Chapter 7 Chapter Six

As soon as he passed the automatic ticket gate, he saw the other party.The man was wearing a green winter jacket and a hat with earflaps.Is it so cold here?Shusuke Qingjiang became uneasy.It's been a few weeks since I've been here, and it seems like it's officially winter here.Heavy snow fell in the metropolitan area yesterday. "Teacher, hello. You have worked hard." Isobe put his arms on both sides of his body and saluted respectfully.He wore thick glasses and his front teeth protruded slightly.When they met for the first time, Qing Jiang thought that the Japanese were like this in the caricatures drawn by Europeans and Americans.

"Thank you, I'm sorry to ask you to make a special trip." Hearing what Aoe said, Isobe opened his eyes wide and waved his hands vigorously. "Where is it? You are the teacher, it's our embarrassment to have you come all the way from Tokyo." "Where, this is also part of the work." "It's very kind of you to say that." There are a few shops in front of the train station, but almost all of them have their shutters down.Qingjiang heard people say that there is a large shopping mall not far in front, and locals go there to buy things.The situation in local villages and towns is similar.

Isobe's portable four-wheel drive is parked in the parking lot of the station.Qing Jiang sat in the back seat. "What happened after that?" Not long after the car started, Qing Jiang asked, "When I called last time, I heard that there was still no regularity to follow." Isobe in the driver's seat looked ahead and shook his head. "It's still the same. You can tell by looking at the data. The value is different every day. Everyone is annoyed and can't figure out what's going on." "You can't block the entire area, right?" "Yes, in that case, our village will be finished. How can we live on?" Isobe's voice was full of sorrow.

Qing Jiang sighed and turned his gaze out of the car window.The car had already left the town and was driving in a pastoral scenery.It will be up the mountain in a while.About forty minutes away from the destination. At the end of last year, Qing Jiang's research office received a call from the D County Police Headquarters, asking him to assist in the investigation. Qing Jiang was a little confused.The so-called investigation should be about what happened, right?But he didn't think he could help, he was just a scholar. But the other party said that this is probably not an incident, but an accident, so I hope to verify it.

The incident happened in Chixiong Hot Spring Village in the mountains of County D.A tourist collapsed and died while walking in the nearby mountains.It seems to be poisoned by volcanic gas, but there has never been a similar accident here before, so I want to ask him to find out the cause. Qing Jiang understood the whole story and readily agreed.This happened a few years ago in other hot spring areas.Hydrogen sulfide accumulated in a hollow formed under the snow, and the family accidentally stepped through the hollow, poisoning and dying.At that time, Qing Jiang also assisted in the on-site investigation, because he had studied the hydrogen sulfide gas production on this land. D county police probably felt that this tragedy was similar to that one, so they came to ask him.Qing Jiang's major is geochemistry, and he mainly teaches students environmental analytical chemistry.

Qing Jiang himself was also very interested in this, so he agreed to assist the county police.The day after receiving the call, he went to the scene. The scene is about a few hundred meters away from the area where the accommodation facilities are concentrated.After walking for a while along the climbing path leading to the top of the mountain, we turned into a beast trail halfway.The man fell by the stream. It was his wife who was walking with him who found the dead man.The couple left the hotel and walked here together, but found that they had forgotten the battery for the camera, and the wife went back to the hotel alone to get it.When she came back with the battery, her husband had fallen to the ground.

When the first responders arrived, there was a smell of hydrogen sulfide gas around the scene.But this is not uncommon in hot springs, where volcanic gases leak through holes in the surface. The main component of volcanic gas is water vapor, which also contains a few percent of toxic hydrogen sulfide.But usually these gases diffuse into the atmosphere and do not reach lethal concentrations.In fact, firefighters measured the concentration of hydrogen sulfide at the scene, and the highest value was only 0.001%.This concentration can only irritate the eyes. Hydrogen sulfide is heavier than the atmosphere and tends to accumulate in low places on the ground.The stream near the scene is indeed slightly lower than the surrounding area, and the windless state lasted for a period of time, so there is the possibility of gas accumulation.The deceased came here by accident, and if the concentration of hydrogen sulfide is high enough, it only takes ten seconds to lose consciousness.If you continue to inhale the gas after you are unconscious, you will die.

