Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 58

The general understood my situation, but the fact that I disguised myself as one of the soldiers to
board on the ship, was already violating one of the legal rules of the Ming Dynasty. He said that I could stay
on the ship and help the crew, but once we get back to the palace, I would be sentenced to the dungeon
until I die. Although this sounded kind of rough, to my ears, there wasn’t much to be said of. My parents
were never actually there with me during my whole childhood. They left me and my brother because of
so-called “issues” that they had to fix, but they never really came back. My brother was the only one who
took care of me since I was little and since the only person who ever loved me is now gone, I didn’t see the
reason to keep on fighting for my life outside dungeon bars. In fact, I was kind of relieved. I thought of life
inside the dungeon, and to me, it was everything I always wanted. I was tired of being a peasant girl serving
spoiled mistresses and their kids. I said thank you and left Zheng He’s room with a sense of peace in my
mind.
Another few months passed by. By now, our ships have already sailed to different corners of the
Indian sea. We finish off our last trade with the country of Arabia, we signed a treaty, then, we gathered all
the gifts they kindly presented to us, and we set sail back to the palace.
One night, the clouds thickened and the sky was stricken. The howling wind pushed through the
still waters. I grabbed my binoculars thinking that I was seeing things, but suddenly, under the mist there
appeared to be a fleet of ships coming closer and closer to us. The sea rises, and it is now morphed into
mountains of angry and unforgiving waves. The wind slammed the rain into our faces, leaving every single
person on the ship soaked and terrified. The rain lashed down in silver sheets and behind the rain, I saw a
few ships of angry South African Pirates who weren’t that happy that we were on their territory. They were
shouting curses and were very ready to kill. I saw that my crew members were petrified, so I quickly warned
our commander and fetched swords and weapons for everyone.
Deep inside, I was actually frightened, but I knew that it was the right thing to do.
The South African pirates raised their daggers and swords above their heads. They were brutal and
certainly unkind, but I wanted to make a change. I wanted to settle this encounter with no harm, no
violence, and no hatred. So before the pirates came close enough to attack. I shouted “We come with no
harm! We come only with respect and generosity!”, and even though the pirates from the ship didn’t
understand me, they could see that I was speaking in a sincere and friendly way. So the pirate captain
stopped his crew, and they put down all their weapons.
I finally so the light in my life.
After the pirate ship sailed off, Zheng He asked me to go to his cabin. He told me that I had a good
heart and I don’t deserve to be locked up in the castle doors. He was very ill at that time, and he told me
that he might not live for any longer. So he took me outside and commanded that after he dies, I shall be
the captain of all his boats, and all of his boats will belong to me. Shortly, after that, we had a party. We all
laughed, danced and of course, drank and had a big feast.
A few weeks passed by, and Zheng He passed away. The crew and I took a strand of his hair and
buried him somewhere around the Indian coast.
I noticed that all of my crew members don’t really have families back at home. They all wanted to
be free from the palace. So I had an idea and everyone agreed with it. We turned the ship in an opposite
direction and began exploring all the corners of the world. We continued to “rule the sea” with our
bravery, generous souls and grateful hearts.