Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 137

The Ming Treasure Voyages
Kiangsu Chekiang College Internation section, Ng, Jinghong Dylan - 14
Lightning strikes. Thunder rumbles. Gales blow. Waves like mountains crash upon our tiny vessel, but somehow it
manages to withstand. Some sailors pray to whatever god they worship, while others try to survive. Cowards run to the
lifeboats only to be swallowed by a giant wave, The brave attempt to repair the bent mast, but none succeed in trying.
During this struggle, what was I doing? I remembered exactly what I was doing as clear as day. I certainly didn’t run to
help repair the mast or escape through the lifeboats. I was trying not to drown as this huge tide attempted to pull me
into the ocean. In these situations, nobody is here to help you. Other people have no time to rescue. They are also
trying to survive, remember? Of course, it is an exception if you are a person of importance, such as our captain. If you
are the saviour of this person of importance, you will be showered with praise and reward even if you died in the
attempt. This chain of thought happened just as a huge wave crashed onto our ship, pulling me into the ocean. I had
barely enough time to scream before a fell into the ocean, never to be seen again.
How did all this happen in the first place? I guess it happened long ago before I was even an adult or even a teenager.
Let me tell you a bit about myself. My name is Wang and I was born in Lijiang. Wonderful place, really. Beautiful
canals, wonderful scenery and air as fresh as you can get. My mother and father were both captains on a ship, sailing
then and now to go on an expedition. They were away a lot, so when they drowned while attempting to save some
valuable item, I was not sad. Don’t expect me to be remorse. I was four when they died and I barely remember
anything about them. Anyways I grew up as a curious boy with a constant dream of being a mariner. My grandma was
really nice to me and always played as the pirate in our fantasies. I was happy in Lijiang. There was a catch, though.
Lijiang was in the middle of nowhere, about 500 miles away from the nearest port. So this basically meant my dream of
being a sailor was finished. Until the day I met this boy named Zheng He.
Zheng He was one of my neighbours. He was around the same age as me, maybe older. His hair was dark black and
he was quite tall for his age. You couldn’t call him ugly or handsome. He lived with his parents who were retired
farmers. I rarely saw him outside, so I assume his parents don't let him go out much. Anyways, let me tell you how I
met him. Or was it how he met me? On that day, when I was about eight, I decided I would construct a boat out of
the wood planks and other supplies in our garage. We had a lot of sailing items since my parents were captains. Our
garage is filled with parts from their ship, a gallon. Spare planks, broken lanterns and even a cannonball(though how it