Chapter 9 Chapter 9 The Landscape in Numbers

Leaving the tram road and going down a gentle slope, this is the family.There are many houses nearby, all surrounded by bamboo or wooden fences.Yasuda's house is surrounded by dense wooden fences. It is a neat and elegant one-story house, which is indeed a suitable place for a sick wife to recuperate. Mihara rang the door bell.Inside, "bell-bell" rang.He tried to calm himself down.Such an interview might not be without difficulty. The door opened inward, and an elderly maid in her fifties appeared. "I'm from Tokyo, and my surname is Mihara. I'm a very close friend of Mr. Yasuda. I'm here today on business, and I'll visit my wife by the way."

The old maid bent over and listened carefully to Mihara's words, then turned around and went in to report. "Come in," said the old maid, dropping to her knees when she reappeared. Mihara was led to the back living room.The living room is about the size of eight mats.The sun shines in from the glass windows on the south side, and half of the room is brightly lit.A bed was set up in the sun, and the early spring sun made the bed sheets very clean. The pale woman half-rises from the bed to greet the guests.The old maid gave her a coat and put it over her shoulders.The color of the outer coat is white with red dots, which is in sharp contrast with the color of the person and the bed.Especially bright.Judging by her age, she was thirty-two or thirty-three years old.Her hair was loosely tied, and on her thin face, it seemed that she had put on a light makeup hastily for receiving guests.

"The first time I greeted you, I came very suddenly." Mihara said, "My surname is Mihara. When I was in Tokyo, I used to hang out with Mr. Yasuda. I passed by here on business today, and I came here to visit my doctor. I'm not very polite. Please don't take offense." He didn't take out the business card with the title of Metropolitan Police Department. "I really dare not do it. I am An Tian's wife. An Tian relies on your help." Yasuda's wife is quite beautiful.Big eyes, high nose bridge.Thin from cheek to chin, but not markedly morbid.His complexion is pale, his forehead is quite broad, and he can tell that he is quite wealthy at a glance.

"How is your health recently?" Mihara asked about her sick body.The words were very vague, and there was a sense of guilt in my heart. "Thank you. This is a long-term illness, and I don't hope to get better soon." The patient replied with a slight smile. "That's not the case. However, when the weather gets better these days, the body will also get better. This winter is a bit cold." "This place," said Yasuda's wife, squinting her eyes and looking at the sunlight on the glass window, "it's still warm in winter, it's said to be three degrees higher than Tokyo. That's it, it's also incredibly cold. It's only getting warmer these days."

Having said that, she looked up at Sanyuan, her big eyes were very clear. "Let me just ask, sir and An Tian are together, they always take care of each other." "Ah, yes, yes." Mihara replied vaguely.The situation is very embarrassing, and he has to prepare how to justify himself when he meets Yasuda in the future. "Really? I think An Tian needs your help." "No, no, I trouble him a lot." Mihara's forehead was sweating. "So, does Mr. Yasuda come here often?" He quickly changed the subject.The patient listened, and smiled slowly: "He's a busy man, but he still comes once a week."

This is exactly the same as heard from Yasuda. "The busier the better, of course, but I'm sorry for you." Mihara said while looking around the ward.On the horizontal table next to the bed, there are a lot of books piled up.It seems that the patient reads for leisure while sick.At the top you can see the literary magazines.There are no entertainment magazines, which is surprising.There is also a tall stack of books, the top one is a translated novel, and the books below are all about the same thickness, and some of them look like small magazines.I can't see the cover, so I can't tell what book it is.

The old maid brought out tea.Only then did Mihara feel that it was time to leave, so he sat on the chair and said: "It's impolite to make a hasty visit. Please take care." Yasuda's wife raised her eyes to look at him.Although the corners of the eyes are slightly old-fashioned, the eyes are extremely clear. "I really dare not take it, thank you." Mihara gave the gift of the visit, and she bowed on the bed to thank her.Only then did Mihara realize that her shoulders were indeed thin. The old maid sent to the door.When Mihara was putting on his shoes, he asked softly, nonchalantly, "Which doctor is seeing the doctor?"

The old maid replied casually, "Mr. Hasegawa in front of the Buddha." She also pointed the way. Mihara took the tram and got off in front of the Big Buddha.Just like when I came here, the elementary school students were noisy all the way. Immediately found Hasegawa Hospital, Mihara handed in his ordinary business card. The dean has gray hair, but it is neatly combed, and he has a big face with a flushed complexion.He put Mihara's business card on the table, and the two sat down facing each other. "I want to inquire about Yasuda's wife's condition." After Sanyuan Daoming came, the dean's eyes turned from the business card to Sanyuan:

"Is it business?" "yes." "Do you want to know the patient's secret?" asked the dean. "No, I don't intend to inquire about the secrets. I just want to ask about the illness of this old lady. A general chat would be fine." After Mihara said it, the dean nodded and ordered the nurse to fetch the medical records. "Her disease is pulmonary tuberculosis. It belongs to open pulmonary tuberculosis. It is a long-term disease and it is difficult to recover. She has been ill for three years, and the hope of recovery is very small. I have explained this to Mr. Yasuda. She is currently receiving injections. The new special medicine, I hope to keep it as it is." The dean said.

