Chapter 20 Section 1

The day after the Pilatus murder, I was again in the car driven by the mayor.As in the past, it was Xiaolu who came to pick me up from the hotel, but she didn't tell me in detail, she just said "I want you to come with us anyway", and then let me go to the car parked by her father in front of the hotel. car. I asked about the destination, and the mayor just smiled and said "Hermitage." "Whose hermitage?" I asked again. "Of course it's mine. Sometimes I want to find a place to rest when I do this kind of work." "What's there?"

"This... you'll find out when you go, it's fun." A frightening smile appeared on the mayor's face. The car drove through the urban area, and I looked out the window at the rural scenery.After a while, the road became curved, and the car walked in an S-shaped route, and my body shook accordingly.Only then did I realize that there were high mountains on all sides, and there was a torrent of water below the mountain road.There are also small wooden bridges on the river. The surrounding scenery is very beautiful, it is a pity that the weather is not beautiful.The sky was gray, and the thick clouds were moving slowly together, as if there would be a gray rain soon.

Soon, the asphalt road broke, and the tires creaked against the potholes, moving forward slowly.Dense virgin forests come from both sides. Passing through the dim forest road, the field of vision suddenly widened.The light blue ground on the left extends in all directions. "That's a forget-me-not." Xiaolu, who was sitting in the back seat, said, "This area is a wetland." "Awesome." I watched engrossed, "This is the first time I've seen the forget-me-nots of Qunsheng." "It is said that it is a special variety that was opened earlier than ordinary forget-me-nots." The mayor said while holding the steering wheel.

"It's called Forget Me Not in English." Little Green continued, "It means please don't forget me. It comes from a German legend." "Oh." I nodded. "Forget-me-not" is the literal translation in English. "Dad, stop the car." The mayor hit the brakes. Xiaolu got out of the car, ran to the green field, picked a few flowers, and came back. "Look!" She showed me the flower holder on the handkerchief.A small yellow flower with a light blue center. Mayor Hino started the car and continued to move forward, but the car stopped after only a few minutes on the mountain road.There is no way ahead.

A European-style residence stands abruptly in front of it. "Okay, here we are." The mayor said as he got out of the car. When Xiaolu and I got out of the car, the two main doors of the house opened, and a bearded man and a thin middle-aged woman wearing glasses walked out.I remember this man, the gatekeeper of the memorial hall. "Oh, Mayor, you have worked hard." The doorman walked over rubbing his hands. "You worked hard too. Where are the others?" "Curator Tsukimura and Mr. Kibe have arrived." "Ah, yes, I'm sorry to keep them waiting."

The mayor opened the trunk and took out two bags, one was black leather and the other was patterned.Little Green took the patterned one. "Is this your villa?" I was confused and asked. "Not really. I heard that my father got it from a debtor. The transportation is inconvenient, and it is very old, and it is not convenient to live in. There is only one advantage. There are many rooms, suitable for secret use." The thin, middle-aged woman approached the mayor and bowed.She wears an apron embroidered with elephants. "long time no see." "Ah, Miss Fumi, are you okay?" The mayor said to her with a smile, then turned to me with a smile and said, "Miss Fumi is in charge of taking care of me here. Thanks to her living here, this house is not Rundown." Then he introduced to Fumi: "This is Mr. Tianxiayi I told you about yesterday."

"I'm Fumi, please take care of me." She put her hands on her knees and bowed in salute.I also replied "please take care of me". "He, do you know him?" The mayor pointed to the guard and said to me. "Well, I've seen it before." "Although I think it's a bit redundant, I still called him. It might be better to call all the relevant personnel." "Everyone involved?" "Yes." The mayor blinked. We climbed the stone steps on the front of the building, passed through the gate with withered flowers, and entered the house.The hall is high and leads directly to the second floor, and the innermost part is a spacious living room.

