Key facts
- An 18-year-old boy in China, Lele, completed the gaokao.
- He expressed gratitude to his adoptive mother, Ye Huanzhi, for funding his medical treatment.
- Ye Huanzhi found Lele as a newborn with congenital microtia.
- She worked as a taxi driver to pay for his surgery, estimated at 300,000 yuan.
An 18-year-old boy in Xiangyang, Hubei province, China, knelt and kowtowed to his adoptive mother, Ye Huanzhi, after completing the gaokao, expressing gratitude for her years of devotion and financial support for his medical treatment.
Ye Huanzhi found Lele as a newborn in April 2008, noting his malformed ears. She raised him as her own despite modest means. Lele was later diagnosed with congenital microtia, a condition that significantly impacted his hearing. Doctors indicated that surgery could cost up to 300,000 yuan (US$44,000), a sum Ye Huanzhi, who worked as a taxi driver, struggled to afford.
More than 12.9 million students across China participated in the gaokao, the national college entrance examination, held from June 7 to 9. Ye Huanzhi waited outside the exam venue for Lele, dressed in a red qipao and holding sunflowers and his favorite drink.