Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 -1 2019 | Page 163

Stowaway on a Ming Treasure Voyage International College Hong Kong, Lee, Nicholas - 8 The year was 1430, on a typical hot and long summer day. Keng Hung was walking back from school with some of his classmates. For some unknown reason, Keng Hung was not in his usual talking and playing moods. He felt something was wrong but did not know what. As Keng Hung arrived home, he found his mother sobbing in the kitchen and the dinner was not prepared. His father was busy packing as if he was about to leave. Keng Hung asked his mother, “what is wrong and where is father going?”. His mother continued to sob and did not answer. Eventually, his mother got out some Man Tau that were baked over a week ago and soon all three of them were sitting around the dinner table, tearing up the hardened Man Tau and began chewing the hardened bread. The father began explaining whilst they were eating, “Keng Hung, you are almost nine now, so listen to your mother and help her with the house work after school, feed the chicken and help to harvest the crops. I will be back after two to three years”. “Two to three years!”, Keng Hung shouted, “that’s a very long time! Where are you going father?”, Keng Hung asked impatiently. “Well, Admiral Zheng He is going on a long voyage for the Emperor and all able-bodied men of this village have to go to help to work and cook on the Fleet. We don’t have a choice, and if we refused to go, they will chop off our heads.” Keng Hung could not bear the idea of not seeing his father for several years. So, he decided to pack some of his clothes, some hardened Man Tau, several books, and his favourite toy which was a small wooden horse that his father carved for him. He sneaked out of the house and walked slowly towards the harbour. At the harbour he saw many wooden ships. He counted the ships, there were sixteen ships in total, most were small, and one was gigantic. So, Keng Hung hid and waited behind some wooden boxes, trying hard to find a way to get on board. Then he noticed a large crack in one of the wooden boxes. He then ripped open the crack wider and hid inside the box. Keng Hung noticed that the box he was hiding in was half filled with bags of yam and white carrots. He moved the bags around to make himself more comfortable and then he eventually fell asleep. When Keng Hung woke up, he was already inside the ship’s food storage cabin. It was really noisy and the smell of the food storage cabin was like rotten fish. Then he started searching for his father and wondered around the ship. He asked the captain if he had seen his father, and the captain said that his father was one of the cooks and was very busy cooking for hundreds of hungry soldiers. So Keng Hung waited and waited for a long while and at last his father came to him. His father wasn’t in a good mood. When his father saw him, he shouted, “What are you doing here?!”. Keng Hung replied, “I just want to stay with you.” Somewhere in the Indian Ocean, the Navy Fleet came across some pirates. The pirates wanted to steal their treasure but once they saw that the Chinese Navy Fleet had such a big ship and a lot of weapons, they let the Chinese Navy Fleet go. But the pirates didn’t give up, they had a plan… The Chinese Navy Fleet sailed to a little island named Sri Lanka, for a break and to get more food supplies. They were really tired and thought they escaped from the pirates but the pirates secretly followed the Chinese Navy Fleet. The pirates boarded the gigantic ship after the soldiers went to the island. The pirates saw a water tank where the guards would drink from so they mixed the drinking water with a sleeping drug. The guards guarding the gigantic ship with the treasure drank the water, and shortly fell asleep. Then the pirates stole their treasure and left on their own ship.