I went to see him in holidays and often tried to straighten him out, since we had a long way to go forward. I told him I liked all his family members. Their   family was poor but they were rich in fraternal affection.

    His second sister was good at cooking. She knew I liked to eat fish. So she cooked fish for me every time I visited their house. Second sister had to support Changli's studies that caused her to go with no boy friend even at her age of nearly thirty. Xiao Qiang found a girl friend by the name of Yaqin who was two years elder than I was. Yaqin told me Xiao Qiang was very honest when they fell in love. He told her, "Our family is poor. We do not have new houses. I have a blind eldest brother. If my eldest brother meets troubles, we would have to try our best to help him. You would not have objections on that, would you?" Yaqin said, "I was moved by his honesty. I told him I wouldn't  have any discrimination against your blind eldest brother. Yaqin told me in those words and she acted in the same way as what she said. Every time she finished her cooking, she always called Lili to have the meal first. She was very nice to me. She often took me out on a bicycle around to play. She took my hands to let me play on the banks of the water reservoir. Sometimes we went shopping in the county market. With too much pity, we did not have enough  money to buy the clothes. We liked to sing at the open-air karaoke. For each song I had to pay two yuan. Yaqin said she liked my singing. Many people had stopped to hear singing when I sang. Sometimes the eldest sister took her little son Xiao Jian to revisit her former home. She was a simple person in the type of "working hard regardless of criticism". I also liked Xiao Jian. The eldest sister was very capable in child nurturing and Xiao Jian was very obedient.

In Beijing Proper

    Lili had been staying at home for one year. His morale dropped day by day nearly to the edge of hopelessness. I tried to help him in getting straighten out   whenever I had time. I said to him,"Roads were made by footsteps of people. If you have not been successful in securing a license, you might as well come to Beijing to seek fortunes." He said, "How could I do it without any dwelling means in Beijing?" I said, "But we could try renting a room." He then kept silent. I knew he did not have money and felt embarrassed to ask for help. With no objection on it from him, I started my activities in making some arrangements behind him.

    I went to contact a schoolmate of mine by the name of Li Haocheng and asked him to rent a room for me. At that time he had rented a room for lodging because his home was too far from his working place. Li was a warm-hearted man. He asked me about who was going to live in the room. I told him my boy friend was going to live in it. Li had the renting arrangement made quickly. The rental was fixed at 140 yuan a month. I went to see the house, which was located in the vicinity of Landianchang (where some blue die mills were in history),  about a ten-minute distance to walk from the bus stop. It was in a small courtyard of farmers. There were three rooms facing south and some asbestos-cement tile roofed rooms of various sizes lined up on the two sides. Seven families were living in the courtyard. The room I rented was on the eastside facing west and Li Haocheng lodged opposite to mine. I entered the room and found it had a low ceiling that could be easily touched with a slight leaping upward. The room was empty with brick walls instead of white painting. It looked like a shed set up beside other living houses. With unknown reasons I felt like left in a desolation spot and about to cry. 'Total emptiness! How can we live here?' Li Haocheng was somewhat aware of my hidden feelings so he said,"Don't worry! I would do something more helping you until everything gets settled. Let's come to get things ready. Besides we are just opposite to you. If your boy friend should meet with any difficulty, I would surely be at his aid. At that  point I thought of the saying 'A friend in need is a friend indeed.' How grateful I felt toward Li Haocheng!

   We started to set everything in order. It was said the working was to be done together. But I did not know how to do such things before. Normally, Grandma would never want me do such work at home. Besides our room was in a   building instead of the bungalows. Li Haocheng had seen my inability in doing the cleaning work. So he told me to watch him doing and I might learn how to do those things later. At first he cleaned the floor, then the windows. He mixed some flour with water and made them into paste. Then he sticked some pieces of calendar paper on to the wall with the white side to be seen in the room. He borrowed a stove from the room owner. Then he sent me to buy some stovepipes. But I did not know what the stovepipes were so I asked him. But he got curious and asked me,"If you did not see stovepipes, I wonder how could you  get a boy friend with no room?" I knew he was joking. Then he said "Just go to buy a set of quilt and other cooking utensils for daily use. I'll do other things for you."

