Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 368: Grand Escape Into the Sunlight (5)

Dragon Raja 3

The train car was empty, save for Lu Mingfei and Erii. Erii leaned her head out the window, looking around in excitement.

Coming to Meitsuji Town had been Lu Mingfei’s idea. Erii had said that anywhere beautiful would be fine, and Lu Mingfei had said, “I know a place. It’s very beautiful, but it’s far away. We’ll need a good car.”

So they had driven for four hours on the highway, crossing from Honshu to Shikoku, finally arriving at this seaside town.

“Sakura isn’t Japanese, is he? How would he know about such a beautiful place?” Erii wrote in her notebook.

“I’ve watched a Japanese drama before. This is a famous scene from that drama. I saw it a long time ago.”

“What’s the name of that drama?”

“Tokyo Love Story,” Lu Mingfei wrote carefully.

The southwesternmost county of Shikoku is Ehime Prefecture, and the ending of Tokyo Love Story was filmed here. Lu Mingfei loved that drama so much that he searched online for all kinds of information about Ehime Prefecture. Eventually, he found out that the final scene was shot in Meitsuji Town, Ehime Prefecture. The school and the station where the characters parted ways were real. He had always dreamed of traveling to Meitsuji Town and had done a lot of research. He knew that Meitsuji Town was a place that had grown because of its copper mines and that it had this tram tunnel. In the spring, the tunnel was bright green, like translucent jade. In the summer, it became a deep, rich green, so dense it seemed like the color would drip from above. In the autumn, it turned pale red, with fallen leaves from maple and ginkgo trees covering the tracks in red and yellow, so thick that even the railroad ties were hidden. In the winter, only the dense bare branches remained, circling the tracks like a postmodern art piece.

He didn’t dare tell Caesar and Chu Zihang that he wanted to come to Meitsuji Town. Traveling all the way to a remote place in Shikoku just for a drama seemed a bit embarrassing compared to something more typical like going to Akihabara to see cosplay girls.

But in front of Erii, he didn’t need to hide anything. Erii didn’t understand these things. Lu Mingfei could sincerely tell her, Tokyo Love Story is really great. When I watched it back then, I almost cried.

Erii wouldn’t think that crying over a drama was something embarrassing. She would just hold up her notebook and say, “It must be a very touching show.”

Lu Mingfei pulled out a handkerchief and gently covered Erii’s eyes. “When you take off the blindfold in a bit, you’ll see a very beautiful view.”

Erii nodded seriously, placing her hand in Lu Mingfei’s. The setting sun was red, and the slanting sunlight shone through the trees, casting rays through the open windows of the tram, constantly shifting on the old wooden seats. Lu Mingfei closed his eyes too, listening only to the clattering sound of the gears and tracks.

The mountain tram stopped in front of the stone Jizo temple at the mountaintop. Lu Mingfei led Erii off the tram, where a half-meter-tall stone statue stood in front of the station. In Japan, a stone Jizo is a small roadside stone statue of Buddha. The stone Jizo temple wasn’t a real temple—just a square meter-sized brick roof built over the statue to shelter it from the rain. With that small roof, it became the Jizo temple. Lu Mingfei placed the leftover rice ball he had on the stone Jizo’s altar and led Erii through the forest.

They walked along the old path miners used decades ago to enter the mountains for copper mining. The path was paved with uneven stones, and Erii, wearing high heels, was afraid of falling, so she rested both hands on Lu Mingfei’s shoulders. Lu Mingfei kicked away the overgrown wild grass and dodder vines, walking ahead. At the end of the road, warm sunlight streamed into the forest. The path led to an abandoned mine. To commemorate the mine that had once sustained the town, the residents of Meitsuji Town had donated money to build a small wooden temple at the mine entrance. Colorful carp streamers hung from every beam, and various porcelain dolls were placed under the eaves. This was a local custom—if a family in town had a boy, they would hang a carp streamer here. If they had a girl, they would place a porcelain doll.

“It’s exactly like what I read online,” Lu Mingfei said.

The mine’s tracks had long since rusted, and weeds grew between the railroad ties. They followed the tracks to the edge of a cliff, and Lu Mingfei helped Erii step onto a rock jutting out over the cliff.

Her dress flared like a lotus leaf, lifted by the mountain wind. Erii stood at the cliff’s edge in her high heels, tall and slender, like a young sapling. If Lu Mingfei gave her a hard push, this girl—the most powerful and dangerous Hybrid known, capable of easily destroying half of Tokyo—would fall to her death off the cliff. It was laughable. Such immense power was in the hands of a nobody like him.

But he didn’t like having this kind of power at all.

He placed his hands on Erii’s shoulders and said, “You can take off the blindfold now.”

Erii removed the handkerchief, and the setting sun flooded her vision like a tide. The giant sun was already touching the sea, and tens of thousands of tons of seawater gently lapped below her feet. The waves shattered into white foam against the black cliffs. The wind blew through the vast forest, which, from a distance in the twilight, looked like another ocean—an endless sea of trees in shades of crimson, their countless treetops swaying in the wind like rolling waves. The small towns and villages were scattered along the winding coastline, and Lu Mingfei pointed them out to Erii one by one, naming each town. Below them was Meitsuji Town, a bit farther was Sanzen Town, Tsukishiro City, and Matsunaga Town. Beyond that, Lu Mingfei couldn’t remember the names.

The town’s elementary school had long since been abandoned. The silent playground was empty.

The Ferris wheel turned slowly with no passengers. Compared to the giant Ferris wheels at amusement parks, Meitsuji Town’s Ferris wheel was a miniature, but in the setting sun, it looked larger, its massive shadow cast over the undulating forest.

On the coastal tracks, a yellow slow train rumbled past the deserted station. A white fence surrounded the station, with signs reading “Meitsuji X” and “Tokyo XXXXXXXX Entrance X.” This was where the final scene of Tokyo Love Story had been filmed, and for a time, it was a pilgrimage site for couples. That yellow train brought countless tourists from Tokyo, and Meitsuji Town quickly became a famous tourist destination. But now, the magic of that old drama had faded. Newer and more exciting shows dominated TV screens, and Meitsuji Town returned to its original, quiet obscurity. Who knew how long it would be before another nostalgic fan like Lu Mingfei came to visit—and this one wasn’t even Japanese.

Lu Mingfei placed the earphones over Erii’s ears and played Love Story Suddenly Happened by Oda Kazumasa for her. It was the theme song of Tokyo Love Story. Strangely enough, he had never downloaded any music onto his phone, yet this song had been there when the phone was sent to him.

Could it be that Lu Mingze also watched Tokyo Love Story? That kind of devil would certainly lose face in the devil world, wouldn’t he?

Lu Mingfei still remembered the song. Back in the day, he had memorized the lyrics by heart and learned how to sing it just by following the pronunciation.

“If I don’t know where to begin

Time silently slips away

Those words rise in my heart only to vanish without a trace

The rain is about to stop in this dusk that belongs to us alone

On that day, at that time, in that place

If I hadn’t met you

We would have remained strangers forever

I crossed the barriers of time and space to be with you

On that day, at that time, in that place

If I hadn’t met you

We would have remained strangers forever.”

Series Navigation

<< Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 367: Grand Escape Into the Sunlight (4)Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 369: Grand Escape Into the Sunlight (6) >>