Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Unbelievable Strange Phenomena

However, the Algerian coast along the Mediterranean Sea in the north and the Sharif River in the west has not undergone any changes.Violent though the shaking was, outwardly there was no apparent change in the fertile plain dotted with many hills, in the rocky coast, or in the rough seas of the Mediterranean.The stone house, except for a few large cracks on the walls, is still intact.As for the thatched hut, it has long since collapsed like building blocks built by children.Under the thatch lay the unconscious captain Servadac and his wife Ben. Two hours later, the captain awoke.He didn't know where he was lying.When he opened his mouth, it was still the last two lines of the sonnet that had been interrupted just now:  …

I swear, for…… Asked, he immediately changed his words: "Strange! What happened?" Of course he couldn't answer this question.He raised his hand to push the thatch away, and poked his head out. He glanced around and cried out: "The hut has collapsed. There must have been a tornado just now." He touched his whole body up and down and found that he was safe and sound. "Oops! Where's my orderly?" He stood up and cried: "Ben-Zoff!" As soon as he finished speaking, a head emerged from under the thatch. "Here!" Ben-Zoff replied.

There is such a coincidence in the world, Ben Yizoff seemed to be waiting for his call before he got out of the thatch. "What happened just now? Ben-Zov." Selvadak asked. "It seems to me, Captain, that we have encountered an extraordinary disaster." "Look what you say! Don't make such a fuss. It's just a tornado!" "Let's say it's a tornado!" Ben-Zoff said slowly. "Are you hurt, Captain?" "No." After a while, they stood up, scraped away the thatch, and picked out drawing utensils and clothes.Guns and various utensils, these things are still basically intact.the captain asked:

"Hello, what time is it?" "At least eight o'clock." Ben-Zov said, looking at the sun that had already hung above the treetops. "Eight O'clock?" "Yes, Captain!" "is it possible?" "How is that impossible? We should set off." "Set off?" "Yes, go to the appointment." "Appointment?" "Yes, to fight the count..." "Ah, damn it! I almost forgot!" cried the captain. He took out his pocket watch and looked at it: "What nonsense are you talking about! It's only two o'clock."

"Is it two o'clock in the morning or two o'clock in the afternoon?" asked Ben-Zov, looking at the sun. Servadac brought the pocket watch to his ear: "The watch is running fine." "The sun is going well too," retorted Ben-Zoff. "That's true. The sun is still in the sky... What a goddamn ghost! . . . " "What time do you think it is, Captain." "Maybe eight o'clock at night." "eight pm?" "Yes, you see the sun is hanging in the west, it is obviously going to set!" "Downhill? Where, Captain," said Ben-Zoff. "The sun has just risen! Believe it or not, it's risen a little higher while we're talking."

"So, the sun is rising from the west now!" Servadac said to himself, "Where the hell! It's impossible!" But the facts speak louder than words.This radiant sun, hanging over the Sharif River, was rising from the western horizon, having just emerged from the darkness of night to begin its daytime travels. Servadac immediately realized that this strange phenomenon with unknown reasons was not due to the sun changing its motion in space, but the earth changing its rotation direction. This is really confusing.The impossible happened.If there was a member of the Bureau of Astronomical Affairs present, Servadac would like to hear his opinion.But now there is no one to ask for advice except himself.

"My God!" he said, "it's an astronomer's business. We'll have to wait a week and see what the papers say." He resolved not to bother himself with understanding these strange phenomena. Let's go! He said to the orderly: "No matter what happens, even if the normal movement of the earth and the sky are all messed up, I must first rush to the appointed place..." "Put the sword into the count's chest," Ben-Zov continued. If Captain Servadak and Ben-Zov had been able to observe carefully what happened suddenly on the night of December 32, they would have found that, in addition to the obvious change in the movement of the sun, there was also a disturbing change in the air. Unbelievable change and will be amazed by it.Because, let’s take them for example, they are panting and short of breath now, just like mountain climbers struggling to climb a high mountain. It seems that the surrounding air has become thinner, and the oxygen content has suddenly decreased.In addition, their voices sounded much weaker than before.There are no more than two reasons for this situation: either they suddenly suffered severe deafness and their hearing became dull, or the sound transmission of the air has suddenly weakened.