   I walked along while pondering where to get the money. Since I had already given my 140 yuan  to the room owner, I was left with little money and moreover I would have to pay for the meals at factory. Then I was struck with the idea to ask Grandma for money. Of course I could not tell her I was helping Changli to settle down a home, because she had been in objection to my relation with Changli all the time. When I got home, Grandma asked me, "It's not Saturday yet. How could you have come back already?" I said,"It was too cold at our factory. Could you give me a quilt and a cotton-padded mattress?" Grandma said,"They are all in the cabinet. Go and get them yourself." I went and picked the thickest quilt and continued to say,"Grandma! The meals served in our factory mess hall are often terribly cooked. I want to do some cooking myself." Grandma said, "But you do not know how to cook, do you?" I said, "Just because I don't know how, I should learn to do cooking." Grandma had it thought over for a while and said, "You should learn it! Go and get the utensils in the kitchen." Then I went to get the pan; the pot, bowls plus a gourd ladle and packed them all into a package. Grandma said, "Let me send the package together with you to your factory." I said,"No, thanks, Grandma! Our factory is too far away." Grandma thought it curious and said, "Usually you did not like to carry things because they were heavy. What is the reason for the change today?" I blushed because I had never cheated Grandma before.

   I managed to carry the package to our rented room. I felt an air of warmth when I entered the room. Li Haocheng had already got the walls of the room covered with white paper and ignited the fire in the stove. He also had fifty pieces of honeycomb briquettes ready for us. He piled up a narrow bed with some boxes for the bottles of beer. I put what I brought arranged in order. It really seemed to be a home. I began to ask friends to find a job for Lili. I heard a bathhouse outside Deshengmen (or Victory Gate)   was hiring massage technicians. So I sent a letter to Changli and asked him for a trial in Beijing. I received him at the coach station outside Dongzhimen (or Eastern most Gate)  and took him to the rented room. Lili asked, "Whose house is this?" I said, "It is yours. Li Haocheng and I helped you to get it." Lili was quite moved and laid down his only 100 yuan left and said,"How did you managed to get it when you do not have money?" I said, "Just keep it to yourself. I still have some money left." But actually I had only 2 yuan left in my pocket and I could merely have steamed buns to eat for the week, since I had stopped to ask Grandma for money after I had begun to work.

    It was not easy for Lili to find a job. Although there were many places trying to hire skilled massagers, they would not accept blind people. Their explanation was their requirement was not merely in getting ailments cured but particular on the looks of the workers. One day Li Haocheng phoned me when I was in our factory saying that Lili was sick. I asked for a leave and went to see him in his rented room. There I found Lili lying on bed with a fever. Li Haocheng told me that Lili went to a nightclub a few days ago to talk about employment. He  had to wait quite a long time after a massage for the boss. Finally the boss came and told him,"Even if you are good in the technique, but you are blind. Unless you are good looking, I could do nothing to help you. An aching on my neck troubled me so I would ask for your help later. Lili came out too late to catch a bus. He did not want to spend money on getting a tax ride. So he just spent the night while walking in the open air. So he got sick when he was back  the next day. He asked me not to let you know about his sickness. I heard him calling your name in his sleep. So I made the phone call to you against his words.

    My tears came down when I saw Lili in agony. Lili said, "Don't cry, Mimi. I might not be able to give you happiness in all my life. Let us part. I had been walking a whole night while thinking it over." I said, "It should not have taken you a whole night for coming back by walking." Lili said, "If I had come back in midnight. Then I would have to awake our room owner. I did not want to trouble others. At first I did tried to come back. But then I became walking unconsciously without knowing where about. I had been thinking a lot. I felt I could not trouble you anymore. You are better than I am in all respects. You could find a healthy boy friend without much difficulty. What would be the use in suffering hardship with me? I am left without much hope in my life. It might do by feeding myself."

    I said to him, "Don't be discouraged. You will certainly succeed in meeting with your opportunity. In fact, opportunity is fair to everyone alike. It all depends on how you try to find it." Lili said, "Hadn't I been trying enough?" I said,"It is not because you had not tried hard enough. It is because your chance had not arrived yet. You should never abase yourself. I won't part with you. I think love should not be based on money. I believe you will meet with success in the future."

    Actually I was not so sure when I said those words. I said them in soothing him. But my words finally came true. Li Haocheng said I was like a set of effective medicine that could cure Lili's ailment. Lili really became better after seeing me. I gave him another advice to propagate his technique in curing myopia. Many children were suffering from it nowadays. He might certainly have a lot of patients in want of seeing him.

    My suggestion really saved him. He had the neighbor's children with myopia started curing from eyesight range of 0.2 until 1.5 was reached. That result led to ten and more classmates of the healed child coming to ask for help in a couple of days before Lili speaking a word. Then the news had spread to be heard by people in multiple numbers. Lili became well-known in Haidian District. I bought an eyesight meter for him to test the eyesight range on site. A test was made before a curing treatment started. Then a test was made again five minutes after a curing treatment was applied. In normal cases the 1.5 range could be reached. Later he could have people in tens of number waiting at the entrance lane for his treatment. Those people unaware of what the queue was about thought it was to take some good commodity.