Retired Chinese woman cares for cancer-stricken ex-colleague for a decade, defying gossip

A retired woman in eastern China has spent 14 years caring for a former colleague with cancer, brushing off gossip to stand by him. According to Jinan Daily, the story began in 2012, when Zhang Ji, now 76, reconnected with her former supervisor, Zhang Hongquan, after years without contact.

Widowed, estranged from his adult children and battling rectal cancer, the 82-year-old was living in squalid conditions in a flat in Jinan, Shandong province. The illness had left his left leg blackened and...