Restaurant workers offered ray of hope

The school placed great importance on the interests of each student, especially in the arts, and every newcomer had the opportunity to learn the flute and harmonica, Zhou said. His parents also sent him to an extracurricular class to learn electronic keyboard, where he met his music teacher, Pan Xiaomei.

With Pan's help, Zhou joined a small band at school as a keyboard player when he was 11, featuring in scores of performances.

Zhou grew up with people telling him he would become a masseur. Influenced by their opinions, he told others that he would be a good masseur to relieve people's pain, but deep down he knew that he wanted to pursue a career in music.

In 2013, he was admitted to Beijing Union University with the highest score in the country.

At university, he took part in many activities and headed the choral and folk music clubs. In his first year, he was referred by a senior student to Trojan Fairy, where he applied for the position of part-time pianist.

Since then, along with Zhou, the restaurant has hired four blind people and another two, who play violin and trumpet, to form a band to play at the eatery.

The violinist was later admitted to the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom to continue his music studies.

In addition to guiding customers to their meals and managing daily operations at the restaurant, Zhou, who is a licensed piano tuner, uses his spare time to tune these instruments across Beijing and also gives livestreaming performances at night.

His idol is the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, who went blind as a child. Zhou dreams of being able to sing just like him.

"With the experience I have gained, I feel I can overcome all difficulties. I hope to do what I can to help those who are suffering in the dark, like I once did," he said.