Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

The old man's words made Lin Xiuyi's heart skip a beat.

"You picked up that teacup I broke, didn't you?"

Takeshita Matsufumi smiled, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes crinkling together.
"I broke it for two reasons: first, I was afraid you wouldn't notice it when you cleaned up and would give it to other guests; second, I wanted to remind you that the cup was poisonous and that sending it for testing would prove that what I said was true."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the bulletin board by the playground, where photos from last year's sports meet were still posted.

“I should have turned myself in last night, but I wanted to give the students one more lesson and take another look at the school.”

The old man's voice was filled with relief.

"Now that your wishes have been fulfilled, it's time to accept your punishment."

The wind rustled through the camphor tree leaves.

Looking at Takeshita Matsufumi's calm profile, Lin Xiuyi suddenly realized that the old man's focused demeanor during the morning class was not a pretense; it was a teacher's final farewell to the podium.

And that statement, "A student's primary responsibility is to study," was perhaps also something he was saying to himself.

The school bell rang in the distance, its sharp sound shattering the afternoon tranquility.

Takeshita Matsufumi straightened his slightly hunched back, as if he had unloaded a heavy burden.

"Let's go, take me to the police station."

……

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department building appeared particularly solemn under the gloomy sky.

Lin Xiuyi pushed open the heavy glass door and led Takeshita Matsufumi into the First Investigation Division's office.

The cold air from the air conditioner, carrying a strong smell of smoke, hit Lin Xiuyi in the face, causing her to hold her breath.

He stopped a passing detective: "Is Inspector Samezaki here?"

The detective's suspicious gaze lingered on the white-haired Takeshita Matsufumi for a few more seconds.

“The inspector is in the conference room.” He pointed to the end of the corridor. “What’s he doing here…?”

“Turning myself in,” Lin Xiuyi casually explained, while Takeshita Matsufumi, standing beside him, maintained an unsettling calm throughout.

The meeting room door was ajar, and Inspector Samezaki was discussing something with several detectives.

Upon seeing Lin Xiuyi, he raised an eyebrow in surprise: "Lin-kun? Shouldn't it be class time now? What are you doing here...?"

“Inspector, this is Mr. Takeshita Matsufumi, a teacher at Teitan High School, and also the school’s academic director,” Lin Xiuyi took a deep breath. “I brought him here to turn myself in.”

The meeting room fell eerily quiet.

The documents in Inspector Samezaki's hand fell onto the table with a thud, and his pen rolled onto the carpet, leaving a glaring blue-black ink stain on the beige wool carpet.

"Confess?" Inspector Samezaki's voice trembled slightly. "For what case?"

Takeshita Matsufumi took a step forward.

“Ichikawa Eisuke of the Shimadzu Group,” the old man said clearly, recounting the events simply, “I arranged to meet him at an izakaya last night, and took the opportunity to put poison in his teacup. He should be dead by now.”

Inspector Samezaki frowned. He gestured for the other officers to leave first, and only spoke after the door closed: "Do you know what the consequences will be for saying this?"

"I am certain."

Takeshita Matsufumi took a small brown bottle from the inside pocket of his suit and gently placed it on the table.

"This is the remaining poison, cyanide. You can examine the fingerprints and compare the composition."

Lin Xiuyi noticed that Inspector Samezaki's Adam's apple bobbed.

The veteran detective picked up the bottle, held it up to the light, and suddenly let out a strange chuckle. He then pulled a stack of documents from his briefcase and pushed them towards him.

“Interesting… Take a look at this first.” Lin Xiuyi took the document, turned to the first page, and Ichikawa Eisuke’s autopsy photo came into view. His pale skin was covered with bruises, and his left chest was sunken out of shape.

"The deceased suffered multiple fractures throughout his body, including three comminuted fractures of the ribs, a spiral fracture of the right femur, and a fracture of the tibia..."

Lin Xiuyi read the report aloud, her voice growing softer and softer.
"The cause of death was drowning, but he suffered a severe impact before his death... possibly a car accident?"

"Where's the poison?" He looked up abruptly.

Inspector Samezaki shook his head: "The initial assessment was that it was a traffic accident, and no toxicological tests were conducted."

Then, he picked up the landline microphone.

"Denmi? Ichikawa's body is still in the morgue, right? Perform another autopsy immediately, focusing on the stomach contents and blood samples."

After hanging up the phone, an eerie silence fell over the office.

Takeshita Matsufumi was stunned by the news of the car accident: "Ichikawa was in a car...accident?"

“According to the autopsy, he did not die from poisoning, but from drowning,” Lin Xiuyi said softly. “He was probably hit by a car and fell into the river and drowned.”

"Haha... karma!"

The old teacher let out a breathy sound that sounded like a cry or a laugh, then staggered back two steps and fell into a chair.

It had started raining outside the window sometime earlier, and the sound of raindrops hitting the glass filled the silence inside.

Seeing that the old man had stopped talking and was silently thinking about his own things, I noticed that he was no longer speaking.

Lin Xiuyi shook his head with a sigh and then began to examine the detailed photos on the autopsy report. Ichikawa's fingernails on one hand were filled with silt, while his other hand was noticeably cleaner.

This made him wonder: if Ichikawa fell into the water because of a car accident and then struggled in the river, there was no reason why one hand would be clean while the other was covered in mud.

"Besides these," Lin Xiuyi asked, "what else was discovered at the scene?"

"There were impact marks on the riverbank railing, and we found some plastic fragments there. In addition, next to Ichikawa's body, we found several footprints that should have been left by high heels, possibly left by the person who hit him when they came down to check,"

As he spoke, Inspector Samezaki took an evidence bag from his drawer.

"Our initial assessment is that the bumper of a light blue car was broken. The traffic department is trying to identify similar vehicles."

Light blue? Isn't that the color of Murakami's car?
And she was also in a car accident last night, damaging her front bumper...

Lin Xiuyi accepted the evidence bag with mixed feelings, but did not notice that Takeshita Matsufumi, sitting on the chair, suddenly turned extremely pale after seeing the contents of the bag.

The old man's withered hands clenched tightly together; he had clearly noticed something, and suddenly he became angry and furious.

"You bunch of damn cops...you always just do things half-heartedly like this!"

"you?"

Inspector Samezaki stood up with a bewildered look on his face, and Lin Xiuyi quickly stepped between the two.

"Twenty years ago..."

Takeshita Matsufumi trembled all over, a terrifying rage flashing in his cloudy eyes.

"You treated me the same way when my daughter was hit and killed by a police car!"

"Now that I have avenged my daughter with my own hands, I have come here to turn myself in, and you still treat me with disrespect!"

"Calm down!"

Inspector Samezaki rushed forward, trying to calm the elderly man down.

"We're not being disrespectful to you. You saw the report just now; Ichikawa was in a car accident before his death, but we can't yet confirm that you poisoned him." (End of Chapter)