Urashima Maru sailed seven days along the western Pacific Ocean, passing through the Solomon Islands near the equator, the Coral Sea and the Tasman Sea in eastern Australia, and arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, on July 2, 2010. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

After departing from Tokyo, Urashima Maru had not been resupplied for two weeks, so Captain Mori Hidehiko decided to anchor in Wellington's harbor for a day, and on the morning of July 2, Urashima Maru sailed into Wellington's harbor from the open sea.

Wellington is located on the eastern side of the Cook Strait, surrounded by vegetation and surrounded by lush mountains.

The crew and scientific staff of the Urashima Maru came to the deck to look out at the city ahead, and everyone was very excited to see the land, and they couldn't wait to go ashore and relax.

Lin Fan looked at the rectangular pier slowly approaching in front of the ship, and recognized that this was the place where their research ship docked more than two months ago, and he still remembered that this place seemed to be called "Langton Wharf". Lin Fan had spent two days in Wellington with his classmates two months ago, so he still has an impression of many places.

The deceased has passed away, and it is inevitable that it will be sad to revisit the old place, Lin Fan is in such a mood at the moment, looking at the city in front of him in a daze by the railing, which is a little abrupt compared to the joyful atmosphere on the ship.

Recovering from his sadness, he looked back at the tower in the middle of the ship, but the familiar figure was nowhere to be seen.

"Docked, will she come down today?" Lin Fan looked at the windowsill and thought.

Since the unexpected encounter on that night seven days ago, the girl with a delicate face and thin body has been deeply imprinted in Lin Fan's mind, although he still doesn't know her name, but usually whenever he sees her on the deck, he will greet her, and the girl will smile in response.

Her eyes were very clear, but there was a hint of sadness, somehow, that sadness actually made Lin Fan feel very familiar, as if the two had a similar fate.

Although they had met a few times, every time they saw that girl was on the tower in the middle, Lin Fan had never seen her leave there, as if her life was all on that tower.

He also wanted to climb that tower to find out, but it was said that this tower was an important research place for the Ministry of Science and Technology of Sanyo, and no one could go up without a certificate from the Ministry of Science and Technology, so Lin Fan didn't know what the girl's usual life was like.

On this day when the ship docked, he wondered if the girl would come down from the top of the tower.

After stopping on the deck for a long time, Lin Fan never waited for the girl's figure, but a familiar voice came.

"Lin Fan, are you waiting for someone?" This voice full of feminine charm made Lin Fan recognize it as the West Village Antelope at once.

He saw Nishimura Anteloko and Yusuke Kojima coming from the deck.

"Miss Nishimura, Mr. Kojima, hello~" Lin Fan greeted, "Oh, I'm just here to see the scenery." ”

Nishimura Antelope looked at the tower behind Lin Fan with a slight smile, revealing an incomprehensible smile.

Yusuke Kojima smiled: "Classmate Lin~ It's almost stuffy after so many days on the boat, right?" Let's go into the city today, I'll let someone accompany you~" He instructed the people beside him.

Then soon the tall bodyguard Tian Oka ran over, and Xiao Dao gave him a verbal explanation, and then said to Lin Fan: "Classmate Lin, tell Tian Oka where you want to play today, and he will arrange it." ”

"Okay, thank you~"

After saying that, Kojima left with Nishimura Antagome and others.

Tian Gang came to Lin Fan's side and said, "Where does Mr. Lin want to go, please do not hesitate to command!" ”

"Okay, thanks." Lin Fan replied, he looked at the tower behind him again, but he still didn't find the girl's figure, so he said, "Then let's go to the city first!" ”

Just a short distance from Langton Pier is Wellington's city centre, a bustling centre lined with modern skyscrapers lined with turquoise shorelines.

Lin Fan and Tian Oka walked aimlessly through the streets of the city center, and he still remembered some of the neighborhoods and buildings that he and his classmates had visited more than two months ago.

His steps couldn't help but hesitate a little, and those familiar faces appeared in his mind, Xu Jin, Xue Panru, Chen Bo...... and the fragments of their scientific expedition reproduced in my mind one by one, so clearly, as if it happened yesterday.

But now he is the only one left, and his friends, classmates, teachers, and the girl he admires have all gone away from this world!

Lin Fan sighed slightly, and continued to walk forward indifferently.

On the side of the street, a handicraft shop caught Lin Fan's eye.

The shop's windows are lined with a variety of handicraft items, and one catches his eye.

This is a wooden mask, carved with strange patterns, two eyes inlaid with crystal blue stone, bared teeth and tongue, like a monkey's face, but a bit of gods and demons.

