Fiction: Group 4
The Pearl of the Dragon King
Island School, Lai, Justin - 14, Fiction: Group 4
ay your happiness be as boundless as the East Sea and your age last long like the South
Mountain” was a Chinese auspicious song for longevity. Most people would not believe
such landscape actually existed, but I knew where it was. The truth was that I “belonged”
there even it’s not my wish…
Another day in the market past, yet again, I cannot earn money. I clenched my fists with anger.
Had it not been those selfish, uncaring businessmen, I would have been able to make a living.
Sanshui was no longer making money it used to be decades ago. Many of our neighbors sold their
land and left, however that was not an option for me, since my ancestors commanded their descendants to
live here– I couldn’t disobey the only hope laid upon me even I didn’t quite understand.
As people in the market were getting fewer, I picked up the fishes, stuffed them in a net, hung it
over my shoulders, and walked home.
Before the industrialization taken over Sanshui, there were common to live five generations of one
family together, everyone was self-content with life. Without any tension, we tolerated each other and
lived in peace and harmony. We were either fishermen or farmers with their sheds built in the valley or by
the riverside, our small village was along an area called Sanshui where the three pearl rivers, which the
northern-western-eastern rivers ran through and form the Pearl River Delta, met together, there was no
pollution at all.
There was not much else around here except an abandoned railway nearby. It was the original terminus of
Canton-Sanshui railway built in 1904 during the Qing Dynasty, only a rusting old tank locomotive was left.
With the rapid economic and social development, Sanshui in the recent years has been constructing
bridges above the delta waterway; there is a great construction project to merge the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-
Macau Bridge. Ever since, I have noticed my fish catch decreased, the noise disturbance and the concrete
blocking reduce the fish habitat. I have also found many fishes carrying parasites. This indicates that there is
heavy contamination in the water. It has made me worry about Sanshui has struck a balance between
economic development and environmental protection.
I swung the door open, I felt upset but trying to act and look natural so that my wife would not
feel anything wrong. To my surprise, it was my son, Luo who greeted me. He said, “Daddy, look, I
received a merit for being the best singer in my class!” My distress was immediately solved. I kneeled down
and patted my son’s head. We had been practicing hard as there would be a traditional folk song
competition in few days later. By that time, everyone in our village must participate regardless their ages.
The winning price would be a blessing fresh egg; we all believed that whoever won would make that
person’s one wish come true. Before going to bed, Ling sweetly carried me a barrel of hot water for soaking
my tiring foots, while singing in such a relaxing mood, there were no words to describe how bless I was to
have found Ling as my lovely wife and had Luo with us.
The next day, I woke up and found a lump under Luo’s skin.
We immediately sent him to the hospital. After a series of checkups, the doctor said my son had a
kidney cancer, and it might have spread to other organs.
That was the most painful night of my life. I sat by the shore and dipped my legs in the shivering
cold water. How could I be so useless! I knew the seas were polluted; how many times Ling had been
nudging me to leave this place, but I still insisted to stay… I certainly was a failure as either a husband or a
father. “What am I g…going to do?”
I felt disheartened.
“M
