Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 96

The Yulan Flower Story
Clearwater Bay School, Wan, Kyra – 9
L
ong, long ago before the City God Temple was built and the City Wall itself was made, a beautiful young
woman named Yulan was walking along the Huangpu River, among the cherry trees that already blossomed,
then a mandarin duck caught her eye …..
Yulan knew that ducks were a symbol for happiness; they could also walk on earth, swim in the crystal clear water
and fly in the cloudless sky. She knew that mandarin ducks were the gods’ favorite and were awarded their colour
for their bravery from the gods. She crouched down and looked carefully, looking at the duck at every angle,
wondering what brave deed the male duck did to be awarded his wonderful colors and why the female duck is just
plain old brown.
Just then the ducks started quaking very loudly and splashing water at Yulan many times. Yulan was slightly surprised
and took a step back so the duck waddled out of the water still quacking, flapping its wings and ruffling its feathers.
Then it started pecking at Yulan’s feet. Her toes felt so painful that she fell down. Suddenly she heard soft breathing
around her, turned her head slightly, then to her amazement, she saw a gigantic tiger towering over her.
Yulan was still thinking about the duck that now was flapping to the other side of the river. The tiger followed the
mandarin into the river, growling loudly and not taking his eyes off the duck. Knowing that it was eyed, the duck
splashed the water to tell Yulan that he was going, and started to fly toward the sky. Angry that he had lost his first
prey, the tiger turned his head to face Yulan. Knowing that she was going to be the tiger’s next meal, Yulan
screamed and turned to run. As she ran, she looked behind her and saw that the tiger was running after her.
Soon she came to a cliff with nothing around it, only trees. Panicking, Yulan began to climb, wishing that she could
turn into something to save herself from the tiger.
Up in the sky, the Goddess of Mercy was listening to Yulan’s cries. Knowing that Yulan was a good person and
never lied, cheated or did anything wrong, she decided to help Yulan, so she sprinkled some magic water down to
earth. Instantly Yulan began to transform into a beautiful flower. Her arms and legs became white petals, and her face
became the center of the flower where bees could come and kiss her as a thank you gift and collect honey and nectar.
Her soul went up to the clouds where the gods welcomed her warmly. From that day on, Yulan was known as the
Goddess of Manjushri meaning beautiful. The Yulan Magnolia tree flower, the white Yulan became the city flower
of old Shanghai and new Shanghai.