The Republic of Wine (48 page)

Mo Yan spotted Li Yidou, Doctor of Liquor Studies and amateur short-story writer, as he approached the exit, a conclusion he reached instinctively when he saw a tall, skinny man with a triangular face. He headed straight for the slightly menacing eyes.

The man stuck his long, bony hand over the railing and said, If I'm not mistaken, you must be Mo Yan.'

Mo Yan took the icy-cold hand in his and said, ‘Sorry to put you to all this trouble, Li Yidou!'

The duty ticket-taker pressed Mo Yan to show her his ticket. ‘Show his what?' Li Yidou all but shouted. ‘Do you know who this is? He's Mo Yan, the man who wrote the movie
Red Sorghum
, that's who. He's an honored guest of our Municipal Party Committee and government, that's who!'

Momentarily taken aback, she stared wordlessly at Mo Yan, which he found embarrassing. He quickly produced his ticket, but Li Yidou dragged him past the railing. ‘Don't mind her,' he said.

Li Yidou took Mo Yan's bag and threw it over his own shoulder. He must have been at least five-feet-ten, a head taller than Mo Yan, who took some comfort in noting that Li Yidou was at least fifty pounds lighter than he.

‘Sir,' Li Yidou said spiritedly, ‘as soon as I received your letter, I passed the good news to Municipal Party Committee Secretary Hu, who said, “Welcome, welcome, a hearty welcome.” I was here once already - last night - with a car.'

‘But I made it clear in my letter that I'd arrive in the early morning of the 29th.'

‘I was afraid that if you arrived ahead of schedule,' Li Yidou replied, ‘you'd be all alone in a strange city. I preferred making an extra trip to having you wait for me all that time.'

‘I really have put you to a lot of trouble,' Mo Yan said with a smile.

‘At first the municipal authorities wanted Deputy Head Diamond Jin to meet you, but I said I'm Mo Yan's close friend, and since he and I don't have to stand on ceremony, I'm the best person for the job.'

We walked toward a fancy sedan parked in a square illuminated by a ring of streetlights. The rain made the sedan look even fancier than it was. ‘General Manager Yu is waiting in the car,' Li Yidou said. ‘The car belongs to his tavern.'

‘Which General Manager Yu would that be?'

‘Yu Yichi, of course!'

Mo Yan tensed, as a host of depictions of Yu Yichi slogged through his mind. If things had reached the point where the dwarf, who was unrelated to the investigator, could still wind up dead of a bullet in the investigator's dream, then ghosts and goblins were running the show. I might as well use my
Tales of Investigator Ding Gou'er
as kindling for the oven, he mused.

‘General Manager Yu Yichi insisted on coming,' Li Yidou commented. ‘He wanted the pleasure of being first on the
scene
for your arrival He knows what it means to be a real pal Sir, don't - please don't - judge him solely by his appearance. If you give him one measure of respect, he'll repay you a hundred times over.'

The words still hung in the air when the car door opened and out jumped a pocket-sized man less than three feet tall (‘twelve inch' [Yichi] was an exaggeration of his smallness). Small but sturdy, he was neatly dressed, looking very much like a well-bred member of the gentry.

‘Mo Yan, you little scamp, so you finally made it!' he shouted with an infectious hoarseness as soon as he was out of the car. He ran up to Mo Yan, grabbed his hand, and shook it hard, as if they were old friends who hadn't seen each other for years.

As Mo Yan grasped the tense, nervous hand, he couldn't suppress feelings of remorse over thoughts of how Ding Gou'er had killed this man. Why had
it been
necessary for him to die? An intriguing little fellow like this, cute as a little wind-up mechanical toy, so what if he'd made love with the lady trucker? He shouldn't have died; he and Ding Gou'er should have become friends, and together they could have broken the case of the child-eaters.

Yu Yichi opened the car door for Mo Yan. Once he'd climbed in next to his guest, he said, releasing a mouthful of boozy breath, ‘The doctor talks about you every day. I tell you, this guy worships you. But now that I see you face-to-face, you're not as handsome as he made you out to be. In fact, you look like a run-of-the-mill purveyor of cheap booze.'

Stung by the criticism, Mo Yan replied with noticeable sarcasm, ‘Which is why General Manager Yu and I might someday become good friends.'

Yu Yichi giggled like a little boy. ‘That's terrific!' he said after the giggles passed. ‘A man whose face would stop a clock and a dwarf, friends at last. Let's go, driver!'

