Li Quanwang
Li Quanwang, 36, tall and thin, with a flat head, is an oil worker in Xinjiang and has been running for seven or eight years. His wife, Lin Fang (a pseudonym), opposed it, "I think it's bad for his knees", but her husband said, "I don't have any other hobbies, I don't smoke or drink, I just like to run," Lin Fang was afraid that if he lost his hobby, his husband would become dull, so he stopped nagging him. "I can't possibly squash his only hobby either."
So every day after work, Li Quanwang runs around the city's airports, railway stations, back hills, and participates in all the races within the border, "Not that I am running for money, I just like it, and finish the race safely is good enough."
The race to the Yellow River Shilin, Lin Fang was initially reluctant, "so far away, also do not understand the situation outside the Xinjiang." But when the registration period was about to close, Li Quanwang mentioned again that he wanted to take part in the race and could not resist his repeated grinding, "thinking about his only hobby, I couldn't help it", so Lin Fang agreed.
It is easy to imagine how much Li Quanwang wanted to take part in this competition. He deliberately changed his shift by 24 hours and when he was about to leave, it coincided with a gale in Karamay and the flight was cancelled. He bought a train ticket instead and travelled to Urumqi and then on to Lanzhou and Baiyin.
He reported his trip from time to time, but from the night of the 22nd, Lin Fang could no longer contact her husband. She didn't think much of it, "no electricity, still running, wait a minute". The next morning at 9am, just after dawn in Xinjiang, Lin Fang asked her son to call his father, but once his phone was turned on, he saw the news, the Yellow River Shilin off-road race accident. The son turned to ask his mother, Lin Fang "also do not know what happened, hula hula tears began to fall".
The 12-year-old son was convinced that nothing would happen to his dad because he had taken him around Lake Selim before, and he reassured his mother, "No, my dad runs a lot."
Lin Fang went to Baiyin first, and after confirming that Li Quanwang has deceased, his eldest uncle took his son to Baiyin for the second time. Beforehand, for fear that the child would be scared, Lin Fang just told him that his father was injured and in hospital. When they arrived in Baiyin, the aunt who was a teacher enlightened the child first, and finally told him that his father was gone.
The son did not bawl, but "choked and cried". Later he and Lin Fang said, "Mom, from now on it's just the two of us, (I'll) do as I'm told and go to school properly."
At 12 years old, he "understood everything overnight".