Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 261 Ideological Conflict (6k)

Xia Chuan's gaze made Hinata Yuki feel a little scared, but the plan had come to this point and there was no turning back. They only had one chance!
"Hehe, I... I'm also planning to go down, but I'm a little scared. Would you like Mr. Natsukawa to come with me?"

“Okay!” Natsukawa nodded and walked out of the room with Hinata Yuki.

Just as he stepped out of the room, Hinata Yuki suddenly seemed to remember something and said, "By the way, it's not really safe for the president to be here alone. Why don't you go down and check on him, Mr. Natsukawa? I'll stay here and take care of the president."

Before Natsukawa could answer, Hinata Yuki had already slipped back into the room with incredible speed.

The next second, the door slammed shut, followed by the sound of it being locked from the inside.

"Hey, Hinata-san, are you alright?" Natsukawa called out from the doorway.

"It's alright, you can go down first. The chairman is the backbone of the conglomerate, and there can't be any problems with him. I'll stay here and keep an eye on him."

Natsukawa shrugged. Hyuga Yuki was indeed suspicious. Natsukawa was certain that the so-called Nagato Hideomi from that afternoon was definitely her.

Xia Chuan didn't leave; instead, he leaned against the door, took out his phone, and started playing with it.

Before leaving, he placed a surveillance device on the table. He had no doubt that the case was related to Hinata Yuki, and he never believed anything the other party said from the beginning.

The surveillance equipment was placed on the table, with the screen facing the balcony, and in the middle was Changmendao San's bed.

After returning to his room, Hinata Sachi went to Nagato Dosan's side and observed him for a while. Seemingly confirming that the other was fast asleep, he quickly walked to the edge of the balcony.

Hinata Yuki had her back to the monitor, so Natsukawa could only see her back.

After some fiddling, the bandaged man, whose face was wrapped in bandages and whom we'll call Nagato Hideomi, climbed up from outside the railing.

The bandaged man seemed somewhat surprised to see Hinata Yuki, and then opened his mouth to say something, but because of the distance and the fact that the surveillance camera didn't have much sound recording capability, Natsukawa couldn't hear him clearly.

Before he could finish speaking, Hinata Yuki lunged forward, pushing the bandaged man, who was about to climb over the railing, away.

The bandaged man was clearly not prepared for this outcome. His eyes were filled with confusion, but his survival instinct made him instinctively grab the watch strap on Hinata Yuki's hand, preventing him from falling directly to the ground.

He was suspended in mid-air, his only lifeline being the watch strap on Hinata Yuki's wrist.

Hinata Yuki was dragged by a tremendous force, and she almost fell down with him. She endured the pain in her wrist and took out a pen from her pocket with her other hand.

"You bastard, die!"

The pen drew back with force, then lunged to stab the bandaged man's hand.

This ruthlessness is a stark contrast to her previous ladylike demeanor.

"Do you need my help?"

A voice drifted into Hinata Yuki's ears, causing her to pause, her heart skipped a beat, and she stiffly turned her head.

Turning her head, Hinata Yuki found that Natsukawa was already standing next to her.

"It's finished."

Hinata Yuki's mind suddenly went blank. She couldn't understand how Natsukawa had appeared in the room so quietly when she had locked the door.

"Save me! Natsukawa, save me! Hinata Yuki, you're a madman! Even if you kill me, you can't bring Hideomi back to life. His death has nothing to do with me!"

"You can't kill me! You orchestrated all of this! Did you plan to kill the entire Nagato family and then seize the Nagato Group for yourself?!"

"Mr. Nagato Mitsuaki, why are you dressed like this?" Natsukawa asked curiously.

The Nagato family is so complicated. What is all this about? It seems having too many children is not a good thing after all.

Nagato Mitsuaki clearly has some kind of plan with Hyuga Yuki. Now that the other party is in danger, this is the most appropriate time to ask. People won't have the intention to hide anything when they are afraid.

Nagato Mitsuaki grabbed Hinata Yuki's watch strap with one hand and waved the other hand wildly, trying to get Natsukawa to pull him away. He kept muttering, "It's Hinata. She's going to kill the president and me too. Stop her! Hideomi is already dead. She's the one who did it."

