New Tales of Old Shanghai
Stewards Pooi Kei Primary School , Tam , Belle – 10
M y name is Zijuan and my surname is Zhu . I am the daughter of the Emperor Yong Le , the third Emperor in the Ming dynasty . I rescued a concubine from my father ’ s Harem with my maid , Zhang Qinger and my younger sister Yuanmin because the concubine , Li Lian loved a young man whom she needed to find . We helped Lian flee from the Harem but Qinger , Yuanmin and I were ordered by my father to carry out a death sentence on the spot in the Meridian Gate , the place where the prisoners get executed . My elder brother Gaochi , the crowned prince , robbed the Meridian Gate with Hyobu Zhu ' s son , Ningyang and Qinger ' s younger brother , Xinger in order to save us . We escaped from Beijing , the capital of China and headed for Shanghai to my friend Xiaohong ’ s restaurant . She was my only friend who was my elder , by one year .
We went to Shanghai by carriage so we needed to drive it one by one . First one to drive was Xinger . Yuanmin was next . Then Ningyang . I drove after Ningyang and Qinger was after me . Finally , it was Xinger ’ s turn . We spent four days and four nights on the road . Each of us had to drive two shishen ( four hours ). When we arrived at Xiaohong ’ s restaurant , we saw Xiaohong and Xiaowu ( Xiaohong ’ s husband ) and their busy staff cooking food and greeting customers . Xiaohong and Xiaowu were thrilled to see us . They had prepared three rooms for us to sleep . I was touched and , to say thank you , decided to gather my friends and family to perform for them as a band .
There were more customers in the restaurant than seawater in Donghai during our band performance . One of the customers , a rich man named Che Wen , approached me after the show and tried to force me to become his wife . I rejected because I didn ' t even like him . This made Wen angry so he ordered his servants to capture me , lock me in his home and force me to become his wife . Fortunately , the servants were bad at kung-fu . Qinger , Xinger , Yuanmin , Gaochi , Ningyang and I all learned kung-fu from a master when we were little and we were very good at it . We all used our best kung-fu moves to defend ourselves against the servants . Wen escaped but l knew he would return for revenge tonight so we decided to wait for him and trick him .
At night , Wen came back . He entered my room . I got out of bed and he ordered me to make him a bath . Meanwhile , Xinger replaced the shampoo with a bottle of cream so , when Wen was about to put some shampoo on his hair , he screamed “ Agh ! I can ' t see !” He ordered Qinger to help him . When Qinger helped Wen to wipe off the cream , she put some medicine on Wen ’ s hand . “ Help ! MY HAND IS BURNING !” Wen shouted and he ran out of the room without putting his clothes on . My friends and family heard the screaming and they all quickly ran to my room , but felt puzzled when they saw me laughing . I explained my tricks to them : The
cream was a kind of glue that blinds people for about 3 minutes . The medicine is a chemical that causes a severe rash as soon as it touches the skin . We went to bed a little after midnight , the room was still full of laughter .