Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 434

The New Tales of Old Shanghai
St. Margaret's Co-Educational English Secondary and Primary School (Primary Section), Del Mundo, Guiliana -
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ake up Ming Ming!!! Wake up Jia Jia!!! Hide inside the cupboard!!! Wouko… Wouko are coming!!!”
Their parents’ were shouting as they woke them up. Ming Ming and Jia Jia woke up with shock and fear,
especially when they saw their parents’ uneasy and petrified faces.
Ming Ming quickly grabbed her sister’s arm and hide.
“What do you want?”
“Please, NO!” SMASH!!! BOOM!!! WHOMP!!! They heard their parent’s crying plea and commotion in the
house. They could hear loud explosion outside the house as well. Eventually, they heard footsteps fading away.
They kept still and quiet inside the cupboard, with Ming Ming covering Jia Jia’s mouth to prevent her from
screaming. Ming Ming couldn’t remember how long they were hiding until Jia Jia groaned and tried to take his
hand from her mouth. He slowly released his hand. “I can’t breathe,” Jia Jia said, while gasping hard for air.
“Sssshhhh,” Ming Ming whispered to Jia Jia.
Ming Ming gently opened the door of the cupboard to have a glimpse around the house; nobody was there. With
her sister holding his hand, they slowly got out of the cupboard and looked around. They went to the window to
see what was happening outside. Smoke and fire was everywhere!! Corpses were scattered everywhere!! They
couldn’t hear the explosions anymore, but the eerie soft crying of people remained loud and clear.
“Let’s look for Father and Mother,” Jia Jia said while pulling Ming Ming’s shirt. They searched everywhere, but
with no luck. Ming Ming realized that they were gone. As if somebody put a heavy rock on his shoulder, he knelt
down, speechless. He started to cry. He wanted revenge!
That was six years ago. After that horrendous attack, their leaders decided to build a wall around the city with a
protective moat surrounding it. There were six land gates and three water gates which were heavily guarded by
armies. They built it so fast that they finished it within two months. They were not raided by the Wouko since
then, but they knew that they were just outside, around the river, waiting for the right moment to attack.
Ming Ming and Jia Jia lived with their Uncle and Aunt. Uncle Shu was their father’s brother. He and Aunt An had
no children, so they were more than happy to accept Ming Ming and Jia Jia as their own.
Ming Ming then joined the army, with vengeance in his mind and heart. He had the bloodlust to kill as many
Wouko as possible. He eventually finished his training and became one of the best trainees, because of his
assiduous uncle that trained him.
He walked cautiously, climbed up the wall knowing it was full of risks, and jumped down heavily with his knees
almost touching the ground. Since he was one out of all the other soldiers, things got a lot harder for him. He
looked in all directions, left to right…. No one, nobody, has been spotted yet. The peaceful moat in front of him
was the only source of sound. He stood still, waiting to hear footsteps. He thought of Wouko attacking Shanghai
again, losing his aunt and uncle… “I need to step up. I might find some Wouko nearby,” he said to himself,
incessantly searching for anything, or anyone.
Meanwhile, at Uncle Shu’s house, Jia Jia asked them go to with her to the temple, almost begging them to do so.
When they arrived, Jia Jia ran towards the dusty mat that people used to pray in. She kneeled and prayed, “give
courage and strength to Ming Ming, please .…..” she prayed so hard, that if Uncle Shu and Aunt An were
watching, they would have had tears falling from the eyes.