Fortress besieged 7020042570, 9787020042579

Table of contents :
COVER......Page 1
《围城》汉英对照本前言......Page 2
序......Page 5
Author's Preface......Page 6
一......Page 7
1......Page 8
二......Page 53
2......Page 54
三......Page 97
3......Page 98
四......Page 217
4......Page 218
五......Page 263
5......Page 264
六......Page 377
6......Page 378
七......Page 453
7......Page 454
八......Page 543
8......Page 544
9......Page 601
END......Page 697

Citation preview

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fairly broad, he gained nothing at all in the way of knowledge, mostly dissipating his life away in idleness. In the spring of the fourth year, with only three hundred pounds left in the bank, he decided to return home in the summer. His father had written asking him if he had received his Ph. D. and when he would be coming home. He replied with a long letter denouncing the Ph. D. title as having absolutely no practical value. His father did not see it that way at all, but now that his son had grown up, he hesitated to threaten him again with paternal authority, and merely said that he knew perfectly well titles were useless and that he would never forece his son to get one, but his son had a duty toward Mr. Chou, who had invested a large sum of money on his education. A few days later, Fang Hung-chien also received a letter from his father-in-law, which said in effect" A worthy son- in -law like you with talent and learning and a reputation extending far and wide does not need to flaunt a Ph. D. But your father passed the Manchu second-degree examination and therefore it seems only fitting that your become the foreign equivalent of the third-degree holder, following in your father's footsteps and even surpassing him. Then I too would share in your glory." Finding himself pressured on both sides, Fang Hung-chien finally realized the importance of a foreign diploma. This diploma, it seemed, would function the same as Adam and Eve's figleaf. It could hide a person's shame and wrap up his disgrace. This tiny square of paper could cover his shallowness, ignorance, and stupidity. Without it, it was as if he were spiritually stark naked and had nothing to bundle up in. But as for getting a degree at that point, whether by studying toward it himself or hiring a ghost writer to write a dissertation, there was neither time nor money. A Ph. D. from the nearby University of Hamburg was considered the easiest to muddle through, but even it required six months. He could just go ahead and deceive his family by saying he'd received a Ph. D. , but then he was afraid that he couldn't fool his father and father-in-law. As one who had passed the old second-degree examination, his father would want to see the official "announcement. " His father-in-law, a businessman, would want to see the "title deed." Unable to think of a solution, he was prepared to return home brazen-faced and tell them that he had not obtained a degree. One day as he was going to the Chinese bibliography section of the Berlin library to see a German friend, he noticed on the floor a large stack of periodicals published in Shanghai during the first years of the Republic of China, including The Eastern Miscellany, Short Story Monthly, The Grand China, and the Women's Magazine. Having stopped to leaf leisurely through one, he happened to see an advertisement with Chinese .and English parallel texts placed by the " Correspondence Division of the Carleton Institute of Law and Commerce" in the city of New

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wrong. The rickshaws took them to the wrong place; they paid the wrong amount of money when they went shopping; neither one had any good luck. Fang wanted to go eat lunch at the Chinese restaurant where they went the evening before, but Miss Pao was set on eating Western food, saying she didn' t want to meet anyone they knew from the ship. They then found a Western-type restaurant that looked respectable enough from the outside; but as it turned out, there wasn't a single thing edible from the cold dishes to the coffee. The soup was cold, and the ice cream was warm. The fish was like the Marine Corps. It apparently had already been on land for several days; the meat was like submarine sailors, having been submerged in water for a long time. Besides the vinegar, the bread, the butter, and the red wine were all sour. They completely lost their appetites while eating and couldn't hit it off in their conversation either. He tried to amuse her by calling her the affectionate nicknames "Dark Sweetie" and "Miss Chocolate."" Am I so dark then?" she asked heatedly. Stubbornly trying to justify himself, he argued, "But I like your color. This year in Spain I saw a famous beauty dancing. Her skin was just a little lighter than a smoked ham." "Maybe you like Miss Su' s dead-fish-belly white. You yourself are as black as a chimney sweep. Just take a look at yourself in the mirror," she answered him none too logically. With that she flashed a triumphant smile. Having received a thorough blackening from Miss Pao, he could hardly go on. The waiter served the chicken. There on the plate was a piece of meat that seemed to have been donated by. the iron weathercock on a church steeple. Try as she might, Miss Pao could not make a dent in it. She put down her knife and fork, saying, "I haven't the teeth to bite into this thing. This restaurant is a total mess. " Fang attacked the chicken with a greater determination. "You wouldn't listen to me," he said through clenched teeth. "You wanted to eat Western

food." "I wanted to eat Western food, but I didn't ask you to come to this miserable restaurant! After the mistake is made, you blame someone else. All you men are like that! " She talked as though she had tested the character of every man in the world. After a while she somehow managed to bring up Dr. Li, her fiance, saying he was a devout Christian. Already piqued, Fang became disgusted upon hearing this. Since religious belief hadn't had the slightest effect on her behavior, he'd just have to use Dr. Li to get in a few digs at her, he thought. "How can a Christian practice medicine?" he asked. Without any idea of what he was driving at, she looked at him wideeyed. •

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He added some rice-water "milk" to the scorched bean-husk "coffee" in front of her, and said, "One of the Ten Commandments of Christianity is 'Thou shalt not kill, ' but what does a doctor do but professionalized killing?" Unamused, she shot back, "Don't be ridiculous! Medicine saves lives." Seeing how attractive she was when aroused, he decided to provoke her further. "No one who saves lives could be religious. Medicine wants people to live. It saves people's bodies. Religion saves people's souls and wants them not to fear death. So if a sick man is afraid of death, he'll call a doctor and take medicine. If the doctor and the medicine prove ineffective and there's no escape from death, then he'll get a minister or a priest to prepare him for his end. To study medicine and be religious at the same time comes down to: "If I can' t help a sick man to live properly, at least I can still help him die properly. Either way he can ' t go wrong by calling me in. ' It's like a pharmacist running a coffin shop on the side. What a racket!" She was greatly incensed:" I suppose you won't ever get sick and have to call a doctor. Your big mouth and glib tongue are spouting all kinds of nonsense. Well, I study medicine too. Why do you malign people for no reason? " Alarmed, he apologized. She complained of a headache and wanted to return to the ship to rest. All the way back he was very apologetic, but she remained in low spirits. After seeing her to her cabin, he slept for two hours himself. As soon as he got up he went to her cabin, tapped on the partition, and called her name, asking if she felt any better. To his surprise, the curtain opened and Miss Su came out saying Miss Pao was sick, had thrown up twice, and had just fallen asleep. He was at once chagrined and embarrassed; he said something lamely and beat a hasty retreat. During dinner everyone noticed Miss Pao' s absence and teased Fang, asking him where she was. He mumbled, "She's tired. She isn' t feeling well. " Gloatingly, Miss Su said, "She ate with Mr. Fang and came back with an upset stomach. Now she can't keep a thing down. I'm just afraid she's contracted dysentery!" The callous men students laughed heartily and spouted all sorts of nonsense, asking: "Who told her to eat with Little Fang behind our backs?" "Little Fang is a real disgrace! Why can't he pick a clean restaurant when he asks a girl out to eat?" "It couldn't be the restaurant's fault. Miss Pao was probably too happy and ate so much she couldn't digest it all. Right, Little Fang?" "Little Fang, you didn't get sick? Oh, I get it! Miss Pao' s beauty is such a feast to the eye, and you got your fill just looking at her and didn' t have to eat."

