Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 240 Bounty Mission
Xia Chuan smacked his lips, sighed, and turned to look at Kogoro Mouri's Mercedes, only to find that the other's car was in the same condition.

Does this count as being affected by Kogoro Mouri?
I've had my GTR for a long time without any problems, but after only a few outings with Kogoro Mouri, it got a flat tire.

Xia Chuan had a vague premonition that this time the tire would break, and the next time it would probably be even worse.

"That bandit group must have punctured the tires beforehand to prevent us from escaping," Joel said.

"That's right."

the other side.

Kogoro Mouri had obviously also noticed that his tires had been punctured, and he started yelling and screaming, wishing he could turn around and drag out a few of the robbers' corpses to whip them.

However, on second thought, aside from the inconvenience of a flat tire, it seemed that he wouldn't have to pay for it himself.

Thinking about this made him feel much better.

This forest is quite remote; even if you contact road rescue services, it will take at least an hour to get there.

The on-site investigation and cleanup work were not yet completed, and Inspector Megure could not immediately send them home, which made things a bit difficult.

The afternoon sun was scorching, so it was obviously impractical to stay outside in the blazing sun.

"How about we treat it as a spring outing and camping trip? I saw some bamboo along the way, we can make everyone a delicious bamboo rice dish," Xia Chuan suggested.

Since I can't go back for the time being, and it's already past 1 p.m., instead of waiting for roadside assistance, I might as well go to the villa, borrow some materials from Nakamura Misao, have lunch, and then leave.

Since we've already come all this way, it would be a real shame to go home empty-handed.

"That's definitely a good idea."

Joel's eyes lit up. Xia Chuan's culinary skills were superb, and experiencing new dishes here might be a good choice.

The villa has air conditioning, so there's no worry about it being too hot; the only problem is that cutting bamboo is a bit of a hassle.

After communicating with the Maori family, the group quickly divided up the tasks.

The three girls returned to the villa to rest, while Natsukawa went to borrow materials to prepare, and Conan and Kogoro Mouri were assigned the hard and tiring tasks.

"Seriously, why should I be the one to cut the bamboo?"

Kogoro Mouri loves to eat and even more so, he enjoys lying around and being lazy. He is still resentful about being sent to cut bamboo.

I feel like today is my unlucky day. Not only is everything going wrong, but there are also many dangers.

"Uncle Xia Chuan is in charge of cooking, and he also needs to check what ingredients are available. We can't expect Sister Xiao Lan and the other two girls to cut bamboo, can we?"

Conan wiped his sweat, but he didn't have any objections to the arrangement.

If you want to eat something delicious, you always have to pay a price, right?
With the weather so hot, Kogoro Mouri naturally couldn't bear to let his precious daughter be exposed to the sun, so he reluctantly gave up the idea.

"Speaking of which, why is there a bamboo forest here? Why eat bamboo rice of all things?"

Kogoro Mouri chops bamboo while making sarcastic remarks.

Conan, on the other hand, was using a small hoe to dig up the bamboo in the corner of the wall.

Bamboo is used to make bamboo rice, and bamboo shoots are used to make soup—it's delicious!

Besides solving cases, Conan also has a lot of experience when it comes to food.

Although my mother never lifts a finger to cook, she's wealthy and often goes out to eat and drink extravagantly, so she knows quite a bit about food.

"It's a pity Haibara didn't come," Conan sighed.

Ai Haibara was torturing herself rather than organizing research materials. Apart from three meals a day and attending school, she spent all her time in Professor Agasa's research lab.

The promised investigation into Xia Chuan has, of course, made no progress.

He couldn't say anything about it, since investigating Xia Chuan's identity and researching APTX4869 were both beneficial to him. He was just a little worried that if the other party continued like this, he might suddenly die one day.

However, since they had only known each other for a short time, he felt embarrassed to say anything and could only think that he would try to persuade her after they got to know each other better.

Of course, this could also be Haibara's way of escaping reality, and staying home less also avoids the possibility of being discovered by Gin.

She is different from me.

Haibara grew up in the organization from a young age, so the risk of her being discovered is greater than his.

The two of them poured their sweat into their work and reaped the life lessons that every grain of rice represents hard work.

It took an hour to cut down several thick bamboo stalks and dig up quite a few bamboo shoots.

"That's enough, let's go back quickly."

Kogoro Mouri's white shirt was soaked with sweat; he didn't want to stay a moment longer after completing his mission.

"Okay, let me dig out this bamboo shoot."

Conan swung the hoe with such ferocity that anyone who didn't know better would think he was trying to undermine Kogoro Mouri.

"what--"

Conan's digging suddenly stopped. He shook his numb arm and felt that something was wrong with the hoe, as if he had hit something.

