A story behind the magnificent Great Wall
Clara Ng, Group 3
orry for the late hand in, but here are the papers.” Said Marcus to the chairman of the History
Research Club as a beam of . His clothes were tattered and torn, he looked nothing like his usual
confident self.
Luk
“
S
:
Fiction, Evangel College
“
Hey Marcus, you’re looking so fly today. Is this the new look?”said his sworn enemy
e in an impolite manner.
“
Watch it Luke, you don’t have a clue to what I have been through so don’t push it!” Marcus retorted.
Marcus got to his desk, slumped in his chair as he looked out of the window, but instead of the
beautiful scenery, he saw the reflection of her……
It was just a month ago when Marcus met Theodora at the History research exchange program. They
were in a heated discussion about whether the tales of Meng Chiang- nu seeking her husband at the Great Wall
was true. They both thought that the tales were true. Marcus wanted to find out about the truth, they wanted to
find proof to prove that the tale was true, thus they made a deal --- to meet up at "Jiayuguan" in the Gansu
Province, the first important juncture at the western end of the Great Wall, ten days later to look for evidence to
prove that Meng Chiang- nu existed and that she was at the great wall looking for her husband. If they found
proof, they would have to spread the word in the name of the History Research Club, which is a huge claim for
talented research students like Marcus and Theodora to make.
At first Theodora and Marcus’s journey started out fine, they got along quite well and the weather at
the Great Wall was fine but a few hours later, the skies became dark, the bird in the sky squealed a melancholy
tone as they flew to their nests. Under their foots were the muddy coloured ancient bricks of the Great Wall, all
of a sudden, they turned into the shade of mucky green. Dora and Marcus looked up at the sky just in time to see
the clouds turn into the sickly shade of grey and black, the clouds covered the sun, making the temperature at
Jiayuguan drop. A storm was brewing.
They walked for another mile and the storm finally broke out. Theodora squealed once she was hit by
rain, she tried to shield herself from the rain with Marcus’s trench coat but Marcus snatched it back.
“
Don’t act like a princess! We both know you are not one.” Marcus teased
Theodora loathed Marcus, on one hand, he was very caring to her through the journey, he wasn’t cocky
or annoying like he was at the exchange program, but on the other hand, he teased her a lot. She shot him a
narrow-eyed look.
They carried on walking to the steady pace of the pitter-patter sound of the rain hitting the rough brick
ground. Lightning struck abruptly, lighting up the sky and sending a violet streak across the black velvety sky.
Theodora panicked at the sight of lightning and started crying devastatingly. Marcus was very sympathetic
about Dora’s fear of lightning and wrapped his arms around her in hope of comforting her, he succeeded. As
soon as Theodora smelled the familiar scent of the trench coat that kept her dry for a little while, she felt comfy
and safe in Marcus’s embrace. But at that sweet moment, a steak of lightning struck them Dora felt a thud as she
hit the cold hard ground and everything went black.
“
Dora, are you all right? Theodora? Can you hear me?” Theodora felt a nudge to her shoulders. She
slowly opened her eyes and found herself propped up by Marcus’s backpack. She was having a severe headache,
she stood up gradually trying not to make the headache worse. She took a few steps but her legs were very weak,
thus could not support her body. She used the walls as a sort of railing and took a few more steps. As she
touched the bricks, she saw visions of workers lifting and setting bricks into the right places wearily. This must
be a side effect of being struck by lightning. She told Marcus about the “side effect” immediately. To her
surprise, Marcus said he has been seeing through objects, namely bricks and rocks, like he had X-ray vision or
some sort of weird special eye power.
They continued travelling along the Great Wall. Theo sometimes touched the cold stone walls to look
at the stories behind the magnificent image of the Great Wall. One afternoon, Theodora squealed in a cheerful
manner as if she discovered boxes of treasure.
“
Marcus, I found it! I saw a vision of a woman weeping devastatingly and asking around for her
husband.”
Marcus studied the place where Theo had touched, with great interest. “Dora, I think I see something hidden in a
secret compartment of the brick you just touched. It looks like… like rolling pins? Ah! I think they are scrolls,
ancient scrolls.”