Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 70

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Carmel School Association Elsa High School, Apelbaum, Mia - 12
I
t was a lush April morning, in the year 1949, in the exquisite city of Shanghai. Xiao Hu, had been woken up by a
loud thumping sound at his door. Every muscle in Xiao Hu’s body tensed, he froze, anticipated what was heading
for him. Then within seconds, Xiao Hu was gone, leaving only a note on his living room table, for his family.
That week had started off how it would usually, Xiao Hu went to work, and his wife Yi Hu would stay home to look
after their daughter, Ming. Xiao worked for the government. Something calamitous was happening. Shanghai was
changing, China was changing. Xiao didn't like change, he didn't like how Mao Zedong was making this wonderful,
sublime land a communist country. He wanted to fight for his rights. Everyday at work, he would try and convey his
points. He would end up getting into arguments. Xiao knew what his punishment for going against Mao would be
prison for sure, maybe even death, but he didn't mind. He didn't want to adjust to a new life. That's how it all began.
Yi Hu, his wife, had woken up to a horror. Her husband missing. She felt her stomach twist into a knot. She went
downstairs and saw a white sheet of paper on the table. She already knew what was coming. She took the paper, her
arm feeling like a weight and was horrified to see what the letter had said. The last words shook her.
“I will come back home eventually, I love you.”
“He was gone” she thought to herself. The next day, after all her weeping, she decided to search for him, he must be
out there. She knew he had worked for the government, so she assumed that he must have been taken to jail. She was
devastated. She knew he did not want change. She wanted to weep, to keep on looking for him. She was almost sure
there was no point. She would rather keep on living her life and raise their fetching daughter.
Yi and her daughter Ming, had grown up