‘That night the ghost of the beheaded dragon king came to the emperor’s palace and started yelling and abusing him for having broken his promise. All the emperor’s explanations fell on deaf ears. Eventually, the emperor came to believe that the officer had truly beheaded the king in his dream. After that, every time the emperor went to bed at night the dragon started to disturb the emperor, demanding his life back. Finally, the emperor fell ill because of lack of sleep. No treatment could cure him. Then one day the emperor’s two trusted generals discovered that the emperor had fallen ill because of a ghost. So they told the emperor that they would guard his door dressed in full armour.

That night the ghost did not come in fear of the generals and the emperor slept soundly. After that, every night the generals kept guard by the emperor’s bedroom door. His health improved by the day. The emperor felt bad for the guards. After thinking about it for a long time, the emperor came up with an idea. He asked his artist to paint two life-size pictures of the two generals and placed them on both sides of his door. The dragon king’s ghost was fooled into thinking that the generals were still guarding the emperor. And the emperor became his old self again. When the people of the city found out about this, they too bought paintings from the artist and hung them up on their own doorways, to ward off evil spirits. Even today, lots of people keep these pictures to guard their doorways. Do you know when this happened? Two and a half thousand years ago!’

‘That long ago?’

‘Tell us one more story grandpa.’

Yu Yi’s grandpa started telling them another story.

An hour later, Akong came in and said, ‘The camp commander is here.’

The sun was just about to set. If the camp commander was coming to see them at this hour, it meant he probably had something important to say!

With a worried look Yiu Yi’s grandfather came out. Everyone else was already outside. The camp commander and the deputy were accompanied by a large number of armed guards. In front of them, under the blazing sun, the internees stood in fear. After everyone had assembled, the camp commander stood up to speak.

‘The ship from China has arrived.’

Those who had applied to go looked at the commander speechlessly. A distant scene had suddenly become prominent, like the bright sun! The officers had arrived to execute the decision.

They were to leave.

There was no way to refuse.

‘You will be taken from here after seven days. The government has decided to send all of you to China. Anyone in your family who wants to go will also be sent. All the people who are outside the camp have also been informed.’