Five Spice Street

An example can demonstrate that our people are not counterfeit (this kind of example can be found everywhere). Old Meng from the pharmacy, for instance, is eighty-three this year and is as dissolute as ever. Such an example is rare in both ancient and modern times. On the outside, Old Meng doesn’t appear strong at all, but frail. Yet inside, his muscles are steel and his bones are iron; his vigor hasn’t diminished one bit. Not only is he not afraid of shacking up with someone, but he can actually ‘‘satisfy’’ a young person and even make her ‘‘surrender’’! This example alone should refute Madam X’s charge. Naturally, to recover their youth, the people on our Five Spice Street use various elixirs that have been handed down for generations. Old Meng has benefited greatly from those medicines in his pharmacy, and so he stays young. Not long ago, he actually dumped the wife of Madam X’s husband’s good friend and picked up a sixteen-year-old nursemaid. All day long, that nursemaid stayed inside the loft and looked after the house for him. Her ‘‘face was like peach blossoms,’’ and her skin was ‘‘creamy white’’! As for Old Meng, his appearance made people think ‘‘the older, the stronger’’! Among our people, this general characteristic was inherited, and it also benefited from the feng shui here. This feng shui not only gave us immunity but also boosted our ability to procreate and strengthened us by the day. Our numbers grew. The widow’s sexual power was in inverse proportion to her ability to procreate. We’ll deal with this later.

Madam X’s vilification of the people on Five Spice Street isn’t worth discussing. Sex on Five Spice Street was never a problem from ancient times to the present. Just look at our descendants: that will settle the argument. Abstinence is the only problem, not encouragement. All of us abide by the rules. We’re cultured and refined and put into practice the civil ‘‘spare-time recreation.’’ Any lechery or anything against the law is censured. (For example, Old Meng has been reproached: even if he could ‘‘satisfy’’ that girl, and even if some people secretly envied him, his behavior has been condemned by certain authorities. We hope he will ‘‘reform’’ and be legally married to her.)

Second, her whole life, the widow has repressed her sexual desire. She never had a carnal relationship with any man other than her husband: she became a model of propriety on Five Spice Street and influenced many young men and women (for example, Madam X’s husband’s good friend, the young coal worker, Madam X’s female colleague, and also the writer and others). Because of this, spiritual friendships became customary on Five Spice Street: outsiders felt refreshed by the novel atmosphere. Yet we have to say that this wasn’t the widow’s invention. The old woman with the black felt hat and her older male cousin, and also lots of other people, demonstrate this psychology. The widow’s contribution was in carrying forward and developing this character. Spiritual friendship was definitely higher than physiological function, and it is this that led humankind to mutual dependence and created history. Even in marriage, spiritual relationships can predominate; the writer has witnessed many examples of couples especially strongly united through their spiritual love, even to the point of ignoring physiological needs. They seldom indulged in ‘‘spare-time recreation’’; indeed, some didn’t indulge at all, but their feelings for one another were deeper and more sincere than those of other people. Such a union was the perfect model and could last forever, despite leaving no descendants.