Card, Orson Scott - SS - Cheater.pdf - Orson Scott Card - przemosta

learned to read, he tried to ind sto-

ries about Communists or about the

family Han or about children with

little red lights. There were none to

be found.

glory. But someday it will have

that glory back and all the world

will see that we are still the Middle

Kingdom. And do you know who

will bring that glory back to Chi-

na?”

His father played with him several

times a day. He grew up with his

father’s loving hands caressing him,

cufing him playfully; he grew up

with his father’s smile. His father

praised him whenever he learned

something; it became Tzu’s endeav-

or every day to learn something so

he could tell Father.

“Who, Father?”

“My son, my little Master, Han

Tzu.”

“Where did China’s glory go, so I

can bring it back?”

“China was the center of the

world,” said Father. “We invented

everything. All the barbarian king-

doms around China stole our ideas

and turned them into terrible weap-

ons. We left them in peace, but they

would not leave us in peace, so they

came and broke the power of the

emperors. But still the Chinese re-

sisted. Our glorious ancestor, Yuan

Shikai, was the greatest general in

the last age of the emperors.

Artwork by Jin Han

“You spell my name Tzu,” said

Tzu, “even though it’s pronounced

just like the word ‘zi.’ T-Z-U is

the old way of spelling, called ...

‘Wade-Giles.’ The new way is

‘pinyin.’”

Cheater

by Orson Scott Card

“Very good, my Tzu, my Little

Master,” said Father.

“There’s another way of writing

even older than that, where each

word has its own letter. It was very

hard to learn and even harder to

put on computer so the government

changed all the books to pinyin.”

Han Tzu was the bright and shin-

ing hope of his family. He wore a

monitor embedded in the back of

his skull, near the top of his spine.

Once, when he was very little, his

father held him between mirrors in

the bathroom. He saw that a little

red light glowed there. He asked his

father why he had a light on him

when he had never seen another

child with a light.

“The emperors were weak, and the

revolutionaries were strong. Yuan

Shikai could see that weak emper-

ors could not protect China. So he

took control of the government.

He pretended to agree with the

revolutionaries of Sun Yat-sen, but

then destroyed them and seized the

imperial throne. He started a new

dynasty, but then he was poisoned

by traitors and died, just as the

Japanese invaded.

“You are a brilliant little boy,” said

Father.

“So now people give their children

names spelled the old Wade-Giles

way because they don’t want to

let go of the lost glories of ancient

China.”

“Because you’re important,” said

Father. “You will bring our family

back to the position that was taken

from us many years ago by the

Communists.”

Father stopped smiling. “Who told

you that?”

“The Chinese people were punished

for the death of Yuan Shikai. First

the Japanese invaded China and

many died. Then the Communists

took over the government and ruled

as evil emperors for a hundred

years, growing rich from the slav-

ery of the Chinese people. Oh, how

they yearned for the day of Yuan

Tzu was not sure how a little red

light on his neck would raise his

family up. Nor did he know what

a Communist was. But he remem-

bered the words and when he

“It was in the book,” said Tzu. He

was worried that somehow he had

disappointed Father.

“Well, it’s true. China has lost its

Shikai! Oh how they wished he had

not been slain before he could unite

China against the barbarians and

the oppressors!”

that our city of Nanyang and our

province of Henan are now leaders

in Chinese manufacturing.”

Tzu got to his feet and went around

the garden looking for things to

crush. He tried a stone, but it wasn’t

crushable. He broke a twig, but

when he tried to crush the pieces, it

hurt his hand. He crushed a worm

and it made his hands smeary with

ichor. The worm was dead. What

good was a crushed worm? What

was an enemy? Would it look like

this when he crushed one?

Tzu had heard of manufacturing.

“Does she make cars?”

There was a light in Father’s eyes

that made Tzu a little afraid and yet

also very excited. “Why would they

poison him if our glorious ancestor

was so good for China?” he asked.

“Your mother invented the process

that allows almost half of the light

of the sun to be converted directly

to electricity. That’s why the air in

Nanyang is always clean and our

cars sell better than any others in

the world.”

“Because they wanted China to

fail,” said Father. “They wanted

China to be weak among the na-

tions. They wanted China to be

ruled by America and Russia, by

India and Japan. But China al-

ways swallows up the barbarians

and rises again, triumphant over

all. Don’t you forget that.” Father

tapped Tzu’s temples. “The hope of

China is in there.”

