We walked toward a fancy sedan parked in a square illuminated by a ring of streetlights. The rain made the sedan look even fancier than it was. ‘General Manager Yu is waiting in the car,’ Li Yidou said. ‘The car belongs to his tavern.’
‘Which General Manager Yu would that be?’
‘Yu Yichi, of course!’
Mo Yan tensed, as a host of depictions of Yu Yichi slogged through his mind. If things had reached the point where the dwarf, who was unrelated to the investigator, could still wind up dead of a bullet in the investigator’s dream, then ghosts and goblins were running the show. I might as well use my Tales of Investigator Ding Gou’er as kindling for the oven, he mused.
‘General Manager Yu Yichi insisted on coming,’ Li Yidou commented. ‘He wanted the pleasure of being first on the scene for your arrival He knows what it means to be a real pal Sir, don’t - please don’t - judge him solely by his appearance. If you give him one measure of respect, he’ll repay you a hundred times over.’
The words still hung in the air when the car door opened and out jumped a pocket-sized man less than three feet tall (‘twelve inch’ [Yichi] was an exaggeration of his smallness). Small but sturdy, he was neatly dressed, looking very much like a well-bred member of the gentry.
‘Mo Yan, you little scamp, so you finally made it!’ he shouted with an infectious hoarseness as soon as he was out of the car. He ran up to Mo Yan, grabbed his hand, and shook it hard, as if they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other for years.
As Mo Yan grasped the tense, nervous hand, he couldn’t suppress feelings of remorse over thoughts of how Ding Gou’er had killed this man. Why had it been necessary for him to die? An intriguing little fellow like this, cute as a little wind-up mechanical toy, so what if he’d made love with the lady trucker? He shouldn’t have died; he and Ding Gou’er should have become friends, and together they could have broken the case of the child-eaters.
Yu Yichi opened the car door for Mo Yan. Once he’d climbed in next to his guest, he said, releasing a mouthful of boozy breath, ‘The doctor talks about you every day. I tell you, this guy worships you. But now that I see you face-to-face, you’re not as handsome as he made you out to be. In fact, you look like a run-of-the-mill purveyor of cheap booze.’
Stung by the criticism, Mo Yan replied with noticeable sarcasm, ‘Which is why General Manager Yu and I might someday become good friends.’
Yu Yichi giggled like a little boy. ‘That’s terrific!’ he said after the giggles passed. ‘A man whose face would stop a clock and a dwarf, friends at last. Let’s go, driver!’
The woman behind the wheel, who was not a dwarf, sat silently. Aided by murky light from the square, Mo Yan noticed that she had a pretty face and a lovely long neck.
The car’s headlights snapped on and the woman drove skillfully out of the square, spraying water behind her. The smell of opulence hung in the interior. A fuzzy toy tiger on the dashboard jiggled and danced. The music was dreamy; the car seemed to sway to the music like drifting on water. Not even a stray cat appeared on the broad, smoothly paved avenue. Liquorland seemed to be a large city. New-style buildings lined the avenue; the Doctor of Liquor Studies wasn’t exaggerating when he called Liquorland a bustling metropolis.
Mo Yan followed Yu Yichi into the Yichi Tavern, with Li Yidou, the travel bag still over his shoulder, right on his heels. The inside of the tavern looked as inviting as he’d expected, with its marble floor waxed to a high sheen. A bespectacled woman sat behind the registration desk; she was not a dwarf. Yu Yichi told her to put their guest in room 310. Keys in hand, she led the party to the elevator and pushed the button before anyone else could get to it. When the elevator door opened, Yu Yichi jumped in and pulled Mo Yan in after him. Mo Yan tried to appear reluctant. Li Yidou stepped in next, followed by the bespectacled woman, after which the door closed. As the elevator climbed to the third floor, an ugly, exhausted face was reflected in the metallic facing. Mo Yan found it hard to believe he could be so mean-looking. In a few short years, he discovered, he had aged considerably. Seeing the reflection of the sleepy-eyed bespectacled young woman beside him, he quickly turned to stare at the numbers on the elevator panel. He was thinking… The exhausted investigator was face to face with his romantic rival Yu Yichi in the narrow confines of an elevator. When enemies meet, eyes glow with the fires of jealousy … I, on the other hand, am concentrating on the patch of fair skin poking out from under the bespectacled young woman’s collar, thoughts of what lay below releasing fantasies that streak across the sky like a heavenly stallion, and that bring memories of the past flooding into my mind. Once, when I was fourteen, I let my hand stray to a girl’s breast. With a giggle she said, So you know all about touching those, even at your age, hm? Want to see what they look like? Yes, I replied. OK, she said. I felt cold all over. And so that great purple door to puberty swung open with a roar as the girl began undoing her blouse. I rushed through that door without a thought for the consequences, leaving my youth, a time of running with the animals and raising birds, behind, once and for all … The elevator noiselessly came to a stop and the door opened. The bespectacled young woman led us to room 310, opened the door and stood aside to let us in. Mo Yan, who had never enjoyed such top-of-the-line accommodations, nonetheless strode grandly into the luxurious suite and sat on the sofa.
