Can Xue - The Last Lover

“Where do you think you can run off to?”

“Are you talking about me?”

“Who else would I be talking about!”

“Why do you dislike me?”

“Because you are a cold-blooded man, never to come here in so many years.”

“But I didn’t know there was anyone here who wanted me to come. Lisa told me her whole family was dead. The gambling city she described was not like this place, either. What’s gone wrong?”

“There’s something wrong with you, of course. You fantasize. You can’t see the essence of things.”

The servant stood there haughtily, and Vincent saw his feet treading on a snake. It was the kind of small striped snake he’d seen at Reagan’s farm. The snake was struggling to reach up and bite his ankles. The servant pulled a dagger from his pants pocket, took off the sheath, looked it up and down, inspecting the edge, then bent over and cut off the snake’s head with a single stroke. The snake, its head and body in two places, wasn’t dead. The head and the body seemed to have an invisible connection between them, and wriggled a retreat in unison to the door. In the wink of an eye they were out of sight. Vincent looked back to the ground and saw that there weren’t even bloodstains left behind.

In the living room the smoke grew thicker. Vincent thought the servant would prevent him from leaving, so he stood without moving in his former place. The servant stooped to light the stove and immediately the sound of cursing flew out. Vincent took advantage of the servant’s inattention to walk out. But the servant did not come after him. What did it mean when he’d said, “Where do you think you can run off to?”

Joyner stood by the road with a serious look. She still awaited visitors, not knowing the direction from which they would come. The street was already swept clean. Vincent looked in her direction, and gazing at this lonely girl, he felt an inexplicable sadness. He thought, perhaps, many years ago, his wife, Lisa, had occupied this girl’s place. In fact, the first time he met Lisa he could see the shadows on her high-colored cheeks. But he would never have thought that she possessed such an implacable heart. Over the decades of married life a few of her secrets were revealed, but if he hadn’t come to her hometown, how much would he have understood about her? Even though he’d come here, how many things about her did he still not understand?

Vincent raised his head and looked off into the distance. The encircling stone mountains spat out thick smoke like live volcanoes. The gray smoke gradually fluttered toward the small town. But it was no volcanic eruption, nor did it feel like an earthquake. Looking around at the nearby buildings, he saw that some oozed smoke, some did not, and none of the people inside came out. Vincent remembered the scene from when he had climbed out of Joyner’s below-ground rooms, thinking to himself, The people had gotten used to breathing within heavy smoke long ago. If he didn’t leave, would the thick smoke occupy every open space? Regardless, he would be unable to get used to it.

Joyner stood coolly by the road, holding her broom. She was looking at the smoke too, her gaze clear, her features pretty. Most likely every traveler who came here was profoundly fascinated by her.

Vincent spoke without making a sound: “Joyner, Joyner, I love you.” But he did not feel this love as a physical love. Why, considering her youth, full of freshness, was he not sexually excited by her? Surely there was something separating them. He worshipfully watched the girl, his mind repeating the question: twenty-eight years ago, how had he and Lisa come to love each other at first sight?

Joyner walked over to him, forcefully grasped his hand, and said, “I must go. What I’m saying is, soon I’ll need to go below again. But Grandfather, what will you do? Look at this smoke, even the trains have stopped. I’ll go underneath, no travelers will be coming, either on the train or by foot. Lisa’s parents love you so much, why don’t you go to their home?”

“Really? They love me? Why don’t I sense it?”

“Because you’ve become unfeeling. Listen, no one here would let an outsider into the house because it’s too dangerous. You are one of their family, so they let you stay at their home. For years they’ve been chattering away, saying, Supposing you came, they would save your life. So go to their home.”

Joyner disappeared into the gray building. In Vincent’s eyes, the small town became a genuinely bleak, desolate place, and that smoke, already slowly assembled, was now descending. Perhaps he could only obey what Joyner said. Perhaps at his wife’s parents’ house he wouldn’t be in danger.

Against his will, Vincent stepped again through the door of the large house.

“This isn’t a hotel, where you can come and go as you please,” the servant said. He stood in his place as before.

Smoke still oozed from the mouth of the stairs. Yet the smoke didn’t gush toward him, but rather took a turn and exited through an open window, as if something were guiding it. In a panic Vincent saw that outside there were rolling billows of smoke everywhere. Visibility was not even two or three meters. Because the doors and windows were shut tight, there was still no smoke where he and the manservant stood. The servant’s voice sounded in his ears:

“Only the people whose desire for these earthquakes is strong can enjoy them.”

That was to say, Lisa’s parents were underground “enjoying,” Joyner and her tenants were also “enjoying” this. In that place with no sun, an air-thinned place, flooded with stifling smoke. .

He lay face up in a reclining chair, watching the magnificent, stately chandelier extend down from the ceiling. Near his ear someone was mocking him, saying he was a miser. Vincent sat up and looked around. Who was speaking?

“It’s me, I’m Lisa’s uncle!” The voice came from the open stove.

The parrot reached its head out. Evil words flowed from its mouth. It said Vincent didn’t have a single redeeming quality. Vincent felt suspicious: why didn’t it fly out? Even if it had lost its ability to fly it still could run away, and no one would block it. At the moment the servant wasn’t even looking this way, he was facing the mirror to pluck the whiskers on his lower jaw with a metal clip! But the parrot didn’t emerge, he only cursed like a gossiping woman.

“If you are Lisa’s uncle, then we are related. Why are you cursing at me?” Vincent spoke with sincerity. He wanted to see the bird leave the fireplace.

But the parrot ducked inside and cursed even more ferociously, its wings fanning the charcoal dust inside so it poured from the stove door. Vincent didn’t know why its most frequent imprecation was “Exploiting usurer!”

Vincent was just going over to the stove door to ask what this meant when he saw the servant race over, throw a large piece of burning firewood into the stove, and shut the door. Through the glass of the door he could see the parrot extinguishing the flames with its wings. The smoke inside obscured everything and he only heard its flapping, pu tong, pu tong . He could also faintly make out a shriek like an infant’s.

Vincent’s body broke out in goose bumps. He turned to face the servant’s evil smile.

“Is it dead?”

“It can’t die. It is a long-life parrot. It was here ages ago, when playing the slot machines was popular.”

“Where are the slot machines now?

“They are all buried between the walls of the underground rooms. Those props aren’t necessary any more. I won’t go around in circles with you, I’ll tell you everything: I am your rival in love.”

“Lisa?”

“Yes. What a marvelous woman, burning between your legs.”