People here all make a living by tapping rubber. The glue tends to condense when the temperature rises, so more glue can be obtained by tapping at night. At about two o'clock in the night, those rubber tapping workers in the rubber parks far away from the camp took motorcycle boats up the river to tap rubber in their respective parks.

I set off on a boat with the neighboring garden owner, her two children, and the workers. The river was hazy and the banks were dark. I didn’t know where we were. Most of us were sleeping on the boat. When I was woken up, I had arrived at the dock in the adjacent park, which was a place where several wooden boards were set up to facilitate getting on and off the boat.I got off the boat and walked along the path to the glue making room in the rubber garden. The grass on both sides of the path was taller than people. Uneasy!

The rubber plantation is developed along both sides of the 北加 River, with virgin forests behind it. Wild beasts are often found. It is also one of the areas with the largest number of tigers in Malaysia. Residents have also seen mother tigers traveling around with their cubs. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are neighbors with tigers. However, tigers see people more often than people see tigers. Fortunately, this place is connected to a large forest. There are many kinds of beasts and tigers have no shortage of food, but humans are not on its menu.

We are also grateful to Bo Gong (an honorific name for tigers in Hainanese) for giving us a living space. However, whenever we hear the roar of tigers in the forest, people think it is the angry Bo Gong at the top of the mountain and stop tapping rubber for safety reasons. There used to be tigers that preyed on humans, but all of a sudden the tiger's attitude changed! Especially the people who lived close to the incident were in danger! The man-eating tiger could not escape the fate of being shot in the end.

After walking for a while, we arrived at the glue room, which is a place where rubber blocks is made. Although it is a room, it only has a roof and four pillars, as well as several long tables used for making rubber blocks and machines for making rubber blocks.

The workers split up to tap rubber. It was about three o'clock in the middle of the night, and the sky was covered by leaves that looked like gum trees. It was pitch black in all directions, and she and her children didn't have the courage to tap rubber, so we slept on the table in the glue room. I was arranged to sleep on the outermost side, maybe they already knew something (later they told me that a tiger once passed by not far from the glue room while we were sleeping, and the one who was snatched away should be the person sleeping on the outermost side).

They went to tap rubber in the early morning, and I walked alone to our rubber garden along the path. On the road, there was a stream passing through a fallen tree trunk. At the site of my former residence on the hillside, there is no trace of life left in the weeds. The scenery is still there but the people have changed. The past is like a dream and it is hard to look back and talk about it! The pond is still at the front and bottom of the house, and the pool of stagnant water is lifeless.

The glue room is at the bottom right of the house. I worked in the glue room in a daze until the workers finished making the film, and then we took a boat back to the concentration camp. I don’t know how the passage of time maybe it's afternoon.

At that time, I was bored and had nothing to do. There was a small patch of gum tree planted by my mother on the right front of the house near the river bank. It had grown up, so I volunteered to tap gum (for fun). I first opened a strip of gum on the bark of the gum tree. The road curves down from the top along the trunk of the tree. The glue road must be bent inward so that the glue juice can flow along the glue road into the cup. Only a thin layer of bark can be cut along the glue road every day. The trick of tapping is to only cut the bark. Do not damage the tree trunk, otherwise the injured tree trunk will become uneven in the future and it will no longer be possible to cut a good glue path.

The days of rubber tapping will not last long,

One early morning, I went to tap rubber alone as usual. In the deserted park, I was frightened every time I approached the jungle! After all, this is the territory of tigers. When I was walking towards the gum trees approaching the jungle, suddenly something happened among the trees. A roar! The sound was as terrifying as a tiger! I was so frightened that I lost consciousness for a moment and was stunned! After I woke up, I ran as fast as I could towards the glue room. In fact, there were only four pillars there, and there was really nowhere to go. Escape. Maybe I was too close to it, maybe it was full at night, maybe I was not its meal.

Although there was no danger, I was so shocked that I thought about it! After that, I never had the courage to go back to the glue garden, and I was just thinking about how to return to Singapore.