Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 188

There was another official waiting for us. He marshalled us towards what appeared to be a gangplank,
leading up to seemingly nowhere. We looked up in awe.
It was a massive titan of a ship. There were workers grunting, pushing barrels up the ship. Another threw
bundles of wood on board. Yet more workers stood in a line, passing up metallic balls, the size of my head,
one by one. It reminded me of the villagers back at my home when a fire broke out, passing buckets filled
with water to quell the flames.
I sighed at my thoughts. What was I doing, thinking back to my village? My new home for now, at least for
the next few years, would be this floating fortress of a vessel.
I was quickly registered before being herded on board with my new comrades. I was assigned to move the
cargo into the holds that filled the hull of the ship. All the constant physical exertion quickly tired me out. I
was shown the crew bed quarters afterwards when the job was finished, and I passed out soon on my bed.
I was awoken the next morning my the smell of burning joss sticks. I climbed above deck to see an
important-looking man clad in armor. He was holding lit joss sticks in his hands, bowing to an ornate statue
of a goddess. A sailor walked up to me, “What’s with that expression on your face? Don’t you recognize
who that is?” I replied nonchalantly, “Yeah, Mazu, the goddess of sailors. What about it?” He replied with a
raucous laughter. “Are you kidding me? You don’t know the man? Are you from some backwater village?”
I ignored his last comment, and simply shook my head. He pointed to the man, “That’s Admiral Zheng He.
He is one of the nation’s most decorated admirals, and he has been on a number of voyages to foreign
countries. If you don’t know his name, it’s best for you to keep your head down to avoid trouble.” With
that, he waved his hand and walked away.
Believe me, I would most definitely keep my head down. I`ll try to ride this through, and go back home a
few hundred pieces richer. I’ll just return to my fields, my farming, my life, and live out the rest of my days
a wealthy man.
The deck shook beneath my feet, as the Admiral yelled for the anchor to be pulled away.
People on the small harbour that the ship was docked to just a moment ago waved us goodbye. Well,
goodbye to you, my home. My land.
The next few months were nothing special. Gossip had it that this was a treasure voyage to otherworldly
locations. Beneath our deck, apparently, were treasures from the royal palace. But, more importantly, there
were handwritten letters by the emperor addressed to foreign kings as well. What could our emperor ever
want with these distant lords?
Personally, I couldn’t care less. That kind of diplomacy is only suited for the court. We peasants are only
suitable for grunt work. If I have to, I’ll just move the treasure. Wether I move sheaves of wheat or chests of
treasure, it’s all the same. The only difference is that this cargo is probably worth more than everything in
my village combined.
Each day was pretty much identical. I was woken up in the early morning to help manage the amount of
rations that would be given to each crewmember every day. After meals, I was trained in some basic combat
skills. I was told there are pirates that prowl the area, so we had to learn how to engage in ship-to-ship
combat. The metallic spheres I saw from earlier were apparently “cannonballs” to be put in metallic tube,
named “cannons”. We would put gunpowder in the barrel, and the cannonballs would fly out to destroy
our enemies. I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, what does a peasant like me have with such contraptions and
such magic.
I did become acquainted with my fellow crewmembers. We would all be assigned below decks to row the
mighty boat if weather conditions were not favourable. So we have plenty of time to chat and become
familiar with each other.