He tried knocking a few more times.

The clanging sound was like digging into a stone, but it wasn't quite like that; it had a hollow, muffled sound. How could a stone be hollow?

Furthermore, there shouldn't be any stones here.

Out of curiosity, Conan continued to dig deeper.

He quickly cleared a hole around the bamboo shoot.

"Uncle Mori, this is..."

Looking at the metal box with a corner sticking out in front of him, Conan's forehead was filled with questions.

"It feels a bit like a safe!"

Kogoro Mouri leaned over, glanced at the work, then picked up the hoe and continued digging.

Soon, a safe, about fifty centimeters long and wide, was dug out.

The two looked at each other, seemingly having unearthed something extraordinary while digging for bamboo shoots.

Back at the villa, Kogoro Mouri invited Inspector Megure.

The bamboo garden is not far from the villa, and this safe is very likely also a legacy left by Izubuchi Bunjuro.

An honest detective would not betray his conscience by secretly hiding it; instead, he chose to hand it over to the police.

"Could there be treasure inside?"

After roasting the bamboo rice over a fire, Xia Chuan also came over.

I really admire the character of these two. If it were him, he would definitely put it in the car first and let Frank open it to see what it was when they got back.

After all, it's the legacy of the leader of the theft ring; who knows what treasures it might contain.

"By the way, what's the password?"

Conan stroked his chin, deep in thought as he stared at the numerical code.

Solving the case today was not satisfying at all.

He only saw the goblin statue after solving the puzzle set by Izubuchi Bunjuro, and then Natsukawa solved it with brute force. It couldn't be more coincidental.

Upon discovering it was a combination lock box, he immediately fell into thought.

They were preparing to make up for the emptiness left by the previous unsolved puzzles.

"What the password is isn't really that important." Xia Chuan glanced at Conan, who was still thinking, and offered a solution that didn't require much thought: "The fire department hasn't left yet. They should have a cutting machine or angle grinder. We can just cut it open and see."

Today's focus is on solving cases quickly, like Conan's deductions, but who knows how long that would take.

Conan almost lost his balance and nearly tripped on flat ground!
Hey, I'm just getting ready to unleash my full potential! Can you give me a little time?

Given enough time, he can crack this six-digit code.

Is it a bit too much to resort to brute-force decryption again?

What if some valuable items inside are damaged by the cutting machine and angle grinder?

He hadn't solved the mystery of the pigeon clock before Xia Chuan got the watch directly. Now he's trying to do the same thing again. Can't we give the detective a chance to use his brain?
Constantly using brute force to solve problems will lower your IQ, you know!

However, everyone except Conan strongly agreed with this idea.

Inspector Megure cautiously shook the safe and found that it didn't make any clanging or banging sounds, so it was probably not jewelry or anything like that.

As long as it's not something like that, there won't be any problems. Anya even went to borrow tools from the firefighters, not giving Conan a single second to deduce the truth.

It's mealtime, and nothing can stop Anya from eating!

Conan had no chance to stop it, nor any reason to do so.

A child's opinion is even less important at this time.

Soon, with the help of firefighters, the sturdy safe was split in two, revealing its contents.

The safe didn't contain the treasure or banknotes that everyone imagined, but rather a pile of financial reports.

Inspector Megure picked it up and looked at it, becoming more and more alarmed, and the more he looked, the more he couldn't stop smiling!
"This seems to be a summary of all the cases they committed, and how much money they obtained from each case."

Inspector Megure looked somewhat amused and exasperated. He was still worried about how to get information about the previous crimes out of the remaining four people, but now, there was a ready-made crime diary.

Surprisingly, this demon is quite professional. The financial statement looks very clear, and even a layman like him can understand it.

Some of it is Bunjuro Izubuchi's criminal insights.

After each crime, he would write a diary entry or a detailed account of the crime.

This is very useful; at least the Metropolitan Police Department will have to reduce a lot of investigative work, as they only need to verify whether it is true or not.

“Now that we have evidence of the crime, prosecuting should be relatively simple,” Xia Chuan said.

Officer Megure nodded.

However, prosecuting them wasn't a big problem. Of the twelve members of the gang, eight were dead, leaving only four. They still had firearms and ammunition in their possession, enough to imprison them for twenty years.

In any case, those victims will never get their money back.

As mentioned before, this organization only targets unscrupulous businesses and criminal transactions.

Most of the people they robbed ended up in prison, so there was no need for them to return the money.

Those who weren't caught didn't dare tell anyone they'd been robbed.

The contents of the safe could help the Metropolitan Police Department find a group of unscrupulous businessmen who were robbed but did not report the crime.

