shouldn’t have died; he and Ding Gou’er should have become friends, and together they could have broken the case of the child-eaters.
Yu Yichi opened the car door for Mo Yan. Once he’d climbed in next to his guest, he said, releasing a mouthful of boozy breath, ‘The doctor talks about you every day. I tell you, this guy worships you. But now that I see you face-to-face, you’re not as handsome as he made you out to be. In fact, you look like a run-of-the-mill purveyor of cheap booze.’
Stung by the criticism, Mo Yan replied with noticeable sarcasm, ‘Which is why General Manager Yu and I might someday become good friends.’
Yu Yichi giggled like a little boy. ‘That’s terrific!’ he said after the giggles passed. ‘A man whose face would stop a clock and a dwarf, friends at last. Let’s go, driver!’
The woman behind the wheel, who was not a dwarf, sat silently. Aided by murky light from the square, Mo Yan noticed that she had a pretty face and a lovely long neck.
The car’s headlights snapped on and the woman drove skillfully out of the square, spraying water behind her. The smell of opulence hung in the interior. A fuzzy toy tiger on the dashboard jiggled and danced. The music was dreamy; the car seemed to sway to the music like drifting on water. Not even a stray cat appeared on the broad, smoothly paved avenue. Liquorland seemed to be a large city. New-style buildings lined the avenue; the Doctor of Liquor Studies wasn’t exaggerating when he called Liquorland a bustling metropolis.
Mo Yan followed Yu Yichi into the Yichi Tavern, with Li Yidou, the travel bag still over his shoulder, right on his heels. The inside of the tavern looked as inviting as he’d expected, with its marble floor waxed to a high sheen. A bespectacled woman sat behind the registration desk; she was not a dwarf. Yu Yichi told her to put their guest in room 310. Keys in hand, she led the party to the elevator and pushed the button before anyone else could get to it. When the elevator door opened, Yu Yichi jumped in and pulled Mo Yan in after him. Mo Yan tried to appear reluctant. Li Yidou stepped in next, followed by the bespectacled woman, after which the door closed. As the elevator climbed to the third floor, an ugly, exhausted face was reflected in the metallic facing. Mo Yan found it hard to believe he could be so mean-looking. In a few short years, he discovered, he had aged considerably. Seeing the reflection of the sleepy-eyed bespectacled young woman beside him, he quickly turned to stare at the numbers on the elevator panel. He was thinking… The exhausted investigator was face to face with his romantic rival Yu Yichi in the narrow confines of an elevator. When enemies meet, eyes glow with the fires of jealousy… I, on the other hand, am concentrating on the patch of fair skin poking out from under the bespectacled young woman’s collar, thoughts of what lay below releasing fantasies that streak across the sky like a heavenly stallion, and that bring memories of the past flooding into my mind. Once, when I was fourteen, I let my hand stray to a girl’s breast. With a giggle she said, So you know all about touching those, even at your age, hm? Want to see what they look like? Yes, I replied. OK, she said. I felt cold all over. And so that great purple door to puberty swung open with a roar as the girl began undoing her blouse. I rushed through that door without a thought for the consequences, leaving my youth, a time of running with the animals and raising birds, behind, once and for all… The elevator noiselessly came to a stop and the door opened. The bespectacled young woman led us to room 310, opened the door and stood aside to let us in. Mo Yan, who had never enjoyed such top-of-the-line accommodations, nonetheless strode grandly into the luxurious suite and sat on the sofa.
‘This is our finest room, I hope you can make do.’ Yu Yichi said.
It’s fine.’ Mo Yan said. ‘As a one-time soldier, I can live almost anywhere.’
‘The authorities were going to put you up in the Municipal Party Committee guest house.’ Li Yidou said, ‘but all the better rooms there have been reserved for honored foreign guests and compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan who have come for our first annual Ape Liquor Festival.’
‘This is better.’ Mo Yan assured him. ‘I stay clear of officials as much as possible.’
‘Mo Yan avoids the limelight, preferring peace and quiet.’ Li Yidou remarked.