Lin Fan stopped and looked at the mask in the window, and suddenly remembered something very important - isn't this the monkey face mask that Xue Panru bought?!

He immediately relived the memories of that terrifying night, the "weirdo" he met on the reef beach with the same face as the monkey's face mask.

Lin Fan rushed into the store and said in English to the clerk inside, "Hello! I want that mask! ”

The people in the store were taken aback by Lin Fan's excited appearance, and a short and fat middle-aged man said in English for a long time: "Oh! Good guest, of course no problem~ You want the mask of 'Io', right? ”

As he spoke, he took the monkey face mask and brought it to Lin Fan, who took the mask from his hand, looked at it carefully, and said, "I'm sorry, may I ask what kind of mask you just said this is?" ”

"-Io-, this is the mask of our highest Maori god, 'Io.'" The middle-aged store manager replied in English.

The accompanying bodyguard Tian Oka also came over and said, "Mr. Lin, are you going to buy this mask?" I'll just pay the bill. ”

"Eh, thank you~" Lin Fan hurriedly asked the store manager again: "Is there a legend about this mask?" Is it related to sea snakes?! ”

The middle-aged store manager replied, "Yes, you know a lot about our Maori culture!" ~Then the Io mask is the best choice for a commemorative collection~ Only $30. ”

"Uh...... Can you tell me a little bit about the legend of this mask? ”

"Oh? Don't you know? Okay, I'll just introduce ......," the middle-aged store manager began to narrate:

"The story of Io's mask and the sea serpent is this, and legend has it that there is a demon at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, a red sea dragon that ravaged our Maori village thousands of years ago."

"Legend has it that this sea dragon will appear on the full moon night of the summer night every year, and go to the village to hunt a large number of livestock, and our ancestors in order to appease this sea dragon, every year on the full moon night of the summer night, they will offer a large number of cattle and sheep and an untrained maiden, and send them out to sea in a wooden boat as a sacrifice to it."

"Then there was a boy in the village whose name was 'Addo' - and he was also the god of wisdom that we Maori later worshipped. It is said that the girl whom 'Ado' loved was chosen as a sacrifice to be offered to the sea dragon, and in order to save his sweetheart, he quietly followed the boat out to sea to save her. He returned to the village with his sweetheart, and told his people that he had met the god Io in the sea, and the god Io told him how to drive away the sea dragon - that is, to have everyone carve a mask on the wood in its shape and wear it, and the sea dragon would be frightened away when he saw him, so they carved many masks of the god Io according to the method that Addo said. Sure enough, when the sea dragon invaded the village, the villagers were frightened away when they saw the mask of the god Io, and they never dared to appear again, and our Maori ancestors lived a happy and peaceful life again, in order to commemorate the god Io and to prevent the big dragon from appearing again one day, we Maori people have passed down the tradition of carving the mask of the god Io for generations. ”

"That's pretty much the story~" said the middle-aged store manager.

"So that big sea dragon really exists?!" Lin Fan said.

"I don't know about this~ Oh, after saying so much, do you want to buy this mask?" The middle-aged store manager said a little impatiently.

"Okay, I'll buy, I'll buy!" As soon as Lin Fan was about to take out the money, Tian Gang on the side first handed over a dollar bill with a face value of 100 to the store manager.

"Okay, good~ Guest, I still have the masks of Ado, Rua, Haka, and Simon, do you want to take a look too?" The middle-aged store manager said with a smile.

Lin Fan asked curiously, "Oh? Do they have something to do with the big sea dragon? ”

"Yes! Ado is in the story just now, and the other three are also famous~! ”

"Okay, then please show it to me~"

The middle-aged store manager took four masks with different looks on his face and put them in front of Lin Fan one by one, and said, "The four masks of the guests are the masks of Ado, Rua, Haka, and Simon~"

Lin Fan carefully examined the four masks, and compared them with the Io mask in his hand, he found that although these four masks looked different, they could all be seen to be human appearances, with black eyes and a normal-sized mouth and nose, which were very different from the monkey face of the Io God Mask.

“…… Why are these four masks different from Io's? Lin Fan asked.

"Of course, because the god Io is our supreme god, Ado, Rua, Halo, and Simon are all under him, of course they are different from him~ But the price of these four masks is also cheap, only $20 each, and if you buy four pieces together, there will be a discount, only $70~!" The middle-aged store manager said.

"Mr. Lin, do you want to buy it?" Tian Oka on the side asked

Lin Fan shook his head and said to the middle-aged store manager, "Do you know any other legends about the god Io?" I want to know a little bit more about him. ”

The middle-aged store manager saw that Lin Fan had no intention of continuing to consume, so he said: "Oh, then I don't know, do you think you need anything else?" If not, I'll get busy. ”

"Oh, okay, nothing else...... Lin Fan replied, then turned around to leave.

