Xu Xiaobin - Dunhuang Dream

Later, how much later he couldn’t say, he heard a voice through his sleep saying, “Repeat after me, repeat after me, I stole the painting in Cave Seventy-three. .”

He wanted to keep repeating himself, but he was very sensitive at the mention of Cave 73. He didn’t do as she asked. After three days in the red, sexually suggestive room, he felt himself wasting away, and on numerous occasions he felt like a spider suspended on the wall with one filament sufficient to hang him up. On the fourth day, the same program was repeated. The woman who looked like Guanyin was even warmer and kinder. She personally fed him Yellow River melon, which was sliced into small pieces. He could feel the sweet juice running from the corner of his mouth. He thought again of Xingxing. Since arriving, Xingxing had not yet tried a real Yellow River melon. When he left, he’d have to take a couple to her.

“What sort of painting was taken from Cave Seventy-three?”

Dazed, he heard someone ask and he struggled to remember its name. A painting appeared before his eyes, the one he had seen in Xingxing’s picture book, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember its title.

Memory is often flawed.

When Wuye saw Xingxing, he really couldn’t remember if he had confessed to the ridiculous crime. All he could remember was that during the last two days of his confinement, half the time he couldn’t tell what was real or when he was hallucinating. “Cave Seventy-three” became an oft-repeated signal, encountering which his mental processes would shut down. Finally, the signal vanished. By the time the same words were asked in different way, he was inured to all questions.

In a word, by the morning of the fifth day, he discovered upon awakening that the red room had vanished as if it had never existed. He found himself in the yellow office where he had been interrogated. The door was wide open, there was no one there and no sound. He shouted several times, but no one responded. He stepped out of the office to find the hall empty. So he simply left the building. He examined the building carefully. It was an old gray-colored building that looked like it had been constructed with the aid of Soviet experts in the early 1950s. Then he walked toward the courtyard; spiderwebs hung outside the reception room. He paced back and forth for a while at the entrance and, after determining there was no danger, he sneaked away.

21

Xingxing was assailed by a deep fear.

It was that woman again! She had determined from Wuye’s description that it was that woman who resembled the Bodhisattva Guanyin, the one who had advised her. Suddenly she felt that things did not look good.

Wuye may not have succumbed to her hypnotism, but he definitely said something or confessed to something. Otherwise it would have been impossible for him to flee from that scarlet cave.

Why was it scarlet in color?

Her hair stood on end as she thought of that red dream of hers. She felt a pain in her heart as if she saw Wuye cut his own wrist and the blood spurt out.

22

Wuye shoveled the last mouthful of millet porridge into his mouth. He looked tenderly at Xingxing.

She found that look intolerable. If she didn’t hide behind the opposite emotion, she’d end up in tears. All men have tempers, but she could not imagine what Wuye would be like if he lost his.

Perhaps it was best for a middle-aged woman to live with a younger man. It was right in terms of sex and every other angle. She recalled the middle-aged men she had known. They were all quite charming, but totally lacking in youthful passion.

Wuye’s purity was obvious from his health and cleanliness. She loved purity more than maturity. To her Xiaojun was a pure young man who had never grown up. As for herself, she was nothing more than a young girl by his side. Her immature subconscious affected her behavior.

“The name of that nasty skinny woman is Ahyuexi. .” Wuye seemed to recall something, his eyes blurred. “What kind of people are they. . They spoke noisily, but I didn’t understand a word. Their clothes were very unusual. .”

“Where did they keep you locked up? You certainly must remember that.”

“I do remember.”

“Sleep first, then take me to see the place.” Xingxing covered him with a blanket and tucked in the corners. Then she bent over and kissed him on the forehead.

“There was one other thing that surprised me,” he said, sitting up.

“What’s that?”

“Ahyuexi is a descendant of Yu-Chi Yiseng. That’s what the Bodhisattva Guanyin told me.”

1

According to Mahayana Buddhism, there are countless Buddhas in the ten directions and the three periods. 1Each Buddha has a land he has taught and enlightened; these lands are called Buddha realms. These Buddha realms, unlike the mundane world of men, are pure and unpolluted, and hence called pure lands. Passing from this world through hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddha lands to the West, there is a world called Ultimate Bliss. The founder, called Amitabha, teaches the Dharma in this world. Those born in this land of Ultimate Bliss endure no sufferings but enjoy every bliss. The ground is yellow gold; the railings and trees are formed of gold, silver, and other precious objects. There are also gold and silver pools of the seven jewels, filled with the clear, sweet and cool waters of eight meritorious virtues. The bottoms of the pools are spread over with golden sand. In the pools are lotuses the size of carriage wheels in all marvelous colors. In the country there are always rare and wonderful birds that sing with marvelous voices, speaking the Buddha-dharma. Those who live in this country possess limitless life and all have unshakable faith.

There is a school of Buddhism called Pure Land Buddhism in which the practitioners dedicate themselves to being reborn in the Western Paradise. The form of practice is quite simple. All one needs to do, regardless of how much evil one has done, is merely invoke Amitabha’s name and they will vault across the three periods to be born in the World of Ultimate Bliss.

Pure Land Buddhism has been extremely popular throughout history for this reason.

2

The door to the Tantric Cave was locked. Zhang Shu rode his creaky old bike around behind the cave to look at the crystal-clear blue sky. He took out his special guest pass and held it up to the blue sky like some inexplicable sign.

There was no one there, so the pass was useless.

He felt like breaking the rusty lock with a good swift kick.

He came after he heard Xingxing’s account. Actually what interested him more than the cave was that descendant of Yu-Chi Yiseng. He wanted to find her and get the real story about Cave 73.

He hung around until he no longer saw any point, at which time he decided to go to the small shop and check out the stone rubbings. Some of the stone rubbings in the area were exquisite but difficult to buy. He turned and saw those two old dogs that Wuye had described as Buddhas barking and biting at each other. He saw they were quite old and barked with great effort but still insisted on biting at each other’s necks.

The small shop was open, so he entered. He saw her at once. He was sure it was the skinny woman Xingxing had described to him. But he harbored no ill will toward her and initially was inclined to like her. The young woman was of the Yi nationality. Her long hair reached to her waist. She wore an apricot-colored band around her head for whatever reason; otherwise she was dressed entirely in gray. Her skin was a bronze color and her skirt was gray, the lower hem of which was fringed and came to just above her knees, revealing a pair of thin but lovely legs. She had a narrow waist and long arms, and her chest was flat. Such a svelte young woman was rarely encountered in the hinterland. She had a certain attractiveness, especially when her expression became serious. Her thin face, with the long bridge of her nose, her sharp chin, and high forehead all denoted a sharp mind. She had long eyes and her eyelashes were long and black. Her lips, while moist, were colorless, and pressed together resembled a white peach leaf. She stood straight as a ramrod behind the counter. If she didn’t speak or move it was easy to take her for a plastic mannequin.