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

Liu was a quiet child who rarely went out, spending nearly all her time reading. Throughout high school, she used an old cell phone and refused her mother's offer to buy a new one.

Zou never pressured her daughter about grades. "I can't help her with her studies; I never went to school," she said. When Liu came home with disappointing test results, Zou would say: "It's okay. Even this score is the highest in our family."

Liu, in turn, always apologized when she performed poorly. When she learned her score was withheld, she was ecstatic, saying she had never done so well. She is now planning to do a summer job, study accounting because she loves mathematics, and visit the Tsinghua and Peking campuses to take photos.

On the construction site, colleagues often praise Zou for her endurance. But few know that every time she receives a phone call from her daughter saying she is coming home for the weekend, the steel pipes feel a little lighter.

"Every time I pick her up on the weekend," Zou said, "I feel that no matter how tired I am, it's all worth it."