IV- That by Cheng

"Mr. Wei, your sixth son has been born."

Looking towards the city, this land embodies power, success, and wealth. I had just received the news that I dreaded. Linh did not die and on top of that, she gave birth to this waste. How am I going to clear my family's name soiled by this rubbish?

The news was already being spread through the media and social networks. The sixth son of Tokymo's most powerful family had just been born from the womb of a prostitute from the lower town. The people wanted me to take responsibility for my mistakes, to take the child and the mother back to live among us. And if that wasn't possible, I had to help them all my life. But above all, Linh and her son had to enter the city because thanks to this child she had become Japanese.

Well, if the people ask for it, I can only accept. Linh and her son will enter the city, live in Tokymo with me and my family. And this until death does us part.

2 months later.

The news had just come out. Now everyone knows about the tragic accident of the deceased Wei Linh and her son Wei Cheng. The latter had survived by some miracle but his mother passed away.

Reactions were discreet because people knew. They knew why this woman had died and they knew the fate of this child who would probably die a few days later from his injuries. But the law of the Omerta always managed to transcend the law of democracy.

However, these people were wrong about one thing, Cheng will not die so soon, his family's survival depends on it.

The consequences of this accident were followed by multiple tests on the child after the discovery of the doctors who were taking care of him. Cheng was pureblood, a direct descendant of the people who once lived in the land of the rising sun. Linh was one of the last euniponnes* and her son had inherited her blood.

"Has your decision been made, my dear friend?"

"It would be foolish of me not to keep him."

"What are you going to do with him? he will serve you no good other than to keep the old fool on leash."

"I intend to do so as long as his plan seems to work."

"And if it doesn't?"

"It's easy to erase a person's traces, especially when they're just human."

Seventeen years later Cheng had survived locked up in the basement of the family estate where he lived free to stay.

His father had built him a two hundred square meter flat sheltered from the outside world. Locking the child in a golden prison. He had known no one but his teachers, his nanny, and his father. He only knew the world through the books and stories that Chunli had told him since he was a little boy.

Today, his father had a meeting with a man he called "old fool" about a scientific achievement.

" What's the weather like outside?"

"It's sunny and shiny, your younger brothers and sisters are..."

She was cut by the painful smile on my face. I urged her to continue curious to know what my brothers and sisters were doing outside.

"They're playing in the gardens," she said before changing the conversation. "Has your father told you the news?"

"Yes, I hope he didn't."

"Cheng my angel, you've been living in this place for seventeen years now. If this scientist has succeeded in his work you'll be able to get out of here."

"To be locked up in a laboratory and drained of my blood just to create a perfect race. The elite of this world will rule and rebuild this land that has been destroyed by the mistakes of our ancestors."

"I..."

"No! I'm not done. Such a world is not for the weak peasant. Misery and sadness cannot coexist with this future perfect world. Then the lower town will have to be razed to the ground and all its people eliminated. Like my late mother, they will end their lives in immense suffering. If this is the price of my freedom, I prefer to die in this luxurious cellar."

"This is your wish, Cheng?" she said in a soft voice.

I looked at her and nodded.

"Yes, if the project has worked out, I won't hesitate, Chunli."

"Would I be a traitor to you?"

"No, I'll respect your choices."

After this short discussion, she finished what she had to do and left, not without giving me one last look.

I never fought for my freedom and my rights. I accepted to live here without rebelling for a good reason. Nevertheless, even if I am docile there are certain things that I could never accept. And genocide is one of those things.

I don't pretend to call myself a martyr, far from it, because my plans are not only humanistic. No, I'm not stupid and ignorant enough to think that what I'm going to do will pass so easily.

I will have to protect myself and for that, I need to surround myself with good people. They don't necessarily have to be loyal, manipulable will do the trick.

Two hours later I was in my living room, a large empty room full of useless objects surrounding the large table decorated with a multitude of chairs. This room accentuated my loneliness because of its size and symbolism. Indeed, I never ate with anyone but my thoughts made the welcoming aspect of this room even more painful. But in thirty minutes, if everything goes according to plan, I will leave this room to enjoy a pseudo-freedom.

In front of me, there was a plate filled with a letter written by my allies. It stated that the meeting was leading to a deal where both parties could enjoy their object with constraints.

I felt like an object, something too precious to be scattered but important enough to be used.

This disgusting feeling brought up uninvited tears.

Today, November 2, 3001, I, Wei Cheng, was going to kill the most powerful man in the city.