On June 22nd, 2001, we moved into the new house. Ever since we moved our home to the southern part of the city, Grandma could not have been at rest. She was afraid of our getting into accidents when she heard about the narrow roads and busy vehicular traffic in that district. She said she had been worried over us even in her dreams. Finally for the first time she came to see our home and found it was not so bad as it had been described. She thought that our home was quite well arranged. "Your new house is much larger than the room you had at my home. Hope you can buy a house of your own later. Then I could be completely freed of worries," she said. She also said a lot of pleasant words encouraging us. She said, "From your childhood I had been worrying about the danger of your getting starved in future. So I had been endeavoring to have you educated and let you have a know-how to support yourself. I opposed your marriage to Lili just because I was afraid to see you suffering. However in several years followed I saw Lili loving you wholeheartedly. So I was released from my worries over the possibilities of Lili bullying you. But now my fears have shifted to your ill treatment to Lili." Grandma went back home after supper. I did not know it was Grandma's first and last visit to our home. A few days later, Grandma told me over the phone that she would go and see her native land where she had a younger brother still living there. She stayed there over a month before returning to Beijing. We had been fixing our house and caused much time lost. So we had to rush in our work to make up the losses.

An Accident

    On October 22nd, 2001, I got home a little past three p.m. But for some unknown reason I had unrest in my mind in fearing something might happen. I did not know what it was about and what to do. I just kept going round and around in my room. Lili came back at six p.m. in the evening. With reasons unknown, he entered the room slowly but with a distorted face. I helped him to a seat in a hurry. Then he said to me, "I   took Bus No. 810 returning to my hospital from working outside. When I got off at Ping-anli stop, a person got off in front of me. But just at my stepping off, the bus started moving while the door was still open. I heard the ticket collector yelling to the driver, 'People are still taking off. Stop the bus.' But I was thrown out of the bus with my arms down to the ground at first. It did not feel any pain at first. As a physician, I knew that injuries might not be felt right after it occurred. So I asked the ticket collector for the license number of the bus with the promise 'I won't bother you in case I'm not injured.' The driver said, 'You should go away if you are not injured.' I insisted on getting his license number. Our quarrel lasted for ten odd minutes. A traffic jam was resulted at the Ping-anli region that many cars blew their horns in protest and a lot of people were watching there. The driver found no way out and was forced to give me a vehicle number and a mobile phone number written on his bus. He told me to call his mobile phone when it is necessary. With the note in my hand I permitted the bus to be driven away. Just as the bus was started a young man and a young woman came over and said, 'Let's help you check the numbers given by the driver and see if they are right.' They took a look and said, 'They were false. Let me write the true number of the bus on the paper for you.'"   

    Later the number on the bus provided by the two kindhearted youths functioned a decisive help. We felt grateful to them. Later we tried to find  them through the newspaper but failed. I found Lili's arm by touching had become seriously swollen. I called Liu Ying to help me in taking Lili to Jishuitan Hospital. I told all details of the accident to my teacher Mr Li on the way. Soon Mr Li found the bus team that the trouble maker belonged to  through Li Suli Hotline. The deputy captain of the team promised to visit the hospital at once. I took Lili to get an X-ray photo of his arm and found the injury was an olecranon fracture that required a diaplasis treatment. The treatment was so painful that caused Lili to faint. My heart was nearly broken. I thought, "Why isn't it me to suffer the accident? Lili would have to depend on his hands to work for his life. He was already suffering from blindness. If his hands had become disabled, how could he do his massage works?"

    The deputy captain came and saw the note given by the driver. The numbers the driver wrote were in five digits which were usually labeled on the side of the front door of buses. He said, "We have not these numbers in our team." He also took a look at the big numbers written by the witnesses, which were painted on the bumpers in general, and said, "These are our numbers. I'll make an inquiry tomorrow. On the morning of the next day I dialed the numbers of mobile phone left by the driver and found they were also false. Mr. Wang, the head of the bus team, came and said, "The numbers given by the driver were not from our team. How can you prove your injured person had been on the bus of Route 810?" I said, "Although we could not see, it's not so terrible as to be impossible to know which route of the bus to take. By the way, do you think the numbers given by the passersby are of your team?" Wang still insisted "Who could prove your husband got hurt on our bus."   "Many people around were watching and there were the people who gave us your numbers. If you refuse to admit the truth, then I will try to find witnesses through the news media. And I'll resort to legal settlement when the witnesses are found." Seeing that I kept my stubborn courage, Mr. Wang gave way by saying, "Let me make further investigation."

