Tragic Story of Zhou Yanling: Escape from Family Favoritism Leads to Untimely Death

A girl from a mountain town in Guangxi, China, spent her whole life trying to escape from her original family, which favored sons over daughters, but she died the night before her dream. (Image / reproduction from “People”)

A girl from a mountain town in Guangxi, China, spent her whole life trying to escape from her family of origin, which favored sons over daughters Language skills to travel between several African countries to to live Just when she had made herself tough and strong, and was about to achieve her dream, she caught malaria in the Congo, Africa, with a death rate that had fallen to 0.2%, and died in a foreign country. After her death, her family only asked the company where she worked to return the girl’s belongings and bank card, and refused the company’s offer to pay them for ashes to collect the girl, asking the company to scatter the ashes into the Congo River.

Chinese media magazine “People” said in the summer of 2021, after graduating from the French department of the university, 23-year-old Guangxi girl Zhou Yanling went to Africa to work many times, hoping for 1 million yuan to save (about NT$4.5 million) and then study in France, and then find a job far enough away from home to settle down and live your own life. In March 2024, Zhou Yanling told her friends that as long as she worked in Africa for one more year, she would be able to achieve her goal and save 1 million yuan to pursue her own freedom.

Zhou Yanling was born in a remote and remote mountain village in Yulin, Guangxi. She is the eldest daughter in the family, and has a younger sister and a younger brother. Her relationship with her family was so weak that she was not even sure of her birthday because she once asked if her birthday on the solar calendar matched her ‘ lunar calendar After hearing this, her mother accused her of being ignorant and suddenly said that her father “took her over.”

Zhou Yanling’s classmates recalled that she almost never went home during college holidays and rarely called home because they would start arguing after just a few words. Once, she wanted to apply for a poverty subsidy from the screaming school.

When she was in college, the money provided by her family was completely unable to support Zhou Yanling’s life. To eat for free, she worked part-time as a waitress in the school cafeteria. When he is not in the classroom, Zhou Yanling works around, distributes leaflets, visits teaching buildings, and works as a teaching assistant in educational and training institutions, because “making money is the only a way to escape from the original life” has become her belief.

Zhou Yanling set “Be happy! Be free!” as the wallpaper on her mobile phone to motivate herself. (Image / reproduction from “People”)

Zhou Yanling told her friends that when she was in college, her parents often asked her to buy various things for her younger brother after they found out that she was working part-time on the side. – outside the home. The younger brother contacted his older sister on WeChat and asked her to help him with his homework. This situation became more frequent after she started working. Zhou Yanling’s boyfriend, Zhu Kai, recalled that his girlfriend told him that the family had built a new house a few years ago and there was no room for her. My sister got married when she was 16 or 17 years old, and her family didn’t contact her after that. After my sister got married, she had to live alone in the old house and did not eat with her parents.

After Zhou Yanling started working in society for a few years, she returned to China once, she hesitated whether to buy a house in a city, so she asked her family for a book registration of her house. After hearing this, her mother asked attentively: “Are you going to buy a house? If you want to buy it, it should be closer to the house.” Zhou Yanling explained to her friends: “They think that if I buy closer, the house will belong to my brother in the future.”

Zhu Kai and Zhou Yanling are former colleagues, and have been dating for less than a year. In his opinion, his girlfriend rarely mentioned her family. He said that Zhou Yanling had never returned home three years after graduating. He understood that Zhou Yanling had very little respect for her family, but she was extremely loyal to her friends, perhaps she used friends as a place for her emotional nourishment.

Zhou Yanling has discussed her desire with her friends more than once. In short, if she wants to escape, it doesn’t matter where she goes.

At the end of the summer of 2021, Zhou Yanling began her “non-drifting” career. She relied on her French skills to travel between many African countries. She sold cloth in the Republic of Mali, worked as a supermarket worker in the Republic of Senegal, and worked in an office in the Republic of Congo. No matter what she experienced in Africa and how difficult it was, Zhou Yanling never thought of giving up. Zhou Yanling once said to a friend, “Every day I am in Africa is supported by my dream of going to France.”

Zhou Yanling once took pictures of working in Africa and sent them to friends. people were flying by. Sometimes, she lies half-reclined on a shady sofa outside the factory, covered in dirt, and jokes that she has “integrated perfectly into local life”.

Zhou Yanling’s friend said that he always admired her, “Whatever she wants to do, she will definitely do it.” She could not forget Zhou Yanling’s excited tone when she said that she was going to reach her goal, and she was also happy that this brave friend was going to achieve her dream.

However, on March 24, 2024, while Zhu Kai was on a business trip, he received a message from Zhou Yanling saying that his fever reached over 40 degrees. On the 25th, Zhou Yanling was diagnosed with malignant typhoid malaria and said she was receiving an intravenous drip. Early in the morning of the 26th, Zhou Yanling said that she had taken artemisinin and her fever was gone, but her body was still shaking. She told friends she was safe via her mobile phone, “The doctor said she won’t die.” However, on the evening of March 27th, Zhou Yanling simply replied in the group of friends that she had vomited and her voice became hoarse. , and her friends’ mobile phones stopped There was no news from Zhou Yanling.

On the 31st, Zhou Yanling’s friends, Deng Niannian and Lin Ran received separate calls from the company where Zhou Yanling worked. The company expressed the hope that it would help contact Zhou Yanling’s parents.

On April 1, the company said it had contacted Zhou Yanling’s parents through the police station. On April 2, the company informed Lin Ran that Zhou Yanling had died that day. Later, several close friends were told that the family and the company had negotiated funeral and compensation arrangements.

Zhu Kai asked and learned that the company where Zhou Yanling worked had two plans to issue visas for the family members.

The second option is that if the family members do not want to go to the Congo, the company will work with the local police and the embassy to hold a memorial service and make funeral arrangements. In the end, with the family’s permission, the company sent Zhou Yanling’s mobile phones, jewelry, bank cards and other valuables back to the country, while Zhou Yanling’s ashes were scattered into the Congo River. .

Afterwards, Zhu Kai found a temple in Ningbo and requested a memorial tablet for Zhou Yanling so that friends would have a place to pay homage to her.

Zhou Yanling’s story spread in China, and many netizens felt sorry for her. “What kind of parents? The kid worked so hard to make money. After the child contracted malaria and died abroad, Meimei inherited the inheritance and the death benefit, but her family worked hard. she refused to pay for the funeral.” “I can’t do it, but I won’t get her ashes.” “It’s very sad to buy a house for your brother. pick her up.”

But some people disagree with the words circulating on the Internet, “Just because the original family is not good, you have thrown away more than ten years of cultivation?”, ” Did you notice that the biggest deficiency in the biography of this character is that there are no interviews with her relatives at all.