"I could have been enrolled as a self-supported student at that time if I paid 3,000 yuan, but I was too poor to go," says Su.

As he was the most learned man around, Su became the head teacher in the village primary school, even though he was only 19.

However, in 1993, Su left for Wuhan, where he worked in a restaurant as a cook. In Wuhan, he met Xiaomei's mother and got married. Su and his wife divorced when the daughter was a boarder in her second year of middle school.

Su by this time had his own restaurant, when he found out that his daughter was skipping classes and her grades were declining rapidly. He closed the restaurant and took his daughter back to their hometown Gong'an, which was a three-hour drive away from Wuhan.

Su carefully "diagnosed" the cause of his daughter's setback. He was still hopeful that his daughter could catch up under his supervision.

"She was just a little naughty in childhood, but she is very smart. When she fell behind in middle school, she lost interest in learning," says Su.

To motivate his daughter's interest in studying, he promised not to interfere in her life when she entered college. He picked her books and prepared for the college entrance examination together with her.

Xiaomei took the college entrance examination in Wuhan in June last year, while Su took it in Gong'an as a social examinee. When the scores were released, the daughter had 270 points, while her father achieved 296.

"A lot of people think that I go to college for my daughter. Actually it is not the truth. It was my long-standing desire to go to college," Su says.