By He Wei

The Second Test

By He Wei

P rofessor Su Lin,a well-known expert on vocal music,found somethingverypuzzling. Twenty-year-old girl Chen Yiling from Chorus Training Class of more than 200 students had come out exceedingly well in the preliminary test,scoring highmarksinvocalmusic, sight-singing ear training and music theory.Her beautiful tone color and broad range,in particular,won high praise.But,to the great disappointment of everybody,she failed the secondtest.Theprofessor,whohad trained a large number of students, many of them now of international fame,had never seen a young girl with abrillianttalent.Andtheabove strange happening was something he had never known before.

The preliminary test took place in a specious hall of antique style.Chen Yiling stood calmly before the eminent vocal music experts on the Test Com mittee.When she finished singing Xian Xinghai's famousWhen FebruaryComes,throngs of listeners could be seen standing entranced outside the doors and windows,and even the professors,who usually wore an air of casual indifference,could not help exchanging knowing looks at one another.

As it was required of each candidate to sing a foreign song,Chen sang the aria Un Bel Di from the Italian opera Madama Butterfly.The audience was amazed by her splendid tone color and deep comprehension.Even Professor Su,known for his strict demands,also nodded his approval,his stern eyes twinkling with delight.Chen,wearing a light green woollen sweater and close-fittingbrowntrousers,stood there like a graceful tree on a spring morning.However,under the silent stare of so many eyes,the smiling girl appeared somewhat ill at ease.

The second test came to pass a week later.The result of this test was to determine each candidate's fate-accepted or otherwise,and what his or her future career would be like.With most of the candidates already eliminated by the preliminary test,this second test was even more demanding in every respect.All celebrated local musicians were present.During the test almost all Test Committee members and visitors wore a harsh and nitpicking look.Nevertheless,they were all under the impression that all the remaining candidates Chen would undoubtedly be the last one to fail the second test.

Unfortunately,the result was contrary to everybody's expectation.When Chen's turn came last,she sang the same two songs,but her voice was unpleasant and utterly lackluster as if she were no longer her old herself.Was it due to stage fright,nervousness or indisposition?Peopleevensuspected some sort of impropriety in her private life.They stared at each in speechless despair and eyed her questioningly. Weariness was written all over her face.Her bright eyes now looked dejected and dull.And the corners of her otherwise playful mouth wore an expression of unspeakable anxiety.But, as a whole,she was bright,candid and trustworthy.People just could not understand what little accident,if any, had been the cause of her frustration. She smiled apologetically and disappeared out of the room.

Professor Su was obviously upset. He had always believed that to win people's genuine love and esteem,an artist must first of all be exemplary in every way,first of all a noble-mindedperson.A singer was of course no exception.But a girl like Chen,who had no urge for self-improvement,would never become a successful singer.He turned in anger to look out of the window.The city had just been hit by the worst typhoon of the year.The ground outside was strewn with broken twigs and dry leaves.Fallen bamboo fences on the sodden ground.What a pitiful sight!

The Test committee was divided in their opinions about Chen.Some held out little hope of her achieving success as a vocalist,saying that the two tests had shown her voice far from able to hold its own.Others wanted to give her an opportunity for another try.Professor Su,however,had a view of his own.He thought it important to find the root cause of her failure in the second test.He maintained that if her failure was due to her questionable attitude towards her career and life,she should on no account be admitted no matter how highly gifted she was. That,he said,should be the first and foremost of all things to be considered.

Professor Su got Chen's application form for enrollment form his secretary and underlined in red pencil the address she had put down on it.The photo attached to the form showed a very cute face with a pretty little mouth,lucid guileless eyes and a nose which would pucker up a little bit whenever she smiled.All that seemed to warn the professor against treating a person in a simplistic way-a person alive with thought and emotion.There must be certain practical aspects of the young girl which the simple application form made no mention of.Her failure to pass the second test might mean her life-longdivorcefrommusicand hence a permanent stifling of her musical talent.Should that be the case, the professor,whose duty it was to foster young musical talents,would never forgive himself.

The next morning,Professor Su took the first tram of the day.Thanks to the address given on the application form,he finally managed to find the secluded street in Yangshupu.The moment he stepped into the lane,he was taken aback by what he saw.

There were broken walls,charred beams of ghastly black and scorched rags here and there among debris-all telling of the destruction wrought by the recent typhoon and the ensuring fire.Since early in the morning,some people had already been busying themselves amongst the rubble.

Professor Su,with a slip of paper inhand,was wondering where to find the address when all of sudden he heard a child crying out randomly from an upstairs window of the opposite building, like a singer practicing his voice:

"Mi-yi-yi-yi-,ma-ah-ah-ah-"The professor could not help smiling.He guessed right that the kid was Chen's younger brother affectedly parroting his elder sister's voice.

Theprofessorthen learned from the child thathiseldersister Chen,ex-member of the PLAarttroupe,was now on the administrative staff of a factory afterbeingtransferred from the army to civilian work in Shanghai. As a Youth Leaguer,she wasenthusiasticand earnest.Wheneverthe factory or her neighborhood was in need of some help,she was always considered the right person to approach.Just a couple of days before,the neighborhood had caught fire as a result of electric wire sparking caused by the typhoon.Consequently, many familieswerelefthomeless. Chen spent a sleepless night caring for the disaster victims,which in turn affected her voice.The next day,when it occurred to her that it was the very day for the second test,she blurted out,"Oh,my!"Yet,she went to the test all the same.That was the whole story.

"Look,she's still busy working over

there!"exclaimedthe child from the window, gesticulatingwithhis raisedhand."Letme call her!I'll go and call her!""No,don't.But just tell your sister that she's been admitted after passing the second test! She has every qualification for being a superb singer,hasn't she?I've almost made a mistake!" The professor walked away from Chen's house and that very quickly. Yes,his bosom swelling with a thrill,he wanted to hurry back to let every body know of the music student he had discovered and the whole story about her.

(FromCollection of He Wei'Essays; Translation:Wu Ming.Illustration:Li Kun,Hu Lifei)