Fiction: Group 2
Zhuhai Fishing Girl
Diocesan Girls' Junior School, Tung, Wing Kwan Charmaine - 9, Fiction: Group 2
elp!" cried the girl.The fisherman, who knew how rough those seas were, hesitated and was
worried that the fragile boat would sink any time. The girl bubbled constantly as the boat
rocked violently.
* * * * *
Once upon a time, there lived this mermaid named Pearl under the river in the mermaid kingdom.
She and her siblings owned a lot of jewelry. Unlike other mermaids, Pearl loved the pearls more than any
other jewelry in the treasure box lying on her riverbed, as the pearls gave her magical powers, allowing her to
transform into human form from whenever she desired.
On Pearl's sixteenth birthday, that day, she and her siblings celebrated the event by using the magic
pearls to transform themselves into young girls and playing by the shore at one of the fishing villages along
the Pearl Delta River.As they were playing, the skies went grey.Then suddenly, boom! A storm arose, causing
the loud sound of thunder to crack. Heavy rain fell down, and the sound of screaming came to everyone's
ears. All of a sudden, Pearl found herself drifting to the deep end of the river. She was very scared as she no
longer had her fins for swimming and her magic pearls were lost.Although she swam very well as a mermaid,
the pair of human feet gave her an unusual tickling feeling. She struggled to dive down to find her pearls, but
her efforts were in vain as her visibility level was very low due to unclear and dirty water.
"How come this side of the river is so muddy? Where're my pearls!?" Pearl thought to herself. She
cried for help, then fainted.
An old fisherman was staring out of his tiny window on his small boat. He secured his boat to the
bank, as the rough weather was not suitable for fishing. He gazed at the openness, wondering when the sea
would calm down as he was short on fish catch. Suddenly, he saw a faint speck in the middle of the river. As
the speck bobbed and drifted closer, it became a blob, then slowly a figure. At the end, he barely made out
that it was most likely a person who was about to drown. For a moment he hesitated, but then he released his
boat from the pole on the bank, steered his boat over, dropped the heavy anchor, stepped out of the tiny
cuddy and helped the person up from the rough river.
"A young girl!" the fisherman exclaimed.Then he dragged her across the wet, slippery deck into the
dry and cozy cabin where she lay on his bed, still unconscious.
When Pearl woke up, she found herself lying in an unknown room, with a stranger sitting next to
her. She froze in shock at first, then her memories hit her.Although the stranger seemed like a kind old man,
Pearl lied that she was an orphan as she knew no one would believe she was actually a mermaid. She had also
been told that it was dangerous to interfere with human civilization. "It is out of bounds, and this is the
ground rule." She recalled her father's voice warning her over and over again. The fisherman took pity on
her, so he brought her back to his little hut which was located in a poor village on the bank of the Pearl
River.
The old fisherman took great care of Pearl, and Pearl had a good time playing with the teenagers in
the village who taught her and showed her many interesting things which she would not have known under
the sea in her Kingdom. Pearl was still trying to find her pearls as she missed her family a lot. However,
eventually, she gave up in despair. Meanwhile, Pearl felt great sympathy for the villagers who worked very
hard all year long but barely made a living. All her playmates looked very pale and skinny due to lack of
nutrition. Pearl often saw angry villagers roaring towards the river when they returned with empty nets. On
the first and fifteenth days of each month, the temple was filled with villagers in rage and disappointment.
Pearl's heart ached when she saw these, and she secretly used her powers to increase the breeding ability of
“H
