Eri had lived in Japan since she was young, but she had never been to such an authentic Shikoku town. Everything she saw was fresh and she was reluctant to walk fast.
However, Ye Ye, a foreigner, seemed to be very familiar with this town. He wandered around the small street and found that Eri was missing after taking a few steps. He had to turn around to look for her. Sometimes, he found her in front of the tofu workshop, and sometimes, he found her in front of the batik shop.
In the end, there was not enough time, so Ye Ye could only pull her and jog.
This way, they could catch the last mountaineering streetcar. The mountaineering streetcar was built next to the town's shrine. The track was at a 45-degree angle, and it made a thump sound as it climbed the mountain.
Before it became a tourist attraction, Umezunji-machi was a copper mine. The men in the vicinity were all miners. They rode these old-fashioned climbing ropes up the mountain every day to mine. Later, the mining carts were transformed into sightseeing trolleys.
On both sides of the track, there were dense trees, from the common pine beech, walnut, and maple to the precious red spruce, Korean cliff pine, and winter cherry. They could all be found here. Wildflowers such as honeysuckle and rose grew in the gaps between the trees.
The trees covered the tracks like thick clouds, and they seemed to be traveling through a tunnel of changing colors, a tunnel made purely of leaves and flowers.
The carriage was empty, with only Lu Mingfei and Eri as passengers. Eri stuck her head out of the window and looked around, full of surprise.
It was Lu Mingfei's idea to come to Umezunji-machi. Erii expressed that anywhere was fine as long as it was a beautiful place. Ye Ye said that he had been to a place together. It was very beautiful but very far away. We needed a good car.
Therefore, they ran on the highway for four hours, from Honshu to Shikoku, and finally arrived at this seaside town.
"Ye Ye isn't Japanese, right? How did he know about such a beautiful place?”Eri wrote in her small notebook.
"I've been here once before." Ye Ye replied.
In his previous life, he had come here once. That was the first and last time, because that was where he transmigrated.
And he came here because of a TV series, Tokyo Love Story.
"I'm here because of a TV series.”
"What TV series?"
" Tokyo Love Story."
Ehime Prefecture was the most southwestern county in Shikoku. The ending of " Tokyo Love Story " was filmed here. Ye Ye liked that Japanese drama, so he searched for information about Ehime Prefecture online. In the end, he found out that the ending scene was filmed in Umezuteracho, Ehime Prefecture. The school and the station in the drama were real.
He had always wanted to travel to Umezu-ji-machi. He knew that Umezu-ji-machi was a town that had started off with a copper mine, and that there was also this subway tunnel.
In spring, it was green, like translucent jade. In summer, it was dark green, so dense that it seemed to drip from the top of one's head. In autumn, it was pale red. Maple trees and gingko trees had fallen leaves in large numbers. The track was covered with red and yellow leaves, so dense that even the sleepers could not be seen. In winter, only dense dead branches surrounded the track, like a post-modern work of art.
Ye Ye covered Eri's eyes with his hands."You will be able to see the beautiful scenery in a while.”
Eri nodded and leaned slightly against Ye Ye's chest, following Ye Ye's footsteps.
The setting sun was red, and the slanting sunlight shone down from the shade of the trees. It shone into the streetcar through the glassless windows, changing constantly on the old-fashioned wooden seats.
Ye Ye also closed his eyes. He could only hear the gears and the track bite together, making a clicking sound.
The mountain-climbing trolley stopped in front of the temple on the top of the mountain. Ye Ye held Eri's hand and got off. In front of the station stood a stone statue that was half the height of a person.
The so-called Ishitigarbha in Japan was a small stone Buddha statue standing on the roadside. The Ishitigarbha Temple was not a real temple. It was just a one-foot square brick roof built on the head of the Ishitigarbha to shelter the Ishitigarbha from the rain. With this nail, it was the Ishitigarbha Temple.
