Chapter 1.6

CHAPTER 7

Fireworks, though somewhat modest compared to the usual ones in Chinese New Year, decorated the sky for a while, starting the celebrations of the birthday number ninety of the patriarch of the clan Xu, who looked splendid in his ritual costume, polychrome and made of silk and other fine materials, and completed with a hat to match. Before dinner -which was prepared with abundance for forty guests- a show was scheduled with traditional Chinese puppets.

The show was superb, the puppets were dressed in lavish costumes, their movements were graceful and tore cries of children and laughter of the elderly. The sons of the patriarch were happy for having organized the entertainment for their dean and conductor.

Since no one wanted to miss the party there were no guards at the entrance of the village. Nobody sounded the alarm, and if there were noises they were covered by the bustle of the entertainment. Suddenly the gloom surrounding the large courtyard was illuminated by powerful spotlights of several trucks converging to the place where the clan members were assembled. The surprise and uncertainty invaded the meeting, the guests looked at each other without understanding whether it was part of the entertainment. Suddenly all hell broke loose; the rattle of automatic weapons thundered the space and it did not stop until there was no one standing around the stage. Afterwards several figures masked and dressed in black walked the place finishing off the wounded, without consideration of sex or age. Finally they returned to the truck and started back.

Xu Chao accelerated his Honda motorcycle in an effort to reach at least the dinner. He knew his grandfather would not forgive his absence, so he had departed the capital of Fujian three hours before. As he approached the farm he was surprised to see that the place was almost completely in the dark. He took off his helmet and immediately his feeling was accentuated by perceiving the silence. With a lump in his throat he approached the site with his legs trembling.

Cheng received an email possibly originated in Fujian and forwarded countless times by unknown internet users who erased the site where it came from and resent it as hidden mail.

The news shook him to the core of his being. He let out a plaintive wail and a few tears rolled from his eyes. The slaughter as narrated by the message was a brutal and inexplicable fact. Cheng had met the now murdered patriarch in his youth in Fujian; the descendants obviously he did not know as many were born after Cheng had left his homeland, anyway they were his relatives to a more or less distant degree and of many of them Cheng could trace his lineage. Unable to overcome the grief he asked himself about the causes of a mass murder of that nature. He immediately realized that the fact reflected the emergence of a new and ruthless force needing to communicate its rise to the world with a bestial deed.

Knowing the activities of his clan in China Cheng immediately related what happened with drug trafficking, but could not clarify the meaning.

Once pacified his spirit he decided to do what he did best to orient himself in difficult circumstances. The old man extracted his ancient coins and proceeded ritually to consult the I Ching.

Cheng built his hexagram line by line from the bottom up. First he asked the Book who was the character that arrived with such a waste of cruelty. When he had finished he analyzed the results and then leaned back in his chair. What he had read confirmed his fears.

The hexagram obtained was number 51, Chen, the Arousing, the Thunder. Even though he had memorized the meaning Cheng read: "It represents the eldest son, who takes over control with energy and power. The newcomer rises from the bowels of the earth ... that is the darkness. ..and produces tremor due to his appearance.” The opinion of the book for this sign explains that the shock terrifies all within one hundred miles, and as for the analysis of the individual lines a six in the second place means that the shock arrives with danger, that "in one hundred thousand ways you lose your treasures."

Cheng went into a deep meditation period to unravel the words of the book. "Who is this older son that arises in the commotion?" He wondered. Obviously being an "eldest son" he would feel with rights to be in charge. Of what? Of the narcotics business? What does it mean that he emerges from the bowels of the earth? Certainly he was not a known figure before his emergence. The reference to an arrival with danger was explicit and did not require any further thought; regarding the possibility of losing the treasures, the only existing treasure was life itself. In short, Cheng drew a profile of the responsible for the slaughter in Fujian, but failed to associate a name or a face to that profile. Anyway he felt that the I Ching information was relevant. Now it was necessary to find out who was emerging as master in the drug business in Fujian and China in general, and that would be his murderer and the danger lurking.

Cheng continued with his consultations. Now he asked the book to provide him with a description of the current situation. In this case the I Ching responded with the hexagram 11 called T´ai, known as The Peace, also characterized as Wealth and whose ruling spoke of happiness and success. The situation represents the trigram Heaven below the one representing the Earth is a design that ensures harmony and prosperity, so the I Ching depicts the current situation as the best of all possible worlds. But analyzing the various lines Cheng noted that the first, third and fifth and were mutants and would therefore quickly be transformed into their opposites. The old man drew the resulting hexagram and obtained the number 29 called Kan sign, the Abysmal, the Precipice, Dangerous Waters.

In short, the I Ching was informing Xu Cheng about the arrival of the eldest son who would drive into the precipice, the abyss all those with whom the child got in contact. Based on his previous experiences Cheng took the warnings of the Book of Changes seriously, and began to ruminate on what strategy should be adopted to neutralize or deflect this force emerged from the depths, which had not yet showed his face.