Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 379, Section 373: The Difference Between Veterans and Novices
A person's personality is not easy to change. In fact, once a person's personality is formed, it is unlikely to change much unless there is a sudden major change.

Kiyonaga Matsumoto is a frontline supervisor in the Metropolitan Police Department's criminal investigation division. Over the years, he has dealt with at least eighty to a hundred detectives.

Unless you're a specific detective, it's hard to gain recognition from Matsumoto Kiyonaga.

Who are these specific detectives? The earliest was Yusaku Kudo, followed by Saguru Hakuba, and then Kogoro Mouri and Ikumi Yata.

That's basically all the people involved.

Even before Shinichi Kudo shrunk, he mostly cooperated with Inspector Megure. Matsumoto Kiyonaga's attitude towards Shinichi Kudo was to turn a blind eye to his behavior.

From this personnel composition, it can be seen that the detectives that Matsumoto Kiyonaga can accept basically all have experience in the Metropolitan Police Department.

Ikumi Gunda was originally a coroner for the Metropolitan Police Department, while Kogoro Mouri was a former detective in the First Investigative Division.

As for Hakuba Saguru, he's the son of the Superintendent General of Police. How could Matsumoto Kiyonaga possibly target him?

Of course, they should be considered as one of our own.

As for Yusaku Kudo, although he doesn't have much to do with the Metropolitan Police Department, he is still a world-renowned novelist.

Moreover, Yusaku Kudo is good at interpersonal relationships; even if he solves a case, he will usually give the credit to the police.

Therefore, apart from a few insiders and close friends and family, the outside world can only judge Yusaku Kudo's reasoning ability based on the mystery novels he writes.

How could such a stubborn old man—or rather, a hardliner on detectives—suddenly change his ways?
The white bird is easy to fool.

Actually, it wasn't that easy to fool him; it's just that when Shiratori joined the company, Matsumoto Kiyonaga was already a manager.

An office of moderate size had already divided the two into two worlds.

Furthermore, Shiratori wasn't a detective, so naturally he didn't understand Matsumoto Kiyonaga's true attitude towards detectives.

It's really hard to understand the feelings of someone who experienced something firsthand, only by hearing about it from others.

The saying "Don't advise others to do good if you haven't experienced their suffering" illustrates this point.

However, Oogami Kisuke and Senma Kazuyo are not Shiratori. As veteran detectives, they naturally had to deal with Matsumoto Kiyonaga in the past.

The fact that he still has such a vivid memory of Matsumoto Kiyoshi suggests that their initial encounter was not pleasant.

So here's the question: Would Matsumoto Kiyonaga really choose to "bow down" to the detective because of his promotion?

This sounded like a myth to the two advisors, Oogami Shuzen and Senma Kazuyo.

It doesn't feel real at all.

After hearing the story of the "grudges and entanglements" between the detective and Matsumoto Kiyonaga, even Ryoma Hayashi had to admit that Matsumoto Kiyonaga's, or rather Binga's, transformation was indeed too abrupt.

It's not uncommon for Matsumoto Kiyonaga to seek help from a detective in order to get a promotion.

However, Binga should have limited the scope when issuing this order—for example, only selecting detectives with ties to the Metropolitan Police Department, such as Kogoro Mouri and Ikumi Gunta.

But then again, we can't really blame Binga for this.

These kinds of old, trivial matters are very difficult for outsiders to investigate unless the parties involved recount them themselves.

The task itself didn't give Bin much preparation time, so it's already quite good that he's done this far.

"So, are you two planning to investigate Manager Matsumoto now? Should I go and put in a good word with Shiratori?"

Lin Longma inquired tentatively, but outwardly showed no sign of it. Lin Longma and Matsumoto Kiyonaga didn't have much interaction, which meant that whether the two advisors wanted to investigate the current Matsumoto Kiyonaga or leave him alone was of little concern to him.

Therefore, Lin Longma now appears to be showing little interest.

So you're saying you can investigate, and I'll just watch the show. If you don't investigate, it doesn't matter to me either.

If this happened to Conan, he would definitely have to investigate it thoroughly.

The biggest difference between the old detective and the new detective is that, although they both have extraordinary curiosity.

However, the old detective can control his curiosity, while the new detective cannot and can only follow his instincts.

Every year, or every so often, a number of exceptionally talented newcomers emerge in the detective profession.

But how many of these dazzling newcomers will ultimately become seasoned, seasoned detectives? That number is very few.

Entering this industry requires talent; without talent, there's no way to succeed.

But once you get ahead, you have to rely on your willpower and personality.

If Gin had used cyanide instead of Drug A to kill Shinichi Kudo, or had simply shot Shinichi in the head, the Conan story would never have continued.

This is what happens when you can't control your curiosity.

Tokyo isn't a particularly large or small city. As the capital region of the entire country, Tokyo is certainly a place teeming with hidden talents.

A novice detective, basking in a dazzling aura, charges recklessly, dashing left and right. It won't be long before he runs into a brick wall.

Why did the media love to promote Shinichi Kudo back then? It was because promoting Shinichi Kudo could embarrass the Metropolitan Police Department.

This is political correctness in the press.

As for Shinichi Kudo himself, when he runs into some tough spot, it will be another media frenzy.

Journalism, kid!

Now, both Ooue Shuzen, who is in his fifties, and Senma Shigeyo, who is in his seventies, have achieved financial freedom.

They knew all too well that if Matsumoto Kiyonoga got into trouble, it wouldn't be a small matter. It was quite possible that both of them, those two "old codgers," would be in serious trouble.

What have they been striving for all these years? Isn't it just to live a more comfortable life?

Few people enjoy constantly striving, especially at their age.
They mentioned it to Lin Longma and that was it. As for whether Lin Longma intended to keep it to himself or tell Bai Niao, that was another matter.

That's something Lin Longma himself needs to consider.

As senior advisors to the company, they would naturally be duty-bound to offer their advice if Lin Longma needed it.

However, as two dutiful advisors, they would only analyze the pros and cons of the problem for Lin Longma, and would not guide Lin Longma to make a choice.

Can a consultant still be called a qualified consultant when they start trying to influence their employer based on their own preferences?
"Alright, I understand what you two mean. This is indeed a tricky problem." Lin Longma said to the two advisors with a wry smile, "I will consider it carefully, but I think it's better to keep things stable for a while."

After all, this case has really blown up quite a bit, don't you think?

In the end, the matter of Matsumoto Kiyonaga and Binka fell to Hayashi Ryoma, which left him somewhat amused and exasperated.

However, as Ryoma Hayashi said, the most important thing now is to catch the culprit. As for whether Matsumoto Kiyonaga is right or wrong...
We'll have to wait until the murderer is caught before we can talk about it.

(End of this chapter)