Chapter 42 Section 6

I had just climbed the stone steps when my phone rang.It's half flat. "How's it going?" "No, no. I asked the people in the library, and they said he left long before I got there." "I see. I'm sorry to cause you to make a trip for nothing! Let's stop here today! You go back and have a good rest." "I think so too. To be honest, I don't even have the strength to go back to Babao." I looked at my watch. It has been more than an hour since Banhei received the call from the library in Kobushicho. is there time……? I looked around the entire Hachiman Shrine.There should be a temple fair yesterday!However, the shrine has been tidied up very cleanly, making it almost impossible to feel the traces of a temple fair.If there is anything that has not been packed, probably only the flags are left!An old man was folding the canvas.I originally wanted to ask him if he saw the partition wall, but I thought it would be troublesome if he asked me who I was instead, so I gave up the idea.He approached the main hall as nonchalantly as possible, and then slipped in from the side.

I smell the grass, which I haven't smelled for a long time.I originally thought that there was not a drop of rain this summer, and everything in the world should have been so dry that it was about to burn!I didn't expect that as soon as I got close to the soil, I could still feel the moisture.Looking up at the slope, the mountains surrounding Xiaofu and Babao are all covered with green cedar trees.This is all thanks to the forestry policy.Only the mountain behind Hachiman Shrine, I don't know if it is because it is regarded as the domain of the gods, so there are some unknown trees mixed in.

I took out a folded A4 paper from my pocket.It was one of the pages of the semi-flat investigative report.I think it should be a map photocopied from the book "The Middle Ages Called the Warring States and Xiaofu" by Ema Changguang, and the location of "City in the Valley" is marked on it. From the Hachiman Shrine, you can reach the "Yanaka Castle" by walking straight eastward.Judging by the contour line, there are at least three connected mountains to the east from here. As long as you cross these mountains, you can enter Liusang Village.And "Yanzhong Castle" is located on the top of the mountain from the back of the Hachiman Shrine, then down, and then climbed to the top of the next mountain.In the north of it, you can see the symbols of two iron towers. Although I can't see them from where I am standing now, as long as I climb up the mountain in front of me, my vision will become wider, and I can grasp the geographical location more clearly. relative relationship!

I feel my heart beating faster and faster.Climbing up the mountain in front of me, going down again, and then climbing up the next mountain... There, perhaps a murderous tragedy is being staged.Can I prevent that tragedy from happening in time? I suddenly remembered one thing, the current situation is a bit similar to the morning before yesterday!It's somewhat similar, but not exactly the same. The morning before yesterday, I was looking for wild dogs that attacked children. Now, I went up the mountain to stop crime. However, the moods of the two times were very different.When looking for a dog, like GEN said, it was mostly based on my fatalism.Finding Watanabe Keiko was actually an unexpected gain, so I went to trouble with the dog in order to get close to Watanabe Keiko, at best it was just a means.Consequentially speaking, the dog did die because of me, but I don't feel regret or guilt.It might be a bit too much to say "necessary", but it is "necessary".To put it bluntly, it was just part of the job.

On the other hand, what I'm about to face next, I'm afraid...not afraid, it must be a murder.Although when I accepted the case of looking for Kiriko Sakura, I had already expected a certain degree of danger, and I was also mentally prepared to a certain extent.But I never imagined that I would have to confront a person who was determined to kill in such a hot summer, and it was still in the mountains.In other words, this matter is neither "necessary" nor "necessary", nor is it even within the scope of my job. However, I continued to climb. Katie Sakura, Tomotoku Kanzaki, Keiko Watanabe, GEN, and most importantly Kiriko Sakura, they took turns to wake me up from my deep sleep one by one.Those five days were longer than my previous six months.After I resigned, this is probably the first time I have acted based on the free consciousness of doing what I want.I want to prevent this murder from happening, maybe it's just based on the generally accepted social norms.After all, I am a person who has no ambitions and just wants to live in peace. I am a social creature through and through, so killing people is actually no big deal to me, as long as I don’t kill people, or people come to kill me. .Then why do I suddenly think that people can't kill people?Now is not the time to think about these things.