But these changes in the outside world did not attract their attention.They were making their way up the Sharif River along a rough track over the rocks. Yesterday's thick fog has disappeared.At one point the sky looked extraordinarily bright, then it was covered with low-hanging clouds, and the sunlit firmament could no longer be seen.The air was humid, heralding a storm with thunder and lightning was approaching.But the water vapor in the air has not yet condensed to a certain level, and the rain will not fall for a while. For the first time in history, the busy Mediterranean Sea is devoid of ships.Looking up to the gray-white sky where the water and the sky are the same color, there is neither a white sail nor wisps of blue smoke from the ship's funnel.The horizon money on the sea ahead is very close to the horizon money on the plain behind—is this an illusion?The endless vistas of the past are no longer there.The Earth's outer shell appears to have shrunk.

Captain Servadak and Ben-Zov walked quickly in silence, and soon covered the five kilometers from the hut to the place of the duel.They can now see that their bodies have also changed a lot.Now they are as light as swallows, and they walk quickly like flying, as if they had grown wings.If one were to ask Ben Yizoff how he felt, he would definitely say that he felt "indescribably uncomfortable". "Probably because we forgot to eat breakfast," he muttered. His words were not unreasonable. Forgetting to eat breakfast was indeed rare in his life. At this time, a piercing dog barking suddenly came from the left side of the path.Then, a jackal jumped out of the dense bushes.It is an animal endemic to Africa, uniformly covered in black spots, with a black stripe on each front leg.

If wild dogs move in groups at night, they will pose a great threat to pedestrians, but if they move alone, they have nothing to do with each other.Ben-Zoff didn't take it seriously at all, and he didn't like it very much, probably because there were no special animals in Montmartre. After the jackal came out of the bushes, it stopped at the foot of a ten-meter-high rock, staring at the two uninvited guests uneasily.Ben-Zoff waved his arm at it.Seeing his fierceness, the jackal jumped up, and easily landed on the top of the rock.The captain and Ben-Zoff were all dumbfounded when they saw it.

