New Tales of the Great Wall—
The truly unique tour of the Great Wall
Perkins Lui, Group 3: Fiction, St. Joseph’s College
ou bunch of fools! Listen up! The emperor has ordered that we have to finish building
Juyongguan by next January. If we don’t finish up, we will get executed. Go to work, you
bunch of morons!”
I sank into despair. There was no way we could build 18 kilometers of eath in a month.
Especially in the cold and harsh winter. At that moment, I was lashed by General Wong. My
back was filled with searing pain and I writhed in agony.
“
If you don’t go back to work in this instance, I promise you will vanish from the face of the Earth!”
General Lee barked.
“
Sorry sir!” I sulked and walked away.
That was a typical day of a peasant in Qin dynasty. I was one of the millions of peasants sent by the Emperor
to build the Great Wall of China. My name is Douglas Lam. You may be wondering why an impoverished
peasant in the 221 BC would have an English name. I may be what you would call a “misplaced time traveller”.
Under the most peculiar of all situations, I ended up travelling from the 21st century to the Qin dynasty.
A bitter, ruthless blast of freezing air sent shivers down my spine. I tried to capture the feeble heat from the
wobbly candle.
“
Co-operation is crucial if we want to finish building the wall quickly. Everyone must work hard or else we
will not be able to finish in time,” Xiao Niu one of the slaves said.
Since I was a kid, I was infamous for being selfish. Once when I was in primary school, I was awarded a
pack of sweets for getting the first in spelling. As a natural hater of sweets, I planned to throw them away. Just
then, Kitty, a classmate came forward.
“
May I have a sweet please?” she asked.
At that moment, I did a very nasty thing. I walked over to the bin and opened the pack of sweets. Then, I
poured the whole pack into the bin, not a single left.
“
I won’t give it to you, fat pig,” I sneered.
On the day it all happened, I was also on the Great Wall of China, but centuries later. It was the 25th of
November and I was on holiday with my family in Beijing. My sister and I were quarreling over trivial matters.
“
Oh shut up! You silly idiot! ” I screeched.
My face contorted in fury and turned purple. I felt livid and my eyes sparkled with ferocity.
Just then, a hole opened up in the ground and blinded by anger, I fell into the hole. After that, everything
became a haze and I became unconscious.
When I woke up, I almost shrieked in shear terror. I was wearing clothes I had only seen in museums. But
soon I managed to calm down and convince myself I had not gone nuts. Then, I was dragged out by a man who
was covered by sweat to go out to work.
Back to building Juyonguan, all went surprisingly smooth. For some reason, even the Heavens seemed to
pity us and the weather became a bit warmer. At least, I need not fear catching frostbite when I went out in the
still bitter wind. Working collaboratively, pieces of earth seemed to fly together. As we were approaching the
ending, the camp was even filled with a rare feeling of joy. The idealistic ones even dreamt that there was a
chance that the Emperor would grant us mercy and let us go home.
All went well until a week before the deadline. A tenacious gust of wind blew down from the north. It
seemed to have invisible claws. No one could escape the wrath of the dark tempest. Wind seemed to seep into
every hole and crack. Even when covered by layers of blankets, I could still hear people quivering. The scene
was petrifying. People were suddenly dropped dead when they were working in the open. Without warning, they
would just drop on to the ground as if they fell asleep. We prayed that they would be spared from this living
hell in their next life.
The worst came four days before the deadline. Xiongnu, the very people the Great Wall was built to deter
attacked us. In the dead of night, the Xiongnu people overtook us with surprise. A moment ago, it was so quiet
you could hear a pin drop. The next moment, the Xiongnu were crashing in with their razor sharp knifes and
“
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