Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 104

New Tales of Old Shanghai
Creative Primary School, Lee, Argus Jay – 11
T
he Old Shanghai was a beautiful city. It was called the Paris of the East and the New York of the West.
There were magnificent mansions, posh cafes and grand ballrooms. But you could only find them in the
International Settlement or the French Concession zones. All around the castle walls of the Old City were rows
and rows of small, shabby houses. I was born in one of those houses and it was where my story began.
I am Nano but in 1925, my name was Nan. I was 11 years old then. I had 7 brothers and 2 sisters. I only
went to school for 2 years because my family couldn’t afford the school fees. So I took up a job as an errand boy
for a rich but very mean Chinese merchant, Master Chu. I worked very hard for him but he only paid me one
small bag of rice per week. My family was very poor and never had enough food to feed all of us. Being the
second-eldest child in the family, I often had to skip lunch or dinner.
Life was hard. The poor people were exploited by the rich merchants. We hated them but we dared not to
offend them. Some of the younger men in my village especially hated the foreign merchants. Scar, the most
daring man in my village, formed a gang to attack and steal from the rich foreign merchants.
One day, while I was walking along River Yangtze, I heard someone calling for help. I rushed to see what
happened.
A boy about the same age as me had fallen into the river. The boy was a Japanese and he was
sinking fast. I took a deep breath and dove into the river. I grabbed him under my arms and kicked hard to the
surface. The boy thanked me profusely. “Doumo arigatou, thank you, thank you very much!” He cried and
held my hands tightly. “I’m Haruto Matsuda. Thank you for saving my life!”
The next day was a big surprise for me. Haruto came to my house with his parents to thank me! They gave me
ten gold coins! The news quickly spread to the whole village but I could only smell trouble.
Master Chu became jealous of me and whipped me whenever I did something wrong. One day, while I was
accompanying Master Chu to his friend’s dinner party, I accidentally stepped on his foot. Master Chu was
furious and he slapped me in my face. “Stop!” said Haruto. Haruto and his parents were standing behind
Master Chu.
“Why did you hurt a child?” asked Haruto’s father. Master Chu dared not to displease the
powerful Matsuda family and he went off in a huff.
Haruto’s father then said to me, “Would you like to work for us? We could pay more than Master Chu.”
Since then, I had worked for the Matsuda family. The Matsuda family treated me kindly and gave me five bags
of rice per week. I was never hungry nor felt cold for Haruto always made sure that I had enough to eat and
wear. I felt very lucky.
Haruto and I became good friends. He taught me what he learnt from school and the board game “GO”. I
spent all my free time with Haruto and his family was like my second family.
One evening, Scar stopped me while I was on my way home.
“Nan, I now make you a great offer. You can
join my gang now. Since you are so close to the Matsuda family, we can kidnap his boy and ask for a big ransom.”
I was very surprised to hear that but I said no. Scar was angry, “You traitor! You want to help those wicked
foreigners and betray our country?” I was very scared but I said, “No, I won’t do it. Haruto is my friend. I
won’t betray my country and I won’t betray my friend. Leave me alone!” Then, I left quickly.