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3 PERHAPS BECAUSE so many people had died in the war, the unspent life energy of all those who had died in vain merged into the vital force of spring. The weather that spring was especially beautiful. Stirred by the invigorating spring, men, like infants cutting their teeth, somehow itched painfully from the budding of new life. A boomtown, Shanghai had no scenic spots in which spring might rest its feet. In the parks and lawns the grass and trees were like the wild beasts confined in iron cages at the zoo restricted and lonely; there simply was no place for spring to release its full splendor. Lodged only in the minds and bodies of men, spring brought an upsurge of illnesses and infections, adulteries, drunken brawlings, and pregnancies. Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. But according to Mrs. Chou, children born in that year were really the souls of all those who had died prematurely in the war hurrying to be reborn so that they could live out the allotted years of their lives. Consequently, she believed, they wouldn't live long. For the last few days, Fang Hung-chien had been drowsy during the day but wide awake at night. When he woke up at dawn and heard the birds chirping in the trees outside his window, for no reason at all he felt happy , full of inexplicable expectations. Also his heart seemed to have become lighter, giddy, floating, but it was an empty joy. Like the balloon released by a child, it would rise no more than a few feet and then burst into nothing, leaving only an indefinable sense of loss and disappointment. He was restless and eager for action and yet lethargic. He was like willow catkins floating about in the spring breeze, too light and too powerless to fly far. He felt this indecisive and confused state of mind was exactly like the mood evoked in the springtime poetry describing the longings of maidens secluded in their chambers. Since women themselves no longer bothered with such springtime sentiments and he, a man, was still afflicted with such thoughts, he felt ridiculous. A woman like Miss Pao, for instance, would never have time for springtime longing, but Miss Su? It would be hard to tell, for she seemed to be the model of the traditional beauty of sentiments. He had promised to visit her, and why shouldn't he visit her once? Although he knew the visit might lead to complications, he also realized that life was too terribly boring and there were so few ready-made girl friends. He was like an insomniac 97

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At the same time Miss Su said lightheartedly, "Aren't you ashamed? Do you still want us to call you Little Fang like they did on the boat? Hsiao-fu, ignore him. If he can ' t accept the honor, then simply don ' t call him anything. " Fang Hung-chien noticed that the trace of a smile lingered on Miss T' ang' s face when she was not smiling, like the last few notes that float in the air after the music has ceased. Many women can smile just as sweetly, but their smile is only facial muscle calisthenics, as if a drill master were barking the order, "One!" and suddenly the whole face would be wreathed in smiles, then "Two!" and just as suddenly the smile would vanish, leaving a face as blank as the screen in a movie theater before the movie starts. Trying to make conversation, he asked what Miss T'ang's major at college was. Miss Su, on the other hand, wouldn't let Miss T' ang tell and insisted that he guess. Fang Hung-chien said Miss T' ang' s major was literature, which was wrong; he then said it was education, which was also wrong. When he found chemistry and physics were both wrong, he resorted to one of Chang Chimin's English expressions: "Search me ! Don' t tell me it' s mathematics. That would be too much!" Miss T' ang then told him. It was actually quite a common subject tical science. Miss Su said, "It' s still too much. In the future she will be our ruler, a lady official. " Fang Hung-chien said, "Women are natural political animals. Political tactics, such as saying yes and meaning no, retreating in order to advance, are what they know from birth. For a woman to study political science is really developing the innate through the acquired; it is as superfluous as adding flowers to embroidery. In Europe when I attended Professor Ernest Peygmann' s lectures, he said men have the capacity for creative thought and women for social activity. Thus, men's work in society should be turned over to women, so that men can seclude themselves at home to think at leisure, invent new science, and produce new art. I think that makes a lot of sense. Women don't need to study politics, but if present-day politicians want to succeed, they should all imitate women. In politics roles are being reversed." Miss Su said, "You're just purposely spouting weird ideas. You like that sort of thing. " Fang Hung-chien said, " Miss T ' ang, your cousin really doesn ' t appreciate the respect I' m showing her. I speak of women participating in government, yet she turns around and laughs at me for purposely spouting weird ideas! You be the judge as to who' s right. As the old saying goes, 'The house must first be put in order before the kingdom can be ruled and the country pacified. ' How many men, may I ask, can take care of domestic

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chores? They rely on women to manage the house, yet they go around boasting about how great men will run the country and bring peace. If they can' t be bothered with trivial little domestic chores, then it' s just like building a house by first positioning a roof in midair. There are several advantages in handing over the state and society completely to women. At least it would reduce the chances of war. Maybe diplomacy would become more complicated and there would be more secret treaties, but women' s biological limitation would make them shun war. And even if a war started, since women aren't as mechanically minded as men, they would probably use simple weapons and apply basic military maneuvers such as pulling out the hair, scratching the face, and pinching the body. In such cases damage would be insignificant. At any rate, the new women today have already balked at raising a lot of children. By that time they'll be so busy managing the affairs of the state that they'll have even less time to procreate. With the population down, wars probably won' t even occur. " Miss T' ang sensed that Fang Hung-chien was saying all that to attract her attention. Laughing to herself, she said, "I can't tell whether Mr. Fang is insulting politics or women. At the least, it's not complimentary." Miss Su said, "Oh, great, you spend all day beating around the bush trying to flatter her and she not only doesn't appreciate it, she doesn't even understand it. I suggest you save your breath. " "It's not that I don't appreciate what he said," said Miss T' ang. "I am truly grateful that Mr. Fang is willing to show off his eloquence. If I were studying mathematics, I bet he would have some other viewpoints and say that women are natural calculating animals." Miss Su said, "Maybe he would say that if someone like you wanted to study mathematics, he'd stop hating mathematics from then on. Anyway, no mater how you put it or how ridiculous the arguments get, it's all just talk. I never knew he had such a glib tongue. I guess I found that out on the boat returning home. When we were classmates in college, his face would tum scarlet whenever he saw us co-eds from a distance and get redder the closer he came. It was so red that we'd get hot and uncomfortable all over just looking at his face. We used to call him. ' The Thermometer' behind his back since his facial coloring indicated his relative distance from girls. It was so much fun. I never would have thought that once he' d gone abroad he'd get so thick-skinned and brazen-faced. Maybe he got his training from running around with girl friends like Miss Pao. " "What rubbish!" said Hung-chien nervously. "What ' s the point of bringing all that up? You co-eds are really something! You act serious in a person's presence, but as soon as his back is turned, you tear him apart. You

