Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 332

from us.” Then her mom continued, “so you think that maybe Mei Mei is captured by this guy name Du Yue Sheng
right?” “Yes you are right, but this can’t be the final answer because there are syndicates trying to sell children to the
market or make them as beggars. Still, let’s just pray for our dear sister Mei Mei to be safe and sound” mumbled her
eldest sister. Since after the sentence ends, the siblings started to pray and mumbled, “For our dear sister Mei Mei to be
safe and sound and they should not touch her unless they have the permission from us” Then they waited in silence.
Together with her inmates, Mei Mei was under surveillance of Du’s followers. She sat in silence and then
came an announcement, “All of you listen carefully, you will be one by one trained by the foster mothers, but if you
resist it, then you will be killed or either you will end up in the gambling dens or in the opium divans.” Mei Mei still sat
in silence although in her heart she really wants to cry out loud but she does not want to catch the attention from Du’s
followers. It was then, the place started to shake. Is it earthquake? No, its Du’s followers came to random pick few girls
for ganniang . Everyone was shocked and they hide themselves in corners of the jail. Mei Mei was in one corner
squishing with the children with her heart palpitating. She can hear mouning sound of girls being pull out from the cell
by Du’s followers. Soon, the shake was stop. Everyone sigh peacefully, “Thank God I wasn’t the “lucky” one who being
dragged out just now” a girl said in relieve. “Yeah right, not me also” mumbled others. Then time passed, and slowly
the children fell asleep, cramping together and lying on each other.
Soon it was early in the morning, where the sun rose and given out its most brightness and woke up all these
children whom were still asleep in their sweet dreams like a morning call : “Wake up my children! It's a new bright
sunny morning!” Slowly, one by one, they started to move and some woke up already stretching their bodies lazily. Then
out of a sudden, there came a loud siren. “What was that?” questioned by the girl with a braided hair. “It’s so noisy”
called up a little girl. Apparently, the prison started to shake again. Now everyone quickly went ahead to their hiding
spot, but the shake was too strong and everyone of them have to grab on something to stay still!
Finally, the movement ceased but the prison cell collapsed suddenly. “Run to take cover!” someone shouted. It
was too late for Mei Mei because she fainted after being hit on her head by the fallen pieces of the wall. When she
gained conscious and started to look around, it was the police! Then, crowds were gathering and some of them look
worried. Mei Mei took no time and started to search for her family. “Mama, Papa, where are you?” cried Mei Mei out
loud. “We are here! Mei Mei!” shouted another voice. There came a small group of people running towards Mei Mei
and she recognized them, it was her parents! “Mama! Papa! I miss you!” Mei Mei ran towards her parents. They hugged
each other tightly, “I will never get lost again, Mama. I am wrong, I am sorry” mumbled Mei Mei. “My dear Mei Mei, is
nothing wrong about you.” Its all because of these people who captured you, they were the ones who did wrong.”
“Now tell me who capture you and what happen to you and please don’t tell me its Du Yuesheng who capture
you”, mama smile while saying. “How do you know?” Mei Mei was surprised.
At the end of the day, Mei Mei and her family went home and had a big family feast, they had a yummy hot
pot. Yummy! After this incident, Mei Mei learnt to be always alert as there are many bad people in and maybe outside
this world trying to cheat you!
This tale took the background of old Shanghai days during the international Continental time. The moral of
this story is do not ever go around places without your parent’s knowledge, its not safe to do that, you will end up
something like what Mei Mei experienced. Shanghai is a relatively safe city but still, safety is your top priority when you
are travelling out. Now that she learnt a lesson, did you?