Man Found Parents 15 years after his ‘death’

15 years ago, a nine-year-old boy fell into Jinsha River near his home in Yibing City in Sichuan Province in July. All his neighbours believed that he died, including his parents. But on 15 years later, the “dead boy” found his parents yesterday.

In July of 1977, one day, Li Yulong was playing near the Jiasha River and fell into the river accidentally. His father Li Tao and mother Chen Fang tried to save him, but failed to find him. Since then, they have been overwhelmed by depression, according to Sichuan-based Southwest Metropolis Daily on last Sunday.

However, the boy had grabbed a piece of floating wood before losing consciousness. Two days later he had floated downstream to Luzhou, where several fishermen saved him and admitted him to a local hospital. Li regained consciousness two months later, but had amnesia. Later a man surnamed Wang adopted him, named him Wang Shui and they moved to Shanghai.

In Shanghai, he studied well and was admitted to Tsinghua University, one of the China’s top universities. After he graduated, he pursued further education in the UK and married a local girl. Though Li Yulong later remembered his parents, he failed to find them in his hometown because their residence had been pulled down. He hen turned to the Internet. In July, Li Yulong saw an article about a family story posted by Xiaoyue, Li’s sister and found that it was rightly his story. Then he contacted Xiaoyue via QQ, a popular online chat platform on China. Li Tao and Chen Fang didn’t trust the young man until he started to talk about his childhood.

“The day before I fell into the river, my father took me out for a snack at night. But when we came home my mother beat me because I didn’t study long enough,” the report cited Li Yulong as telling his parents. Finally they were convinced.

The parents hope see their sun soon but Li Yulong’s foster father rejected the request because he thought it would impact his son’s life in the UK. The family respects Wang’s decision. “We appreciate what Wang has done for our son,” his mother Chen Fang said.