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really have no sense of decency!" When Miss Su saw how distressed he had become, her displeasure at seeing him show off in front of Miss T' ang completely vanished. She said with a smile, "Look how upset you are! You yourself are probably guilty of fancy talk in front of people while belittling them behind their backs." At that moment a tall, thirtyish, imposing-looking man walked in. while Miss T' ang greeted him as "Mr. Chao, " Miss Su said, "Oh, good, you' re here. I'll introduce you: Fang Hung-chien, Chao Hsin-mei." Chao Hsin-mei shook hands with Fang Hung-chien , superciliously glancing at him from head to toe as if Hung-chien were a page from a large-type kindergarten reader to be glossed over at one glance. He asked Miss Su, "Didn't you come home with him on the boat?" Hung-chien was dumbfounded. How did this Chao fellow know who he was? Then it suddenly occurred to him that Chao might have seen the item in the Shanghai paper, and the thought made him feel uncomfortable. Chao Hsin-mei looked smug to begin with, and after hearing Miss Su confirm that Hung-chien indead came home with her on the same ship, he acted as ifHungchien had turned into thin air and ignored Hung-chien completely. If Miss Su hadn't bothered to speak to him, Hung-chien would really have felt that he had thinned into nothingness, like a phantom of early dawn upon the cock's · crowing or the Taoist truth, which can be "looked at but not seen, expounded but not grasped. " Miss Su explained to Hung-chien that Chao Hsin-mei was a family friend, a returned student from the United States, a former section chief of the foreign office who had not gone with the office to the interior because of illness. She added that he was at the moment a political editor at the Sino-American News Agency. She did not, however, recite Hung-chien's background for Chao Hsin-mei, as if Chao already knew all about it without being told. With a pipe in his mouth, Chao Hsin-mei lounged on the sofa; looking at the ceiling light, he asked, "Where do you work, Mr. Fang?" Somewhat annoyed by the question, Fang Hung-chien felt he must answer it. And since the "Golden Touch Bank" didn't sound impressive, he answered vaguely, "For the time being I'm working at a small bank." Admiring the smoke ring he had blown, Chao Hsin-mei said, "A great talent gone to waste. Such a pity! Such a pity! What did you study abroad, M r. F ang.?" "I didn't study anything," said Hung-chien crossly. Miss Su said, "Hung -chien, you studied philosophy, didn't you?" Chortling, Chao Hsin-mei said, "In the eyes of those of us engaged in real work, studying philosophy and not studying anything amount to one and

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the same." "Then you'd better find an eye doctor right away and have your eyes examined. Eyes that see things like that must have something wrong with them," said Fang Hung-chien, purposely guffawing to cover up his ill feelings. Chao Hsin-mei, quite pleased with the wisecrack he had made a moment ago, was for the moment unable to say anything in reply and puffed away furiously on his pipe. On the other hand, Miss Su tried hard not to laugh, though she was a little ill at ease. Miss T'ang, meanwhile, sat with a distant, aloof smile on her face, as if she were watching a fight from the clouds. It suddenly dawned on Hung-chien that Chao's rudeness toward him had stemmed from jealousy, for Chao had obviously taken him as his love rival. All of a sudden, Miss Su began calling Fang Hung-chien Hung-chien instead of Mr. Fang, as though she wanted Chao Hsin-mei to know her intimacy with Fang. Havingreflected. he decided. Unaware of Fang Hungchien's intention, Miss Su thoroughly enjoyed the battle of two men over her, but she was worried that the exchange might get too fierce and in a moment separate 'the victor from the vanquished, leaving only one of the two as the sole survivor and terminating all -the excitement around her. She was even more wonied that the vanquished might be Fang Hung-chien. She had tried to use Chao Hsin-mei to rouse Fang Hung-chien's courage, but perhaps Fang Hung-chien, like the war news in the newspapers for the last few days, had been "maintaining the present strength through strategic retreats." Chao Hsin-mei' s and Su Wen-Wan's fathers had been colleagues and had rented a house in Peking together during the early years of the Republic. Hsin-mei and Miss Su had been friends since childhood. When Mrs. Chao was pregnant with Hsin-mei, everyone thought she would have twins. By the time he was four or five, he was as tall as a seven-oreight-year-old, so that whenever the servant took him on a trolley car, the servant would always have to argue with the conductor over the "no fare required for children under five" rule. Though Hsin-mei' s body was huge, his head, resembling a large turnip with nothing in it, was not. In grade school he was the butt of his classmates' jokes; for with such a large target, no shot could ever miss the mark. With Miss Su and her brother and sister, he used to play "cops and robbers." The two girls, Miss Su and her now married older sister, could not run very fast, so when it came their turn to play the "robber," they insisted on being the "cop. " When Miss Su' s elder brother played the robber, he refused to be caught. Hsin-mei was the only one who would be a good little robber and take a beating. When they played Little Red Riding Hood, he was always the wolf, and when he ate up Miss Su or her sister, he would pick them up and make a strange expression by rounding his eyes and opening his mouth wide.

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In the part where the woodcutter kills the wolf and cuts open the wolf' s stomach, Miss Su' s brother pressed him into the mud and tried to dig at his stomach. Once Miss Su' s brother did really cut through his clothes with scissors. While Hsin-mei was amiable by nature, it dido' t fol19w that he therefore must have a poor mind. His father believed in physiognomy, so when he was thirteen or fourteen, his father took him to see a famous woman physiognomist who praised him for his "fire planet square, earth shape thick, wood sound high, cow ' s eyes, lion ' s nose, chessboard piece ' s ear, and mouth shaped like the character for 'four. ' " And she said his physiognomy fit the description of a high official according to her Hemp Robe fortunetelling book. 8 Moreover, she predicted that he would achieve great fame and high political status surpassing that of his father. From then on Hsin-mei considered himself a statesman. When Hsin-mei was little, he had a secret crush on Miss Su. One year when Miss Su was critically ill, he overheard his father say, "Wen-wan is sure to recover. She is destined to be an official ' s wife and has twenty-five years of a 'helpmate's fortune. '" He henceforth concluded that she would be his wife since the woman physiognomist had predicted he would be an official. When Miss Su returned from abroad, he thought he would renew their childhood friendship and propose to her at an appropriate time. But to his surprise, when Miss Su first came home, every other word she said was Fang Hung-chien, a name which she abruptly dropped after the fifth day. The reason was that she had discovered an old issue of a Shanghai newspaper and her sharp eyes had noticed an item in it that others had overlooked. It must be said that her long years of friendship with Hsin-mei did not add up to love, just as in winter no one can add today' s temperature to yesterday ' s to come up with a warm spring day for tomorrow. It must also be said that Hsin-mei excelled in making speeches in English; his resonant and fluent American speech, resembling the roll of thunder in the sky, when oiled and waxed, would slip halfway through the sky. Speeches, however, are delivered from a podium, with the speaker looking down at his audience. On the other hand, a marriage proposal has to be made by the person stooping down to half his height and earnestly entreating the other with an uplifted face. And since Miss Su was not his audience, he never had a chance to exercise his talent. Though Ch:ao Hsin-mei was jealous of Fang Hung-chien, it was not an it's either-you-or-me type of enmity. His haughty redeness was an imitation of Mussolini' s and Hitler's attitude toward representatives of small nations during negotiations. He thought he could overwhelm and scare off Hung-chien with the forbidding mannerism of Mussolini of Hitler. But when he encountered a retort from Hung-chien, he could neither pound the table nor

