This short story was written for the Hong Kong Young Writer’s Awards Competition. This year’s theme is about the Silk Road.

“John, you are going to draw a map of the Silk Road. The deadline for this assignment: 60 days only, including the trip back. Your family will be executed if you haven’t finished before the deadline.” announced Emperor Taizong. The emperor was old and had deep wrinkles, but was a strong muscled man, full of confidence. His eyes were sharp swords, staring down at John.

As John stepped out from the city gates with his luggage, his tears slid down to his chin. He took a deep breath, his legs being a motor again.

The first few days in the Taklamaken desert were hard. “My family is counting on me. I must finish the map to save them.” John thought.

The sand of the whole Taklamaken desert covered his lungs, every single breath of dry, hot air.

Ten days had gone by. John scanned around the surrounding sand dunes with panda eyes. The eight mountains with sand surrounded him, one dune after the other.

“Where is everyone? I want to lie down and give up!" asked John, “I am serious.” His face looked bitter.

John grew too tired. He decided to sleep a while first to refill his energy. “You might wake up 1 hour later!” reminded himself before he fell asleep.

A wind full of sand was blown, it punched on John’s nose. He fainted immediately.

The next morning, John realized he forgot to mark the roads on the map yesterday. Luckily, he remembered some important details. He slid down to the bottom of the sand hill. He took out the unfinished sheepskin maps with a few carvings and laid out the map flat on the ground. He put a very sharp stone on the map, carefully carving lines to mark the roads.

He worked on the map for a while. As he finished, he sighed because he was so far from finishing the road map of the Silk Road.

John contemplated how to speed up his work. He dropped his head down in tears. As he came up for a deep breath, he suddenly saw merchants traveling on camels. Those merchants slowly stopped down and took a rest.

“Thank god, I love you so much!” whispered John. He wrapped a scarf and hid his face. He dawdled until he was near those merchants. He looked around for a while, and dashed towards the camels. With a perfect jump, he rode away on a camel.

“I finally don’t need to walk!” John yelled. He suddenly thought of an idea, “Why don’t I finish the map on the way back to China?”

He sat on his camel, the sheepskin map spread on his thigh, verifying how many areas he hadn't finished mapping yet. He set twenty miles a day, and as he travelled fourteen days, he started at the endpoint—Bukhara, and the map from the endpoint all the way back to China.

It was the perfect plan, but the sun was setting. John slept immediately.

As John looked at the stars hanging in the sky, a light breeze blew. A gale of wind swept through the desert, then silence came afterwards. The sand almost covered John, forming around John’s breath. He fell asleep in the soft, cool sand in the peaceful night.

With a good night’s sleep, John woke up and rode on his camel at dawn, rushing to Bukhara as fast as possible. After three days of rushing, John finally arrived at Bukhara.

John carved ‘Bukhara’ at the endpoint on his map. He bought a reed pen and a pot of ink and had lunch at Bukhara. He gained fresh energy starting from his toes, soles, calves, up to his thighs. He continued his trip, riding the camel even faster. He marked branches of the roads in detail, day and night.

Several days later, he almost arrived at the boundary of China— Kashgar. John counted the days again. “Oh my goodness! I just have five days left. How can I rush to the palace?” shouted John with confusion.

“What am I going to do?” John screamed as he arrived at the Kashgar gates. John walked to the guard politely, with a brilliant smile, “Can you please give me a horse? I am the messenger for the Emperor.” John murmured to the guard.

The guard waved a flag, and the city gate opened. From inside the gates came a horse with strong muscles and long legs. John put on his luggage, his legs pressing from both sides of the horse. The horse neighed, running as quick as it could through the cities, from Qinghai, Ningxia, Dunhuang, Shaanxi and finally, Changan.

Finally, John arrived at Emperor Taizong’s court. He dropped down in front of the emperor, “My lord, may you release my family?” John beseeched with a waving voice and a face of tears.

The emperor opened his palm, without a look to John. John presented the map with both hands. The scholar stood beside the Emperor, grasping the map. He looked at it seriously, “It is finished, and quite detailed, my lord”, reported the scholar.

The Emperor nodded his head, “Did you think I'd really kill your family?”

“My lord, you are the most benevolent.” praised John.

The Emperor looked at the servant beside him. The servant helped John up, and took him out of the court.

“Follow me.” whispered the servant politely as he led him to the prison.

“Number 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, you are approved to leave!” shouted the servant loudly. From behind the huge walls. John heard the sound of opening metal doors. “Tap, tap, tap, tap,” with the sounds of walking, his family came out.

The servant smiled at John, "Congratulations,” whispered the servant.

John looked at his family as they came out at the corridor exit. Their faces were smiling.

John rushed to them and hugged them with his long arms. He felt a bitterness in his throat, but his heart was warm.

60 Days on the Silk Road (HKYWA 2025)