Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 359

The whole of Shanghai was in major crisis. Buildings collapsed. The earthquake, a greedy evil monster,
pulled down innocent citizens. The dark skies looked not too different to spilled black ink. It seemed exactly like
the Great flood of China thousands years before…except, this time, Shanghai may never recover from their
disaster. The survivors panicked to flee, and Mr. Chen wasn’t an exception. But he couldn’t. He felt like a hand
was pulling him back.
“Look at what you have done,” a voice echoed.
“What I’ve done— I’ve—done…” Mr. Chen stammered. He looked back to see Liqin— barely five foot
tall, and her eyes shooting daggers at him. He unsuccessfully tried to resist looking back at the wreckage of the
city. .
“What have you done? You still deny it?” Liqin shouted. “ You single handedly wrecked the city! You’ve
torn apart families, annihilated homes, sabotaged every single thing…” Mr. Chen felt a pang of guilt and
immense pain in his heart. The girl was right.
“I’m sorry,” Mr. Chen said. Liqin could see that he was actually sorry.
“Too late now,” Liqin said, tone surprisingly calmer and softer.
“It’s not! I’m gonna do anything to make this right, and I’ll— ” He stuttered, though he knew that it wasn’t
possible. He sank down to his knees, remorseful and in grief. All of a sudden, the world seemed to be shaking. The
sky instantaneously turned charcoal black. Mr. Chen opened his eyes slowly, not knowing what to expect. Then
he sighed with relief. A dim light peeked through the vast clouds. The rain disappeared. The deluge cleared out.
But how was it possible? Mr. Chen looked back to where Liqin was standing. She was gone. How was that
possible? He looked for signs of the mysterious girl.
Little did he know, behind the ruins of a fallen building, was a small figure of a female. She sighed, then
smiled, and vanished into the air.