend, Kuang made a request to switch to Liu's class.
"Kuang Yuxuan wanted to get switched to Liu Sihan's class. Then our schoolmaster called us two class teachers to ask about the situation. Then we learned about Liu's case and that Kuang has been helping her since primary school. Then we figured it would be better to have them in the same class," said Wang Chenyu, teacher in charge of Kuang and Liu's class.
Liu never asked Kuang to switch to her class, and Kuang did not tell Liu her decision in advance.
Unlike their primary school days, where classmates were all from the same village and everyone knew each other since they were little, Liu and Kuang now have classmates from across the town, many not familiar with Liu's case and some even frowned upon her disabilities initially. It was Kuang that always stepped up to defend her friend when the situation called.
Liu, who aspired to become a doctor, quickly became a top student in school. She has become a huge help in Kuang's academic studies. By the end of their summer semester of the 7th grade, Kuang's grades moved from the bottom half to the third in class. Liu also uses lunch breaks and free time to help her fellow classmates with their studies.
Inspired by Kuang and Liu's friendship, their classmates now take rotating shifts to bring Liu her lunch from the school canteen.
"The two of them have helped each other for so long, and of course that would touch the hearts of other students. They would be thinking since she has managed to persist for so long, so what they could do to help. It feels like they have now kept each other in their hearts and there is a genuine desire to care for others," Wang said.
For Kuang and Liu, the two good friends now talk about going to the same senior high school, and then the same college.
"My goal is to keep up with her, and get into the same senior high school or even the same college," Kuang said.
"Whenever I need help, she would be there, all the moment. It's like we are a family," Liu said.
Hunan girl carries disabled mate to school for 8 years
