“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us . . .” --- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

The above ticket belonged to coolboy. It carries some old memories of those best and worst of times. There is one piece of quotations from Chairman Mao on the ticket that says: “ The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours.” Who actually owns the world? The natural world or the universe belongs to everyone, but if you understand it, then you own it.

Though my life is quite different now from before I can still vividly remember when I was about ten years old, my family had a hen that laid one egg per day. Eggs in spring or summer did not worth much but eggs in winter were expensive. Therefore, every two weeks or so in a very cold winter early morning, I would bring a basket of dozen eggs to a free market to sell them for 1.2 Yuan. The money would be used to buy soy sauce and vegetables for the family later. Since I was a good pupil at school and I did not want my classmates to see me selling eggs, I always brought the eggs to a free market far away from my home. I usually wore my father’s coat that morning for his coat was thicker than mine. I met a gentleman one time. He brought me to his home and fed me the breakfast. He paid 1.5 Yuan for my eggs and I was very, very happy that day!

(2003.07.13)