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"Maybe your cousin has her own ideas. Dispatching a general on a mission isn't as effective as challenging him to do it as a mission impossible. There has to be a major adversary before Mr. Chao's ability can come to the fore. Too bad this tired old soldier can' t live up to the fight and for that matter isn't interested in the fighting. " "Why not be a volunteer?" "No, it'd be like dragging in a conscript. " As he said this, Fang Hungchien regretted having spoken so flippantly, since there was no guarantee that Miss T' ang wouldn ' t pass all this on to Miss Su. "But often the underdog gets more sympathy from the bystanders." Realizing that this remark could be misconstrued, Miss T' ang blushed. " I mean, my cousin might be aiding the smaller, weaker people." Hung-chien was so overjoyed at hearing this that his heart skipped a beat. "That's her business. Miss T' ang, I'd like to invite you and your cousin for dinner tomorrow at the 0 Mei-chun. May [ have the honor?" Miss T' ang hesitated and before she could answer, Hung-chien went on, "I know it's very presumptuous of me. Your cousin told me you have many friends. Though I am unworthy, I'd like very much to be included among them. " "I don't have any friends. My cousin was talking nonsense. What did she say to you?" "Oh, nothing in particular. Just that you are very good at socializing and know quite a few people. " "That's ridiculous. I am just an ignorant country girl!" "You're being polite. Please come tomorrow. I wanted to go to that restaurant but didn' t have a good excuse. I'm using you two as a pretext so I can enjoy myself. Please oblige me by accepting the invitation." Miss T' ang said with a smile, "Mr. Fang, there's something behind everything you say. If that's the way it is, I'll certainly come. What time tomorrow evening?" Hung-chien told her the time. Relaxed and happy, he heard Mrs. Shen speak in her sonorous voice, "The time I attended the World Conference of . Women, I observed a widespread trend. Women all over the world are now going in the direction of men." Hung-chien was both startled and amused, thinking, It~ s been like that since ancient times. Mrs. Shen shouldn't have to attend a women's conference now to find that out. Meanwhile, Mrs. Shen continued, "All the occupations that men have held, such as members of parliament, lawyers, journalists, airplane pilots, women can hold and perfonn just as well as men. A Yugoslav woman sociologist gave a lecture at the conference in which she said that with the exception of women who were willing to be virtuous wives and mothers, career women could be called ' the

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uplift in spirit. She said with a smile, "Fine. Just the two of us, then?" As soon as she said this, she felt a little embarrassed, having realized that the • quest10n was unnecessary. Fang Hung-chien said hesitatingly, "No, your cousin is also coming." "Oh, she is. Have you invited her?" "Yes, I did. She promised to come- to accompany you." "All right then, goodbye." Miss Su' s parting manner dampened Fang Hung-chien's high spirits. He felt the situation between him and the two women was too difficult to handle and prayed that he would be able to handle it smoothly and cleanly and let Miss Su' s affections toward him die a painless death. He heaved a sigh for Miss Su. Though he didn' t love her, he had become softhearted because of her. It's just too unfair! She is too scheming. She shouldn't be so easily hurt and she should bear the situation without complaint. Why does love have to lower one' s mental resistance and make one so weak that one can be easily manipulated? If God really loved man , He would never be the master of man, he thought. If his thoughts had been made known to Chao Hsinmei, Fang Hung-chien would have had to listen to Hsin-mei' s abuse about how "the philosopher is up to tricks. " That night Fang's sleep was fitful, like rice-flour noodles without elasticity or stretchability. His joy burst from his dreams and woke him four or five times. Each time he awoke, he seemed to see T' ang Hsiao-fu' s face and to hear her voice. Her every word and gesture during the day he tried to impress upon his heart. Moments later he would drift to sleep only to awake with a start a moment later, feeling his joy had been robbed by sleep. Once more he would mentally review the day' s happiness. When he finally awoke and got up, he found the sky dull and gray. He had not chosen a nice day for a dinner party, he thought, and wished he could have pressed blotting paper against the pale rain clouds to dry them up. Monday was usually the busiest day of the week at the bank. Fang wouldn't be able to leave the office until after six o' clock in the evening. Since he wouldn' t have time to come home and change before going to the restaurant, he got dressed in the morning before leaving for work. Imagining he were Miss T' ang, he judged his appearance in the mirror through her eyes. In less than a year since his return from abroad, he had acquired more wrinkles on his forehead, and since he hadn't slept well the night before, his complexion and eyes were dull and lusterless. His acquisition of a new love two days ago had made him meticulously aware of every last blemish in his appearance in the manner of a poor man with only one dress suit who knows its every spot and patch. Actually, to other people, his complexion looked the same as ever, but he found himself particularly ugly that day. Thinking that 131

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widespread, the number of people writing letters decreases. Unless it's an important business matter, people are afraid to write letters, and they ' d rather call on the phone. I think that's because it's easy to make a fool of yourself in writing a letter. People in high positions can often speak quite well but can't handle a pen effectively. But with a phone call a person can dispense with a visit from someone repulsive or hide his poor writing ability. So the telephone has been considered a great gift to mankind. " Fang Hung-chien babbled on happily, urging Miss T' ang to eat from time to time. He, on the other hand, ate very little. By the time they had their fruit for dessert, it was nine o'clock. She wanted to leave, and he didn' t dare keep her. After paying the bill, he asked the waiter to call a taxi to take her home. He told her he had promised to go see Miss Su the next day and asked if she was going. She replied she might but doubted Miss Su was really sick. He then asked, "Should we tell her about our dinner tonight?" "Why not? No, no. I got mad a while ago and told her I wasn't going anywhere today. All right, whatever you decide. In any case you can't go to her place until after work tomorrow, and I will go a little later. " "I was thinking of visiting you the day after tomorrow. Would you . d?" mm . "I'd be glad to have you. It's just that our house is very cramped, nothing like Miss Su' s Western-style house with a big garden. If you don't mind visiting a modest home, come by all means." "May I meet your father?" he asked. "Not unless you have some legal questions to ask him. He usually stays in his law office and doesn't get home until late in the evening. My parents have absolute trust in my sisters and me. They've never interfered with or checked up on our friends, " she replied. The taxi arrived as Miss T' ang was speaking, and Hung-chien helped her into it. On his way home in the rickshaw, he thought the day had turned out to be unexpectedly perfect. But Miss T ' ang ' s parting remark about "our friends" made him jealous as he conjured up visions of a huge throng of young men secretly surrounding her. When Miss T' ang arrived home, her parents teased her, "Well, our social butterfly is home. " She went to her room and was changing her clothes, when the maid said Miss Su was on the phone. She went downstairs to answer the phone, but halfway down the stairs she changed her mind, stopped, and instructed her maid to say, "Young Lady isn' t feeling well and has gone to bed." Indignantly, she thought, That must be my cousin checking up to see whether I' m home or not. She is such a bully. Fang Hung-chien isn 't hers, and be doesn't need her to look after him like that! The more she interferes,

