Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 82 Return to Zero
At nine o'clock, Bai Shi returned to Yingmihua Apartment, the house he rented. When Bai Shi was about to open the door, his expression changed slightly...

The next moment, Bai Shi knocked on the door and said, "Hello, sir, there is a express delivery for you!" - This time, he bent down deliberately to knock and speak, acting like an ordinary person outside.

That’s right, Bai Shi noticed that someone had entered his house!

Although they are no longer in a "pair" and it is not that dangerous, but... after all, Shiraishi has been in the "pair" for five years, and some things have become second nature to him, such as clipping pieces of paper on his door and slightly turning the keyhole when leaving, in order to determine if anyone has followed and sneaked in!
but……

Bai Shi originally just wanted to test it out, but at this moment a sound suddenly came from the room!

"Here I come! Can't I sign for it in person?"

Shiraishi:……

Well, Bai Shi also recognized this voice!

As soon as I opened the door, sure enough...

"Huh?" Monobe Gina, wearing an apron that was too big for her, looked at Shiraishi at the door in surprise.

"Why are you knocking?"

"Why are you here?"

They both asked at the same time.

"I heard that you got a promotion today, so... I came to celebrate for you!" Gina pointed at Shiraishi with the spatula in her hand with confidence.

Immediately...

"Ah!" Gina exclaimed, turned around and ran back to the kitchen.

Shiraishi didn't expect that Gina would actually pick the lock and come in... He had no choice but to go into the house first.

"The celebration you meant is coming to my house to cook? And you even broke the door in!" After Bai Shi entered the house, he found that Gina was really busy.

"Don't worry, I'm very skilled and the lock is not broken!" Gina said in a comforting tone.

"It's not a question of whether the lock is broken or not..."

"How about... I treat you to a big dinner tomorrow? This is indeed the last chance. I will become an adult the day after tomorrow!" Gina said as a matter of course.

Shiraishi:……

Taking advantage of my underage status, he stole money to treat me to a big meal?
Bai Shi declined the "big meal" and asked, "It's already past nine o'clock...Does Dean Bai Shi know you're here?"

Gina is now staying at the Baishi Orphanage.

"I know. I told Grandma Shiraishi that we won't go back if it's too late." Gina answered fluently.

Shiraishi:……

"It's okay, I'll take you back later...By the way, how did you know I would come back at this time?" Bai Shi asked puzzledly.

"I don't know! Why did you come back so late?" Gina said, bringing out a small pot of beef stew to Shiraishi.

Didn’t he know that Shiraishi would come back at this time, he just kept stewing!
"Actually, I've already eaten... but I can have another small bowl." Shiraishi didn't want to eat at first, but considering that Gina had worked so hard to cook it, he could have a little more. After all, Shiraishi was used to eating only until he was 70% to 80% full.

And the remaining two or three points actually have the weight of an "ordinary strong man"!

Before going to bed, Shiraishi was planning to order a pizza delivery...

"Hmm? This is... beef stewed in red wine?" Shiraishi tasted it and was surprised that Gina was quite good at cooking. He had already prepared himself for it to be "very unpalatable" and "forced to smile".

"How is it?" Gina said, bringing over two bowls of rice, apparently with just this one dish.

"It tastes good, very good...Have you considered becoming a chef?" Shiraishi asked tentatively.

"I only know how to cook some time-consuming dishes, but I can't cook dishes that can open a restaurant." Gina seemed to have thought about it herself, but she was really not very good at it.

"Why did you come back at this time? And there are others celebrating for you?" Gina asked complainingly.

"Why do you talk like I have no friends… I just celebrated with my girlfriend!" Shiraishi breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily Ayako had asked him out to celebrate, otherwise he would have been mocked by her.

"Girlfriend?" Gina raised her voice three notches.

"What's wrong?" Bai Shi looked at her puzzledly.

"Well...Ayano is still a high school student!" Gina said immediately.

"Huh? Ayano? What's your relationship with Ujimina-san?" Shiraishi looked at her in confusion, and then complained: "And do you think Ujimina-san is too young? Aren't you also 17 years old? You are only half a year older than him!"

"That's different. I could support myself at the age of thirteen, so my social age is four. She just worked part-time to earn money for her studies, so she is at most half a year old!" Gina forced herself to calculate.

"Do you know each other?" Bai Shi heard it.

"Yeah." Gina just nodded and didn't say much.

"Should we arrange for you to go back to school?" Shiraishi was still thinking about Gina's future. "No." Gina said decisively.

Shiraishi thought about it. Gina dropped out of school in junior high school, which was different from the situation of Ujimina Ayano. There was no point in asking her to go back to school now. It was obvious that she was not cut out for school.

"Grandma Shiraishi said that she really needs someone to cook," Gina said at this time.

Bai Shi's eyes lit up when he heard this - indeed, Dean Bai Shi was old and could no longer do everything by himself.

"That's great... Then eat quickly. I'll take you back later. It's a good opportunity to see Dean Bai Shi." Bai Shi said, looking at the time.

"This is beef bourguignon! Can you still drive?" Gina said confidently.

