Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 390

Sorrow floods in my heart. A cursed person? Why am I a cursed person? I spend my way home thinking of why. When
I arrive home, the sun was already down. Mother bursts out of the kitchen with furiousness in her eyes.
“Where have you been today? It’s already sundown, YOU, are supposed to come home before sundown! Now, don’t
tell me you stayed at school to study, the school already closed four hours ago!” mother shrieks. Although her words are filled
with anger, it has absolutely no influence on me.
“Mother, why am I cursed?” I ask her.
At that moment , the whole room was quiet. No one is chatting, no one is laughing. Mother is glaring at me with big
round eyes and in an extremely shocked manner.
“I think we should talk upstairs.” Mother says in a soft voice. And the next second I know it, I was being dragged up to
my room by mother.
When mother closes the door behind me, I thought that she is going to scold me, but she didn’t. Instead, she asks me
softly, “How did you know about that?” I tell her about my meeting with Nan and Hwa and what Hwa said to me before they
went away.
Once again, I thought that mother will be cross at me for breaking the rules, but she isn’t. Instead, she sighs and tells
me this:
“My dear Chang, you know rules are made for a reason, but since the situation is till this stage already, I think I should
tell you the reason on why we, normal citizens living inside the city walls should not go outside.”
“Long long time ago, during the mid Ming Dynasty, there was a talented lady called Han Sheung. The emperor liked
her a lot and soon, made her the queen. Later, a lady called Wu Wei appeared in the palace. She was as talented as Han and had an
even better appearance than her. The emperor liked Wu a lot and spent more time with Wu than Han. Wu soon had four sons
and Han had two sons.”
“ Later, Han grew anxious and killed herself in the nearby river. A lot of people believe that before she died, she cursed
two of the sons of Wu that whoever has good relationship with her two sons or their future generations will receive bad luck.
The news spread fast and people were very aware that this is true.”
“Later, because the cursed sons of Wu received too much hate from the people in the palace, they moved out and
developed a village on their own. They were no longer royals, but they still received a lot of hate from people outside the palace.
Therefore, they built tall walls and asked their future generations to live inside the city walls.”
“So… I’m one of Wu’s cursed son’s future generations?” I ask
“Yes Chang. We all are, me, your father, your brother, your grandfather, even you great grandfather.”
I am astound to hear that. For years I have thought that the community was built on equality and love, but it turns out
that I was wrong.
“Do you believe this curse mother?” I ask
“No Chang I do not, but we are way too hated by the others that it is always better to stay silent and follow the rules.”
She answers.
“But…”
“No more buts Chang, I think you’ve heard enough and it’s time for you to have a good night’s sleep. Now we shall
have no more talks on this topic and certainly no more climbing over the walls, okay? Goodnight my dear son.”
I do not want to promise mother, but to the thought of it, what else can I do to stop people from hating on us, seems
like all I could do is wonder what will happen if there were no city walls.
“Goodnight mother.”