New Tales of the Great Wall
Allison Ho, Group 3: Fiction, German Swiss International School
t was majestic. A golden dragon, bathed in the twilight glow winding as far as the eye could see, creeping
stealthily through the hills and beyond. As the sky darkened rapidly, we stood admiring the magnificent
piece of architecture stretched out before us.
Today was a special night. As the twilight glow faded and the lights surrounding the perimeter lit up,
we began to look forward to the dinner we had planned to have on the Great Wall! We began our walk a little
faster in anticipation of what was in the hamper we were carrying.
Having reached the fifth tower, we made the much-needed halt, we spread the mat and opened the hamper
to find a huge slab of ham, blocks of cheese, olives, and baguettes and tubs of chocolate mousse! The tempting
food disappeared fast and we were almost finished when suddenly the lights on the tower dimmed, creating a
spooky glow.
A while later, all of us huddled together as the lights dwindled to nothing plunging us in darkness. “Where
are the candles that I had put in the hamper?” Dad’s voice rang out, sounding unnaturally loud in the velvety
darkness that enveloped us. Alfred rummaged through the hamper and came up with two candles and a lighter.
Soon, the light created an eerie glow, casting long shadows against the walls. Alfred spoke up,” What on earth is
THAT?” he asked, pointing a trembling finger at something in the distance.
We all held our breath as we looked in the direction Alfred was pointing at. After a few minutes of intent
staring, Dad glared at Alfred for giving us all a big scare. But as I stared more intently in the direction to which
Alfred pointed I saw something moving in the distance. The hazy shape of a man with long hair gradually came
closer and stood there watching us intently. Soon, two other spirits joined him. Everyone stared at them in fear
and awe. Surprisingly, one of them began to communicate with us telepathically. His name was Wang Yao and
he had a strange tale he wanted to relate with us and suddenly he launched into conversation……
“
It was on a dark and dreary day that I was chosen to help to build the Great Wall by the royal command of
the emperor along with a large group of able-bodied men. It was impressed upon us that this was a great honour.
We were going to build a wall which would keep away the Mongolian invaders which had always been a threat
to our great Chinese empire.”
We listened to him with bated breath and the next moment, he continued.
“
Little did I know what we were letting ourselves in for.”
The other spirit now spoke up. “There wasn’t even any time to say goodbye to our dear ones. We were
dragged away and taken to the bleak and barren site where we were supposed to assist in building a wall which
was going to be 8078 kilometres long and 5 metres wide!”
Now the third spirit spoke “We had to cut the stones from a quarry, carry them on our backs and place them
one on top of the other to construct the wall.”
“
In a few days, my back was a bleeding mass of aching flesh. Since there was very little food, just a mere
bowl of rice and some vegetables, we felt weak. It was a very difficult and demanding task and the supervisors
carrying whips never hesitated to lay them on us.”
One of the spirits spoke once more, “I was in charge of stirring sticky rice to weld the bricks together. As
we were always hungry, I scooped up a handful of rice and stuffed it in my mouth secretly. The rice burned
from being in the boiling pot for so long, but it was sticky rice and I appreciated the comfortable feeling of
being full for once. But the rice being sticky was for the bricks to hold their shape. When the guards came to
check on me, they saw the countless indents in the pot from me scooping the food. As I was the only one stirring
the pot at the time, he pointed his finger at me and beckoned me to come closer. As I did, he took out his whip
and hit me with biting blows continuously until the floor was stained with my blood. When he poked me to try
to get me to get up, I refused; when he saw that I was too weak to get up, he passed my unconscious dead body
to my brother and ordered him to throw my body between the blocks. You are all sitting on my body right now,”
and he grimaced.
When we all heard that we were sitting on a dead man’s body, we almost jumped out of our skins. Some of
us scooted forward, and some of them scooted backwards. Everyone sat in their new spots tentatively in fear
that they were sitting on another body.
“
So…how come all of you died on this wall? We heard one, but what about the others?” the ever-curious
Alfred asked.
I
Shortlisted