Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 -1 2019 | Page 126

Seeweed's Wretched Life
Harrow International School Hong Kong, Cheng, Jessica - 10
“Seeweed, go get me a cup of hot green tea. NOW! You wretched girl.”
And that’s how my wretched life started.
You see, my father was a very important Chinese emperor. You’re probably wondering how I ended up
being a slave when I was a Chinese princess. Well, it all started like this…
My father, the important Chinese emperor didn’t want a useless baby girl in his grand, royal life. So, guess
what he did? Well, this is pretty harsh but… he put me on a DESERTED ISLAND to let me starve to
death. He clearly hated me.
While my grand, and spoilt father is enjoying his life at his glorious palace, I was being a dirty slave in a ship.
The only person that actually treated me nicely was the captain: Captain Ming. The other crew hated me
ever since Captain Ming found me at the deserted island. They didn’t care about me. When Captain Ming
was around, they pretended to be super nice and loving (they were really bad actors and too bad Captain
Ming didn’t notice).
After living here for twelve years, I got used to this kind of bullying behaviour. I loved the ship; it was so
nice. We travelled night and day. We went to different places such as: India, Southern China, Africa, Arabia.
The most dangerous voyage was in Africa. The people there seriously did not have any common sense.
It was my first journey: to Africa. I was really excited since this was my first time traveling. By now, I
already been to six places in the world to give away our precious treasure. After ten years of traveling, we
finally reached our destination. Also, after twelve years, I finally got my name: Seeweed(I know it’s spelt
wrong. The pirates didn’t know how to spell)
Anyway, we went to Africa. Captain Ming was really weird. He didn’t steal treasure like normal pirates. He
gave people them. I once asked him, “Why are you giving people money?”
He replied, “It’s kindness dear, kindness”
I was really confused then. Why would you give someone when you could keep it all for yourself?
Apparently, he was really kind and shared everything he had; for better or for worse.
Back to reality. As we landed in the coast of Africa, we met a huge army of Africans staring at our
humongous ship. I didn’t realize it then but the Africans were too scared to do anything. They thought that
we were going to attack them or something. Captain Ming suddenly shouted “We are here in peace. We
are here to help. We are here to offer money to this glorious country. Have no fear!”
The people of Africa looked around in horror thinking “Our country, glorious?”
Boldly, the crew marched of the ship and towards the emperor’s palace.
Suddenly, the door banged open. Lots of smelly, well-armed men marched into the palace. When the
emperor was about to yell “ATTACK”, Captain Ming said in a clear, loud voice “We will give you the
treasures of China. Please accept our gift!”.
Shocked, the emperor muttered “Okay”.
“If there’s no problem, we must journey on our way.” Said Captain Ming calmly.
Then, I understood. China was on the verge of war with lots of places. The only way to stop that was
natural kindness. The Chinese Emperor never understood the meaning of kindness. He always thought
violence was the best way to solve problems. But Captain Ming, he traded kindness with peace, and that was
the only way he could succeed.