"According to this, are you going to sleep on the bed often?" "Sleep for a while, wake up for a while, it's still okay, but you can't go out." "Is it impossible to go out at all with this kind of illness?" Mihara asked. "No, it's okay to take a walk once in a while. She has a relative in Tangheyuan, and sometimes she just stays there for a night or two. It's okay to walk around like this," the doctor replied. "So, do you go to the doctor every day?" "Because there is no significant change in the condition, I don't go every day. I just go to see it every Wednesday and Friday. I sometimes go on Sunday afternoons."

Mihara found it strange, the dean said with a smile: "That lady is interested in literature. Ordinary patients like lingering sentences and Japanese songs, but that lady likes to read novels, and she even wrote some short stories herself." When Mihara heard this, he remembered the literary magazines and translated books he saw in the ward. "I also like to write some things. I compiled a thin publication with my friends. The wife also likes to read it. I went to talk to her about literature on Sunday afternoon. She wrote essays half a year ago." The dean got into a conversation, and asked if he would like to read the magazine that published the essay.Mihara replied that he would like to see it. "This is it." It turned out to be a magazine called "Nanlin", thin, about thirty pages.Mihara lifted the cover and looked at the catalog first. Under the title of "Landscape composed of numbers", the signature is "Ryoko Yasuda".Aha, only then did Mihara know that her original name was Ryoko.So he began to read articles on this strange topic. "Being sick in bed for a long time, I really want to read all kinds of books. However, most of the novels in the recent period are boring. Many of them only read one-third of the time, then lost all interest and gave up. One day, my husband Returning home, I forgot the train timetable at home. When I was very bored, I took it out and read it. Sleeping on the hospital bed, I had nothing to do with travel, but unexpectedly became interested in it. It is more interesting than crude novels. Outside I often go out on business, and I bought a lot of train timetables, and I seem to be very careful about the time. Who knows, they have other impractical uses for me in the hospital bed besides the actual network. The timetable lists the station names of Japanese stations in detail. After reading them one by one, I imagined the local scenery one by one.The station names of the local branch lines leave room for imagination.Toyotsu, Sakiyama, Yusuhara, etc. are the names of rural stations in Kyushu.Xinzhuang, Jingu, Yumu, etc. are the station names of a certain place in the northeast.Whenever I see Yusubara Station, the lush wooded countryside in southern Kyushu immediately comes to my mind; when I see Yume Station, I think of a small town in the desolate Northeast region.Therefore, whenever I have nothing to do, I open the train timetable, browse at will, and roam around in Japan, from north to south, at will. After this experience, my fantasy developed into the realm of time.For example, occasionally I look at the clock and it is exactly one thirty-six in the afternoon.I searched the train timetable for the name of the station where the train arrived at 13:36.The first thing I found was the Echigo Railway's No. 122 train arriving at Sekiya Station.It was also discovered that passengers on the No. 139 train of the Kagoshima Railway also got off at Akune.Train No. 815 stops at Hida Miyata Station and so on. That's it, the moment I pointed with my little finger on the bed, the trains all over the country stopped, and people got off and got on in order to pursue their own lives.As soon as I closed my eyes, I imagined all the scenes.In this way, I know the train time at each station on each line.The intersecting time of the trains is certain, but the intersecting time of the space actions of the passengers is accidental..." "Do you think it's interesting?" After Sanyuan finished reading, the dean asked.When he laughed, there was only a slit left in his eyes. "Only after sleeping for a long time, will you think of such a thing." "That's not it," Mihara returned the magazine absent-mindedly.He paid more attention to the sentence at the beginning of the article than Ryoko Yasuda, "My husband often travels on business and bought a lot of train timetables. He seems to be very careful about time." In an instant, he forgot the existence of the dean. It was already eight o'clock at night when Mihara returned to the Metropolitan Police Department.Section Chief Kasai hasn't come back yet. There was a telegram under the inkwell on the desk.Mihara thought to himself, the call back was really fast enough.He stood at the table and opened the telegram casually.It was a good guess. It was a call from the Sapporo Central Police Station in Hokkaido to answer his question. "According to Futaba Trading Company's Kasai News, Yasuda was greeted at Sapporo Station on January 21, and Yasuda stayed here on the 22nd and 23rd." Although half of the content of the call was expected, Mihara sat down in a daze. ——Yasuda indeed said so. There was a man named Kasai from the Futaba Trading Company in Sapporo who picked him up at Sapporo Station on January 21. He lived in Sapporo on the 22nd and 23rd. In the Marumono hotel in the city. Mihara took out a cigarette and lit it.There is no second person in the room, which is a good opportunity for imagination. The result of this call back was as expected, no different from Yasuda's explanation.From this, there is no flaw in him at all.Judging from this, Yasuda really arrived in Hokkaido on the 21st.On the evening of the 20th, Zuo Shan and Ah Shi died in love in Kyushu. On the morning of the 21st, the bodies were found.At this time, Yasuda was sitting in the express train "Towada" bound for Hokkaido.If not, it would be impossible for him