3 Years After a Riverside Rescue, a Grateful Student Shares Her College Dream

A police assistant who once comforted a distraught teenager by a river received an unexpected text message recently: The girl had just scored 582 on China’s grueling college entrance exam and wanted to say thank you, People's Daily reported yesterday.

“Auntie, I don’t know if you still remember me,” read the message that popped up on Yuan Jiangping’s phone on June 25. “Three years ago, I was overwhelmed by study pressure and social anxiety. I sat crying by the river at night. You and another auntie talked to me and took me home safely… I scored 582 points on the gaokao. I’m grateful for the warmth and strength you gave me when I was most helpless.”

The message brought back a memory from May 12, 2023. Yuan, an assistant police officer at the traffic management office in Zigui County, Hubei Province, and her colleague Xiang Wei were taking an evening walk along the Yangtze River when they heard sobbing. They found a middle school girl, identified as Xiao Liao, crouching alone on the riverbank, distraught over mounting academic pressure and social struggles.

The two women sat with her for nearly an hour, listening and offering reassurance. “Believe in yourself,” Yuan recalled telling the girl. “When you do the right thing, other voices don’t matter.” After the girl calmed down, they hailed a taxi and made sure she got home safely. Yuan gave the girl her phone number before they parted.

The encounter was soon forgotten by the officers, but not by the girl. For three years, she kept the phone number and the memory close, often wanting to reach out but hesitating. Finally, after receiving her gaokao results, she texted Yuan to share her joy and gratitude.

“We just did what we should have,” Yuan said, visibly moved. “I never expected that child to remember for three years.” She replied to the girl: “Your persistence and hard work are the real light. Keep going.”

Yuan, a mother herself, said the night by the river had left her deeply worried at the time. “As a mother, that hour made my heart ache,” she said.