"You've been cooking it for so long, how can there be any alcohol? Don't worry, my feeling is not wrong." Bai Shi was very confident. He could feel when he was slightly numb by alcohol. If he couldn't feel it, it wouldn't be detected by blood drawing!
Gina: ...

In the end, Shiraishi sent Gina out of the house before ten o'clock. After going to the Shiraishi Orphanage, it was almost twelve o'clock when Shiraishi returned to the apartment.

Originally, Shiraishi wanted to take a break. The next day was Saturday, so he didn't want to work overtime, but...

On Saturday afternoon, Bai Shi still received a call from the office!

It was Deputy Director Bichuan who called. Bai Shi was a little surprised when he saw the caller ID - Deputy Director Bichuan was a person with a strong sense of boundaries. Normally, he would not call him on his day off unless it was something serious.

"Hey, Deputy Director Bichuan, what happened?"

"Really...I know."

"Don't worry, just keep an eye on them first, I'll be there soon."

Bai Shi said this, and his expression became a little serious when he hung up the phone.

The four-day record of no homicides in Beika Town has been reset to zero!

This morning, a female corpse was found in the Beika Forest. Beika Town is so big that there is even a small forest within its jurisdiction...

Of course, this is not the point.

If it is just a common homicide case, unless the Metropolitan Police Department is eager to take the lead in setting up a special task force and the investigation headquarters is to be established in the Beika Police Station, there is no need for the director to be present during the investigation stage.

The reason why Bichuan called Bai Shi was because the suspect was urgently arrested in the morning. The identity of this suspect was not ordinary, and...

Although Akihabara was vague in her words, Shiraishi still understood it - because of this suspect, Akasaka and Section Chief Kunikida had some conflicts!
This surprised Bai Shi...

Akasaka is also a veteran detective, so how could he have such a big conflict with the “Chief of the Criminal Section”?
As for Section Chief Kunikida, Shiraishi could actually guess a little...

The reason that caused such a huge disagreement between him and his subordinate detectives must be... the rules!
Simply not cleaning the office would not cause a conflict between the two, but with Kunikida's 98-point [Principles], any search that violates the rules would not be allowed.

What puzzled Shiraishi was, Akasaka... when did this old guy become so brave?

Even if Kunikida is a bit rigid, Akasaka is already in his forties. He wouldn't get into a conflict with the section chief over such a thing in a fit of anger, right?
Of course, Bichuan didn't go out of his way to file a complaint. He contacted Bai Shi urgently, mainly because of the first reason - the suspect's identity was unusual!
Hiroya Yoshii is an unemployed young man, but... his father, Daijiro Yoshii, is a retired civil servant, and before retirement, he was a counselor of the National Police Agency.

It was for this reason that Bichuan Yin decided to notify the director immediately.

As for the counselors of the National Police Agency, some are "Superintendent" and some are "Senior Superintendent" - that is, some are the same as Shiraishi, and some are one level lower than Shiraishi!

But in reality, it can’t be compared like this…

After all, he is an official from the Police Department!
The National Police Agency and the Metropolitan Police Department are two different things. The Metropolitan Police Department is the police headquarters of Touto, while the National Police Agency is the highest department under the National Security Council that directly manages the national police and is the direct superior of the Metropolitan Police Department.

The other party's identity was indeed a bit sensitive. In order to know both himself and the other party, Shiraishi made a special call to Iwata in the car to confirm how deep the water of Yoshii Daijiro was...

"Hey, Iwata...it's a beautiful afternoon, I hope you have a happy afternoon."

"Stop talking nonsense and get to the point!"

When Iwata saw Shiraishi's number, he was sure that this guy must have something to talk to him about. At the same time, because Iwata was on vacation today and was not in the office, his speech was rather "informal".

"In the National Police Agency, there's a counselor named Yoshii Daijiro who has been retired for three years. Do you have any impression of him?" Shiraishi thought about the fact that he had just given him a gift yesterday, so he asked directly with confidence.

But what made Shiraishi uneasy was that Iwata was silent for a while - if he didn't know, Iwata would just say he didn't know, and if it wasn't a big deal, Iwata wouldn't be silent either...

"You... haven't you offended the police department again?" Iwata said after he paused.

"Is this old guy difficult to deal with? Does he still have his trusted aides in office?" Shiraishi could also tell that Yoshii Daijiro was not an ordinary retired civil servant.

"It's not a matter of cronies being in office! This old man... ahem, Mr. Yoshii has been busier in the three years since he retired than when he was in office. He was mainly employed as a consultant in some related institutions, responsible for public relations with the National Police Agency... you understand what I mean, right?" Iwata hinted.

Consultant, PR...

In other words, Yoshii is not retiring at all, but has changed his job to become a "political and business broker" in a "revolving door" style!
Bai Shi also had a headache after hearing this...

Shiraishi originally thought that the worst-case scenario was that the other party still had some old subordinates and some influence in the "Police Department", but who knew...

This is even more difficult to deal with than a full-time National Police Agency counselor who has not retired!
(End of this chapter)