by Sheng Keyi
Shunyu spoke on her father’s behalf, saying he had taken the thing he loved most and given it to Little Liu. ‘That xun was the only thing my father cherished. It was an heirloom.’
‘At least he had a heart. Go back and ask your father, what did the family heirloom look like? Was it an oval xun, a bottle-gourd xun, a grip xun, a mandarin duck xun, an attached xun, a cow’s head xun, or was it like this…a lady-charming xun?’ He thought a moment, then laughed. ‘Well, for people with low IQs like you, it’s too complicated. How about this – you take my xun back to your father and ask him what era it comes from.’
20
Dark clouds swallowed up the moon, the bird of the night let out a scream as if the sudden darkness had bitten into it, deepening the surrounding shadows until everything became indistinguishable patches of blackness. Mengliu quietly listened to his own heartbeat for a while, feeling bored. The constant sound of turning pages came from the room opposite, where Juli sat. He felt that she was summoning him. She had left the door unlatched and slightly ajar. The light in her room was soft.
To express his loneliness, Mengliu put on a show with the chuixun for a while. He sat quietly for a little longer, then stood up and walked straight across to Juli’s room. He stopped in the small strip of light in the doorway, allowing it to split his body in half. The rhythm of his fingers on the door were like a bird pecking. When he got a response, he opened the door and let the light pour onto him.
As he went into Juli’s room, he found himself insufficiently prepared. He was stunned, as if he was standing beneath the vast sky with the lake and mountains shimmering in the distance, and the foliage stirring nearby. The sun shone on her golden face and chest, the low neckline of her gown emphasising the two mysterious mounds that rose like graves there. His spirit was sucked toward the sight, but he bravely tore himself from the grip the spectre of the graves had on him and returned to the warmth of reality.
He pretended to sweep his eyes across the furnishings in the room, a pear-carved table, chairs and wardrobe in the Chinese style. There was a bronze glow over everything, and tassels hung from the edge of the purple linen covering the bed. On the wall above the bed hung a needlepoint depicting Japanese ladies in kimonos. Juli knelt there beneath it. Her long skirt covered her legs, exposing only her feet, which peeped out like the paws of a cat lying on its belly.
Seeing that Mengliu did not speak for some time, Juli straightened her legs and laid her book upon her lap. His eyes immediately fell to the book – or, rather, to her lap. Juli thought for a moment, then sat up and moved to a chair. She wore a pair of white cotton slippers, which looked very comfortable.
‘You can also have a seat,’ she said. The light fell on the side of her face, illuminating the fine hairs on her neck. Her ears looked like a fried snack, golden and crispy thin.
He felt as if he had taken a drag of marijuana. His legs were floating, and his eyes felt as if they had tendrils growing out of them, crawling like ants across the floorboards and stopping at Juli’s feet to gaze up at her.
‘I…don’t really need anything.’
He and Juli sat at a round table with a porcelain vase of white lilies on it. He stared at the flowers and added, ‘I just…wanted to talk.’
Juli smiled gently, revealing four small shell-like teeth. At night, he could see how black her eyes were, and unbelievably soft.
‘Are you still thinking of the nursing home?’
‘No…no! I feel like there’s a caged beast inside of me.’ He seemed to be describing an interesting dream. ‘This wild beast keeps roaring, and trying to crash through the cage it is shut in. Oh! It is going to rush out of my chest!’ He rubbed his chest, as if to appease the unseen beast. ‘It’s nearly crushing my heart.’
Juli frowned in confusion. ‘What? There’s an animal inside you? What should we do? That’s so strange.’ She did not understand this type of analogy at all.
Mengliu looked at her, shocked. He had deliberated on this piece of poetic expression for a long time. But perhaps the beating around the bush only served to magnify the difference in the thinking processes of their different countries. His head was buzzing. After Qizi, Mengliu had never really tried his hand at seriously falling in love. All those years ago in Dayang, in that time of economic development and obsession with liberation, it was easy to get one’s hands on a girl. Each knew she was master of her own body, and as the animals awoke inside of them, they let them loose to play and run wild. Love at that time, like poetry now in Swan Valley, overflowed. No one took it too seriously, and all the young people lived in a state of confused ecstasy.