He hoped his enemies were softer

than stone. He couldn’t crush

stones at all. But it was messy and

unpleasant to crush worms, too.

It was much more fun to let them

crawl across his hand.

“Then Mama should be emperor!”

said Tzu.

“But your father is very impor-

tant, too,” said Father. “Because

I worked hard when I was young,

and I made a lot of money, and

I used that money to pay for her

research when nobody else thought

it would lead to anything.”

Tutors began to come to the house.

None of them played with him for

very long at a time, and each one

had his own kind of games. Some

of them were fun, and Tzu was very

good at many of them. Children

were also brought to him, boys who

liked to wrestle and race, girls who

wanted to play with dolls and dress

up in adult clothing. “I don’t like to

play with girls so much,” said Tzu

to his father, but Father only an-

swered, “You must know all kinds

of people when you rule over them

someday. Girls will show you what

to care about. Boys will show you

how to win.”

“In my head?”

“To do what Yuan Shikai did, you

must irst become a great general.

That’s why you have that monitor

on the back of your neck.”

“Then you be emperor,” said Tzu.

“I am one of the richest men in

China,” said Father, “certainly the

richest in Henan province. But be-

ing rich is not enough to be emper-

or. Neither is being smart. Though

from your mother and me, you will

grow up to be both.”

Tzu touched the little black box.

“Do great generals all have these?”

“You are being watched. This

monitor will protect you and keep

you safe. I made sure you had the

perfect mama to make you very,

very smart. Someday they’ll give

you tests. They’ll see that the blood

of Yuan Shikai runs true in your

veins.”

“What does it take to be emperor?”

So Tzu learned he should care

about tending babies and bringing

home things for the pretend mama

to cook, though his own mama nev-

er cooked. He also learned to run as

fast as he could and to wrestle hard

and cleverly and never give up.

“You must crush all your enemies

and win the love and obedience of

the people.”

“Where’s Mama?” asked Tzu, who

at that age had no idea of what

‘tests’ were or why someone else’s

blood would be in his veins.

Tzu made a ist with his hand, as

tight and strong a ist as he could. “I

can crush bugs,” he said. “I crushed

a beetle once.”

When he was ive years old, he

read and did his numbers far better

than the average for his age, and his

tutors were well-satisied with his

progress. Each of them told him so.

“She’s at the university, of course,

doing all the smart things she does.

Your mother is one of the reasons

“You’re very strong,” said Father.

“I’m proud of you all the time.”

Then one day he had a new tu-

tor. This tutor seemed to be more

important than all the others. Tzu

played with him ive or six times a

day, ifteen minutes at a time. And

the games were new ones. There

would be shapes. He would be

given a red one that was eight small

blocks stuck together, and then

from a group of pictures of blocks

he had to choose which one was the

same shape. “Not the same color --

it can be a different color. The same

shape,” said the tutor.

meaningless lists perfectly memo-

rized. It wasn’t funny after a while

to have the ball come out of the ish

which came out of the tree which

came out of the car which came out

of the briefcase, but he couldn’t get

it out of his memory.

the tutor playfully. Tzu hated it

when he acted playful.

“Mama to be home more. She never

plays with me.”

“Your mama is very busy. And

that can’t be the prize because the

people who give the prize aren’t

your mama.”

Once he had played them often

enough, Tzu became bored with

all the games. That was when he

realized that they were not games at

all. “But you must go on,” the tutor

would say. “Your father wants you

to.”

“That’s what I want.”

“What if the prize was a ride in a

spaceship?” said the tutor.

Soon Tzu was very good at inding

that shape no matter how the pic-

ture was turned around and twisted,

and no matter what color it was.

Then the tutor would bring out a

new shape, and they’d start over.

“He didn’t say so.”

“I don’t care about a ride in a

spaceship,” said Tzu. “I saw the

pictures. It’s just more stars out

there, the same as you see from

here in Nanyang. Only Earth is

little and far away. I don’t want to

be far away.”

“He told me. That’s why he brought

me here. So you would become

very good at these games.”

He was also given logic questions

that made him think for a long time,

but soon he learned to ind the clas-

siications that were being used. All

dogs have four legs. This animal

has four legs. Is it a dog? Maybe.

Only mammals have fur. This

animal has fur. Is it a mammal?

