Builder Feng and the Colourful Snakes
Barnaby Broa
long, long time ago there was a builder called Feng. He was forty years old and very lonely for he
had no wife or children. For an extremely long time he had been responsible for building the Great
Wall of China and he was still building it. The Emperor had instructed him to build a very long and
very thick wall to protect the country from enemies. On some days it would be hot and sunny, and on
some days it would be cold and snowy as the four seasons passed by every year while Feng built the
wall. But however fast he worked the wall was still a long way from being finished. Builder Feng was very
exhausted.
dhead, Group 1: Fiction, French International School
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One day, as he was putting the last brick on the top of the third section of the wall, he accidently dropped it.
The brick tumbled all the way to the bottom and landed on a squadron of eight colourful polka-dotted snakes
who were eating their lunch! At first the snakes were very angry but when they looked up to see where the brick
had come from, they saw Builder Feng looking very tired and worn out. They felt sorry for him so, one by one,
they slowly slithered up to the top of the wall to offer to help Builder Feng build the rest of the wall.
Builder Feng was very scared when he saw the eight snakes slithering towards him but when they offered to
help he was dumbfounded and couldn’t believe his luck! “Thank you,” he said to the snakes, “but how in the
world are you going to lift the bricks? You don’t have any hands!”
“
Wait and sssee,” hissed the snakes mysteriously.
Then, the eight colourful, polka-dotted snakes slithered along the top of the wall. Very slowly, they
stretched and stretched their extremely colourful and stretchy bodies until eventually, over time as the years
rolled by, their bodies became the wall, making it as long and curvy as a huge snake, and as colourful as a
beautiful rainbow. When they had finished, Builder Feng felt very proud and dumbstruck that he and the snakes
had built such a beautiful wall!
Many years later in 2013 Feng’s great-great-great grandson called Bao, who was eight years old, went to
visit the magnificent wall. When he arrived he stepped back in amazement at what his great-great-great
grandfather and the snakes had accomplished. The multi-coloured, polka-dotted wall was flawless and beautiful.
It was an astonishing site to see!
At that precise moment he realized why his great-great-great grandfather had been able to build something
so magnificent – he had been born in the Year of the Snake! “That’s why it is so beautiful!” exclaimed Bao.
“
People who are born in the Year of the Snake adore beauty!”
***