Yingying: Always gone, forever there

"I called mom and dad today," she said in another diary entry. "Dad is a truck driver now, it's such hard work ... How could I think only of myself?"

Yet for Ye Lifeng, Zhang was simply the best daughter, who, with all work done, would come downstairs and snuggle right beside her in bed, moving ever so gently to avoid disturbing her.

"Yingying was the eyes and ears for her mother, who has never learned to read or write," said Wang, the family lawyer."If she had lived the life of an average girl in town she wouldn't have been able to open that window for her mother, trapped in her own shuttered existence."

Yet when Shi visited the family in August 2018 she saw only the debris of broken bowls and shattered dreams－the parents, blaming each other and themselves for encouraging their daughter to pursue a dream, fighting in front of the camera.

Reflecting on the intimacy with which she was allowed to film－the camera rolled when an inconsolable Ye lay in bed rubbing her hand against the woven straw mat she once shared with her daughter－Shi said that it took time for things to happen.

"At the very beginning, we were just two of many who had flocked to Champaign trying to get a slice of the story. But as we got to know more and more about Yingying, we decided to focus as much on how she lived as on how she died. We made sure the family understood that."

For Hou, Shi's perseverance is just as persuasive as her narrative approach."When she initially proposed the idea to me, I said no. As keen as we were to get public attention for the case, it would undoubtedly bring tremendous stress to us, especially the parents, when very often we needed to grieve in private. But she kept trying. Her passion, determination, and her experience of studying in the US alone after graduating from Peking University all reminded us of Yingying. We decided to help."

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