"What an excellent high jumper!" Ben Yizoff sighed, "I jumped more than ten meters high in one fell swoop." "Yes!" said the captain thoughtfully, "I've never seen anything jump so high." The jackal sat on his forelegs on the top of the rock, and looked at them with contempt.Ben-Zov picked up a stone and tried to drive it away. The stone was huge, but in Ben-Zov's hands, it was as light as a sponge. "Damn thing, it's cheap now!" Benzov said to himself, "It can't hurt a hair of it when this thing hits it! But why is such a big stone so light?" Woolen cloth?" Since he had nothing else at hand, he had to throw the stone with all his might. The stone missed the jackal, but the move was enough to frighten it.The jackal tucked its tail, crossed several rows of trees, and disappeared into the dense jungle.But every jump, jumping so far, it's incredible. Not only did the rock not hit the jackal, but it also traveled a long distance in the air until it fell more than 200 meters away from the rock.Seeing this, Ben-Zoff couldn't help gasping, and exclaimed: "Damn it! I'm stronger than a howitzer!" Soon, a deep ditch was blocking their way. The ditch was three to four meters wide and filled with stagnant water.Ben Yizoff walked a few meters in front of the captain, and saw him in a jumping posture, and jumped... "What's the matter? Ben-Zoff, what do you want? Are you crazy? You'll break your body, idiot!" The captain was terrified when he saw Ben-Zov jump more than ten meters high. In order not to break Ben-Zov when he fell, he also jumped into the ditch to help him.I didn't want to jump, but I jumped more than ten meters high.As he ascended, Ben-Zoff fell just as he was falling.Then, due to the effect of gravity, he quickly returned to the ground, but the shock he suffered was similar to when he fell from a height of one or two meters. "Ah!" cried Ben-Zoff, laughing, "we've become clowns on stage, Captain." Selvadak pondered for a long time, then approached Ben-Zov, stroked his shoulder and said: "Stop it, Ben-Zov! Take a good look at me. I feel like I'm in a dream. Wake me up. You can pinch me with your fingers, and I won't blame you if it bleeds. We Probably crazy, or just dreaming!" "Captain," said Ben-Zoff, "this happened to me only in my dreams. I dreamed that I was transformed into a swallow and flew over Montmartre in a flash. What just happened Very strange things indeed. We must have encountered a situation that no one has ever encountered. Is this a phenomenon peculiar to this part of the Algerian coast?" Servadac was puzzled. "What a fright!" he exclaimed. "We have not slept nor dreamed." He didn't bother himself too much about this question anymore, besides, under the current circumstances, this mystery cannot be solved. "Let's leave it to fate!" he cried, resolving to think no more of these questions. "You're right, Captain," said Ben-Zov. "I think we'd better hurry to Count Ironmashev and get that over with." This side of the ditch leads to a half-hectare grassland.The lawn is full of grass, and there are many old oak trees, palm trees, carob trees, plane trees, and some cacti and aloes. In addition, there are two or three large eucalyptus trees that go straight to Xiaohan. pleasant. This is where Selvadak Yuning and Count Ironmashev duel. The captain looked around: there was no one there. "Damn it!" he said, "we're the first ones!" "Maybe it was too late," said Ben-Zoff. "What? We're late? But it's still down to nine o'clock," retorted the captain, drawing his watch from his pocket.He roughly adjusted his watch to the position of the sun before leaving the crumbling hut. "Captain," Ben-Zoff said, "you look up at the gray disk behind the clouds." "What's wrong?" The captain looked up at the sun that had risen to the zenith and was covered by dark clouds. "That's right!" Ben-Zoff continued. "The sun is at the zenith! How can it be nine o'clock?" "What a strange thing! At thirty-nine degrees north latitude, the sun can rise to the zenith in January." cried the captain. "But it's the sun, Captain. Its position says it's twelve o'clock, whether you like it or not. Looks like he's in a bit of a hurry today, and I'll bet he'll be setting in three hours." Servadak folded his arms, dumbfounded.Afterwards, he turned around, raised his eyes and looked around, and murmured involuntarily: "The law of gravity has changed. East and West have been turned upside down, and day and night have been shortened by half again! ... It seems that my duel with the count will drag on for some time? Damn it! Something out of the ordinary must have happened It's not about me and Ben-Zov's brains." Ben-Zov was not interested in any weird astronomical phenomena, he stood there indifferently, looking at the captain peacefully. "Ben-Zoff, look, there is no one here." "Yes; not a soul. The Russian has gone back." "Suppose he has gone back! But my witnesses must wait for me. Besides, seeing my delay in coming, they will certainly come to my hut to find me." "Your inference is entirely correct, Captain." "So I don't think the witnesses came." "Why didn't they come?" "They must have encountered some unexpected situation and failed to come. As for Earl Ironmashev..." Captain Servadac didn't say any more, he walked to the cliff overlooking the sea, wanting to see if the brig Dobrina would be moored not far from the coast.Because Count Ironmashev is likely to come to the appointment from the sea, and he came from the sea yesterday. The sea was empty, and there was no shadow of a boat. However, what surprised the captain even more was that although there was no wind, the sea was very unsettled. The turbulent waves were like a pot of boiling water.Obviously, under these circumstances, it would be very difficult for the Dobrina to come