Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 481

The next day, when we went for a walk, we saw a rope tied on a tree beside the lake. I said ”Why don’t we
have a competition? Who can’t get into the lake by swinging the rope and fall into the water without making a
splash will lose.” This idea came to my mind because I wanted to revise the Qingkung move we’d learnt in our
kung-fu training. ”I am coming!” shouted Yuanmin. She was the last to compete. She grabbed the rope and
swung across the lake. While in mid-air, she pulled her hands back and she fell into the lake with a huge
splash. ”Uh-oh, you lose, Yuanmin!” I said while swimming in the lake. At that moment, Qinger swam over to
me and said ”Miss, have you heard? Xiaohong’s restaurant is so famous that the emperor will come to visit
tomorrow!” “What?!” I shouted in surprise. Suddenly, a beautiful carriage appeared out of nowhere! “Hide! It is
the emperor’s carriage!” shouted Ningyang and we swam quietly to the edges of the lake and hid behind a big
stone. ”I bet he came looking for us!” whispered Gaochi.
The next day , the emperor came and called out all of our names. He said that he won’t kill us.
We decided to approach the emperor. He told us later that he did not want to return the concubine because
he knew about the young man she loved. Instead, he gave her a carriage with two horses and sent her off to finally
find him.
We were thrilled to go home because the emperor said we were eighteen and it was time for us to get married.
Gaochi married Qinger. Xinger married Yuanmin. Ningyang became my husband. A year later, Qinger gave birth
to a boy. She named him Zhanji. Yuanmin gave birth to a girl and I gave birth to a boy and a girl! The emperor
was very happy.