Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 323

New Journey To The West
St. Paul's College, Yau, Lok Hei - 14
A
n adolescent named Xiao Xuan is the only child of a rich family. His father is the Chief Executive
Officer of an international company. The family lives in a big and luxurious house. Apart from
numerous bedrooms, the house is also equipped with a swimming pool, a music studio, an elevator,
a game room and a gymnasium. Xiao Xuan is well served by tens of maids in the house. He also has a
driver who drives him to school and anywhere he wants to go. He takes these things for granted and fully
believes that he well deserves all these. However, he changed his thoughts entirely after participating in the
overseas exchange programme.
Xiao Xuan’s best schoolmates highly recommended him to join the exchange programme to the Western
part of China during the summer holiday. He read a book named “Journey to the West” before attending
the programme. He loved the book very much and was fond of every scene that the Monkey King fought
with the monsters to protect Xuanzang, despite the fact that he always wondered why Xuanzang went for
such a toilsome trip. Wishing to have an exciting experience similar to Xuanzang’s, Xiao Xuan looked
forward to the date of the exchange programme. Shortly afterwards, the programme commenced and the
students set off to the Western part of China. Xiao Xuan was thrilled and excited about visiting the western
China. After walking and hiking for all day long, the students finally settled in a piece of flat land on a
mountain. They stayed overnight and slept there. The environment was quiet and peaceful and the
students were astonished by the thousands of stars in the sky. However, there was one student who stayed
alone in the tent and kept blaming why he had to join the trip. Not surprisingly, he was “Xiao Xuan”. He
was extremely tired and suffered from a burnout since he seldom needed to walk for such a long distance
and hence he was the first student who fell asleep.
The weather was brilliant with a clear blue sky on the second day of the programme. After walking again for
a long time, the students arrived at the dilapidated premises. It was extremely messy in the premises but they
could all vaguely hear some sound of children. When they walked near a room, the sound became louder
and louder. Xiao Xuan saw some children, shabbily dressed, sitting in front of a blackboard and a man who
seemed to be a teacher was talking to the children. When the children inside found that Xiao Xuan and
other students visited the school, they were exhilarated and screamed. When Xiao Xuan noticed that it was
actually a school for the village children, he was shocked and could hardly imagine how the students
attended lessons in such an unpleasant place. Under the exchange programme, all students were arranged to
have a few days’ homestay with the local students and their families. That’s a nightmare for Xiao Xuan to
stay in such a humbly furnished and primitive place. He gradually found the programme not as exciting and
thrilling as he had imagined and he believed that he had made a wrong choice of joining the programme.
The local student whom Xiao Xuan stayed with was called Tom, an energetic and a filial boy. Xiao Xuan
followed Tom home after school. When arriving at Tom’s home, Xiao Xuan thought that he could finally
take a rest after an exhausting day, but he wondered how Tom went to school by himself every day without
the help of a driver. As Tom lived in a rural village, he had to walk for an hour to school and then another
hour back home after school every day. There were neither computers, television nor toys in Tom’s
home. Xiao Xuan could hardly imagine such a boring life without all sorts of entertainment. Tom had a
large family with six younger siblings. Xiao Xuan was annoyed with the noises of the young children and
the crowded living environment. He took pity on Tom for the need to share things and his living space
with the his siblings.
It was another brand new day, also a school holiday. The whole family, including Xiao Xuan went hunting
and harvesting some vegetation for dinner. Tom and Xiao Xuan, with the other children, arrived at their
big farmland. Tom and Xiao Xuan then started to harvest and picked vegetation for the meal. While Xiao
Xuan was picking the crops, the young children ran around and overthrew the basket of Xiao Xuan
accidentally. Xiao Xuan was exasperated and wanted to scold them. At that time, Tom helped to pick up
the basket and apologized for t