by Qiu Xiaolong
Nothing can avert the final curtain’s fall. A line from another poem came to him. It sounded like a far-off echo. He wondered if it could yield a clue, or a cue, to the acts being schemed around him.
Then he remembered. It was from a Russian poem about Hamlet standing alone on the stage, praying that he might be released from the cast: To play the role to the end is not a childish task.
The drama for the others would go on, of course.
Fu would be punished, and so would Mi, for what they had respectively done.
Mrs. Liu would continue playing mahjong, and Wenliang, studying Beijing opera with the money left to them by Liu.
But what about the lake-the polluted lake?
Whoever succeeded Liu and Fu would manage and manufacture as before-in order to keep the business competitive, profitable, and his position secure, all at the expense of the environment. The Wuxi Number One Chemical Company wouldn’t be the only one doing this. Many other companies around the lake, and all over the country, would be doing the same.
The government officials at various levels, well aware of the disastrous consequences, must have acquiesced to all of this in the best interests of the Party.
As a member of the Party, and as an emerging cadre, Chief Inspector Chen could make a number of convenient points in his own defense, but for the moment, he had to quit this scene.
Chen took one step out from his cover, trying to gain another look at Shanshan, who was looking at Jiang in the police van, when he was reminded of the ending of a movie he had seen years earlier.
Toward the end, the lonely protagonist found himself, though successful in his efforts made for a just cause, letting go of his personal desire, watching his love leave with another man.
But Chief Inspector Chen wasn’t the man in the movie. Not even close. He hadn’t exactly succeeded at any of it, he concluded broodingly, before heading off in the direction of the train station.
He wondered whether he would be able to take a nap on the train, feeling the onslaught of a splitting headache.
FB2 document info
Document ID: fbd-39d391-8d83-ec4d-05b0-1f35-e17b-f48bf3
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 30.12.2012
Created using: calibre 0.9.11, Fiction Book Designer, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6.6 software
Document authors :
Xiaolong, Qiu
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