Fiction: Group 3
blinked. There were cars, driving around in hordes and a faint sound of strange music. She was astonished.
It seemed as if she had travelled to the future. But as she looked downwards, she saw no fish, at least no
living ones, they were all dead, white bellies to the sky.
Soon, they docked. Lihung was led off the ship and to a massive building just by the river. As she entered
it, she saw a beautiful office. It was clean and tidy, unlike her village home, which never was. She walked
upstairs. It was the factory. She could see people all wearing pale blue shirts and white hats, with their
heads down, cutting and sewing, cutting and sewing. Still upwards, she saw a massive room. It was the
dormitory. Walking from one end to the other was like hauling water from the river. It could
accommodate at least a hundred workers!
In the first few days of her job, the foreman assigned her to thread cutting, with the easy job of removing all
excess yarn from jeans. It was tiring, plus she could only earn 5 yuan a day. But she worked seven days a
week, 30 days a month, hoping to earn some money.
The living conditions were not good, and all the windows and doors were sealed with iron bars. The
foreman said it was for the safety of the girls, as the city was a dangerous place. She didn’t know why. She
had never left the compound. The foreman told them not to leave and save every penny, as by Chinese
New Year, he would help everyone send their money home.
One day, as they were working in the factory, Lihung heard a loud knock on the door, getting heavier and
heavier. “Thump, thump, thump.” The foreman ran up, panting, “All those under 16, hide somewhere,
now, quiet!”
Ten of them ran into the toilet, the only toilet they had. It was stinky, but they had to follow their orders.
Then Lihung heard voices.
“You know manager, your building is in quite a bad shape, and look at all those windows and doors…” It
was an unfamiliar voice. An inspector! She had heard from her co-workers about them who came once a
year.
“Yes, we have been having…some financial problems lately…so…”
“I understand your concerns, but safety for all is a priority for the nation.”
“Let’s go to a restaurant, I’ve reserved a table there, let’s … discuss this there…”
It was getting stuffy in the toilet. Lihung opened the window which was so old its iron bars had worn off.
She wanted to get some fresh air. But as she opened it, all she smelt was stinky, stinky smog. There was the
decaying of the dead fish, the smoke of the chimneys… She slammed the windows shut.
After quite a long time, the foreman pushed open the door and told them to come out. Lihung was
relieved. She was freed from the suffocating toilet. Suddenly, she thought she saw a snake breathing out
fire at the corner of her eye, but she quickly dismissed it.
***
It was the night before Chinese New Year—the time when Lihung could go back to her home. And she
was. She had just had dinner with her parents. Her father was getting better, their family was smiling…
She woke to the screams and cries of her fellow workers. Lihung was sleepy, but she turned to look at why
they were screaming. Nothing usually frightened them. There it was. A giant snake lashing through the
dormitory. The snake snapped its mouth open. Fire billowed out. Then, it stared her in the eye. It
breathed its fire. Lihung jumped off her bed, and hid behind it, closing her eyes. When she opened them
again, her bed had been burnt to nothingness, along with her snoring friend who slept on the lower level of
the bunk bed.
