Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 209

At Peace
Shanghai Singapore Internatinoal School, Lim, Ming Kang Ethan - 12
-A young boy, blood running down his face from the blow dealt by that ruthless pirate, tears
flooding his eyes-
“Zheng He! Zheng He!”
The vivid memory cleared from my vision and I was hit by the salty air.
Chen Zuyi, I am coming for you.
One of my crew members was standing in front of me. “Yes? What is it?”
“We are just coming on the port of Singapore.”
“Good, good.”
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Still feeling a little shell-shocked from the memory, I handed over control of the helm to someone
else and walked towards the port. As I stared at the brine water, thinking of the nothing but killing that
merciless pirate and showing him the same mercy he showed that child. The places he went to were left in
ruins, floors littered with broken household items and gruesome corpses. How could one man be so
emotionless as he killed and stole from so many people. Doing it without a second thought. Doing it
without doubt. Doing it for fun . Chen Zuyi made people fear to step out of their houses. He made them
feel like there wasn’t anywhere they could be safe. I am going to stop him.
-Help me, please. I don’t want to die-.
Chen Zuyi, you are the most horrible and cruel pirate of Southeast Asia. Ruining lives and stealing
from so many people that I gave gifts to. I will put an end to your reign and bring your head to the people
whose lives were destroyed by you and your pirate crew. You will die, that is something I can promise for
vengeance will be mine.
The boat suddenly lurched forward then backward then returned to its regular rocking. I shook my
head, I couldn’t allow those memories to keep distracting me. I know what must be done in order to avenge
those people. We had arrived on the dock where all of our ships could get some restocks in supplies and
some repairs. We had many supporters in this war against the “Pirate King” as some people called it. The
wet, wooden planks creaked beneath our feet as my crew and I made our way to an inn just a short walk
away from the coast. The rest of my fleet went to somewhere else to stay for the night.
We spent a fortnight there gathering supplies and planning our attack: where the weak areas were
in his fortress, the kind of weapons Chen Zuyi had. Most of his fortress was made of wood and stone, and
he had men on the walls watching out towards the ocean making sure there were no people attempting to
attack their fortress. Every day we made progress with our plan, everyone was ready to take out the pirates.
On the second last day of out stay, we went through the plan from the beginning. So, the plan was that the
smaller ships, all 190 of them came at the fortress from the main entrance, the main part that was facing the
ocean. Then all of the treasure ships would stay at the back, firing arrows at the fortress. Then we will rush
and stop our boats at the beach and use a battering ram for the gate. Finally, once the gate is open we will
push forward and send soldiers in. Slowly but surely, we will control that fortress and then execute Chen
Zuyi.