--Translated from the original Mandarin--

I write these lines for those who will follow in my footsteps.

Little remains of the life I knew before. As I sit here in this cell, awaiting my death, the world I once fought to preserve consumes itself in a nightly spectacle of fire and the thunder of guns.

I am responsible for this.

No.

They are the ones who are responsible--I only uncovered their old crimes, long after I had ceased to fight for order and became one of the Liumang. If one can not cure a sickness, one must at least struggle to know its name. As you lay dying, you see the face of your enemy.

Tonight the fires grow closer. I can hear their voices, the sounds of breaking glass, clashing bodies. I fear that there will be nothing left.

They rose to hear the name of their sickness. I spoke to them their own names.


THE SCAR

I rise while it is still darkness. The business I conduct is ashamed of the light. Our offices are sewers, alleys. We are lucky to survive meetings. What I traffic has value only to the miserable, and thus I am a very wealthy man here.

Those who supply the opium poppies do not live in this place, for nearly nothing will grow within the Scar, and so I depend upon a network built with men and fear. Each fears the next link in the chain more than the last, and I am the most feared of all. The product is never short, the product is never late.

I was once an enforcer of order, and as such, I knew this business very well. I knew all of the trade routes, the ins and outs of production, all of the right persons to target in order to ensure my own rise within the clans. My ruthlessness became legendary. There are only two others in the traffic who have the power to challenge me, but they are far too busy fearing for their own lives.

Millions move freely within the Scar. This place is untouched by law and governance. There is a great shame here which keeps all heads turned away from it. I bless this shame, for it ensures my continued survival, my success. Beneath the feet of all who dwell here is the final resting place of humankind. Body upon body, the endless grave of those who sought to enslave us.