Fiction: Group 4
The Fourth Region
HKMA David Li Kwok Po College, Naeem, Shahryar - 17, Fiction: Group 4
t was just another ordinary day at school during Liberal Studies lesson with my LS teacher blabbering on
about boring old China. Normally, this would be when my eyes would close signaling my brain to send
me to the land where thoughts run wild. I was on the verge of falling asleep or as I would like to call it,
“hibernating” when she suddenly came to the part about the Pearl River Delta and there was something
oddly peculiar about the way she was teaching which stopped me from hibernating.
To my surprise, I was actually paying attention in probably the world’s most horrendous subject after math
of course or as we refer to it,Mental Abuse ToHumans. She continued after a short pause, and started giving
us facts about the Pearl River Delta and in an orderly fashion, the lesson progressed. Ten minutes remained
till the end of the lesson and I let out a sigh of relief. My teacher then moved onto the geographical
composition of the delta. She stressed the word “delta” as if there was more to the word than what met the
eye and it seemed as if she wanted to tell me something very interesting. She proceeded by mentioning the
delta, (once again stressing it) consists of three main regions namely, Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou. It
occurred to me that the next sentence she was about to say would be what I was waiting for. Unfortunately,
there was a knock on the door which was followed by the turning of 34 heads to see who it was. It was the
principal who had decided to “drop in” for a surprise lesson inspection. How amusing. Moments later, the
lesson ended. I couldn’t help but keep wondering, what was it that the teacher wanted to tell us? Whatever
it was it would have to wait till Monday. Sigh!
Saturday went by like a breeze. I guess I was too busy in conquering the colossal pile of homework I was
given. Time sure flies even when you’re not having fun. By the time I got up, it was already dark outside
and I was too tired to do anything else, so I had dinner and went straight to bed.
Sunday followed shortly after Saturday and I was determined that I was not going to sit around all day doing
nothing so I decided to sit around all day, in front of the computer and uncover what felt of utmost intrigue
to me the other day – the way my teacher kept stressing the word “delta”. I fired up my computer, opened
Google and typed in “DELTA, Pearl River Delta”. Two million, four hundred seventy-eight thousand, six
hundred and thirty seven results popped up in about zero point four seconds.I searched for hours but had no
luck, until I stumbled upon a mysterious link which had no “.com” and the fact that it went against
everything I had learned in computer studies, compelled me to click on the link. Once again, luck was not
in my favour and my computer had shut down due to a scheduled update I had it set to. I was speechless. I
literally had nothing to say but my mind was preoccupied by the fact that there was something fishy about
this “Pearl River Delta”. On the bright side, it was Monday tomorrow and I was, amazingly, excited to go
to school.
I managed to get through the day and it was once again, Liberal Studies lesson. I wasted no time when she
asked if anyone remembered where we had left off, I swiftly raised my hand and replied, “You were about
to tell us something interesting about the Pearl River Delta, Miss.” “Ah yes!” she replied. She continued in
a high pitched voice, “Did you know the word “delta” is a Greek word?”. I was not surprised. We had
learned that in Mental Abuse To Humans (Math). What she mentioned next was what mystified us. “If you
list the Greek alphabets, you will find that delta is the fourth letter preceded by alpha, beta and gamma.” she
said. She then asked, “have you ever realized there are only three main regions in the delta, but it isn’t called
gamma but instead named, delta.” . I found this ridiculous and assessed whether she was aware of what she
was saying, but then it struck me, why did the lesson end so abruptly last Friday, and why had my computer
miraculously decide to update right when I clicked on the mysterious link?Coincidence? I think not. She
suggested there were speculations that there was once another city in the delta, but was of Greek origin
rather than Chinese. How incredibly interesting.
Once I got home, I was determined to open that link and the fact it revealed the exact same thing had left
me awe-struck. What made this more fascinating was the fact that Greece is right between Asia and Europe
I