I only know that at this very moment, I am getting rid of the fatalistic arrangement. Right now, I only want to prevent two human beings who have never met before, or even said a word, from killing each other. Maybe it's because of my resurrection, as Xiao Zi said! I started to climb up the hill.Lush fir and oak trees blocked out the sun's rays. Suddenly remembered what I said - because we are also the relationship between the remnant soldiers and the defeated generals. When I first came back to Babao, I could almost be said to be a walking dead.Therefore, for Tongzi, who had a similar experience to mine, I also subconsciously classified her as the same kind of person.And the notebook I found at Sakura's house made my impression even deeper.What I saw in that notebook was a scarred Kiriko Sakura who could only be slaughtered.

but…… When I saw Banping's investigation report, I suddenly had a different idea.Banping introduced Jiang Ma Changguang's works in the report, and even photocopied the first section of Chapter 4 of "The Middle Ages Called the Warring States Period and Xiaofu" and pasted it directly.The following is Banping’s conclusion—according to the image of the medieval era depicted by Jiang Ma Changguang, people at that time did everything they could to protect themselves.After reading the entire Banping investigation report, I don't think that conclusion is just Banping's own unilateral speculation.Although I don't know what the historical position of these people is, at least in Jiang Ma Changguang's writing, these people are extremely powerful.

If this is the case, then it is impossible for Kiriko Sakura not to know that people in Yanaka will do anything to survive.They will never just escape, but will arm themselves and organize themselves, turn the steering wheel when necessary, and build bunkers to protect themselves well in normal times. If this is the case, then the content of the notebook is very unnatural.The self-image Kiriko drew in her notebook was very unnatural.I remember her writing like this—— ——I used to think that the people who built Mid Valley City were pathetic and pitiful people who only knew how to hide— ——In terms of being pathetic and pitiful, weak people who only know how to hide, I am actually the same as them——

——I can only hide my head and shrink my tail while trembling, while praying day and night for this turmoil to pass as soon as possible, what is the difference between me and them—— It's all nonsense!It was all a lie fabricated by Kiriko Sakura herself. Even if Kiriko was hurt by the wall, even if she was thrown into the abyss of disappointment, she would not be able to write such a thing. And when I found out that these were all lies fabricated by Kiriko Sakura, all the mysteries were solved. The wind was blocked by the trees and couldn’t blow in. Fortunately, the soil in the mountains still had the cold air from the night before, so it wasn’t unbearably hot, but there were still bead-sized beads of sweat on my forehead, which hadn’t happened for half a year. My fucked knee started to hurt as well, as if protesting my abuse.When I looked up, the top of the mountain was still far away. When I looked down, I could see the main hall of the Hachiman Shrine between the leaves of the cedar trees, which was closer than I thought.

No more hurry up.I took a deep breath.Climbing up the mountain in front of me, going down again, and then climbing up the next mountain... There, perhaps a murderous tragedy is being staged. Can I prevent that tragedy from happening in time? The tragedy of Kiriko Sakura murdering Ryotaro Mabi. Looking back at the chronological order of the whole thing, the point that feels unnatural at first is the closing and re-opening of the website "duplicate".As the whistleblowing website "Skynet Recovery" said, the closure of "duplicate" is actually very natural.Because Tongzi should not be so attached to this website that she is willing to endure inexplicable attacks and persist.If she gets tired of these provocations over and over again, she will naturally shut down the website.I can understand this.

