 But day to day, he was struggling, says mom Xu Zhizhi. He'd wake up and cry, mom, I don't want to go to school. And that was when he was in grade one. 500 miles east in Shanghai, ex-coder Liu Qing was also worried about her twin girls who were in the third grade. She says they had so much homework, they didn't usually finish until 9 p.m. and once till 1 a.m.