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address confidential and his telephone number unlisted. After Ch' u Shenming arrived in Europe, Ch' u, in a last-ditch effort, sent a letter to Bergson to make an appointment for a visit, but to his chagrin the letter came back unopened. From then on, he bitterly hated lntuitivism. On the other hand, Bergson' s rival, Bertrand Russell, was willing to humor the Chinese and therefore invited him over for tea. From then on Ch' u studied mathematical logic. When Ch' u went abroad, for the sake of convenience, he had to wear glasses, and so it happened that his attitude toward women gradually • changed. Though he loathed women and could smell them three doors away, he desired them, which was why his nose was so sharp. His mind was filled with them. If he came upon the expression a posteriori in mathematical logic, he would think of "posterior, " and when he came across the mark "X" he would think of a kiss. Luckily he had never made a careful study of Plato' s dialogues with Timaeus; otherwise he would be dazed by every "X" mark. Now he was translating into English a work on the Chinese view of life written by the official who sent him abroad. Every month he drew out a sum of money from the National Bank for living expenses and lived a very leisurely life. Tung Hsieh-ch' iian' s father, Tung 1-sun, was an old scholar who had served as an official for the Republic of China but had not forgotten the former Manchu regime. Hsieh-ch' iian himself was quite gifted and wrote old-style poetry in the same way his father did. A country of active scholar-generals, China is unlike France, which, if it had one or two generals capable of wielding a pen, would want them to be revered at the National Academy. While Hsieh-ch' iian' s military strategems were not too different from those of most scholar-generals, his poetry, even if it hadn' t been the work of a scholar-general, would still have been considered quite good. But writing can reduce one to poverty. He never had much luck as an official, even though this was not nec~ssarily a misfortune for the soldiers. As a military attache, instead of discussing military affairs, he criticized his superiors and peers for their literary incompetence, and for this reason he was transferred back to China. Shortly after his return, he decided to look for another job. Fang Hung-chien viewed Tung Hsieh-ch' iian as a very distinguished individual, so when he heard Chao Hsin-mei say Hsieh-ch' iian was the son of a famous father, he was overwhelmed and said, "Mr. 1-sun is well known both at home and abroad. Mr. Tung lives up to his distinguished heritage a man of both literary and military talents." He thought this would be considered the highest form of praise. Tung Hsieh-ch' iian said, "My poetic style is different from my father's. In his youth he followed wrong models. Even now he still hasn't gotten away from the styles of Huang Chung-tse and Kung Ting-an of the Ch' ien-lung and

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Ch' u Shen-ming said, "He's the only one who can see the dimples on his wife's face. Now that he's written about them in his poem, we can all look at them as much as we want. " Hsieh-ch' iian could not very well show his irritation. Stiffening his expression, he said, "There's no point discussing poetry with such ignorant people like you in the first place. I used two allusions in that couplet, one from Mei Sheng-yii in the first line and another from Yang Ta-yen in the second. If you don' t know the original source, don ' t try to force an .1nterpretat10n . on 1t. . " Hsin-me poured the wine as he said, "Sorry, sorry! We'll fine ourselves a glass. Mr. Fang, you should have recognized the allusion. You're not like us! How come you didn't have the faintest idea about it either? You're fined two glasses. Come on. " . "That's nonsense," snapped Hung-chien. "Why should I know it any more t han you.? " Since Hsieh-ch' tian' s rebuke about their ignorance had included her, Miss Su was quite peeved and said, "I don' t have the vaguest idea about it either, but I'm not going to drink that glass of wine." Affected by the wine, Hsin-mei would brook no restraint from Miss Su, insisting, "You can ignore the fine, but he must drink a glass. I'll drink with him." As he spoke he poured Hung-chien a full glass, picked up his own, drank it down in one gulp, then held up the empty glass for Hung-chien to see. Hung-chien said resolutely, " I ' ll finish this one, but beyond that I won ' t touch another drop even if you kill me. " He lifted the glass and poured it straight down his throat. When it was all gone, he held the glass up to Hsin-mei, saying, "It's fore the word "empty" had left his mouth, he clenched his teeth together and rushed and stumbled to the spittoon. With an "Augh" the food and wine gushed from his mouth. He never thought there could be so much in his stomach, and the vomiting continued till he was out of breath. Out came mucus, tears, and stomach juices, and he was occupied with the thought, What a disgrace ! Thank God Miss T' ang isn ' t here. Though he had cleared his stomach, the feeling of disgust did not stop. He sat down at the tea table unable to raise his head. His clothes were splattered with drops of dirty spittle. Miss Su was about to approach him when he wearily made a gesture to stop her. While he was in the worst throes of vomiting, Hsin-mei had patted his back for him. Hsieh-ch' tian called the waiter to clean the floor and bring a towel, while he went ahead and poured a glass of tea for Hung-chien to rinse his mouth. Holding his nose, Ch' u Shen-ming opened all the windows. An expression of scorn showed all over his face, but inwardly he 191

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he's getting drenched in the rain." She hurried to the window to look. Sure enough, Hung-chien was standing with his back to the road outside the bamboo fence of the house diagonally opposite. Like whips of water, windblown lines of rain from all directions lashed at his unresponsive body. As she watched, her heart melted into bitter water. If he, after another minute, still stood there, she thought, she would risk the ridicule of others and tell the maid to invite him back in. The minute lasted forever, and she could hardly wait it out and was just about to give the order to her maid when Hung-chien suddenly whirled around. Like a dog shaking out its hair, he shook himself as if trying to shake away all the rain in the vicinity and strode off. Miss T' ang regretted having believed her cousin so much and in her anger spoken with such finality to him. She also began to worry that Hung-chien would become so despondent he might get run over by an automobile or trolley car. She checked her watch a few times; after an hour, she called up the Chous to ask about him. Hung-chien hadn' t come home yet. Alarmed, she grew more apprehensive. When dinner was over and the rain had stopped, not wishing her family to overhear, she slipped out to a neighborhood candy store to use the telephone. Confused and upset, she first dialed a wrong number; dialing a second time, all she heard was the telephone ringing at the other end. For a long time no one answered. The three members of the Chou family had all gone out visiting. Hung-chien, who had been sitting in a stupor in a small coffee shop up until this time, finally went home. The moment he entered the house the maid told him Miss Su had called. He turned hot with rage and awoke from his benumbed state. He was just changing into dry clothes when the telephone rang. He ignored it. The maid ran up to get it and had no sooner picked it up than she said, "Mr. Fang, Miss Su is on the phone." With his sock half on and his left foot bare, Hung-chien ran from his room, grabbed the receiver, and not caring whether the maid heard or not, in a unfortunately he had caught a chill from his drenching in the hoarse voice rain and already had the beginnings of a stuffy nose, so his throat had lost its vigor said, "We' re already through, through! Do you hear? What' s the point of calling up again and again? It's really disgraceful! You' re just making trouble! I doubt if you' ll ever get married " He suddenly realized the other party had already hung up and nearly called Miss Su up again to force her to listen to his invective through to the end. The maid, who had been listening with great interest at the turn of the stairs, hurried into the kitchen to report. When Mi&'l T' ang heard "It' s really disgraceful," she quickly hung up the receiver, feeling faint. Barely managing to fight back the tears, she returned home. That evening as Fang Hung - chien thought over what had happened that 211

