Chapter 7 Chapter VII

The day has come for Shinji's younger brother, Hiroshi, to go on a school trip.Travel around Beijing and other places for five nights and six days.Boys who have never left the island can see the vast outside world with their own eyes.Once upon a time, some elementary school students went on a school trip to the mainland, and when they saw an old-fashioned carriage for the first time, they would widen their eyes and shout: "Hey, the big dog is running in the toilet!" Children on the island first learn concepts by replacing real objects with pictures and explanations in textbooks.How difficult it is that trams, high-rise buildings, cinemas, subways, etc., are all created only from the imagination.But this time, after touching the real thing, the original concept became obviously useless while fresh surprises arose.Having spent a long life on the island, I never even imagined that there would be such a noisy train going back and forth on the roads of the current city.

When it comes to school trips, Yatsushiro Shrine sells many amulets.Mothers feel that their children are going on a desperate adventure to go to a metropolis they have never been to.In spite of the death and danger lurking in the sea all around them in their daily business, yet... Ah Hong's mother spent all her money to buy two eggs, boiled them very salty, and made a lunch box.He also hides milk sugar and fruit deep in his schoolbag, which is not easy to find. Who knows that on this day, the intermodal ship Kamikaze departs from Utashima at one o'clock in the afternoon.The ship's load was less than 20 tons. The stubborn and experienced captain was very dissatisfied with this exceptional practice, but this year he knew that his child was going on a school trip, and the ship arrived at Toba too early, so he had to wait for a suitable train. It costs money to kill time, so I reluctantly accepted the construction of the school.

The cabins and decks of the Kamikaze were packed with students crossing their water bottles and schoolbags across their chests.The lead teacher became a little worried about the mothers crowding the pier.In Utashima Village, the wishes of the mothers can determine the status of the teachers.There was a teacher who was branded as a communist by the mothers and was kicked out.However, there is a very popular male teacher who can be promoted to acting dean even if he has an illegitimate child with a female teacher. At noon on a beautiful spring day, the ship started to start slowly, and the mothers each called out the names of their children.The students, with their hatbands tied under their chins, jokingly shouted toward the harbor, "Fool!" "Hey, fool!" "Stupid!" Bug!" The ship, full of students in black uniforms, moved the glint of badges and gold buckles into the distance.Hiro's mother was sitting on the tatami mat in the quiet house that was dark even during the day, and she shed tears when she remembered that her two sons would soon leave her to go to sea.

The Kamikaze was moored at the deep-water wharf of Toba Port next to Pearl Island, let the students disembark, restored its original leisurely and rustic style, and began to prepare for returning to Utashima.People poured water into the ancient steam chimneys, and the water shadows swayed in the prow and hung on the big fish cages on the trestle.A warehouse with the word "ice" written on the gray outer wall with white paint, is on the verge of the sea. Chiyoko, the lighthouse chief's daughter, was standing at the end of the pier, carrying a handbag.This withdrawn girl came back to the island after a long absence, and she hated talking to the people on the island.

Chiyoko didn't apply makeup and was wearing a plain dark brown suit skirt, making her even more inconspicuous.Her features were unremarkable, but rough and defined, which might have charmed some.Even so, Chiyoko often shows a melancholy expression, stubbornly thinking about her own beauty.Right now, her most obvious achievement is that she received a university education in Tokyo and is a "educated" person.However, people often judge people by their appearance, and it may be as much to think so deeply about their ugly appearance as they think about their beautiful appearance. Father was a good man, and he unknowingly backed up Chiyoko's melancholy certainty.Because the daughter always publicly expresses her grief at inheriting too much of her father's inheritance and unattractive appearance.So sometimes, when the honest lighthouse master knew that his daughter was in the next room, he complained to his guests, saying:

"Well, indeed, the young girl's troubles with her ugly appearance are also my father's ugly appearance, and I feel responsible. But maybe it's a fate!" Someone patted Chiyoko on the shoulder, and Chiyoko turned around.Yasuo Kawamoto stood in front of her with a smile in his shiny leather overalls. "Welcome back. Spring break?" "Yeah. I just finished my exam yesterday." "Probably come back to suck on mother's milk!" Anfu was ordered by his father to come to the government office of Jin County the day before yesterday to handle cooperative affairs, and stayed at a hotel run by a relative in Toba. Now he was planning to take this boat back to Shuangdao.What he is most satisfied with is being able to talk to female college students in Tokyo in standard language.