Qing Jiang stayed at the scene for a week, cooperating with local firefighters, police, and the government to investigate.But during this time, he failed to obtain sufficient data.In the end, I decided to spend a month getting data first, and then discuss countermeasures.The person in charge of collecting the data is Isobe.He is attached to the prefectural Environmental Protection Division and is a civil servant assigned to Akakuma Onsen Village. The car circled up the winding mountain road, and after about twenty minutes, it finally saw a small village. Among the houses that look like a period drama, there is a boxy concrete building.That's the meeting place, where the volcanic gas accident countermeasure headquarters is located.

Qing Jiang got out of the car and walked into the meeting place.In the middle of the room is a conference table with a few folding chairs.There are cardboard boxes piled up all around, and the boxes are full of various documents. "Sorry, it's a mess." Isobe said, putting a thick stack of documents on the table, "This is the data so far." "Let me see." Qing Jiang sat down and opened the file. There are several folded long strips of recording paper pasted in the documents, with thin wavy lines drawn on them.There are five sheets of recording paper, which are the hydrogen sulfide concentrations measured within 24 hours at five locations including the incident site.

Isobe made a pot of tea and put it beside Qingjiang. "How about it?" Qing Jiang sipped his tea while reading the records. "It seems that there are cases where it exceeds 0.002% in an instant. At points A and D." Even so, this figure is not high.For hydrogen sulfide to cause acute poisoning, the concentration must reach at least 0.07%. "Yes. However, not the site at point X. During this period, the site has not exceeded 0.001% once. And points A and D have only exceeded once, and have remained low since then. The time exceeded In less than thirty seconds, it quickly fell back below the safe value."

