Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 12

Stroll In Old Shanghai
Green Oasis School, Wu, Michael - 7
“B
eep…beep…” My contact console bleeped suddenly in my pencil-sharpener. I looked around the
classroom, nobody noticed me. I pushed in a pencil, turning it over. A message was received: “Asia No.1,
a villain is hovering above east Asia. His purpose is to destroy old Shanghai. The way to stop him is hidden in a
jigsaw puzzle. It has six pieces. They are lost in old Shanghai. Your job is to gather all of the six pieces, then send
the message back to Galaxy.”
I jumped half high in the sky. It was a busy, big city. A river flew through slowly. Ships clustered at the end of
piers. Workers were busy with loading and unloading goods. In the street, cars were screaming, man-powered
tricycles were hustling among people. Buildings were very Roman. There were many foreign faces. I checked my
map, yes, it was old Shanghai, not Rome, not any other country on the earth. But how could I find the small
jigsaw pieces in such a big city? My goodness!
I jumped down and leaped on a trolley. Next to my seat, a woman was smoking. Smoking did harm. I got off at
the next stop, but before I left, I found the first puzzle piece stuck under my seat! A letter S was labelled on it. I
quickly put it in my pocket and continued my hunting journey.
Where was I? Before long, I found I was in another busy street. The buildings here were different from the
previous western houses. They had white walls, red gates and windows. The roofs were grey. The eaves turned up
as if they were going to fly. Cloth banners with difficult Chinese characters on were hanging above head, filling
the street. Advertisements of soaps, cigarettes, creams, cloth and films were everywhere on the walls and trolleys. I
saw most people here. I thrusted out to breath.
A gush of wind blew into my face. Suddenly, I saw something dirty tumbling in the wind. It was another jigsaw
piece! This one was labelled T. I was excited!
“ Breaking news, breaking news! The Japanese army is attacking Northeast…” A boy of my age was selling
newspaper. I walked up to him, telling him I wanted one. To my surprise, he didn’t understand me. I paused and
started to speak English. He understood this time!
I had got two letters. Where could I find the other four? I had no idea. I wandered and walked into an alley. I saw
peeling walls and sagging power lines. A boy was slashing his top. A girl was playing some cards. I stopped and had
a look at it. They were the rest four letters R, O, N, G! I pieced them together and sent the message back to the
Galaxy: STRONG.