Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 - 2 | Page 137

A Voyage of Discovery St. Stephen's College Preparatory School, Tam, Anabelle Sophia - 9 One afternoon in Grade 4 Chinese history class, Layla was perplexed about China ruling the seas a long time ago. So Layla decided to go investigate with her robot dog, cute little Doggyboggy and use his gadgets to go back in time and see for herself what happened back then. After school, Layla went home and asked Doggyboggy to come too, they went to the time machine and Magical Anywhere Door to ask Zheng He the captain what had happened. They suddenly arrived on the ship with one hundred and ninety-nine other pirates, the ship was as big as a giant. The people on the ship planted a huge amount of food, there were also black and white cows, fat and pink pigs, strange and tiny chickens …… When Zheng He first saw Doggyboggy, he thought Doggyboggy was a dog, he wanted to eat him. He shouted ”lai la, lai la”, in Putonghua. Layla ran to Zheng He. She threw a tiny bit of translating Chewing Language Gum to Zheng He’s mouth so that she could understand what he was saying. He shouted “not you big fish lips”. Layla’s face was turning as red as a tomato, she was very angry. And thought maybe they want to eat Doggyboggy, she suddenly remembered once her Chinese history teacher told her Chinese people eat dogs but Doggyboggy wasn’t a real dog. Sure, he looked like real dog, with fluffy fur and cute dog eyes but he was made of machinery inside. She shouted angrily “he isn’t a dog, if you don’t eat him, we will tell you about the future.” Doggyboggy nodded in agreement. “Well, if you will tell us about the future of course I will not eat your friend, now talk about the future,” replied Zheng He. Layla cleared her throat and started to talk about the future, people will study you and you will be in history books. People will write stories about you guys. It is very cool to be famous, and almost all of the temples would change into buildings, ...” she still hadn’t finish her sentence, when Zheng He interrupted her and asked “what are buildings?”. Layla took the Picture of Describing from Doggyboggy‘s 5D pocket and pressed the huge ENTER WORD button, she texted “buildings” into the code, suddenly, Burj Khalifa the world's tallest building appeared on the screen and a robot voice started talking, “THIS IS A BUILDING, PEOPLE LIVE AND WORK IN THEM.” “That wasn’t very useful, now I’m going to continue,” said Layla. ”Stop we are passing by India, let’s give out some gold to the king and poor families.” When they arrived to India, the rich people who live there said “what are you doing here, odd person?” “I, Zheng He am here to give out precious gold and soft silk, we are here to make friends!” “War! You’re lying mean enemies!” said one of the Indians. Doggyboggy and Layla ran to the ship as if a lion was chasing them. Then took their weapons to fight them, but the rich Indians were too strong, even one hundred soldiers couldn’t defend one of them. Doggyboggy had only one idea, use the War Bomb. Doggyboggy put the War Bomb on the floor and shouted out loud so even a person over a hundred miles could hear him shouting. Run away from the War Bomb, it’s very dangerous, said Doggyboggy. Three, two, one, KAPOW. After the big kapow, Doggyboggy led us to where the king lives, using the Magical Anywhere Door and the Historian Map to search the place. When the king was there, Zheng He told him that we were there to give out gold and not get into mischief. After giving the lovely silk to the king, the nice king said, “In return, I’m going to teach you how to make curry.” After the king taught them how to make curry, Zheng He thought up a great idea. He wrote a letter to Zhu Di about curry.