The problem is that less than a month later, Tongzi opened the website again.And he actually left all the messages on the main battlefield that caused an uproar before. The webmaster of "Skynet Recovery" also said that the world would be peaceful as long as the message boards were cut down.I very much agree with him.Since Tongzi dared to shut down the site, why didn't he take the opportunity to cut down the message board? I used to think that it might not be the same person who shut down the website and opened it.But no matter how you think about it, it seems illogical. The stationmaster of "duplicate" should be Kiriko Sakura from the beginning to the end. And the way she handles turning off "duplicate" feels a bit off.She writes "this web page has been removed" on every page, perhaps to prevent people from using search engines to crawl the previous page inventory archives, but it is not useful to those who have already saved her web page No!What's more, Jianbi used to pick on her past speeches before, so this approach is even more useless to him! Even so, Tongzi took great pains to change every page to "this page has been removed". Why? I took a big step to climb up.Dead leaves and twigs were scattered on the ground.It is summer now, so these dead leaves should have fallen before last year!Moreover, they were all dried out in the sun. As soon as the hiking shoes were stepped on, they immediately shattered with a crackling sound. Tongzi deliberately left clues for Jianbi to find her. As long as "duplicate" exists for a day, the partition will be visible.Although Tongzi's own life may be exposed because of this, as long as it is confirmed that Jianbi is viewing this website, then Tongzi can use this website to send some kind of message to Jianbi. From this point of view, Tongzi's reason for reopening the closed website makes sense.At the beginning of April, Tongzi was so annoyed by the wall that she couldn't stand it, so she closed the website.At the end of April, Tongzi opened the website again in order to send some kind of message to Jianbi. In other words, during that month, something happened that made Kiriko have to send some messages to the wall. But what is it? In fact, it is not difficult to guess as long as we compare what happened later. I followed Jianbi to Babao's field and stayed here for two weeks.He said that Tongzi had stabbed the partition wall and it would take a month to recover.In other words, Tongzi's stabbing of the partition probably happened at the beginning of July. "Mantis" disappeared from "duplicate" after mid-June.Of course.Because after that, he was seriously injured and hospitalized.On the other hand, Kiriko asked Kanzaki to break up.In addition, Tongzi moved her household registration to Xiaofu at this time. So, it wasn't that Tongzi accidentally injured the wall. But Tongzi simply wanted to kill Jianbi but failed. In April, during the first shutdown of the website, Jianbi approached Kiriko and raped her.And kept harassing her after that.To be honest, I really can't imagine the hurt that Tongzi has suffered after talking about marriage with her boyfriend. Originally living a peaceful life, suddenly a big stone blocking the way appeared, and Tongzi had no choice but to pick up a knife to fight against him.Did it just in the process of this confrontation remind her that the people in the valley were also fully armed against the invaders? In order to lay the groundwork, Tongzi thought it necessary to leave some clues, so she reopened "duplicate". Judging from Tanaka's remarks, the reason why Tongzi's stabbing of the wall did not make it to the police station is not difficult to imagine that the conflict might have occurred in a confined space where only the two of them were present.Maybe Tongzi used "duplicate" to draw out the partition, but there is no similar description on the web archives, that is to say, the July incident may just be a sudden incident. However, whether it was sudden or premeditated, in short, the first assassination operation failed.The septal wall was injured in a month and could be healed.However, the way Jianbi handled this matter later convinced Tongzi that his persistence would intensify in the future. That's why Kiriko told Kanzaki that she wanted to break up. She has made up her mind that this time she must completely let the partition disappear from the world, and she also plans to return to society as if nothing had happened to continue her life.She didn't want to lose anything because of the partition, and she didn't want to give up the hard-earned things of half her life just because she was targeted for no reason. Therefore, she must prepare in advance, draw up a plan, collect tools.So she can't let Kanzaki go to her house, so as not to spoil her big event.Of course, she might just have no time to talk to Kanzaki. Then she uses "duplicate" again.In order not to know when she will be discharged from the hospital, she cleverly wrote down hints of where she would flee.Tongzi probably also read the articles she wrote on the website before, and found that the keyword "eight guarantees" was hidden in many places.Then she discovered that from the clue of Jiangma Changguang, in addition to Babao, the place name Xiaofu could also be derived.So on July 2nd after the attempted murder of Jianbi, she deliberately wrote an article that implied Xiaofu. Then she shut down the website, quit her job and rented out her apartment. What would Jianbi think when he learned of these situations? He must think so—Sakura Kiriko is scared to death of me. I was so afraid that I had to run away... right! He will definitely find Tongzi and ask her to pay the price of putting him in the hospital for a month.And Tongzi is sure that he will definitely do this!In order to avenge Jianbi, he will definitely find himself no matter what the cost.After reading the postcard written by Jianbi, and hearing from Tanaka about his behavior after he was discharged from the hospital, I also knew that everything was going as Tongzi expected. For Tongzi, the most fearful thing is to give up after chasing halfway through the wall!If he gave up halfway in Tokyo, or in Babao, then she would live in the shadow of the wall for the rest of her life.So Tongzi must try her best to avoid this kind of thing from happening. That's why she left her footprints everywhere in