Deng had expected these difficulties to discourage her son.
Instead, his willingness to continue surprised her.
He did not appear to be frightened away by the long hours.
He continued preparing food, traveling to his location, and selling to customers.
His mother described him as diligent and said she had not expected him to become so absorbed in the work.
The South China Morning Post, The Star, and CNA's 8days all reported the demanding schedule, including his early food preparation, 13-kilometer journey, and late-night return home.
For Deng, this created an unexpected contradiction.
The son who had struggled to stay motivated at school was demonstrating considerable commitment in a working environment.
The teenager who questioned the value of studying was willing to spend long hours developing a business.
He had not necessarily become less hardworking.
He had found an activity that motivated him differently.
That distinction would become central to the entire story.
The Unexpected Result: 10,000 Yuan in Just 10 Days
Then came the outcome that transformed Deng's parenting experiment into a viral news story.
After only 10 days of selling food, Shen had reportedly brought in approximately 10,000 yuan.
At the time, that was equivalent to roughly US$1,400.
For a teenager operating a small mobile food stall, the figure was striking.
It suggested that Shen had been able to attract customers and generate a meaningful amount of business activity in a relatively short period.
Deng attributed the result to her son's hard work and the support of loyal customers.
The success surprised her because she had expected the experience to demonstrate how difficult making money could be.
Instead, the sales figures gave Shen a reason to believe that street vending might offer him a promising future.
There is, however, an important financial distinction in the reported amount.
The 10,000 yuan represented reported sales revenue, not independently verified net profit.
Revenue is the total money a business receives from customers before deducting expenses.
Profit is what remains after accounting for relevant costs.
For a fried chicken stall, those costs may include ingredients, cooking oil, packaging, electricity, transportation, equipment, and other operating expenses.
For example, if a food stall generates 10,000 yuan in sales but incurs 6,000 yuan in expenses, its profit would be 4,000 yuan.
That is only a hypothetical illustration. The actual expenses and profit from Shen's stall were not publicly established in the reporting reviewed.
This distinction matters because a business can generate impressive sales without producing equally impressive earnings.
Nevertheless, even the reported revenue was enough to change the direction of Shen's thinking.
He had experienced customers purchasing food he helped prepare and sell.
He had seen money coming into the business.
And he had discovered that he could remain motivated through a demanding working schedule.
For a teenager who had been questioning his future, those experiences may have felt more meaningful than a classroom grade.
Deng, meanwhile, was watching her original plan unravel.
The work was supposed to make her son appreciate school.
Instead, it was making him increasingly enthusiastic about entrepreneurship.
When the Lesson Produces the Opposite Result
Parents often design lessons around an expected outcome.
They believe that once a child experiences a particular challenge, the child will understand the parent's perspective.
Deng's expectation was straightforward.
She believed Shen underestimated the difficulty of working for a living.
By giving him direct experience with street vending, she hoped to demonstrate that school offered opportunities worth protecting.
But Shen interpreted the experience differently.
He discovered that he enjoyed operating the stall.
He found motivation in preparing products, serving customers, and watching the business generate sales.
Rather than viewing the work as a punishment, he began treating it as a possible career.
The more successful the stall became, the stronger his enthusiasm appeared to grow.
Eventually, according to the original reporting, Shen decided to leave school and concentrate on his business.
For Deng, this was precisely the outcome she had hoped to prevent.
She had introduced her son to work so that he would reconsider dropping out.
Now he had an additional reason to believe leaving school was the right decision.
It was an ironic reversal.
The mother wanted to show her son the disadvantages of working.
The son discovered advantages that mattered to him.
She wanted him to appreciate education.
He became more confident that practical work could offer an alternative.
And the experience that was supposed to discourage him from entrepreneurship instead strengthened his interest in it.
The story illustrates an important limitation of parenting through controlled experiences.
Parents can decide which opportunities to provide, but they cannot completely determine how their children will interpret them.
A child may discover an unexpected talent.
A teenager may enjoy a responsibility that adults assume will be unpleasant.
Or an experience intended to teach caution may inspire ambition.
Deng's experiment was a particularly dramatic example because the financial result was so immediate.
Had Shen struggled to sell food, he might have reached a different conclusion.
Had the work been physically demanding without producing encouraging sales, he might have reconsidered his plans.
But the actual outcome gave him a sense of accomplishment.
And that accomplishment reinforced his desire to continue.
A Mother's Surprise Turns Into a Difficult Decision
Deng did not immediately abandon her hope that Shen would return to school.
According to the South China Morning Post, she repeatedly encouraged him to continue his education.
She understood that a successful 10-day period did not necessarily guarantee a stable long-term career.
She also recognized that leaving school at 17 could affect her son's future opportunities.
But Shen remained determined.
His experience had apparently convinced him that he wanted to pursue street-food vending rather than return to his previous academic routine.
Deng faced a difficult parenting question.
Should she continue trying to persuade her son to follow the educational path she believed was best?
Or should she recognize his enthusiasm for business and help him pursue it responsibly?
Her eventual comments reflected an attempt to balance those competing priorities.
She acknowledged that a 17-year-old could have independent ideas about his future.