In the early morning, a 35-year-old man gets dressed and gets up in a hotel in the hot spring area of ​​Kyushu—the story begins with this mundane action. In everyday life, if something unexpected happens, the day is extraordinary; if nothing happens (although the underlying factors are not revealed), the day ends in a boring, monotonous day.Some of the factors of abnormal situation are latent in the person himself;The former is predictable and expected; the latter is completely accidental and unexpected.In ordinary life, these two factors are more or less intertwined. The man who got up and went to the bath was Nobuji Sangshan, a prosecutor from the Osaka District Prosecutor's Office.However, he didn't come to this hot spring in Kyushu because of his work-compared to the current name of X Town, Chikushi County, Fukuoka Prefecture, Musashi Hot Spring in the past is better known.His former boss, the prosecutor of the Fukuoka District Prosecutor's Office who had helped him, passed away due to illness. He came to Hakata to express his condolences.Sangshan Xin'er had a stomach problem and was very thin.

From the bathroom window, you can see the mountains towering in front of you. The morning sun in early April slanted on the hillside, the green grass sprouted buds, and the snow-white cherry blossoms bloomed at the foot of the mountain.This mountain is called Tianbai Mountain. Legend has it that in the past there were many pine trees on this mountain.In ancient times, Yingyuan Michizane was demoted to the nearby Dazaifu. In grief and indignation, he climbed the Tianbai Mountain, turned into a thunderbolt, flew into the capital from the pine forest, and killed Fujiwara Tokihei.This introduction is included in a "sightseeing guidebook" provided by Hanone Ryokan.

Sangshan Xiner looked at the plain Tianbaishan and walked out of the bathroom.I heard from a female poet in the hotel that today is Sakyamuni’s birthday, boys and girls have to line up to hold paper flowers and come out from nearby monasteries for a parade. Back in the room, the room has been tidied up. There are newspapers and teacups on the black table, and the small plums are covered with white sugar like frost. I opened the newspaper and just skimmed through a few paragraphs casually, when the waitress brought breakfast. "It's so naive. There are many people watching the cherry blossoms, right?" Sang Shan held the chopsticks and chatted with the middle-aged waitress.

"There are few cherry blossoms in this area, and not many people come to see them. When the plum blossoms are in bloom, there will be more people." The waitress said in Mandarin. "Well, the plum groves in Dazaifu are famous, and the plums you brought just now were also picked there?" "yes. "I heard that a procession of boys and girls came out to parade today. Is it a nearby monastery?" "There is a monastery at the foot of Tianbai Mountain. Even if you come out of that monastery, you will be served Changshan tea." "Shangchangshan tea, my mother took me to drink it once in the monastery when I was a child. I want to take a walk to the monastery to see it. How long will it take?"

"Thirty or forty minutes." "How about wearing clogs after dinner?" The maid stammered, "Two days ago, there was a murder case behind the monastery." The waitress said this, but she didn't know that Sangshan was a prosecutor, and the person registered in the accommodation register was a civil servant.It seems that she spoke such a sensational topic because she heard that the guests were going to the Buddha bathing meeting. "Oh, who was killed?" Professionalism remained untouched, he was a traveler now. "A 21-year-old girl, I heard she is pretty."

"What a pity! A native?" "No, from Imari, Saga Prefecture." "That place is quite famous for ceramics. The criminals caught it?" "Yes, I caught it on the spot." "Great!" "But, sir..." said the waitress, frowning, "the murderer is a mental patient. Poor girl!" Sangshan originally wanted to wear clogs, but finally changed into a suit.He crossed the hotel street and walked towards the sky and mountains along the field path.Cauliflower covers the field like a yellow carpet, surrounded by farm villages and some newly added small houses.

In less than 30 minutes, he walked to the end of the field, near the foot of the mountain.A narrow old-fashioned driveway ran across the front, and the path taken by Sangshan crossed the driveway and went straight to the foot of the mountain.The monastery is just behind the valley. This seems to be a Zen temple. There is a small mountain gate in the dense forest, and the words "No meat and wine are allowed to enter the mountain gate" are engraved on the stone beside it.It may have been a quiet place, but today it was crowded with people, and there were a few small stalls here and there.