‘This is our finest room, I hope you can make do.’ Yu Yichi said.
It’s fine.’ Mo Yan said. ‘As a one-time soldier, I can live almost anywhere.’
‘The authorities were going to put you up in the Municipal Party Committee guest house.’ Li Yidou said, ‘but all the better rooms there have been reserved for honored foreign guests and compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan who have come for our first annual Ape Liquor Festival.’
‘This is better.’ Mo Yan assured him. ‘I stay clear of officials as much as possible.’
‘Mo Yan avoids the limelight, preferring peace and quiet.’ Li Yidou remarked.
With a knowing laugh, Yu Yichi said, ‘Can a man who wrote Red Sorghum really avoid the limelight and opt for peace and quiet? You’ve only been working at the Department of Propaganda two days, and already you’re a veteran ass-kisser.’
An embarrassed Li Yidou said, ‘Don’t take General Manager Yu’s comments to heart, Mo Yan. His caustic tongue is famous here in Liquorland.’
‘Not to worry.’ Mo Yan replied, ‘I can be pretty caustic myself.’
‘I forgot to mention, Sir, that I was transferred to the Municipal Party Committee’s Department of Propaganda.’ Li Yidou said. ‘My job is to prepare public announcements.’
‘What about your dissertation?’ Mo Yan asked. ‘Is it finished?’
‘That can wait. I’m better suited to this kind of work. News releases are closer to creative work.’
‘Sounds OK to me.’ Mo Yan said.
‘Draw a hot bath for our guest, Miss Ma,’ Yu Yichi said. ‘Let him wash that sweaty, smelly body of his.’
With a terse acknowledgment, the bespectacled young woman went into the bathroom, from which the sound of running water soon emerged.
Yu Yichi opened the doors of the liquor cabinet, in which dozens of bottled liquors were displayed. ‘What’ll you have?’ he asked Mo Yan.
‘None for me, not at this early hour,’ Mo Yan replied. I’ll wait.’
‘What do you mean, wait?’ Yu Yichi asked. ‘Having a drink is a visitor’s first responsibility after arriving in Liquorland.’
Td prefer a cup of tea.’
‘You won’t find any tea in Liquorland,’ Yu Yichi replied. ‘Liquor is our tea.’
‘When in Rome, Sir,’ Li Yidou urged Mo Yan.
‘Well, all right.’
‘Come here and choose your poison,’ Yu Yichi said.
The array of bottles filled with the finest liquor available nearly made Mo Yan’s head swim.
‘They tell me you’re a class-A drunk,’ Yu Yichi commented. ‘Is that right?’
‘To tell the truth, I’m not that good at holding my liquor, and my knowledge of the subject is severely limited.’
‘Modesty does not become you,’ Yu Yichi said. ‘Besides, I’ve read all the letters you wrote to Li Yidou.’
Mo Yan flashed an unhappy look at Li Yidou, who rushed to his own defense: ‘General Manager Yu is one of us. There’s nothing to worry about.’
Yu Yichi took out a bottle of Overlapping Green Ants and said, ‘After a night on the train, you’d better try something on the mild side.’
‘Overlapping Green Ants is an excellent choice,’ Li Yidou said agreeably. ‘One of my father-in-law’s creations. It’s distilled from sorghum and mung beans. To that is added a dozen or more rare, aromatic medicinal herbs. Drinking it is akin to listening to a classical beauty play a zither, a magically conceived rendition that has you pondering things from the remote past.’
‘Enough already,’ Yu Yichi cut in. ‘You and your quack sales methods.’
‘Now you know why I was transferred to the Department of Propaganda. Publicity is what we need for our Ape Liquor Festival, and I am, after all, a Doctor of Liquor Studies.’
‘Doctoral candidate,” Yu Yichi said mockingly.
