2. ‘‘The affair? So what? It’s really bizarre: how can it be that other people don’t have ‘that affair’? It’s said that everyone is whispering in secret, losing sleep at night, and staying close to the main street in the daytime-all because of ‘that affair’ of mine! I’ve been so happy that I’ve wanted to pat a certain one of you on the shoulder and talk of my inner feelings so that we could share them! As soon as I open my mouth, I notice that person’s eyes are nervous-like a thief’s. Then I have to give up. Ah, about the affair! You all treat me like a monkey. Have I been a monkey all along?’’ (She said this to her husband’s good friend.)
3. ‘‘When I say ‘kite’ to one person, he answers with ‘Pay attention to your shoes.’ I’ve been saying things like this for a few decades: why hasn’t anyone noticed this? Can people be so numb? They say the problem lies with me; they say I have a certain disease. I take great pleasure in deliberately exaggerating my illness. This scares them into forgetting me. These people are bizarre. I finally know that. Recently, I’ve been using my eyesight too much, and as a result I’ve discovered endless weird things. For example, F came to my house today. I looked up at him for a moment, and he turned shy at once: he flushed and couldn’t sit still. I cleared my throat loudly a few times and asked him hesitantly, ‘Are the veins in the table’s wood jumping around a little too frequently? Today, everything in this room is jumping around too vigorously. You’ll see that if you look at the curtains. Is there some reason for this? I can never come up with a definite idea about this.’ He was listening in surprise. Frenzied light flashed from his eyes. I really wanted to see him take a hard fall. There’s no reason for these pieces of garbage to be watching me like this. I have to come up with some ways to deal with their rude highhandedness.’’ (She said this to her husband.)
If we analyze these three quotations, we can understand X’s attitude: (1) She’s quite a lot more complacent than before. (2) She does as she pleases (this is the same as before the adultery began). (3) The adultery itself made her ‘‘incredibly happy’’-so much so that she wanted to ‘‘share it with someone’’ (she hasn’t pointed this out herself, but isn’t it clear as daylight?). (4) She deliberately exaggerates her disease in order to confuse people.
The second change in Madam X was horrible, too. The first one to encounter this change was Ms. B-the one who had made up her mind to wait until summer to seek revenge. One noon, Ms. B ‘‘was overflowing with optimism.’’ She was humming a march, and her steps were buoyant as she walked to the street to post a banner. (Written on all of the red banners was: ‘‘Photography is important to the national economy and the people’s livelihood.’’) When she passed Madam X’s house, she was flattened by a snow-white bolt of lightning. She went blind for half an hour at most. This immediately made the rounds of the whole street: after dinner, everyone was talking about it. Tense discussion in a dark meeting, and confirmation from Ms. B herself, caused highly intelligent people to think the same thing: Madam X’s supernatural power had evolved into a flood tide and had become a clear and present danger to everyone. For, in that unforgettable half hour, not only had Ms. B lost her vision, but ‘‘her whole body was paralyzed’’ and ‘‘she couldn’t move.’’ After she came to, she saw ‘‘several hundred silver whirlybirds hovering in the sky,’’ and from Madam X’s window ‘‘the biggest demonic mirror was hanging impressively.’’ But Madam X herself ‘‘was standing under the mirror with her lover and her husband, caught up in the moment, and they were talking to each other in a kind of secret language.’’
After the dark meeting of highly intelligent people, the writer worked out a mistaken prediction which caused him to wake up to the superficiality of his scholarship. Following the meeting, the writer walked along in the dark with the adorable widow, absorbed in the excitement of the meeting: his myriad thoughts actually seemed to take on wings. So he opened his mouth and described what had been brewing in his mind for some time: ‘‘From now on, everyone has to adopt certain measures for dealing with Madam X.’’ The adorable widow’s imperturbability startled the writer, and he blushed.
“Why?’’ she answered in a low voice. ‘‘Adopt what measures? Are we all jittery? What you just said made me wonder. You’ve been a stenographer for so long, and you’re still so fickle. I can’t understand you.’’ The writer walked on with her for a long time in silence. She didn’t say anything and her expression was grim. Not until they parted did she suddenly scold him: ‘‘It is most unwise to substitute one’s own fantasies for the objective laws of nature.’’