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day, he was swept by intermittent fever. He could hardly believe it was all real. After being picked apart piece by piece by Miss T' ang, he felt too vile and despicable to be a man. The next morning just after he had gotten up, Miss T' ang' s rickshaw boy came with a paper bundle, saying that Miss T' ang had asked for a package in return. He recognized the bundle as the one he saw yesterday. There was nothing written on it, but he guessed it was the letters he had written her. He knew very well she wouldn' t, yet he still hoped she had written a few lines, using the final moment of farewell to let their friendship draw out one more breath. He quickly opened the bundle which contained his old letters. Dejectedly he wrapped up her letters in the same paper and handed them to the rickshaw boy, who then departed. When Miss T' ang received the box wrapped up in the paper, she opened it with considerable curiosity. It was the gold-papered box of chocolate wafers, which she had sent Hung-chien. She knew her letters were in the box but didn't want to open it, as if not opening the box meant she still hadn' t completely severed relations with him, and opening it would prove beyond a doubt that she had broken off. She sat in a daze like this she knew not how long perhaps only a few seconds then opened the box and saw the seven letters she had sent him. The envelopes had all been torn and repaired with cellophane tape. She could imagine how in his impatience to read her letters he had torn the envelopes and then clumsily patched them up. An unbearable pain pierced her heart. She also discovered, lining the bottom of the box, a piece of paper with her address and telephone number on it and recalled writing them on the last blank page of his book when they first had dinner together. He had cut it out and stored it away like a treasure. As Miss T' ang sat musing over this, it suddenly occurred to her that his remarks over the telephone the day before might not have been meant for her at all. A month ago when she called him for the first time, one of the Chous had mistaken her for Miss Su, and the person answering her two calls the day before had known right away they were for Hung-chien without even asking her name. Now that their breakup had reached this stage, was this conjecture still worth verifying? Oh, just forget about Fang Hung-chien. But deep down she could not forget him. It was like the gum left empty and aching after a tooth is extracted, or like a small tree in a flower pot. To pull it up roots and all, one must smash the pot. Proud by nature, she preferred to endure the pain until she fell ill. During her illness, Miss Su visited her and kept her company everyday, telling her that she had become engaged to Ts' ao YUan-lang. In the throes of happiness Miss Su confided how Ts' ao YUan-lang had proposed to her. As the story went, at the age of fifteen Ts'ao Yi.ian-lang had resolved never to marry. The moment he met Miss Su, however, his views on life for •

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pain, which luckily had not yet started up. Hung-chien arrived at his parents' home some time after four o'clock. As soon as she opened the door, the old maidservant yelled, "Eldest Young Master is here! Madam, Eldest Young Master is here! No need to invite him here any more." Entering, Hung-chien saw his mother sitting by the old round dining table, holding and feeding Ah Hsiung with powdered milk. Ah Ch' ou was fussing nearby. The old maidservant shut the door and hurried back to cajole Ah Ch' ou, "Don' t make a fuss and greet Eldest Uncle like a nice boy. Eldest Uncle will give you candy." Ah Ch' ou shut his mouth and stared up wide-eyed at Hung-chien. As no candy seemed to be forthcoming, he went back to Mrs. Fang to continue jumping and yelling about as before. Ah Ch' ou, P' eng-t' u' s son, was four years old. His face was so ugly at birth that one had to laugh at it. P' eng-t' u, still unaccustomed to being a father, and feeling neither the pride of the creator nor the partiality of the owner toward this lump of red flesh barely possessing the five organs and seven orifices, bounded into his father' s study and announced, "A freak' s been born." Old Fang Tun-weng, eagerly awaiting a grandson, had just divined a lot from the I Ching. It was the Little Beast lot: "Dense clouds, no rain." "The spokes burst out of the wagon wheels. Man and wife roll their eyes." "Blood vanishes and fear gives way, no blame." He looked disconsolately at the words of the I Ching divination lot, thinking that it must mean his daughter-in-law would either have a difficult birth or else a miscarriage. Piously, he was just about to cast another lot when he heard his son's outburst. He jumped with fright, "Don't talk such nonsense! Has the child been born?" Seeing how serious the old man looked, P'eng-t'u quickly replied in a very correct manner, "It' s a boy. The mother and son are both fine. " Containing his delight, Fang Tun-Weng warned his son, "You' re a father now, yet you speak so frivolously. How will you ever teach your son in the future!" P'eng-t'u explained, "The baby's face really is ugly. Please give him a name." "All right, since you say he's ugly, then call him Ah Ch' ou (Ugly Boy)." Remembering that Hsiin Tzu had stated in his chapter "No Face" that the faces of all great saints and sages of antiquity were very ugly, Fang Tun-weng simply gave his grandson the school name of "No Face." Mrs. Fang understood nothing about any face or no face, but she didn't care for the name "Ugly Boy" and insisted, "The boy has a fine face.· All newborns are like that. Who says he's ugly? I think you'd better find him some other name." This brought out Fang Tun-weng' s entire stock of longaccumulated knowledge. "You can' t appreciate that. If Hung-chien were here, he'd understand it." So saying he went to the bookshelves in his study and picked out two or three volumes, which he opened up and gave his son to

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read since Mrs. Fang could only make out a few characters. Fang P' eng-t' u read, "If one wishes to facilitate the raising of one's child, he should give him a lowly name as his childhood name, such as dog, goat, or horse. " He also learned that Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju' s childhood name was Chuan-tzu (dog), Huan Hsi's childhood name was Shih-tou (stone), Fan Yeh's name was Chuan-er ' (brick), Mu-jung Nung·' s name was E-nu (despicable slave), and Yuan I' s name was Yeh-i (underworld messenger) . There were also "Striped Beast," "Bald Head," "Tortoise," "Badger," and so on. He realized then that for his son to be called "Ugly Boy" was actually rather respectable. When Fang Tunweng went to a teahouse that day and told everyone about it, his fawning tea companions, besides repeatedly offering congratulations, all praised his choice of a name, saying it was novel and fitting, not only elegant but also resonant. Only Mrs. Fang, while playing with her grandchild, would often rub her face against his and protest on his behalf, "Our face is so pretty! We' re a lovely little precious darling. Why accuse us of being ugly? Grandpa is so unreasonable, you go and pull his beard off." While abroad, Fang Hung-chien also wrote home voicing his opinion of his nephew' s school name. The two vanguard brothers in the novel The Investiture of the Gods, he said, were called Fang Pi and Fang Hsiang (Fang Face). The name Fang Fei-hsiang (Fang No Face) seemed to be "colliding" with the younger brother and should be changed as soon as possible. Fang Tun-weng had ignored him. Last year a few days after the war had started, the wife of the third son, Feng-i, had her first child. Fang Tun-weng, feeling deeply their "shared misfortune of war" and moved by his experiences, named him Ah Hsiung, giving him the school name "Fei-kung" based on Mo Tzu's "Nonaggression" chapter. By this time Tun-weng had become addicted to giving names. He'd already thought up a whole series of a dozen or more names and merely waited for his daughters-inlaw to give birth to a succession of children to come take them. A boy, for example, would be called "Fei-hsiung" (No Bear) after the story of Chiang T' ai-kung, and a girl would be called "Fei-yen" after aT' ang ch '-uan-ch' i tale. During their escape from their home, the two little boys, Ah Hsiung and Ah Ch' ou, had proved to be no small burden. When that insensitive bachelor, Hung-chien, heard his parents tell about the ordeals of the escape, he inwardly faulted his two sisters-in-law for making his parents suffer, because they had not managed their children properly. It irked him now to see Ah Hsiung and Ah Ch' ou pestering their grandmother, while their own mothers were nowhere in sight. Mrs. Fang had played the role of a filial daughter-in-law for too long. Now when it was her turn to be the mother-inlaw, she simply didn't know how to do it properly. In Western families the •

