Free Mind And Simple Life

    In the deep night of Dec 3 2004, when I was surfing online, suddenly a name ‘Xingshen Chen’ popped up from the screen. I searched out the photo I took with Mr.Chen two years ago when I interviewed him, and put it on the middle of bookshelf. On the wall behind Mr.Chen and me, showed by the photo, there is a round quartz clock, whose hands indicate that moment assuredly: 13 minutes and 4 seconds past 1pm, April 5, 2002.

    It started raining from the midnight all the way through the noon that day. The rain presented a white world and everything inside was so wet, the streets, vehicles, trees, buildings, and umbrellas. Obviously it removed some light things of the city, noise, fickleness, and also the catkin.

    It took about 20 to 30 minutes by taxi from West Railway Station of Tianjin to Nankai University , and the driver was a very warm-hearted middle-aged man with a rugged but lively face, and a high voice. He talked all the way with his pure Tianjin accent. When we mentioned Mr.Chen to him, he responded immediately by pouring his knowledge of him such as a renowned mathematician and a great talented man, who is well known by all the Tianjin people. The driver was full of pride and started looking for flower shops so that we could buy some flowers for Mr.Chen.

    When we arrived in Mr.Chen’s home and just sat down, Mr.Chen said, quite unexpectedly, that we should congratulate him on this occasion. Seeing us bewildered, Mr.Chen explained, after a short pause, that he had used to suffer from vein thrombosis, and was in hospital for about two months previously, but just in the morning of that day he went to take a test and the result showed the thrombosis disappeared. As we followed his words, we said it was really a good news. Mr.Chen was as complacent as a boy and said repeatedly ‘good news, indeed.’