Chapter 5 03 Fear of the night

Opening my eyes, I saw a strange water-blue wall in front of me. I was a little dazed for a moment, and finally remembered where I was. ——Yes, this is a youth hostel in Anchorage. Thinking back to everything that happened after getting off the plane yesterday, I couldn't help but sigh. Being blackmailed and fled by that black woman is already miserable.When I asked people for directions, everyone kindly pointed me out, and I responded with a smile of "Yeah, yeah, I see." Sadly, I couldn't understand a word of what the person was saying.It seems that it will take a while to get used to listening to live English conversations.

I kept getting lost and arrived at the youth hostel at eleven o'clock in the evening. My tension and exhaustion had reached the limit.After confirming that there were still beds available, I sat by the bicycle and did not move for a long time. After waking up, my body was still as heavy as lead. I looked at the clock, and the hour hand pointed to four o'clock. Four o'clock? Looking out the window, it doesn't look like four in the morning!It turned out that it was already evening. "So stupid?????? Isn't the first day of the journey wasted like this?" The scary thing is that I slept sixteen hours straight.

I barely slept enough to get ready to go.However, it is also because I have encountered some frustrating things since I came here. I slowly got up from the bed, dragged my oversleeped heavy body to the reception room, and saw a man sitting with his back to me.I was a little nervous and tried to strike up a conversation, trying to ask him where the supermarket was. "Excuse me? (Sorry)" "Hai? (Yes)" Unexpectedly, when I asked a question in English, the answer was in Japanese.The face that turned around was undoubtedly a Japanese, and the tension was suddenly swept away, and I almost rushed up to hug him immediately.

He wears a pair of big glasses, no matter how he looks like Nobita in "Doraemon".He has a stable appearance, but he was actually a member of a mountaineering club at a university, and he just climbed Mount McKinley two days ago. "How, have you reached the summit?" "certainly!" He smiled and said happily. Next he plans to travel around the world by tram or bus.The two of us agreed, so we chatted in the reception room. "Although I don't know how far I can go, I think, let's go until I can't walk." Nobita said in a calm tone.It seems that he is a person who is not artificial or forced, insists on following his own wishes, and lives his life naturally.

"And why did you come to Alaska?" Nobita asked me. "I think, since we want to travel around the world, we must start from the endpoint of the mainland! Isn't this the northernmost airport in the North American continent?" I answered, and my mood became bold.Walking from one side of the continent to the other, this is the real "around the world" - I think so smugly.From Alaska to Ushuaia, the southernmost tip of South America, then fly to Europe, and then plan to ride all over Africa and Asia. "How long is the whole process expected to take?" "Hmm - I don't know very well, maybe three or four years?"

Nobita widened his narrow eyes as if moved, and then smiled in surprise, and I laughed too. "But why do you insist on traveling around the world for a week?" When he asked, I was a little speechless.Indeed, there are many reasons, the most fundamental one is very impractical: I just want to do it.Since you were born in this world, you should take a good look at it.But such a reason is so simple that even I find it difficult to convince others once I say it.Unexpectedly, when Daxiong heard this, he immediately said: "Yes, I understand." I was encouraged, my spirits came, and I continued to say:

"Then, I have to find out the number one thing in the world!" "Huh? What's that?" "No, I mean, it's up to me to decide what is number one in the world!" Be it natural scenery or ruins, the most beautiful city in the world must be somewhere.I hope that I can travel all over the world to carefully search for my most precious treasures, and engrave the precious memories worth keeping for a lifetime in the depths of my memory. "Yeah!" Nobita listened happily, chatting with him, I talked more and more vigorously. "As for why you want to ride a bicycle? I think the joy should be greater when you actually sweat and find the 'treasure' with your feet."

"I see. But won't it be tiring to rely on the bicycle alone?" "It doesn't matter! If you have worked so hard to walk around the world with your feet, you will definitely gain a lot. If you can achieve it, this life is enough." I realized that the more I talked, the more complacent I was, I smiled bitterly in my heart, I was so complacent, yesterday was obviously so unkind?????? After chatting for a while, we went to the supermarket to buy things together, cooked vegetables, and had dinner together.I was so noisy that I even startled myself. With the effect of beer, the two talked and laughed loudly, which aroused the attention of other white passengers.

However, that night?????? Lying on the bed, as soon as my agitation calmed down, I was seized by some indescribable dread.Riding a bicycle alone on a vast continent, this romantic fantasy before departure has now become a terrifying sight.Once out of the urban area, there is a vast forest with no boundaries, where there are bears and many people with pistols. The woman I met outside the airport appeared in my mind again, and the sound of her chewing gum sounded in my ears.It was completely different from last night. I tossed and turned without closing my eyes.