The woman behind the wheel, who was not a dwarf, sat silently. Aided by murky light from the square, Mo Yan noticed that she had a pretty face and a lovely long neck.

The car's headlights snapped on and the woman drove skillfully out of the square, spraying water behind her. The smell of opulence hung in the interior. A fuzzy toy tiger on the dashboard jiggled and danced. The music was dreamy; the car seemed to sway to the music like drifting on water. Not even a stray cat appeared on the broad, smoothly paved avenue. Liquorland seemed to be a large city. New-style buildings lined the avenue; the Doctor of Liquor Studies wasn't exaggerating when he called Liquorland a bustling metropolis.

Mo Yan followed Yu Yichi into the Yichi Tavern, with Li Yidou, the travel bag still over his shoulder, right on his heels. The inside of the tavern looked as inviting as he'd expected, with its marble floor waxed to a high sheen. A bespectacled woman sat behind the registration desk; she was not a dwarf. Yu Yichi told her to put their guest in room 310. Keys in hand, she led the party to the elevator and pushed the button before anyone else could get to it. When the elevator door opened, Yu Yichi jumped in and pulled Mo Yan in after him. Mo Yan tried to appear reluctant. Li Yidou stepped in next, followed by the bespectacled woman, after which the door closed. As the elevator climbed to the third floor, an ugly, exhausted face was reflected in the metallic facing. Mo Yan found it hard to believe he could be so mean-looking. In a few short years, he discovered, he had aged considerably. Seeing the reflection of the sleepy-eyed bespectacled young woman beside him, he quickly turned to stare at the numbers on the elevator panel. He was thinking… The exhausted investigator was face to face with his romantic rival Yu Yichi in the narrow confines of an elevator. When enemies meet, eyes glow with the fires of jealousy … I, on the other hand, am concentrating on the patch of fair skin poking out from under the bespectacled young woman's collar, thoughts of what lay below releasing fantasies that streak across the sky like a heavenly stallion, and that bring memories of the past flooding into my mind. Once, when I was fourteen, I let my hand stray to a girl's breast. With a giggle she said, So you know all about touching those, even at your age, hm? Want to see what they look like? Yes, I replied. OK, she said. I felt cold all over. And so that great purple door to puberty swung open with a roar as the girl began undoing her blouse. I rushed through that door without a thought for the consequences, leaving my youth, a time of running with the animals and raising birds, behind, once and for all … The elevator noiselessly came to a stop and the door opened. The bespectacled young woman led us to room 310, opened the door and stood aside to let us in. Mo Yan, who had never enjoyed such top-of-the-line accommodations, nonetheless strode grandly into the luxurious suite and sat on the sofa.

‘This is our finest room, I hope you can make do.' Yu Yichi said.

It's fine.' Mo Yan said. ‘As a one-time soldier, I can live almost anywhere.'

‘The authorities were going to put you up in the Municipal Party Committee guest house.' Li Yidou said, ‘but all the better rooms there have been reserved for honored foreign guests and compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan who have come for our first annual Ape Liquor Festival.'

‘This is better.' Mo Yan assured him. ‘I stay clear of officials as much as possible.'

‘Mo Yan avoids the limelight, preferring peace and quiet.' Li Yidou remarked.

With a knowing laugh, Yu Yichi said, ‘Can a man who wrote
Red Sorghum
really avoid the limelight and opt for peace and quiet? You've only been working at the Department of Propaganda two days, and already you're a veteran ass-kisser.'

An embarrassed Li Yidou said, ‘Don't take General Manager Yu's comments to heart, Mo Yan. His caustic tongue is famous here in Liquorland.'

‘Not to worry.' Mo Yan replied, ‘I can be pretty caustic myself.'

‘I forgot to mention, Sir, that I was transferred to the Municipal Party Committee's Department of Propaganda.' Li Yidou said. ‘My job is to prepare public announcements.'

‘What about your dissertation?' Mo Yan asked. ‘Is it finished?'

‘That can wait. I'm better suited to this kind of work. News releases are closer to creative work.'

‘Sounds OK to me.' Mo Yan said.

‘Draw a hot bath for our guest, Miss Ma,' Yu Yichi said. ‘Let him wash that sweaty, smelly body of his.'

With a terse acknowledgment, the bespectacled young woman went into the bathroom, from which the sound of running water soon emerged.

Yu Yichi opened the doors of the liquor cabinet, in which dozens of bottled liquors were displayed. ‘What'll you have?' he asked Mo Yan.

‘None for me, not at this early hour,' Mo Yan replied. I'll wait.'

