I get drunk just by seeing you

“I got drunk the moment I saw you” is a flirtatious expression used by Lu Xun to recast sudden attraction as intoxication. In the scene, its force lies not in any literal account of drinking but in the speed with which Lu Xun converts seeing Su Xiangwan into an overwhelming bodily and romantic response.

Meaning and Immediate Context

Lu Xun says the line after Su Xiangwan reacts with surprise and asks whether he is drunk. His reply denies the ordinary explanation while preserving the language of drunkenness: the cause, he claims, is not alcohol but the instant he sees her. The expression therefore functions as a compact compliment, presenting Su Xiangwan as powerful enough to produce disorientation before any drink is established as the cause.

The wording also makes perception the trigger of desire. “The moment” removes any interval between encounter and reaction, while “got drunk” suggests the loss of restraint associated with intoxication. The line transforms a question about his condition into an assertion about her effect on him.

From Speech to Action

The expression is immediately followed by Lu Xun pressing Su Xiangwan against a cabinet and kissing her passionately. Its rhetorical play thus becomes an action rather than remaining a verbal flourish. The phrase first names his apparent loss of control; the kiss then supplies the scene’s physical demonstration of that claim.

This sequence creates a sharp tension between the lightness of the pun and the force of the conduct it introduces. Lu Xun’s words are teasing and self-dramatizing, but the action is sudden and domineering. The expression therefore serves as a bridge from flirtation to physical escalation, making the metaphor of intoxication coincide with a scene in which ordinary composure gives way to pursuit.

Reciprocal Disorientation and Narrative Function

Su Xiangwan is shocked, and her mind goes blank when the kiss arrives. She cannot withstand Lu Xun’s fierce advance and is forced backward step by step, while her body becomes soft with the intensity of the encounter. The narrative places her physical response directly after his declaration, creating a pattern in which his claimed intoxication is answered by her own momentary inability to think clearly.

The expression’s importance comes from this correspondence between language and bodily movement. Lu Xun says that seeing her has made him drunk; the scene then depicts both characters entering a state of heightened sensation in which speech recedes and physical momentum takes over. As a recurring romantic formulation, the line condenses the novel’s association of attraction with surrender, immediacy, and a temporary suspension of self-command.