Chapter 10 Seven of Spades.....—a mysterious planet....

Holding a magnifying glass, I read the long description in the bun book word by word, and my eyes ached.The print is so tiny that, while reading, I sometimes stop and ask myself if I've made sense of the book.Maybe a small part of it I made up out of thin air. I closed the book, sat in the back seat of the car, stared blankly at the high mountains on both sides of the road, and thought about Albert in my heart.He lost his mother just like me.He was like me, and my father was a big drinker. After a while on the road, Dad said, "We're about to enter the St. Gotthard Tunne.' It goes right through the towering mountains ahead."

Dad told me that the Gotthard Sadd Tunnel is the longest road tunnel in the world, with a total length of more than 16 kilometers, and it was only opened to traffic a few years ago.For more than a hundred years before that, traffic on both sides of the mountain relied on a railway tunnel.Before the railway was built, monks and business travelers traveling between Italy and Germany had to cross the Alps through the St. Gotthard Pass. "Many people have been here before us," Dad concluded.Our car drove into a long tunnel. It took us almost fifteen minutes to walk through this tunnel.After exiting the tunnel, we passed a small town called Airolo.

"Oloria," I said.When I was extremely bored, I would play this game in the car. Whenever I saw the names of towns and traffic signs, I would read their letters backwards to see what secrets were hidden inside.Sometimes you will find out - something interesting.For example, Roma (love).Isn’t that kind of fun? The name “Aurora” is also very chic.It reminds us of countries in fairy tales. As long as we close our eyes a little, at this moment, we seem to be driving through such a fairy tale country. The car descends into a valley dotted with small farmsteads and stone walls, then crosses a river called the Ticino.When Dad saw the river, he couldn't help crying.Dad hadn't shed a tear since we walked together on the Hamburg pier.

He slammed on the brakes, pulled the car over to the side of the road, and jumped out of the driver's seat. With his arms outstretched, he pointed to the river that snaked between two cliffs. When I rushed out of the car, Dad had already pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "Son, we're at the beach at last! I can already smell the seaweed." Dad used to say such inexplicable things, but this time I was afraid he was really out of his mind.What made me feel most ominous was that after he finished that sentence, he closed his mouth and said nothing, as if he only had the ocean in his mind.

I know that at this moment we are in Switzerland, and Switzerland has no ocean line.Although I don't know much about geography, the mountains in front of me are living evidence that we are now far from the ocean. "Are you tired?" I asked Dad. "Not tired!" He pointed to the river again. "Maybe I haven't told you about the shipping situation in Central Europe yet? I'll tell you now." Seeing my dumbfounded look, Dad quickly added, "Take it easy, Hans Thomas. There won't be any pirates here. He pointed to the surrounding mountains and continued: "We have just crossed the Gotthard fault block. Many of the great rivers in Europe originate here. The first drop of the Rhine was formed here, and the Rhone (the khone) ) is also in this area. From here the Ticino River rises, and then joins the mighty Po River (the Po), flows through northern Italy, and empties into the Adriatic Sea.”

I now understand why Dad suddenly talked about the ocean.But before I had time to think clearly about what I just said, he immediately said, "I just said that the source of the Rhone River is here." He pointed to the mountains in front of him again. "The river flows through Geneva, enters France, and empties into the Mediterranean a few miles west of Marseille. After the Rhine starts here, it flows all the way through Germany and Holland, and finally empties into the North Sea. There are many rivers in Europe, drinking them in the Alps It's my first saliva." "Are there boats sailing these rivers?" I asked Dad.

"Of course they do, boy. The boats here don't just sail on the river, they sail from river to river." Dad lights another cigarette.At this time, I was worried again, maybe my father was really insane.Sometimes I suspect that the alcohol has eroded his brain. "Let's say," Papa began to explain, "you sail a boat down the Rhine, or along any other important river in Europe—the Rhone, the Seine, the Loire. Lah—you can reach any of the great commercial ports of the North Sea, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean." "But, aren't there mountains blocking these rivers?" I questioned.

"Yes, but as long as you can navigate between mountains, mountains won't be an obstacle." "What the hell are you talking about?" I interrupted Dad.I hate my father for not speaking well and playing riddles all the time. "I'm talking about the canal," Dad finally revealed. "Did you know? Using the canal, we can sail from the Baltic Sea in northern Europe to the Black Sea in southern Europe without passing through the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea." I still didn't understand, so I shook my head desperately. "You can even sail to the Caspian Sea, right to the heart of Asia?" Dad Guang said excitedly in a low voice.

"Really?" "Really! As real as the Gotthard Tunnel. Incredible." I stood by the road, looking at the river in the mountains, and vaguely smelled the strong smell of seaweed. "Hans Thomas, what did you learn at school?" Dad asked me suddenly. "Learn to sit still," I replied. "It's not easy to sit still without moving. It took us many years to learn." "Hmm. If the teacher tells you about European shipping lines in class, will you just sit and listen?" "I think so." Dad was addicted to cigarettes and our conversation between father and son came to an end.How did we get in the car and continue driving south along the Tizino River.The first town we pass by on the road is called Bellinzona, where there are three huge fortresses left over from the Middle Ages.Looking back on the past, Dad began to tell the story of the Crusades. As he was talking, he suddenly changed the subject: "Hans Thomas, do you know? I am very interested in outer space, especially planets. The planets with life are the most interesting." attracted me."

I didn't answer.Both father and son knew he had always had fun with that stuff. "Did you know?" Dad said, "a mysterious planet was recently discovered, and it is inhabited by millions of intelligent and advanced creatures. They walk on two legs, do nothing all day, and go around with a telescope in their hands." Loitering and peeping." This is something quite new to me. "This small planet is covered with intricate and cobweb-like roads. Those smart guys drive colorful cars and run on these roads all day long." "Is there really such a planet?"

"Yes! On this planet, those mysterious creatures also built huge houses with a height of more than a hundred floors. Under these buildings, they dug long tunnels, laid railroad tracks, and then drove electric The car was speeding through the tunnel as fast as lightning." "Dad, you didn't lie to me, did you?" "Never lie to you, child." "But...why have I never heard of this planet?" "Well, partly because it was discovered only recently, and partly because I'm the only one who knows it exists." "Where the hell is this planet?" Dad suddenly stepped on the brakes and drove the car to the side of the road to stop. "Right here!" Dad reached out and patted the dashboard next to the driver's seat. "Hans Thomas, our earth is the magic time planet, and we are the group of intelligent higher creatures, driving around in red Fiat cars all day long." It turned out that my father was entertaining me. I sat in the back seat and sulked, but I thought about it again.What Dad said may be true, our earth is indeed very amazing.Thinking of this, I forgave my father. "If astronomers find another planet with life, everyone will be very excited, but we turn a blind eye to the magic of our own earth." Dad came to such a conclusion. Then he drove silently without saying a word.So I took this opportunity, opened the bun book, and read on. There are several bakers in the village of Dulf, and it is really not easy to tell them apart.But it soon became clear to me that it was Ludwig who wrote the bun book, and it was Albert who told him the story of his childhood and his relationship with Hans.