Chapter 394 Are you biting the tires? (Chapter 394)

 Facts have proved that Boss Tiantu’s measures have had some effect.

—Ogami Heihachi, the editor-in-chief of Astronomy Magazine, looked at the unreachable phone call and thought of the bones in the mountains again, and his back felt hairy: "This is all such a mess, I won't accompany you anymore!"

 As he said that, he turned around and left.

Jiang Xia glanced at the ghost on his lap and did not stop him.

Sure enough, five minutes later, the editor came back in despair.

This time, his face was ashen and he gestured irritably: "The tires are deflated, all the cars!"

Xiaobai, who was lying on Jiang Xia's shoulder, was startled and turned to look at Jiang Xia: Did the master drive another puppet to bite the tires?

Jiang Xia pretended to adjust the clothes on her shoulders and pushed back Xiaobai who was looking at him in confusion.

Of course it wasn't him this time, it was obviously Boss Tiantu's fault.

 …

Phones don’t work now. Whether you want to call the police or leave, you need a car.

Rob thought of the truck he drove: "Our car is parked nearby and can help call the police."

The editor-in-chief regained his energy: "The truck must have more than one seat. Take me down the mountain. I don't want to stay in such an inexplicable place."

His subordinate Futakawa Hajime did not speak, but he also stood next to Robert, looking like he wanted to leave.

 Truck?…

Jiang Xia looked at the people who wanted to leave and the three shikigami on their legs - two for Rob and one for the editor - and then remembered that when she got off the truck just now, in order to prevent Rob from escaping, she threw it into the keyhole. A small piece of puppet clay, but did not stop it.

  They can't leave without stopping them.

  To be precise, no one can leave today until all the ghosts are picked up...

Of course, you know it, but you still have to show it on your face.

Jiang Xia then stopped them when they were leaving: "No. There is evidence of suspected death information next to the body - there may be the murderer of Mr. Kono among you. It's better to wait until the police arrive before leaving."

The editor-in-chief snorted: "I am innocent and not afraid of investigation. When the police come, just ask them to look for me at home. You have no right to detain people!"

As he spoke, he stormed off like a grumpy old man offended by an anonymous sender.

 The editor-in-chief is actually not afraid of the police. After all, a year had passed since he pushed Kono off the mountain, and he believed that he had not left any evidence that was sufficient to convict him.

So he was more afraid of the man behind the scenes who wrote an invitation letter and tricked him into coming here than the police who had to rely on evidence to come. Maybe that person was trying to avenge Kono.

　　Hearing this, Rob glanced at the editor hesitantly.

As a murderer who crossed a certain line, he vaguely saw that something was wrong.

But after hesitating for a moment, he left with the chief editor and editor.

—The police force is limited. If the editor-in-chief and the editor run away during the chaos, the police will have to disperse their efforts to search for the escaped person in order to find the murderer of Kono.

As a result, fewer police officers will be concentrated at the Spider Mansion, making it even more difficult to find the real culprits who killed Takeda Shinichi and Negishi Akio.

In addition, Rob planned to drive to the Spider Mansion and borrow a phone to call the police. Counting the time, Takeda Shinichi's body should have been discovered by now. If we go back now, we might be able to tidy up the scene while it's in chaos, further reducing the probability of being exposed.

 …

Haihara Ai looked at the three people who were insisting on leaving, and was a little worried at first.

But soon, she looked up at Jiang Xia, who was frowning slightly and seemed a little anxious, but actually didn't take any action, and she felt something was wrong.

...Although she had almost never seen Jiang Xia's beating scene, when Haiyuan Ai tried to communicate with several children and asked them not to be afraid of Jiang Xia and to be more enthusiastic towards Jiang Xia, she inevitably heard some things about Jiang Xia from the children. The fight... ahem, the deeds of bravery and righteousness.

If it were other detectives, there might indeed be nothing they can do to ordinary citizens who insist on leaving.

 But Jiangxia is different.

Haiyuan Ai always felt that if Jiang Xia really wanted to stop him, the two people clamoring to leave must be lying on the ground by now.

But Jiangxia didn’t move...

Haihara Ai looked to the side.

Seeing that no one was paying attention here, she couldn't help but ask Jiang Xia in a low voice: "Do you have other plans?"

Jiang Xia also replied in a low voice:

"No. It's just that what he said makes sense. I really don't have the qualifications to detain people."

Haibara Ai:"…"

 …Really, she doesn’t believe it.

after awhile.

Haiyuan Ai looked at the door and was not surprised to see the three people who went out to drive and came back in the same dejected state.

