About the place and the facts of the adultery, those of us on Five Spice Street expressed ourselves in thoroughly abstract ways. This time, everyone kept a straight face. We didn’t even move the corners of our mouths. Whether the lights were on or off, whether there were a lot of people or just a few, whether in our homes or on the main street, whenever the writer or any other outsider brought up this matter, all of us expressed ourselves with solemn, straight faces. Only if a person had a talent for abstract thought and had special training could he discover the instinctual understanding of those people. Otherwise, he would think them crass, unreasonable, and short-sighted. He would complain of their indifference to history. Many simple-minded scholars had arrived here cheerfully and believed that their passionate work would yield something. Inevitably, they would return to wherever they came from while blaming us for being uncooperative or even rocking the boat. They never examined the limitations of their concepts or were the least bit self- reflective. We have no use for this type of scholar and artist and wish they had stayed home. Why come here? We could plan our daily lives much more easily without them. Aside from disturbing people, is there anything they do? If a committed artist carefully considered the situation, he would realize that the straight faces on Five Spice Street did not indicate impoverished selves and empty heads. Instead, they implied infinitude, like a rainbow on the horizon or a mirage in the desert. We can easily offer five or six interpretations.
First, this is our privacy, which is like a precious treasure we don’t want to share with outsiders. Our unique place is the only place that can produce such high-quality spiritual sustenance. Our own people all know how to view this matter. Each of us has his or her personal feelings about it, and it isn’t necessary to talk it over with one another. And so we keep straight faces.
Second, are we sluggards? Are we idle and self-indulgent? Besides poking into a certain person’s meaningless activities all day long, have we nothing else to do? Do you dare doubt that our people have any libido? Yes, some envious people like to insinuate that we do nothing but roam around all day long, spying, listening at the walls, and looking through cracks in the doors. We won’t fall for this! And so we keep straight faces.
Third, what sort of person brings up such questions? Does he have the upbringing necessary to understand this sort of thing? Does he conduct himself in a serious manner? If he looks at the world with salacious, indecent eyes, we decent people on Five Spice Street won’t have anything to do with him; he can just delve into his research by himself. Let reality give him a brutal lesson. Let him come to ridiculous conclusions. Who cares? We aren’t obligated to let him pester us. And so we keep straight faces.
Fourth, when getting close to the essence of the matter, the highly cultured crowds on Five Spice Street always produce a single spontaneous response: something like this can’t be explained in words, nor can it be conveyed with facial expressions. It can be sensed only with telepathy. This is very complicated and multilayered. We wouldn’t be a bit surprised if an outsider didn’t possess this mental power. We are always very self-confident about this superiority of ours. If a rude outsider could become as wise as we after dashing around our street for a few days, that would be the saddest tragedy. No way! We don’t care if they think we’re not civil and don’t care if they are furious with us. We persist in our old ways. We aren’t going to swim with the tide. And so we keep straight faces.
Fifth, there may also be persons with ulterior motives: after ascertaining our true views, they then made unfair use of them with various kinds of guesswork. None of it was their business. They had nothing to do with it. But they tried to play the role of savior, as if we had to depend upon them-those rats who came out from the sewer to manage our community. And so we keep straight faces. We could give a lot of other reasons for keeping straight faces-almost everyone has at least two reasons, which might change several times a day.
If we want to understand this adultery from Q’s side, we can raise the following possibilities: (1) That afternoon Q had the misfortune of falling at X’s entrance, and while he was unconscious a person quick on his feet injected him with a hallucinogen. (2) Since childhood, Q had had a virus similar to rabies lying dormant in his body: when it surfaced, he became manic about self-sacrifice. The writer had just noted these key points when the female colleague, who’d been hiding behind him and spying, scared him by hooting loudly.
