by Huang Fan
In two short weeks, Xi De had fallen into a colorful and profligate dream world. He had experienced all forms of unimaginable sensual stimulation. In bed, Zhen used all of her charms to allow him to experience the ultimate pleasures of the flesh. After yet another unreal climax, Zhen told him of her lot. She was an orphan and from an early age had been educated in a special school. The school had used every means to transform her into an intoxicating blossom: every mechanical method had been utilized to perfect her body; drugs had been used to give her skin its honeyed sheen. She had taken specialized classes in sexual technique; the art of conversation; bearing; and the psychological responses of men. In addition, she had to learn to dance and sing. Finally, she was told that her ultimate goal in life was to please others, and in that way make herself happy. Her world was the recreation zone; the outside world held no interest for her. From the men she had entertained, she knew all about the outside, its regimentation, its boringness, the tragedy of a world in which people worked to survive and not to be happy. Of course she was not interested. She was happy and satisfied right where she was and she was willing to stay there the rest of her life.
Xi De narrowed his eyes as he quietly listened to Zhen’s lovely voice. Her innocence and joy were totally sincere. With such feelings of gratitude, Zhen climbed out of bed and danced slowly and solemnly in the nude. She began to sing.
I am a rose in Heaven,
Beautiful and alluring, loved by all.
She is not sad or troubled,
Happiness is all she wants.
I am a happy rose in Heaven
A rose with no worries, praised by all.
She has no past and no future,
Now is all she has.
Love me one and all, love this joyful rose,
Let her happy laughter fill your world,
Let her song accompany you through interminable night.…
And Xi De slipped into a dream listening to her luscious, happy song.
The following day, Zhen escorted him to see some special places in the recreation zone; they were different from other eating and drinking establishments and were hard to get into. They squeezed in among the emotional crowd in a building that resembled the Roman Colosseum and watched a man battle a lion, gorging on the bloody feast.
“Kill it! Kill it! You bastard …”
“Kill! Kill! Make mincemeat out of it …”
“Stab it! Stab it again! Make mincemeat out of it …”
The air was filled with piercing screams, shouts, and the sound of gnashing teeth. Zhen’s hands were clenched in tight fists; she half squatted and half sat in her seat; her eyes looked as if they would pop out of her head as she fixed them on the arena. In addition to screaming incessantly, the black-haired beauty sitting next to her tore continuously at her own hair.
In such an infectious atmosphere, Xi De couldn’t help but shout as well.
The arena was total confusion, the ground covered with blood. Bodies ripped apart by the lion lay scattered in pieces all around. Without a doubt the lion was victorious as it lowered its head to gnaw on a femur; the circular motion of its lower jaw never ceased, making it look like a child with a lollipop. The spectators in the stands stopped shouting; they cursed as they hurled their beverage bottles into the arena.
Xi De left the arena with Zhen, but before they had gone very far, Zhen pulled him down a nearby street into a flower garden.
“I can hardly wait,” said Zhen, panting. That bloody scene had left her extremely excited.
“But there are people here.”
“Who cares?” Zhen hurriedly stripped off her pants and lay down on the ground. “Come on, Xi De, come on …”
After they had finally grown still and lay entwined in the grass and bushes, they heard shouts from nearby.
They couldn’t help but look at each other and laugh.
“There are quite a few people hidden away in here,” said Zhen.
“Who were those guys who got eaten by the lion?” asked Xi De.
“They are the half-witted descendants of those exposed to radiation.”
“What do you mean by exposed to radiation?”
“You don’t know?”
“Those infected by radioactivity?”
“More or less. But these people are their descendants. They have low IQs, are physically deformed, and are ugly beyond belief,” said Zhen, “and like the animals, they are raised in the caves behind us.”
“Are visitors allowed?”
“Who’d want to see such disgusting things?”
In the days that followed, they visited similar locations, a casino and a sexual paradise. In the latter, they observed exhibitions of all sorts of unusual and perverted sexual games: bestiality, homosexual intercourse, and all sorts of unbelievable sadistic sexual practices.
In the evening there was an orgy with many people exchanging partners and engaging in all sorts of group sex. Xi De refused several invitations, which made Zhen happy. When it came time to say good-bye, Zhen gave Xi De a small gift: a small silver idol.
“This is a very old religious talisman. How did you come to possess such a thing?”
“Someone gave it to me.”
“Oh. Thank you,” he said in a heartfelt manner. “I’ll miss you.”
“No,” she said shaking her head. “We’ll never meet again. You’d best not think of me.”
She helped him pin on the silver idol.
“It’ll protect you,” she said gaily. “Good-bye, Xi De!”
