Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 321 Qingzi: Do you want to be my slave?
Ocean Buoy, an agency of Interpol.

It is planned to be built into a global police network monitoring center to conduct facial recognition worldwide, track fugitives and find abducted persons.

An integrated all-age authentication and recognition system allows you to calculate a person's appearance at different ages and track them as long as you have a photo of his or her face.

The system has not yet been officially put into use, but the data used to train the model is the Japanese police surveillance network, so it can be used without hindrance in Japan.

Vermouth learned about the existence of the ocean buoy from Toru Amuro and found a way to sneak in.

He unexpectedly discovered Binga who was lurking there. After a fierce battle, the two formed a cooperative relationship.

During this period, Xuesong Qingzi had been out on a small scale, and her approximate location was soon exposed by searching with ocean buoys.

On Monday afternoon, Vermouth disguised herself as a police officer and conducted an investigation in the area. Around three or four in the afternoon, she found the hotel where Kiyoko Suzuki was staying.

When the door of the room was opened from the outside and Kiyoko Yuzumatsu suddenly saw "Megure Jusan" in the corridor, she was naturally surprised for a while.

But she did not try to resist or escape. Instead, she cooperated very well and invited Vermouth into the room, saying that she would answer any questions she had.

Kiyoko Xuesong has been staying in the hotel for two days, which is her home base.

In order to prevent ambushes, eavesdropping devices and other props in the room, Vermouth did not enter, but let Yuzuki Kiyoko leave with her and got into her car.

Then the body search began.

At that time, Vermouth was wearing Megure Jusan's face and conducting a detailed body search of a young girl, which was so obscene no matter how you looked at it.

But there was always a faint smile on Qingzi's beautiful face, naturally, as if she didn't care about anything that happened to her.

Compared to this moment, it was when Vermouth drove the car to a secluded place and tore off her disguise that shocked Qingzi even more, and her pupils shrank slightly.

Because Vermouth first asked her many questions as Megure Juzo, and she answered them one by one.

When Vermouth asked again about her true identity, she had much less room to maneuver.

"I'll ask again, what is your relationship with Shuiyue Yingsheng?"

Vermouth asked.

Facing the drunken sneer that gently curled up her lips, Qingzi lowered her eyebrows slightly, not knowing how to respond.

Kiyoko knew very well that once she was discovered by Vermouth, her future fate was almost doomed.

dead.

There is only this way.

If he truly betrayed Yingsheng and confessed everything between them, he might be able to live a little longer.

But what happens after that?

Can she find someone strong enough to rely on again?
Countless complicated thoughts slowly passed through her heart, and Qingzi's eyes gradually became indifferent.

Sorry, Hotaru.

Vermouth didn't urge her, but just tapped the steering wheel with her light pink nails. Seeing the change in Kiyoko's expression, a hint of amusement appeared in her eyes.

At this moment, Qingzi's cell phone suddenly rang.

A new email has been received.

The sender is Yingsheng.

Vermouth picked up her phone and opened the email.

——Qingzi, do you know that the place I am going to now is called Yueying Island.

——Moon shadow.

——I really want you to be by my side, Qingzi.

——Then I will play "Moonlight" for you on the top of the mountain tonight, and you...

——Dancing with my shadow, it feels like I’m not in the human world.

—Just like last Friday night.

At the end, a photo was attached, showing the vast sea and sky, with endless blue.

After reading the email, Vermouth felt that Mizutsuki Hotoshi's words were really corny, so she showed it to Kiyoko.

"Do you usually reply to him?"

“Sometimes, sometimes not.”

Qingzi finished reading the email and smiled softly: "Could you please reply to him for me? I don't want him to send me messages to bother me again."

Vermouth exited her inbox and found that this was the only record of communication between the two of them, and she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows.

"What do you want to reply to him?"

"Do you want to be my slave tonight?" Qingzi said.

Vermouth chuckled and looked at the email exchanges and Skype chat records between Kiyoko and other men, and found that this kind of conversation was indeed Kiyoko's style.

She thought for a moment and felt that there should be no special meaning hidden in this sentence.

And if Mizutsuki Hotoshii really gave up his relationship with Angel and rushed back to Tokyo to see Yuzukatsu Kiyoko overnight, I would expose this matter to Angel at that time. No matter how Mizutsuki Hotoshii explained, Angel would definitely be extremely disappointed in him.