here. Moreover, for the first time in his life, he was astonished to find that the distance from where he stood to the uniform horizon had shortened considerably. Because, he is now standing on the top of a high cliff, and as far as he can see, the horizon should be forty kilometers away, but the horizon he sees is only about ten kilometers away from him, as if the volume of the earth is less than a few hours away. has been greatly reduced. "This Weitu is too strange!" said the captain. At this time, Ben-Zov had nimbly climbed onto a large eucalyptus tree, and looked towards the direction of Tenes and Mostaganem and the south.When he came down, he told the captain that there seemed to be no one on the plain. "Come on!" said Servadac. "Let's go first to the Sharif. Everything will be clear when we get there." "Go!" Ben Yizoff echoed. From this meadow there is a distance of three kilometers to the Sharif River, which Servadak intends to cross to Mostaganem.In order to reach the city before sunset, the pace must be quickened.At this time, through the dense clouds, the sun can be felt to be falling rapidly towards the horizon.But, as incomprehensible as other oddities, the sun did not follow the arc it would have seen in winter at such a latitude as Algeria, but followed a straight line, heading straight for the horizon. Selvadak kept thinking about these strange phenomena along the way.Although the direction of rotation of the earth is reversed for some incredible reason.Or, while the coast of Algeria has moved south of the equator, as seen from the point at which the sun passes through the zenith, the earth itself--except for its marked reduction in size--has not changed much, at least in this part of Africa. in this way.Because the state of the coast remains the same.There is no grass, and it is slightly dark red, and there are rows of cliffs that seem to contain iron oxide.In short, as far as the eye can see, there is no abnormal phenomenon on the coast.The south side - Servadac still refers to the original south side as the south side, although the east-west orientation has been reversed - has not changed.Ten kilometers away from here, you can see the remnants of Mount Marjaga, and its towering peaks appear very clearly in the sky. At this time, a crack appeared in the cloud, and the brilliance of the setting sun shone all the way to the ground.Apparently, the sun is setting in the east after rising in the west. "My God!" exclaimed Captain Servadac, "I don't know what those people in Mostaganem think of all this. When the news reached France, when the Minister of War learned of the French African colonies Now that we can no longer tell the difference between southeast and north, why do we think about cooperation? Not only has the geographical position changed completely, but the sun in January actually shines directly from the zenith. Isn’t all this strange.” The two of them kept going at full speed.The air is so thin.It is difficult for them to breathe, but they have gradually adapted to the new environment.They are as light as swallows.Quickly.They did not take the winding path with many detours, but took the shortest shortcut and jumped forward.They cross mountains and rivers, and fly over them with a light jump every time.in the current situation.Even if it is a high ground like Gomat, Ben-Zoff can cross it in a big stride without any effort.They have only one worry: Don't go in the vertical direction when you obviously go in the horizontal direction.Because their feet rarely touch the ground these days.For them the earth has become a springboard, infinitely elastic. The banks of the Sharif were already in sight.After a few more jumps, they reached the right bank of the river. For some reason, the wooden bridge over the river has disappeared. "The bridge is gone," cried Servadac. "Has it been swept away by the flood?" Strange things followed. The Sharif River no longer exists.Nothing remains of the left bank of the river.The right bank of the river is now the coast.The waves are rough, and the endless blue sea has replaced the original gurgling water.In short, part of the Mostaganem plain has disappeared. With strong curiosity, Selvadak walked to a bamboo tree by the river, put his hand in the water, and tasted the water. "Please be salty," he said, "Western Algeria has been swallowed by the sea in a matter of hours." "Captain," said Ben-Zoff, "it seems that the sea water will not recede anytime soon." "Such a disaster is really rare in the world." Servadak shook his head and sighed. "The consequences are immeasurable. What happened to my friends and colleagues?" Ben-Zov had never seen Selvadak so sad, and he couldn't help feeling very sympathetic, although he didn't understand what happened.However, he would not hesitate to share in the Captain's pain if need be. The right bank of the Shelev River has now become a new coast, which is slightly arc-shaped from north to south.The land on this side of the river seems to have been untouched by the disaster, and the undulations of the terrain are still the same.Clusters of trees and grassy meadows are intact.Even the high banks of the river are immobile to stand there.But now it is not a river bank but a coast. However, the heavy-hearted Selvadak didn't have much time to carefully observe the profound changes that took place between the heaven and the earth.After the sun reached the eastern horizon, it quickly fell like an iron ball falling into the sea.Even at the equatorial equinoxes, when the sun reaches the point where the ecliptic and celestial equator meet, day and night don't change so quickly.Since there is no dusk this evening, it seems that there will be no dawn tomorrow morning.The earth, the sea, and the sky were all shrouded in darkness.