The New Tales of Old Shanghai
Heep Yunn Primary School , Ip , Ruby – 11
I
t is the year 2006 . The place is Old City of Shanghai , China , a part of Shanghai ’ s urban core . The Old City was then a rich metropolis . Life there was luxurious , stylish and full of excitement . The oldest residential area ( Tianzifang ) is hidden from the neighbouring streets deep inside a cozy little lane district ( Jinjiafang ) of the Old City .
David , a British architect was sent to the overseas office in Shanghai for one year in order to explore the redevelopment potential of Tianzifang of the Old City . His wife , Susan and his 3-year-old son , Mike went together . David rented a villa in Tianzifang so to facilitate his research . The villa shows signs of a long history and is ghostly and spooky .
It has been three weeks since David family moved into the rented Tianzifang villa . “ Mike , do not climb up again to the attic , the storeroom is locked , there ’ s no fun there ,” Susan shouted . “ Honey , I am back , have you managed to unpack all the stuff ?” asked David . “ Almost , but can you spare some time to break the lock of the storeroom door in the attic ? Some bulky stuff needs to be moved up there ,” replied Susan . “ Alright , I will try but I have to do some research on Tianzifang and prepare a report for main office first ,” murmured David . Susan did not give a reply but took a deep breath and sighed .
Another week had past , David managed to have time for a late dinner with Susan . Mike was fast asleep at that time . “ Isn ’ t it very strange , Mike keeps climbing up the stairs to the attic and peeks through the gap in the door of the storeroom . He even laughs and screams ,” whispered Susan . “ Silly Mike ,” David replied indifferently . “ I heard from a neighbour here that some of the villas were used as sites of interrogation and torture during the Japanese invasion of the Old City . Do you think any Chinese murdered people in that storeroom ? Very spooky indeed ,” Susan further said . “ Don ’ t be so silly and superstitious !” David replied impatiently . “ Anyway , I will break the lock before going to bed tonight ”, David continued . “ Hope so ! I can really use the storeroom tomorrow then ,” Susan replied in her sarcastic tone .
That midnight , David finished his report . He then headed towards the storeroom in the attic . As he was about to break the lock and push the door open , “ What ’ s that flashing around the door ?” David murmured nervously . He hesitated for a while but pushed the door open anyway . A strong flashing light made David dizzy and he passed out .
David came back into consciousness and felt puzzled by the view in front of him . The streets were very old and some nightclubs , dens and brothels lined on both sides . Women wore in cheongsams , men were with hats in suits . “ Where am I ?” David asked himself . “ What ?” he screamed when he saw the date of a newspaper underneath his shoe was 11 September 1939 . With no time to think , a Chinese young man was suddenly running towards David and some Japanese soldiers chased after him . “ Get the assassinator …,” the soldiers shouted loudly . “ Run … they will get you as well ,” the young man urged David to escape . David started running after the young man . The young man and David rushed into Jinjiafang of the Old City and managed to hide in a Tianzifang . “ I am a journalist . I did not assassinate their Captain ,” the young man spoke softly to David . “ There is no point in you running then , you just need to tell them you are innocent ,” David replied with very low voice . “ They are crazy and will not investigate in a fair and just way . They will just torture me . A few of my partners were tortured to death by them . “ Oh ! Horrible , nonsense …,” David said angrily .
David parted with that young man later . He realized he might have been brought back to the Old City of Shanghai in the year 1939 through the door of the storeroom in the attic . He then searched through the Tianzifang area hoping to find the same villa that he rented in 2006 . “ I may go back to 2006 through the same door in the attic ,” David explained to himself . Not far from David ’ s sight , he saw a villa that looked very similar to the one he rented in 2006 . He was overjoyed and started running towards the villa . However , he was suddenly stopped by a Japanese soldier who shone a torch over him . “ Are you British , French or what ?” the Japanese spoke in English to David . David was terrified and replied , “ I … I am British ”. “ e des nei ,” the soldier said in Japanese . He then signalled David to come with him . David then followed him and thought he would be taken to the