 She silently raised her head and looked at Jiang Xia.

Jiang Xia looked at the three people entering the door with a slightly surprised expression.

Haihara Ai rolled his half-moon eyes: Well, he has a little bit of the attributes of a drama queen, but it’s not a big problem. The detectives seemed to have somewhat similar habits. At least Jiang Xia had better acting skills than Conan, so there was no embarrassment... She compared it with the "Jiang Xia Observation Notes" in her mind. She felt that there was nothing to add, and she nodded secretly.

 The three people who came back all looked bad.

 Rob has been studying the car keys with his head down.

At this time, seeing other people in the hotel looking at them, he sighed: "The key can't be inserted. The keyhole seems to be blocked by something."

The editor-in-chief who was in a hurry to leave was livid: "It must be the person who deflated the tires!"

Hearing this, Rob's expression became ugly: "But our decision to drive the truck over to look at the stars was made on the spur of the moment..."

As he spoke, his voice gradually became lower.

 Because he suddenly realized that his decision to drive the truck out tonight was actually not a temporary decision, but had been planned long ago—in order to trigger the hanging mechanism and provide an alibi.

Rob couldn't help but wonder, could it be that his murder was secretly observed by some existence without knowing it?

Jiang Xia glanced at Rob's panicked expression.

In order to make this foreign friend stay nearby and not run into the mountains in the middle of the night, he thoughtfully helped solve this problem:

“Maybe the man behind the scenes has been observing the bones. After he noticed our appearance, he ran to do something with the truck... It’s really cunning.”

With that said, Jiang Xia relieved the maintenance of the little bit of puppet clay blocked in the keyhole - since Rob has confirmed that the key cannot be used, there is no need to spend murderous energy to maintain the puppet clay.

 …

 There is no way to leave and there is no way to make a phone call. There are no other places to stay around.

A group of people with different thoughts had no choice but to stay in this hotel for the time being. They planned to wait until dawn tomorrow and then walk to the nearest house to borrow a phone. They each returned to their rooms and remembered the death message left by Kono that the Young Detective Team had just told them. Everyone tried to place it in unison.

Three impromptu guests temporarily entered Dr. A Li's apartment.

Jiang Xia took six matches, four long and two short, and sat on the tatami in the living room to waste time. He successfully killed nearly an hour, and then exhausted himself, yawning while playing.

He spent the whole night picking up ghosts. Although he took a stick of ghost mint in the early morning to replenish his energy, it was now dark and he had to sleep again or take another stick of ghost mint to refresh himself.

But there's no rush yet. I'm just a little sleepy, not tired. Moreover, he was not busy solving the case anyway, so he just wanted to find a suitable excuse to slow down...

Beside him, Haihara Ai, a habitual offender who stayed up late, was also playing with the matches folded into four long and two short pieces on the table, simulating the death message left by Kono.

She also covered her lips and yawned from time to time, and yawning seemed to be easy to synchronize.

Hence, Huiyuan Ai soon noticed something strange about Jiang Xia.

 After yawning, she turned her head and stared at Jiang Xia doubtfully: "Are you sleepy?"

Haibara Ai remembers that Jiang Xia's schedule has always been very healthy. Except for sneaking out in the middle of the night a few times a month to run on the road with his younger brothers, other times he would go to bed early and live a healthier life than Dr. A Li - usually from the window of Dr. A Li's kitchen. It could be seen that the lights in Jiang Xia's room had been turned off before eleven o'clock.

When Jiang Xia heard his neighbor’s question, he supported his head in one hand and held a match in the other, and replied casually:

“I didn’t sleep well—I ran into Conan on the way here last night, and there was a murder case in the early morning, so I had to stay up all night.”

Haibara Ai:"…?"

The Young Detective Team also looked over silently.

Several real and fake children all had similar doubts at this time.

The Young Detective Team fell into deep thought: Judging from what was said just now, why does it feel like Brother Jiang Xia is treating Conan as the God of Death? Isn't this Brother Jiang Xia's own problem?

 …But having said that, Conan does always appear at crime scenes.

 No, wait, now Conan is clearly not here, but there are bones at the foot of the mountain...

 As expected, brother Jiang Xia has a bigger problem.

 Only Huihara Ai fell into a higher level of contemplation.

　　Although her thinking briefly synchronized with that of the Young Detective Team, because she knew more, she quickly remembered another thing.

—Before Conan became Conan, he was the famous detective "Kudo Shinichi" who often encountered murder cases.

I heard that at that time, Kudo and Jiang Xia were not very familiar with each other and had not had much contact with each other. Haibara Ai remembered that Jiang Xia rarely encountered murder cases before... In this way, Conan was indeed the bigger problem.

