A Shade of Red - Looking for critics.

[Raylen]

The prologue is work from before. I will work on chapter 1 later.

 

[spoiler=Prologue]

Drip. Drip. Drip. It was raining outside, not a torrent, but a slight drizzle. I looked out the window, there was the city. The drops of water were hitting the ground, forming a puddle, the the new drops, they formed ripples on the resulting puddle. I looked outside for hours, at the city I lived in, amid the dark skies. It was night time..., I couldn't really sleep, I tried to remember, to a long time ago, I never really imagined I'd be in university, lest become president of the student body. It was hard work, fueled by a hate, a hate for the rigors, a hate for our oppressors. I drew up a chair, I thought to when I was young, I remembered a burning building...

 

I never really knew why it was burning. All I remembered was my father was never right after that, I was not even a year old yet. Research reveals that at that time, people wanted to undergo change, a change that would define us to be unique. The "Destruction of the four olds!", was the slogan being chanted on the street. That was just 17 years ago. My father was an artist. His work was awash in flames, red flames, his paintings, his studio, entirely destroyed by the Red Guard. My father, drew western paintings, reflecting the contemporary style, creative, to no bounds.

 

It collapsed under the rigor, and pressure from the Government, nowadays, all he does is brood in our apartment, painting things that were authorized by the government, and seems to have lost the entire meaning of life. He struggles to live, not that he wants to, but he struggles because he doesn't... I swore revenge. I promised myself to make everything better. I promised that, at the end of the day, I will liberate the hearts and minds of people, of the 1 billion people that live in this country.

 

Yet, I see the rain falling, 17 years it has been, I am sitting in the university dormitory, watching rain fall. I would try to remind myself of this promise that I made, but life goes on, as if nothing happened. I dragged myself to the toilet. I looked myself in the mirror, I looked like a standard Chinese, wearing an uniform, given by the government, black hair, cut and trimmed by government barbers, brown eyes... Everything in my life followed a standard, there was nowhere to go, no freedom, no creativity, everything the same.

 

Maybe someday. Maybe someday, I will be able to fulfill this promise, no one knows yet...

 

"Deng..., Deng..., Deng..." *shake*, *shake*

 

I yawned. I didn't really want to wake up. But it had seemed that I slept another night looking out the window into the city. This was the fourth time this week, but thank god it was Saturday. Wait, it's Saturday, why am I being forced to wake up? Anyways, the shaking is getting annoying.

 

" *Yawn...* Kaishi... why did you wake me up?", I said, with an exasperated tone.

 

"You forgot? We were supposed to get the American Exchange Students from the airport this morning!"

 

Kaishi was a new friend I met in university, he was very much like me. He is an Uighur. That statement sounded very heavy. My country has a variety of civil rights issues, it ran Tibet over in 1949, strongly anti-American, anti-Soviet. I blame them for forcing Communism upon us. If it wasn't for three hundred years of colonialism... three hundred years, the white devils tried to colonize us. Anyways, Uighurs are a minority, if the slightest thing goes wrong, they are all subject to massacre.

 

Kaishi is like that, he has similar goals as I do, to liberate everyone from Communism, but he risks much more, much, much more... He is the vice-president of the student body, and he is my room-mate, albeit an annoying one. Of course, I was not going to bother, I had my duties to fulfill as the Student President. I looked at the clock it was 7:30 AM.

 

"Kaishi, just give me some time to put on some more formal clothes for the airport."

 

I regret asking the question. We have no different clothes, all of them are bought from government shops, they all looked like the Chairman Mao outfit. Kaishi was going to respond, but I cut him off.

 

"Nevermind, let's go to the airport."

 

We (Kaishi and I) had no car, the university didn't have one for student use either, so we had to take public transit. It was stupidly crowded, we tried to push into the tram car that lead would take us to the airport, but I'd take a good bet that there were at least 1,000 people with the same situation as us too. In a city of almost 10 million, and trying to get on a tram at downtown is not pretty.

 

When I finally got into the car, I realized Kaishi was missing, I tried looking around, but everyone looked the same, there was barely any breathing room. All I could do was wait, the tram came into another station, some people got off, but more people got on. The train then stopped, I checked my watch, it was 8:00 AM. Damn it. At 8:00 AM the national anthem was to be played at all public locations, and we were expected to sing to it. I was suffocating by being completely squished. Nonetheless, everyone chanted the famous words: "Raise high Zedong's banner!"

 

Okay, the tram started moving again, I felt like vomiting, the American's plane were scheduled to arrive at 10:30 AM, we've barely left downtown, at this rate we won't be there by 12:00. Not to mention Kaishi was nowhere to be seen. Okay, after another half an hour of being crammed in a tram car, we left downtown, and a few stops later, people started leaving, and I had some more breathing room. I felt slightly nauseous, but I guess it could be worse. I went looking for Kaishi, I found him about 10 minutes later at the other end of the tram car.

 

I looked at my watch, it was 9:30, we're actually early. The conductor announced the airport was the next stop, and we got off. The airport was pretty to stupid levels, it was designed to impress foreigners. When the government wants to do something as decoration, they usually do it really well... but when it's not...you can see by the beggars in the rural areas, the undeveloped areas and the shantytowns.

 

Kaishi and I went into the airport, I went to the newspaper stand at the airport, paid 10 Renminbi a paper, stupidly expensive..., and the paper was written by the government, there in glaring headlines..., "Hu Disgraced". This is preposterous, I told Kaishi, they persecute someone who stood up for Tibetans, wanted to preserve their culture, and this is what he gets?!?

 

Kaishi was flustered. I knew he'd be.

 

This was another motivation, to free the hearts and minds, or everyone..., of everyone, from Communism.