Yu Yichi took three crystal glasses out of the liquor cabinet and filled them to the brim with a disturbingly green liquor.
Before coming to Liquorland, Mo Yan had read up on the topic of liquor, and knew a thing or two about the rules of tasting. Raising his glass, he touched it with the tip of his nose and sniffed it; then, with his hand, he fanned the aroma that clung to the skin. After that he held the glass directly under his nose and inhaled deeply, then held his breath, closed his eyes, and assumed the look of a man deep in thought. After a while, he opened his eyes and said, ‘Not bad, you were right. It has the smell and taste of antiquity, refined and solemn. Not bad at all.’
‘Well, I’ll be,’ Yu Yichi said. ‘You do know a thing or two, after all.’
‘Mo Yan is a natural-born connoisseur of fine liquor,’ Li Yidou chirped.
Mo Yan smiled somewhat smugly.
The bespectacled girl returned just then. ‘The bath is ready, General Manager.’ she reported.
‘Bottoms up.’ Yu Yichi said, clinking Mo Yan’s glass with his own. ‘Take a bath and get some rest. You can sleep for a couple of hours, since breakfast isn’t served until seven o’clock. I’ll send one of the girls to wake you.’
After tossing down the liquor in his glass, he tapped Li Yidou on the knee and said, ‘Time to leave, Doctor.’
‘You two can sleep here.’ Mo Yan said. ‘We can squeeze three into a bed.’
With a wink, Yu Yichi said, ‘Rules of the house don’t permit men to share a room.’
Li Yidou was about to add his opinion when Yu Yichi gave him a shove. ‘I said, let’s go!’
Now, finally, I was able to shed my Mo Yan shell I yawned, spat into the spittoon, and took off my shoes and socks. There was a soft knock at the door. Hurriedly pulling up my trousers, which were down around my knees, and straightening my shirt, I went to open the door. The bespectacled Miss Ma darted past me.
She was smiling broadly, and no longer sleepy-eyed. ‘What can I do for you?’ Mo Yan asked decorously, his adrenalin rising.
‘General Manager Yu sent me up to pour some Overlapping Green Ants into your bathwater.’ Miss Ma replied.
‘Liquor in my bath water?’
It’s the brainchild of General Manager Yu,’ Miss Ma explained. ‘He claims that bathing in liquor has positive health benefits. Alcohol Mils germs, relaxes the muscles, and stimulates the flow of blood.’
‘No wonder the place is called Liquorland.’
Miss Ma picked up the uncorked bottle of liquor and carried it into the bathroom, with Mo Yan close on her heels. The room was still steamy, tendrils of whiteness lending it an air of romance. Miss Ma emptied the bottle into the bathtub, releasing a heavy, rather stimulating cloud of aroma - alcohol, of course.
‘There you go, Mo Yan, Sir. Jump in.’
She smiled as she walked out, and Mo Yan detected a vague sense of romance in that smile. His emotions stirred, he nearly reached out to put his arm around her and plant a Mss on her ruddy cheek. But he clenched his teeth to keep his emotions in check and saw Miss Ma out.
After she had left the bathroom, Mo Yan stood for a moment before undressing. The room had a warm, springlike atmosphere. Once he was naked, he rubbed his protruding belly and took a look at himself in the mirror. It was not an encouraging sight. He congratulated himself for not maMng a huge mistake a moment earlier.
He felt the scalding water and biting alcohol sting as he stepped into the tub and slowly eased his body down until only his head showed, pillowed against the smooth rim. The liquor-enhanced bathwater, with its gentle green cast, prickled his skin, painfully, in a comfortable sort of way. ‘That damned dwarf.’ he cursed contentedly, ‘he sure knows how to live the good life!’ In a matter of minutes, the pain was gone. He could feel blood coursing through his veins faster than at any time in his life; his joints felt oiled and soft. A few minutes later, perspiration coated his forehead. His body was relaxed as only a heavy sweat can make it. It’s been years since I last sweated, he was thinking. My pores are all stopped up … I should let Ding Gou’er soak in a tub with Overlapping Green Ants, then have a young woman walk in on him. That’s the sort of detail a thriller needs …
His bath finished, Mo Yan stepped out of the tub, threw a robe that smelled of sweet grass over his shoulders, and stretched out lazily on the sofa. Feeling a little thirsty, he took a bottle of white wine from the liquor cabinet and was about to uncork it when Miss Ma walked back into the room, this time without knocking. Tensing at her arrival, Mo Yan hurriedly tied the sash around his waist to cover his legs. Actually, tensing is not the right word; what he felt was much more pleasurable than that.
