Winner of YWA
The Price of the Great Wall
Sharon Y
f you listen quietly to the winds, you will hear a ghoulish voice whispering. But only if you stand still and
listen, not with your ears, but with your heart, only then will you be able to hear the tale that has never been
told. And only then will you understand the price your ancestors had to pay for this famous landmark. Only
then…
uen, Group 3: Fiction, Maryknoll Convent School Secondary Section
I
* * *
So tired… so tired…
The hot sun streamed down from above, hot like hell fire. Even the dirt under Ping’s feet seemed to burn.
Sweat dripped down from his back. A drop rolled down from his forehead and he watched as it hit the ground,
shattering like a million diamonds.
A cracking sound slashed through the air and Ping glanced behind him. One of the guards was hitting the
ground with a whip in hand. He yelled at Ping when their eyes met. Ping immediately casted his gaze down and
walked a little bit faster.
He looked at the line in front of him. Men were hauling big boulders onto their shoulders and started the
long hike up the hill under the steamy sun. ‘Pull,’ shouted a standing guard slashing his whip. ‘And heave!’
‘
And pull!’ ‘Faster!’ The labourers struggled to carry the boulders up the uneven road of the Great Wall. Down
the hill, where Ping was standing, stood a long line of men picking up their load. ‘Move you insolent fools!’
screamed the guard.
Ping felt something poking his shoulder and he looked up. A soldier stared him down and hissed, ‘Faster,’
while jabbing the handle of his spear at him. Ping knelt to pick up the boulder. He grunted and heaved until he
got a good grip. ‘Move!’ and Ping started walking. The soldier shoved him and he nearly fell.
He steadied himself and kept walking. He’d learnt from past experiences to never ever look at the guards
but to look down and you might just live to see another day. Ping took one step after another and tried to distract
himself from the crushing weight of his load. His mind began to wander as he hiked up the hill. He thought of
his younger days. It hadn’t been easy, but it surely was much easier than the life he was enduring now.
Ping continued pushing forward, the boulder growing heavier with each step. He remembered the day when
his mother fell ill after giving birth to his baby sister. He remembered the nights when his father spent hours
sitting next to his mother on her bed, his face stricken. He remembered the night when his dad suddenly left
their wooden house, disappeared into the night, and came back just before dawn.
Returning with a bag of jingling coins under one arm, he crouched and stared straight into Ping’s sleepy
eyes. Over the years, his father’s voice had faded to nothing but a whisper, yet Ping remembered every single
word his father said that night.
Use this, son, to buy medicine for your mother. Save the remaining coins for yourself. Look at me. I will be
taken. The Ming guards will be hunting me down. Stealing isn’t something I’m proud of, no matter the reason.
Forgive me for what I did, son. Forgive me for bringing this kind of life to you. But for the sake of your mother
and your baby sister, I have to do this. Life is unfair. I have prayed to the gods that you will live without the
injustice of life. But the gods are cruel… as cruel as the emperor. Promise me, son. Take care of your mother
and your sister. My son. I’m so sorry, my son.
His father planted a kiss on Ping’s forehead, and disappeared into the twilight. That was the last time Ping
saw his father.
A few days later, an official letter came and announced that his father had been sentenced for twenty years
of hard labour to repair the Great Wall. Ping’s mother sobbed uncontrollably as if she were reading an obituary.
Life still went on. Ping got a job working in a farm, providing for his family and caring for his mother and
his sister. Ping worked hard on the farm, hoping that he could start a new life with the ones he loved. He could
imagine his mother smiling at him when he came home from work with fresh vegetables, his sister running over
to greet him and, one day, returning home to find his father waiting for him. The visions, the dreams, the wishes
were so real…
Until one night when two guards came banging on his front door, crushing not just Ping’s door, but all his
visions, his dreams and his wishes. They dragged him away to the Great Wall. ‘Your father worked off twelve
years of his sentence. He died yesterday. You have to take his place as his son until his sentence is finished.’