"It's so early everyone." The woman sitting in front of the fireplace turned to us and straightened her upper body.It is the curator of the memorial hall, Ms. Tsukimura, a doctor of archeology.Beside him was a stocky man in a suit with a mustache. "Sorry, the preparation time took a little longer than I expected, so I went to pick up Mr. Tianxiayi again." The mayor apologized to them. "Thank you a while ago." I said to Dr. Tsukimura. "I've heard all about these days. You are very capable as a detective." "Just by chance." While talking to Dr. Tsukimura, the bearded man kept smiling and looking me over from head to toe.At this time, he introduced himself: "My name is Kibe Masabun, and I work in news. It's just a local newspaper, and I don't have much reputation in the capital circle."

"I am number one in the world." "I know. I was talking about you with Mr. Tsukimura just now. You have such extraordinary reasoning ability, why do you want to be a detective? Applying this ability to other fields will definitely achieve great success. For example, stock trading." "Thank you, I'm very honored." I expressed my gratitude perfunctorily. Kibe greeted the mayor again.They seem to know each other very well. "Mr. Kibe is also a member of the Preservation Committee," the mayor said to me. "Then, all those involved mean..."

"That matter, the people involved in that matter." He appears to be referring to all those involved who might have been involved in the looting.In this way, it is likely that the person who will come later is also a member of the preservation committee. There are seven chairs with armrests in the living room.Count me and the mayor, and there are three empty chairs left.Xiaolu sat on the bench against the wall. "There are seven chairs in total, which are meaningful." Kibe said to me, "I heard that the number of chairs is the same as that of the Memorial Hall Preservation Committee. Is that right, Mayor?"

"Ah, it's also a game." The mayor quickly picked up the cigarette. "Stand up, Mr. Detective, and look over the chair." After hearing what Kibe said, I stood up and found the letters WED engraved on the chair. "Is that short for Wednesday?" I asked. "Wednesday refers to Wednesday (Wednesday means "water day" in Japanese. Monday to Sunday are respectively: lunar day, fire day, water day, wood day, golden day, earth day, and sunday.). This is the chair that Yuichiro Mizushima used to use exclusively." Kibe Then he stood up and showed me his chair, "THU is engraved on my chair. Of course, it is the abbreviation of Thursday. Speaking of which, what are the engravings on the chairs of Mayor Hino and Mr. Tsukimura? Don’t tell me you already know it. That’s right, Tsukimura’s chair is MON, and the mayor’s chair is SUN.” I glanced at the three empty chairs.They are engraved with TUE, FRI and SAT respectively. TUE should be the seat of Shunsuke Hida. "When I looked at the list of members of the Preservation Committee, I suddenly realized," said the mayor, "that if we took the first letter of each person's name, it would be arranged as moon, fire, water, wood, metal, earth, and day. I thought of this little game, for convenience and fun." "The names of the remaining two people are..." "Mr. Kaneko and Miss Doi." "I see." I nodded. It was by no means that someone with that name was on the committee for the sake of playing the game, it was just by chance.As unlikely as it sounds, this level of chance is not impossible in this world. Thirty minutes later, the other two also arrived.It was raining at this time. Kazuhiko Kaneko, who calls himself a cultural anthropologist, is known for his brown beret and pipe. "Most people can call me by my name when they see me." He said to me, "Because I am often on TV. Mr. Tianxiayi, don't you watch TV?" It's not that I don't watch it, it's just that I haven't watched TV in this world.I had to answer: "Barely not." "Really? Well, it wouldn't be inconvenient not to watch TV." Kaneko seemed annoyed that I didn't treat him like a celebrity. Naomi Doi is a technology reporter with short hair, perhaps to create a sense of intellectuality.Unfortunately, this objective was not achieved.This may be because I have always thought that intellectuals are very thin.And her body shape is the exact opposite.No matter which angle you look at, she is a kind-hearted middle-aged woman.Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. "It's my principle not to talk to people who don't have logical thinking." When she saw me, she said to me like this, "I heard that you have successfully solved two incidents recently, which were deduced through 100% logical reasoning. Did it come out?" "Well, I think so." She nodded repeatedly. "Looks like we can hit it off." "thanks." And just like that, everyone involved came together.