Ren visits a family in a village in Dongli to discuss their child's progress. [Photo provided to China Daily]
But the four-year university experience did not go as well as Ren expected. Her father died of cancer. Then, how to care for her mother who suffered from deteriorating mental health became a major issue.
After deep consideration, she decided to take her mother with her.
"I felt how painful it was when I lost my father. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my mother before it became too late," says Ren.
She rented a small house in a village close to the campus and started her special university life.
Ren got up when it was still dark to cook breakfast for her mother. After arranging everything well for her, she went to study and worked part time to earn money.
Recalling the life she spent with her mother, Ren still couldn't hold back her tears.
There was a winter day when she went to a market. She told her mother she would buy a pair of shoes for her.
But when Ren came back to their house, she couldn't find her mother. Police and fellow villagers helped to look for her mother, but didn't find her.
"Days later, a person called me, saying there was an elderly woman who looked like my mother. So I went there, praying all the way," she says.
When she saw her mother sitting on a bench, dressed in a cotton-padded jacket that some kindhearted people gave to her, tears poured down her face.
