Zero and Other Fictions (15 page)

Everything was in order. The passengers took their luggage and got off the bus. After saying good-bye to Callahan and the driver, they walked through the checkpoint.

On the other side another tour bus was waiting. Upon boarding the bus, Xi De discovered that six strangers—two men and six women—were seated there. One blond woman with the face of an angel reached out and said to him:

“I am Zhen 143. You can call me Zhen; I'll be your guide.”

“My name is Xi De,” he replied, overwhelmed.

Never in his life had he seen such a lovely woman. Her eyes were as blue as water; she smiled with the easy familiarity of an old friend. The way she was dressed and made up also set Xi De's heart to thumping. After all, he was a normal young man. The two young ladies in the office couldn't compare to Zhen, though once in a while they appeared in his dreams. However, graduates of the Central Academy did possess more self-control that the average person. Although young people were allowed to court, such things were seldom encountered in the office. For this generation of young people, sex had been completely stripped of its mystery; sex possessed a purely biological function for them, the same as an appetite for food—when a person was hungry, they had to eat. The idea of love as the efflorescence of sex, a relic of the last century, was to them something akin to the civics class taken by primary school students. There was a time when a man and a woman might meet by chance on the street and, with a mutual glance, have a sexual fling and not be troubled in the least by morality or feelings. If you were willing, you could continue the relationship or be again like strangers the next day. By now people were disinclined. Sure, they needed it, but they didn't make a big deal about it. Sexual crimes were simply inconceivable.

Zhen was wearing a skin-tight silver tennis outfit, and her perky breasts, round bottom, and gorgeous pink legs made everyone gasp and gawk.

“I know you're Xi De,” she said, snuggling up against him, the scent of roses assailing his nose. “I also know that you work at the Ministry of Resources in the 10th District, right?”

“Your information is very detailed.” Zhen took his hand and placed it on her leg.

The bus proceeded along a beach lined with coconut palms. It was a beautiful summer scene of blue sky, beaches, waves, and sunlight. But no one on the bus paid the slightest attention—each was absorbed with the guide sitting next to them.

“I have to know something about you,” Zhen replied coquettishly. “I have to know what you like to eat and drink, your hobbies, sleeping habits, and the things you like to talk about. Only then can I serve you well.”

My goodness!
Xi De cried to himself.
These women serve as more than just guides.
No wonder his colleagues always drifted off into bemused silence when they talked about their vacations.

“Based on my experience, I would say you have never been here before. Am I right?”

“This is my first vacation.”

Who cares,
said Xi De to himself,
there has to be a first time for everything.

15

The Situmare Recreation Zone was set up specifically for the needs of high-ranking administrators. The zone, which covered a large area, supplied everything that was needed: all types of food, drink, and amusement; playing fields, swimming pools, beaches, and gardens. All the buildings were in the passionate, unrestrained Latin style. The walls were covered with brightly colored Indian motifs. Everywhere you looked were charmingly attired and happy couples: in the shade of enchanting trees, in dim coffee houses, and on intoxicating dance floors. The vacationers arrived from the world's ten large regions and, despite the differences in hair color, skin, and facial features, they all expressed their shared feelings and joy as they lifted their glasses and sang of the world's glories using the same language.

In two short weeks, Xi De had fallen into a colorful and profligate dream world. He had experienced all forms of unimaginable sensual stimulation. In bed, Zhen used all of her charms to allow him to experience the ultimate pleasures of the flesh. After yet another unreal climax, Zhen told him of her lot. She was an orphan and from an early age had been educated in a special school. The school had used every means to transform her into an intoxicating blossom: every mechanical method had been utilized to perfect her body; drugs had been used to give her skin its honeyed sheen. She had taken specialized classes in sexual technique; the art of conversation; bearing; and the psychological responses of men. In addition, she had to learn to dance and sing. Finally, she was told that her ultimate goal in life was to please others, and in that way make herself happy. Her world was the recreation zone; the outside world held no interest for her. From the men she had entertained, she knew all about the outside, its regimentation, its boringness, the tragedy of a world in which people worked to survive and not to be happy. Of course she was not interested. She was happy and satisfied right where she was and she was willing to stay there the rest of her life.

Xi De narrowed his eyes as he quietly listened to Zhen's lovely voice. Her innocence and joy were totally sincere. With such feelings of gratitude, Zhen climbed out of bed and danced slowly and solemnly in the nude. She began to sing.

 

I am a rose in Heaven,
Beautiful and alluring, loved by all.
She is not sad or troubled,
Happiness is all she wants.
I am a happy rose in Heaven
A rose with no worries, praised by all.
She has no past and no future,
Now is all she has.
Love me one and all, love this joyful rose,
Let her happy laughter fill your world,
Let her song accompany you through interminable night.…

 

And Xi De slipped into a dream listening to her luscious, happy song.

 

 

The following day, Zhen escorted him to see some special places in the recreation zone; they were different from other eating and drinking establishments and were hard to get into. They squeezed in among the emotional crowd in a building that resembled the Roman Colosseum and watched a man battle a lion, gorging on the bloody feast.

“Kill it! Kill it! You bastard …”

“Kill! Kill! Make mincemeat out of it …”

“Stab it! Stab it again! Make mincemeat out of it …”

The air was filled with piercing screams, shouts, and the sound of gnashing teeth. Zhen's hands were clenched in tight fists; she half squatted and half sat in her seat; her eyes looked as if they would pop out of her head as she fixed them on the arena. In addition to screaming incessantly, the black-haired beauty sitting next to her tore continuously at her own hair.

In such an infectious atmosphere, Xi De couldn't help but shout as well.