With a knowing laugh, Yu Yichi said, ‘Can a man who wrote
An embarrassed Li Yidou said, ‘Don’t take General Manager Yu’s comments to heart, Mo Yan. His caustic tongue is famous here in Liquorland.’
‘Not to worry.’ Mo Yan replied, ‘I can be pretty caustic myself.’
‘I forgot to mention, Sir, that I was transferred to the Municipal Party Committee’s Department of Propaganda.’ Li Yidou said. ‘My job is to prepare public announcements.’
‘What about your dissertation?’ Mo Yan asked. ‘Is it finished?’
‘That can wait. I’m better suited to this kind of work. News releases are closer to creative work.’
‘Sounds OK to me.’ Mo Yan said.
‘Draw a hot bath for our guest, Miss Ma,’ Yu Yichi said. ‘Let him wash that sweaty, smelly body of his.’
With a terse acknowledgment, the bespectacled young woman went into the bathroom, from which the sound of running water soon emerged.
Yu Yichi opened the doors of the liquor cabinet, in which dozens of bottled liquors were displayed. ‘What’ll you have?’ he asked Mo Yan.
‘None for me, not at this early hour,’ Mo Yan replied. I’ll wait.’
‘What do you mean, wait?’ Yu Yichi asked. ‘Having a drink is a visitor’s first responsibility after arriving in Liquorland.’
Td prefer a cup of tea.’
‘You won’t find any tea in Liquorland,’ Yu Yichi replied. ‘Liquor is our tea.’
‘When in Rome, Sir,’ Li Yidou urged Mo Yan.
‘Well, all right.’
‘Come here and choose your poison,’ Yu Yichi said.
The array of bottles filled with the finest liquor available nearly made Mo Yan’s head swim.
‘They tell me you’re a class-A drunk,’ Yu Yichi commented. ‘Is that right?’
‘To tell the truth, I’m not that good at holding my liquor, and my knowledge of the subject is severely limited.’
‘Modesty does not become you,’ Yu Yichi said. ‘Besides, I’ve read all the letters you wrote to Li Yidou.’
Mo Yan flashed an unhappy look at Li Yidou, who rushed to his own defense: ‘General Manager Yu is one of us. There’s nothing to worry about.’
Yu Yichi took out a bottle of Overlapping Green Ants and said, ‘After a night on the train, you’d better try something on the mild side.’
‘Overlapping Green Ants is an excellent choice,’ Li Yidou said agreeably. ‘One of my father-in-law’s creations. It’s distilled from sorghum and mung beans. To that is added a dozen or more rare, aromatic medicinal herbs. Drinking it is akin to listening to a classical beauty play a zither, a magically conceived rendition that has you pondering things from the remote past.’
‘Enough already,’ Yu Yichi cut in. ‘You and your quack sales methods.’
‘Now you know why I was transferred to the Department of Propaganda. Publicity is what we need for our Ape Liquor Festival, and I am, after all, a Doctor of Liquor Studies.’
‘Doctoral
Yu Yichi took three crystal glasses out of the liquor cabinet and filled them to the brim with a disturbingly green liquor.
Before coming to Liquorland, Mo Yan had read up on the topic of liquor, and knew a thing or two about the rules of tasting. Raising his glass, he touched it with the tip of his nose and sniffed it; then, with his hand, he fanned the aroma that clung to the skin. After that he held the glass directly under his nose and inhaled deeply, then held his breath, closed his eyes, and assumed the look of a man deep in thought. After a while, he opened his eyes and said, ‘Not bad, you were right. It has the smell and taste of antiquity, refined and solemn. Not bad at all.’
‘Well, I’ll be,’ Yu Yichi said. ‘You do know a thing or two, after all.’
‘Mo Yan is a natural-born connoisseur of fine liquor,’ Li Yidou chirped.
Mo Yan smiled somewhat smugly.
The bespectacled girl returned just then. ‘The bath is ready, General Manager.’ she reported.
‘Bottoms up.’ Yu Yichi said, clinking Mo Yan’s glass with his own. ‘Take a bath and get some rest. You can
