Along with his own peculiar way of thinking, each person develops a few small hobbies. For example, the husband was really interested in hopscotch: indeed, he could hopscotch any time of the day or night. His wife’s hobby was no different, and nobody should make a big fuss about it. His good friend was listening patiently to his drivel and thinking: this guy has gone mad. Then he reflected that everyone close to Madam X acted a little like a lunatic; even their son, Little Bao, had shown symptoms of ‘‘being addicted to looking in the mirror.’’ Although he tried hard to pull father and son back to reality in order to restrain Madam X’s extreme inclinations, it was always futile. The husband finally summed up his views: ‘‘My wife is a most ordinary person.’’ His friend shook his head. He could do nothing about the husband’s infantile feelings. He could only watch the developments and await a turn for the better. Was Madam X really involved in astronomy? Was everything as simple as this? The handsome husband’s intellect was highly questionable. There was proof that his eyes were deceived, that he could never distinguish right from wrong. Imagine turning a blind eye to the widow’s bewitching figure and missing his chance without knowing it! A good-for-nothing like this: could he figure out what those demonic mirrors were for? Could he see the things in the mirrors at a glance? By all appearances, his talk was nothing more than an attempt to muddle along. To gloss over everything laughable about him, he posed as a stalwart husband, fooling even himself, while remaining smugly ignorant of reality.
Outsiders had no way to resolve this question, so we could appeal only to the superior knowledge of others. Another with inside information is Madam X’s younger sister, who claims she’s twenty-eight or twenty-nine. It just takes someone asking about Madam X’s nighttime occupation, and this sister becomes emotional for no reason, sniveling and sobbing until her eyes are tiny and swollen. Let’s listen to her incoherent narrative: ‘‘My sister used to be a charming, gentle little girl. The peach blossoms were brilliantly red. Then, suddenly, she threw Mother’s spectacles into the mountain stream. Afterwards, we ran and ran until she leapt into the air, and I heard only her footsteps-tita, tita-overhead. In private, Papa and Mama said she had two calcium carbide lamps for eyes. Sometimes, her slender fingers would turn into a hawk’s talons-very sharp and truly frightening. Mama was always grabbing her and cutting her nails until her fingers bled.’’ She told us her older sister was the first person she’d heard of who could leap into the air and fly. Consequently, everything she did was utterly correct and unquestionable. She frequently went several days without eating or drinking, and after becoming as light as a feather, she flew out the window. She flew so high that when her younger sister saw her solitary silhouette drifting to and fro, she couldn’t hold back tears. As she spoke, this sister left reason further and further behind, and the more unreasonable she became, the more excited she was and the more blind was her faith and adoration. Her thoughts were a mess, a hodgepodge; she was completely spineless. (This also leads us to think of her divorce case many years later: you could see that this woman’s sole motivation was to keep up with the fads-she was a clumsy copycat.)
Although we didn’t get anywhere close to the nub of the issue with Madam X’s sister, we did obtain bits and pieces about Madam X’s youth that were helpful in analyzing her temperament. It seems that ever since childhood, Madam X had fostered a deep-seated hatred not unrelated to her parents’ neglect, for which, in truth, she had to bear much responsibility. (Some fathers-well-intentioned old papas-have romantic views of their children; they have a relaxed attitude and don’t take charge of anything. The old mamas merely remember little things like cutting their children’s fingernails.) In later years, the toxin of this hatred must have penetrated every capillary and hardened her heart. She became strange and saw everyone as her enemy. She slipped down a muddy slope into an incurable condition. Not only was she very complacent, but she also kept trying to drag everyone else down with her. Her means of alluring and abetting were unique: in the end, those who had been affected appreciated her greatly, as if they’d won new leases on life. We may well ask: if a person has had a murderous bent since childhood (to a child, throwing her mother’s spectacles into a stream would be the same as murder), what kind of destructive instincts would she have as an adult? If these destructive instincts were constrained by objective conditions (Madam X has unfortunately never been able to freely act out her exceptionally strong lust), what kind of bizarre transformation would occur?
The circumstances we’ve analyzed make us increasingly pessimistic about Madam X’s gloomy future. We have to say that on the rainy night years ago, it would have been better if her mother hadn’t given birth to this ball of flesh so incompatible with the natural environment, world order, and peace. Although Madam X’s parents have already passed away and are silent inside their urns in a graveyard, we couldn’t help but curse them whenever we discussed this. If they hadn’t irresponsibly brought Madam X into this world and fostered her murderous inclination through their unrealistic, utopian worldview, how could she have caused such a series of events? (Here, the writer inserts a sentence: the writer is characterizing Madam X in much the same manner as the people of Five Spice Street at the beginning of the story. This description wasn’t immutable, as we’ll see later.) There were reasons for the guarded mentality of the crowds on Five Spice Street. They were all sharp-eyed, sober, and capable people. Before anything occurred, they could instinctively sniff out any danger and take precautions. So we needn’t worry too much about them: they have their own ways to deal with outside menaces. Although at present they haven’t made any headway in their investigation, they have perfect preventive measures in reserve: when the time comes, they will certainly bring them out in full force. And so we can rest easy and wait quietly for things to develop.
This is how the younger sister explained her sister’s activity, each time so distressed that she wanted to die. Once, after finishing up, she entangled a listener and asked him to find a sharp knife to ‘‘dig out her heart and examine it.’’ He broke into a cold sweat. This sort of woman loves to stir up the waters and find a theoretical basis for future scandals. Nothing such a shameless piece of work could do would surprise us. She was capable of anything, and afterwards would act crazy, diddling with the cheap sympathy of others. After hearing that her older sister’s scandals had come to light, she rushed to her sister’s home. Having comforted her grieving, despairing, infantile brother-in-law, she made off with their biggest mirror, took it home, and beamed sunlight on the earthen wall on the other side of the street while letting out a sharp and piercing scream. An ink- black tramp walking past identified the light on the wall and stood stock-still. He squatted down and didn’t move. At nightfall, he lit a fire with wastepaper and firewood. Leaning against the wall, he entered into a deep stupor. After three days and three nights, she packed up her belongings to join the tramp, and the two of them ‘‘eloped’’! Isn’t this the most fantastic thing? What does it mean when people stare openmouthed? Before long, word came about this tramp: ‘‘one ink-black slap left her deaf in both ears.’’ Thinking of the words ‘‘ink-black slap,’’ the crowds on Five Spice Street vented their disgust. This woman deserved a slap-the more, the better. We couldn’t do it but were glad someone else had. Whenever she came to Five Spice Street, everyone’s palms grew sweaty in anticipation. Everyone was sure that she came simply to provoke and incite, to instigate evil winds and stir up trouble. She was confused, but lewd and stubborn by nature. She particularly enjoyed novelty and deviant ideas. No one could deal with her.