When asked for the reason, the girl, with a clear smile and light in her eyes, said she would take the shrimps home for her mother Hu Mingjun who is in poor health and unable to do heavy work. Her father is a migrant worker.

Hu said she was proud of her daughter. "She said she could not eat them all, but she worries about me," Hu said. The daughter would also bring fruits and milk home but Hu would ask her to eat the food herself.

Zhang Pengcheng, the school principal, has played an important part in educating such a loving girl. His school has more than 180 students, a majority of whom are left-behind children, and some do not meet their parents even once a year.