Applying for a French Visa

I remember it was the second day of the Lunar New Year, probably early spring of 1985. In order to apply for a visa at the French Embassy in Beijing, I bought a train ticket to Beijing for the fourth day of the new year. In the evening, while riding my bicycle to a friend’s house for dinner, a medium-sized truck suddenly made a wrong turn and collided with me head-on at the intersection of Longyou Road. The impact threw me more than three meters away from the roadside. Fortunately, I was wearing a thick new cotton coat. Otherwise, even if I didn’t suffer from broken bones, I would have ended up with severe bruises. Shocked witnesses ran over and helped me up. I casually patted my clothes and calmly said, “It’s okay!” Then I went to look for my bicycle, which lay damaged beside the truck’s wheel. The iron pole supporting the truck’s reflector was broken, and the reflector itself was smashed on the ground.