In that way, wouldn’t your goal be achieved?

Thinking of this, Vermouth replied to the email, and Yingsheng's reply came soon.

——What can I get?
Kiyoko's voice was transformed into words.

—Are you stupid? Slaves get nothing.

After a short silence.

——I can also kill for you, Qingzi.

Qingzi only replied with two words this time.

--delete.

The email exchange ended here.

Vermouth vaguely saw something and frowned as he asked, "He said 'I can also kill for you', which means there are other people willing to do this for you?"

"Nakatani Fumizumi, you may have heard of him," said Kiyoko.

"What about Mizuki Hotaru?" asked Vermouth.

"We...well, let's just say we are enemies."

……

……

Vermouth later gave Kiyoko Suzuki to Binga, and she had no idea how she ended up in Gin's hands.

In the master bedroom of Ian Apartment 2602, Vermouth skipped the part about the ocean buoy and only told Xiaolan what happened after she found Xue Songqingzi.

She added at the end: "The earphones you took off earlier were used to contact Binga and to listen in on the torture scene. It was Xuesong Qingzi who told me that Mizutsuki Hotaru had a split personality and killed his parents. Mizutsuki Hotaru just admitted it himself. I didn't lie."

Although all of her people have been captured alive, Vermouth still doesn't want to give up her original goal.

Anyway, when it comes to throwing dirty water, verbal sparring is enough.

"This is just your one-sided statement. I won't believe it without evidence."

Xiaolan said calmly.

Vermouth was quite disappointed and sighed softly.

"I guess Xuesong Kiyoko is too naive. Mizuki Hotaru had already discovered where she buried the body and moved it secretly. And speaking of evidence, if you let me contact Gin, I can probably provide you with a recording of the interrogation of Mizuki Hotaru."

"We'll talk about that later. I need to know what Ying said, especially when he was conscious."

"Angel wanted to find out where he was? I guarantee you, he didn't mention a single place name."

"Just tell me." Vermouth had no choice but to tell all that Yingsheng had done.

When Xiaolan heard that Ai and June were no longer in the Mori house, she felt relieved, guessing that Hotaru was well prepared after all.

When Xiaolan heard what Yingsheng said before he was shot and fell to the ground, her eyes suddenly lit up.

——"I like Huskies and Alaskans, please, Mr. Officer."

Husky!
On Saturday night in the abandoned warehouse, Xiaolan saw the body of the Husky with her own eyes!

Combined with what Toru Amuro said earlier about hanging Hotaru up, the answer is obvious!
Xiaolan took a look at her mobile phone. The time was almost 3:30 in the afternoon, and the signal in the upper right corner was zero.

The police are not stupid, and when searching for suspects in an apartment, they will of course use signal jammers to prevent the suspects from contacting their accomplices and causing trouble for them outside.

In modern society, signal jammers are everywhere and everyone can use them.

It is said that most officials have devices installed at home, in the office, and in their cars to prevent eavesdropping.

Xiaolan stood up suddenly and walked out.

Vermouth quickly said: "Angel, the police are still surrounding us, how can you get away? And there are many codename members over there, you will die if you go there alone!"

Xiaolan chuckled: "I do want to do something, but I'm not impulsive enough to do that."

She found a drawing board in the study, wrote two lines of large characters on it, returned to the bedroom, stood far away, and pointed it toward the balcony.

[Abandoned warehouse area, smell of blood]

[Seeking help, Huaying hopes]

Seeing Xiaolan's actions and the words on the drawing board, Vermouth's heart sank suddenly. It seemed that her previous guess was correct.

Angel has companions outside to support him!
As for Binga, I’m afraid his fate is not going to be good now!
Snapped--!
There was clearly no sound, but when the familiar red dot hit the drawing board, Vermouth still had a hint of auditory hallucination.

The red dot disappeared instantly and reappeared.

It disappeared again, then reappeared, moving to the left, drawing a short line.

Xiaolan was stunned for a second, then realized that this must be the other party conveying information, so she quickly stood aside and wanted to write it down with a pen.

But he was stopped by Vermouth.

"This is Morse code, E, A. Angel, move aside and don't block me."

After hearing this, Xiaolan stood on the other side, but was still recording. What followed were three dots and dashes.

