Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 230

The New Tales of Old Shanghai
Heep Yunn Primary School, Lau, Gigi - 11
I
n the Old City of Shanghai, which was known as the Chinese City, lived an old man called Shang. Although
Shang was old, he was still very strong. He had helped to build the defensive wall of Shanghai’s boundary.
The Emperor of Old Shanghai was very pleased with the hard work that Shang and the other workers did to
build the defensive wall. He said, ‘Good work everyone. Now, I am going to give you each a bag of gold as a
reward for all the hard work you all did.’ Shang was very delighted. ‘I will have enough money to buy food and
clothes for my family,’ he thought. ‘How happy they will be if they see this bag of gold.’ Shang smiled and skipped
home.
However, the Emperor was as cunning as a fox. ‘Hmm, it is very wasteful to give all of the gold I‘ve earned
from the crops of Old Shanghai to these useless men. Ah ha! I can give the men rocks instead of gold. Now, I will
be very rich! Ha!!! ’ he thought in his mind. ‘Rocks are easy to find near my palace. It wouldn’t be hard to find a
large amount of rocks. Let’s get my eunuchs for help,’ he talked to himself. ‘Eunuchs! Eunuchs! WHERE ARE
YOU ALLLLLLLLL???’ the Emperor screamed. ‘Here are we, Emperor.’ the eunuchs came to their emperor.
‘You all stupid eunuchs! What took you so long to come here?’ the frustrated emperor demanded. ‘W