Fiction: Group 2
New Tales of the Pearl River Delta
Creative Primary School, Lee, Argus Jay - 10, Fiction: Group 2
hrow all the cans into the river,” a man said. “What? Boss, there are toxics in the cans!” the
other man said. “Who cares?” “Throw everything in?” “Yes, do it now!” Splash! All the
cans were thrown into the water. “Good, let’s go.” The two men left.
***
There were many factories in the Pearl River Delta. Factory owners always asked the factory workers to
throw the industry wastes into the Pearl River. The industry wastes were dangerous to the environment
because they contained toxics and would pollute the River. Many young villagers wanted to stop the
factory owners and workers from throwing the wastes into the Pearl River but the factory owners ignored
them. One young villager, Zhong, was particularly unhappy. He loved his village and the once beautiful
Pearl River. But now the River was deeply polluted. Zhong’s dad was a great scientist so Zhong asked
his dad to invent a giant machine to clear all the rubbish in the River. After many days and nights of hard
work, the great scientist successfully built a rubbish-devouring machine. It was a giant Octopus! The
great scientist and Zhong put the giant Octopus into the Pearl River and the machine started to work.
The Octopus gobbled up all the rubbish in the River. All the villagers cheered for this great invention.
Even the factory owners and workers were happy about this invention because they thought that they
didn’t need to behave and could continue to throw rubbish into the River.
***
Bo Beep! Bo Beep! The last catamaran was leaving the pier. After a while, Bang! Bang! Boom! The
catamaran was being hit again and again, and was turned upside down. The passengers screamed and
yelled for help. The captain tried to contact the police but then a monstrous creature jumped out of the
water and gobbled them up. When the police arrived ten minutes later, the catamaran was gone. The
police was too late. The next day, a container ship mysteriously sunk into the Pearl River. Rumours
spread that it was the work of the giant Octopus. “Nonsense! The Octopus would only take rubbish, not
ships or people,” dismissed the Police Commander. But more and more ships disappeared. Finally, the
police sent out a team of divers to the Pearl River to investigate. As soon as the divers jumped into the
River, a monstrous creature appeared. Some police officers fired their guns at the monster but they could
not hurt it because it was protected by very thick skin. Then, the creature disappeared into the River.
The police pulled back the rope and they could only find one diver and he was badly injured. All the
other divers had died. The surviving diver said, “I can’t see clearly what it is, but it has many tentacles. I
think it is the giant Octopus.”
The next day, the army came and tried to destroy the Octopus. But no gunfire or cannon could hurt the
Octopus. Zhong knew that he had to think up a way to destroy the giant Octopus. “Dad, why did the
Octopus go crazy?” “I don’t know, son. Maybe it had taken too much toxics and wastes.” Dad answered.
Zhong suddenly had an idea. As the Octopus was designed to take rubbish as food, if the people did not
feed it with rubbish, it might be killed by hunger. He told his plan to the factory owners and workers and
made many posters to explain why everyone had to do something to protect the environment. At first, the
factory owners and workers did not understand what Zhong said. But Zhong was persistent. He did not
give up. People slowly understood the idea. They gradually learnt not to throw rubbish into the River.
They knew that they had to protect the environment in order to survive in this world. The Octopus grew
weaker every day as there was no more food to feed it.
Six months later…Zhong and his dad took a walk along the bank of the Pearl River. Zhong looked at the
River and said, “Maybe my plan will work. Maybe one day, the Octopus will die of hunger and the Pearl
River will be as beautiful as before.”
“T
