Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4567 | Page 161

The New Tales of Old Shanghai - The Fang
Malvern College Qingdao, Huang, Claire - 14
I
1
t was a dark night, just like every other nights in Shanghai, both light and darkness, wealth and poverty,
justice and guilt, happiness and hopelessness were gathering in Shanghai.
That was the night of 15 th May 1932, people were going to sleep or work just like it was another ordinary
day. Everything was normal. Or maybe, just seemed like normal.
In a small alley, a young man with dark bright eyes was standing stiffly and quietly, his wolf tooth necklace
was shinning under the moon. He was so awful that even the air was frozen. There were some corpses with huge
frozen fright on their faces, which made the standing young man even more like a brutal bloody demon from the
hell.
"Have a good dream", said the man grimly, and he showed no emotion after that, but turned around and
left those hopeless corpse.
2
We entered into the water, which was very unaccountable for me. However, Shang was also following the
team, and I had those equipment, so there was nothing to be afraid of. Not to mention that I was an assassin, so I
wasn’t even afraid of death anymore.
This was a exploration team. The reason I joined this team was because their employer Shang was my next
target.
Who was I? I was an assassin. I was no longer a boy, but not yet a man.
Nobody knew my real name, neither did I. My parents? They died a long time ago. Those people who
were also assassins and paid money to assassins for killing people always call me “Jo Black”.
I knew I was wearing a wolf tooth as a necklace, but I didn’t know where I got it. I had had it since I was
very young.
It was quiet comfortable to swim in the sea, although those equipment was heavy, but it was still enjoyable.
As we submerged deeper and deeper, we could see some beautiful fishes swim freely in the water, it is reminding
me one word: freedom.
After a while, I saw a big rock with a hole in front of us, and we entered in immediately. After we all
entered, I could see nothing but darkness.
It was really rare for me to just relax and flow freely in the water surrounded by darkness. Can you imagine
that? You just relax your whole body in the darkness. You can’t see or hear anything. You can touch nothing
but water around you. It was like nothing in the whole world can bother you, and you’re flowing freely in a
mysterious space which is isolated from the whole world.
I worked in the darkness, so I understood how much they were afraid of darkness, because darkness means
unknown and hidden guilt or traps. However, people can’t always see the real darkness around us, or tell it apart
from the good and the bright
Suddenly, a bright light appeared and illuminated the space around us. The light came from Shang’s
searchlight, which started to shine the bottom the the hole.
I looked down with the light, and I actually could see something that was looming, but I couldn’t see it
clearly. However, I spotted something that made me apprehensive.
There are some creatures with strong attack and in a big size...
I can’t go down. I told myself. However, those people were crazy. I tried my best to stop them by using
body language when they were going down. However, nobody listened to me. All of them just started to dive
down immediately. Come on, those people were so brave. What on earth was this group?
Should I go back? No! I’m going to kill Shang, who was diving down to the bottom!
As we were going down, all of us could see those big wired things moving slowly on the bottom. Their
shapes were very weird, but we still couldn’t see clearly what they were.