The Yesha team gather together during their performance at the WCBA All-Star Game in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Jan. 27, 2019. (Xinhua/Peng Yuan)
In the early years of his life, Liu, from Lianyuan county in central Hunan, struggled to support his family as he became one of China's millions of migrant workers, traveling between different construction sites, factories and mines looking for work. For Liu, he was skilled at drilling holes in rocks down mineshafts, and became used to hearing the "boom" of explosives while watching dust shroud everything.
Liu knew little about occupational safety and even if he did, he would still take the risks in pursuit of better payment and thus a better life.
The job cost him too much, damaging his lungs and dragging him to death's door.
Liu was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis in 1998, and in the following years, he was like a prisoner on death row, waiting for the day to come.
Liu did not give up hope without a fight. He and his son once went to a local hospital in nearby Loudi City where a doctor told him his case was "hopeless unless he receives an organ transplant".
Such an operation would cost over 70,000 U.S. dollars, making it an option Liu would never be able to afford. On his way back home, Liu and his son bought a coffin.
Luckily, a phone call from the Hunan Red Cross came that turned out to be the turning point of his life.
"I never expected I would have an organ transplant, even in my wildest dreams," he recalled.
The call was a follow-up interview with the family of the organ donor. Liu's wife had died after an accident in 2015, and he agreed to donate her liver and kidneys.
In the interview, Liu told the interviewer about his own miserable experience. "I was asked to deliver a report about my situation. Finishing the report, I insisted on sending it myself," Liu said. He remembered that it took him almost an hour to climb to the fifth floor where the Red Cross office was.
Several months later, he was admitted into the Second Xiangya Hospital free of charge, waiting for the donated lungs. On Liu's 42nd day in the hospital, the doctor told him to prepare for the operation.
Seeing off the doctor, Liu wrapped his head in his quilt and burst into tears while his son cried out in the bathroom. At the same time, five kilometers south of Liu's hospital, two grieving parents were bidding farewell to their only son.
"I was told my lungs were from a 16-year-old boy about one week after I got out of the ICU. I was shocked. I can totally feel their pain as I am a father and also have a son," Liu said.
The double-blind rule of organ donation prevented Liu from getting in touch with Yesha's parents, but he managed to learn some things about his donor, including his hobby of playing basketball.
That was why Liu jumped at the idea of organizing a basketball team with the recipients of Yesha's organs to honor the Ye family's noble act when the China Organ Donation Administration Center reached him.
Not all the organ recipients were willing to expose their privacy. Out of seven people, five joined in the campaign: Liu; 14-year-old Yan Jing and Huang Shan, each of them taking a cornea; Zhou Bin, recipient of Yesha's liver' and Hu Wei, taking a kidney. They formed a team, appropriately named Yesha.
WCBA ALL-STAR GAME
The Yesha team's performance may be the most special two minutes in the seven-year history of the Chinese women's basketball league All-Star Game.
As the main game went into a break, the five of them, in scarlet jerseys printed with their numbers and organ icons, filed onto the court, while on the big screen, a video telling the story of Yesha and the team was displayed.
"I am Yesha, Yesha's lungs," Liu Fu said in the video.
"I am Yesha, Yesha's eye," Yan Jing said.
"I am Yesha, Yesha's eye," Huang Shan said.
"I am Yesha, Yesha's kidney," Hu Wei said.
"I am Yesha, Yesha's liver," Zhou Bin said.
Their names were called out one by one by ceremony host Liu Xingyu, as the capacity 6,000 crowd welcomed them with a standing ovation, among them former NBA star and current Chinese Basketball Association president Yao Ming.
Yao led the pack in the VIP seats to stand up, clapping his hands, while down on the court, the team's opposing All-Star players wiped tears from their faces.
"I couldn't hold back my tears and when I looked around I found that my teammates were also weeping," said Chinese national team player Shao Ting.
"I was deeply moved by the story, as were my teammates. This boy and his parents were great. They did a wonderful deed," she continued.
"I haven't told my parents about this, but I am seriously considering to become an organ donation volunteer now," she said.
Apart from Zhou Bin, no one in Team Yesha knew how to play basketball. Hu Wei barely even touched the ball during the two minutes.
They ran around on the court and made a number of attempts to shoot, with the help of their amenable opponents who did not attack and instead fed them with baskets. Zhou finally managed to nail a jump shot and a free throw before the whistle, amid deafening cheers from the partisan spectators.
"I heard that Yesha loved playing basketball, and that he had hoped to take part in competitions one day. I felt obliged to realize his dream for him," said Zhou Bin, a 53-year-old policeman from Guangxi.
"My privacy is nothing compared to what Yesha's family have lost," he added.
Yan Jing was the only other Team Yesha member who succeeded in scoring in the game - or more precisely, right after the final whistle.
Encouraged by Shao Ting, she flung the ball toward the basket and missed the hoop, once, twice, three times. But on her fourth attempt, the ball bounced around the inside of the hoop and dropped in. Both teams jumped with joy.
"I was very, very happy! I did this with his eye," said Yan Jing.
The All-Star Game drew to close on the night of January 27, but it helped focus huge media coverage on Team Yesha and China's organ donation drive, and triggered an explosion of volunteer registrations.
In an interview two days after the game, China Organ Donation Administration Center official Zhang Shanshan told reporters that a total of 900,000 people had registered to donate their organs by the end of January. More than three months later, that number has exceeded 1.22 million.
Yesha's parents did not go to see the game live, instead watching it later online. Papa Ye cried and Mama Ye's insomnia recurred.
"Since Yesha passed away, I have an extremely low threshold for crying, and getting emotional at little things," said Papa Ye.
"But I received great comfort. When I saw them running on the court, it seemed like my son was still with us. Looking at the lives Yesha saved, I am truly happy for them. I believe I did the right thing, from the bottom of my heart," he said.
Losing their son left a permanent hole in their lives, as Yesha's parents now try to fill their time with the busy schedules of promoting organ donation and operating a home bakery.
Mama Ye used to cook for Yesha, and now her son's old bedroom has been turned into the bakery room. She makes Chinese dim sum and various cakes and sells her food online, with her business booming.
Liu Fu also started his new life.
He works part-time in a housekeeping service company and also as a devoted volunteer to promote organ donation.
One day, as he volunteering at the Second Xiangya hospital, he passed a middle-aged couple. At that very moment, there was a strange feeling surging inside him that made his heart racing fast.
"I felt like I had lost the ability to speak and my heart was fluttering for the rest of the day. Later I was told that those two people were Yesha's parents," Liu recalled.