The matter is basically over at this point; the next step is to conduct an on-site investigation.

No one knows if these lunatics have planted bombs in the villa; we can only conduct a thorough search.

Because of the safe incident, Inspector Megure naturally got a free meal from Natsukawa.

It was the first time I had bamboo rice in Natsukawa, and it was so delicious that Inspector Megure ate three buckets in a row.

Her already large belly was completely stretched out, and Xia Chuan suspected that the other person could not even squat down now.

"Brother Xia Chuan, this is so delicious! I never knew you were not only intelligent, but also had this skill. No wonder you're so good."

Inspector Megure looked at Joel, then received a glare from him, causing him to swallow back the words he was about to say: "No wonder he won Instructor Joel's heart."

"I'm glad Inspector Megure liked it. I'll treat you to another meal next time you have time!"

"When is the next time?" Inspector Megure blurted out.

"."

Natsukawa didn't want to agree, but Yoel was also a police officer in the Metropolitan Police Department.

Moreover, he will likely be frequently seen at crime scenes in the future, so we'll run into each other all the time. "We'll see. I won't forget Brother Megure when I have the chance."

Having received a satisfactory answer, Inspector Megure patted his round belly and left.

No matter the circumstances, maintaining good relations with the authorities is always the right choice, a sentiment Xia Chuan wholeheartedly agrees with.

Although he has an official identity, he has no intention of revealing it. He wants to keep it a secret as long as possible. He can reveal his identity, but he can't let it fall off too early.

Otherwise, given Conan's personality, it's hard to guarantee that he won't come to me for help with all sorts of things.

This is a real troublemaker.

The moon is bright and the stars are few; a gentle night breeze blows.

The tranquil town of Beika seemed exceptionally peaceful on this night.

At one point, police cars sped by, heading to the scene of Death's patrol.

The Mori family continues to perform consistently, adding exciting stories to the Tokyo newspapers.

At the home of Joel.

Joel rested his chin on his hand, carefully browsing the messages on the dark web.

She had been too busy with work recently and hadn't logged into the dark web to take on tasks for a while.

I've had a lot more free time lately, so I'm looking for suitable tasks for her to perform.

After not practicing for a while, I feel like my skills are getting rusty.

Fighting crime is a long-term job, and after thinking about it for a long time, Joel finally realized that he couldn't completely give up this job because of love.

At least not now. The one less bad person in the world means one more safety for good people.

The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility.

This was something Xia Chuan told her during a date, and she wholeheartedly agreed with it and resolved to put it into practice.

However, you can't just accept any task.

My personal abilities are limited, so I can only work in this small corner of Japan.

In fact, she used to take on some overseas assignments.

However, because of Xia Chuan, Joel no longer wanted to do those kinds of missions abroad, since going abroad would take several days, and couples in the throes of new love find it hard to be apart from each other for too long.

At least she couldn't stand it.

A day apart feels like three autumns, so she only plans to take on local missions in Japan.

Soon, her chat window popped up, and a message came from someone whose online name was Gardener.

[Gardener: We have several quests that require your assistance lately, why haven't you been online?]

[Princess Thorn: Something's wrong.]

Her answer was rather simple.

This gardener was one of her collaborators on the dark web.

The other party should belong to a bounty assassination organization and be a regular customer of Yor's.

In the past two years, most of the tasks have been provided by the other party.

The gardener knew her temperament, so the tasks he sent her were all aimed at the most heinous people.

Although the person who issued the task was definitely not a good person, Joel didn't care. There were so many bad people out there, she would just do her best.

[Princess Thorn: What's up?]

The two instances of "something happened," one period, and one question mark represent different meanings.

Knowing that Joel disliked procrastination, the gardener stated his purpose directly.

Normally, when he contacts the other party, there is no other possibility besides a mission. Joel also knows this, so he speaks very simply.

This is also a way to protect herself; her identity needs to be kept secret, and saying too much could lead to mistakes.

Recently, she even made a mask by hand because she got a boyfriend, in order to ensure that her identity would not be revealed.

She almost got exposed when she fought with Xia Chuan last time.

Fortunately, Xia Chuan seemed to think that the Thorn Princess simply looked exactly like her.

At first, Joel thought that Xia Chuan had actually recognized her and was just keeping her secret in this clumsy way.

However, after seeing Kaito Kuroba, who looks exactly like Shinichi Kudo, as well as Ran and Aoko, she had a different opinion.

Xia Chuan may not have been lying; it turns out that there really are people in this world who look exactly alike but are not twins.

[Gardener: This is the bounty mission information. Please take a look.]

[Gardener: Documents.word]

(End of this chapter)