Mimi Was A Cat Loving Freedom
I'd like to recall those happy days. After Changli's
graduation, those boys who had been chasing me started it again. They firmly believed they
could take their advantage being closer to me and possessing better
qualification than Changli. So wining my love might be assured. Actually Changli had heard
from his friends about their stories for a long time. I had asked him, "Weren't you
afraid of losing me?" But he said, "I do love you. But you have your own freedom
in choice. You can decide to choose your own friend. I have no right to interfere. But if
you come to me, I will absolutely be nice to you. Affectionate feelings can not be gained
through wresting. May be my qualifications are inferior to others. But I believe in fate.
I feel grateful to your trust toward me. If your stay with me through life, I will always
trust you and give you freedom." Changli kept his words and never interfere with my
freedom. Many times I had asked him, "Why! You are so generous. Would you not be
jealous?" But he always said, "Mimi is a cat. She always loves freedom. Any one
who tries to interfere with her freedom is actually driving her away." He appreciated
my feelings completely, while those boys chasing after me lacked his generosity. They were
jealous to each other. How could I have good feelings toward them?
Practice
Time elapsed swiftly. It was time for my practice.
Our teacher Mr. Li had told us frequently, "The technique you have learned is the
most up-to-date technique from European and American countries." The students of our
class had the impression that it would not be difficult for us to get a job. With the
advanced technology, should we be afraid of their being out of use? But we had made a
mistake in that notion. In reality, we could not even get a unit to accept us for
practice. The reason was that none had heard the blind people could engage in piano
tuning. They thought pianos are expensive instruments. Blind people might damage them
because of their inability in seeing. We were rather puzzled. Even our suggestion for free
service in tuning was turned down. What could we do after graduation? Such problems
worried Mr. Li as well as the leading members of our school. Only after considerable
effort exerted, they succeeded in arranging practice for us at the Conservatory of Music.
When we arrived at the conservatory, we heard sounds
of music in their compound everywhere. Dulcet piano music could be heard from every piano
cell. But the music from different cells was also different. Just standing at any
door of the cells, you would be able to enjoy the music. The building with piano
cells was like a radio. There were pianos with different brands. We got to see a variety
of different piano brands. After a few days of tuning practice, I discovered, though the
pianos had diversified brands, their internal structures had similarities. The imported
pianos were most easy to tune up. We live on the sixth story of the building. It was
tiresome to go upstairs and down to that story several times a day. But I found the food
there were of good taste. The teachers there were very nice to us. They trusted us. I had
asked a teacher Mr. Wang Xinglong why he trusted blind people in piano tuning.
"Aren't you afraid of the pianos to be damaged by us?" Mr. Wang said, "If I
had not seen blind people tuning pianos I might have distrusted them. But I have seen them
tuning pianos when I was studying in Austria. So it is not strange or new to me."
Then I could see the truth. Nowadays many people might be still laying distrust to blinds.
But through our effort, may be we could win their trust. When I pondered over those words
I gained more confidence.
We worked on piano tuning practice during daytime
and went for a walk at the campus in the evening. Hou Jian said, "See how bright the
moon is tonight!" People were staring at the moon. But I was not happy at seeing it.
I was not clear why. But I just felt dislike to see the moonlight. Mr. Li asked,
"Could there be irritations you had experienced?" I thought it over for a while.
I did not like either moonlight or dusk. It might have been due to the experience of
those unhappy days when I stayed at my parent's home. In that period I was troubled
by the noise at dusk in the village. At night seeing the moon in remote sky I used
to think of Grandma and Brownie far way. Now even after I had grown up, I could never
forget those days when I was eight and staying in my parent's home. That was also the
reason why I could not pardon my parents. Zhou Lang said, "It's close to the 15th in
Chinese Lunar August. Let's go to see the moon together!" We all agreed.
On August 15, Lili came to see me
from Langfang. I told him that our classmates were going to Zizhu Park to see the moon.
"It would be nice if you could come with us." He said 'I'm sorry I can't because
I must return to Langfang this afternoon.' I felt much regret. He said,"Fifteenth of
August is the festival of reunion. That's why I've come to see you. I hope we can spend
our life together until we have silver threads among our black hairs." I grasped his
hand and said, "I think we can. Hope the year would come for us to go and see the
moon with hands in hands. Then I might not be reluctant to see the moon anymore. In the
afternoon, Lili had to make his loathed parting. My classmates went to Zizhu Park. It was
not crowded in the park and we chose a place with stone chairs and tables for our picnic
while exchanging stories related to the moon. I still remembered the story told by Zhou
Lang. He said, in his childhood he was very naughty at school. One day when students were
lining up, he stepped on the foot of another student. That student lodged a complaint
against him with the teacher. The teacher asked him if it was done in deliberate intention
or on purpose. Zhou Lang was still a kid and he only knew deliberate intention was bad. So
he said he did it on purpose. The teacher said, "I guessed you were on purpose. Go to
stand straight for your punishment." Only later did I get to know that either
deliberate intention or on purpose were bad. Our classmates all laughed and all thought
the teacher raised the question with cunning. So as long as you give an answer, you would
be pinned down as faultiness anyway. We then started singing. I remembered the words in my
song were, "When lying in mom's bosom, I would give the moon my sweet smiles. The
moon's like mom's face with her smile, no matter how vexed my mind is. Whenever the moon
light shines on my body, my feeling floats as the white clouds aloft. Whenever the
moon light shines on my body, my feeling floats as the white clouds aloft." My
tears came down as my singing continued. I did not think over where my tears came from.
They must have touched the sorrow deeply hidden at the bottom of my heart under the
specific condition.
The first customer we visited, as to recall, was a
retired cadre from the Municipal Bureau of Education, who approached our teacher Mr. Li
and showed his willing to invite us to have his piano tuned as he heard about the fact
that the blind persons were capable of piano tuning. He said he would call on more people
to give us opportunities if we could really accomplish the task. His house was situated at
Tuanjie Hu, or United Lake in English. It took us two hours to get to his residence from
our school against a strong wind. At his home, our teacher wanted me to do the tuning and
have other mates to watch my working. I finished the tuning while concentrating my
utmost attention. That made the old cadre very satisfied and promised to give publicity
for us. The wind was blowing harder on our way back to school. It was so strong as if we
were to be blown up into the sky. Zhou Lang was the huskiest fellow in our class, so I
kept hidden behind him for my wind fence.
One year of our practice soon concluded. My heart
was sinking as our graduation approached. We had already met with distrust many times in
practice. What should I do in future? On the ceremony of our conclusion each of us played
a piece of piano music. I compiled a short playscript entitled as "My future is not a
dream". It depicted my fictitious imagination in memory of the trust on our group won
through the endeavors exhorted in lots of years. The story started with the successful
gathering of us to an opening of a firm in piano tuning service. In that company every one
enjoyed equality. There were no exploitation, no discrimination and no differentiation in
nobility and inferiority. The revenue for the first month of business operating was
encouraging. Every one of us earned 10 yuan. We all were happy. Amidst the cheering music,
we sang together, "Nothing to mean in the storm! Tears wiped out! Fears driven out!
For us the dreams kept dwelled!" Applause rose without cessation. As the first
generation of the blind people in mastery of the worldwide up-to-date piano tuning
technique in China, we have graduated with beautiful dreams. I did not know what
road would be ahead. But I believed the opportunities would be equal for every one. All
would depend on how you grasped them. I warned myself, 'I must try hard.' But how I hate
to part with our school where I had been living for ten odd years! How I hate to part with
the teachers who taught me knowledge! How I hate to part with my schoolmates!
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