At first, Bi used a bicycle to "transport" Wang. After losing four bikes, he eventually gave up on that idea and literally carried Wang on his back, as he shouldered him to and from home and school.

Bi Mingzhe, a high school student in Linxiang, Central China's Hunan province, shoulders his classmate Wang Li on his back on their way to school.

Apart from the distance involved and Wang's increasing weight, bad weather was another obstacle they frequently had to overcome.

"The worst accident was, perhaps, a fracture Bi suffered during the second year of middle school due to heavy rain," Wang recalled. Bi fell to the ground and broke his left arm, which had just healed from a previous fracture.

However, even that has not been the most difficult part of their experience. While Bi's efforts have been duly praised, the pair have also had to endure being uncomfortably stared at and gossiped about on countless occasions.

"For the record, we have a very close relationship. That is for sure," Bi said. "But it stops there. We do not have the type of relationship that some have imagined."

Once, when Bi overheard some of his classmates talking behind his back about "how much money he might be paid", all his anger and frustration came out in tears.

"At first, it was like a responsibility for me," Bi, said. "It later evolved into a habit and then a bond."