ABSTRACT
At this point the couple walk up to their bedroom dresser and, looking at each other’s reflections in the mirror, proceed to have essentially the same conversation, but in reverse: “ ‘Tell me,’ An Jia asked me, “If someone’s hands are clenched into empty fists, and he has no money no power no morality and no looks, how could he, in a single evening, go from being a mere nobody to reaching heaven in a single step and completely transforming himself and so forth […]?” After again ruling out such options as “stealing looting appropriating public funds or marrying into money […],” Fang Yan, too, agrees that perhaps such a person should try his hand at being an author.