For a moment, Mengliu felt helpless. Juli’s thin linen nightgown gave him a clear view of the body inside it, provoking the wild beast inside him.
Suddenly he got up and stepped decisively toward her, grabbed her chin in one hand, and kissed her. Juli’s surprised expression was at first like a tightly-shut bud. But under Mengliu’s quick attack on the lips, the bud suddenly blossomed. In plain terms, Juli did not resist. Instead, she plunged quickly into this act of rash wild kissing. Mengliu half expected that his rude behaviour would incite a slap on the face, or perhaps worse, so he was a bit taken aback by Juli’s response. He paused, pulled her into his arms more carefully, and began to kiss her more meticulously and fervently. He felt her firm body warming quickly against him, becoming as hot and floury as a baked potato.
All at once he knew how to strip the skin off the potato and consume the soft flesh inside it. He resorted to an indefinite kissing, while planning how to achieve his goal. He carefully followed Juli’s body movements, but the fingertips of his mind could not find the exact location of the tender button amidst the complex tissues of her brain. He became completely disoriented.
Mengliu thought the hot potato in his hands smelled just right, that it was expanding to readiness, but as soon as he attempted anything further, it turned to a hedgehog in his grasp, offering sharp resistance to his moves and re-establishing certain boundaries. He redoubled his patience and, very gently, plucked the spines out one by one, hoping she would let her guard down, but also taking care not to get pricked. Women all over the world like to play this game, he thought to himself.
He had undertaken a huge, indefinite, but not disappointing project. This was like a major operation, and it required a long-term approach and much preparation. He took a careful but tough approach, covering her mouth with his, slowly making his way down to her breasts. He took his time, making her feel that her whole self was in those breasts, and that she could entrust them to his warm palm. He had never been a pig who would swallow a woman whole, he prided himself on being a master of good taste. He wanted to show her how much he appreciated her body, as if his whole world was contained there.
Finally Juli succumbed. She lay down on the bed before him, and Mengliu breathed a sigh of relief. But when he saw her lying there stiffly, it made him think of a patient on an operating table. With his free hand, he brushed aside the hair on her forehead and asked why she seemed so nervous. Juli looked at him like a patient addressing a doctor, with trusting, begging eyes that seemed about to say something. But her mouth only opened like that of a fish out of water, and issued no sound.
Considerately and cautiously, Mengliu began kissing her again. He saw her liquid chocolate eyes, blazing with the reflection from the light, gazing at him from her flushed face, and was moved by such genuine beauty. He unfastened her gown and as he slipped it off, she rolled over and he saw a large butterfly tattooed on her back, its forewings extended out over her shoulder blades and its rear wings over her hips, wrapping around her buttocks. Her waist was delicately thin. She lay there quietly with her back to him. The butterfly seemed poised to fly away at any time. Without stopping to study the tattoo, he stroked her curvaceous body with his skilled surgeon’s hands, inspecting every crease and crevice. A hidden torrent welled up, violently pushing and shoving through his fingertips, pounding his nerves. He was like an arrow on a bow,
ready for release, within seconds he had removed his own clothing. But just as he leapt toward Juli, an alarm sounded in the room.
‘What’s that?’ Mengliu stopped and asked.
‘It’s a warning for us.’ Juli brought her legs up toward her chest, and turned to lie on her side. She looked at Mengliu with a provocative smile.
‘I don’t understand…’
‘You still don’t get it. Swan Valley prohibits sexual intercourse.’
‘You’re very funny.’ Mengliu’s body quivered with merriment, and he bent to kiss her.
The alarm sounded again, this time issuing a more severe warning.
‘I’m not joking. It’s true. Every room is equipped with a special sensor. This is a code yellow warning. If intercourse begins, it will move to code red. Ten minutes later, you’ll be picked up.’ Juli looked up at him, her expression charming. ‘You aren’t afraid of having your head hung on the wall, are you?’