Ye Ye placed a leftover rice ball in front of Ishitigarbha and pulled Eri through the forest.
They took the path that miners had used to mine in the mountains decades ago. The road was made of uneven stones. Huili Yi wore high-heeled shoes. She was afraid of falling, so she leaned her entire body against Ye Ye.
Ye Ye used his spiritual voice to move away the wild grass and dodder that had grown crazily. He walked in front and the warm sunlight shone into the forest at the end of the road.
At the end of the road was a mine that had long been closed. In order to commemorate the mine that had raised the town, the residents of Umezu-ji-machi donated money to build a wooden temple-like building at the entrance and exit of the mine. Every rafter was hung with carp flags for blessings, and various porcelain dolls were placed under the eaves.
This was the local custom. If the family in town gave birth to a boy, they would come here and hang a carp flag. If it was a girl, they would put a porcelain doll.
The tracks of the mine car were already rusted, and weeds were growing between the crossties. They followed the track to the edge of the cliff. Ye Ye helped Eri up a rock that protruded from the cliff.
Her lotus-leaf-like skirt fluttered in the mountain wind. She stood on the cliff in her high heels, straight and slender, like a newly born tree.
As long as Ye Ye gave it a strong push, this known strongest and most dangerous hybrid, a humanoid monster that could easily destroy half of Tokyo, would fall off the cliff and die.
However, Ye Ye would not do that, and he would not allow anyone to do that, because Eri was his girl.
Ye Ye withdrew his hands that were covering Eri's eyes and placed them on her waist.
Eri opened her eyes.
The setting sun surged into her field of vision like a tide. The huge sun had already touched the surface of the sea. Tens of millions of tons of seawater slowly rippled under her feet. The tide broke into white splashes under the black cliff.
The wind blew through tens of thousands of hectares of forest. The forest in the evening looked like the sea from afar. The pale red sea, thousands of treetops swaying in the wind, formed layers of waves.
The small towns were distributed along the winding coastline. Ye Ye told the names of the small towns to Erii one by one. Below the cliff was Umezu-ji-machi, and slightly further away were Shanma-machi, Yuetsu-jo-machi, and Matsutaka-machi...
The primary school in town was already empty, and there was no one in the quiet field.
The Ferris wheel spun slowly, but it did not carry passengers. Compared to the Ferris wheel in the big amusement park, the Ferris wheel in Umezunjiamachi was only a miniature version, but it was magnified in the setting sun, and its huge shadow cast on the undulating sea of trees.
On the tracks near the sea, a yellow slow-moving train rumbled past an empty station. The station was surrounded by white railings, and the signs " Umezu Temple X " and "[Tokyo XXXXXXXX] Kou X Land " were hung on them.
This meant that the ending of " Tokyo Love Story " was filmed at this small station. It was once a holy land for Japanese men and women to make pilgrimages to love. The yellow train brought countless tourists from Tokyo, and the small town of Umezunji-machi quickly rose to become a famous tourist destination.
Now that the magic of the old TV series had faded, newer and more interesting films occupied the TV screen, and the town of Umezunji-machi had once again become the silent town that no one cared about.
... Who knew how long it would take for a psychopath like Ye Ye to bring a girl to reminisce. He was actually a foreigner.
"The world is very gentle." Erii showed Lu Mingfei her notebook. She was stunned for a long time, staring at the scenery below.
The world is very gentle? Ye Ye never thought that the word gentle could be used to describe something as huge as the world.
"The world wasn't like this in the past. It wasn't so gentle.”I paint pear clothes and write again.
"What did you think the world was like in the past?”
"A gem guarded by a group of snakes. It's very beautiful, very far away, and very dangerous.”
A gem guarded by snakes? What an unexpected metaphor. To some extent, it was a perfect metaphor. Wasn't the brightly lit Tokyo a gem guarded by snakes?
The great ambition was like a group of black snakes slithering through the Nightless City, hiding dangerous poisonous fangs.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。