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fighting between mother and son-in-law is an old custom preserved to this day. In Chinese families, the animosity between mother and daughter-in-law has a history no less lengthy. But when the daughter-in-law becomes pregnant, since it is on her that the mother-in-law must rely for elevation to the position of grandmother, the mother-in-law begins to make accommodations. When the daughter-in-law gives birth to a genuine, honestto-goodness son, the mother-in-law has to make further concessions. Mrs. Fang was meek by nature, while the two young mothers were both quite shrewd. When Ah Ch' ou was born, it had been more than twenty years since the Fangs had heard a baby cry. The old couple couldn't help but dote on and spoil him. As a result the daughter-in-law's arrogance secretly increased, while the grandson's temper visibly worsened. Feng- i' s wife's stomach "did its part," and her firstborn was also a boy. From then on the two sisters-inlaw' s secret rivalry intensified. The Fangs did their best to appear fair to both, but behind their backs, the daughters-in-law each complained of their partiality. When Hung-chien first came back to China, the house was spacious and Ah Ch 'ou had a wet nurse to look after him, so that Ah Ch' ou did not become a nuisance. After their escape, Ah Ch' ou' s wet nurse was dismissed. Since Ah Hsiung was born at the start of the war, Third Daughter-in-law had never used a wet nurse. When they came to Shanghai, she wanted to hire one in order to gain equal footing with Second Daughter-in-law' s Ah Ch' ou. According to an unwritten rule in old families, grandparents were expected to pay for the grandson' s wet nurse. After their flight from the occupied area, Fang Tun-weng' s circumstances were greatly reduced. He had to scrimp on small expenditures and would not hire a wet nurse for his second grandchild. In speaking to Third Daughter-in-law, however, he never mentioned a word about finances, saying only that Shanghai wasn' t like their village but a disreputable place where very few of the lower-class girls were clean. Maids had children by the chauffeur or the rickshaw boy, then hired out as wet nurses. All such women carried disease, making them unfit for nursing a child. Besides, the general moral climate of Shanghai was much too debased. A wet nurse would always be asking leave to spend the night out, and if the milk underwent any changes, it wouldn't be suitable for the child and could very well cause "lifelong regrets. " Seeing that her father-in-law expected her to take care of the baby herself, Third Daughter-in-law's pent-up resentment swelled and so did her stomach, while her appetite diminished and her limbs grew weak. The doctor was called in and she was given some medicine. Meanwhile Ah Hsiung became the sole charge of his grandmother. The doctor had finally verified only a week ago that Third Daughter-in-law was not ill but nearly four months pregnant. Second Daughter-in-law, supporting her

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waiter brought the bill after the meal, Ku grabbed it and insisted on paying it himself, adding that he had always wanted to treat his colleagues and there could be no better time than today. After one look at the bill Ku insisted no more, merely saying, "Such a trifle, why divide it up? You really ought to let me be the host." Hsin-mei paid the bill, and while he was waiting at the counter for his change, Ku went to the lavatory, followed by Li. When they said their good-byes outside the restaurant, Li asked Hsin-mei if he had any friends at the steamship company to help buy the tickets. Hsin-mei replied that he would ask the China Travel Agency to take care of the tickets. Li said, "I have a friend who works at the steamship company. Would you like me to ask him to buy them? We've already put you to so much trouble. This is something I can help with." "Well, that would be fine," said Hsin-mei. "Please get five first-class tickets." That afternoon Hung-chien took Hsin-mei and Hsieh-ch' lian to a coffee shop and talked about their three traveling companions. "If you ask me, that obnoxious little Li Mei-t' ing doesn't amount to anything. How can he be chairman of the Chinese Literature Department? You should have recommended Hsieh-ch' lian. " "Hsieh-ch'iian?" sputtered Hsin-mei. "You think he'd want to go? If you don't believe me, ask him yourself. Nobody but a pair of jilted rejects like us would be willing to go there. Hsieh-ch' lian has a beautiful young wife at horne. " "Don't be silly," said Hsieh-ch' lian with a smile. "I' ve no interest in teaching. As they say, ' If I had three hundred mou of paddy fields, I wouldn' t be a monkey king [ i. e. , teacher] next year. ' Why don't you both go to Hong Kong with me and look for something there?" Hung-chien said, " That's right. Coming back home has meant unemployment, so I don't mind teaching. But Hsin-mei has several options open to him. He can either work for the government or run a newspaper, but instead he's going to go sit on a cold bench. I feel sorry for him. " "Running a newspaper is a way to enlighten the people," said Hsin-mei, "and teaching is, too. Both are 'spiritual mobilization,' the one just as much as the other. In terms of influence a newspaper is broadest, but in terms of the degree of influence teaching goes deepest. I'm gaining experience through this trip. " "Such high-flown talk, " said Hsieh-ch ' lian with a smile, "should be saved for your editorials to dupe your readers." "I ' m not trying to deceive anyone with big talk," said Hsin-mei impatiently. "I really believe it. " Hung-chien said, "You're so used to duping people with big talk that

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"You don' t understand," said Hsin-mei. "One can engage in politics through teaching, too. Look at the great Chinese statesmen at present. They all started their careers as professors. It's the same in Europe, like the first president of Czechoslovakia or the present prime minister of France. Politicians who begin by teaching can first of all get a firm grasp of the minds of the young, and second, they can train their own cadres. It's the same as a newspaper creating public opinion." Hung-chien said, "That's not a great professor engaging in politics. It's a petty politician running education. The former policy of keeping the masses ignorant prevented the people from getting an education. The current policy of keeping the masses ignorant only allows the people to get a certain kind of education. The uneducated are fooled by others because they're illiterate. The educated are taken in by printed matter like your newspaper propaganda and lecture notes on training cadres because they are literate." Hsin-mei remarked sarcastically, "Listen, everyone. Mr. Fang Hungchien's views are so penetrating! He's only twenty-eight and has just had an unhappy love affair, yet he sees through education, he sees through politics, he sees through everything. Humph! Well, I see through you! All because of a downy-haired lassie, you turn into such a cynic. What a lot of fuss over nothing. " Hung-chien banged down his glass. "Who are you talking about?" "I'm talking about T'ang Hsiao-fu, your beloved. She isn't a downyhaired lassie?" White with rage, Hung-chien called Su Wen-wan Old Lady Hsii. Hsin-mei said, "Whether she's Old Lady Hsii or not is all the same to me. I don't go defending her the way you do T' ang Hsiao-fu. If she knew you were still so hung up on her, she'd probably try to put back the pieces. Right, Hsieh-ch' iian? So spineless! Would you !ike me to send her a message.?" Hung-chien was speechless. He stood up, but Hsieh-ch' iian pulled him back down to his seat, saying, " Calm down, calm down. People are watching. I'm embarrassed for you. In any case you're both in the same boat. It seems Hung-chien hasn't been himself lately. How could anyone who calls himself a man get so upset over a girl - " In a rage Hung-chien stalked out of the coffee shop without listening to his friend. He returned home and was just sitting down in a huff when the telephone rang. It was Hsieh-ch' iian, who said, "Why get so angry?" Hungchien was about to reply when Hsin-mei came on the line and said, "Hey, old