‘You mean…everyone is being monitored?’ He was shocked, but kept his face calm.
‘Monitored? You have a crude way of putting it. It’s concern for our well-being. A way of taking responsibility for the individual.’ Juli looked at him, her expression that of a patient begging a doctor to tell her the results of a procedure. ‘Am I worth that sort of risk?’
Completely carried away, Mengliu now sought to cool his still thumping heart. He tried closing in on Juli, but the alarm sounded again. He had to believe what she was saying.
‘All sexual intercourse is illegal, even between husband and wife.’ Juli lowered her arms across her breasts, smiling at him as if she were the beneficiary of this policy.
‘Hang on…Swanese people, you mean they’ve all jumped out of cracks in the stones?’
‘No, we use artificial insemination. A clean, painless little procedure.’
‘Artificial insemination…’ He could not keep from laughing. ‘That’s crazy! Why even bother?’
‘Mr Yuan, you’re not taking this seriously. Swan Valley advocates a scientific approach. We use genetic research to produce quality in the population. Each person’s body has its optimal period for conception, and before artificial insemination is performed, the physiology of both parties has to be subjected to a lot of calculations…’
‘Oh?’ Mengliu felt like he had seen a ghost. ‘Precise calculations? Scientific operations? But what about human feelings?’
‘We pay more attention to the higher spiritual life. For unlawful sexual intercourse, a man may wear a gold shackle and go into servitude, or even have his head cut off. We don’t punish the women…but you know punishment of the soul is also a torment. If a woman commits the blasphemous act of intercourse, her soul is corrupted forever…’
The feverish flush had faded from Juli’s face, and her complexion was returning gradually to its calm, golden tone. Even the lights in the house were becoming more rational again.
Mengliu remembered the way Juli had made the chopping gesture by the wall that day, and he shuddered. A chilly wind invaded the space between his legs, and he grew limp there. He needed a dignified way to retreat, but he looked at her with strange eyes and said, ‘To use your body to fight the system is tantamount to throwing eggs against stones. A variety of historical facts have proven this. You probably don’t know how many young people, a whole generation, have foolishly paid an exorbitant price because of this belief…many were killed, but the worst was the punishment that came later. You can never escape the hand of judgement. Even less should I, a mere stranger.’
Mengliu, unable to control his emotions, now appeared neurotic. Either he had nothing to say, or once he started talking, he was like a pebble rolling downhill, unable to stop. ‘I have an acquaintance, he tried to hide and survived on roots and tubers for many years in the mountains. It finally caught up with him… there has never been a party more vengeful, or more thorough and ruthless. Some people were expelled from their homes, leaving their loved ones, living in exile…in fact, all rulers’ temperaments are the same. The only difference between them is their height, weight, and hair colour.’
‘You should treat the ruling institutions like chastity. “Don’t touch” is a good rule of thumb.’ Juli picked up her gown and covered her chest, then resumed her position beneath the embroidered picture. Her lower body was still exposed, her legs long and slender. ‘When people make decisions, they need to have the support of a belief system. You’re right, defying the law with your body is like a moth playing with fire.’
Looking at her now, Mengliu realised he was still naked. He was already flaccid, and now he was ashamed. He dressed slowly, his actions full of the sadness and helplessness of a mourner. In an attempt to hide his cowardice, he finally spoke as if offering his condolences. ‘May I ask, has Swan Valley conducted a public opinion survey on this matter? Is this something the public agrees to? Is it the result of a democratic consensus?’
‘Let’s not talk about this in my bedroom,’ Juli said faintly, using the tone of someone resigned to the death of a loved one, and talking respectfully to those offering their condolences. ‘You can express your views freely at the weekly salon.’
‘Juli, I’m just a foreigner.’ Mengliu looked at her, using a dark tone and expression, tuned to a funeral environment, as he once again expressed his grief.
‘Don’t worry. Before long, you’ll have citizenship here in Swan Valley.’ The light caught her eye, making it glow.
‘What?’ Mengliu yelped. ‘Citizenship? I can’t live here. I want to go home.’
