Chapter III

It was hot. Sweat came out on his forehead little by little, and no sooner would it form into beads than they would suddenly run warmly into his eyes. Unfortunately, being tied up with the cord, he of course could not wipe them away with his hands. Then he tried to change their course by moving his head, but the effort made him feel as if he was going to be violently dizzy, so he regretfully gave up this plan, too. Meanwhile the sweat, without the least ceremony, wet his eyelids, and going around his nose and mouth, ran down under his chin. It was extremely disagreeable.

Until then, he had kept his eyes open blinking at the scorching white sky and the field of hemp with its drooping leaves, but after the sweat began to run profusely, he was obliged to give up even that. Then Liu became aware for the first time that when sweat gets into the eyes, it smarts. So closing his eyes meekly with the expression of a sheep about to be slaughtered, he steadfastly let himself be burned by the sun, and now all over his face and body, every inch of skin on the side that was up began little by little to pain. Over the whole surface of his skin, a force was at work trying to move in every direction, but the skin itself had not an iota of elasticity. So to say that he was one big smart probably best describes his pain. The sweat was nothing compared to this pain. Liu regretted a little that he had submitted himself to the mountain priest’s treatment.

But considered afterwards, this was still one of the less painful parts. While it was going on, he began to feel thirsty. He knew that Tsao Mêng-tê or somebody had once quenched his soldiers’ thirst by telling them that there was a plum orchard ahead of them. But no matter how hard he thought of the sweet sourness of plums, he felt just as thirsty as ever. He tried moving his chin and biting his tongue, but his mouth remained as feverish as ever. And it would certainly have been somewhat easier for him to bear had the unglazed jar not been sitting by his head. But from the mouth of the jar, the sweet fragrance of the wine assaulted his nose incessantly. Moreover, perhaps because of his state of mind, he even felt the fragrance of the wine growing stronger and stronger every minute. Thinking that at least he would have a look at the jar, he raised his eyes. Rolling them up, he saw the mouth of the jar and the upper half of its generously bulging side. This was all he saw with his eyes, but at the same time there floated into his imagination the brimming golden wine in its shadowy interior. Unconsciously he licked his chapped lips once around with his parched tongue, but there was not the least indication of any saliva. Even the sweat, dried up by the sun, now ceased to flow.

Then followed in succession two or three severe attacks of dizziness. His head had ached incessantly for some time. In his heart, he gradually came to hate the mountain priest. He wondered why he, in his position, had ever allowed himself to be taken in by such a man’s fair speeches and made to suffer such fool’s pain. Meanwhile his throat became drier and drier. His chest became strangely queasy. He could bear to lie still no longer. So at last he boldly determined to ask the priest to stop operations and, panting, opened his mouth.

Then the thing happened. Liu began to feel an indescribable mass creeping up little by little from his breast into his throat. Sometimes it seemed to be wriggling like an earthworm and sometimes to be crawling step by step like a gecko. Anyhow some soft thing, in all its softness, was slowly making its way up along his gullet. At last, just as he felt that it had forced its way past his Adam’s apple, something like a loach suddenly slipped out of the dark interior and sprang energetically into the outer world.

At that instant from the jar was heard a sound like something dropping with a flop into the wine.

Then the mountain priest suddenly got up from where he had been calmly squatting and began to untie the cord wound round Liu’s body. Now that the wine worm was out, they might feel easy.

“Did it come out?” said Liu in a voice like a groan, and raising his dizzy head and in the greatness of his curiosity forgetting even his thirst, he crawled naked as he was to the jar. When Master Sun saw this, he hurried to the others protecting himself against the sun with his fan of white feathers. There, when the three peeped into the jar together, they saw something like a small salamander, flesh-colored like cinnabar, swimming about in the wine. It was some three inches long. It had both mouth and eyes. As it swam, it seemed to be drinking the wine. When Liu saw this, he suddenly felt sick.