From the speech and behavior of this sociable peer, Chiyoko felt that he was very happy, and he must have decided that "this girl is interesting to me".With this feeling, she became more and more listless, thinking: Here we go again!Influenced by movies and novels in Tokyo, Chiyoko wanted to see—just once—the look in a man's eyes when he said "I love you."However, she began to conclude that such a thing could not be seen in a lifetime. A hoarse shout came from the kamikaze: "Well, the cushions haven't arrived yet. Look!" In a blink of an eye, I saw a man walking from the other side of the pier carrying a large arabesque pattern cushion bag on his shoulders, which bathed in the shadow of most of the warehouse.

"It's time to sail!" Anfu said. When jumping onto the boat from the pier, he held Chiyoko's hand and jumped over.Chiyoko felt that this iron-like palm was different from the young man's hand in Tokyo.From this palm, she imagined the palm of Shinji who had not shaken hands with her once. Peeping into the cabin from the small skylight-like entrance, I saw figures of people lying on the tatami mats in the dark cabin.Some have white towels around their necks, and only the reflections from their shiny glasses show deep accumulation in eyes accustomed to outdoor light. "It's better to stay on the deck. Although it's a bit cold, it's better than the cabin."

As soon as Anfu and Chiyoko took shelter from the wind by leaning against the upside-down cables on the bridge, the reckless young captain's assistant said: "Hey, lift your ass please!" After all, the young assistant replaced the wooden plank from under the two people's buttocks.The two of them were sitting on the cover used to block the entrance of the cabin. Was the captain on the bridge, where the paint had peeled off and the grain of the wood was showing?The Kamikaze sailed. The two of them looked at Toba Port in the distance, letting the old engine vibrate.Anfu wanted to reveal to Chiyoko something about his secret prostitution last night, but he thought about it and gave up.In an ordinary rural fishing village, Anfu's ability to whore women would be a source of pride, but in this clean Utashima, he keeps silent like cicadas.He was young, but put on a hypocritical posture.

The moment Chiyoko saw the seagull flying to a place higher than the cable car tower in front of Toba Station, she made a secret bet in her heart.She quietly calculated that she didn't encounter any risky actions in Tokyo, so she hoped that every time she returned to the island, something would happen to her that would completely change the face of the world.The farther the boat was from Toba, the more she felt that it would be effortless for any seagull flying low to surpass the small iron tower in the distance.However, the iron tower still stands tall.Kilovolts on the second hand of the watch on the red leather strap.She thought to herself: "In a few seconds, if the seagull flies over the tower, then a wonderful thing is waiting for me."...Five seconds passed.A seagull flying over after the ship suddenly flew high, its wings passed the iron tower, and flew away.

Before anyone doubted her smile, Chiyoko said: "Has something changed on the island?" The ship was advancing, and Sakate Island was already seen on the left.After Anfu pressed the short cigarette butt that was almost burning to his lips on the deck and snuffed it out, he replied: "Nothing special happened... oh yes, ten days ago the generator broke down and the village had to light kerosene lamps. It's fixed now." "My mother wrote about it too." "Really? Other news..." Reflected by the spring-filled sea, he narrowed his eyes.The pure white Bulbul boat of the Coast Guard sailed towards Toba Port from a distance of ten meters away from them. "That's right. Master Miyata Teru called his daughter back. Her name is Hatsue, and she looks very pretty." "yes?" Upon hearing the words "extra beautiful", Chiyoko suddenly looked sad.Because that sentence alone sounds like a criticism of yourself. "Uncle Zhao likes me very much. Because I am the second child, people in the village say that I am the most suitable son-in-law of the Chujiang family." Not long after the Kamikaze sailed, Ying Island appeared on the right, and the huge Toshi Island appeared on the left.Even on a calm day, as soon as the ship sails out of the waters where the two islands stand together, it will encounter turbulent waves, shaking the ship's plank to creak.From this area, the osprey swims in the waves non-stop, and you can also see the hidden reefs with rock groups standing in the ocean.Anfu frowned when he saw these reefs, and looked away from the only humiliating memory of Utashima.Because since ancient times, young people have to bleed for the fishing rights of the submerged reef every time they compete for it, and now it has been assigned to Dazhi Island. Kadaizi and Anfu stood up, crossed the low boat bridge, and waited for the island shadow to appear on the sea.Utashima often looms as a vague, mysterious helmet-like shape from the horizon.As the ship tilted with the waves, so did the helmet.