Babao.For example, I deliberately went to a coffee shop where clues appeared on the website to have lunch, went to a store that sells small things even though I had no fixed place to live, and the joy of meeting an old classmate in "Charing Cross" was probably pretended!Because she just needs someone to tell Jianbi the news that Kiriko Sakura is in Babao.Since the shopkeeper was someone who happened to know Tongzi, it would be great.The reason why she bought the doll with the red turban was actually her intention, although she may not have known where she had thrown the doll for a long time.It may be part of the inducement that she let all the letters be forwarded to Xiaofu! Next, Tongzi continued to leave footprints in Xiaofu.The postcard she sent to Sakura Keji was for this purpose.Don't say that Sakura doesn't understand what she means, even I am confused.But the wall is different, as long as he secretly opens the mailbox of Sakura's house and secretly sees the postcard from Tongzi...he can be sure that Tongzi has really returned to the Babao area. However, when things developed to this point, there was a change that even Tongzi could not have expected.That is, after Sakura Keji received the postcard, he came to me to help him investigate Kiriko's whereabouts. When I came to the wall in the Babao area, I found Tongzi's footprints everywhere, and I was sure that she really escaped to this area.So according to the induction of "duplicate" on July 2, 2004, I sneaked into Sakura's house secretly.The thing that replaced the ladder was placed where you can see it if you look for it, so it immediately inspired the partition.As long as he touched the second floor, he could find the smell Tongzi deliberately left behind, and then follow the smell of food to find the room hidden in the small attic.Then he would find Tongzi's notebook and see the fear that Tongzi had deliberately feigned.Although I don't know how perverted Jianbi is, but what Tongzi wrote in the notebook may be to stimulate Jianbi, making him bite her even more tightly.Maybe Tongzi never hid in this small attic at all, her intention was just to lure the partition wall, so her goal was achieved.That's why the date of the diary is not marked in her notebook, and it may be for this reason. ...Did Kiriko consider the safety of Sakura and his wife at that moment?Wouldn't she feel it was dangerous to lure a man who attacked her to her grandparents' house? If Jianbi dared to hurt Tongzi's grandparents, the evidence would turn into a criminal case, and Jianbi would have to live a life of desperation from then on. Then, although it is not decisive for Tongzi, it can be regarded as a successful strategy. It's just that Jianbi shouldn't have done this before he found Tongzi!Therefore, the safety of the Sakura couple should still be guaranteed to some extent.Of course, this kind of thing is not absolute.It must be a very risky move for Kiriko to choose Sakura's house as the place to induce the partition.After putting the naturalness of the script "fleeing to the grandparents' house in the countryside", the behavior pattern of the wall, and the necessity of luring him to the valley, Tongzi decided to gamble on the safety of the grandparents.As far as the result is concerned, she has won the bet. Therefore, Moribi learned of the existence of "Nakaya Castle" in the attic room of Sakura's house.But that's all, because he doesn't know where "Mid Valley City" is.But a serious person like him will definitely check it out!He will definitely stay in Xiaofu, he will definitely go to the library, and he will definitely borrow the books of the local historian Jiang Ma Changguang to read! However, even so, he still couldn't find "Mid Valley City". Because in Jiang Ma Changguang's works, only the book "The Middle Ages and Xiaofu Called the Warring States Period" mentions the exact location of "City in the Valley".But the most important book was borrowed. Who was it borrowed from? Needless to say?Of course Kiriko Sakura! As long as this book is in Tongzi's hands, Jianbi will not be able to find her for the time being.On the contrary, as long as she returns the book, Jianbi can find her.In other words, Tongzi can freely manipulate the partition to find her time as long as she reads the book "The Middle Ages Called the Warring States Period and Xiaofu". This is the reason why Tongzi wants to move her household registration.Because if you want to get that book, you have to move your household registration back. According to the remark written by Hanping on the survey report... Only residents with household registration in Kobushi Town or its suburbs can borrow books from the Madoshu Library in Kobushi Town. Tongzi moved her household registration back in order to borrow that book. But why did Tongzi choose Yanaka? Is it because of the convenient location?Is it because she has an absolute chance of winning there?Is it just because of this? Jianbi is coming, avoiding everyone's eyes and ears, and will appear in front of Tongzi.Just like when he was in Tokyo, he carefully avoided everyone's eyes and ears, and quietly appeared beside Kiriko. As long as it is for the bait of Tongzi, even in the remote mountains with few people, he will rush forward without hesitation.That's why he fell into the trap of "duplicate", fell into the trap of "March Hare", fell into the trap of postcards, fell into the trap of the diary in the attic room, and fell into the trap of "The Middle Ages and the Warring States". "Xiao Fu"'s plan... approached Tongzi step by step. And Tongzi was just waiting for his approach... kill him…… ... just bury it on the spot. No one will see, no one will know.Because the victim will take the initiative to avoid everyone's eyes and ears. Then she can start again, return to her normal life, and return to the job she regards as her vocation. Nothing is lost. I let out a long sigh and took the last step.Already climbed to the top of the first mountain. I stood on the top of the hill and looked downhill.According to the map, as long as you go downhill from here and climb up again, you can reach your destination.It's a pity that the front is covered by cedar forests, so I can't see anything.All in all, just go down first. What comes next is the main event, and it must be proceeded very carefully. Otherwise, maybe even I will be killed by Tongzi.