Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 5

Wang Wei.
Li Jun.
Zhang Yong.
Li Jie.
The list goes on.
There are only 5 ships left, carrying 153 people.
I have to get rid of the 4, take the first - which holds Zheng He - and sail away.
After killing him.
Currently, I’m on ship number 5, carrying 70 people. I got bored so I decided to have some fun. I maim 11
of them. One with a spear, two with arrows, and the others I simply stab: as I did with Li Qiang.
The rest go down in flames. This time people start questioning me, so I say that this man from the ship went
crazy, set himself on fire and killed the rest with him. But I escaped.
January 27, 1426
I finally killed them all. Except for 1. I board the first ship and it is silent.
I think he’s sleeping so I climb down to his room with my knife. The ship so quiet I can hear my
heart beating. But he is not in his room, nor his kitchen.
Yet I find something completely different, a board with drawings of me, the burnt ships and all lines
pointing to me.
So he was going to kill me. Then he ran away, so now there is someone out there who knows who I am
and what I’m doing.
Which gives me more reason to run.
August 3, 1426
I don’t know where I am going. I just know that I can’t go back to China. I see land and I sail towards it.
I bring all the riches on land: the gold, the silver, the necklaces. I start dancing, singing, cheering, laughing.
The locals come, they think I’ve gone crazy, they think I am the devil’s messenger.
So they kill me.
They stab me with my own swords, they choke me with my own gold necklaces.
Until I am a still corpse on the soil of who knows where.
I guess karma caught up to me.
So until the end, I wear my status with pride.
兇手。
I am a murderer.
I murdered 10,520 people.
And I am proud of it.
Zheng He sailed back to China and met with the emperor.
He made up a tale that convinced the masses that the 7th voyage didn’t happen.
It took 5 years but eventually, the final voyage sailed.
The murderer’s (whose name is unknown) only defining characteristic was that she had a tattoo on her back.
She died on the shores of an unknown country and was never found.