会议室里弥漫着浓烈的烟雾，如在座各位的思绪，混沌、缭绕。地区“创三优”检查团给该县的总评分是九十八点一，很使县“五四三”活动委员会的委员们疑惑，全地区十个县，他们县夺魁呼声一直很高，何处被扣了一点九分？“问题会不会出在百货商场？《表扬与批评》上一个顾客批评商场只进高跟鞋、不进平跟鞋，”甲委员说。“不可能。”商业局长说：“那是一个月前的意见，商场接受批评已满足了顾客的要求，地区商业局长还表扬了这件事。”沉默。令人讨厌的一点九分。“我看问题出在街上，今天风大，地上有些黄叶。”乙委员说。“何以见得？”城建局长说，“秋风落叶乃自然规律，数片黄叶何足挂齿。”迷惑。令人费解的一点九分。“据我的分析，分数扣在昨晚的歌舞晚会上，青年人对演出表现过分热烈，导致他们对我县‘优良秩序’的怀疑。”丙委员说。“绝对不会。”文化局长说，“看完演出，地区文化局长说，他很少看到台上台下如此热烈而默契的演出。”沉闷。令人寒心的一点九分。委员会主任眨巴着眼睛，细细地琢磨着：“只少一点九？……一点九……”坐在身边的县政府办公室主任突然受了启发，说：“九十八点一，只少一点九……对了！”忽然，主任拍案而起，嚷道：“是不是我们接待吃饭少了一点酒！”“一点九”——“一点酒”！众人顿开茅塞。饮食服务公司经理忙站起来说：“怪不得哩，地区经理一来就说，这次评比，十拿九稳。”“食拿酒——稳。”委员会再次陷入沉默、迷惑、沉闷之中。

 居祖纯编:

 One Point Nine

Chai Jianzhu

 The conference room was filled with thick tumbling smoke, as were the minds of the conferees with confused thoughts.

The group sent by the Prefecture to inspect the “3-good” gave the county 98.1 points in total. This very much perplexed the members of the county committee responsible for the promotion of spiritual civilization. Of the ten counties in the prefecture, their county had been the most hopeful of getting full marks. Why had they taken off one point nine?

“Can it be the department store?” one committee member volunteered an explanation. “Can it be the complaint on the Customers’ Book that only high-heeled shoes are on sale?”

“Impossible!” The head of the Commercial Bureau retorted. “That complaint was made a month ago. The store listened to the complaint and is seeing to the different needs of the customers. The head of the Commercial Bureau of the Prefecture praised them for that.”

Silence ensued, during which everyone puzzled over the missing one point nine.

“In my opinion,” another committee member broke the silence, “it must be the streets. It was windy; there were fallen leaves on the streets.”

“That explanation can hardly hold water,” the head of the Urban Construction Bureau argued. “Leaves will fall in autumn, it’s the law of nature. A couple of leaves on the streets shouldn’t matter at all.”

General bewilderment. Everybody again racked their brains over the missing one point nine.

“In my opinion,” a third member stated, “they took off one point nine because the young people responded too enthusiastically to the performances at the Song and Dance Party last night. This must have made them doubt the ‘good social order’ of our county.”

“Absolutely impossible!” the Head of the Cultural Bureau corrected him. “After the show, the Head of the Cultural Bureau of the Prefecture told me such wonderful performances on the stage and such warm and spontaneous responses from the audience are very rare.”

The missing one point nine again plunged the room into an oppressive atmosphere.

“Only one point nine short,…one point nine,…” The committee chairman was puzzling over the problem, blinking his eyes and murmuring the figure.

“Ninety-eight point one, one point nine short,…” echoed the director of the County Government Office sitting nearby. Suddenly he had an inspiration. Giving the table a loud thump, he shot up from his seat, and yelled, “I’ve got it! It must be because there was no wine at the welcome banquet.”

“One pot of wine saved” means “one point nine deducted”. That at once opened the eyes of everybody to the crux of the problem.