Chapter 20 4. Invitation from the Pacific Sinkhole

"Uncle, are we going home?" After coming overseas, Ah Ba seemed very happy.Ah Ba's question about going home made Qiu Nai's nose sore.She wants to go back to Germany, and Naya wants to go back to Samoa. The three of them are eager to return, but the current situation prevents them from returning home.These three people with the same fate came together in such a remote place. The canoe sailed into the southeast trade wind circle. Qiunai's special canoe was very stable and could withstand big waves.In the past, Qiu Nai used it to row from Hawaii to Tahiti in a short period of time, the distance was about 6,000 kilometers.

"It's very close to the equator." Three days had passed since they set out north of the Bismarck Islands.At noon that day, Naya put her hand on her forehead and looked towards the horizon for a while and said. "How did you know?" "You see, the sea level has turned into a black line, which means that the area is calm. Maybe the Northern Cross will be visible soon." In the past, Qiu Nai used the compass to advance, but now the pointer of the compass points to the east, the direction of the Ellice Islands.How can it be so close to the equator?Could it be that the compass failed after staying in the area of ​​Queen Augusta for a long time?To be on the safe side, Qiu Nai re-measured the direction with the portable astronomical observatory.Oh... The position of the stars is really wrong.

He put the scope aside and held Naya's hand tightly.The native girl's instincts were right. The night before, Naya had said to Qiu Nai: "If we're going to live on this boat for the rest of our lives..." The reflections of the stars are inlaid on the dark sea. The spinnaker overhead is filled with sea breeze. "Yeah, according to the current situation, we can only live on the boat temporarily." In fact, the three of them passed through many islands in the past few days, but as soon as this idiot Qiu Nai came to the island, he asked people everywhere in German, "Is the war over? Is the war over?" for fear that the natives would not know that he was a German.Seeing people greet them with weapons, they turned and ran away, and the three could only continue their life of drifting at sea.

Lonely men and widows, in the same boat, will inevitably have feelings.Although Naya is only twelve years old, she is already a marriageable age for a girl from the southern country.The two could not resist the desires that nature had bestowed upon them. "If I find the right island, I'll work hard. I'll make you trousers out of palm leaves, and I'll pick squid, which is what Samoan women are good at." "Let me take away your misfortune and make you happy." Qiu Nai took a deep breath of the sea breeze, looked at Naya affectionately, her cheeks turned red from excitement.Ah Ba stretched his waist, opened his eyes and asked:

"Oh? Uncle, haven't we arrived home yet?" "It's still early, wake up a hundred times and we'll be there." "Then uncle and sister will be my father and mother, okay? Let's go home together." The next morning, they came to an island covered with coconut trees.This is an uninhabited island, but it is rich in flora and fauna.The three of them let go of the burden in their hearts. "Yeah, it's a nice place here." Naya briskly ran to the water's edge. The coral polyps stretched out hundreds of petal-like tentacles in the blue water, and there were three-foot-long sea cucumbers wriggling and crawling in the water.A tuna called a halfmoon glistens all over... the forest is lined with arcades of flowers.

"I named this island Paradise Island after Hachi." Qiu Nai and Naya walked into the forest with Ah Ba in their arms.They found a tattered cross among wild herbs.It's a white man's tomb, Qiu Nai hurried to it.There is such an epitaph on the cross that has been blackened by wind and rain. A woman named P·K was buried on this island in 1882.After the husband died, he was forced to make a living and became the wife of a native, so he did not leave his name. The tombstone was written very simply, but Qiu Nai's face became very ugly after reading it.The white man who couldn't make ends meet became the wife of the native... and was so ashamed of it that he died without a name.So what's the deal with my relationship with Naya now?

A feeling of disgust suddenly came to my heart.Qiu Nai couldn't escape the deep-rooted sense of superiority of white people... When he looked up at Naya, he suddenly felt that this pretty face became very annoying.Qiu Nai thought over and over in his heart, and finally could only make up a lie to Naya: "Naya, you can't stay on this island. There is a disease on the island, so no one lives there." "Really? What a pity. It's a nice place." Naya didn't know that Qiu Nai was lying to him, she just felt that it was a pity that such a good place left.The three of them got into the canoe and started drifting.

Qiu Nai seemed to be a different person, he was still as kind to Ah Ba as before, but he never communicated with Naya again. Day after day, the ocean journey continues.The water is crystal clear in the morning but becomes like ink in the afternoon.In the evening, the sea level exudes the afterglow of the setting sun as if burning. Although this kind of scenery is beautiful, it is repeated every day, which makes people feel boring.The terrifying hole in Qiu Nai's heart grew bigger and bigger. In the evening, the southeasterly wind began to weaken. "Why are the stars in the sky gone?" Naya asked uneasily.

"It doesn't matter whether you can see it or not. It doesn't matter where you drift." A few days later, the sky was dark, as if it would be night forever.The wind died too, and the jib hung dejectedly on the mast.Both the sea water and the air became hot and thick, and a steamy mist filled the air.Qiu Nai is already desperate for the future, he doesn't care where the boat is going. That night, there was no wind on the sea, but there were big waves. "How is this possible. There is no wind, and the waves are too big." Naya hurriedly furled the sail and hugged Ah Ba tightly.

There was a bubbling swell against the canoes, and overhead there was the roar of a whirling hurricane.It was almost dawn and the sky was getting brighter.Qiu Nai yelled sharply: "My God! I didn't expect it to be here! That terrible whirlpool! The Pacific leak!" "What should we do now!" Naya hugged Ah Ba tightly and shouted in panic. The three of them were dragged by the Pacific water leak and whirled wildly on the top of the waves.After the canoe turned countless times along the spiral of the vortex, it was suddenly pulled into the bottom of the big funnel.The deep purple water around them sloped at twenty degrees, and the sea level rose above their heads.The humming roar in the thick blue water wall was even more terrifying than the roar of Vortex Heart.

At this point, Qiu Nai had completely given up hope.The "sea of ​​fire" dyed blood red by the rising sun was steaming hot. Qiu Nai's heart was beating violently, and his mind went blank. If the canoe had been sucked into the vortex, the three of them would have been cooked by the heat.But now there was nowhere to escape, Qiu Nai could only take a deep breath and stare directly at the vortex. But human beings still have the consciousness of survival in the end.Qiu Nai suddenly thought of something, and said: "I understand that the vortex originally has a centripetal force... so the air above the vortex will be affected by the centrifugal force. The hot and humid air will be thrown to the outside of the vortex, but the center of the vortex is calm. Then, the center of the Pacific water leak Maybe there are islands..." The closer to the center, the faster the speed of the canoe, and the greater the inclination of the hull.In the end, the speed exceeded fifty knots. Qiu Nai rushed in front of Naya and Hachi, picked up the sail net and tied their bodies together, and let them inhale a powder.Then he tied himself to the mast and sucked some powder himself. In the rapidly spinning canoe, the three people remained motionless as if they were dead.