《洗澡》结尾,姚太太为许彦成、杜丽琳送行,请吃晚饭。饭桌是普通的方桌。姚太太和宛英相对独坐一面,姚宓和杜丽琳并坐一面,许彦成和罗厚并坐一面。有读者写信问我:那次宴会是否乌龟宴。我莫名其妙,请教朋友。朋友笑说:“那人心地肮脏,认为姚宓和许彦成在姚家那间小书房里偷情了。” 我很嫌恶。我特意要写姚宓和许彦成之间那份纯洁的友情,却被人这般糟蹋。假如我去世以后,有人擅写续集,我就麻烦了。现在趁我还健在,把故事结束了吧。这样呢,非但保全了这份纯洁的友情,也给读者看到一个称心如意的结局。每个角色都没有走形,却更深入细致。我当初曾声明:故事是无中生有,纯属虚构,但人物和情节却活生生地好像真有其事。姚宓和许彦成是读者喜爱的角色,就成为书中主角。既有主角,就改变了原作的性质。原作是写知识分子改造思想;那群知识分子,谁是主角呀?我这部《洗澡之后》是小小一部新作,人物依旧,事情却完全不同。我把故事结束了,谁也别想再写什么续集了。 二○一○年六月十一日 Preface At the end of Baptism, Mrs. Yao arranged a farewell dinner for Xu Yancheng and Du Lilin. The table was an ordinary square one. Mrs. Yao and Wanying sat alone, facing each other. Yao Mi and Du Lilin sat beside each other on one side, while Xu Yancheng and Luo Hou sat on the other. One reader wrote me a letter asking, “Was that dinner party a banquet for cuckolds?” I was taken aback, and asked a friend’s opinion. My friend laughed and said, “That person has a dirty mind. He thought Yao Mi and Xu Yancheng were having a secret affair in that little study.” I was disgusted. I had made a point of writing about the chaste friendship between Yao Mi and Xu Yancheng, and now this man had cheapened it. If someone should presume to write a sequel after my death I’d have a real problem. So I decided to finish the story while I’m still alive. This way, not only can I preserve that chaste friendship, but also give my readers a gratifying and happy ending. None of the characters has changed; rather they are more finely delineated. I have made it clear before that the story is completely fictitious, entirely fabricated. But characters and plot, it seems, have a will of their own. Since readers like Yao Mi and Xu Yancheng, they have become the main characters. But if there are any main characters, that changes the nature of the original work. The original work was about the thought-reform of intellectuals: among that flock of intellectuals, who was the main character? My After the Baptism is just a small new work. The characters are the same, but the plot is completely changed. Now that I’ve brought the story to a cloes, please, let no one think of writing a continuation. June 11, 2010
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