The Republic of Wine

the wall to keep from falling down again. Never had he been so drained of energy - feeling a void inside, he had become skin and no bones. Opaque steam rose from the lady trucker’s body, like a freshly steamed fish. The steam vanished and was replaced by chilled sweat that oozed from her pores and puddled on the hardwood floor. What a pitiful sight she was as she lay there in a swoon; pity grows in the heart like poisonous weeds. Still, the investigator wasn’t about to forget the woman’s sinister and vicious side. Ding Gou’er felt like emptying his bladder all over her, like an animal in the wild, but he quickly drove that perverse thought out of his mind. Reminded of Diamond Jin and of his own sacred mission, he clenched his teeth with steely determination. Get out of here! My taking your wife to bed was a moral lapse, but cooking and eating children is a truly heinous crime. Gazing back at the lady trucker, he saw her as a target of flesh belonging to Diamond Jin. I hit the bull’s-eye of that target, and the bullet of righteousness still flies through the air. He opened the dresser, selected an olive green wool suit, and put it on. It fit perfectly, as if it had been custom-made for him, I’ve slept with your woman, he was thinking, now I’m wearing your clothes, and when it’s all over, I’ll have your life. He retrieved his pistol from his own dirty clothes and pocketed it. Then he ate a raw cucumber straight from the refrigerator and took a big swig from a bottle of Zhangyu wine. It was soft and silky as a lovely woman’s skin. As he turned to leave, the lady trucker rolled over and balanced herself on all fours, like a frog or a crawling infant. The look of wretched helplessness in her eyes reminded him of his own son, which filled his heart with paternal love. He walked over to pat her on the head.
    ‘You poor thing,’ he said, ‘you poor little darling.’
    She wrapped her arms around his legs and gazed up at him tenderly.
    ‘I’m leaving,’ he said. I’ll not allow your husband to get away with his crimes.’
    ‘Take me with you,’ she said. ‘I hate him. I’ll help you. They eat infants.’
    She stood up, dressed quickly, and took a bottle from the cabinet. In it was some ocher-colored powder.
    ‘Know what this is?’ she asked.
    The investigator shook his head.
    It’s infant powder.’ she said. ‘They use it as a tonic.’
    ‘How’s it made?’ the investigator asked.
    It’s produced by the hospital’s Special Nutrition Unit,’ she replied.
    ‘From live babies?’
    ‘Yes, live ones. You can hear them crying.’
    ‘Come on, we’re off to the hospital’
    She took a cleaver out of the cabinet and handed it to him.
    With a laugh, he tossed it onto the table.
    That drew a crisp cackle out of the lady trucker, sort of like a laying hen, or a wooden wheel rolling over cobblestones. Then with a smile like that of a bat, she threw herself at him again, wrapped her arms tenderly around his neck, and, with the same tenderness, wrapped her legs around his knees. With a struggle, he managed to pry her off, but she was right back at him, like a bad dream that won’t go away. The investigator hopped all over the place, monkey-style, trying to keep away from her.
    ‘Jump on me one more time,’ he panted, ‘and I’ll put a bullet in you!’
    Stunned for a moment, she cried out hysterically, ‘Go ahead, put a bullet in me! Do it, you ingrate, put a bullet in me!’
    She ripped open her blouse, sending a purple Plexiglass button to the floor, where it hit with a crisp ping and began rolling around like a tiny animal, first one way, then the other. Whatever force moved it seemed undeterred by the pull of gravity or the friction of the hardwood floor. Stomping on it angrily, the investigator felt it slip around under his foot, tickling him through his sock and thick-soled shoe.
    ‘What kind of person are you? Did Diamond Jin instruct you to do this?’ The sentimental attachment the investigator felt for the woman after sex was already dissipating; as his heart began to harden, it turned the color of cold steel. ‘If so, then you’re a co-conspirator,’ he said with a sneer, ‘and have eaten infants along with them. Diamond Jin must have ordered you to block my investigation.’
    ‘What an ill-fated woman I am …’ She began to sob, then cried openly, her face awash with tears, her shoulders heaving. ‘Five times I've been pregnant, and each time he’s sent me to the