Miss Ma took the bottle from him, opened it, and poured a glassful of wine. ‘Mo Yan, Sir,’ she said, ‘General Manager Yu sent me up to give you a massage.’
Dots of perspiration reappeared on Mo Yan’s face as he stammered, ‘There’s no need for that, the sun’s almost up.’
‘Please don’t refuse me, General Manager Yu sent me up to do it’
So Mo Yan lay down on the bed and let Miss Ma give him a massage, all the while concentrating on the image of a pair of icy handcuffs, in order to keep from doing something he shouldn’t.
Yu Yichi grinned all through breakfast, causing Mo Yan no end of embarrassment. He knew that anything he said would be superfluous, and that his silence spoke volumes.
Li Yidou ran breathlessly up to the table. Seeing the bags under his eyes and the drawn look on his face, Mo Yan asked sympathetically, ‘Didn’t you get any sleep?’
‘The provincial newspaper was pressing me for a story, so I went back to the office to finish it.’
Mo Yan filled a glass with liquor and handed it to him.
‘Mo Yan, Sir,’ he said after downing the liquor, ‘Party Secretary Hu wants you to tour the city this morning, then join him for lunch.’
‘There’s no need for that,’ Mo Yan said. ‘The Party Secretary’s a busy man.’
‘But you must,’ Li Yidou insisted. ‘You’re an honored guest. Besides, Liquorland is going to rely on your heroic pen to become famous!’
‘My heroic pen?’
‘My dear Mo Yan, eat your breakfast,’ Yu Yichi said.
‘Yes, Mo Yan, Sir,’ Li Yidou agreed, ‘please eat.’
So Mo Yan scooted his chair up to the table and laid his elbows and wrists on the snowy white tablecloth. Sunlight pouring in through the tall windows brightened every corner of the small dining room. Soft strains of jazz floated down from the ceiling, as if from far, far away. Muted notes from a trumpet touched the soul. He was thinking of the massage and of the bespectacled Miss Ma.
Breakfast consisted of six modest dishes, an appealing array of greens and reds. They were accompanied by milk, fried eggs, toast, jam, steamed
rolls, rice porridge, salted duck eggs, fried fermented bean curd, sesame cakes, little dough twists… more choices than he could count. A combination of Chinese and western food.
‘A steamed roll and a bowl of porridge is enough for me.’ Mo Yan said.
‘Eat up,’ Yu Yichi said insistently. ‘There’s no need to be polite, Liquorland has plenty of food.’
‘How about liquor?’ Li Yidou asked him. ‘What would you like?’
‘On an empty stomach? Nothing, thanks.’
Yu Yichi said, ‘Have a glass, just one. It’s the custom.’
‘Mo Yan has a touchy stomach,’ Li Yidou said. ‘A glass of ginger spirits will warm it.’
‘Miss Yang,’ Yu Yichi shouted, ‘come pour for us.’
A waitress appeared, one even lovelier than Miss Ma. She all but took Mo Yan’s breath away. ‘My dear Mo Yan,’ Yu Yichi said, nudging him with his elbow, ‘what do you think of the girls of Yichi Tavern?’
‘They’re like moon goddesses,’ he replied.
‘Lovely liquor isn’t all Liquorland is famous for. Our women are just as lovely,’ Li Yidou crowed. ‘The mothers of Xi Shi and Wang Zhaojun were both from Liquorland.’
Yu Yichi and Mo Yan laughed.
‘Don’t laugh,’ Li Yidou protested. ‘I’ve got proof.’
‘Stop the nonsense,’ Yu Yichi said. ‘If it’s tall tales you want, ask Mo Yan, he’s the master.’
Li Yidou laughed. ‘You’re right. I’m wielding an ax at the door of the greatest ax-man of all.’
They finished breakfast amid more chatter and laughter. Miss Yang walked up and handed Mo Yan a hot, perfumed hand towel, with which he wiped his face and hands. He couldn’t recall ever having such a sense of well-being. When he rubbed his cheeks, the skin was soft and silky. He felt absolutely wonderful and relaxed.
Proprietor Yu,’ Li Yidou said, ‘we’re relying on you for a fine lunch today.’
‘I need you to tell me that? I wouldn’t dare offer anything but the best to Mo Yan, our honored guest from afar.’