‘What do you mean, wait?' Yu Yichi asked. ‘Having a drink is a visitor's first responsibility after arriving in Liquorland.'

Td prefer a cup of tea.'

‘You won't find any tea in Liquorland,' Yu Yichi replied. ‘Liquor is our tea.'

‘When in Rome, Sir,' Li Yidou urged Mo Yan.

‘Well, all right.'

‘Come here and choose your poison,' Yu Yichi said.

The array of bottles filled with the finest liquor available nearly made Mo Yan's head swim.

‘They tell me you're a class-A drunk,' Yu Yichi commented. ‘Is that right?'

‘To tell the truth, I'm not that good at holding my liquor, and my knowledge of the subject is severely limited.'

‘Modesty does not become you,' Yu Yichi said. ‘Besides, I've read all the letters you wrote to Li Yidou.'

Mo Yan flashed an unhappy look at Li Yidou, who rushed to his own defense: ‘General Manager Yu is one of us. There's nothing to worry about.'

Yu Yichi took out a bottle of Overlapping Green Ants and said, ‘After a night on the train, you'd better try something on the mild side.'

‘Overlapping Green Ants is an excellent choice,' Li Yidou said agreeably. ‘One of my father-in-law's creations. It's distilled from sorghum and mung beans. To that is added a dozen or more rare, aromatic medicinal herbs. Drinking it is akin to listening to a classical beauty play a zither, a magically conceived rendition that has you pondering things from the remote past.'

‘Enough already,' Yu Yichi cut in. ‘You and your quack sales methods.'

‘Now you know why I was transferred to the Department of Propaganda. Publicity is what we need for our Ape Liquor Festival, and I am, after all, a Doctor of Liquor Studies.'

‘Doctoral
candidate,”
Yu Yichi said mockingly.

Yu Yichi took three crystal glasses out of the liquor cabinet and filled them to the brim with a disturbingly green liquor.

Before coming to Liquorland, Mo Yan had read up on the topic of liquor, and knew a thing or two about the rules of tasting. Raising his glass, he touched it with the tip of his nose and sniffed it; then, with his hand, he fanned the aroma that clung to the skin. After that he held the glass directly under his nose and inhaled deeply, then held his breath, closed his eyes, and assumed the look of a man deep in thought. After a while, he opened his eyes and said, ‘Not bad, you were right. It has the smell and taste of antiquity, refined and solemn. Not bad at all.'

‘Well, I'll be,' Yu Yichi said. ‘You do know a thing or two, after all.'

‘Mo Yan is a natural-born connoisseur of fine liquor,' Li Yidou chirped.

Mo Yan smiled somewhat smugly.

The bespectacled girl returned just then. ‘The bath is ready, General Manager.' she reported.

‘Bottoms up.' Yu Yichi said, clinking Mo Yan's glass with his own. ‘Take a bath and get some rest. You can sleep for a couple of hours, since breakfast isn't served until seven o'clock. I'll send one of the girls to wake you.'

After tossing down the liquor in his glass, he tapped Li Yidou on the knee and said, ‘Time to leave, Doctor.'

‘You two can sleep here.' Mo Yan said. ‘We can squeeze three into a bed.'

With a wink, Yu Yichi said, ‘Rules of the house don't permit men to share a room.'

Li Yidou was about to add his opinion when Yu Yichi gave him a shove. ‘I said, let's go!'

Now, finally, I was able to shed my Mo Yan shell I yawned, spat into the spittoon, and took off my shoes and socks. There was a soft knock at the door. Hurriedly pulling up my trousers, which were down around my knees, and straightening my shirt, I went to open the door. The bespectacled Miss Ma darted past me.

She was smiling broadly, and no longer sleepy-eyed. ‘What can I do for you?' Mo Yan asked decorously, his adrenalin rising.

‘General Manager Yu sent me up to pour some Overlapping Green Ants into your bathwater.' Miss Ma replied.

‘Liquor in my bath water?'

It's the brainchild of General Manager Yu,' Miss Ma explained. ‘He claims that bathing in liquor has positive health benefits. Alcohol Mils germs, relaxes the muscles, and stimulates the flow of blood.'

‘No wonder the place is called Liquorland.'

Miss Ma picked up the uncorked bottle of liquor and carried it into the bathroom, with Mo Yan close on her heels. The room was still steamy, tendrils of whiteness lending it an air of romance. Miss Ma emptied the bottle into the bathtub, releasing a heavy, rather stimulating cloud of aroma - alcohol, of course.