Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 281

Cheung and the Old Man
Korean International School, Chan, Cyrus Karlson – 9
I
n the old times in Shanghai, “the Paris of Asia”, was full of rich and noble people. However, many Chinese
were living in poverty. There was one poor rickshaw puller named Mr. Chau Cheung. He was very
hardworking and he tried hard to earn a living in the beautiful city.
One night, Cheung received an order that asked him to go to the General Post Office to pick up a customer.
When he arrived, an old gentleman wearing a western black suit was waiting for him. Cheung cleaned up the back
seat carefully and asked him to be seated. After a short ride, the old man started to scream painfully. Cheung
stopped his rickshaw on the side of the road and checked on him.
“Are you alright, sir?”
“My heart feels very painful, please bring me to the hospital now!”
Cheung quickly ran to Zhongshan Hospital in Fenglin Road. Luckily, Cheung was fast and saved the old man’s
life. The old man was later found to have a heart attack but after treatment, he survived. Many men in black
arrived at the hospital to visit the old man. All this time, Cheung was in the hospital and when he overheard from
the nurses that the old man was a gangster leader, he was shocked. He then tried to leave the hospital but a few of
the men in black stopped his way.
“Go inside the room, our big boss wants to see you!” one of the men in black said. Cheung had to follow him
and went into the room.
“Please take a seat,” the old man said to Cheung when he saw him. The old man continued, “You saved my life
and I would like to thank you! I see your kind heart and I think you are reliable. I would like you work in my
gambling den. You cannot refuse my offer or else I will……”
Cheung knew that he did not have any choice but to accept the old man’s offer.
A few years later, Cheung took over the gambling dens because he worked hard and put a lot of effort to learn
how run a business.
One day, there was a fat man who cheated in the card game and caught by the gangsters. He was beaten up badly
and he died in a back alley. Cheung did not know what had happened until his men told him. Cheung was angry
with his men for killing an innocent man to solve a problem. On the same night when Cheung finished working,
he came out of the gambling den. He saw a little girl sitting on the street crying. He asked the girl why she was
crying and who she was waiting for. The little girl told him that she was waiting for his father who went to
gamble in the den.
Cheung realized that the fat man who was killed by his men was the little girl’s father. Cheung felt sad and guilty
that the little girl lost her father.
Cheung thought of changing the gambling dens into another type of business that could still make money for
the gangsters. He told the old man, “Sir, please let me change the gambling dens into a rickshaw company. I
don’t want to destroy people’s families anymore. We can employ the poor people to be the coolies and they can
earn a decent living by pulling rickshaws.”
The old man agreed with Cheung’s idea. A few months later, they started the rickshaw business and started
making money out of it. At last, Cheung and the old man were happy with the change and they helped many
poor people in Shanghai.