Yes. All dogs have four legs. This

animal has three legs. Is it a dog? It

might be an injured dog -- some in-

jured dogs have only three legs. But

I said all dogs have four legs. And I

said some dogs have only three legs

because they’re broken but they’re

still dogs! And the tutor smiled and

agreed with him.

“I am very good at them.”

“But we want you to be the best.”

“Don’t worry,” said the tutor. “The

prize will make you very happy

and it will make your father very

proud.”

“Who is better? You?”

“I’m an adult.”

“If I win,” said Tzu. He thought of

the times that other children beat

him in races and wrestling. He usu-

ally won but not always. He tried

to think how they would turn these

games into a contest. Would he

have to make shapes for the other

child to guess, and the child would

make shapes for him? He tried to

think up logic questions and lists to

memorize. Lists that you couldn’t

put inside each other or stack

up. Except that he could always

imagine something going inside

something else. He could imagine

anything. He just ended up with

more stupid lists he couldn’t forget.

“How can I be best if nobody is

worst?”

“We want you to be one of the best

of all the ive-year-old children in

the world.”

“Why?”

The tutor paused, considering. Tzu

knew that this meant he would

probably tell a lie. “There are

people who go around playing these

games with children, and they give

a prize to the best ones.”

Then there were the memoriza-

tion tests. He learned to memorize

longer and longer lists of things by

putting them inside a toy cupboard

the tutor told him to create in his

mind, or by mentally stacking them

on top of each other, or putting

them inside each other. This was

fun for a while, though pretty soon

he got sick of having all kinds of

“What’s the prize?” asked Tzu

suspiciously.

Life was getting dull. He wanted to

go outside of the garden walls and

walk around the noisy streets. He

“What do you want it to be?” asked

could hear cars and people and bi-

cycles on the other side of the gate,

and when he stuck his eye right

up against the crack in the gate

he could see them whiz by on the

street. Most of the pedestrians were

talking Chinese, like the servants,

instead of Common, like Father and

the tutors, but he understood both

languages very well, and Father

was proud of that, too. “Chinese is

the language of Emperors,” said Fa-

ther, “but Common is the language

that the rest of the world under-

stands. You will be luent in both.”

Was she really this stupid? Tzu ran

to Mu-ren and said, “Wei Dun-nuan

needs a key to the gate.”

“I don’t want to be the best child,”

said Tzu. “I want to see what’s out-

side the gate.”

“She does?” said Mu-ren. “What-

ever for.”

“After you take the tests,” said

Father, laughing. “Plenty of time.

You’re still very very young. Your

life isn’t over yet.”

“So we can go outside and read.”

By then Mu-ren had caught up with

him. She shook her head at Mu-

ren. Mu-ren squatted in front of

Tzu. “Little master,” she said, “you

don’t need to go outside. Your papa

doesn’t want you out on the street.”

The tests. He had to take the tests

irst. He had to be best child before

he could go out of the garden.

So he worked hard at his games

with the tutors, trying to get bet-

ter and better so he could win the

tests and go outside. Meanwhile,

he also studied all the walls of the

garden to see if there was a way to

get through or under or over them

without waiting.

But even though Tzu knew Chi-

nese, he could hardly understand

what was said by the passersby.

They spoke so quickly and their

voices rose and fell in pitch, so it

was hard to hear, and they were

talking about things he didn’t un-

derstand. There was a whole world

he knew nothing about and he

never got to see it because he was

always inside the garden playing

with tutors.

That was when Tzu realized he was

a prisoner.

They come here and teach me what

Father wants me to learn. I’m sup-

posed to become the best child.

Even the children that come here

are the ones they pick for me. How

do I know if I’m the best, when I

never get to ind children on my

own? And what does it matter if

I’m best at boring games? Why

can’t I ever leave this house and

garden?

Once he thought he found a place

where he could squeeze under a

fence, but he no sooner had his arm

through than one of the tutors found

him and dragged him back in. The

next time that place had tight metal

mesh between the bottom of the

fence and the ground.

“Let’s go outside the walls today,”

he said to his Common tutor.

“But I’m here for us to read togeth-

er,” she said.

“To keep you safe,” Father ex-

plained that evening. Mu-ren or the

tutor must have told him about the

key. “You’re a very important little

boy. I don’t want you to be hurt.”