    In the afternoon, the deputy captain by the name of Ma Xiaoyu came again. He said, "It has been made clear it was our bus that caused the accident." But when I asked him further why the driver had given us the false numbers, he did not give any frank answer and just said we should treat the injury first of all. Lili's coworkers were also angry at Ma's attitude since there were quite a few blind ones at the massage hospital. They said blind people had difficulties even in coming out on the street. Yet the driver still went further in cheating us after the accident. Fortunately there were passersby to help us in securing those critical numbers. Otherwise our justice might have been openly abolished by those people in the bus team! The director of the hospital was also angry upon hearing this, "How could they treat handicapped people like that?" and invited legal consultant of the hospital to discuss the matter. "I have heard of the ruthless and unreasonable attitude of the public transportation service. But our hospital must take up the matter." The leading members of the China Disabled Persons' Federation came to see Lili after hearing such news. The party secretary said, "The leaders of the Federation were very angry upon hearing this accident and intended to report the matter to the state central committee. This is not merely your personal matter. What to do if such matters were met by more handicapped people?" I carefully thought over the leader's words and thanked him. But I said, "I had already asked for a leave to attend Changli. I thought I am able to settle this matter. I don't think to give you any trouble unless I met with anything beyond my ability." Afterwards I started to inform all important news agencies by telephone. That drew the attentions of all the news reporters and they all promised to make it public. I also made phone calls to the relevant columns of the Beijing TV as well as the Beijing Broadcast Station. Days have passed but no news was heard of. I had to take care of Lili every day. He could not take care of his own daily life. His whole arm was terribly swollen in size. His hands could not move. Each day his face clearly showed the deep agony of suffering. Maybe it was beyond the appreciation of healthy people that blind people could not see, all their sense about the world around depended solely on their hearing and tactile senses. The hand meant so important to a blind person. I had been crying behind his notice. I felt so sorry at seeing him in agony. Why had the injury happened on him instead of me? Lili had been unfortunate ever since his childhood. Heaven should have granted the least happiness to him! I had promised to bring happiness to him and I had tried my best to achieve it. I had tried to help him to come round when he met with troubles. I had tried to make him laugh when he was sad. He had often said I had been the major part of his life. Oh Heaven! Let me take up all his agony.

    Ma Xiaoyu the captain asked for a face-to-face negotiation. We made our appointment in the hospital. Attendants of the meeting included the director and legal consultant of the hospital. Two members also came from the bus team. Talking about the indemnity, Ma agreed only to pay for the medical expenses. The legal consultant of the hospital suggested that the psychiatric indemnity should be included. But Ma said, "The bus numbers provided by the driver were the actual numbers. So any psychiatric indemnity is out of question." I suggested to take a look at the bus to verify those numbers of their truth or false. At that moment Ma made a slight hesitation to say, "Let me phone back to let the bus remain at our bus yard." Then he made a phone call of ten or more minutes and came back to say, "If you could not believe me. You can go and see the bus at our central terminal at Yuanmingyuan. I thought I dared to go anywhere on earth to get the truth cleared. Lili was little worried. But I said, "You just wait for me in the hospital and don't worry. I took a two-hour ride with Ma to get to our destination. He took me to a bus and I   found the numbers on its panel were the same as the numbers given by the passersby. But when I got to the door I found that the five-digit traffic service numbers were different from those provided by the driver. I was careful in making another check at closer distance and made certain they were different. At this time Ma Xiaoyu explained, "This bus was borrowed, so the numbers are   above the door inside the bus." I thought to myself, 'there are numbers above   the doors of many buses indeed.' I got on the bus and saw five digit numbers in yellow as same as the number given by the driver. But it seemed quite familiar to me. Then I suddenly thought of the telephone numbers printed by computers made by our company for advertisements glued on the back of vehicles. 'Aren't they made by computer?' I stretched my hand to touch those numbers on the bus and found they were really glued on the bus. Then I said to Ma Xiaoyu, the team head, "These numbers are fake ones." Instantly he got a little hurried but still insisted in saying his alibi, "The buses we borrowed for the time being are all like this. You can see there is another one over there." I went on another bus. The numbers above the door were also glued on. I was in half believing when the dispatcher came over and talked to me. "All our borrowed vehicles had their numbers adjusted in this way" Then he made his long explanation and hanged around me trying to say something. I kept silent because I did not know how to give my opinion. When I was leaving there at last, I said to Ma, "Let me think it over." But he said, "Do not think anymore. Let us get the question solved. The sooner to get a solution the better it would be to both sides."

