Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 303

I followed him into a large, elaborately decorated room with a long table. He took out a thick stack of papers and laid them out on the table. He waved a hand in front of the seats lined up neatly next to the table, indicating me to have a seat. I sat in one of the snowy- white, modern wheely chairs. The Huangdi then proceeded to sort out the papers he had laid out. Then, he sat down in the tall, black chair at the head of the table. “Hao”, he said. “Just now I was trying to sort out these design elements of the temple. It is almost impossible to build it overlooking the Huangpu river. The area you wish to build it in contains a large piece of grassland. We need to keep this for fresh air around the river,” he told me swiftly with fluent Chinese. A man standing beside the Huangdi rapidly translated his words into English for me. As the translator, who later told me he was called Wang Wei, finished the last of his remarks, I was lost for words. “Surely you could build it… somewhere?”, My voice trailed off as I began to think. Wang Wei quickly translated my comment into Chinese, and the Huangdi looked doubtful. “Let me think about this,” the Emperor said. “Follow me,” he commanded. The translator and I accompanied him outside. The Emperor stopped in front of a shop. Architectural Delights, the shop plate read. Just like magic, Li and Yuan appeared behind us. “Architectural Delights,” Yuan read. “Why are you here?”, he asked. The Huangdi’s voice boomed loudly above my head. “We are trying to find some ideas. Any problem, Yuan?”, the Emperor asked coolly. “Er, no, not at all, Huangdi,” stammered Yuan. We proceeded into the shop. It was empty except for a few lone designers and architects. The woman at the desk looked up when she heard us come in. “Ah, Huangdi, you come at the right time! Are you looking for more ideas of the pagoda? I just invited Mr Wang Lin, he is THE architect and engineer of the year! Also, Mr Lin Ye is a wondrous designer!” The Huangdi was looking around the shop, at the mini prototypes sculpted out of clay. He had a velvet notebook with him and used a beautiful fountain pen to take some notes. “Ah, Huangdi, I recommend this pagoda! Mr Lin Ye designed this!” She describes vividly. “You can ask Mr Wang Lin to construct it!” “Hao. Let’s do this one,” the Emperor nodded, taking some notes. The model was beautiful, and it had traditional patterns done across the exterior. Huangdi looked around the prototype, feeling the embossed areas with his fingers. “Wang Lin!” he commanded. “Help me build this one, okay? I want it overlooking the Huangpu river, it has to be top condition and it must have a very traditional interior. I also want firecrackers all year long and embossed dragons in the doorways for good luck. There has got to be two dragon statues standing in front of the pagoda,” The demands flew out of his mouth like water. “Yes, sir,” Wang Lin replied. He quickly took out a sketchpad, his pencil lightly moving across the paper. He wrote the dimensions on the sides of the pagoda. A few days later, the pagoda was being built in the empty space next to the Huangpu. Cement and rock flew everywhere, but in two months the pagoda’s structure was finished. Now the exterior was being covered in cement, and the embossed bits were being sculpted. After a week, the cement had dried and the Emperor had invited some of the country’s top artists, including Zhang Zheyuan and Qi Yuan, to paint the outside of the pagoda. In the end, the finished pagoda was a vibrant candy red. There were bright canary yellow dragons embossed on the sides, and the trim was done in shamrock green. There were two gold dragon statues embellishing the entrance. Firecrackers hung above the door.