Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 178

A New Tale for Ming Treasure Voyages
Munsang College, Yeung, Fai Yan - 15
“Hey look! Java is getting closer and closer to us!’’ shouted Chen.
Eyes galore were immediately riveted on the large piece of land in front of them filled with trees,
wooden houses and volcanoes.
All sailors were thrown on the edge of their seat before rousing themselves to the uplifting
discovery.
When they arrived at the port, the King of Madjapahit stepped forward and welcomed the fleet
warmly with a handshake. Zheng He said, ‘We are the representatives from Ming China. We are here
because Emperor Youngle would like to establish a friendly diplomatic relationship with Madjapahit.” The
King of Madjapahit replied, ‘It is our honour to be given a great opportunity to build a relationship with
Emperor Youngle.”
The King of Madjapahit then ordered some of his servants to lead one of the Chinese crews to the
palace of Madjapahit.
On the way to the palace, exotic scent and scenery were transfixing the crew. They were so
electrified that they had never experienced foreign things like this in their whole life. These were totally
new and different to them. On the street there were dancers putting on the traditional Madjapahit dance,
singing local songs and storytellers telling the old myths to the children who gathered and squatted on the
ground.
After passing through the main street, they started to enter a forest before gaining access to the
palace. The large team with huge luggage had drawn so much villagers’ rapt attention. Inside the wooden
boxes that the team carried, there were precious stones, some rare animal species and also iron. The team
was so worried that the treasures inside the wooden boxes would be stolen. That, if it did happen, would let
Emperor Youngle down. The most worrisome thing was: They might be given death penalty by the
Emperor if they failed to complete their ‘mission’.
After a whole-day journey, the fleet were extremely exhausted. They stopped in front of a hostel
and someone in the crowd suggested, “Let’s take a rest here tonight”. There were a total of fifty people in
the fleet and twenty rooms were occupied by the fleet that night.
On the next day when they departed from the hostel and were ready to resume the journey to the
palace, some saw three men whose bodies were thoroughly covered in a black cloth behind the fleet. At first
they didn’t pay much attention to those men, reckoning they were just some foreign tourists. However,
after approximately half an hour, the fleet discovered that those men were still behind them, and they
immediately noticed that those strange men were stalking them!
The atmosphere suddenly became tense and silence descended on the pathway.
Though they had not spoken to each other, they all knew that they had to concentrate and
cooperate, or else the treasures would be looted.
A few minutes later, the fleet realized that more and more men were joining the three men and
some of them were even holding knives and hammers.
As the fleet expected, the gang of total ten men suddenly rushed to the fleet, stabbing some crew
members with knives, hammers and shooting them with arrows. Chen immediately lay down on the ground