Home of Guo Changli

    On the second day, we went to Miyun together. His home village, known as  the village of Xizhi, was four kilometers from the county proper of Miyun. When we entered the village I felt there were a lot of people staring at us. The streets were made of dirt and every family had their own courtyard. Their houses were of different heights. The walls surrounding the courtyards were generally low. Wheat straws were piled high in heaps and lined up one after another. While we walked along, Guo told me about his family, "It is now  composed of two elder sisters, two younger brothers and my mother. My eldest sister has married. After the death of my father, my second elder sister replaced our father's position to support my study. After our talk yesterday, I phoned up the second elder sister to inform her your visit to our home today. She was very glad to hear that and told me that she would put our family members together for you."

    I walked into their residence and saw the courtyard was not large with five  low bungalows. All their family members came out to meet me. Their rooms were dark inside. I discovered there was a large bed of heatable adobe in the room. I asked, "Are you still using it in the last decade of the twentieth century?" That question brought an air of tension. I immediately realized I should pay attention to my words.

    There were no electrical appliances in any of the five rooms. I could not imagine there were families in such difficulties. But all the family members welcomed me with hospitality. They asked me how old I was. When would I graduate? They even said I was good-looking and more handsome than their Changli. At lunch time, Guo's mother and two sisters cooked plenty of delicious dishes for me and wanted me to eat more. They tried continuously to make me more at home. I wondered how their poor family could provide so many tasted food. After that lunch Changli's youngest brother bought some cold drinks for me. I took a bottle, removed the cork and tasted. But I found it had a queer taste and tried to leave it. But his brother said, "Never mind. Leave it to me. I will take it." Then he took the queer stuff without hesitation. Guo saw me sitting there in a daze. He came over and explained to me, "Usually, we had never bought any cold drinks at home. I disliked the taste just like you did. But my brother seldom got chances to take such drinks." I remained silent. I had never imagined that people could be living with such difficulties in 1990s.

    After finishing lunch, his two brothers went out playing. His two sisters and his mother talked with me. His mother said, "Darling Miss, it is very rare to have you to like Changli. He is a good boy. But our family was too poor. If you should take him with you, we will do our best to buy a new house for you, even if we have to borrow money. His two brothers had said that they would earn money to help their eldest brother." I thought it is a lovely family with harmony and intimate affection among all members. Their family was much better than my own. Guo's mother continued, "Changli was very clever as a child. But the poor eyesight hindered him. After the birth of my two girls, we had our longing satisfied at the third birth of a boy. But I discovered there seemed to be a white membrane on his eye a few days after his birth. A month after his birth we took him to see a doctor in Tongren Hospital. The doctor said, "He is still too small. Please come to see me a few months later. At that instant, the reality of situation was too cruel for us to bear. The diagnose result few months later revealed the boy had a bleary cornea, which was not curable at that time. He could only see light. But can never obtain real seeing in his life. If he is born nowadays, he could get his cornea replaced after birth. However, we did not even have money for the operation at that time. I asked, "Is it possible to have his cornea replaced now?" "We had taken him to the hospital, but the doctor said, 'After sensing light only for so many years, his eyeground had already withered.' His two younger brothers were born respectively when he was three and six years old. His father had to work in a factory. I had to plow the field. Our Life was very difficult. Changli was very sensible when he was a child and helped me in all my labor. He learned to steam corn bread at the age of seven. He could not get a school to take him because those schools thought he could not see. Besides there were many normal children could not go to school in the countryside at that time, not to say the handicapped kids. Education seemed helpless to them. But his father did not believe that and insisted in finding an opportunity sending him to school. We would not be able support his living all through his life. Yet we did not want to spoil him and neither did we discriminate against him. We treat him the same as our other children in allowing him to have a normal frame of mind. At the same time we instructed the other four children of ours to take responsibility in taking care of Changli. In the early 1970s, when there were no radio receivers in our village yet, his father bought a receiver for him from the county proper. Changli loved to listen to the radio. He could sing all the songs he heard from the radio. His two sisters had to attend school and missed the hearing of some story programs. Yet he recited those stories from the radio to his sisters without missing any word in them. So the sisters especially loved their blind younger brother. Changli was often bullied by other little kids when playing outside. His second sister was rather strong and always went arguing with those who bullied him. Changli liked to keep long-horned grasshoppers and liked to take two younger brothers together to go up hill to catch the insects. He located the hidden places of the insects by hearing and left the catching to his brothers. Changli never took initiative in any fight with others. He had a sense of inferiority. He always felt he could not compare with other ones because of his failure in seeing. In the year when he reached the age of thirteen, his father read the news about the Beijing School for the blind on the newspaper. Then his father took him to the entrance examination in May. The enrollment notice for Changli came in June so that he could get enrolled to  school in September."