"The Nagato family can't afford any more deaths, or the Nagato Group will be in trouble."

"When you wanted to kill the chairman, did you ever think about whether the conglomerate would run into trouble?" Hyuga Yuki sneered at Nagato Mitsuaki, finding the other man's behavior truly despicable.

If this person weren't Nagato Dosan's adopted son-in-law, he would have been kicked out of the management of the Nagato Group long ago.

"go to hell!"

Hinata Yuki no longer cared about anything else; all he wanted now was to kill Nagato Mitsuaki to avenge his parents, who had been murdered twenty years ago, and all the guests at the inn.

Similarly, she also hated Hideomi and Hikari for hiding things from her for twenty years and treating her like a monkey.

Her eyes were filled with despair, and tears streamed down her face. She had already planned to commit suicide after this, and she didn't care about anything else.

With a forceful swing of his arm, the sharp pen plunged down, piercing the back of Nagato Hikaru's hand.

Xia Chuan did not offer any assistance, remaining indifferent and seemingly unconcerned about human lives.

Despair filled Nagato Hikaru's eyes, and his hateful gaze was determined to memorize Natsukawa's face.

"Ah~"

After the screams, Nagato Mitsuaki fell from the third-floor balcony.

Hinata Yuki lost the strength to pull himself up and sat down on the ground with a thud, his blank eyes showing no joy at his successful revenge.

Although she hated the two men, she also deeply loved Nagato Hideomi.

"Now, I'll go down and keep you company, Hideomi—"

Hinata Yuki leaped up like a nimble monkey, cleared the railing with one hand, and jumped directly from the third floor.

Xia Chuan watched the two jump one after the other, his face expressionless. He craned his neck to look down and said, "Miss Hinata, if you have nothing else to do, why don't you jump again? If jumping can help you relax."

Standing on the ground directly below the balcony, Hinata Yuki was filled with questions. She squeezed the soft cushion beneath her hard, unable to believe it.

"I'm still alive?" she asked blankly, wondering if she was dreaming.

"You bitch!" Nagato Hikaru, who was pinned down by her, had already reacted. The old and new grudges, plus the fact that Hyuga Yuki had farted in his face, caused his anger to explode. He suddenly jumped up, pinned Hyuga Yuki on the air cushion, grabbed Hyuga Yuki's neck, and slapped her repeatedly.

Soon, the bewildered Hyuga Yuki had her cheeks slapped red, but she didn't come to her senses. She still thought she was dreaming, or that she was already dead, and that this was Nagato Kōmyō's ghost taking revenge.

"Let go!"

Inspector Megure and Wataru Takagi rushed out and separated the two.

"Hey, Inspector Megure, what are you doing here?"

On the second floor, in Hideomi's room, Conan and his friends forcefully opened the door but found no one in the room. Hearing a series of cracking sounds, they peeked out from the balcony to see what was going on, only to unexpectedly see Inspector Megure.

Conan, puzzled, unconsciously looked up and saw Natsukawa standing on the third-floor balcony, also looking down.

Xia Chuan's expression showed no surprise, as calm as a stagnant pond. Only when he noticed Conan looking over did he smile and greet him: "How about it? Wasn't I quick to call the police?"

"."

This isn't just fast, it's the speed of light! Not only did they call the police, they even placed an air cushion on the first floor. These things take time to prepare, so it seems Xia Chuan called the police before the birthday party even started.

As Conan suspected, Natsukawa had called the police an hour earlier, and because he had Inspector Megure's private phone number, he was able to summon Inspector Megure very quickly.

There were already police officers stationed inside the villa, so it was easy for Inspector Megure and his group to sneak in without even notifying the Nagato family.

This is what Xia Chuan told him.

After confirming that Changmen Daosan's adopted son and secretary were problematic, he deliberately concealed some information in order to catch them red-handed.

In the world of Detective Conan, cases usually require later deduction to solve, but he insists on doing the opposite, catching the culprit red-handed when he makes a move.

Unfortunately, Nagato Hideomi was already dead, so the sense of accomplishment from solving the case was halved, but at least it saved Nagato Mitsuaki's life.

