Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 94

They told me what I was, why I was brought here. I remember the cold eyes of the Hongwu Emperor as he
gazed down at me with hungry eyes - eyes that had no interest in me, only in the key I hold to obtaining my father’s
treasure.
They told me what my father was: a traitor and a fool. He refused to serve the Ming dynasty, hid from them
his creation when it could have served so many great purposes. For that he must die. And there is a reason they left me
alive – because I alone have the greatest potential to uncover my father’s map.
I am a slave who gained my enemy’s trust, became Zhu Di’s confidant through a honeyed tongue. I repeated
the respectful words, letting them flow like bitter cud from my mechanical lips, while underneath my heart seethed in
fury.
I am a long way from the sea. Yet the waters still lash at my heart, the salty water against the wounds left
behind my father’s death. I can still hear the furious waves, sending blood throbbing through my veins, roaring in my
ears, filling my mind with only one word discernible.
Revenge.
~
“Well, what do you think, my friend?” says Zhu Di, gesturing proudly to the magnificent structures that line the
harbor.
My eyes rove over the great ships that bob gently on the seas, and they take my breath away. The oars are
golden and the timber gleaming white, the sails as pale as the argent moon. They are larger than any ship I have ever
seen; nine masts, what I would judge to be about a hundred and thirty meters long.
“You have done well, my liege,” I say.
“What you see before you is only the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “There’re also troop transports, fuchuan
warships, even more. This treasure ship, of course, is the best of them all - upon this boat you will be commander.” He
glances at me and a manic gleam seems to come to his eyes. “You will set foot upon the lands and the deeps untrodden,
discover the towering mountains, green shores and the never-ending deserts wreathed in mists and shadows. You will
be my hand, stretching out from China, to bring my rule to the world.”
He steps closer to me, and I flinch as that hated breath caresses my face.
“You will find your father’s greatest creation. Do you consent?” he whispers.
Unbidden, into my mind comes my father’s last words to me, and I am transported back in time.
I am holding my father’s limp body in my arms, and from my father’s lips comes his last desire.
“I will avenge you,” I vowed. “Tell me how.”
“Revenge,” he sighed, “is that what you want?”
“More than anything,” I said.
“To take your revenge you must go...” he said.
“Go where?” I hear my ten-year-old voice from far away, a wandering phantom inside my soul, as the ocean
waves rage inside me.
“The seven pieces of the map,” he gasped. “The greatest treasure in history that lies in the depths of the sea.”
He seized my hand with a force too strong for a dying man. “Find it,” he whispered.
His grip slackened. His eyes softened. And I saw a trace of the father who told me the tale of the seas, told me
that I would one day understand its strange tongue.
“Ma He,” he whispered. “You are my greatest creation.”
“Zheng He,” says Zhu Di, drawing me back to the present. “Do you consent?”
Seven pieces of the map, scattered over the seas…
My father’s dying wish.
I look into the eyes I loathe and answer, “I do.”
~
They call me Zheng He. I am admiral, conqueror, and explorer. I am the hand of the emperor, roaming far to the
corners of the world no one has seen. Yet the water of the seas does not satisfy my thirst - I thirst for blood.
I stand on the prow of my ship, journeying back to China. I refuse to call it home; home lies only on the seas.
Within the eyes of my crew I see the awe as they behold me, a seafarer with power in my hand and wisdom
upon my brow, a lord of dignity and glory, eyes bright and keen as a dagger blade. I put my hand back in the water,
feeling the tides turn.
Six pieces of the map are complete.