    In July, an ill fate struck the unfortunate family. "Changli had been feeling aching in his abdomen for quite some time. Later he felt a swelling there. He used to talk less and the sickness made him to talk even lesser. He did not tell us about that until his aching became serious. We took him to the hospital and were informed that a puncture was required for diagnose in determination whether it was benign or not in nature. Changli said that the puncture was very painful and unforgettable all through his life. During the operation he had to have ten or more people to help in keeping him lying still. The needle was thick. 'The pain was severe as your heart and lungs were split and torn when the needle  pierced into my abdomen.' Although result showed benign. The swelling of the aching spot was already very large. The doctor said, "In most cases, the patient should have felt stomach ache long before this and measures  had been taken to prevent it from becoming worse." But his mother said, "Changli had strong endurance. After the operation I held him in my arms with my heart filled with loving. While I tried comforting him by telling him to cry out if the pain was too serious. But Changli told me it was OK. And even helped me to wipe out my tears. He had been an understanding child like that since his childhood. Unfortunately I was down on acute cholecystitis and had to stay in the same hospital before he recovered after the operation. His father was very tired in running back and forth to take care of us. His father was suffering from rheumatic heart disease. Just like the common saying of Blessings never arrive in pairs and misfortune never comes singly." When we just returned home from the hospital, his father became down on a heart stroke and was rushed to the hospital ward. Only through an urgent rescue his situation became stabilized. His father wanted to see our five children. I told him our home was four kilometers from the county hospital and it was difficult for them to come. But he insisted in seeing them. So I had to go home to take our children to the hospital. There his father told them, "I am most worried about Changli. I gave him the name of Changli (which means 'often successful') in the hope of seeing him succeed in his life. I used to hope I could afford him to study at school for several years and then replace me in my work. Therefore he might be able to get a residential registration in the city proper. He could not be a farmer because he could not see. Now it seemed I might not be able to live long enough to see that." Our children all said, " Dad,  you will certainly be able to live. You are a good man. Good men can enjoy long lives. We can not lose you. Their father sighed, "May your hopes become true. I would be left with worries for you, in case I have to leave you like this. But I have words to say. If my departure is inevitable, the two daughters are already in the teen ages of seventeen and fifteen. The one who can support Changli can succeed my work. But Changli must go to study in Beijing where his living expenses might be high such that your wage monthly could barely be enough to support him. The one who takes the responsibility to support him should try her utmost ability. When the science were developed it might be possilbe for Changli to study at a college. Considering his cleverness, it is not too difficult for him only if the conditions allow. You must support him to finish advanced education without interruption, and further more your  marriage might even be beyond consideration for the time being in that period. Which one of you can take up this duty? The usual obedient eldest daughter did not say anything. The second daughter who usually was strong and defended Changli against injustice said, "I can undertake this responsibility." Their father smiled with content, "My dear children, every one of you is so dear to me. How I hate to part with you! All of you must always rally together. Upkeep aiding to each other when you grow up. Your mother and I brought you into this world. We wish five of you could live with mutual respect and mutual love. Then you could talk over together whenever you met with troubles. As the saying goes, 'Many hands make light work.'"

