Chapter 90: Chapter 89 42
“Hehe, did that scare you?”
The Big Face Cat, who had just had a sinister expression, instantly burst into a joyful smile and laughed:
“Look at your little courage! My dad was just like that before, ever since that research on the Cosmological Constant came out, he became all nervous and jittery. Whenever he went out and saw someone, he’d grab them, sweating profusely and trembling all over as if he’d been scared silly, mindlessly repeating that one sentence.”
“He’s scared quite a few kids in the neighborhood into crying… The neighbors had a lot of complaints, so my mom temporarily stopped letting him go out. Then he seemed to have realized something, and he became silent again, locking himself in his room, refusing to come out.”
“You’ve seen the numbers written on this wall, right? It’s totally the behavior of someone unstable… I really don’t know what those people in New Donghai City saw in my dad, to actually invite him to an academic forum there… It’s like the sun rising from the west.”
The words of Big Face Cat did not help Lin Xian relax.
So weird that it was completely incomprehensible.
The conclusion he could roughly guess was…
The Cosmological Constant was very likely the number 42, but what exactly this represented, what it meant, what its effects were? He had no clue at the moment.
Considering his father had been studying the book “Introduction to the Cosmological Constant” for a long time without anything happening, and then, not long after coming to a result, he was taken away by the people from New Donghai City, that was obviously not normal!
The goal of these people was clearly the research results, and it was very possible that they intended to silence him.
Moreover, for some reason, the act of calculating the value of the Cosmological Constant had a significant impact on Big Face Cat’s father’s mental state. After coming up with the number 42, his mental condition evidently became abnormal, like a lunatic.
Based on the situation at hand, Lin Xian could only come to these three superficial conclusions.
As for the deeper reasons… Lin Xian really had no idea.
“Brother Lian, where is that ‘Introduction to the Cosmological Constant’ your father has been researching? Where is the book kept?”
“It’s usually on the desk… I haven’t paid much attention, let’s look for it.”
The two began searching around the room.
But after a lot of searching, there was no sign of the book whatsoever.
Not to mention the book… not even a draft paper or worksheet was left behind. Everything related to the academic research had disappeared without a trace.
“That’s really strange… His room has never been this clean before, it was always a complete mess.”
Big Face Cat scratched his head, looking at Lin Xian:
“Since both the book and the usual draft papers aren’t here, it must have been my dad who took them, right?”
“Since he was going to attend the academic forum, he would have to prepare some speech materials and research findings, right? He couldn’t go empty-handed.”
That seemed to be the most likely possibility at the moment.
There were no signs of disruption or disorder in the house, which meant that Big Face Cat’s parents had left willingly and freely.
The situation in Cat Dad’s room was the same—while there were no books or worksheets, everything else was in order, with no signs of hasty searching, so he must have tidied up himself.
Additionally, before they left, they even gave the house keys to their neighbor, Master Wang… This showed that they too had been naive enough to believe the so-called “academic forum,” and had walked straight into a trap.
“Bro, I need to go make some slop, feed the dogs.”
Big Face Cat looked at Lin Xian:
“Are you planning to stay here a bit longer? Or do you want to come with me to cook the slop?”
“I want to stay here a little longer.”
“Sorry, Brother Lian, you’ll have to cook the slop on your own… My head’s a bit of a mess right now, I need to sort out my thoughts.”
“Hey! You scholarly types sure have a lot of quirks!”
Big Face Cat grumbled with disdain and went downstairs, his voice drifting up from below:
“Then you go ahead and be neurotic for a while… After I cook the slop, I’ll take you home on my motorcycle. My sister-in-law and my son are waiting for me to bring back some roast chicken!”
Soon after, the sounds of chopping could be heard from downstairs.
Lin Xian closed the door to the room.
He took a good, hard look at the bizarre room.
His gaze fixed on the myriad of mysterious numbers covering the walls, filling every nook and cranny…
If the universal constant calculated by Big Face Cat’s father really was 42, what special significance did that have?
In fact, the concept of a constant in mathematics is not unfamiliar within the nine years of mandatory education.
The constant pi, for instance, has an approximate value of 3.14
The gravitational acceleration constant, an approximate value of 9.8
The golden ratio constant, an approximate value of 0.618
Indeed, nearly all of the computational constants in mathematics and physics… are very complex, a mix of zeros and whole numbers that give the impression of being hard to memorize at first glance.
But the universal constant of 42, it just didn’t seem to be one of those.
Lin Xian was convinced.
If Big Face Cat’s father was such an accomplished mathematician, and he had calculated the cosmological constant to be 42, then this number must hold a very special significance.
The time when his own dream ended was 00:42, and the time when Professor Xu Yun was struck and killed was also precisely 00:42.
No matter how you looked at it, 42 was everywhere. It couldn’t possibly be a meaningless coincidence!
“42 has always had an extraordinary significance.”
Lin Xian sat down on the floor.
Resting his chin in his hands, he stared at the wall covered in 42s.
Close enough to see that within every crevice of each 42, there were even smaller, tinier, bordering on the limits of small, 42s.
If Big Face Cat’s father had simply gone insane… perhaps there really was no need for him to do this.
He could have just scribbled all over the walls, splashed ink around carelessly, without any concern for the size and position of the 42s, writing them anywhere.
After carefully examining the entire wall, Lin Xian made a startling discovery—
All the 42s, large and small, did not overlap at all!
Not a single pair of 42s was superimposed on each other.
Not a single pair of 42s had interwoven strokes.
All of the 42s appeared chaotic… but they strictly adhered to certain rules, principles, or perhaps, laws!
“This was not something Big Face Cat’s father wrote in a mad scrawl, he definitely wasn’t insane.”
A madman, a lunatic, shouldn’t be capable of writing each minutely detailed 42 in such a rigorous manner, ensuring none of them overlapped in any way.
There must be a message being conveyed.
There must be a secret hidden!
Lin Xian shifted his legs, narrowing his eyes, and stared intently at the wall before him.
He brought his eyes closer and closer and closer.
His eyeballs were practically pressed against the wall.
Focusing on the smallest 42, tucked into the corner of a brick seam:
“42… what secret do you hold?”