sleeping formula

【16】

Like drinking a cup of hot milk that stabilized the mood, Yinshi's sleep quality, which had been damaged for a long time, unexpectedly improved for the first time.He woke up and blinked, only to realize that the sun was shining on him through the glass of the window.The alarm clock in front of the bed shows [-]:[-], and today is Saturday, so there is no need to worry about rushing to work.The smell of fried eggs wafted from outside the door, Gintoki sat up, thinking that Hijikata, who was sleeping next to him last night, must have woken up early.

"Morning."

The color of the water-blue shirt and black hair soaked in the sun is a bit illusory, and the goose-yellow apron is decorated with bright red checks, matched with that rare, shallow smile──Yin Shi rubbed his eyes , taking such a gentle figure like Hijikata into his eyes.

"Ah, you came just in time." Tufang raised his head, "Take the bowl and chopsticks, my side is almost ready."

"Uh... Hijikata, although thank you, you didn't mention to me about eating at your place." Gintoki scratched his head in embarrassment.

"Indeed not, but it's not because you're here that I made it special, but it's the breakfast I planned to make today." Hijikata was still focused on the sauce, and replied slowly, "...It's just that I accidentally kept you here yesterday, Just make an extra serving, and eat it while it’s hot if you don’t mind? Ah, I forgot to have milk.”

Gintoki smiled and said "Thank you" again, and brought the beautifully colored fried eggs to the table.

"There are ketchup and mayonnaise. Choose whichever you like."

"Is mayonnaise with fried eggs right? It feels weird."

"Many people say that, but I think the taste is very subjective." Hijikata shrugged, "For me, mayonnaise tastes very versatile. Put the right amount or use the right way to match the ingredients. That's it."

"But there are always some dishes that are not suitable for mayonnaise, right?"

"Well, mayonnaise will always find its way."

Tufang took it for granted, and it was inconvenient for Yinshi to complain about it.It can only be said that the omelette looks really good, and the mayonnaise on top really gives the omelette an unexpected taste, but if you want to force mayonnaise on any ingredients, it will be difficult Imaginative.

"Did you often make it for Ginpachi before?" Gintoki asked curiously.

"No, he's busy and I'm busy too. And without him teaching me, I wouldn't be able to do it." Hijikata said, "But surprisingly, I can learn these simple things very quickly. As for desserts, I can't do it at all. .”

"You used to live together?" Yinshi asked again.

"No, at most, I went to his place in rare emergencies, or he came to my place for the night." Hijika picked up a piece of toast and dipped it in jam. People know about our relationship."

Earthwork slowly put the toast into his mouth mouthful, with a very elegant appearance.Gintoki likes the feeling that Hijikata gives people now, which is different from the work, as if he can really disarm and talk to friends.

"Is this your deliberate distinction between work and life?"

"Well, sorry? I didn't hear clearly." Hijikata was half a beat behind before looking at Yinshi, "You mean, is there a big difference between my work and my present?"

"You can say that." Gintoki thought for a while and nodded.

"I didn't make a distinction deliberately, but I naturally tensed up when I was working, and I usually relax a little and try to be myself as much as possible." Hijikata said, "Maybe it's because I like to separate public affairs from private affairs?"

"That's it." Yin Shi chuckled, "Then it would not be very wise for me to mention that stack of papers to you at this time."

"Yes! Papers! I was thinking about doing these things this morning and forgot." Hijikata patted his forehead, "Maybe we'll see how to move things there after we finish packing."

"Ah no, my original idea was to read it here first." Gintoki said, "We can even mark the parts that are worthy of research or discussion here, so that everyone can raise their opinions during the meeting and save some energy. .”

"That's a good suggestion, let's do it."

So, after the two finished eating and cleaned up the dining table and kitchen, they moved the paper to the study together.Hijikata turned on the light switch with a bang, instructing Gintoki to put the thesis materials on the slightly elevated wooden floor in the innermost area of ​​the room.

"That's the place where I read storybooks when I was very young. Later, most of the documents were piled up." Tufang explained.

"I thought this side would be as clean and tidy as the outside." Gintoki felt like a visitor, although he was originally a guest.

