Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 524

The Old City of Shanghai
Ying Wa College, Wong, Yu Kwan Yannick – 13
O
n the day before the Chinese History exam, I was lying on my bed, doing revision for my exam. I started to feel
sleepy and fell asleep gradually. I woke up in the morning and I realized that I was lying on a bench. I have never
been to this place, every single building is very old, and all of them were built in a Chinese style. I looked at the
shop signs and finally realized that I was located in the old city of Shanghai. I walked around the city from the
countryside to the city and my adventure began.
The locals used the local, Shanghainese language to communicate, which I didn’t totally understand. I walked around
the city and found a school. I walked around, hoping to find some teachers. I walked for fifteen minutes and finally found some
teachers in the only classroom. I tried to communicate with them by using simple English. Fortunately, there was an English
teacher among them. I finally succeeded in communicating with them.
I chatted with the English teacher and asked whether he knew why I had travelled back in time to the old city of
Shanghai
“Oh! You're a time traveler, welcome!”
“Wha-at? Time traveler? Who on earth sent me back here? I'm supposed to take my Chinese History exam today”
“This is fated. I mean everybody is sent back here the night before their Chinese History exam”
“So what am I supposed to do to get away from this terrible place? I have no friends here!”
“Go to the temple in the city centre and you'll know what to do.”
He gave me a map of the Old City of Shanghai and I followed it and walked to the city centre. While I was walking, nearly
everyone on the street stared at me. I was scared and started to run. Finally I arrived the temple.
I went in the temple and walked around it. I walked for a while and found the person in charge.
“Woah, welcome! You must be the time traveler. Your clothing looks cool, where did you buy it?”
“I don't care whether my clothing is cool. I only wanted to go back home.”
A girl walked in and shouted, “Who is the person in charge? Anyone?” We walked outside and met her.
“You must be the time traveler I've time travelled back here! Once again welcome!”
I questioned him, “Don't you have anything else to do? Is bringing people back to the past that fun," I paused for a
moment before continuing, “especially on the night before our Chinese History exam?”
“Little boy, you're correct! I don't have anything else to do except bringing people from the future to the past. Well I
guess this is my job?”
“So your job is to teleport people from the future to the past with no reason?”
“No way! I’m given a mission to protect this temple. There are tons of treasures under this piece of land. The ground is
made up of extremely hard material. No one can break it except the dragon hiding in the forest.” He explained to us that the
dragon was always protecting the temple. However, over these years these hard materials had gotten softer and softer and no one
knew what had happened. He wanted us to go into the forest and see what was going on. He had also promised us to bring us
back if we could help him.