Fiction: Group 3
“I’ve gotten a job in that factory. I’ll figure out how to stop their wastewater dumping tonight when I go
back,” Xin announced, trying to reassure the crowd.
Then, the merKing and merQueen came over. “Son, our lives lie in your hands,” merKing said solemnly.
Xin nodded. As he prepared to head back, his mother warned him: “Remember you don't have much time
left before the magic potion wears off. We don't have another potion, so you must return to water before
then or you will never change back into a merboy again.”
By the time Xin arrived back at the riverbank, the misty moon was already hanging high in the sky. As he
heaved himself up, his tail glowed and glistened as it caught the silvery moonlight.
“AHHHH!!!” a voice shrieked.
Shocked, Xin spun round to the direction of the sound to see a girl, hands covering her mouth, bewildered
and petrified. He quickly put his clothes on while his tail faded into legs. He stumbled across to the girl.
Utterly terrified, she reeled back instinctively.
“Don’t come near, you monster!” she shouted.
“I am not a monster! I’m just a merboy, I mean no harm!” Xin explained defensively. There was a long
pause of silence.
“I thought mermaids were myths from the West! You can change into humans?” the girl asked inquisitively.
“Why are you here?”
“I can change because I took a magic potion,” he explained. “There is a lot of pollution in the sea this past
year, so my people are dying. I must resolve this problem for them to survive.”
“I can help you,” the girl beamed.
It turned out that the girl, Lian, is a scientist, and is helping the police by testing water samples from the
river at different time intervals to prove that the factory is indeed discharging waste dye illegally. The police
never had enough proof to arrest the factory manager, even though they had searched around the factory
before. Xin then talked about his job offer, and they decided that Xin should find out as much information
as he could inside. Lian would wait for him by the river.
When he arrived at the factory, Manager Li was waiting for him impatiently. He led Xin into a room filled
with cardboard boxes. Confused, Xin watched as Manager Li shifted some boxes at the corner, which
revealed a trapdoor on the floor. Lifting the trapdoor up Manager Li climbed down the hole and motioned
Xin to follow. An unpleasant chemical odour surged into Xin's lungs. He coughed profusely. They landed
on a dimly lit metal platform, and below them, Xin could see a large pool of dark liquid.
“Your job is to press these two buttons. The red one opens up a tap, and the black one closes it. You should
only open the tap for ten minutes in each hour,” Manager Li instructed as he glared at Xin. “Remember,
ten minutes only.” With that, Manager Li climbed back up the ladder and left.
The odour was overpowering, and Xin continued to cough. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, he
slowly climbed back up the ladder and opened the trapdoor slowly. Making sure no one was around, he
slipped out of the room, past a security guard who was fast asleep, and then ran to Lian and told her
everything.
“That's great! With my water samples and you as the witness, we can finally charge the factory manager!”
Lian said with a gleam in her eyes. “We must go to the police station at once!”
