Sheng Keyi - Death Fugue

‘What’s that?’ Mengliu stopped and asked.

‘It’s a warning for us.’ Juli brought her legs up toward her chest, and turned to lie on her side. She looked at Mengliu with a provocative smile.

‘I don’t understand…’

‘You still don’t get it. Swan Valley prohibits sexual intercourse.’

‘You’re very funny.’ Mengliu’s body quivered with merriment, and he bent to kiss her.

The alarm sounded again, this time issuing a more severe warning.

‘I’m not joking. It’s true. Every room is equipped with a special sensor. This is a code yellow warning. If intercourse begins, it will move to code red. Ten minutes later, you’ll be picked up.’ Juli looked up at him, her expression charming. ‘You aren’t afraid of having your head hung on the wall, are you?’

‘You mean…everyone is being monitored?’ He was shocked, but kept his face calm.

‘Monitored? You have a crude way of putting it. It’s concern for our well-being. A way of taking responsibility for the individual.’ Juli looked at him, her expression that of a patient begging a doctor to tell her the results of a procedure. ‘Am I worth that sort of risk?’

Completely carried away, Mengliu now sought to cool his still thumping heart. He tried closing in on Juli, but the alarm sounded again. He had to believe what she was saying.

‘All sexual intercourse is illegal, even between husband and wife.’ Juli lowered her arms across her breasts, smiling at him as if she were the beneficiary of this policy.

‘Hang on…Swanese people, you mean they’ve all jumped out of cracks in the stones?’

‘No, we use artificial insemination. A clean, painless little procedure.’

‘Artificial insemination…’ He could not keep from laughing. ‘That’s crazy! Why even bother?’

‘Mr Yuan, you’re not taking this seriously. Swan Valley advocates a scientific approach. We use genetic research to produce quality in the population. Each person’s body has its optimal period for conception, and before artificial insemination is performed, the physiology of both parties has to be subjected to a lot of calculations…’

‘Oh?’ Mengliu felt like he had seen a ghost. ‘Precise calculations? Scientific operations? But what about human feelings?’

‘We pay more attention to the higher spiritual life. For unlawful sexual intercourse, a man may wear a gold shackle and go into servitude, or even have his head cut off. We don’t punish the women…but you know punishment of the soul is also a torment. If a woman commits the blasphemous act of intercourse, her soul is corrupted forever…’

The feverish flush had faded from Juli’s face, and her complexion was returning gradually to its calm, golden tone. Even the lights in the house were becoming more rational again.

Mengliu remembered the way Juli had made the chopping gesture by the wall that day, and he shuddered. A chilly wind invaded the space between his legs, and he grew limp there. He needed a dignified way to retreat, but he looked at her with strange eyes and said, ‘To use your body to fight the system is tantamount to throwing eggs against stones. A variety of historical facts have proven this. You probably don’t know how many young people, a whole generation, have foolishly paid an exorbitant price because of this belief…many were killed, but the worst was the punishment that came later. You can never escape the hand of judgement. Even less should I, a mere stranger.’

Mengliu, unable to control his emotions, now appeared neurotic. Either he had nothing to say, or once he started talking, he was like a pebble rolling downhill, unable to stop. ‘I have an acquaintance, he tried to hide and survived on roots and tubers for many years in the mountains. It finally caught up with him… there has never been a party more vengeful, or more thorough and ruthless. Some people were expelled from their homes, leaving their loved ones, living in exile…in fact, all rulers’ temperaments are the same. The only difference between them is their height, weight, and hair colour.’

‘You should treat the ruling institutions like chastity. “Don’t touch” is a good rule of thumb.’ Juli picked up her gown and covered her chest, then resumed her position beneath the embroidered picture. Her lower body was still exposed, her legs long and slender. ‘When people make decisions, they need to have the support of a belief system. You’re right, defying the law with your body is like a moth playing with fire.’

Looking at her now, Mengliu realised he was still naked. He was already flaccid, and now he was ashamed. He dressed slowly, his actions full of the sadness and helplessness of a mourner. In an attempt to hide his cowardice, he finally spoke as if offering his condolences. ‘May I ask, has Swan Valley conducted a public opinion survey on this matter? Is this something the public agrees to? Is it the result of a democratic consensus?’

‘Let’s not talk about this in my bedroom,’ Juli said faintly, using the tone of someone resigned to the death of a loved one, and talking respectfully to those offering their condolences. ‘You can express your views freely at the weekly salon.’

‘Juli, I’m just a foreigner.’ Mengliu looked at her, using a dark tone and expression, tuned to a funeral environment, as he once again expressed his grief.

‘Don’t worry. Before long, you’ll have citizenship here in Swan Valley.’ The light caught her eye, making it glow.

‘What?’ Mengliu yelped. ‘Citizenship? I can’t live here. I want to go home.’

‘You mean that place where there’s no democracy, no freedom? What is worth remembering about that authoritarian place?’

‘It’s my homeland.’

‘Once you set foot in Swan Valley, you belong here. It’s just like you were born here.’

‘I don’t even know where I am, or how I got here. Or whether I’m just dreaming.’

‘Swan Valley’s citizenship is not issued indiscriminately. You have exceptionally good genes. Your wisdom and potential will be developed here.’

‘No mater what I am, no matter what happens, I won’t stay in a place where sexual intercourse is forbidden.’

Juli smiled, and her legs writhed sinuously, like a snake spirit.

‘Actually, it’s not absolutely prohibited…If you’re willing to explore the policy and find the loopholes, you’ll see that if you write a good poem and recite the poem loudly for it to hear,’ she put one hand on her private parts and pointed the other at the alarm in the corner of the room, ‘it will be quiet.’

She sat up slowly and hugged her legs to her, breasts squeezed between her knees. She spoke in a tone that struck Mengliu as a confusion between begging and seduction. ‘At least…write one for me, won’t you?’

Mengliu kept staring at her wheat-coloured flesh. As if struck by its lustre, he squinted involuntarily. He issued a string of bizarre laughter. ‘Ah…so it’s sex for poetry? You want to enlist me in the sex trade? Why would you want to treat lovemaking as a commodity? You’re as crazy as they are!’

When he finished saying this, he turned away and rushed back to his own room. He slumped onto the bed in a mess. His body had cooled down, but his heart was still hot, like boiling water stored in the cold steel shell of a thermos. The more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. He had been blown by a foul wind to this strange place and to a woman who, at the height of his passion, had told him that, in order to ensure the quality of the population, they didn’t allow sexual intercourse. As soon as he drew near her, an alarm went off, but then she said that if he wrote poetry he could sleep with her. He suddenly sat up in bed, laughing. The Dayang Poetry Society had dispersed years ago. He did not write poetry anymore. He could not write poetry, and did not take life so seriously. Now he despised himself. His body had denied the fact that he could do anything for the love of women. He dared not risk his head to have sex with a woman, and he was even more loathe to use poetry in exchange for a woman’s body. That would be to blaspheme poetry. It was an insult to his history with Bai Qiu and Hei Chun.