The arena was total confusion, the ground covered with blood. Bodies ripped apart by the lion lay scattered in pieces all around. Without a doubt the lion was victorious as it lowered its head to gnaw on a femur; the circular motion of its lower jaw never ceased, making it look like a child with a lollipop. The spectators in the stands stopped shouting; they cursed as they hurled their beverage bottles into the arena.

Xi De left the arena with Zhen, but before they had gone very far, Zhen pulled him down a nearby street into a flower garden.

“I can hardly wait,” said Zhen, panting. That bloody scene had left her extremely excited.

“But there are people here.”

“Who cares?” Zhen hurriedly stripped off her pants and lay down on the ground. “Come on, Xi De, come on …”

After they had finally grown still and lay entwined in the grass and bushes, they heard shouts from nearby.

They couldn't help but look at each other and laugh.

“There are quite a few people hidden away in here,” said Zhen.

“Who were those guys who got eaten by the lion?” asked Xi De.

“They are the half-witted descendants of those exposed to radiation.”

“What do you mean by exposed to radiation?”

“You don't know?”

“Those infected by radioactivity?”

“More or less. But these people are their descendants. They have low IQs, are physically deformed, and are ugly beyond belief,” said Zhen, “and like the animals, they are raised in the caves behind us.”

“Are visitors allowed?”

“Who'd want to see such disgusting things?”

In the days that followed, they visited similar locations, a casino and a sexual paradise. In the latter, they observed exhibitions of all sorts of unusual and perverted sexual games: bestiality, homosexual intercourse, and all sorts of unbelievable sadistic sexual practices.

In the evening there was an orgy with many people exchanging partners and engaging in all sorts of group sex. Xi De refused several invitations, which made Zhen happy. When it came time to say good-bye, Zhen gave Xi De a small gift: a small silver idol.

“This is a very old religious talisman. How did you come to possess such a thing?”

“Someone gave it to me.”

“Oh. Thank you,” he said in a heartfelt manner. “I'll miss you.”

“No,” she said shaking her head. “We'll never meet again. You'd best not think of me.”

She helped him pin on the silver idol.

“It'll protect you,” she said gaily. “Good-bye, Xi De!”

16

After returning to work, Xi De became more reticent. Zhen now occupied an important place in his heart. He would often think of her at night, and when he did his heart would feel a slight pain. It was only a six-hour flight to Situmare; in just six hours he could hold her in his arms. But he also knew that it was just wishful thinking on his part and that he would never see her again for the rest of his life. Not only did a wall of distance separate them; the entire system, the institutions and organizations of the new society were set as insurmountable obstacles against them. Lin Xing and many others perhaps had had similar experiences. Sometimes he felt he could detect a fleeting expression on the faces of his colleagues that seemed to indicate that they, like him, felt that something was wrong. Was it the whole social system? Or was it the lack of maturity in an individual mind?

He had been a member of the new society for about two years now. In that time, he had had a good many inexplicable experiences of which others had no inkling. Worse yet, the influence of the professor and Winston had been pronounced, providing him with a degree of self-consciousness well beyond the average. He couldn't in good conscience use the clear, simple logic of the new society to manage his daily life. Unlike others, he was incapable of rationalizing the feelings he had for Zhen. If Zhen was like the analytical apparatus in the branch office of the Bureau of Resource Analysis, she was painstakingly designed to revitalize your character so that you could continue with your work. Both man and machine had to be restored, because there was nothing in the world that could be guaranteed to function forever. This being the case, Zhen was your lubricant; otherwise, she was just a living android beauty. You needed her the way you needed food, sleep, and amusement. If you developed feelings for her, then those feelings still originated in necessity and not in something irrational. Every person was an independent entity that had to fulfill their own needs; the so-called “union of souls” was nothing more than a useless, abstract concept. Union? Nothing was more independent or complete than the soul. Then how were two souls supposed to achieve union? If he thought of her now and longed to be with her, it was because she satisfied the needs of body and soul. Through her skills, he had achieved previously unknown sensual satisfaction; the sight of her beauty filled him with incomparable joy; her tenderness relieved him of all forms of anxiety. But what of her soul? Did she know what love was? Did her vocabulary contain the word “soul”?

Xi De tossed and turned in bed. He wished that someone could answer these vague metaphysical questions. Strictly speaking, his intellectual education was nothing more than a professional technical education. In school, no one had the slightest opportunity to come in contact with knowledge beyond their studies. The knowledge required for one field was sufficient to keep one occupied for life. Who had time to discuss things such as the meaning of life, how to live, values, and other such abstract concepts of no practical use? In fact, the new society was a whole that was designed through strict planning, scientific analysis, and the computer. The way you lived life and your values were defined by society; the slightest deviation from the normal course would certainly result in harm. There was an old slogan to explain this kind of situation: “Freedom is simply not hampering the freedom of others.” This slogan revealed the mysteries of the new society and the error of people in the past. Actually, there wasn't a single form of freedom that didn't hamper others.

Now I have doubts about the definition of man,
thought Xi De.
When I do, I have already hampered society in its definition of man and thereby have harmed others.
The ancients defined man as a being who exists for the sake of seeking the meaning of life, but it was different in the new society, “in which each person is a cog in the machine that operates perpetually; and a cog cannot conceive of itself as anything other than a cog.” The quote was from a book, and it sounded reasonable.
If I ask myself why I exist, there could be a thousand answers, not one of which is right. In the past, a person could exist for his god, for an ideal, or even purely for the sake of existence. Today, however, religion has been debunked, and no ideal can surpass the perfection of “the establishment of an eternal human paradise” such an ideal could in no way be considered Platonic. And what conceptualization of a human paradise in the history of humankind could be more perfect than that of the new society?