His arrangements were indeed very well done.

He discovered four suspicious points in one afternoon.

First, there was a putrid smell by the pool. Although Musashi explained that it might be the smell of dead fish, Natsukawa believed it was the smell of a dead human body.

Second, the Nagato Hideomi who appeared in front of him in the afternoon was probably Hyuga Yuki in disguise.

Third, Nagato Mitsuaki and Nagato Hideomi were longtime friends, and he couldn't possibly have missed the problem after patting Nagato Hideomi on the shoulder.

Fourth, there are signs of heavy objects hitting under several balconies, which may be related to the sounds heard by Nagatodo San.

With a little reasoning based on these four points, he could roughly guess the answer.

Although he had no recollection of this case, he was experienced in dramas and had a bit of wild imagination, so guessing the methods used by the two men was no problem at all.

However, there was one thing they overlooked. They originally thought their target was Nagato Dosan, but it turned out that Hyuga Yuki had her own ulterior motives. Her real target was actually Nagato Mitsuaki!

"Inspector Megure, thank you for your hard work, squatting here for so long in this sweltering heat."

"It's alright, except for a lot of mosquitoes." Inspector Megure waved his hand. "But it's all worth it to prevent a murder. It's just a pity about Nagato Hideomi. He was probably killed during the day."

"What? Nagato Hideomi died during the day?" Hattori asked curiously.

Inspector Megure nodded: "Yes, Natsukawa told us in the evening that there might be something buried in the pit next to the pool. While you were eating, the body was dug out. According to the autopsy report, the time of death should be around 1 p.m.

"How is that possible!" ×3
The three detectives were shocked. They had clearly seen each other that afternoon, around three o'clock. If the person died at one o'clock, then who was the person they saw?
"Wait a minute!" Conan and Hattori exchanged glances, suddenly remembering the question Natsukawa had asked Nagato Mitsuaki that afternoon: "Is he really Nagato Hideomi?" That was the question!
"Uncle Xia Chuan."

Conan looked confused.

Did Natsukawa already discover that at that time?
Xia Chuan scratched his head sheepishly: "The Nagato Hideomi we met this afternoon was probably Hyuga Yuki in disguise. As you know, I have a sharp eye. Even though only one eye was visible, I still recognized him."

"However, Nagato Hideomi did not die during the day today; it must have been the day before yesterday, or the day before that, or even earlier."

“Yes, if he was buried in the ground, the rate of decomposition of the body would be slowed down to one-eighth.” Hattori Heiji nodded and looked at Natsukawa with a serious expression.

“If the body is buried for a longer period, the rate of regeneration will be even slower.” Conan chimed in, “Uncle Natsukawa, so you saw through their scheme all along?”

Is this Natsukawa's reasoning?
Hattori smacked his lips, unsure how to describe Natsukawa's crime-solving abilities.

If it weren't for Natsukawa, Nagato Mitsuaki would probably be dead too, and Hyuga Yuki might even have committed suicide later.

Xia Chuan's speed in solving the case saved two lives.

Conan then told him that Natsukawa's case-solving was a bit unscientific. He hadn't taken it seriously before, thinking that Conan's brain might not be working properly when he shrunk, and that solving cases wasn't that simple. Now he finally saw it for himself, and it seemed to be quite simple for Natsukawa.

If I'm not mistaken, Xia Chuan probably noticed something under his feet the moment he entered the villa and came to the pool!
The smell they were talking about back then was probably the stench of a rotting corpse.

Before he and Conan even understood the details of the case, Natsukawa had already found the victim, which was truly outrageous.

He gave Conan a sympathetic look. He'd heard that Conan had been frequently seen at crime scenes with Natsukawa lately; if that was the case, he must be suffering terribly.
Xia Chuan rubbed his nose without offering much explanation. In fact, he had taken advantage of a break while calling home in the evening to check on Nagato Hideomi's room and discovered a voicemail message from the publisher urging him to finish his manuscript.

The messages were left yesterday morning and evening. Following this line of reasoning, it can be confirmed that Nagato Hideomi had already died before yesterday.