Entering the mountain gate, there is an approach path made of rough natural stones, with grass growing in the cracks of the stones, shaded by cedar trees on both sides, and the ancient main hall with the forest on the mountainside as the background of the roof on the front. Boys and girls are gathered together.The girls with baby grids on their heads have white powder on their faces, eyebrows on their foreheads, and lipstick on their mouths, jumping and jumping happily.The white waistcoat is reminiscent of the government servant who appeared on the stage of Guan Yuan's secret practice.

At this time, a young man walked quickly towards the crowd of boys and girls. "Hey, the police are investigating the scene behind the monastery!" Hearing this, four or five young people ran over there. ——The body of the murdered woman was found by a monk in the monastery around 8:00 am yesterday.Behind the main hall is a bamboo grove. In the bamboo grove, there is a path leading to the meditation stone of Monk Kaiji. The corpse is lying on the path, and a 21-year-old bald young man sits next to him.He was wearing a shirt and blue work pants, smiling and beckoning to the monk.Taking a closer look, the girl in a dress had a thick straw rope tied around her neck, and her handbag was opened and dropped to the side. Her identity was known from the contents of the bag.

The arrested youth was a schizophrenic escaped from a mental hospital.The mental hospital is located on the edge of K Town, Saga County, 20 kilometers west of here.He was the second son of a farmer's family. He was tall and strong. Although he was locked in a single room at the root of the iron gate, the lock must have been loose, so he pried open the iron gate and ran out.The direction of escape was known, but no one had seen him that way, probably along the mountain. It is not clear why the murdered woman was active in such a place, but it seems that she unfortunately encountered a mental patient here.The schizophrenic seemed to be angry because he was hungry. He didn't eat rice all day long from the night he left, and when he met someone here, he thought it was to capture his enemy.Needless to say, the investigation turned up nothing.

