The Scorpion in the Secret Chamber
Creative Primary School, Chan, Skye – 8
n a hot dusty day, a long line of tourists queued up outside the museum in Xi’an, waiting to see
the famous Terracotta Warriors. As they walked in, nobody noticed that one man didn’t take
his sunglasses off after entering and spent more time looking around the hall than at the
Terracotta Warriors. He looked here and there, and seemed to be looking at the guards, exits and hallways.
As he left the main hall, the man walked towards the bathrooms. When nobody was looking, he hid inside
a storage cabinet until the museum had closed and everybody had gone home. When he came out at
midnight, he saw the night guard. He took out a needle and poked the guard, who immediately fell to the
ground.
In the hall, the Terracotta Warriors were stirring. They sensed something was wrong. As the man slowly
walked through the rows of warriors, he had a feeling that somebody was watching him. He thought he
heard voices whispering, but when he looked around all he saw was the terracotta statues.
After the man entered the tunnel leading to the tomb, Zhang Tian, one of the warriors, had an idea. “Qin
Shi Huang’s tomb must not be opened,” he said to the others. “We’ve got to stop him or he'll steal the
emperor’s treasure.”
"Let's wait at the entrance to the tomb. When he comes, we fight!” Everybody agreed. So they crept along
a secret passageway and stood outside the tomb. “He's coming,” whispered Zhang Tian. Every warrior
stood still and prepared to fight.
As the thief got to the end of the tunnel and was trying to open the door to the tomb, the Terracotta
Warriors suddenly came to life and surrounded him. He took out his needle filled with scorpion poison
and stabbed one of the warriors, but the needle snapped. The man wanted to escape, but there was no way
out. The last thing he saw was Zhang Tian standing above him with a sword raised, and then everything
went black.
When the morning guards arrived, they discovered the night guard lying on the floor. He was mumbling
and confused. He thought he had been knocked out, but didn't know when, or how, or who did it.
Then they saw a mark and a spot of blood on his neck, and when they looked closer noticed it was a
scorpion mark. They called the police right away, because it was the mark of the famous thief known as
The Scorpion.
When the police arrived, they searched the whole museum and asked the guards lots of questions, but
found that nothing was missing.
The next day, the museum director arrived. He knew the face of every single Terracotta Warrior in the
hall, and checked them all. He didn't find anything wrong. When he went into the tunnel leading to the
tomb, he noticed one of the warriors had a face that he had never seen before.
"How very strange," he thought.
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