16
After returning to work, Xi De became more reticent. Zhen now occupied an important place in his heart. He would often think of her at night, and when he did his heart would feel a slight pain. It was only a six-hour flight to Situmare; in just six hours he could hold her in his arms. But he also knew that it was just wishful thinking on his part and that he would never see her again for the rest of his life. Not only did a wall of distance separate them; the entire system, the institutions and organizations of the new society were set as insurmountable obstacles against them. Lin Xing and many others perhaps had had similar experiences. Sometimes he felt he could detect a fleeting expression on the faces of his colleagues that seemed to indicate that they, like him, felt that something was wrong. Was it the whole social system? Or was it the lack of maturity in an individual mind?
He had been a member of the new society for about two years now. In that time, he had had a good many inexplicable experiences of which others had no inkling. Worse yet, the influence of the professor and Winston had been pronounced, providing him with a degree of self-consciousness well beyond the average. He couldn’t in good conscience use the clear, simple logic of the new society to manage his daily life. Unlike others, he was incapable of rationalizing the feelings he had for Zhen. If Zhen was like the analytical apparatus in the branch office of the Bureau of Resource Analysis, she was painstakingly designed to revitalize your character so that you could continue with your work. Both man and machine had to be restored, because there was nothing in the world that could be guaranteed to function forever. This being the case, Zhen was your lubricant; otherwise, she was just a living android beauty. You needed her the way you needed food, sleep, and amusement. If you developed feelings for her, then those feelings still originated in necessity and not in something irrational. Every person was an independent entity that had to fulfill their own needs; the so-called “union of souls” was nothing more than a useless, abstract concept. Union? Nothing was more independent or complete than the soul. Then how were two souls supposed to achieve union? If he thought of her now and longed to be with her, it was because she satisfied the needs of body and soul. Through her skills, he had achieved previously unknown sensual satisfaction; the sight of her beauty filled him with incomparable joy; her tenderness relieved him of all forms of anxiety. But what of her soul? Did she know what love was? Did her vocabulary contain the word “soul”?
Xi De tossed and turned in bed. He wished that so
meone could answer these vague metaphysical questions. Strictly speaking, his intellectual education was nothing more than a professional technical education. In school, no one had the slightest opportunity to come in contact with knowledge beyond their studies. The knowledge required for one field was sufficient to keep one occupied for life. Who had time to discuss things such as the meaning of life, how to live, values, and other such abstract concepts of no practical use? In fact, the new society was a whole that was designed through strict planning, scientific analysis, and the computer. The way you lived life and your values were defined by society; the slightest deviation from the normal course would certainly result in harm. There was an old slogan to explain this kind of situation: “Freedom is simply not hampering the freedom of others.” This slogan revealed the mysteries of the new society and the error of people in the past. Actually, there wasn’t a single form of freedom that didn’t hamper others.
Now I have doubts about the definition of man, thought Xi De. When I do, I have already hampered society in its definition of man and thereby have harmed others. The ancients defined man as a being who exists for the sake of seeking the meaning of life, but it was different in the new society, “in which each person is a cog in the machine that operates perpetually; and a cog cannot conceive of itself as anything other than a cog.” The quote was from a book, and it sounded reasonable. If I ask myself why I exist, there could be a thousand answers, not one of which is right. In the past, a person could exist for his god, for an ideal, or even purely for the sake of existence. Today, however, religion has been debunked, and no ideal can surpass the perfection of “the establishment of an eternal human paradise” such an ideal could in no way be considered Platonic. And what conceptualization of a human paradise in the history of humankind could be more perfect than that of the new society?
Xi De rolled over. Feeling a hard, metallic object under his neck made him break off his crazy thoughts. It was that small silver idol on a chain.
He lifted it and stroked the idol and thought of the word “Christian.” The old history professor had once mentioned the religion in class, saying that it had had the greatest influence of any religion in the history of human civilization. At its zenith, it counted half of the world’s population among its faithful. It was hard to believe that humanity could worship something so amorphous. And even so, Christianity was unable to relieve the afflictions of humankind. By the end of the twentieth century and the commencement of the third industrial revolution, its partial opposition to science and progress were its downfall.
I can’t think about this anymore. Xi De got out of bed and poured himself a glass of water. It was already two in the morning. He stood spacing out for a while in front of the clock. Then, under a sudden impulse, he dressed, opened the door, and stepped out into the quiet hall and its gentle light. He continued on past tightly shut doors to the elevator, where he pushed the button.
Xi De saw his face in the elevator mirror. It was a pale, haggard face, hair disheveled, eyes dull and empty, like those of a drunkard returning from a bar. But the bar was closed, as were all the other entertainment establishments in the building. Perhaps he could leave the building and go to some other street to find the same sort of place.
The elevator door opened and Xi De walked toward the main entrance, his footsteps resounding against the shiny floor. Seeing himself reflected in the metallic wall gave him the sensation that someone was watching and waiting in the corner. He quickened his pace and left the Resource Building.
