Лю Цысинь - Hold Up the Sky

“When the Senior Official finished, Lu Wenming began. I’ll take care of things with the Central Commission. You just make sure you take over properly from the cadres in that project group. I’ll break off training at the Central Party School next week and come back to help you—

“ Scoundrel! The Senior Official once again slammed the table. Lu Wenming jumped in fright. Is that how you took my words? You thought I was trying to get this young man to abandon his principles and duty?! Wenming, you’ve known me for years. From the depths of your heart, do you really think I have so little sense of Party and principle? When did you become so oily ? It saddens me. Then he turned to you. Young man, you’ve done a truly exceptional job so far on your work. You must stand fast in the face of interference and pressure, and hand the corrupt elements their comeuppance! This case hurts the eyes and heart to look upon. You must not spare them, in the name of the people, in the name of justice! Don’t let what I just said burden you. I was just reminding you as an old Party member to be careful, to avoid serious consequences beyond your prediction. But there’s one thing I know—you must get to the bottom of this terrible corruption case. The Senior Official took out a piece of paper as he spoke, handing it to you solemnly. Is this wide enough in scope for you? ”

Song Cheng had known right then that they’d set up a sacrificial altar and were ready to lay out the offerings. He looked at the list of names. It was wide enough in scope, truly enough, enough in both rank and quantity. It would be a corruption case to astound the entire nation, and with the case’s triumphant conclusion, Song Cheng would become known throughout the country as an anti-corruption hero, revered by the people as a paragon of justice and virtue.

But he was clear in his heart that this was nothing more than a lizard severing its own tail in a crisis. The lizard would escape; the tail would grow back in no time. He saw the Senior Official watching him, and in that moment he really did think of a lizard, and he shivered. But Song Cheng knew, too, that the Senior Official was afraid, that he’d made him afraid, and it made Song Cheng proud. The pride made him vastly overestimate his own capabilities at that moment, but more vitally, there was that ineffable thing running in the blood of every scholar-idealist. He made the fatal choice.

“You stood and took up the pile of documents with both hands. You said to the Senior Official, By the Internal Supervision Regulations of the CCP, the secretary of discipline inspection has the authority to conduct inspections upon Party officials of the same rank. According to the rules, sir, these documents can’t stay with you. I’ll take them.

“Lu Wenming went to stop you, but the Senior Official gently tugged him back. At the door, you heard your classmate say in a low voice behind you, You’ve gone too far, Song Cheng.

“The Senior Official walked you to your car. As you were about to leave, he took your hand and said slowly, Come again soon, young man. ”

Only later did Song Cheng fully realize the deeper meaning to his words: Come again soon. You don’t have much time left.

THE BIG BANG

“Who the hell are you?” Song Cheng stared at Bai Bing fearfully. How could he know this much? No one could know this much!

“Okay, we’ll end the reminiscing here.” Bai Bing cut off his narrative with a wave of his hand. “Let me go into the whys and wherefores, to clear up the questions you have. Hmm… do you know what the big bang is?”

Song Cheng stared blankly at Bai Bing, his brain unable to immediately process Bai’s words. At last he managed the response of a normal human and laughed.

“Okay, okay,” Bai Bing said. “I know that was sudden. But please trust that I’m all there in the head. To go through everything clearly, we really do need to start with the big bang. This… Damn, how do I even explain it to you? Let’s return to the big bang. You probably know at least a little.

“Our universe was created in a massive explosion twenty billion years ago. Most people picture the big bang like some ball of fire bursting forth in the darkness of space, but that’s incorrect. Before the big bang, there was nothing, not even time and space. There was only a singularity, a single point of undefined size that rapidly expanded to form our universe today. Anything and everything, including us, originated from the singularity’s expansion. It is the seed from which all living things grew! The theory behind it all is really deep, and I don’t fully understand it myself, but the relevant part is this: With the advancement of physics and the appearance of ‘theories of everything’ like string theory, physicists are starting to figure out the structure of that singularity and create a mathematical model for it. This is different from the quantum-theory models they had before. If we can determine the fundamental parameters of the singularity before the big bang, we can determine everything in the universe it forms too. An uninterrupted chain of cause and effect running through the entire history of the universe…” He sighed. “Seriously, how am I supposed to explain it all?”

Bai Bing saw Song Cheng shake his head, as if he didn’t understand, or as if he didn’t even want to keep listening.

Bai Bing said, “Take my advice and stop thinking about the suffering you’ve gone through. Honestly, I haven’t been much luckier. Like I said, I’m just an ordinary person, but now they’re hunting me, and I may end up even worse than you, all because I know everything. You can hold on to the fact that you were martyred for your sense of duty and faith, but I’m… I just have really shitty luck. Enough shit luck for eight reincarnations. I’ve been screwed over even worse than you.”

Song Cheng only continued to look at him, silently, as if to say: No one can be screwed over worse than me.

FRAMED

A week after he met with the Senior Official, Song Cheng was arrested for murder.

To be fair, Song Cheng had already known they’d take extraordinary measures against him. The usual administrative and political methods were too risky to use on someone who knew so much and was already in the process of taking action. But he hadn’t imagined his opponent would move so quickly, or strike so viciously.

The victim was a nightclub dancer called LuoLuo, and he’d died in Song Cheng’s car. The doors were locked from the outside. Two canisters of propane, the type used to refill cigarette lighters, had been tossed into the car, both slit open. The liquid inside had completely evaporated, and the high concentration of propane vapor in the car had fatally poisoned the victim. When the body was discovered, it was clutching a battered, broken cell phone in one hand, clearly used in an attempt to smash the car windows.

The police produced ample evidence. They had two hours of recordings to prove that Song Cheng had been in most irregular association with LuoLuo for the last three months. The most incriminating piece of evidence was the 110 call LuoLuo had made to the police shortly before his death.

LuoLuo

… Hurry. Hurry! I can’t open the car doors! I can’t breathe, my head hurts…

110

Where are you? Can you clarify your situation?!

LuoLuo

… Song… Song Cheng wants to kill me…

[End of transmission]

Afterward, the police found a short phone-call recording on the victim’s cell, preserving an exchange between Song Cheng and the victim.

Song Cheng

Now that we’ve gone this far, how about you break things off with Xu Xueping?

LuoLuo

Why the need, Brother Song? Me and Sister Xu just have the usual man-woman relations. It won’t affect our thing. Hell, it might help.