In this way, Nagato Mitsuaki and Hyuga Yuki's performance was like running naked in front of him. There was really no difficulty in it. With the key information in hand, solving the case was that easy.

Third-floor bedroom.

Nagato Dosan had already awakened, and the two murderers, each with their own ulterior motives, were bound in front of him.

“Mr. Nagato, what do you think of these two?” Inspector Megure asked Nagato Dozo politely.

At most, an attempted crime will only result in being detained at the police station for ten days to half a month. If you can do Changmen Daosan a favor, that would be good too.

Even if these two are taken to the Metropolitan Police Department, they will be released on bail by lawyers. Rather than that, it's better to resolve the matter on the spot and save face for the Metropolitan Police Department, which might even get them a donation.

Nagato Dosan sat on the bed with his hands folded, staring at the two men for a long time without any expression. He showed no emotion whatsoever regarding his son's death.

The dead cannot be brought back to life, and he knew exactly what his son had done. He was the one who helped settle the matter; otherwise, he would have only just been released from prison by now, having killed so many people in the arson.

Everyone could see that Nagato Dozo's silence was a silent expression of his anger.

A person in a high position may not necessarily be happy when they are smiling, but when they are expressionless and have their hands folded, they are definitely not in a good mood.

"Alright, I'll trouble Inspector Megure to release them. Since they haven't caused any major problems yet, let's give them another chance."

Nagato Dosan sighed and gently stroked the pen that had pierced a bloody hole in Nagato Mitsuaki's hand. "I'm sorry, this pen is not a keepsake left to you by your father."

"This fountain pen, it must be the one I gave your mother thirty-five years ago when she transferred schools. I never imagined she'd still have it."

"W-what!"

The shocked voice did not come from Hyuga Yuki.

Hinata Yuki was stunned, his mouth agape, speechless.

The woman he had been investigating turned out to be his own mother?

How can this be.

But based on her understanding of the chairman, he was a man of his word, and he wouldn't admit to something so trivial. Since he actually said it, it meant it was true!
The one who made the sound was Kogoro Mouri.

The meaning of this statement is so obvious; it's clear that Nagato Dosan has found his first love.

In that case, the order has already been declared over before it even started.

His initial fighting spirit was quickly extinguished.

"As for Guangming, you'll start from the bottom of the company. I'll give you another chance. Don't let me and Kangjiang down again."

Nagato Dosan quickly set disciplinary measures for Nagato Mitsuyoshi. Hyuga Yuki, who had also been a victim, did not dismiss him from his post, whether out of atonement for his deceased son or because the other party was the daughter of his first love.

But to outsiders, this scene seemed particularly melodramatic.

Conan wanted to say something else, after all, in his eyes, although the case was not successful, the fact of premeditated murder was undeniable, and Hyuga Yuki should not be let off easily, at least he should be locked up in the Metropolitan Police Department for a period of time.

Hattori clearly saw through Conan's thoughts and pulled him outside.

Nagato Dozo is the chairman of one of Japan's top conglomerates and a friend of his father, so he has a reason to help.

Moreover, his ideas differ somewhat from Conan's.

"Hey, Hattori, what are you doing!"

Conan, who was being dragged to the outside of the villa on the first floor by Hattori, seemed a little anxious: "Attempted murder does not mean there is no crime. If we let Hyuga Yuki and Nagato Mitsuaki go so easily, they might commit another crime next."

What he said wasn't without merit, but Hattori calmly shook his head: "I know what you're thinking, that the criminals deserve to be punished, but some things need to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. There's no need to offend the Nagato family over such a trivial matter."

Mr. Mori runs a detective agency in Tokyo. Sometimes, it's best not to pursue things too deeply. Even if you can lock them up, how many days can you lock them up?

The truth has been found, and the victim's family has said so. What more do you want?

Go to court?
At that time, Nagato Dozo won't even need to hire a lawyer. He can simply deny that the two were planning to attack him and attribute it to an accident. What can you do then?
Nagato Hideomi committed suicide. Nagato Mitsuaki and Hyuga Yuki are innocent. Do you understand?

Conan remained silent for a long time. He put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the full moon in the sky. "You are an excellent detective, but you are not pure enough. In a detective's eyes, law and truth complement each other. Today you show mercy to the Nagato family, tomorrow you may show mercy to the murderer in a murder case."

