Father wonders when is best time to kill his son

Yan Yezeng, 79, fears for his son’s future after 37 years of caring for Yan Shaojin by the village of Xialong in Shuiquan county, Shanting district of the prefecture-level city of Zaozhuang in southern Shandong Province. Yan Shaojin cannot stand up or dress himself.

This puppy guards Yan Shaojin, 37, when Yan Yezeng isn't around.

For more than 30 years, Yan Yezeng and Yan Shaojin have survived on a daily diet of rice porridge and pancakes on a hillside by the village of Xialong in southern Shandong Province.

Yan Shaojin's hair looks much more presentable after his father's loving care. Father Yan Yezeng worries about his son's care after he is gone.

Old Yan bathes his son after a long day working in the fields by the village of Xialong in Shuiquan county.

Yan Shaojin, 37, cannot hold a spoon, dress himself or stand up.

He and his father Yan Yezeng, 79, live by the village of Xialong, Shuiquan county, in the Shanting district of Zaozhuang, a prefecture-level city in southern Shandong Province.

Yan Shaojin's mother died at birth in 1974. Within a month, Yan's brain swelled up with deadly encephalitis, a disease that left him mentally and physically disabled for the rest of his life.

Yan and his father subsist by a hillside orchard, receiving occasional assistance from local government and well-wishers.

Old Yan often considers killing his son and committing suicide together, but either the exorbitant cost of pills or an act of kindness continually pull them back from the brink.

What will happen to Yan Shaojin when Yan Yezong dies is anybody's guess, but one thing is certain: He will never again receive the same kind of love.