Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 276

New Tales of the Ming Treasure Voyages
Korean International School, Shrestha, Prasan - 16
They were sailing through the smooth surface of a calm yet unpredictable body of water. Ming commanded
the rest of the crew to prepare themselves as he could see a distant threat to their vessel. They even named
their craft as 'Lady Mary'. They cared and treated this ship as if they were caring for their own women.
However, Ming was disparate from the rest of his crew. The closest mortal he could relate to was his little
brother, Wong.
When they both first joined the crew, Ming was an entirely different person from what he has become now.
He was a very frank person and if anyone in the crew needed mental stability to prepare themselves for the
raging seas, they would turn to him. Unfortunately, on one of their various excursions on the waters, many
crew members were unprepared as it was their very first encounter with a whirlpool. This whirlpool was not
an ordinary one as it somehow seemed like it was sucking in tornados.
The inexperienced crew were struggling to maintain the raging tides of the sea and it could be seen how
their lack of qualification was affecting their vessel. Crew members were swinging monkeys on the masts of
the ship. Crew members on the ground were rolling like bowling balls from one side of the deck to another.
However, there was one member who looked remained still as water. Ming had the mindset of a true
captain and was already thinking of methods to get out of this situation. He knew how to get out of this
obstacle and was quick to command the crew. He ordered them to first drop the anchor and then rotate the
sail away from the whirlpool. The crew were confused from this but soon understood his idea as the ship
had turned completely away from the whirlpool. The crew then lifted the anchor back up from the ocean
and immediately set sail away from the whirlpool. There were also other ships nearby from them and Ming
helped them with his wit. As a reward for aiding them away from danger, they rewarded them with enough
supplies to buy a whole new ship. The supplies included silks, gold and other rare materials.
People started applauding the captain after they were a safe distance away from danger. Ming received their
applause well as he was thanking and complimenting the crowd. He noticed a distinctive voice that was not
heard by him. He usually would be embarrassed by Wong after he had done something of this sort. He
would jump on him with joy and would start the 'hooray chant'. However, this time there was no 'hooray
chant' or someone jumping on him unexpectedly. Ming immediately started a search for his little brother
and as soon as he wasn’t found on the ship, Ming went out on sail on one of their emergency boats back to
the whirlpool.
The rest of the crew was against this idea, but they couldn’t stop the captain from making his own decision,
especially after he single-handedly saved all the crew. Ming paddled and paddled to no end with the crew
soon picking him up from a nearby shore where he had passed out from exhaustion. As he was making his
way back to 'Lady Mary', he thought of what he had just lost. He lost his yang to his yin, his sun to his
moon and his light to his shadow.
Existing crew members then started rumors that the captain had turned to a person who felt no empathy
towards anyone, almost like a sociopath. For this reason, the captain experienced unspeakable amounts of
prejudice from new crew members that he was isolated from almost all the crew members. The only people
that he could still communicate without any glares were his two close friends, Tao and Cheng, who were
also close friends with his little brother. It had almost been two years since his brother went missing and now
Ming was feeling a sense of déjà vu. He could see a distant whirlpool stirring up but in the corner of his eye,
he could also see a battle of two ships. He used his spyglass to further examine the ships when he suddenly
discovered something unthinkable. He could see his little brother, Wong, defending himself against his
enemies. Immediately after he saw this, Ming set sail towards them to further aid his brother. The crew were
soon close enough to board the ships and they could quickly dissemble the enemies. After the aftermath,
Ming could finally have a chance to catch up with Wong.
Ming was in so much joy that he didn’t even realised how long they were having a conversation for. Ming
wanted to know how much he had changed since the incident, specifically how he had escaped an
impossible disaster. Ming realised both of them were starting to feel dehydrated and went to fetch water.
Although Wong insisted that he would go, Ming stressed that it was the least he could do after losing him.
As he made his way back to his chamber, he started to hear small decibels of mumbling and grumbling. As
soon as he opened the door to his chamber, he could spot that all his crew were tied in ropes and Wong’s
crew gathering the supplies Ming once received for the price of his brother. Wong’s crew were grumbling
over how their supplies were inadequate. He tried to set his crew free with his blade but was quickly
dismantled by Wong’s crew.