The New Tales of Old Shanghai
Kau Yan School , Wong , Min Wai - 10
I n the middle of the night in Old Shanghai , a young girl called Ying woke up . She found a shadow reflecting on the wooden floor . The figure pushed open the creaky bedroom door and Ying saw that the mysterious figure was Grandma . Grandma gently walked inside and huddled next to her bed . She told Ying softly , “ Ying , please keep this necklace safe by your side . Remember that it ’ s very important .” As Grandma said that , she used a tiny delicate glass key to open an ancient chest glimmering with different valuable jewels . On a silk cushion lined with gold , there sat a jade necklace which was half moon shaped with Chinese words written on it . Grandma carefully took it out and passed it to Ying . Ying ’ s eyes widened and her mouth sahped like an “ O ”, but she still wore the beautiful necklace safely as she was told . One year later , it was a public holiday and everyone was preparing for the celebration of the Mid Autumn Festival , also the same day which Grandma disappeared . Ying ’ s family was busy preparing for the festival . Ying called out , “ Ching ! I ’ ve brought you some colorful papers for decoration !” Ching was Ying ’ s big brother . Mei , Ying ’ s sister took some scraps of silk from the factory which she was working in to make new dresses . On the other side , Ying ’ s dad was preparing festival food . A little boy delivered the Evening Shanghai Daily . Ying got the newspaper and read aloud , “ Two houses near the City God Temple were robbed . The police believed that the Flying Dragons , a famous gang in Shanghai did it . They were looking for anyone who saw the gang sneaking around .” Ying murmured , “ Huh ? The Flying Dragons gang appeared in our neighborhood ?” That night , when others were asleep , Ying was still awake because she felt sorry for those who were robbed . Ying held the necklace tightly , staring at the night sky . It was as dark as raven ’ s feathers with some clouds as soft as cotton candy floating around and glowed brightly . Ying sighed , “ I wish that the Flying Dragons couldn ’ t steal anything and all gold coins could go back to their owners .” Suddenly , a dragon symbol flickered in the sky . Meanwhile , the Flying Dragons gang was counting the gold coins that they had robbed . In a flash , every gold coin vanished ! Most of them were frightened and furious . But one of the members noticed the dragon symbol on the sky and followed it .
The Flying Dragons immediately reported to Black Dragon , their leader . Black Dragon remembered that when he was the Emperor ’ s left hand , he heard that there was a necklace which was very powerful . Anyone who got it could make three wishes and a dragon symbol would appear when someone used a wish . After searching for years , he finally traced it . The next day , all members of the Flying Dragons went to the Old City of Shanghai where Ying lived in and disguised into ordinary residents so that they could spy on them . However , they could not find the right person who had the necklace . Black Dragon planned to send his spies to destroy all the decorations for the festival that night and asked them to see who would use the necklace to fix it up . The next day everyone found that everything was ruined and felt upset . Then , Ying decided to make another wish to fix it . In a blink of an eye , the decorations were magically fixed and they looked even nicer ! A spy saw the dragon symbol again and found Ying clasping her hands . She had a necklace hanging down from her neck with a smooth jade attached to it . A dim , green light shone out between her fingers in her bedroom . The spy marked down the location secretly and told Black Dragon . In the late night , Black Dragon secretly kidnapped Ying ’ s family and tied them up with a heavy chain , but separated Ying from them . Black Dragon brought Ying to the top of the protective city wall and took the legendary necklace from her . He sneered evilly , showing one of his golden teeth flash once just before he closed his smelly mouth and pushed Ying off the wall ! Suddenly , a shimmering moon-ray net caught Ying just in time and she floated slowly back up . Then , a gigantic black vortex sucked Black Dragon and the Flying Dragons in it . The only person standing there was a lady . She wore a black mask and dark clothes . Ying squinted her eyes to try to see if she knows her . When the lady took off her mask , Ying yelled loudly , “ Grandma ! You ’ re back !” Grandma muttered a few words under her breath . Poof ! With a click and a clack , the chain that tied Ying ’ s family up was shredded into pieces . Hooray ! They were saved and reunited . Grandma smiled and told Ying that she was a royal princess of a tribe and moved to live in Old City of Shanghai . Her ancestor passed a full moon shaped jade necklaces to her . Previously she lost half of it and had to leave home to search . Before she left , she asked Ying to keep the other half . Grandma saved Ying just in time using the found necklace . Ying was amazed by the truth . Grandma said that the necklaces only worked if the wishes were kind and helpful . At last , the family celebrated the Mid Autumn Festival together . Ying used her last wish to make the celebration incredibly nice . Now the two necklaces joined together to make a full moon again .