Five Spice Street by Can Xue

Author:Can Xue
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2009-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

The Second Point: Big Changes in Madam X after the Adultery Began

The adultery definitely occurred. Although no one can be sure about the place and time, everyone knows it happened. Late one night, the writer took part in a meeting in a small, unlit room. Emotions ran high even among the most intelligent during the two hours and twenty-five minutes of this meeting; afterwards, opinions about this reached a consensus. Once the fact was established, Madam X virtually lost her freedom. Why do we have to say “virtually”? Because, ostensibly, those of us on Five Spice Street did not stop her freedom of movement: we weren’t brought up to be like this. If someone goes about corrupting public morals, we certainly wouldn’t club her to death. We were well-mannered people. Our people just lowered their heads and didn’t look at her when they met her. When she went past, we all stared at her thin, frail back and cast a lot of cryptic looks. The staring could last for a long time (an hour at most). We expected that she would eventually sense it and figure it out by herself. We expected to restrict her activities in this indirect way, because we were very patient people. But it didn’t work for a long time. This woman remained callous. Even though groups of people were staring at her behind her back, her activities were still as unbridled as those of a three-year-old, and she was even wilder in what she said. More often than not, she’d take a flying leap while walking, despite all the people watching.

Now everyone sees the big changes in Madam X since this affair began; they couldn’t be any clearer. The writer didn’t have to do any investigating.

One big change was that in a short time her vision was restored. Almost everyone on Five Spice Street can confirm this. There were, of course, still a few questions. For example: Why did she still look as if she were floating when she walked? Why didn’t she look at anything while walking on the street? But her vision really was restored: especially when she talked with people, her eyes were almost “a pair of shining stars”!

About two or three days after the adultery began, Madam X was selling peanuts in the snack shop. As she weighed the peanuts, she struck up a conversation with the widow in the little felt hat. She wasn’t looking either above the old woman’s head or at the ground, but was looking right at the old woman’s face. For some unknown reason, she insisted on calling the woman “Young Miss Chen,” as if she were deliberately trying to please her or as if the woman she saw really was a young girl—or maybe it was a little of both. The old woman was very excited. She blushed, and sweat appeared in the folds of her skin. She kept shrugging her shoulders, as if trying to produce a certain pose. “Her eyes are really strange. After being blind, they are now even brighter.

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