Secret of the Great Wall
Long Yin Lui, Group 2: Fiction, Diocesan Preparatory School
ast summer holiday, my friends, Quinlan and Sophia, and my family enjoyed our vacation together. We
had already decided to go to New York but shortly afterwards, the travel agency rang us up and offered
us an even more attractive package to China. So after a change of plan, we chose to spend our time in
China. That’s where we discovered the secret.
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At first, Quinlan and I weren’t very enthusiastic on the idea. Mum told us, “Well, it’s a place that
have longed to go to for a long time already.”
I interrupted, “Well, it couldn’t possibly be Beijing, can it?”
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She smiled, “It is Beijing that I am talking about.”
We screamed with joy and happiness. We fled back up the stairs and into my room. We told Sophia the absolute
fantastic news. We all jumped around in excitement.
Next morning, we were ready to leave for the trip. We arrived at the airport and went aboard our plane.
During what felt only like a few minutes to us, we enjoyed ourselves very much. We finally arrived at our
destination, Beijing. On the first day, we visited the Forbidden City. We planned to visit the Great Wall, one of
the greatest wonders of the world, the next morning.
At midnight, everybody was already asleep except me. I felt like I was lying on a rock. After twisting and
turning around endlessly on the bed, I couldn’t stand it any longer and tried to remove the mattress. I discovered
an Ancient Chinese scroll concealed safely under the tiles. All of a sudden, my friends woke up and Quinlan
whispered, “Hey, what are you doing in the middle of the night? We’re all sleeping. What’s that in your hand?
Wow! Is that a Chinese scroll?”
I whispered back, “Keep your voice down! Sophia, can you help me to read it?”
I turned to Sophia, she answered, “Of course, hand it over, hmmm…. it says ‘Discover the secret of the Great
Wall and find the King, get what you need, beneath him.’” We did not really understand what the message
meant, but we figured out what we needed, probably meant a treasure. Being keen explorers, we were all very
excited.
Next morning, I adjusted the mattress carefully back to its normal state. After we checked out, we urged
my parents to start on our quest quickly, and they both agreed, but Dad said, "You children must be careful. Well,
be careful not to fall off the Wall! Ha ha ....,” he laughed. We burst into pearls of laughter and started on our trip.
But I had an uncomfortable feeling that we were being followed....
After walking for three hours and we were all exhausted, so we sat down for a moment. I definitely
thought I had spotted somebody hiding inside the watchtower. “What an exciting holiday!” I thought. All of a
sudden, I realised that there was a statue of the emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang. Quietly, I motioned
Quinlan and Sophia to come forward. We crept towards the statue, leaving our parents behind. I had an idea.
“
Remember the message in the scroll, ‘Get what you need beneath the King!’” I quoted. “Don't you think the
treasure might be underneath the statue?” They instantly read my mind.
Quinlan said, “You aren't planning to move the statue away, are you? Oh! No!” He exclaimed, but he
still went along with the plan. I noticed that security guards were patrolling, so I told Sophia to pretend to be a
lost little girl and ask the guards for assistance to find my parents. After she led the guards away, we would
move up and check underneath the statue.
Luckily, everything went as well as we planned, we had moved the statue away, then disaster struck. An
officer came up to us and yelled, “What are you two fellows up to? You're under arrest!” Quinlan picked up
some slabs of stone on the ground and threw them at the officer, who was struck on the head and collapsed. We
lifted up the piece of crenel stone, and underneath, there was a huge, hidden room. We were already rushing
with excitement while looking for treasure. When we uncovered the secret room, our mouths hung in absolute
astonishment.
Quinlan dropped in first, then I tumbled in too. In the centre of the chamber there lay a blood-red box,
decorated with flying golden dragons - admired creatures thought to bring luck in ancient China. Then we
dragged our tired bodies to the centre of the room and unlocked the box. We made a very important discovery,
there was only one piece of treasure inside the box. It was a stone carving showing people lifting blocks of stone
and trying to build something. Suddenly, we both realised it was a piece of history. The carving depicted the
workers who were forced by the emperor to construct the Wall.
Carefully, we lifted the box out of the chamber and climbed up, shaking with excitement. Then, we ran towards
the nearest police station to pick Sophia up, and even Mum and Dad, too! Sophia was as pleased as ever as we
showed her the picture, she had always shown her interest in Art. For the carving, it got sent to the National
Museum and is labeled as one of the greatest finds in Chinese History.
This holiday turned out to be the best yet!
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