to meet the man named Kasai from the Futaba Trading Company at Sapporo Station. However, Mihara's thoughts still cannot be separated from one point. Why did Yasuda take advantage of the four-minute ingenious timing at Tokyo Station to arrange a third witness who witnessed the departure of Sayama and Ah Shi?This purpose is still unclear.Although it is impossible to guess, Muji believes that during the two days from the 20th (that night: Sayama and A Shiqing died) to the 21st (that morning, the bodies were discovered), Yasuda's actions must be consistent with those of the Kyushu side. There is a connection, this is the view I insist on.Who knows, the reality is that Yasuda's actions are just opposite to Kyushu's.He did not go west, but went north. —Wait a minute.Although the direction is opposite, there is still something strange. Mihara lit the second fancigarette.Yasuda deliberately chose the opposite direction and left Tokyo, did he deliberately avoid people's sight?Isn't this the same as deliberately using the timing of four minutes? Thinking of this, Mihara took out an investigation report on Sayama from his pocket.This was specially prepared for him by Detective Torikai of the Fukuoka Police Station.The thin face and wrinkles at the corners of the eyes of Tokai Shigetaro, whom he had not seen for a long time, reappeared in front of his eyes unconsciously. Sayama and Ah Shi's death in love—Sashan and Ah Shi swallowed potassium cyanate—was at the pavilion between ten o'clock and eleven o'clock on the night of January 20.This is inferred from the autopsy report. Mihara searched repeatedly on the train timetable that had already been prepared. At the above-mentioned time, the express train "Towada" was speeding on the Joban Line. try again.The time when the body was discovered was around 6:30 am on the 22nd, when the train was leaving a station in Iwate Prefecture.If Yasuda took this train, he would be completely isolated in time and space from what happened on the Kashii coast of Kyushu. Mihara thought about this, and found that his method of studying train timetables was quite similar to that written by An Ri's wife in a magazine, and he smiled wryly. Yasuda's wife wrote that Yasuda was familiar with train timetables.Doesn't the so-called familiarity develop into proficiency? —Would that be the case.Was he using train time to prove his alibi? It's kind of fun to prove that I'm not there.Yasuda has confirmed that he is not in Tokyo.The proof this time is obviously to prove that "I did not go to Kyushu". Mihara picked up the telegram again, read it several times, and then played with it between his fingers.There is no grounds for distrust of telegrams.The actual situation is probably not different from what was reported in the telegram.However, this may only be the appearance of a building viewed from the street, and it is better to study it in detail from the inside of the building. ——Take a look at Hokkaido! If you want to find out the shortcomings of the building, you still have to be there and check carefully bit by bit.Starting from various situations, Mihara made final drafts one by one. The next morning, Mihara waited for Section Chief Kasai to arrive at the office and stood at his desk. "There's a call back from Sapporo." He handed the telegram to the section chief. The section chief read the telegram, looked up at Mihara and said, "It's the same as what Yasuda said." "correct." "Then, you sit down first." The section chief said in anticipation that Mihara was going to make a long comment. "I went to Kamakura yesterday, when the section chief was away." "Yeah, I saw the note you left." "I'm going to see An Tian's wife to see if An Tian's words are right. His wife really has a lung disease and is lying in bed." "According to this, Yasuda's words are fulfilled." "No, it's generally not bad. However, there is one more interesting thing." Speaking of this, Mihara mentioned the article written by Yasuda's wife that the doctor gave him to read, which mentioned that Yasuda was proficient in train timetables. "That's it, it's really worth noting." The section chief put his crossed hands on the table. "This shows that the four-minute time at Tokyo Station was intentional." "I think so too." Seeing that the section chief had the same idea, Mihara said enthusiastically. "Since Yasuda has deliberately arranged a four-minute witness, it gives people a strong impression that he played a role in the Sayama love death incident. This is the crux of the matter. Although we don't know what role he is now, but dare to I'm sure he must be a character." This sentence means that he has an intuition that Yasuda must have committed a crime in the love death incident. "That's right." The section chief immediately expressed his support. "So, I plan to go to Hokkaido once. Although Yasuda was going to Hokkaido on the day of the love death incident, I always thought it was suspicious. The report from the Sapporo Police Station is certainly credible, but I also think there must be another conspiracy. If If this ruse can be discovered, then the mystery of why Yasuda arranged for Sayama’s third eyewitness at Tokyo Station to set off can be easily solved.” After hearing this, the section chief didn't answer for a while, squinted his eyes and thought for a while before saying, "Okay. The matter has already happened, so we have to investigate to the end. From the director's side, let me persuade you." These few words were spoken hesitantly, which was very different from his previous style. Mihara had a big surprise and stared at the expression of the section chief. "Did the director object to the search?" "I can't say I object," the section chief said vaguely. "He thinks that since he is determined to have died of love, there is no point in chasing after him. These few words are not positive, so you don't have to worry, I'll try to persuade you." Section Chief Kasai smiled and comforted Mihara.