The unfortunate girl was the daughter of a kiln householder in Imari. She was staying with her aunt in Saga Ernai and working as a clerk in a certain company. The hotel maid introduced these to Sangshan. Although the on-site investigation is currently underway, Sangshan has no intention of going to see it.He didn't want to introduce himself. It would be troublesome if the people who were investigating knew that he was the prosecutor of the Osaka District Prosecutor's Office. He looked into the main hall from the outside, and saw that the floor was made of bricks, on which were placed three red wooden chairs for monks to sit on; in the dim main hall, the golden Buddha statue shone in the smokehouse under the canopy.Although the temple is not big, it seems to have some origins. There were children's noises in the nearby temple kitchen, as if they were entertaining Tuchang Shancha.Sangshan walked over there. The Buddhist hall decorated with paper flowers is close to the corridor of the temple kitchen.The little Ka Tathagata raised one hand to the sky, his body was dripping with water, and the water pan was filled with tea from Shangchang Mountain.There were three women serving Tuchang Shancha to the children, but they often forgot what they were doing and gathered together to chat quietly, probably talking about the ongoing investigation of the murder scene. Sang Shan walked around the temple without going to the back.Being an outsider has nothing to do with it.The only cherry blossom tree was blown by the wind, and the petals fell to the ground. The procession of boys and girls set off. When he came to the mountain gate, Sangshan met unexpectedly with a group of people who had completed the on-site investigation. "Isn't this the prosecutor?" A middle-aged man in a suit walked up to him.Sangshan didn't know him. "I'm Deputy Public Prosecutor Yamamura. I met you at the farewell ceremony for the public prosecutor's body." "Ah, sorry." Sangshan met many people from the procuratorial system here at the farewell ceremony, so he didn't remember meeting him for a while. They stood and talked without knowing it.If it would be impolite to bid farewell indifferently and hastily, Sangshan had no choice but to socialize, not to inquire about the case. "It seems to be surveying the scene, it's hard work." "Well, yes. Are you walking?" "I'm staying in the hotel over there. I heard that there is a Buddha bathing ceremony in this temple. Come and see it. It's such an elegant temple!" He was trying to imply that he had no interest in the case.In fact, such intentions were superfluous, and the deputy prosecutor brought up the matter on his own initiative. "Yesterday morning, the body of a young girl strangled to death was found behind the monastery. The murderer was a schizophrenic patient. The case was very difficult. When this murder happened, even the Buddha bathing meeting was covered up from the very beginning. shadow." "Really sorry!" "For the victim, it was as if she had been in a traffic accident because she came here by accident." "What is the girl doing here?" "According to her boarding aunt, the girl likes to visit ancient temples. She used to visit the ruins of Kokubunji Temple in Hizen and the nearby ancient temples such as Kannon Temple and Kokubunji Temple on work holidays. So this time, she came to this temple alone. If it was earlier A little bit, go back before it's dark, that's fine." "When did you die?" "According to the autopsy results, the time of death was between 6pm and 7pm on the 6th." "It was dark. Did no one in the monastery hear the girl's screams or cries for help when the murder happened?" "It is said that there was no one in the main hall at that time, and people were making paper flowers for today's Buddha bathing meeting in the temple kitchen. The location of the murder was at the back of the main hall, a little farther away." "However, this place is so quiet, if you shout loudly, someone will definitely hear you." "The assailant is a schizophrenic patient, so the situation cannot be ascertained. I asked him to find out, but he was just talking nonsense for no reason....I guess, the girl was suddenly attacked by a lunatic, and she might not be able to scream. The lunatic may It turned out to be hidden in the bamboo forest. Today, during the on-site investigation, I found his hidden traces, which is near the scene of the crime. Because it was too unexpected, maybe the girl suddenly met the lunatic from the front, and she was so frightened that she could not scream Come on." "Is the murder weapon a rope?" I wanted to exchange a few words to settle the matter, but I didn't want to talk more and more deeply. "It's a straw rope. It seems to have been picked up in the nearby cemetery. The rope is not long, and it has been rotted by the wind and rain. It is really unfortunate for the victim." "Why is the madman holding that rope?" "Well, that's not clear. He's a lunatic. Maybe he picked it up randomly. A mental patient is like a child." "It's a disaster for that girl to meet him!" "We hate this case, too. The girl's father is very rich, and everybody says if she hadn't been sent to work, she'd have been locked up at home, and a better husband would have been chosen sooner." "Did she herself want to go to work in Saga?" "According to her parents, she doesn't like staying at home all the time, and they agreed to work in Saga for two years. She wants to pursue the freedom of a young girl, and her mood is understandable." "Does Saga have a good boyfriend?" Hearing that the deputy prosecutor said that she wanted to pursue the freedom of the girl, Sangshan asked about it. "Hearing from her aunt, there is absolutely no such thing, and the work unit also reflects that she is very decent." Unknowingly, the two talked for a long time. "Okay, see you next time." Sangshan said goodbye to the other party. "Goodbye!" The deputy prosecutor bowed his head and left. Sangshan returned to the hot spring area along the field path.On the main road over there, a procession of virgins and virgins was marching, and there were many people gathered. Back at the hotel, the maid brought tea to the room. "You have worked hard, how is it?" "Ah, thank you. After 20 years, I saw the Buddha Bathing Meeting again." "Have you had Shangchangshan tea yet?" "No, I didn't drink the tea." Sangshan returned to Dahan by train that night, and the murder case was never mentioned to anyone again.The interest is only a matter of that moment at that time, and the passage of time will be thrown out of the blue. There is nothing wrong with forgetting it in the back of your mind. It was originally a case heard during the journey and has nothing to do with it.Prosecutors have long been accustomed to handling various cases in a year, not to mention that it happened in Kyushu outside his jurisdiction. The longer the days, the deeper the forgetting.Sangshan Xiner sometimes went to see the play and enjoy the stage of "pull the cart".However, even though the Buddha bathing in Tianbaishan Temple comes to mind, the memory of the murder of the mentally ill has disappeared.