As family waits, they share memories of son, brother(2)

Tian Mingzhong is not boasting. An investigation in 2009 shows that only 17.7 percent of university students are from rural areas, though the rural population is much bigger than the urban one.

"It seems that the incident was destined to happen," he said. "We all hoped he would choose Tsinghua University. But the boy chose to go to Chengdu (where the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China is located), and joined Huawei when the company recruited in Chengdu in 2011."

Tian Junwei got a scholarship every year and was advised to continue his studies at the university and get a master's degree, his uncle said.

Tian Junwei's English is very good. He scored 970 out of 990 in the Test of English for International Communication. Tian Fang, his sister, said that one of Tian's colleagues at Huawei told him that his score is higher than anyone else's in the company.

"He is usually very silent, but very clever," Tian Zhongming said.

"My nephew got a promotion not long before the incident," he added.

"He once spent two whole days without any sleep preparing a bid and finally helped Huawei beat competitors from 14 countries. The boss appreciated that and promoted him to office director."

Growing up

Tian and his older sister have always been close.

Tian Fang recalled a touching childhood memory about her brother, who is 10 years her junior.

"Once when Tian was a kid and I was studying at boarding school, my parents killed a chicken we used to feed guests. But the dish was left over, so some was saved for me to eat when I came home on the weekend," she said.

The family was poor at that time and didn't have a refrigerator, so they had to steam the chicken dish every day to prevent it from going bad.

"My brother stared at the dish with a watering mouth. Although my parents said that he could have some, he refused and said that he wanted to share it with me when I got back," she said.

When Tian Junwei was in primary school, his parents raised silkworms, which was profitable at that time, but they gave it up after they found themselves too busy to take care of their son.

"They can make 10,000 yuan ($1,620) in one season or in one year. I couldn't remember clearly. But even if it was 10,000 yuan a year, that still was a big amount at that time," Tian Fang said.

The yearly per capita disposable income in 1992, when Tian Junwei was 7 years old, was 1,380 yuan in Wendeng.

"Taking care of the silkworms, my parents were too busy to cook for my brother so he often had to have cold food when he came back from school," Tian Fang recalled.

"My mother said her son's future might be affected though she could make a lot of money.

"She said that her son's future is more important," she told China Daily.

When Tian Junwei entered senior high school, he returned home only during weekends. He had to do homework in the room where his family watched TV.

"All of us just stopped watching TV and accompanied him when he started to do homework," Tian Fang recalled.

"He studied at the then-best middle school, Wendeng No 2 Middle School, and always took at least the third place in his class in examinations."