‘You mean that place where there’s no democracy, no freedom? What is worth remembering about that authoritarian place?’
‘It’s my homeland.’
‘Once you set foot in Swan Valley, you belong here. It’s just like you were born here.’
‘I don’t even know where I am, or how I got here. Or whether I’m just dreaming.’
‘Swan Valley’s citizenship is not issued indiscriminately. You have exceptionally good genes. Your wisdom and potential will be developed here.’
‘No mater what I am, no matter what happens, I won’t stay in a place where sexual intercourse is forbidden.’
Juli smiled, and her legs writhed sinuously, like a snake spirit.
‘Actually, it’s not absolutely prohibited…If you’re willing to explore the policy and find the loopholes, you’ll see that if you write a good poem and recite the poem loudly for it to hear,’ she put one hand on her private parts and pointed the other at the alarm in the corner of the room, ‘it will be quiet.’
She sat up slowly and hugged her legs to her, breasts squeezed between her knees. She spoke in a tone that struck Mengliu as a confusion between begging and seduction. ‘At least…write one for me, won’t you?’
Mengliu kept staring at her wheat-coloured flesh. As if struck by its lustre, he squinted involuntarily. He issued a string of bizarre laughter. ‘Ah…so it’s sex for poetry? You want to enlist me in the sex trade? Why would you want to treat lovemaking as a commodity? You’re as crazy as they are!’
When he finished saying this, he turned away and rushed back to his own room. He slumped onto the bed in a mess. His body had cooled down, but his heart was still hot, like boiling water stored in the cold steel shell of a thermos. The more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. He had been blown by a foul wind to this strange place and to a woman who, at the height of his passion, had told him that, in order to ensure the quality of the population, they didn’t allow sexual intercourse. As soon as he drew near her, an alarm went off, but then she said that if he wrote poetry he could sleep with her. He suddenly sat up in bed, laughing. The Dayang Poetry Society had dispersed years ago. He did not write poetry anymore. He could not write poetry, and did not take life so seriously. Now he despised himself. His body had denied the fact that he could do anything for the love of women. He dared not risk his head to have sex with a woman, and he was even more loathe to use poetry in exchange for a woman’s body. That would be to b
laspheme poetry. It was an insult to his history with Bai Qiu and Hei Chun.
The candle had burnt down and went off with a whiff. As he was feeling drowsy with sleep, he heard the sound of a wooden latch sliding. The sound was hesitant. It paused a few times. The latch seemed to be thousands of miles long, never reaching the end, like a carriage bearing a great load up a steep slope, where the slightest interference would spook the horses and stop them in their tracks. Mengliu’s ears were alert. He hardly breathed. Darkness enveloped him. He could see Juli coming out from her bedroom, and hear the swishing of her gown. The wind blew from the forest, rattled the coconuts on the palm trees, filling the air with their fragrance. In the garden insects struck up a chorus. She came in, sinking onto the edge of his bed. She was holding a sharp knife. Her hair was dishevelled, her eyes bloodshot. He could feel her breath on his face. The tip of the knife reached his chest, but it was warm, more like a fingertip than a blade. Ah, Juli’s fingertip pressing, two fingertips, three…all of them on him, like a flock of tame creatures. They stroked the grassland of his face, nibbling at the stubble there. Slowly, the fingers straightened and her palms pressed on his face, like a little beast sprawling on top of him, its warm belly pressed against him. All of a sudden, the liquids beneath the earth became torrential, his body tightened like a taut string. When he reached for her there was a crashing sound, and he fell from the bed, waking himself from his dream. He got up, and walked out of the house into the darkness. Laughter echoed in the blankness of his mind.
As dawn broke, he returned in a cloak of mist, extremely weary, and went back to sleep. When he awoke, his emotions were still in a tangle, making his chest feel bloated and hot. Everywhere he looked he saw images of Juli. With the precise observations of a surgeon he concluded that he was in love with her. This woman turned the glue-like substance secreted in his heart into something stickier than any chemical. What he was feeling went beyond science.