Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 282

The next morning, I decided to explore the floor above my dormitory, where I met many admirable
merchants and cartographers. I spoke with worthy geographers and marine biologists. All of their stories
were so inspiring and motivating. In the afternoon, after attending a meeting with the Captain of the ship
and after going through safety procedures, I decided to explore the ship even more. I explored all of the
floors of the ship and made a last minute decision to visit the kitchen. I am so glad I did because that was
where I met Big Wei, the lead Chef of the ship. He really helped me survive that journey. Sometimes,
when I was having a bad day, he would sneak in some extra food into my ration of dinner. He would
always lend me a sympathetic ear to talk to as I had no ‘real’ friends on the ship. I had been quite lonely on
the first few days of the voyage, but Big Wei was always there for me, no matter what.
We had started from Nanjing about 10 days ago and a recent announcement informed us that we would be
reaching Champa in a few more days. I was absolutely thrilled about the fact that I was going to be
exploring new land in just a couple of days. But as time passed by, I was becoming more and more anxious.
I was unsure of whether the people were going to be welcoming or not and I was fearful of the battles we
would have to fight if the people of Champa thought we were intruders.
Soon enough, we disembarked at Champa, and decided to offer the King of Champa the precious presents
we brought with us from China. The Captain nominated me and another elderly man, Cheng, to come
with him to present the gifts to the King of Champa. We reached the King’s palace and the guards let us in
when the Captain showed them his badge. As we walked in, we heard a loud sound of breaking glass. I
turned around to see the King of Champa being tormented by his son, the Prince. The Captain was the
fastest to act, he took the nearest thing he saw, a gold vase, and striked the Prince on the head with it. He
jumped back in pain and alarm but soon recovered and had the Captain’s head in between his hands in no
time. He took out the sharp, black dagger from his pocket and was about to cut in to the Captain’s flesh
when I landed a punch in his right cheek. Dark red blood started to appear around the Prince’s mouth. I
can’t believe I saved the life of the Captain. A few moments later, one of the Prince’s men had me in
headlock. My face started to turn purple and my lungs were desperate for air. Then the man abruptly let go
and said “Hey, she’s a girl!”. I was thrown back into a pillar with a thud. The Captain and Cheng helped me
up to my feet immediately and we rushed back to the ship.
That night, I went to sleep with worry. The only thing I was concerned about was if the captain heard what
the man said about me being a woman, but fortunately even if he did, he didn’t show any signs of being
unhappy about it so I breathed a sigh of relief and slowly let myself fall asleep.
The next morning, the Captain called me to his room and told me to have a seat on one of his posh, velvet
chairs. I was curious to know what I had been called here for. I sat there in silence until he handed me a
silver, sparkly, spinning top. “You know, I had a daughter, once.” He said calmly, “ She was three years old
when my wife left me and took her to Hong Kong. If she was here now, she would have been as old as you.
I want you to know, I really appreciate how you saved my life yesterday, if it weren’t for you, I don’t know
whether I would be here right now. That old man Cheng was no help whatsoever.” With that he stood up
and left the room, without saying another word. So he had, afterall, found out that I was a girl. I went back
to the dormitory after that to find that my belongings were gone. There was a note that said “Your
belongings have been kept in your new suite on the second floor”.
I continued the journey on the same ship until we reached Calicut in India. Where I got off and travelled to
Nalanda to study buddhism. That was how I ended up earning the title of being the first ever female on a
Ming treasure voyage, saving the life of the Captain on the way! I proved the Emperor wrong and I
followed my dreams.