“Easy.”

Vermouth gave the answer.

Her tone was quite complicated: "Have all of us been fooled by Shuiyue Yingsheng again? How did he do it, and what is his purpose?"

Xiaolan turned the drawing board over, painted all her words black, and started drawing on the side.

"I don't know. Maybe it's a sting operation. He seems to like doing this."

"Did Xuesong Qingzi let us find her on purpose?"

"Who knows."

In fact, Xiaolan tends to believe that it was not the case. The discovery of Xuesong Kiyoko was purely accidental, and everything that happened afterwards was mostly just Hotaru's improvisation.

What Vermouth overlooked was simply those few emails.

Dancing with shadows, just like last Friday night?
But Xiaolan knew that last Friday night, Hotaru went to Shizuoka Prefecture to retrieve the magnetic disk that Ai had mistakenly sent to him. How could he have played the piano and danced with Yuzuki Kiyoko under the moon?

Even if you come back in the early hours of Saturday morning, it can still be called night, but...

I think Ying said that he can't play the piano.

Even if this was just a humble remark, Xiaolan still felt that there was a big problem, especially with the question asked by Xuesong Kiyoko.

—Do you want to be my slave?
I always feel like this is some kind of strange code.

Have they said something similar before?

"Angel, what are you drawing?"

After looking at Xiaolan quietly for a while, Vermouth asked.

Xiaolan turned the drawing board towards her.

Vermouth looked at it and found that it was just some simple dots and lines. The first dot was slightly larger, and the rest were very small. They were all quite repetitive, forming a rough spoon shape.

"The Big Dipper?" she asked.

"Do you think it's possible for stars to fall to the earth?" Xiaolan asked.

This fairy-tale-like question made Vermouth slightly stunned, but soon she smiled gently: "My dear Morning Star Angel, haven't you fallen?"

"I said something more permanent... never mind."

Xiaolan shook her head and scribbled all over the drawing board. After a while, she tore it off, crumpled it into a ball, went to the kitchen, soaked it in water, mashed it up, and threw it into the trash can.

"Angel, you are really cautious."

Vermouth said.

Xiaolan didn't comment, took a chair from the tea table on the balcony and sat down next to the bed.

"I have nothing to do now, so tell me the information you know. All kinds of information are needed."

"Mizuki Hotaru is mentally ill. Do you agree with this, Angel?" Vermouth still cares about this the most, and she knows that Xiaolan is the same.

"In modern society, everyone has some psychological problems." Xiaolan said something Yingsheng said in the past.

"He's not ordinary."

"I think it's okay. He sees things more clearly psychologically than most people in the world. At least he's much better than me."

“Knowing doesn’t mean you can do it.”

"That's right...how did you join the organization? Do you want to go back?" Xiaolan changed the subject.

"I was adopted by Boss when I was very young. He can almost be considered my adoptive father."

Vermouth did not dwell on the past, although she did not understand her Angel's thoughts.

Three-legged frogs are hard to find, but two-legged men are everywhere, so why should you be so generous to a bastard like Mizuki Hotaru?

"Then why did you betray the organization?" Xiaolan asked.

Vermouth chuckled: "Just think of it as a normal father-daughter relationship. And if you guys hadn't suddenly appeared on Friday, I wouldn't have been exposed after killing Shirley and going back."

Xiaolan frowned slightly: "Friday? What happened on that day? How come I don't know."

"Alas, Angel, I have already become your prisoner, are you still on guard against me like this?"

"What other bases does the organization have in Tokyo?" Xiaolan continued to ask.

"The ones I know of have all been abandoned."

……

……

The conversation between Xiaolan and Vermouth lasted for quite a long time. After all, the police did not withdraw until around six in the evening.

Before that, just as Xiaolan had expected, the police came back for another check, and probably found nothing after that round.

There is no doubt that their second round of search in Shuiyue House still yielded nothing except for witnessing some blushing and heart-pounding scenes.

What made Vermouth quite regretful was that this time Kogoro Mouri did not go upstairs, let alone enter the room.

Less than three minutes after the signal interference in Ian Apartment disappeared, Xiaolan received a call from Yingsheng on her mobile phone.

"I heard that someone is ruining my reputation thousands of miles away?"

(End of this chapter)