"During the processing of the case, materials will be scattered here and there as if explosives have been blasted." When the earthwork looked at Yin, "but there will be a certain order, and usually there will only be one important case in the room at a time."

"It was Aardman last time?"

"No, the last time was the Pauline Bank of America three months ago. I underestimated the Aardman case, and it wasn't included in the major case." The earthworker folded his arms in front of his chest, "In short, Now this room contains all my current information about Hashida Group and Yinghong Securities.”

"Does Shinsengumi's database also have all of these things?"

"Most of them are not, only the non-confidential parts are interoperable." Hijikata said, "The Shinsengumi database keeps official confidential information, which will not appear here; and most of it here is what I have collected since the university. The current information includes the evolution of dream science and the official documents of cooperation between Hashida and Tachikawa University.”

"That's it." Gintoki thought, "But there are at most 100 books here, what about the others?"

"There is a bookshelf next to the living room, and there is a library next door," said Hijikata.

"Library?" Gintoki asked.

"Yes, the library." Hijikata continued, "This family has about 500 books in total, right? There are about 250 original medical-related books, accounting for half of the total. It is the amount accumulated by my father and me. Now some of them are I have already moved to my new home, and I will look for it when I need it.”

Earthwork opened another door to the study.This door was the one leading to the library, and Tufang walked in leading Yinshi.

"The short ladder is there, you can use it later if you need it." Tufang pointed casually, "If you want to check the bibliography, turn on the computer in the study, and there is a simple system on the desktop, which I asked my friends in the investigation hall to help me write. program."

"Your home is really a small library!" Yinshi exclaimed, "Your father left this to you?"

"That's right. In the past, my dad still had a thick loose-leaf notebook. He used to write down the books in the library." Hijikata smiled. .Let's go, we should go back to the pile of papers."

After returning to the study, Tufang took a folding table that had been stored against the wall and placed it in the center of the study.The two pulled up their chairs and sat on different sides of the table.Yinshi first randomly picked a few books and flipped through them, but there was no point; then he randomly picked a few other books, which were not the same as what he was looking for; he picked another few books...

"Yinshi, did you pay attention to it just now?" Hijikata looked at Yinshi flipping through the books like this, and couldn't help but wonder.

"Yes, but those are not the targets we are looking for, so I flipped through them." Yinshi explained, "Although the subconscious and dreams are mentioned in it, they didn't go deeper into it, or touched the part of dream science."

"Let's put aside the books about the keywords of dreams and subconsciousness." Hijikata handed Yinshi one of the papers in his hand, "Maybe starting with the keywords you gave me related to postmodernism before, it will be better. There may be more gains.”

Yinshi nodded, sure enough, the earthwork's suggestion was correct at that time, and it might be helpful to dig up a few papers on "Forked Road Garden".Soon, Yinshi immediately picked out the key items in the five papers within two hours, and took notes side by side.

"Crossover, bifurcation, divergence, parallelism and fusion, these five groups of words can be obtained by summarizing Borges' novel." Yinshi pointed to the words on the note paper, "In the scientific research of dreams, has anyone ever studied related topics? ?”

"Let's think about it." Hijikata rested his chin lightly with one hand, "Besides Ginpachi, it's probably his teacher, McWesenhai, but this person has passed away, and the research content should be very early or even wrong. material."

"That might not work again."

Gintoki held his head, shoved himself back into the chair in frustration.

"Strictly speaking, we still have three weeks to prepare for Yinghong Securities' mission." When Hijikata patted Yin, "It counts as much information as we can collect, and the Shinsengumi is not just the two of us."

"You're right. For the time being, consider it as research on related issues, and you will be less concerned about gains and losses."

Yinshi stretched, got up and walked into the library.If you adjust your mentality to read books at Tufang's house to gain knowledge, then this environment is indeed a good place to read books.Gintoki casually scanned the bookshelves for topics he would be interested in, but it turned out that Hijikata, who came from a family of doctors, had a different appetite for books than he did.Leaving aside those books on professional subjects, Hijikata’s books include many financial and popular science books. These are the parts that Yin Shi, who likes humanities and art-related subjects, has no interest in. The only parts where the two have overlapping reading tastes are literature and philosophy.

