February 19, 2040 - Beverly Hills, California, United States“President Crystal Sun has arrived in Taipei, marking the last day of her visit in the People’s Republic of China-”
Chou Tzuyu turned off the television and laid down on her fancy couch. The leather finish was not the least bit comforting, as its cold surface stuck to her cheek. Stupid president, she thought, stupid politicians everywhere.
Her eyeballs scanned the entertainment room, from the gold trim of the curtains to black void that was the 80-inch television hanging on the wall. The place was ringed by surround-sound speakers that immersed yourself in whatever show or movie you were watching. The whole system was the closest you could come to actually being in the show, short of virtual reality, though she also had a VR system on the other side of her house.
It was all that a girl could want for, yet Tzuyu didn’t want any of it. Sure, she was just one more acting gig from being a billionaire, and she had another house like this out in Arizona with a golf course and everything, but material possessions were nothing compared to what really made life worthwhile. Family. Friends. Identity.
Her career started all the way back in 2015, when she debuted as part of the nine-member K-pop band Twice. People said that it was gonna make it big, and it did. Their first single,
Like Ooh-Aah, was released that year, and within a month it hit a hundred million views on YouTube. Every song they released was like this. Work hard, release a single, and travel Korea and the world to tour with the bestest friends you’ve made in your life. Every day was Christmas, it seemed.
2016 rolled around, and everything shattered. Forget Brexit and Trump, that year was defined by her mistake of holding a Taiwanese flag on set. Some internet trolls got a hold of the pic and spread it across the Internet. Rage predictably ensued from Chinese netizens who bullied her by the thousands, her group was dropped from Chinese networks all over, and she was forced to make a humiliating apology to everyone, affirming what used to be the One China policy.
Tzuyu took out her iPhone from her pocket and unrolled it, staring at the screen as she lied on her sofa, letting her legs dangle in the air as she rolled onto her back. “Show me the flag pic, Hani,” she said to her phone, referring to the nickname that she gave it. Hani duly responded by showing the pic on its screen, knowing exactly what Tzuyu was talking about.
Every time she saw that picture, a wave of emotion floods over her. None of them were good. Anger. Spite. Those kinds of emotions. But she kept it anyways. It reminded her of what she stood for. In her heart, she was Taiwanese, and she was not going to let the world make her forget.
After those tumultuous months, things calmed down. People soon forgot about that incident as they moved onto the next celebrity scandal. Twice kept on rising in popularity and they soon had millions of adoring fans from around the world, listening to hits like
Just Like TT,
Signal, and
What is Love? It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows; the K-pop industry was harsh and cruel, and practicing and touring all the time did a number on her health. But it was a great time, compared to what has happened since. She developed close bonds with the other eight members of Twice as they pursued their passions of music and dance.
But all good things had to end. In a few short years, the Crisis happened and the group took a nosedive in popularity as they lost a third of their members.
When Twice disbanded in 2027, Tzuyu returned to Taiwan, where she focused on her solo career. She continued working hard in the media industry, singing, acting and modeling all the time while becoming an international figure in her own right. At the same time, she took her family’s investments in food and medicine and created a business empire that spanned everything from coffee shops to plastic surgery.
However, at the same time the old demons came crawling back. The People’s Republic of China was taking advantage of the Crisis and ramped up its big squeeze on Taiwan. It wasn’t coincidence that the Taiwanese economy continued to suffer from stagflation, as the mainland, the United States, and even Korea and Japan experienced remarkable recoveries from the Crisis.
Conditions on the island deteriorated over the years. Filling up your car became an exercise in patience as Taiwan began experiencing fuel shortages. Unemployed young men, at least those who didn’t escape the island, formed roving street gangs, committing crimes out of desperation and boredom. Everybody in the Legislative Yuan knew they had to do something, but Taiwanese politicians were more known for literally getting into fights than figuring stuff out.
It was only a matter of time when the inevitable happened. A referendum was held in 2035, and by the narrowest of margins Taiwan voted in favor of Reunification over the status quo. Tzuyu even still remembered the numbers - 51.2 percent over 48.8, with 79 percent turnout. To this day, she remains convinced that it was a rigged referendum, but with a margin this close who was going to believe her? And who even believes Beijing’s promise of “One China, Two Systems?” Anyone with a pair of eyes could see what’s happening to Hong Kong and know what Reunification will entail to her homeland.
By the time Reunification happened, Tzuyu had already been active in Taiwanese politics, advocating for the increasingly-impossible option of Taiwanese independence. She knew that a formal declaration of independence would have provoked a military response from the mainland. The referendum was the final death knell, making Taiwanese independence look as ludicrous as an independent California.