Another time he tried to climb a

box set on top of a bin, and when

he got to the top he could see the

street, and it was glorious, hundreds

of people moving in all directions

but almost never bumping into each

other, the bicycles zipping along

and not falling over, and the silent

cars crawling through as people

moved out of the way for them.

Everyone wore bright colors and

looked happy or at least interested.

Every single person had more free-

dom than Tzu did.

“Let’s go outside the walls and read

today,” said Tzu.

“I won’t be hurt.”

“I can’t,” she said. “I don’t have the

key.”

“That’s because you won’t go

out there until you’re ready,” said

Father. “Right now you have more

important things to do. Our garden

is very large. You can explore any-

where you want.”

“Mu-ren has a key,” said Tzu. He

had seen the cook go out of the gate

to shop for food in the market and

come back with a cart. “Pei-Tian

has a key, too.” That was Father’s

driver, who brought the car in and

out through the gate.

“I’ve looked at all of it.”

What kind of emperor will I be if

I let people keep me inside a cage

like a pet bird?

“Look again,” said Father. “There’s

always more to ind.”

“But I don’t have a key.”

So he tried to swing his leg up onto

the top of the wall, but once again,

before he could even get his body

weight onto the top, along came

a tutor, all in a dither, to drag him

down and scold him. And when

he came back to the place, the bin

was no longer near the wall. Noth-

ing was ever near the garden walls

again.

“No,” said Guo-rong. “You must

always wait for the question to be

completely inished before you

answer.”

Tzu turned and looked at them.

He didn’t know the test was from

soldiers. But now it became clear to

him. Father wanted him to become

a great general like Yuan Shikai.

The beginning of that would be to

enter the military. Not the Chinese

Army, but the leet of the whole

world.

“Why?”

“That’s the rule of the game,” he

said. “If you answer any question

too fast, then the whole game is

over and you lose.”

But he didn’t want to go into space.

He just wanted to go out on the

street.

Hurry up with the tests, then,

thought Tzu. I want to be out there

with all the people. There were

children out there, some of them

holding onto their mothers’ hands,

but some of them not holding onto

anybody. Just ... loose. I want to be

loose.

That was a stupid rule, but Tzu

obeyed it. “This is boring,” he said.

He knew Father would not want

him to ask about this, however.

So he smiled at the man and the

woman and bowed to each in turn.

They bowed back, smiling also.

“The test will be soon,” said Guo-

rong. “And you’ll be completely

ready for it. But don’t tell the

testers about any of your practice

with me.”

Then one day the newest tutor,

Shen Guo-rong, the one with the

logic games and lists, stood outside

Tzu’s room and talked with his fa-

ther in a low voice for a long time.

He came in with a paper, which he

looked at long and hard.

“Why not?”

Soon Tzu was alone in his play-

room with the two of them. No

tutors, no servants, no Father.

“It will look better for you if they

don’t know about me, that’s all.”

The woman spread out some papers

and brought out shapes, just like the

ones he had practiced with.

That was the irst time that Tzu

realized that there might be some-

thing wrong with the way he was

being prepared for the tests. But

he had little time to think about it,

because the very next day, a strange

woman and a strange man came to

the house. They had no folds over

their eyes and had strange ruddy

skin, and they wore uniforms he

recognized from the vids. They

were with the I.F., the International

Fleet.

“What’s on that paper?”

“Have you seen these before?” she

asked.

“A note from your father.”

He nodded.

“Can I read it?” asked Tzu.

“Where?”

“It’s not a note to you, it’s a note to

me,” said Guo-rong.

Then he remembered he wasn’t

supposed to talk about Guo-Rong,

so he just shrugged.

But when he set it down, it wasn’t

a note at all. It was covered with

diagrams and words. And that day,

all their games were chosen by

Guo-rong after consulting with the

paper.

“You don’t remember?”

“He’s luent in Common?” the man

said.

He shrugged again.

It went like that for days. Always

the same answers, until Tzu knew

them all in order and could start

reciting them before the questions

were asked.

“Yes,” said Father -- Father was

home! Tzu ran into the room and

hugged his father. “This is a special

day,” Father told him as he hugged

him back. “These people are going

to play some games with you. A

kind of test.”

She explained the game to him -- it

was just like the one Guo-Rong

had played. And when she held up

a shape, it was the very one they

had practiced with, and he instantly

recognized it from the choices on

the paper. He pointed.

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