"That is to say, only at that time of day that the concentration at point X is increased by chance?" "Yes, that's why we have big heads. Although it is enough to designate the site as a no-entry area, what about other places?" Isobe's eyebrows frowned into a "eight". "For the record, the first month is extremely low. Did something happen?" "Ah, it's because of the snow. It's snowing in the first month." "I see. The vent of the volcanic gas is blocked by snow, right?" Qing Jiang couldn't help frowning his eyebrows.Can we only postpone the conclusion until after the snow melts?However, geothermal heat is also high in areas where volcanic gas occurs, and snowmelt occurs earlier.Considering the danger of gas trapped under the snow rushing out all at once, countermeasures must be considered from now on. "Can I go and see the scene again?" "Of course, I will lead the way." Qingjiang got into Isobe's car again and rushed to the scene.To be on the safe side, he also brought an oxygen cylinder, a gas mask and a portable concentration meter. They parked their cars at the entrance of the trail and walked on foot.The entrance was roped off with a no-entry sign hanging above it. Qing Jiang walked along the snow-covered mountain road while looking at the value on the concentration meter.The value is basically 0.There was no sulphurous smell in the air that the nose drew. After walking for a while, I saw two red cones on the side of the road, which were used to mark the fork leading to the accident scene.There are still footprints in the snow. Qingjiang followed Isobe to a fork in the road.The snow is not deep, but it is still very difficult to walk. When he came to the scene last time, the first question that came to his mind was, why did the deceased come to such a place?To this, the wife of the deceased replied, "My husband went the wrong way."They wanted to see a waterfall somewhere, but they couldn't find it. The husband stepped on this beast path by feeling.Until they found out that they had forgotten their camera batteries, they still had no idea that they were going in the wrong direction, thinking that the waterfall was just ahead. Through many unfortunate accidents, tragedy finally struck. The two quickly walked to the scene.A large plastic box was placed one meter above the ground, and inside it was an instrument for recording the concentration.This was set after the accident. Qingjiang looked at the portable concentration meter, the value was still 0. He raised his head and looked around.Because of the snow, the scenery here is completely different from a month ago.But the terrain has not changed, nor has the creek that flows nearby been buried by snow. Along the creek, the terrain is lower than the surrounding areas.There is a snowboard project called snowboard halfpipe, which is this kind of terrain.So, maybe the hydrogen sulfide produced somewhere was blown here by the wind and accumulated.But the problem is the retention time.This kind of terrain is well ventilated, even if the gas is blown over, it will definitely be blown away in the next instant. Unless the gas is blown by a light wind, the wind direction changes, and it stays here by accident.Then, the man came over—— "When the accident happened, the weather in this area was very stable, right?" "Yes, in that season, the weather was relatively stable." Isobe replied. Qing Jiang hummed and scratched his head. "It's so difficult." "What's going on here?" "The countermeasure meeting is at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning, right?" "Yes, in the meeting place, I plan to delineate the area where no entry is allowed..." Isobe glanced at Qing Jiang. At tomorrow's meeting, Qing Jiang must speak as an expert representative. "Anyway, let's go back to the meeting place first. Think about it while checking the percentage of volcanic gas produced." "OK." The two returned the same way, walked to the climbing path, and saw a figure in front of them. "Hey, who could that be?" Isobe muttered to himself. When I walked in, it turned out to be a young girl.Wears a hooded wetsuit and a pink nylon cap.She didn't do anything, just looked at the surrounding scenery. "Is it a guest of which hotel?" Qing Jiang said. "It should be. - Hey, girl!" cried Isobe. The girl turned around with a calm expression, without any surprise or timidity. She was younger than Qing Jiang expected, probably only ten years old, her expression was a bit serious. "What are you doing here? You can't enter here. Isn't it written that entry is forbidden?" Without any timidity, the girl looked at Isobe and Aoe coldly, and finally cast her eyes behind them. "Is that where the accident happened?" With a nasal voice. This question was asked suddenly, and Isobe's answer was a beat slower. "Since you know about the accident, you should know that it's forbidden to enter here, right? Well, go back quickly." He made a "please" gesture. The girl seemed to want to say something, but in the end she still didn't speak, and went down the mountain along the climbing path.Qing Jiang looked at her back and said to himself: "Who is she?" "Who could it be?" Isobe was also pondering. "Since they knew about the accident, they came here specially. They should not be purely curious people. Maybe they are the family members of the deceased." "Oh, it's possible. But if that's the case, I shouldn't have said that. Perhaps I should have taken her to the scene." "Maybe there is a reason for coming here. Mr. Isobe has met the wife of the deceased, right? What about the other family members?" "I haven't seen anything else." Isobe shook his head, "I've only seen his wife. As I said, she is a young and beautiful woman." "I've heard that too. It should be the stepwife." "The deceased is already sixty-six, but that lady, no matter how you look at it, is less than thirty. It shouldn't be her first marriage." Isobe said, as if he had discovered something, he clapped his hands, "That girl just now, didn't she?" The child of the deceased's ex-wife?" "Well, it's possible." "Then she is so pitiful. She probably wanted to see the place where her father died." "Don't take it too seriously, it's not necessarily the daughter of the deceased." "Haha, it's true." Isobe took a step forward, followed by Qingjiang.I thought I might be able to catch up to the girl just now, but I didn't see her shadow until I walked to the mountain entrance. "I didn't see that girl just now." It seemed that Isobe also had the same idea. "Maybe she came with a