Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 39

New Tales of the Ming Treasure Fleet
Dulwich College Beijing, Jiang, Eddy - 12
The blazing hot sun shone down onto my bare back, mixing with the putrid scent of rotting wood, causing
me to go numb with disgust. I hunched over, and collapsed onto the floor, groaning. “HaiHang! Are you
okay there?”, I heard my father ask. I got up and replied: “Yes, I’m fine!”. Ever since I was born, I knew
that my father was a selfless person, always volunteering for community projects in our village, giving
whatever portions of food he could spare to those who needed it the most and even paying for the others
when they had no money. I, on the other side, was an adventurous person. When they looked for
volunteers for these voyages across the world, I was one of the first in our village to sign up. In the
beginning, my father disapproved of my actions, constantly trying to talk me out of the idea. Eventually, he
gave up, and signed himself up too as he would not let me go alone.
Right before noon, the captain, captain Chen, called me to his cabin. He smiled warmly at me and said:
“Come, I have something to discuss with you.” He pointed to the chair opposite to him and I sat down. “I
have reviewed your recent performance on-board,” he continued, “And I, along with my peers, have
decided to assign you to the crow’s nest.” I couldn’t believe my ears: no more errands running, no more
cleaning up and even better, getting a more exciting job! I accepted the offer without hesitation and thanked
captain Chen. He then sent me off towards my new job. I could almost see myself standing tall upon the
crow’s nest, the cool sea breeze blowing my face. I was fully ready for this new adventure!
Things were going well at my new job. The only issue was that I was bored. Nothing interesting was going
on as imagined. All that I did every day was keep watch in the scorching sun while the brightness gave me
headaches. One day, boredom got to me, and I fell asleep. When I woke up, my mind was fuzzy. However,
even that could not blur the scene that occurred in front of me.
There were a dozen or so large ships sailing towards us. Not until they got closer, revealing skull and
crossbones painted onto a black flag, did I recognize that they were pirate ships. I remember that once father
had educated me about these ships when I was small, and ever since I was afraid to encounter them. But
here I was, presented with a fleet of pirate ships. I clambered down from the crow’s nest as quickly as I
could and I was just about to run off and warn everybody of the siege, when a sudden impact jolted me off
balance and I felt myself hit the deck hard.
They had arrived.
It was pandemonium on the ship. Everyone was running around, screaming “Pirate attack! Get ready to
fight!”. Next to me, the captain’s cabin door flung open, and Chen stormed out. He took one glance at me
and his anger swelled up. He was just about to explode when Li, the captain’s right-hand man, came
running towards us. “Captain, we need you!” he barked. Chen glared at me one last time, and ran off with
Li. My first instinct was to run away and hide, but my curiosity of what would happen got the best of me. I
ran off after them.
When I learnt about pirates before, I knew they were ruthless, but I had never expected them to be so
bloodthirsty. Running towards captain Chen and Li, the scene around me threatened to make me throw up.
The stench of dead bodies wafted through the air, making me gag. All around me, there lay bloody corpses
of my fellow crewmates and the attackers. What shocked me the most was that all my crewmates’ bodies
had small holes in their flesh from reasons I didn’t know. I pulled away from the corpses and wondered
nervously whether my father’s body lay with the others, whether he had died in the attack or was gravely
wounded and might soon die of his untreated injuries. I tried to ignore it, but the image of my father lying
lifelessly on the soggy wooden deck was too hard for me to bear, so I tried to just focus on walking, one step
at a time, until eventually, I spotted Li in front of me. Just as I did, Li slumped to the floor, lifeless. I was
frozen in fear. Standing behind Li’s body was a pirate who wore an eye patch and held a weapon I could not
recognize. He was looking down at the corpse with a smile on his face. When he noticed me, his smile
vanished, and he aimed his weapon at me. All of a sudden, I heard a loud bang and instantly, I felt a splitting
pain shooting through my shoulder.
I crumbled to the ground. I looked over at my shoulder and saw that the entire area of fabric was stained red
with my blood. The pirate walked closer to me and aimed his weapon straight at my head. I could not
believe that it would all be over for me. My journey, my future, my life. All because I was stupid enough to