WITH assistance from the Shenzhen police, a woman from Sichuan Province reunited with her son after eight years of searching, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

On May 19, 2011, the woman surnamed Luo went to Xili Police Station in Nanshan District for help, claiming that her son, identified as Xiaoquan, had run away from home after living in Shenzhen for less than a year.

According to Luo, Xiaoquan grew up with his grandparents in Sichuan and moved to Shenzhen for work following graduation. She said that although Xiaoquan was constantly dissatisfied with his life and wanted to achieve great things, she never expected he would leave his family behind.

Li Jian, the policeman in charge of Luo’s case, discovered that Xiaoquan had planned his disappearance very carefully. Except for a record of cash withdrawals, Xiaoquan almost never revealed his real identity and left no information behind.

This June, Xiaoquan was suspected of being in Dongguan City. Li immediately contacted the Dongguan police and asked for help. They found that a man bearing a close resemblance to Xiaoquan had appeared in eastern Dongguan.

Li and Luo traveled to Dongguan on July 2. By watching a surveillance video, Luo confirmed that the man in the video, who was retrieving his package at a delivery station at the time, was her son.

Li then contacted the patrolmen and workers with the local community work station and asked them to look for the man in the video. At 4 p.m. the same day, Xiaoquan received a message saying that his mother was waiting for him. An hour later, he came to the police station and met with Luo.

It turned out that Xiaoquan, who had taken up many jobs since leaving home, never reached his expectations. Eager to excel, he had cut off contact with his family.

After learning that his mother had been looking for him for eight years, Xiaoquan decided to return home.(Liu Wenjin)