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apprehensive, thinking how misfortune always came in pairs. With the bad luck he' d been having, there was no assurance he wouldn' t be killed by a bomb. He was even more worried about Li and Ku aboard the ship. Then it occurred to him that since the ship was the property of the Italians, allies of the Japanese, it wouldn't be bombed. It was, however, more important for him to run for his own life, but he noticed that no one else on the dock was running, so he stayed back. Fortunately the emergency alarm wasn't set off. After an hour or so, the air raid watch was over and Hsin-mei came hurrying up. Shortly afterwards, the second launch approached the dock in pitch blackness amidst the buzzing of voices. Hung-chien caught sight of Li' s huge metal trunk, which was set off against the small, narrow prow of the launch; the trunk was like a large nose or enormous mouth on a small face, giving the startling impression of the part being larger than the whole, as if violating the rules of geometry. That such a huge trunk could have been transported off the larger ship was even more of a miracle of physics. Without his dark glasses on his face, Li' s large, white eyes looked like two shelled hard-boiled eggs, Hsin-p-1ei hurriedly asked him where his glasses were. Li pulled them from his pocket and put them on, explaining that he had put them away so they wouldn't slip from his nose and get broken while they were jumping onto the launch. Li and Ku had not made the first launch because of their luggage, bui Li implied by his tone that the terror he and Ku had just experienced on the ship from the air raid was on account of Hsin-mei and the others. If he had not given the first-class tickets to them, he too would have had the priority to board the launch and would not have been caught between fire and water or suffered a "shock to the nerves. " Hsin-mei and Hung-chien' s skills at pretense and flattery literally went bankrupt at this point, and they really could find no way to express their gratitude. Ku Er-chien' s enthusiasm, however, was undimmed. What a lucky day!" Ku cried. "We really escaped from the very jaws of death! I never thought we'd see you two again. I think everyone on the ship today was depending on Mr. Li' s good fortune Mr. Li, you were on the boat so the airplanes didn' t pay us a visit. And that's not just nonsense. I believe in fate. As Tseng Kuo-fang' once said, 'Believe not in heaven but in luck. ' " At first Li seemed like a cold-blooded animal in hibernation, but Ku' s praise in front of everyone sent the warmth of spring into his body, and he wriggled with the signs of life. With a smile unexpectedly gracing his features, he said, " People engaged in great enterprises all believe in fate. Before I left home this time, a friend read my fortune. He said my luck was now changing. 'Along the way bad luck will turn to good."' Ku clapped his hands and said, "Hasn't it, though? I was

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had prominent cheekbones and a thin face. Her hair, waved by some unidentifiable instrument, resembled a plum tree in full bloom in a Chinese impressionist painting. Around her neck she wore a white silk scarf and was dressed in a green silk Chinese dress which was dazzlingly resplendent, but shiny like the material high-class girls used for lining. Hsin-mei nudged Hungchien's arm and said, "It must be 'there's a beautiful gem here.' " Hungchien said with a laugh, "I was thinking the same thing." Hearing them recite from the Confucian Analects and not understanding what it was about, Ku Er-chien asked, "What?" Li Mei-t'ing was more clever. "Er-chien," he asked, "how do you suppose there could be a woman dressed like that in a What are you reciting from the Analects for?" "Come to place like this? our room and see," replied Hung-chien. When Ku heard she was a prostitute, he gawked at her, unable to take his eyes off her. When the woman, who had been giving Miss Sun a careful scrutiny from head to toe, suddenly discovered she had Ku' s attention, she flashed him a big smile, revealing a mouthful of fresh red gums, which bulged like a hero's chest. Sparsely studded with a few yellowed teeth, the upper jaw was too bashful to show itself. Ku blushed in confusion, and thankful that no one had noticed, hurried into the inn after Miss Sun. Hsin-mei and Hung-chien hadn't slept well the whole night on the train, so they returned to their rooms to rest. Li knocked on the door and entered, asking them what wonderful things they had to show him. Neither of them felt like getting up, so they let him look at the wall graffiti by himself. Li glanced out the window, then turned and cried, "You young men are up to no good! No wonder you wanted to take this room. It must be because Wang Mei-yli' s bedroom is opposite yours, just four or five feet away, close enough to jump across. Get up and take a look. There's a red blanket on her bed and a large mirror on the table with perfume bottles on it - Ai! You bachelors are really sneaky. This is no joking matter Ai, she's come up!" Hsin-mei and Hung-chien craned their necks to see from their beds. Sure enough, the woman who had just been leaning against the door smoking a cigarette was standing at the window. They hastily drew their heads back and lay down. Li casually leaned against the window smoking a cigarette and gazing upward, taking in the view of the roofs opposite with his dark glasses. Hsin-mei and Hung-chien waited impatiently on their beds and were just about to ask him to leave when suddenly they heard the woman say, "Where did you all come from?" Li started as though roused from a dream and said , "Are you talking to me? We ' re from Shanghai. " There was nothing funny about these remarks, but Hsin-mei and Hung-chien broke out laughing so hard that they pulled the covers over their heads, then quickly lifted them off in order to catch what followed. "T' m from Shanghai, too," the woman

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prostitute's room empty-handed and would have to spend some money. How was this social expense to he reckoned? He had just doled out one cigarette already. Everyone assured him that as long as the negotiations went off smoothly, not only would the expenses be shared, but there would be a reward for his service as well. Li asked if they would like to go to Hsin-mei' s room to listen in through the window. "After all, there' s nothing secretive about this," he insisted. The others said they were not interested. Since it was now four o'clock, they would go out for a stroll and meet at six for dinner at the restaurant where they had had breakfast. At the appointed time Li came, brimming with excitement. They quickly asked him how it had turned out. He replied that the truck would leave the next day at noon. As they plied him with more questions, he explained that Major Hou would come at nine o'clock that evening to check the luggage, and if they had any questions, they could ask him directly. The military transports were going to Shaokuan and each could take one passenger and one or two pieces of luggage. Once they got to Shaokuan, they could take a train into Hunan. The cost would be twice that of a bus. "But," said Li, "we have to wait everywhere for bus tickets and each wait takes a few days. This way we'll save on room and board." Hsin-mei said hesitantly, "It sounds very good, but what about the money the school wired to Chian?" "That's easy," replied Li. "All we have to do is send a telegram to President Kao asking him to wire it to Shaokuan instead." Hung-chien said, "If we go to Shaokuan and then double back to Hunan, won't that make the trip longer?" Li replied hotly, "There's a limit to my ability. I can only manage this much. If you have so much influence, maybe Major Hou will dispatch a special car to take you right up to the school. " Ku hurriedly put in, "I ' m sure Mr. Li couldn' t have made a mistake. We' 11 send a telegram the first thing tomorrow morning, and at noon we can board the trucks and get the hell out of here. If I have to wait around this hideous place five more days, my hair will all turn grey. " Still vexed, Li said, "I' 11 take care of the money for the tea today at Wang Mei-yti ' s myself. " Controlling his anger, Hung-chien said, "Even if we don't take the trucks, everyone ought to chip in for the social expenses. Those are two separate matters." Hsin-mei kicked Hung-chien under the table, while he babbled on about something else. In the end Li and Fang did not start a quarrel, and Miss Sun's bulging eyes retumed to their normal state. Shortly after they returned to the inn, the waiter yelled from the foot of the ladder with his mouth full of food, "Major Hou is here!" and they all hurried downstairs. Major Hou had a large orange-peel nose with a face appended to it. The face was complete in every detail and the space for the eyebrows and the nose had not been squeezed out. There were a few pimples

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