Zou Weiluo, a 13-year-old Shanghai boy diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) at seven months, has defieddefied/dɪˈfaɪd/L3公然反抗；藐视（权威、预测等）to resist or challenge something successfully, often against expectations or authority physicians' predictions that he would not survive to age four, recently graduating as a star student from Luwan No. 1 Central Primary School in Huangpu District. His mother, Zhang Ying, who has accompanied him to every class for five years, recalls her initial apprehensionapprehension/ˌæprɪˈhenʃən/L3忧虑；担心；恐惧anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen about his social integration, given his frailty and lack of kindergarten attendance; however, principal Wu Rongjin unhesitatingly enrolled him, asserting that every child has the right to learn. Classmates, initially frightened by his electric wheelchair, rapidly transformed curiosity into friendship, assigning themselves roles such as monitoring his head position and repeating his soft-spoken answers for the teacher—a dynamic that his math teacher, Shi Ji, believes provided an invaluable, imperceptible lesson in inclusivity.
Zou's battle with SMA necessitates relentlessrelentless/rɪˈlentləs/L3不懈的；持续的；无情的continuing in a severe or determined way without stopping or weakening familial support: his father, a former lawyer who owns a cycling equipment chain, customized his wheelchair and taught him independent navigation, while his mother and sister assist with schoolwork. Medical advances have also provided respite; in late 2021, China included nusinersen sodium (Spinraza) in its national insurance scheme, slashing the per-injection cost from 700,000 yuan to 33,000 yuan—Zou became the first recipient at Shanghai Children's Medical Center. Furthermore, a October 2022 surgery implanted a growing rod in his 69-degree curved spine, correcting it by 10 degrees, though the rod requires adjustment every one to two years until he stops growing; to calm his nerves before the operation, Zou loudly recited Li Bai's eighth-century poem "The Difficulty of the Shu Road," a moment the lead surgeon and staff joined, alleviatingalleviating/əˈliːvieɪtɪŋ/L3减轻；缓解（痛苦、问题等）making something less severe or easier to bear his fear.
Academically, Zou excels in mathematics, frequently achieving top exam scores—a feat that prompted classmates to pat his head for luck before tests—and is an avid reader who devoured Jin Yong's complete wuxia works and Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" by second grade. Conversely, writing poses a Herculean challenge due to his low muscle strength; after producing faint strokes, he gasps for breath, and by fourth grade he ceased taking written exams, though he composes essays via iPad, which his Chinese literature teacher, He Chunqiu, has printed and preserved. Zhang Ying, however, prioritizes socialization and cognitive stimulation over academic success, acknowledging that extended exam time policies may not apply to him; she humorously tells him, "Kid, you'd better live longer so we can take the national college entrance exam together as mother and son."
After a severe pneumonia scare in late 2023 that required a 10-day ICU stay and round-the-clock parental vigil, Zou will commence classes at Huangpu Experimental Middle School affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, directly adjacent to his former primary school. During a preliminary tour, Zou—unlike his peers—focused on barrier-free design, noting a threshold in the English listening classroom that his wheelchair could not cross; the principal promptly pledged renovations. Notwithstanding the challenges, his mother reflects that he has surpassed all expectations, and a family photograph from a 2015 triathlon, inscribed with the motto "Let our family run forward hand in hand forever. No one shall fall behind," encapsulatesencapsulates/ɪnˈkæpsjuleɪts/L3概括；体现； encapsulate的第三人称单数形式to express or show the most important aspects of something in a concise way their unwavering collective resolve.
