Throughout their lives they shared a lunch that cost just over two dollars. When they died, it was discovered that they had saved hundreds of children.
Du Yingrong was a teacher.
His wife, Lu Suying, was a doctor.
They worked at the same university in Shanghai, led a simple life and had no children. Those who knew them described them as a private couple: they did not live in luxury, but they did not even seem to have particular economic difficulties.
Every day, however, they made the same choice.
They shared a single meal a day, spending about 18 yuan, just over two and a half dollars.
That habit was not born from greed.
It was their way of saving for something much more important.
In 2018, passing in front of a hospital specialized in cardiosurgery, Du stopped reading an appeal.
The hospital was looking for funds to operate children suffering from severe heart failure, whose families could not afford treatment.
He returned home and spoke with Lu.
Their response was immediate.
They donated 500,000 yuan, a sum that helped finance surgery for ten children.
But they didn't stop there.
In the following years they continued to help the hospital, up to donate a total of 5 million yuan, the equivalent of approximately $73,000.
Thanks to that extraordinary generosity, 455 children could be operated.
And almost nobody knew.
Du died in 2018 at the age of 81.
Lu continued to support the beneficial works of the couple and followed him a few years later, at 92.
Only during a charity exhibition organized in Shanghai in their memory their history became public domain.
It was then that many people discovered that the couple, always lived with great sobriety, had changed the fate of hundreds of families without seeking recognition, applause or visibility.
Their wealth was not seen in clothes, cars or in the house they lived in.
It was in the heartbeat of 455 children to whom it was given the opportunity to continue to live.
Because there are people who do not measure the value of money from what they can buy.
But how many lives can help save.