companion who was waiting for her in the car." "Ah, that's how it is. It must be like this." Isobe unlocked the car. Qing Jiang got into the car and looked at the mountain entrance.A straight mountain road, surrounded by trees, there is no place to hide. In his mind, the image of the girl holding her breath and hiding under the shade of the tree, waiting for him to go away.But he didn't continue to think about it.Even so, she must have her reasons.What's more, this is not a dangerous place that needs to be banned from entering. After confirming a few data at the meeting place, Qing Jiang made a copy, and then discussed tomorrow's arrangements with Isobe.After the discussion was over, he bid farewell to Isobe and went to the hotel where he will stay tonight alone.He made an appointment at the "Qianshan Hotel", which was the one where the deceased had lived.This hotel is the largest in the village, and he also stayed here during the last investigation. Qing Jiang walked to the door of the hotel and saw a familiar male waiter cleaning the entrance.The other party seemed to recognize him, bowed his head and greeted: "Hello, thank you for your patronage." Then he opened the sliding door of the entrance and shouted inside: "Madam, Mr. Qing Jiang has arrived." As soon as Qing Jiang stepped into the hotel, the proprietress greeted her with a smile on her face. "welcome." "I'm here to ask you to take care of me again. This time I'm staying for one night." "You are very busy, you have worked hard." The proprietress walked around to the inside of the counter and took out the hotel ticket. When Qing Jiang walked towards the counter, he suddenly noticed something and stopped.The girl from earlier was sitting on the sofa facing the TV, playing with her mobile phone. She also saw Qing Jiang, stood up unhappily, and went upstairs quickly. what happened?The proprietress is asking. "It's nothing... Does that young girl live here too?" "Yes, she arrived today." "Does she have company? Like family." The proprietress shook her head. "She came alone, she said she was a student, and she came out to travel by herself." "Oh……" If you are a college student, it is probably a freshman or sophomore.She looked less than twenty years old.Anyway, judging from the tone of the proprietress, she should not be a family member of the deceased. "Her friends lived with us before." "friend?" "It was a young boy. She showed me the picture and asked me if this person lived here. I remembered the person and told her, yes, he lived here. I asked her if she knew her, and she Said they were friends." Qingjiang said "hmm", picked up the ballpoint pen, and filled in the name and other information on the accommodation ticket. "However, you are really good." He said to the proprietress, "Do you remember all the guests who have stayed here?" "How is it possible? It's impossible to remember everything." The proprietress shook her hand, "The reason why I remember that guest is because I care about something." "What's the matter?" "The second week after he moved in, I saw him again, near the trail." "Well, then, he's been here for two weeks in a row?" "Yes. It seems that the second time is to live in another house. And, just the second day after I saw him, the accident happened." "Are you talking about the hydrogen sulfide accident?" The proprietress nodded mysteriously. "Anyway, it's because of this that I have an impression of that guest." "I see." That's no wonder, Qing Jiang understood. The next day, Qing Jiang got up at eight o'clock and went to the big open room to have breakfast.Compared with last time, there seemed to be fewer customers.After the accident was reported in the newspapers, I heard that many people canceled their appointments one after another.Maybe after a while, the guests will come back. Just after breakfast, the girl appeared.An outfit of jeans and a long-sleeved cotton sweater.Maybe it's because I don't have makeup, I look younger than yesterday. She sat obliquely in front of Qingjiang.The two looked at each other for a moment, and the girl immediately looked away. After dinner, Qing Jiang went to the big bath to warm up his body, and went back to his room.The table was full of materials. He looked at the data very late yesterday and still couldn't come up with any good proposals.Today's meeting can only be muddied by vague words.Isobe's embarrassed expression appeared in front of his eyes. At ten o'clock in the morning, Qing Jiang got ready and walked out of the room.While calculating the expenses at the counter on the first floor, he saw the girl again.She was carrying a hiking bag in her hand, and she was probably about to set off.Just like yesterday, she sat down on the sofa, put her mobile phone on the table, and moved her eyes to the TV without looking at Qing Jiang. On the other sofa sat a family of three, the child probably hadn't gone to elementary school yet, holding a plastic bottle in his right hand. The proprietress handed over the details of the accommodation expenses, and Qing Jiang took out the credit card from his wallet and put it on the counter.At this time, someone next to him said "ah", and turned his head to see that the woman who looked like a mother in the family of three was busy helping the plastic bottle up.The liquid in the bottle spread on the table, probably because the child knocked over the plastic bottle in his hand. Qing Jiang looked at the girl.She moved the mobile phone on the table to the side by about 20 centimeters, without looking flustered. The liquid was still spreading on the table, flowing towards the girl.The girl looked indifferent, just watching TV.If this continues, won't the phone get wet?Qing Jiang was a little anxious. But her phone was unharmed.The liquid stopped not far from the phone.However, if she hadn't moved the phone, it would definitely have gotten wet. Mother apologized and started wiping the table with paper towels.The waitress also came to help with towels.Probably because she felt that she was getting in the way to clean up, the girl picked up the phone. "Teacher Qingjiang." The proprietress shouted and handed him the credit card receipt. "Ah, I'm sorry." Qing Jiang hurriedly signed. Look at the watch, it is ten fifteen in the morning.There is still some time until the eleven o'clock meeting.It's better to go there earlier and discuss it with Isobe at the end. Qing Jiang greeted the proprietress and walked out of the hotel.On the way to the meeting place, he kept thinking about the girl.