Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 316

fulfill my friend’s dream, to explore the large, large world. After ten more years of adventuring through
oases and deserts, I settled in the Afro-Hellenistic city of Cyrene. When I first arrived and saw this huge city
that was so like the capital in China, I was overcome with sorrow for my friend, who didn’t even get to see
his homeland for one last time. In my sadness, I scraped on the city walls the Han characters for ‘blood and
tears’ among the Greek and the Demotic writing. Maybe when you are reading this, you can still see the
characters scraped on the wall.
I am writing this, for the hope that someone will remember that last voyage of Ming China in
which my friend died a terrible death. Everyone praises the glorious successes of the great captains and
generals, but no one ever speaks of the hundreds of thousands of souls that were sacrificed in the course of
war. I hope this text will cause people to remember the common people and the slaves that did all the hard
work, the ones that allowed the generals and captains to succeed in their conquests and voyages.
The Ming court was ashamed and furious when the remaining five ships returned to China. The
Emperor was determined to cover up this great failure of the Chinese court, and he ordered almost all the
sailors who participated in the expedition to be massacred or to be made slaves. Zheng He swore to keep
this secret for the rest of his life. All the historical records were burnt – except for this short extract,
remaining the only proof we have of this bloody eighth voyage. As for the Chinese characters on the city
walls of Cyrene? They are long lost, eroded into sand by the cutting desert winds – just like the efforts of all
those poor, innocent souls, forgotten in the sands of time.