Sheng Keyi - Death Fugue

‘What’s this? I’m a VIP again?’ The tangy smell made his mouth water.

Suitang smiled. ‘This could be your last meal on earth.’

‘If it’s the first, that’s good, and if it’s the last, that’s fine too. What’s the point?’ He ate greedily. ‘Tell me. There’s no need to beat around the bush.’

‘Don’t be so uncongenial. We are the only two of our kind in Swan Valley.’ Suitang’s resentment had a hint of coquetry. ‘Sama has been sent to the mill for re-education because of his dereliction of duty…Who knows, maybe it’s all a sham. It’s hard to believe your fan club could have penetrated to such a remote location.’

‘ So? ’ he interrupted.

‘You’re angry? What are you angry with me for? I didn’t betray my friend for glory…’

‘This…is good. It tastes like Darae’s work. Want to try it?’

Ignoring him, she walked straight to the window and pushed it open. The sudden gust that blew in struck him fiercely. Raising his head, he saw the golden shine of the sea outside and was astonished, as if he had seen a miracle. The genuine sea, boundless, waves crashing in the bay, seagulls soaring, and the sea breeze constantly blowing his way. His hand touched the ledge and on the wall a crack showed through. It was a sliding door. He opened it, and found a balcony outside. It was connected to a long passage like a bridge standing above the sea. He could not help but grasp Suitang’s hand, and she followed him obediently out the door. They reached the end of the bridge and turned to look back at the island far behind them. The sea and sky were both boundless, they couldn’t believe they were on Earth.

‘I’ve felt I was in a fog these past few days. Suitang, is this a dream?’ A man may suffer from waking nightmares, especially when he has gone without sleep for nights. Standing in the dazzling sun, gazing at the vast world, his feelings might be even more overwhelming. Mengliu was on the bridge with the water rippling beneath him, and a tempest stirring in his mind. He wanted to write a poem. The words were already on the tip of his tongue. No, on his lips, ready to fly out of his mouth at any moment, like a bird leaving its nest. No. It could not be. He looked into the distance and tried hard to swallow the verse. Apparently choking on it, his face reddened. Before long, he began to feel dizzy, nauseous, and bloated. He leant his head over the sea and vomited. Pieces of rabbit that had turned to debris rained down on the water, then sank quietly.

Suitang said, ‘The sea breeze is not good for you.’

‘I must have been poisoned. If they want to kill me, it would not be difficult. Why bother poisoning me in secret?’ he shouted as he turned back.

Suitang rushed after him, saying, ‘Are you crazy? I ate the other half of the rabbit. There’s nothing wrong with me. Your empty stomach rejected the oily food. You should eat porridge first.’

‘Eat porridge? I would rather drink the west wind! Look at me. I could float away now.’

He really did look like a sage. Stumbling like a kite that could not get lift-off, he almost fell into the sea several times more.

They returned by the same route. Strangely, the place they had come from was gone, and the entire topography seemed to have changed too. They had somehow ended up in a secluded courtyard halfway up the mountain. The wide doorway to the courtyard looked like the entrance to a square. There was a nude sculpture by the door and an abandoned armoured vehicle topped with a long gun pointed off in the distance. There was nothing in the courtyard, only a large column shooting up to the sky in the centre and below it, an area the size of a basketball court. Mengliu thought of the white chimney he and Juli had seen. He clearly recalled Juli’s longing look. This should be it.

He walked around the base, but there was no entrance. He looked up, but he could not see the top. He instinctively knew this wasn’t a chimney. Perhaps it was a military watchtower. Its top would afford a panoramic view of Swan Valley, as well as the distant sea. Suitang agreed. As he checked the bricks, he asked where she had been in recent days and how she had been treated. Suitang prevaricated, saying, ‘I just can’t describe the place. Don’t think I’m making things up. It was like I was sleepwalking. I was in a different place every day. I had plenty to eat and drink, and I listened to a lot of lectures. They said you were writing a ballad.’

‘You really don’t know me. I’m not like you, easily manipulated… even to the point of becoming their lobbyist.’

‘You try manipulating me. You’re just pretending to be romantic,’ Suitang said.

‘I couldn’t bear to manipulate you. If I had wanted to I would’ve done so earlier.’ He knocked on a brick and listened to the sound.

‘Well why was I the fish that escaped the net? That Su Juli…’

He gestured for her to be quiet, as if he had made a major discovery. In truth, he only wanted to stop her line of questioning.

‘Help me think. What would this building be used for? How can we get in?’

‘Maybe it’s a heating unit. It must be used to get rid of exhaust.’

‘Yeah, that’s imaginative. Do you think we can get in?’

‘I think…maybe the wall is a decoy. Somewhere there’s a hidden switch or button.’

‘That’s so old-fashioned. You might as well say, Open sesame! Or pineapple! Or whatever…’

As if this spell had had its effect, a door like that on an aeroplane suddenly slid open. He tripped on it, and practically fell inside.

It was another hall of images, full of electronic screens flickering in silence.

On one screen, beasts beneath a canopy of trees. In a white robe, Esteban lies on a boulder covered with a white sheet. The mortician is shaving his head and beard. Four people, using only their hands, raise the sheet as if they are an honour guard handling the national flag. They solemnly place Esteban in the ice coffin, then cover it with a layer of white chrysanthemums.

The morning sun blazes on the ice. The vast sky is filled with puffy, unremarkable clouds.

A low-flying bird suddenly drops to the ground.

The band and the dozens of mourners are all in white robes, almost invisible in the snowy funereal world.

Shanlai and Darae are amongst them, wearing clumsy snow boots and sombre expressions. Their difficult journey through the deep snow creates an even deeper sense of ritual. The group of mourners is halfway up the hillside when the mountain bursts open. Blocks of snow tumble away, followed immediately by an influx of loose snow rolling down the hill. The snow swells, and in an instant engulfs the doll-like group of mourners.

On a second screen, the hospital is empty. On the gate is an announcement saying that the plague had been brought by vultures. All birds and reptiles have been infected, and humans will inevitably be infected as well. The announcement makes no mention of the vultures’ food source at the waste disposal site. Abandoned infants. The road with mobs of people fleeing the disaster, continually stumbling, no one bothering. Some are hastily buried, or thrown haphazardly aside…They gather at the cliff edge because the cable car is the only way to the outside world. On the first trip, four squeeze into the trolley, but as it bumps and glides along, the rope suddenly snaps, and the cable car hurtles like a stone into the abyss.

On a third screen, a circle of people in white coats and learned faces stare at an aquarium. It is an academic discussion. There are observations and recordings…In the aquarium, a bloodied baby with its umbilical cord still attached is towed through a pool of alcohol, its hands and feet flailing like a dying fish…its mouth opens rapidly, then it no longer moves.