Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 157

Greater Bay Adventure
Kennedy School, Tan, Clyth - 9
In his dark and gloomy underground hideout, Serpent gazed at the picture of two teenage boys.
They will be pawns on his chessboard. He will be the one to decide when to declare checkmate…
Tom and Tim are twins who live in Guangzhou, China. The brothers are talented in their own
ways. Tom has a photographic memory and likes to solve ciphers, whereas Tim is swift and strong.
When the boys learned that one of the world’s largest social media company, Tencent, is offering a
summer internship program for youths, they jumped at the opportunity. Tencent is headquartered in
Shenzhen, a city in the Greater Bay Area, known for its science and technology innovation.
Having checked into a fully automated hotel, the boys were not surprised when the onsite robot,
Bob, glided into their room, delivering a card using his rubber-tipped pinchers.
The card was from Grandma. It read, “Happy 14 th Birthday, Tim and Tom! You have a quest.
Have fun! Love, Grandma.”
“Hmm, what does Grandma mean?” murmured Tom as he examined the card closely. There, right
at the bottom, in extremely small print, was a string of letters.
“og ot het igb udhdab.”
Tom was good at word puzzles and soon solved the cipher.
“I’ve got it, Tim. Go to the Big Buddha!”
Tim rushed to his laptop to look up the location of the Big Buddha. He exclaimed excitedly, “It is
in Ngong Ping, Hong Kong!” The twins got ready for their thrilling adventure. They purchased tickets for
the high-speed rail which will take them to Hong Kong in just 15 minutes.
“Wow, look at that gigantic monument! Do you know that the Big Buddha is 34 meters tall and
weighs over 250 metric tons? It was constructed from 202 bronze pieces...” Before Tom could finish his
sentence, Tim was already a quarter way up the 268 steps that lead to the Big Buddha. In no time, Tim
reached the summit. As he sat down to rest, he noticed a message carved into a step. It read,
“Now, 68 stone steps you must go.”
Tim signalled to Tom frantically. “Look! Another clue!”
Not far off, disguised as a tourist wearing a ‘I Love HK’ T-shirt, Serpent cackled evilly to himself,
“The two boys have not failed me. Soon, it’ll be all mine!”
Back in their hotel, the boys were finding out about 68 stone steps. Tim suddenly shouted, “I
found it! The Ruins of Saint Paul’s! Off to Macau we go!”
Zoom! The twins were on a bus, speeding along the 55km-long Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau
bridge. Soon, they reached their destination. They jogged up the 68 stone steps and admired the façade of
the ruins. Just then, they noticed a poem carved on top of the stone archway.