Mother's construction labor makes way for daughter's top gaokao marks

Zou Pinzhi, a construction worker in Chengdu, Sichuan province, recently got a miraculous surprise after her daughter's score in this year's national college entrance exam, or gaokao, was so exceptional that authorities deliberately withheld it from public view.

The tradition is a privilege reserved for the province's top five candidates in her subject category. Suddenly, the last 16 years she spent hauling steel pipes on building sites across Chengdu washed away with her daughter's tears of joy.

Liu Fang, a student at Shuangliu Tanghu Middle School, learned on the evening of Thursday that she had placed among the top five in the province's history-oriented liberal arts stream, People's Daily reported.

Zou is from a mountainous area in Leshan, Sichuan. She dropped out after just one year of primary school because her family could not afford the 19-yuan ($2.8) tuition fee.

"All I have is my physical strength," she said. Her workday begins at 6:30 am and continues for another three hours after her lunch break. "I cannot fall ill. I cannot collapse," she said. "If I fall, there is no one to support her."

The mother and daughter had a simple pact: Liu would focus on her studies; Zou would focus on earning money.