    I went to take Lili at the hospital. On the way I made a telephone call to Li Suli Hotline about the issue and I received a definite answer. "All numbers of the public transportation service are posted on the vehicles through sprayed paints in red. None of them have been made with yellow ever-sticky glue." Thus the cheating made by Ma was evident and I reported the fact to the correspondent of Radio Beijing. Upon hearing my report, the correspondent said, "In fact I wasn't going to give up the report about this accident. But we have to making verifications at first from both sides. When we inquired the bus team on telephone, their answer was that the driver had not given fake numbers, i.e. what had been provided were true numbers, and the blind person demanded high indemnity. Someone had also been sent for an explanation to the radio broadcast station from the bus team." Then I understood why all the news agencies did not give their response. It was all because of the confusing of right and wrong by those of the bus team. So I called the team captain Ma Xiaoyu on the phone and said in plain and quiet language, "We do not need to talk about indemnity. I would not ask a cent from you. But I will help people to hear of your evil deeds so as to warn those who thought the bully could  be played on the handicapped people at will."

    Upon hearing my words, the team captain Ma Xiaoyu stupefied for a minute and instantly became an entirely different person. He said, "I had found no other way out except to cheat you. As you had contacted so many news agencies, things might have developed beyond control if I did not tell lies." (At that instant I pressed the record button on my telephone) He said "How much money would you ask for. I will do my best to satisfy your wishes. Please give your way upon my begging for your pardon with my age over forty." I said, "I had never thought of money since the accident had taken place. I've been  trying to win justice. I stand for the rights and interest of the handicapped." Then I hung up the phone. After a moment Ma Xiaoyu called me up to beg my pardon with a lot of words in apology. I asked him, "Don't you think that blind people are all stupid, so you had been treating us in this way? I have my recorder working and what your said has been all recorded." He was too scared to speak any more. I went to find the correspondent by the name of Nan Jiuyi who had written an article about me. She was a news reporter for the News of   China Consumers. I told her all about the accident and asked if she dared to make public the news or not. She answered, "I am not afraid of doing that, because every one should have the sense of righteousness."

No Hesitation in Maintenance of Rights & Interests

    In reality I like to help other people in their troubles. I had been stubbornly striving to maintain the rights and interests for the handicapped people with no hesitation. Once I was walking down the western passage at Gongzhufen subway station where a ticket collector stopped me and said, "Is this your pass? Why don't you look like to be blind? And the blind people must have others in companion. You are not allowed to step downstairs alone by yourself." No matter how I made explanation that I always went around on my own, she insisted her refusal of my descent to the subway track. I thought it was quite easy for me to get a person to go together with me. I went to the wicket and told to a person, "I can not see. Please take me down to the subway track. Then you do not have to buy a ticket." She took me to the passage where the collector was terribly fury and scolded my companion to be greedy.  Then I came to understand that the collector was not following any regulation. Nor did she have any care for my safety. Instead, she was only jealous at my   free pass for the blind. I was rushing on my way to a customer, so I left without saying any more. Later my customer told me that the subway station at Gongzhufen was an advanced unit for catching the most ticket escapers. I thought, "What an advanced unit! I went to gather news from the station master of Gongzhufen Subway with a mini-cassette recorder since it was really beyond my endurance. Whenever I pass the checkpoint while displaying my free pass for blind person, I would hear a loud yell, "Halt! What is that?"  This kind of menacing yell caused a lot of people around to throw their amazed sights at me. I took it as an insult to me. It did not matter if it were only one or two mistakes in checking my blind person free pass. But they shouldn't yell at me every time I pass there. Some other blind people told me they had also  suffered the similar insults all the time.

    I found a person who said he was the stationmaster by the surname Zhang. I asked him, "Why do all blind people meet with your shout when they pass the west ticket check point." That Master Zhang answered, "The new collectors does not know you. Aren't they allowed to see you passes?" "If so? Why had your station been changing collectors all the time." I asked. He gave no answer to the question but insisted that checking tickets was within their authority. If this kind of behavior can be considered as your authority. It was an authority! If all the thirty stations of Beijing subway check tickets in the same way as the workers of Gongzhufen Station did, how could blind people dare to come out? I sent the recorded tape of my conversation with him to the Beijing Broadcasting Station and it was broadcast several times in the news program. But the subway station at Gongzhufen just kept on their way of ticket checking in refusing to recognize the free pass of blind people and insisted on their way of shouting. I kept on taking opportunities to expose their rough behaviour at Gongzhufen station. While I neglected their shouts after showing my free pass and walked calmly down to the platform, they did not chase after me. So I understood more clearly that they were only jealous at my free pass. They were ignorant of law. Since the Law of the People's Republic of China on
the Protection of Disabled Persons states the free pass of the public vehicles for blinds,   would those ticket collectors at the west passage of Gongzhufen Subway Station reverse the State Law's provisions?