It was a crisp autumn evening with a slight breeze. Both hands thrust in his pockets, Xi De looked ahead at the empty street. In the bluish light of the street lamps, the skyscrapers in the shadows became dark and menacing. Xi De lacked the courage to cross the avenue, which was broad enough for twenty cars to drive side by side. So instead, he continued down the sidewalk with no destination in mind.
At an intersection, a police car pulled up and stopped beside him. A policeman stepped out of the car and in an amiable manner asked:
“Sir, what are you doing walking alone here so late at night?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Can I check your ID?”
Xi De stretched out his hand.
“AH5481,” the policeman said to the other. He turned to Xi De and saluted.
“I’m sorry, but this is standard procedure.”
In a few minutes, the policeman in the car said, “Everything is in order with AH5481.”
After having been hassled, Xi De felt his mind clearer as the police car drove away. He continued on until he found himself standing beside a canal.
Sitting on the embankment, he gazed at the stars twinkling on the water’s surface.
As the days passed, Xi De developed a habit of going for a walk at midnight. Several days a week he would sit on the embankment for an hour or two, mulling over complicated issues.
Finally, one day the director summoned him to his office.
“Xi De, over the last two or three months, we have discovered that you cannot keep your mind on your work,” said the director, examining him.
“I’m sorry, Director, but I have been troubled by a number of things recently.”
“I have found myself in the same situation. Furthermore, I believe that anyone who returns from their first vacation is bound to be a bit absentminded. This is to be expected and tolerated. But we have noticed that your absentmindedness has extended well beyond a week and has lasted three months now.”
“I know, but …”
“In principle, we allow the individual to work things out in his own way in such cases. We refer to this as a transitional period in the maturation of character. But your case is beyond the norm, so we have no choice but to help you.” The director paused, heaved a sigh, and said, “The computer indicates that a change of work environment is in order for you.”
17
The Third Industrial City was situated beside a lake in the central part of the island and was under the jurisdiction of the Industrial Board of the Tenth Regional Committee. The city had a population of two hundred thousand and produced mainly textiles, steel, and plastics, and had several other kinds of light industry.
The City Administrative Building was twenty stories tall and stood facing the enchanting lake. Xi De’s office was on the twelfth floor. It was a branch office of the Resource Analysis Bureau with only a dozen or so employees. The principal work of the office was to collect the production statistics from every industry in the city, do the preliminary review, and then send them to headquarters in Central City.
Xi De was the only employee in the branch office who was a graduate of the Central Superior Academy. On account of this, his colleagues were eventually able to accept this taciturn young man who seemed to be wrapped up in his own thoughts all day long.
The difference between Xi De’s office and that of headquarters was like night and day: there were no young female assistants, no coffee, no automatically adjusting color walls. Even the work computers seemed lifeless. Fortunately, his office window looked out on an inexhaustible beauty of lake and mountains. Most of the time, Xi De stood at his window, staring blankly at the scenery. With his high-level training, the tasks in the branch office were easy to perform. Soon, several colleagues came to consult with him on a number of small professional matters. Xi De’s patience and smile quickly earned him their friendship. For those from the secondary academies in a branch that couldn’t compare with Central City, the greatest success in life was to work at headquarters. The dissatisfaction and fatigue that resulted from the boring work and the scorn and hostility among high-level managers were rarely encountered here. Xi De’s arrival no doubt left them stunned. For this reason, both sides were initially at a loss. Even the chief of the branch, normally such a jovial heavy-set person, watched every move he made with great suspicion.
One day, the stout fellow appeared at Xi De’s office.
“Xi De,” he said, cautiously observing Xi De
’s expression. When he finally realized he harbored not the slightest hostility, he relaxed a bit. “We’re having drinks at my house this evening. You’re welcome to join us.”
“Thank you, Chief,” Xi De replied warmly. “I’ll be there.”
That night at the cocktail party was the first time Xi De became aware of the lively, straightforward lifestyle in the city. He observed everything going on around him with a good deal of curiosity: unbridled conversation, casual attire, flowing spirits, shouting, and rivalries for women. The stout chief brought a stunning woman over to Xi De.
“Allow me to introduce you. This is Lian Lian; she works in statistics. Lian Lian, this is Xi De, a graduate of the Central Superior Academy.”
“Wow!” replied Lian Lian, startled. “That’s really something.”
They departed together after the cocktail party ended.
“I live in the singles dorm of the Bureau of Statistics,” said Lian Lian, pointing ahead. “It’s a ten-minute walk in that direction.”
Other than the occasional passing police car, not another car was seen on the street. All administrative dorms were concentrated within a twenty-minute walk.
“You’re alone?”
“I have no parents,” she replied. “They worked at the hydrogen plant in the Second Industrial City, but they were killed in an accident. What about you?”
“My parents live in an agricultural city.”
