One must follow the Emperor
Chong Yan Chan, Group 3: Fiction, Heep Yunn School
ather, do you really need to go?” Xiao Qing asked her father in concern.
“
Yes dear, a soldier must do as commanded, or be sent to the guillotines,” her father replied,
patting her head. “Xiao Qing, take care of yourself. I’ll be back... soon, so no worries.” The
daughter could hear her father’s stuttering and feel his trembling hand.
“
But father, it has already been built for three years, there is no need for you to go.” Xiao Qing
clings on his arm, not letting him go.
“
I must fulfill my role as a junior sergeant,” her father said firmly, straightened up, and took his haversack.
Xiao Qing waved dolefully at her father, who joined the other peasants and soldiers walking to the Great Wall.
All her life her father was the only one she could count on. Her mother died in a war before the unification of
China, and then her father left to build the puissant Great Wall which was said to promise prosperity and wealth.
She was alone with her shadow in solitary - no friends nor companions. What she could do was just waiting for
the year to be over and to get back into the arms of her father.
Down in the dumps, she climbed to the secret cabinet which stored the money her father scrimped bit by bit.
It was filled with unknown coins she found confusing. Ever since China was unified, the coins had been
different from what she had in her hometown. Infuriated, she slid down the wall and bawled over the solitariness
she was facing. “A year,” she said to herself, “and father would be back. Just, one, year... ”
“
Everything is going fine. The Great Wall is going to generate prosperity and I am willing to stay until it is
finished, for one must follow the Emperor.” It was all Xiao Qing’s father wrote. Astounded, Xiao Qing grasped
the collar of the messenger from the Great Wall and shrieked, “It’s been two years already! And father would
never abandon me, nor would he ever value his duty over me, what have you done to him?”
The messenger coldly frowned, and shrugged in a provoking manner for which anyone would be throwing a
punch at him. Xiao Qing, boiling with anger and dismay, tore the telegram into tiny pieces, thrust them to the
messenger and slammed the door in his face.
She held her fists and muttered through clenched teeth that father must be tortured, and that she must find him.
But the unacquainted location of the Great Wall would not permit her to. Embittered and furious, she threw a
vase out of the window, and someone howled painfully outside her house.
Xiao Qing, back to her senses, hurried out and found herself facing a girl at the same age as her. The girl was
as pale as sheets, but unhurt. Xiao Qing rushed to the girl and apologised for her thoughtless act.
“
What’s wrong with you?” the girl asked.
Xiao Qing gazed at the girl in front of her and questioned her entrustment on someone who was an inch close
to being a victim of the vase she threw, but found her sincere and tender. Slowly, she answered, “My father’s
been building the Great Wall for two years but he ought to be building it for only one year, and I miss him,” she
paused. “Very much, to my heart’s content.”
“
Mine too. He went for three years, but what I heard was he was willing to stay there,’ her eyes turned livid.
“
It has been separating us for a good three years, yet I am always suspicious about his own will to stay…” The
girl came to a halt, her eyes rolled and asked, “My name is Qing Ying, you?”
“
Xiao Qing. I have always wanted to go to the Great Wall and have a glance of my father,” she said in grief.
“
Me too. I heard women all over China are doubtful of the situation of their husbands and sons, but they kept
silent, for women’s social statuses are in the dust.”
Qing said in determination, “Why don’t we group with other women to have a visit to the Great Wall secretly
in order to get the answer instead of questioning ourselves all day?” Xiao Qing nodded enthusiastically, and she
was happy in tears as hope filled her forlorn heart, and meeting her father after years would certainly be a sip of
heaven on earth. “We need to prepare ourselves for the journey. We should persuade people to join us and
realise our dreams,” Qing said assuredly.
“
A mile left, everyone. Be careful and report immediately if there’s anything eccentric.” Xiao Qing
whispered towards the crowd.
The girls had gathered success on persuading people. A total of three hundred women, who were as doubtful,
followed the two of them to see for themselves what kept their family.
Upon their arrival, they were stunned by the Great Wall as it was just piles and piles of ruins without any
connections. Millions of people, ash-covered, were pulling buckets of ruins and deteriorated bricks towards the
end of a gargantuan amount of ruins. Soldiers were on the sides of the passageway, apathetically whipping the
people at ease and laughing callously when the defenseless people collapsed right in front of them. The slashes
“
F