    It seemed that Changli's father left his last words with his foresight. At four A.M. the second dawn, their father left us with so many worries and so many regrets in his mind! One of the sisters said, 'Dad lived a life of only thirty odd years. He brought us to the world and left us the image of a great father. Though we wept with deepest grief, we could have no means to save his life.'

    The second sister helped their father to close his half-staring eyes and said, ' Dad, you can set your mind at rest. I will surely remember your words. Our family felt like meeting the collapse of heaven, and did not know how to live.' The second younger brother of eight years old cried again and again while calling in want of father. May be he was too small to realize his dad had gone forever. His eight years of the fortunate childhood had ended. Changli had never spoken much. Struck by this unexpected blow caused his recovering health to become badly affected. He never cried out. Only had his tears  dropped silently. Sisters were afraid of his eyes spoiled even more by crying. So they tried their best to calm him. But after all the five children were still kids. Why had fate been so unfair to them? With the frame support of the   family gone, their mother had to take all the responsibility of taking care of the five children. But their mother was a farmer; just the task of supplying enough food to the children alone was a considerable burden to her. Supporting their study at school seemed impossible. The new semester was coming near. Changli's mood was becoming worse and worse. He hoped to study at school. But he saw their family was collapsing. He was a boy with strong self-respect and he did not want to add more trouble to mother. One day he said in tears to mother, "Mom! I am going to stop my study at school. When you go working in the field, I will do cooking at home. You can send my eldest sister to school. Since she is going to enter a college soon. She is good in her study. She certainly can succeed in her college entrance examination. But the eldest sister said, "I am not going to study in a college. I will stay at home to help work and support our three brothers to study. But their mother cried and said, "All of you are my own flesh and blood. It hurts me if any one of you suffers with a bleak future. Finally the eldest sister stayed to help mother at home and the second sister succeeded their father's work. They took up together the responsibility of supporting their three brothers. The two sisters abandoned their own bright future to help mother in taking the heavy burden of family support.

    Upon the day before Changli was going to school for the first time, sisters took him to their  father's tomb. Changli knelt to the tomb and said, "Dad! I will go to study at school tomorrow. I will study hard and earn money to support my  mother, sisters and brothers." The second sister said, "Dad, you can rest in mind. I will support Changli to finish his school education. We will surely have one in the three brothers to become a college student." On the next day, the sisters sent Changli to school. Changli was dropping tears in his heart. He carried the hopes of the family to enter the school.

    I had my tears already dropping upon listening to the above narration. It was not a story depicted in a fiction. It was a life story of a real family! I came to understand why Changli always won his leading records in all fields of study and behavior. I did not know that his childhood was so miserable. His   second sister said, "Our hopes are already in sight. Changli is going to graduate very soon. In addition, he found a beautiful urban girl to be his girl friend. If you do not mind the poverty of our family, we will try to provide a warm family for Changli. In this way, our father might rest in peace. I asked, "Have  the two younger brothers studied in college?"  "'No. The second brother Xiao Qiang stopped going to school at the age of fourteen, since he knew our family was too poor. He went out to get hired for doing labor and sent most of his income to mom. He said, 'Please send my brothers to school.'  Later he mastered some cooking skill. The youngest brother left school after graduating from a junior high school. He get a job and later learned motor vehicle driving. The younger brothers had a common desire, which was to wish Changli to succeed in learning some valuable skill. They always remembered dad's words, 'A healthy man can earn no more than his ability provides. Even if he learnt nothing, he still can rely on picking trashes for a living. But a handicapped person would be difficult to survive without mastering some technique. Other people can not support them through his entire life. So let them learn to be able to  self-support.'"

    I was really moved by the story of his family. Now I was aware that I have really fallen in love with him. I had discovered Changli's self-abased feeling a long time ago. It might have been resulted from ordeals suffered in his childhood. I must bring happiness to him. I was not just sentimental. I clearly realized if we get really married, difficulties to be met would be tremendous in   future. I knew I would meet considerable hindrance from my own family.