Thinking about it, one accidentally missed the book in his hand, and the whole stack of thick hardcover books fell on Gintoki's feet. Accompanied by the dull "bang---" sound of the books, Gintoki couldn't help but I cried out in pain.

"What's wrong?" Tufang also came to the library when he heard the sound.Seeing Yinshi's pale face, he tried his best to suppress a smile and stretched out a hand, saying, "Can you still stand up?"

Gintoki tidied up the dropped books angrily, but seeing Hijikata smiling, he seemed not in such a bad mood anymore.Tufang also helped Yinshi squat down to clean up.However, they seem to have discovered a book that was not supposed to exist in this space.

"Sakata Moto's "Mathematical Philosophy"... When did my family get this book?"

Tufang pulled out the book from the second-to-last shelf of the bookcase suspiciously.

"No label? Then why put it here?" Hijikata murmured, then turned to Gintoki and asked, "Do you know this book?"

It's a pity that Yinshi was in a daze when he heard the author and the title of the book, and didn't hear Hijikata's question.The author of that book was Yinshi's father. It was originally just a compilation of philosophy lectures, and later it was officially published as a volume at the invitation of a friend in the publishing industry.In my impression, there used to be about ten books in my hometown, and my father also gave each of the two brothers a copy.Although Yinshi was not very interested in mathematics at first, the form of combining mathematical topics and philosophical issues made Yinshi more interesting, so he brought it to his new residence when he moved out of his home.

"Hijikata, can you see if there are any notes in it?" Gintoki said to Hijikata after recovering.

"Let me take a look..." Hijikata flipped through the book a few times, "No. And this book is specially wrapped in a book cover. It should be the protection of the book at home. I don't know how to make some destructive notes on the book, right?"

Yinshi was noncommittal, and began to check whether there were similar books nearby.Although I read it for a while, it seemed that there were no other books of the same kind, but behind the opening where I had just pulled out "On Mathematical Philosophy", I could vaguely see something like paper.He stretched out his hand to construct a small stack of papers from that thing, and found that apart from being covered with dust in the cabinet, the stack of papers still looked brand new, unlike the kind of paper that would turn slightly yellow after being placed for several years .

"The...internal documents of Yinghong Securities this season?" Gintoki murmured, "Will someone stuff this thing in a place like this?"

"Other information may be reasonable. The internal document is information that even the Shinsengumi has not obtained." Hijikata said, "Who released this? What is the purpose?"

Regarding that book, if Tufang didn't know the existence of this book, and there was no file created in the computer, then it could be sure that the book did not belong to Tufang or his father.In addition, the earth officials personally confirmed that the Shinsengumi did not obtain information on internal documents, so it is even more unlikely that it came from the investigation office, not to mention that this is the earth’s private residence. Unless the investigation office wants to frame it maliciously, it will do such a thing It doesn't make much sense either.

"Hijikata, do your parents come here often to see you?" Gintoki asked.

"Occasionally, but the last time was last Wednesday." Hijikata said, "They always notify me in advance when they come, so that I can tidy up the environment."

"Then when was the last time this library was sorted out?" Gintoki asked again, "The kind where everything was sorted out."

"The day before yesterday, after Aardman's mission was finished, I sorted it out." Hijikata finally couldn't help asking, "──Yintoki, can you tell me what you're guessing?"

"...I was just wondering if there are other people who might come in and out of this house besides you." Gintoki said slowly.

"Impossible!" Hijikata said loudly, "Except for my parents, me and—"

"Hikata?" Gintoki lightly held Hijikata's shoulder.

"Impossible..." Tufang shook his head violently, "How could he have been here?"

"I'm confused, Hijikata." Gintoki frowned, "What's impossible?"

"...the key." Hijikata said with a trembling voice, "In the third year of my relationship with Ginpachi, my parents moved out of the house in Roppongi. At that time, I gave him the key of this house and the access card of the building."

──However, if all possibilities are excluded, no matter how unbelievable the last one remains, it can only be the final answer 16.

"But in the seven years since he disappeared, the access card of the building has been changed twice, and the keys of this house have also been changed."

In the end, Hijikata himself took the lead in explaining all the riddles.

"Sakata Ginpachi...how could he have come back here?"

The author has something to say: (16) "The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning." - Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Four Signatures".