She also knew that once Reunification happened, her life was in danger. At any moment CCP goons could come to her house and send her for prison for “destabilizing Chinese society” or “economic crimes” or some other BS like that. She was grateful that the Castro Administration let any Taiwanese refugee automatically gain American citizenship the moment they stepped foot on US soil, just like it did for Cuban refugees back during the Cold War. With that opportunity, she brought her family over to America and started her life anew, settling in this glitzy part of Los Angeles.
Of course, with her luck, President Joaquin Castro got landslided the following year by the pro-China Crystal Sun. One of the first things Sun did as president was rescinding the executive order that let Tzuyu in. Now millions of her fellow men, women and children were trapped under Communist rule, while politicians in Beijing and Washington ignore them and pop champagne.
As soon as she arrived in California, the world-famous actress was approached with multiple acting gigs in Hollywood; it paid to keep her appearance up even as she approached her forties. In the short time she lived in America, she had a lead role in the Oscar-winning production of
Neuromancer, as well as stunt roles in the two Transformers movies she did. She also kept growing her business, now headquartered in LA, expanding into fields like technology and biological augmentation. She even had some augmentation done on herself, ostensibly to market her business and help with her stunt roles. Hopefully, from this exile, she could free her homeland from the grip of the Communist totalitarians in Beijing.
Bored, Tzuyu rolled Hani up and put the phone back in her pocket. She got off her sofa and walked into her kitchen, passing by the pool room and wine closet, neither of which she used often. As she got in, she clapped her hands, automatically opening her fridge. From it, she got out some bread and jelly. Hopefully making a sandwich for herself would get politics off her mind. Not that anything did. Politics was an inseparable part of her life - always has been, and always will be.
She took a long walk from her fridge, which was located at one end of her kitchen island, to the other side of that island. Conveniently, she had a bunch of plates already lying around there. She grabbed one and, carefully avoiding spilling any jelly onto her white quartz countertop, spread some on one piece of bread. She then put a second piece and put the sandwich into her mouth.
As Tzuyu ate her sandwich and got jelly onto on her right hand, she got Hani back out and unrolled her with her left. She once again opened the photo app, this time scrolling until she had old pictures from her Twice days back on display.
Twice members Tzuyu, Mina, Momo, and Sana
She sighed as she looked at herself with her bandmates. She would give anything in the world, whether it was her augmentations or her fame or her wealth, if she could spend one more day with them. She wished that she could binge watch Harry Potter movies with Mina, or go perfume shopping with Sana, or dance to Eminem with Momo. But thanks to the Crisis, that was impossible.
If the flag picture stoked anger, these pictures brought a deep sadness. Everyone was happy and smiling in these pictures, but after more than two decades of facing this world Tzuyu had become a bitter woman. She felt something in her eyes. Tears. She didn’t cry often, but right now all she wanted to do was to fall on the floor and roll around in a puddle of own tears. Instead, she let a single tear fall, first on her cheek and then to the floor, where it made a faint but painfully audible *plunk* sound.
But that was the past. With her clean hand, she wiped her cheek and grabbed Hani to close the Photos app. A few moments of nervous swiping and waiting, and then it was clear - she was in the Underweb, the only place where she could communicate with her contacts without fear of interception.
“Hello?” she messaged, “is this Case?” She did so in English, even though she and Case both knew Mandarin. Hopefully it will make the Chi-Comms care less about their little chat.
“Yes Molly, this is Case,” the man on the other side responded, addressing Tzuyu by the fake name they gave her. She knew Case was also a fake name; like hers, it was taken from
Neuromancer. She wished she knew what Case’s real name was; such was life when dealing with secret organizations.
“I heard you got a new recruit,” she messaged back.
“That is…” The guy on the other side took a few long seconds to type out the last word. “True.”
“Good,” she messaged back. “We’ll need as many people as we can get.”
“That is also true.” Another few seconds passed. “By the way heard your friend Steve is running for Senate.”
“Of course he is!” she wrote back. She got to know Steve Aoki from collabs he did with Twice back in the day. She had looked up to him as a mentor from day one, and it was exciting that he was running for peace, justice, and righteousness. In a world filled with the corrupt and evil, maybe he will be different.
“Back to your concerns,” Tzuyu added, “Need any more funds?”
“Nah we’re good.”
“Sure?”
“Yes.”
That was good. The less she had to dip into her Swiss bank accounts so they could build their fancy computers and power armor, the better. But even when she did, she didn’t mind all that much. Sure, sending money to a designated terrorist organization was illegal - this conversation was illegal - but what is legal and what is right are two different things. And she knew that what she was doing was right.
End of Chapter 5
