Hsu didn't know where to go to buy strings, and couldn't have afforded them anyway. But he didn't give up hope. Instead he developed an ambition to make his own strings. He salvaged some steel rope and wire from the wreckage of downed Japanese planes, and, by trial and error, he found some solutions.
天天拉琴，琴弦壞了，許文龍無處去買也買不起，但是他不放棄，反倒激起自製琴弦的雄心：他到海邊去找那些失事擱淺的日本飛機，把機上的鋼索、鋼線拆下來搬回家，然後開始反覆摸索，果然摸出一些門道。