Just as Lin Fan and Tian Oka were about to leave the shop, the middle-aged store manager said in the back: "Guest, if you want to know more about the god Io, you can go to the Maori Cultural Village and find the Maori high priest there, he can tell you more about our Maori legends." ”

"Oh? - Okay! Where is that cultural village? Lin Fan said excitedly when he heard it.

"On the hill to the west of the city, you can tell the taxi to know~" The middle-aged shopkeeper said.

"Okay, thank you!"

As soon as Lin Fan and Tian Oka left the craft shop, they rushed to the Maori Cultural Village in Wellington.

The cultural village is full of Maori steeple wooden buildings, and you can see huge wood carvings everywhere, these towering totems Kelin Fan inquired in the cultural village to determine the location of the Maori high priest, he followed the instructions to a large square wooden steeple house in the center of the cultural village, where he finally met the Maori high priest known as "Theo".

The High Priest Theo was an old man over 60 years old, but he was still burly, with bronzed skin, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and long black and white hair, which made him very tough and strong.

With the help of a male translator and guide from the Cultural Village, Lin Fan explained his intentions, and High Priest Theo nodded yes.

Since High Priest Theo did not speak English, Lin Fan and his conversations were conveyed through a translator guide.

"Please help me ask the High Priest, what is the origin of this Io Divine Mask?" Lin Fan said to the male guide.

The male guide conveyed Lin Fan's question to High Priest Theo, and High Priest Theo took the Io mask in Lin Fan's hand and began to speak in Maori Aboriginal language, "He said, this is the mask of the god Io, which was ......made by Addo thousands of years ago to drive away the demons under the sea" The translation guide repeated a story similar to what Lin Fan had just heard.

"Who is this god Io? What is his origin? Lin Fan continued to ask.

The interpreter asked and asked High Priest Theo, and then said to Lin Fan: "High Priest Theo said that the god Io is the supreme god in this world, and he once helped us Maori escape a catastrophe. ”

"A catastrophe?"

"Yes, the high priest said that our Maori ancestors lived in this world for 10,000 years, but in the beginning we were not in New Zealand, but in the Pacific Ocean in a place called 'Hawaki', which is a mythical continent with a spring-like climate, fertile land, herds of cattle and sheep, and Maori ancestors lived a life of abundance. But one day when everything in Hawaki began to wither, the earth cracked, and the hot molten slurry poured out, and all souls were destroyed, a god appeared from the sea on a sacred cloud, and it told us that the ancestor of the Maori people, Hawaki, was about to sink, and that there was a new continent to the south of the sea, and that the only way to escape this disaster was to migrate there. ”

"So the Maori ancestors were under the guidance of this god, carrying food and water and rowing canoes to the vast sea, on the way to the stormy sea, and there are fierce and fierce huge sea beasts attacking, which can be described as extremely dangerous, but all this was dispelled by the gods with divine power, and the Maori ancestors under his protection, across thousands of miles across the sea, finally found a new land surrounded by green hills, sweet water and beautiful grass in the south of the sea, this continent is now New Zealand, in gratitude to this god, the Maori people called him ' 'Io', which means the supreme god in the world. ”

"Then may I ask the High Priest, did the god Io appear later?" Lin Fan asked the male guide.

The male guide talked with the high priest of Theo and said to Lin Fan: "The high priest said that the god Io has appeared many times in the long history of the Maori, and those Maori who went to sea have seen the miracles of the god Io, and the Maori people firmly believe that the god Io lives in the sea, and there is a sacred place of the god Io at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. ”

Lin Fan's heart was shocked when he heard this, and an unacceptable inference faintly popped up in his mind.

******

As the red sun sets over the mountains west of Wellington, the city is lit up with lights that illuminate the harbour's winding coastline.

After a day of playing, most of the people returned to the Urashima Maru boat, people had a relaxed and happy look on their faces, many people were on the deck while blowing a cool sea breeze, while watching the beautiful scenery of the Wellington evening, if Lin Fan was on the deck, he would find that the girl he had been waiting for was now leaning against the window of the central tower, looking at the fiery sunset on the horizon of the sea and sky.

Lin Fan stayed alone in his cabin, he was sitting on the bed with a monkey face mask, he stared at the mask in his hand, as if he was enchanted, and a thought kept echoing in his mind:

"The 'weirdo' I saw on the reef beach that day was Io ???!"

____________________________________________________________________ I wish you all a happy new year, and we will speed up the progress in the new year~!