Hangzhou, China – 2006March rain tapped the window of the school like a thousand tiny needles.
In the far corner of the schoolyard, under the gray skies, Li Cu sat alone. The other children gave him wide berth — not out of fear, but disgust. Whispers followed him like shadows.
"That's the son of her.""My dad said his mother was a seductress.""My mom says he's cursed. A bastard child. Should've never been born."
Their words, sharp as daggers, pierced deeper than fists.He was only ten — but already felt a century old.
Li May, his mother, was a woman the adults never forgave. Beautiful. Poor. Mysterious. Rumors wrapped around her like vines. They said she seduced Li Yimming, a wealthy and powerful man with a family and reputation — and gave birth to a child in secret. That child was Li Cu, born at Hangzhou General Hospital, March 21st, 1996.
The adults gossiped behind polite smiles. The children? They inherited the poison without question.
"You're a mistake," one boy spat."Your mom's a whore!" another jeered."You don't belong here!"
They closed in.
Li Cu didn't remember when he stood up. He didn't remember his hands shaking. He only remembered the feeling — a heat, a hum, like static charging in the air. His vision blurred with tears and rage.
And then — lightning.
Blue-white arcs exploded from his fingers. The nearest boy screamed as he was thrown back, skidding across wet concrete. Sparks danced in the rain like vengeful spirits. Two more were hit — one collapsing, twitching, the other falling with a stunned cry.
The world stood still.
The others ran.
Li Cu's chest rose and fell with short, shallow gasps. His hands smoked. His body trembled, not with fear — but a sick, electric thrill.
He didn't know what had happened.But something had awakened.Something that had always been there.
From the shadows behind the school wall, a pair of unseen eyes observed.
A voice — deep, weathered by war and the echoes of centuries — murmured across the veil of reality:
"He is strong in the Force… chaotic, raw. He does not know it yet, but he will bring balance through fire."
And with a whisper carried on the wind, the specter of Darth Marr stirred — not yet revealed, but drawn like a moth to the dark flame now flickering within the child.
Li Cu — the boy branded by society, cursed by blood, broken by isolation — had taken his first step toward the Dark Side.