Living as a Salted Fish, No Snake on the Marshal's Wrist

Chapter 1: Scientist or Prisoner

"Today we honour Chen Taio Ru for his outstanding achievements in astronautics. With his help we have designed a knew spacecraft that can.."

Pshh...

Taio Ru turned off the TV off as he entered the break room. He hated listening to the ridiculous praise.

"If you really want to thank me give me a holiday." He thought as he grabbed a cup of coffee. The director had been hounding him everyday to finish his Little Sun. Constantly saying, "With this we can change the course of history." The number of times Taio Ru had heard these words made them meaningless.

He was exhausted. All he wanted was to finish the project and take a vacation. "When I get out of here I'll go someplace no one can find me. Like deep in the Amazon forest or should I design an underwater mansion and live at the bottom of the sea? With Little Sun I can easily take care of power consumption, converting sea water into oxygen and making a sustainable natural environment shouldn't be impossible if I have a lighting system that mimics natural lighting..." Taio Ru's mind drifted off as he designed a secluded world he could hide in.

Unfortunately, he knew deep in his heart it could never be fulfilled. Not because he couldn't successfully design a functional place. No, it was because his family, the government, even the world would never let him go.

Since his parents learnt of his brilliant mind they focused all their attention on his studies. From three years old until the age of ten. His life was all about school.

Studying was fun at first. He learned things incredibly quickly and could identify the problem while fabricating a solution within minutes. Whereas others would take years.

Graduating at the age of ten with multiple PHDs in mathematics, chemistry, medicine, physics, engineering, you name it and he learned it. Everything from the hard sciences was drilled into his head.

The upside, he changed how people looked at the world and sent them into a new age of fast technological development. Problems that had baffled scientists for decades were easily solved. New advancements in technology and pharmacology paved the way to humans living longer better lives.

All of this was thanks to Taio Ru's genius. But what did this genius get?

Nothing, but praise, higher expectations, and more work.

...

"Dr Chen the meeting is about to start." One of the younger research assistants said as she entered the break room.

Taio Ru lowered the half full cup of coffee back on the table as he let out long sigh. This meeting was another on a long list of meetings he had to do daily.

"Seriously, if you really want me to finish my work quicker, stop f*** scheduling all these pointless meetings." Taio Ru thought as he dragged us unsteady body towards the familiar cold meeting room.

Everywhere in this place was cold. With supercomputers and temperature sensitive equipment the research centre was kept at a low temperature all year round. It also had that crap and depressing decor of stainless steal and white. Everything was either white or metal.

"Dr Chen I heard the president will be attending the meeting today. I'm so nervous. You must meet with the president often because of all your remarkable work. Dr Chen is there anything I need to be careful of when meeting him?" The research assistant asked her eyes sparkling in anticipation for his answer.

Taio Ru simply looked at her then turned away. He had no intention to speak with this woman. It was all a waste of time and energy.

Not receiving a reply the young woman didn't give up. She had heard from the other researchers that Dr Chen was a little quiet, but that didn't matter. She had admired him since he won the Nobel prize in physics for his outstanding achievements in aeronautics.