Fiction: Group 4
‘Don’t worry that much. Our organization is urging the government to deal with the water
pollution problem in Pearl River Delta. There will be measures aiming at it in the coming year,’ Jacob’s
comfort was always that kind.
‘I’m afraid it will be too late,’ I murmured, but I dared not letting Jacob to hear that as he would be
worried and kept cheering me up. I could not deny that he was a bit annoying in this case.
Sunshine fell gently on my face—it’s another fine day. Living in this city, there could be a fine day,
but never a nice one. Never mind, I was going on a trip to Japan for exchanging opinions with another
environmental group. I could finally breathe in some fresher and cleaner air.
Before the trip, I had a walk with Jacob along the Pearl River, investigating the environment for
the report to the Japanese group. I wished I had never been there. It was horribly poor. All I saw was
rubbish floating on the oily and dirty water. How dare they call it was ‘PEARL river’?
‘Is our progress too slow? We have paid our whole-year effort on it! How come…’ I was
astonished by the view. It wasn’t like the place I had been to years ago.
‘One year is never enough. You should know that whenever we save it for a little, there will be
millions of people doing economic activities bring harms on it. We can never keep pace with these bad
guys.’ Jacob explained.
I rewrote my report on the aeroplane. The situation was far more serious than I had expected. I
should seek more help from other environmental groups to empower ourselves.
‘There was a mysterious disaster happened in the Pearl River Delta today afternoon. No one
survived the great tsunami in these cities. The whole country mourn over their deaths…’
‘How lucky we are! We escaped from the disaster!’ all people on the plane was so excited as they
were so fortunate to be absent in these cities when the disaster happened. Only me, I was the only one who
experienced the mental breakdown.
I was here again. There were no more high-rises, no more hustle markets, no more rushing
crowds. The city was empty. They had brought away my hometown, my family and everything I owned. It
was the first time that I felt so alone on Earth.
I walked past the Pearl River. There were no more rubbish and dirty water anymore, but fish and
shrimps swimming freely in clear water. It was like a whole new world after all.
No more selfish people working on their own. No more enterprises polluting the water. No more
cars emitting air pollutants harming our health.
No more marine animals groaning in my dreams.
I finally understand that my dream was actually a time bomb. How ironic that people fought for a
rich society throughout their lives, but eventually it had all came to dust and ashes.
I wished I could stop the next time bomb to explode again.