There is only one truth, and the law is the only solution.

Hattori didn't speak, but lay down on the lawn and looked at the dark clouds in the sky that obscured the full moon before asking, "If you insist on following the law, why did you get involved when the case happened? Detectives don't have law enforcement or investigative powers, so isn't that a kind of impurity?"

Furthermore, if you're truly that naive, you should have told Inspector Megure about the Black Organization. Citizens have a duty to report the identities and criminal activities of any lawbreakers to the police, don't they?

In Japan, most detectives make a living by finding people, dogs, and extramarital affairs; very few can earn a living by solving murder cases.

One reason is that it is against regulations for detectives to participate in murder cases. If it weren't for Kogoro Mouri's reputation and the fact that he was once a colleague of Inspector Megure, Megure would never have allowed him to participate in the investigation.

Conan remained silent, but the determination in his eyes did not disappear.

On this matter, he and Hattori were indeed unable to convince each other.

Xia Chuan stood on the third-floor balcony, calmly watching the two detectives lying on the lawn below, contemplating life.

"This world isn't simply black and white. Even people like Amuro Tooru and Akai Shuichi, who work within the system, have to follow certain unspoken rules."
Once they joined the distillery, bourbon and rye's hands were certainly no longer clean.

But if they don't do this, they'll never be able to infiltrate the distillery, and if the distillery does anything, the casualties will be even greater.

The railway track hypothesis is as described.

One person is lying on one railway track, and five people are lying on another railway track.

If you don't switch tracks, five people will die; if you do switch tracks, one innocent person will die.

A thousand readers will have a thousand different interpretations of Hamlet.

In Xia Chuan's mind, if he were a public official, he would sacrifice the interests of the majority for the benefit of the minority.

If he were an ordinary person, he could simply stand by and watch, because whether one, five, or six people die, they will all die anyway, and it has nothing to do with him. After all, once he takes action, no matter how many people die, it is still considered murder!
The Nagato family incident was just a minor episode; Conan and Hattori had originally planned to stay up all night, but now it's clearly unnecessary.

However, Hattori didn't seem to intend to let Conan off the hook. In Natsukawa's car, he pulled Conan aside for a quiet discussion. Both had their own beliefs, and they figured they could avoid discussing their conflicts to prevent damaging their friendship.

Xia Chuan observed the situation through the rearview mirror several times and noticed that the topic of conversation between Zhen Guandong and Zhen Guanxi seemed to have shifted to him.

"Hey, is this how Xia Chuan solves cases? What about you? You always end up being outmaneuvered."

Conan shrugged: "It's normal. I'm used to it. This is still considered good. You haven't seen his brute-force decryption. He's even faster at that, without any reasoning at all. He relies entirely on the result to deduce the truth and the culprit's self-destruction. You'll get used to it eventually."

Fortunately, he's not a detective and seems rather reluctant to be famous, otherwise Uncle Mori's reputation would certainly be half taken away from him.

"While I'd love to compete with highly intelligent people, I don't want to get used to it."

Hattori shuddered. Luckily, Natsukawa wasn't from Osaka. If he were constantly caught off guard by Natsukawa's unconventional methods in solving cases, his own approach to crime-solving might be affected.

Xia Chuan eavesdropped while driving, and nodded unconsciously when he heard this. He liked to hear this; he was indeed the kind of person with high intelligence and strong abilities but was overly low-key.

"By the way, did he discover your identity?" Hattori suspected that Natsukawa already knew Conan's identity.

Ps:

I updated 163k words this month, which is the most I've written in a single month. Thank you to all my readers for your subscriptions, monthly tickets, and collections.

I started writing this after I had just quit my job. I was just writing for fun when I had nothing to do. I never expected that I could make money from it. Although it wasn't much money, it was still a kind of enjoyment.

Five months have passed, and I've found a new job. However, I've already developed the habit of writing four or five thousand words a day, so I'll continue writing this book without fail. Besides earning some extra money, I also want to make sure that things are done properly from beginning to end.

Thank you!

(End of this chapter)