Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 286

About ten days into sailing, something happened. Ming really wanted to drink.
‘I really miss the liquor, y’know? Just a little sip of some liquor, and yeah… I’d be in heaven in no time.’
‘You really miss ji ǔ that much?’
‘Yeah, well, you know. What’s life all about? I’m no smartie. Life is wine and women. I’m gonna get Hui to
toss us the wine.’
And soon came the evening, and boy, Hui was a storm cloud ready to discharge. Like, his face was all red -
-- a sign of him drinking since lunch. After we got our supply sacks, Ming asked, ”Yo, Hui, toss us some
booze!’
Then Hui exploded. Long story short, Hui vowed we would not be getting supplies tomorrow as he pulled
away from us. I wasn’t too sure of the details myself, but I was pretty sure I swore. Hui might be a horrible
person, but he wasn’t the type to bluff. Sure enough, the next day, the supplies didn’t come. So for dinner
that day, it was just congee from somme leftover grain Liang saved up. All in all, no one was happy.
‘Okay, it’s your fault, right? Ming? C’mon! You ever heard of not provoking someone?’ yelled Chan,
pacing around the dinner table. Granted, everyone only had half a bowl of congee with a small fish that
Leung had the luck to pull up, and that fish had to be shared, so everyone only had a few flakes of fish and
half a bowl of congee to be exact. Usually, everyone hollered for seconds, so… yes. It was kind of lacking.
But while I was thinking about food, Ming had decided to let his fists do the honors. He punched Chan in
the gut and yelled.
‘It’s not my fault, dammit! Hui was drunk as a hound, ya …’ He said something I probably shouldn’t write
down. Then his fists decided to do the rest of the talking and smashed into Chan’s stomach and pretty soon,
it turned into a fight. I wasn’t going to let it turn into a full out brawl, so I pulled Chan away from Ling.
‘I’m not gonna end this here!’ said Ling, seeing that most of the crew had formed a meat shield around
Chan. He spat, then left.
After that, the atmosphere around the Big Horse (as we have started calling it) was pretty tense, although we
didn’t miss any more meals. Still…
And on the fifteenth day of sailing, we finally spotted land. Everyone was excited that the tension broke.
And when the gangplank was lowered, everyone cheered like children getting free candies. Our little crew
had nothing to do, so instead of sitting around, we decided to go and walk around, because when you’d
been cooped up on a ship for so long, you started missing walking on solid ground.
We started exploring around. During the three days that the fleet got supplies off the island and made
diplomatic relations and whatnot, our crew struck treasure. Not the type you think, like a full box of gold,
but a full box of spices. Fragrant, exotic spices could sell as well as hot cakes on the Lantern Festival. And
from what Liang’s seen, the spices were top-grade. ‘I say!’ he’d exclaim, looking at a dried leaf. ‘Look at this
brilliant color! And the heavenly smell! This is truly fine!’
Me? I don’t really know. I’m no food expert. Nor do I devote my time to studying dried leaves. But I guess
everyone has their own interests. As for me, I’m content with studying words, so as to flip over my
prospects, but also, because ‘he’ was full to bursting with interesting stories, since ‘he’ had been haunting
there for quite a while.
Well, with a crew this diverse and having so little space for this diverse crew, disaster was bound to strike.
And strike it did.