Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 617

“Not for too long, alright?” Eileen popped the last of the egg tart into her mouth.
“Yes, yes, I don’t think she can handle cycling for that long anyway,” Lewis reassured.
The next morning, Rina was beyond excited to hear that they would be going cycling. “That’ll be
fun!” she had exclaimed.
Lewis had patted her head then. “Yeah, you can finally take a breather.”
Getting up early like he was about to go to work was not refreshing, but knowing that it was
because they were going to do something enjoyable made it refreshing. Rina rubbed the sleep from her eyes
as they took a bus over to the New Territories. “Where are we going cycling?”
“If we can, let’s go from Sha Tin to Tai Po. Do you know where Tai Po is?”
Rina shook her head. “They didn’t teach us that at school. Have I been there before?”
“They won’t teach you everything, sadly, it’s also my job to teach you more. I don’t think we’ve
taken you there before. I myself haven’t been to Tai Po in a long time, but it’s a nice place. The district is
large and pretty rich in history too,” Lewis said as he stroked the top of Rina’s head. “We’ll reach Sha Tin
soon, so don’t leave anything behind, okay?”
Rina nodded. “I’ll be careful.”
It wasn’t long before the father and daughter hopped off the bus eagerly. “I heard they will
introduce new buses to the whole Greater Bay Area soon, and I hope they will be better. They said that
China’s been using them for some time and they are better for the environment too,” Lewis explained.
“Speaking of which, we’re actually a lot closer to the borders of the mainland now.”
While it had been ages since Lewis last had the chance to rent a bike, the memory of where the
bicycle shop was located had not faded at all. He took Rina there easily, telling her about how he had learnt
how to cycle there when he was very young.
On a plot of land on its own, the shop seemed much smaller than what Lewis remembered, but
maybe that was because it just appeared larger to the young Lewis several years back. As they neared the
entrance, Lewis began to wonder if anyone was even inside. Then, a man appeared and approached them,
asking if they were there to rent bicycles.
“We’d like to rent two bicycles for us to use,” Lewis said, fetching his wallet from his pocket. The
man nodded and walked away to help them pick sizes that were suitable for them. From what Lewis could
see of all the bikes, they looked rather old but still usable.
“We haven’t really had many people coming in lately,” the man shared as he wiped the bikes with
a towel before taking the money from Lewis. “That’s why there’s quite some dust on these, but I can
guarantee they still work fine.”
“People are no longer going cycling frequently these days,” Lewis lamented. “I wish I could go
regularly but I don’t live near here so it’s quite difficult.”
“Understandable, yes,” the man said. “It’s true that people are losing interest in activities like this.
It’s sad but I can’t blame them, life is so busy and demanding now and many people prefer to spend time on
their gadgets than go somewhere with family and friends. Did you see that they closed the bicycle park near
here? They’re using the space to build a research centre now. It’s all about the advancement now.”