Fiction: Group 3
As soon as Lo-shen left, the chieftain snorted and muttered to himself, “Oh that high and mighty
goddess, just barging in here and ordering us around. I don’t care what she says. Who is concerned about
her and her stupid rivers? I am not. I’m in charge around here, not her.”
He then continued daydreaming.
That night, the people silently came again carrying tons of trash. Bucket by bucket, they dumped
into the water reeking piles of food, shards of broken glass and used paper. Instead of flowing smoothly, the
water became choppy and turbulent.
The next day, when Lo-shen went to check on the Pearl River, her eyes widened with horror as
hot steam poured out of her ears like waterfalls.
Raising her voice, she declared, “That man, he lied to me! My poor, contaminated river. I will tell
Fu-Hsing.”
She proceeded up alone to the Eagle Cliff where all the other gods lived and found Fu-Hsing, the
God of Happiness, resting after the whole day of making people happy. As she started telling him the whole
story, tears trickled down her bright red cheeks.
He responded by jubilantly saying, “Look at the positive side. It’s only one tiny river. Not a big
deal. Just relax and be happy.”
Poor Lo-shen looked to the ground and thought, “It’s pointless talking to him. He’s always so
cheerful and has never quite understood how much rivers mean to me.” Tired and frustrated, she plopped
down on the cold stony ground and started wailing, while Fu-Hsing merrily kept talking.
The following day when she looked down at the Pearl River, not only did she see her river piled
up with trash, she also saw fish and seagull corpses floating on the surface of the water, as the pollution had
killed them. She cried and cried. As waterfalls of tears poured out of her eyes, the liquid dropped down into
the valley below, forming a river. As Lo-shen wept, the water level slowly rose more and more.
Many days passed. Gushing down the mountain was a huge cascade of water. The valley was
already full of water, but Lo-Shen was still wailing. She continued crying and the river overflowed. Water
burst into the village, terrifying people who fled for their lives. Yet, the water still kept coming until
everything was wet and everyone was soaked from head to toe. The news quickly reached Fu-Hsing who
went to find Lo-Shen to tell her how much damage she had done.
“Lo-Shen, you have to stop crying. You are putting people in danger,” Fu-Hsing sighed as he
pointed to the flooded village.
The moment Lo-shen heard him, she stopped crying and looked towards the village.
“What! How did that happen?” she gasped in horror.
Fu-Hsing explained, “You have been crying non stop for a few days now. Your tears drizzled
down into the valley and formed a river, which overflowed and flooded the village below.”
“Oh no!” exclaimed Lo-shen.
Lo-shen went down to the village to talk to the people. Everyone was on wooden rafts and boats.
It was a total disaster. When they saw Lo-shen, they started scolding her.
“This wicked lady! She caused this to happen to us,” the villagers told each other, pointing their
fingers angrily at the goddess.
