Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

Chapter 371 Do you really hope that our relationship only lasts for six months?
Meanwhile, the girls were chatting.

“Ruri, sometimes I really envy you,” Eri Kisaki tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Although Kogoro always seems so carefree, at least he’s devoted to you.”

Ruri glanced at Kogoro Mouri not far away, then shook her head with a blush: "It's not as good as you say... Every time he sees a pretty girl, his eyes go wide, and he can't be pulled away."

“Kogoro is just looking,” Yukiko sighed. “He won’t actually do anything.”

"If only Onii-chan could be as devoted as Kogoro-nii-san..." Reiko muttered, secretly glancing at her brother in the distance.

"Hehe..." Ruri laughed awkwardly. As Eri's best friend, she naturally sided with her friend.

But with Yukiko and Reiko present, he could only swallow the words he wanted to say and force an awkward smile.

"Hey, stop talking to yourselves!"

Chikage Tomizawa raised an eyebrow, a playful smile playing on her lips, and gestured for Eri and the others to look at Shuichi Hayashi and Kogoro Mouri on the other side.

“I heard someone suggest to Xiuyi that he should bring you all here one by one, ring the Dragon Love Bell, and hang love locks.”

"It must be that idiot Kogoro!" Eri clenched her fists, her voice filled with suppressed anger. "All he does all day is come up with terrible ideas!"

“That idiot…” Liuli sighed, rubbing her forehead, her shoulders slumping slightly, her face full of helplessness.

Reiko's round cheeks puffed up with anger: "Onii-chan wouldn't really listen to Kogoro-nii-san, would he?"

Yukiko snorted coldly, crossed her arms, and tapped her slender fingers impatiently on her arms: "If he dares..."

The girl squinted, her voice as cold as ice.
"Don't even think about ever speaking to me again in this lifetime."

“If you ask me, that bastard will definitely listen,” Akane Koizumi scoffed. “He’s capable of anything.”

"Senpai probably wouldn't..." Midori Orikasa objected, but her uncertain tone clearly indicated that she herself wasn't very sure.

"Hmph, we'll find out soon enough whether he'll do it or not," Tomizawa Chikage raised an eyebrow. "Let's wait and see."

……

"Shuichi, are you sure you don't want to help?" Kogoro Mouri patted his chest and assured him, "At the very least, Ruri and I can help you take Eri away."

"Nari and I can help lure them away..."

Before Furuya Rei could finish speaking, he was hit hard on the head by Hayashi Shuichi.

"It's one thing for you to make things up, but don't drag Cheng Shi into it."

Cheng Shi, standing to the side, looked troubled, clearly unsure whether she should lie to help Lin Xiuyi.

Lin Xiuyi glanced at her friend and apprentice: "I know how to handle my own affairs."

Kogoro Mouri stroked his chin and said earnestly, "Have you thought this through? Don't end up not being able to keep a single one of them."

His gaze swept over the girls not far away, and he couldn't help but shake his head.

“Eri, Yukiko, and Reiko, none of them are easy to deal with.”

Furuya Rei rubbed his head, which was throbbing from the knock, and muttered, "Master, why don't you just pick one... that way you won't have a headache."

"What do you know?" Lin Xiuyi glared at his apprentice with annoyance. "Alright, you guys just watch and see how I handle this."

After saying that, he straightened his collar and walked towards Eri and the others.

"Brother Kogoro..."

Rei Furuya watched Shuichi Hayashi's retreating figure and asked uneasily,
"Master, can you really do it? Won't the mistresses..." He made a throat-slitting gesture.

Kogoro Mouri shrugged: "Who knows..."

He watched Lin Xiuyi's retreating figure, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"But Shuichi has been clever since he was a child, and he always comes up with some crooked tricks. Maybe he really does have a way."

……

Eri and the other two, because of Chikage Tomizawa's words, had been waiting to see what Hideaki Hayashi would do.

Seeing him approach, Reiko, being the youngest and most impatient, asked tentatively, "Onii-chan, shall we ring the 'Dragon's Bell' and hang a love lock?"

"A love lock?" Lin Xiuyi frowned slightly. "Are you sure you want to hang that?"

Eri Kisaki glanced at Chikage Tomizawa, then asked, "What's wrong? Is there a problem with the love lock?"

“I remember Lingzi said before,” Lin Xiuyi looked at her sister, “that hanging the love lock here, the lock that can’t be opened, symbolizes a love that will never be separated, right?”

“Yes,” Reiko nodded blankly.

“Look here,” Lin Xiuyi squatted down in front of the wire mesh with love locks hanging on it, and rummaged through the soil below with his hand, pulling out a few tattered pieces of paper.

"This is……"

Yukiko bent down and picked up a piece of paper. Sunlight shone through the thin sheet, revealing the blurry writing on it.
"May Taichi and Kari be together forever... This is a blessing card someone wrote before!"

“Yes,” Lin Xiuyi stood up, patting the dirt off her hands, “It was originally supposed to be heart-shaped and hung on these locks, but what about now?”

Eri Kisaki frowned as she looked at the fragments: "They must have rotted from being eroded by wind and rain."

“Perhaps because of the legend, there are a lot of tourists at the ‘Dragon’s Bell’,” Lin Xiuyi pointed around. “Just since we arrived, not counting Kogoro and Ruri, there have already been three couples hanging love locks on the barbed wire.”

"This tourist attraction has been operating for at least several decades, or even if we take a conservative estimate of just ten years,"

Lin Xiuyi's gaze swept over the densely packed locks on the barbed wire fence.
"Over such a long period of time, there must be at least tens of thousands of locks hanging here."

"But the truth is, all the locks here together only cost a couple thousand at most! What about the rest of the locks?"

“This…” Reiko blinked in confusion.

“They should have been collected by the attraction’s management,” Yukiko said thoughtfully. “Those that are too old or have lost their heart-shaped paper decorations should be collected by the management and then sold to couples who want to hang love locks.”

“That’s right,” Lin Xiu nodded. “When the administrator takes away the old locks, he will have to open them.”

His gaze swept across the three girls' faces.
According to legend, the opening of the lock means...

“The relationship breaks down,” Eri Kisaki added softly. “Couples who hang love locks on each other will go their separate ways.”

"Given Japan's weather, the locks here need to be replaced every six months at most,"

Lin Xiuyi gazed at the three girls with a sincere expression.

Do you really want our relationship to only last six months?

Eri, Yukiko, and Reiko looked at each other in bewilderment.

They wanted to hang love locks so that their love would be as strong and eternal as those locks.

But if, as Lin Xiuyi said, these locks symbolizing eternity are ruthlessly opened and replaced every six months, then what is the meaning of this prayer?
(End of this chapter)