A 15-year-old student quit the school to work at a food stand her family owns but returned three months later.

"She sent me text messages at night telling me she felt very depressed and lonely at home," Liu recalls.

The girl's mother died soon after she was born. Her father remarried.

"The family acts strange when I eat at the same table with them," she says.

She told Liu by text that she feels "being at school with you is where I feel most comfortable".

The school's principal and the Third Hospital of Linfen's president Guo Xiaoping says the children's futures are a huge question mark.

"They have no idea about discrimination because nobody discriminates here," Guo says.

"They don't know what it means to be hurt. But what happens when they graduate and move into a university dorm or work in factories? How will others treat them?"

That's why Liu appeared on Chinese Dream Show. Contestants not only showcase their talents but also share their wishes. Hers are for the 23 children.

Some are about to graduate.

So Liu hopes to start a vegetable garden to teach the teens about planting food, so they can feed themselves.

"It might not be the wisest solution, but it's the best I can devise," she says.