This time Conan is not here, but Jiang Xia encounters a murder case... It should be that he and Conan have just separated, and there is something bad about him. Well, like bad luck.

Thinking of this, Hui Yuan Ai subconsciously stretched out her little hand and patted Jiang Xia's back a few times as if dusting her off.

Then he looked at his sleepy look and asked: "Why don't you go to sleep for a while first? That death message... No one can leave it now anyway, and there is still some time before dawn. It will be the same if you read it after you fall asleep."

Jiang Xia shook his head. It’s different. There are three shikigami still clinging to other people’s laps, and it is estimated that there will be a new one later... He refused gently: “There are still puzzles that have not been solved, so I can’t sleep even if I want to. ."

"Hmm..." Scientist Hui Yuan Ai recalled what he thought when he encountered a problem, and nodded understandingly. Instead of trying to persuade him, he ran to the small refrigerator next to him and carefully selected.

 She first picked up a can of coffee.

 He hesitated for a moment, put it down again, and took out a carton of milk.

Although she could understand Jiang Xia's attitude of not wanting to sleep, forcing herself to drink coffee to wake up made her feel unhealthy and her efficiency was worrying.

　　It is better to replace it with milk.

Milk has some sleep-promoting effect, at least it is easier to fall asleep than coffee. Maybe after Jiang Xia drank it, he fell asleep thinking about the problem, and then woke up a few hours later and solved the puzzle and found out in a few seconds. The real murderer... This will not delay the case, and it will be good for your health.

The more Haihara Ai thought about it, the more he felt that this was very good.

 She nodded secretly, picked up the milk and went out. I'm going to borrow a cup from the store and a microwave.

 Walking through the corridor and passing the second room on the right, Haihara Ai accidentally glanced inside.

 Then he was startled.

—The door to the room was open a crack, but there seemed to be no one in the room.

She remembered that this was Futakawa Hajime's room. It was so late, Futakawa Hajime was not in the room, and he didn't lock the door. He seemed to have gone out in a hurry... What did he have to do?

Haihara Ai gradually became confused.

She hesitated for a moment, then let go, letting the milk in her hand roll to the door.

Then she followed over, pretended to pick up something, opened the door and took a look.

 The one-bedroom apartment of more than 20 square meters has an unobstructed view. There was indeed no one in the room and the curtains were closed.

Haiyuan Ai's eyes swept across the room, and finally stopped at the window - this window faced the mountain behind.

At this time, there was a figure walking swaying in the mountains... Nonomiya Etsuko!

…what happened?

 If it were a child who was more impulsive and eager to pursue the truth, that child might have opened the window and jumped out by now.

Although Haiyuan Ai is occasionally a little reckless, most of the time he is quite aware of things.

She did not alert the people outside, but picked up the carton of milk, ran quickly back to the room, went straight to Jiang Xia, and said quickly: "I just passed by Mr. Erchuan's room and saw that the door was open. There was no one in the room. Man—Looking out of the window there, you can see Miss Nonomiya walking in the woods."

Yuan Shanheye, who was napping on the sofa, was awakened by the sound. He sat up and looked at the little girl in surprise.

 Obviously he is only a first-grade child, but how can he be more skillful than her when reporting the situation...

Thinking about the situation just now, Yuanshan and Ye found that this child seemed to be very familiar with Jiang Xia, and they immediately understood.

 —It should be that Bu Shao and Jiang Xia encountered corpses together and were forced to develop this skill.

 …It seems that behind every high school detective, there is an innocent police tool that slowly transforms. Thinking of this, Yuanshan and Ye Momo touched their mobile phones and the "1" and "0" buttons that were worn away, and looked at Haibara Ai with the kindness of looking at their companions.

After Jiang Xia heard what Hui Yuan Ai said, he stood up immediately without any delay.

As he walked through the corridor and passed Futakawa Hajime's room, he turned his head and looked outside the room through the window.

Looking into the dark jungle, the figure of "Miss Nonomiya" whom Haibara Ai mentioned was no longer visible.

Moreover, after arriving at the front desk, a group of people discovered another strange thing.

 —Not only Futakawa Hajime and Nonomiya. Boss Tiantu and Gogami Heihachi also left the hotel at some point.

 Yuan Shan and Ye's faces turned a little blue when they thought of the empty rooms and the equally empty halls they had come all the way.

This scene where everyone else disappeared without noticing, leaving only her own scene, reminded her of a certain type of ghost story she had read before.

 (End of this chapter)