A month before the Spring Festival when icy cold weather enveloped a small town in a great mountain of the southwest of Hubei Province, one dweller in this town Luo Zhangjie ran hurriedly to send her mental-disorder son some oranges given by her relatives without first tasting by herself. Her giggling son held the oranges and left without turning his head back when Luo was watching his back in the piercing wind.

　　86-year-old Mrs. Luo lives in Wantan Town, Wufeng Autonomous County, Yichang City, Hubei Province. Her son Qi Caizheng has been suffering from mental and intellectual impairment because of encephalitis and lost the ability to control himself. During the past thirty years, she has always been taking good care of him, bearing his punches and completing a paean of extraordinary will and deep motherly love.

　　In 1974 when young Qi was a young but outstanding soldier, he had twice won military rewards. But he was knocked down cruelly by epidemic encephalitis B in the middle of a mission. At that time, Mrs. Luo, already in her fifties, rushed to Chengdu only found that her son could not recognize her any more.

　　Four years later, Qi was sent back home because he just could not recover after various treatments. The army intended to settle him in a welfare center in the town and promised to cover his expenses with national support. But Mrs. Luo persisted in taking care of her son at home. She said, “My son has won military rewards. As a mother of a soldier, I cannot add burden to the country and the army.”

　　From then on, day after day, Mrs. Luo gets up before dawn, changing clothes and bedding for her incontinent son. In order to provide her son with meat at every meal, she feeds two pigs per year, and reaps pigweed in forests or farmland as long as she has time, which has lasted for dozens of years. She always saves delicious food for her son and never thinks about herself. “No matter how old he is, for me, he is always my little boy.” she said to the reporter.

　　Luo Changjie spares no efforts to take good care of her son, but unfortunately he still remains in a severe physical condition. Qi Caizheng usually suffers meningitis seizure at least three or four times a day, resulting in his destruction/damage of all the furniture in their home. One day, when Luo Changjie was giving his son a bath, he suddenly gave her a fist and stunned her. No matter how people around persuade her, she is reluctant to send his son away. Instead, she persists in looking after him all by herself, hoping that one day his son would recover. “I am also afraid of being beaten by him. But as a mother, I still want to take good care of him regardless bitterness, tiredness or dangerousness I am going to meet." In order to let Qi Caizheng have some places to move about without disturbing others, Luo Changjie vacates three wooden rooms and puts up one meter high wooden fence around for building a special "military camp" for him.

　　Luo Changjie pays much attention to building the "image" of her son, so she often gives him a haircut personally at the risk of being beaten by him. She says, “As my son has ever made military rewards, he should dress cleanly and neatly. His amentia will never stop me from making him live with dignity."

　　Even though her son got ill in the army, she has no complaints about it. At the age of 73, she sent her grandson Qi Wenzhong in person to the army to be a glorious frontier guard. "I have sent three generations to the army by myself. It is an honor to be a soldier as its mission is to defend the motherland! ", Luo Changjie says.

　　In recent years, as Luo Changjie is approaching old age, her strength has gradually fallen short of her desire. As a result, Liu Wenfang, her granddaughter-in-law shoulders the big responsibility of taking care of Qi Caizheng. However, Luo Changjie is still concerned about his son and wants to stay with him every day.

　　After dinner, her son, who seldom calms down, will sit besides the fireplace and watch TV. “He is quiet only at this moment every day”, Luo Changjie says. Carefully drying the bedding that needs to be changed and washed every day, she keeps on recalling the stories of her son in the military camp many years ago. “At my old age, the only thing I can do is to accompany my son." (Reporters: Liuzi Ling, Li Siyuan )