Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

The sight before him caused Lin Xiuyi, who was somewhat prepared, to have her pupils shrink slightly.

Under the lights of the hotel's magnificent marble portico, a woman lay face down on the cold floor.

She was wearing a fine silk robe, but it was now disheveled and stained with dirt and... large patches of glaring dark red blood.

The woman's hair was disheveled, partially obscuring her face. One slipper lay nearby, while the other was still hanging precariously on her foot.

Even from a distance, one could faintly smell a strong odor of alcohol wafting through the air, mixed with the smell of blood, creating a nauseatingly sweet aroma.

At this moment, several people were already standing around the woman, who seemed to be the first to notice and gather around her.

One of them was squatting next to the woman, professionally reaching out to check her pulse on the side of her neck, and then opening her eyelids to look at her pupils.

A moment later, he raised his head and, addressing the anxious onlookers, announced with absolute certainty: "No pulse, dilated pupils... dead."

Lin Xiuyi took a few steps closer and saw the profile of the person squatting down to speak. It was Hattori Heizo, and standing next to him were members of the Kyoto University Mystery Club.

Konoe Daishi supported Ono Kayoko, whose face was pale.

Kawada Yuko and Yoshida Aoi covered their mouths, clearly frightened.

Maeda Yoto, however, has disappeared.

"What happened?" Lin Xiu asked, glancing at the corpse on the ground.

Hattori Heizo looked up and saw it was him. His expression grave, he shook his head and stood up.
“The specifics are still unclear. We just picked up Kayoko and Konoe and were about to meet you when we heard a scream coming from the direction of the hotel. When I ran over, she was already lying here.”

He paused, then added,
"By the way, you should have seen this woman who fell from the building."

"I've seen it before?" Lin Xiuyi's heart stirred, and he squatted down in confusion.

He carefully avoided the pool of blood, moved closer, and looked closely at the woman's face, which was half-hidden by her disheveled hair.

The hotel porch was brightly lit, and when he brushed aside the blood-stained hair and saw the face that was somewhat deformed by death and the impact, but whose features were still recognizable, his gaze immediately froze!
This face... he saw it just this afternoon!
Despite being completely drained of color, her features were still vaguely familiar. Those delicate eyebrows and eyes were none other than the woman beside Mito Hayato, his stepmother and lover, Minamino Momoko, whom he had seen at the Kabuki theater before!

It was her?!
Lin Xiuyi's heart was instantly stirred.

The dramatic gossip from the afternoon about "second wife's business" and "father and son both in love with the same person" was still fresh in everyone's minds when, at this moment, one of the central figures in the gossip turned into a cold corpse in such a tragic and abrupt way, lying on the edge of the fireworks festival's carnival.

He had just recognized the deceased and hadn't even had time to process the information when an even more violent commotion erupted from the periphery of the crowd.

"Get out of the way! All of you, get out of the way!!" a middle-aged man's voice, filled with panic and anger, roared.

The crowd was roughly pushed aside, and two men hurriedly squeezed in, one after the other.

The man walking in front had gray hair and was also wearing silk pajamas. Upon seeing the corpse on the ground, he immediately rushed over, lay down beside the body, and began to wail.
"Peach! My Peach! How could something have happened to you!"

Following behind was Mito Hayato, his face deathly pale, his eyes vacant as he stared at the woman on the ground, his body trembling slightly, yet unable to utter a sound. "The man crying is the current head of the Mito family, Mito Shinzo..." A familiar yet cold voice whispered in Lin Xiuyi's ear; it was Ikenami Shizuka, who had just arrived.

Even without her saying it, just looking at Mito Hayato's distraught yet hesitant demeanor, and the middle-aged man's undisguised grief over Minamino Momoko's corpse, her identity was already obvious.

Is that middle-aged man, wailing and completely disfigured beside the corpse, really Shinzo Mito? The actual controller of Sennichimae Department Store, and the one responsible for that fire?

Tomizawa Chikage squeezed in and overheard Ikenami Shizuka's whisper.

Her body jolted, and she immediately clenched her fists, staring at Mito Shinzo's retreating figure with eyes full of rage.

If Midori Orikasa hadn't grabbed her arm in time, Chikage Tomizawa would have rushed up and angrily questioned the other party about why they hadn't given an explanation to the families who were victimized in the department store fire and paid the compensation they deserved!
On the other side, upon seeing Mito Shinzo, Ono Kayoko froze, her already pale face turning even more ashen.

She stared intently at Mito Shinzo's retreating figure, her fingers gripping Konoe Taiji's arm tightly.

Konoe Taishi noticed her unusual behavior and asked with concern, "Kayoko, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

The girl simply shook her head, her lips moved, but she didn't utter a single word.

"Where is the hotel manager?! Get out here!" Mito Shinzo cried out for a while, seemingly recovering slightly from the initial shock, but was soon replaced by a fit of rage.

He suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, tears and snot streaming down his face, looking utterly disheveled, yet he roared hoarsely at the surrounding crowd and hotel staff.

"I'm going to sue you! I'll sue your hotel until it goes bankrupt! What kind of shoddy products are your balcony railings?!"

"Peach...she just had a few drinks tonight and felt stuffy, so she leaned against the balcony railing to get some fresh air and watch the fireworks..."

"And then the railing just broke! It just broke like that! And she... she fell down too!"

"It's you! It was your hotel that killed my peach!"

He struggled to stand up, but stumbled again due to weak legs and excitement.

Shinzo Mito pointed to a middle-aged man in a hotel manager's uniform who had rushed over after hearing the news and was constantly wiping cold sweat from his forehead.
"You are all responsible for Peach's death! You are fully responsible!"

"This...this is impossible, Mr. Mito!"

The hotel manager was sweating profusely, his face pale, and his voice trembling with tears as he nervously tried to explain.

"Our hotel has always prioritized the safety of our guests! Just today... just before the celebration began, we specifically hired a professional engineering and maintenance company to conduct a comprehensive inspection and reinforcement of the railings on all the guest room balconies facing the riverbank!"

"We've checked the sturdiness of every part, but we're worried about safety issues if there are too many tourists!"

"How...how could it be that the railing broke just because your wife leaned against it so lightly? That's absolutely impossible!"

"The railing didn't break by itself," Mito Shinzo said angrily. "Do you think we deliberately broke it?!" (End of Chapter)