Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 203

New tales of Ming treasure voyages
St. Mary's Canossian College, Leung, Yana - 14
It was as if the death god was hovering over us, suffocating us.
There were four in our room, including me.
There was fragile-looking Hua, there was petite XingYun, and there was Mei who sitting on the floor of
the small toilet, face pale and gaunt.
I kept my eyes trained on a spot on the brown wooden walls as I contemplated the sad fate we were heading
to, wasn’t there anything we could do to save ourselves?
“How long till we reach Champa?” Mei croaked, her voice scratchy and unpleasant.
“Two more days, but that’s if the sea stays calm.” I replied, eliciting a tired groan from Mei.
“I absolutely despise seasickness. I think I’m going to die. Surely it is abnormal to be puking so much!” Mei
cried helplessly.
“Perhaps death will be better. I’d do anything to go home. I miss Fei, being apart from him makes the
colours in this world dim.” XingYun sighed, not feeling an ounce of sympathy for Mei. I supposed she
couldn’t when she herself was drowning in the misery of being separated from her lover.
“How cruel, we must not speak of life and death so lightly. Besides, this is our duty to Ming China, we
should be proud to be chosen.” Hua piped in, her head still bowed as she stitched. I caught a glimpse of her
embroidery design - a bird soaring in the blue sky and the spark of hope rekindled.
“Duty this, duty that, that’s all noble people know. Hua, don’t you want to be free from such restraints?
Don’t you have your own desires? Our fate isn’t set in stone yet!” I said.
“Our fate has been set the moment we stepped onto this ship, it’s too late for anything. We are the
representatives of Chinese women and we will bring glory to them. Dreams and desires do not matter
anymore, we are only the gifts that will be presented to other countries and places.” Hua’s voice trembled as
she spoke, “We are nothing without our pretty faces, so be honoured to be given such a role.”
The toilet door slammed as nausea hit Mei again.
I was shook awake by the loud roar of rain and the stampeding just outside our room. I turned on the lights
and nearly fell down as the floor tilted to one side.
“YueXin, what’s going on?” Apparently, XingYun had fallen off her bed as the ship shook and tilted from
left to right.
I opened the door and observed the situation. Then, I closed it hurriedly as I made eye contact with one of
the panicking sailors.
“A storm. The waves are getting very violent.” I couldn’t help but think that something was going to
happen. Something bad.
XingYun was shaking as she sat down on her bed. “We’ll be fine, I’m not called XingYun without a reason.
The storm will pass.”
The storm did not pass like she thought it would. Instead, the roaring of wind and rain became louder and
louder and water had started to seep into our room.