Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 929 He is still alive!

A watch-shaped spotlight illuminates the staircase, and the size of the footprints reveals that the person descending is an adult.

Conan slowly adjusted the brightness until the watch was only faintly lit.

And he arrived at the door.

The stone door was open, and it was pitch black inside.

Conan could clearly feel his heartbeat, and after carefully looking around, he couldn't find any trace of anyone.

"Strange, where is that person?"

Conan's expression turned grim. Had that person left?

If they leave, will Anya and the others be in danger?
Despite his worries, Conan didn't leave immediately. Instead, he lowered his head and prepared to turn the flashlight back on.

He had just bent down and turned on his flashlight when it shone on the ground ahead, and a pair of black hiking boots came into view.

He was certain that it hadn't happened just now; it appeared suddenly!

In an instant, Conan was about to grab his watch and take aim.

However, a pair of large hands pressed down on the watch, and in doing so, restrained both of his hands.

Conan's expression changed drastically. Using the strength in his arm, he swung himself up and kicked the other person in the chest.

However, this step felt like stepping on solid ground, causing no harm and instead making him sit down hard on his bottom.

"it's me."

Conan looked down and spun his power-enhancing shoes, but was startled when he heard the sound.

"Brother Xia Chuan?"

"Why are you here?"

"I'd like to ask you, didn't I say we couldn't enter the East Wing? Why aren't you following the rules?"

"Even if you solve the puzzle by using cheats like this, it doesn't count as a win for you."

Conan's face immediately darkened. This statement confirmed that Natsukawa had arrived long ago and had been monitoring them from the beginning.

"The code isn't urgent. I'm actually quite curious about Mr. Clock's identity, which is why I came to the East Wing to see if I could find any clues about him."

"Here~"

Conan clumsily caught the thing that Natsukawa threw at him.

It's a picture frame.

"What's the use of this?"

Conan's voice gradually faded, his eyes fixed intently on the family of three above.

"This photo should answer your question, so you can leave now, right? That man should be fine; he's just too afraid to acknowledge his daughter."

Natsukawa was anxious to get Conan to leave, since it was the gardener's secret office and he couldn't be seen by the other party.

"Hey hey hey."

With his doubts resolved and his worries gone, Conan's serious expression faded, and he asked with a hint of teasing, "Hey Natsukawa-kun, since the mystery has nothing to do with the East Mansion, what are you doing here?"

"Don't talk to me like a child, it's disgusting."

Xia Chuan didn't want to answer, so he changed the subject: "By the way, I just got news yesterday that Shuichi Akai appeared in Osaka, and it seems he had a fight with Gin. Why don't you go to Osaka and ask Hattori about it?"

"Oh, you said that."

Conan shrugged nonchalantly: "I saw it on the news too, but it happened yesterday. I had Hattori check it for me, and Gin didn't leave any clues."

When did Conan become so calm towards Gin?
Xia Chuan narrowed his eyes and told Frank to go back and inquire about it.

"Oh, is it so?"

"Okay, okay, I'll go now."

Seeing Natsukawa roll up his sleeves, Conan clearly sensed his intentions. Rather than get beaten up, he'd better hurry up and go.

Xia Chuan is very vengeful; if I don't obey, who knows what might happen tomorrow.

Furthermore, he didn't think this place had anything to do with the Black Organization.

The original owner, Gozo Iseya, was a big shot in the stock investment world, so there must have been some kind of tax issue involved.

This situation is quite common, so today Xia Chuan should be a special investigator from the National Taxation Bureau, here to investigate the original owner's tax situation.

After Conan left, Natsukawa finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Find the switch, turn on the light, and the surrounding bookshelves come into view again.

"Luckily, the lights were off, so Conan didn't see that there was so much information here. If he had seen it, he definitely wouldn't have wanted to leave."

There are four rows of bookshelves here, each filled with file boxes, each labeled with the type of information it belongs to.

The four bookshelves are also categorized in different ways.

The bookshelf closest to the door is labeled "The Dark World Archives".

Xia Chuan had just glanced through it; it was mostly information about the dark web.

The personal secrets of politicians or the wealthy, information on gardeners collaborating with assassins, broker profiles, and information on the gardeners' missions and completion records in recent years.

However, there was one thing that Xia Chuan couldn't understand.

He searched through all the dark web archives but couldn't find the assassin's file for the Thorn Princess, or even Joel's.

"Could it be on another bookshelf?"

Of the other three bookshelves, one was rather unusual, as nothing on it was labeled.

A stock investment profile indicates that this gardener is indeed investing.

The other one is titled "Target Observation File".

Xia Chuan had no interest in the stock records and went straight to the target observation records.

There are more than a dozen files, each representing one year, and the last file is from this year.

Xia Chuan pulled out the last book.

[The Blair Family Observation Diary]

Upon seeing this title, Xia Chuan froze on the spot.

For some reason, seeing this title gave Xia Chuan a sense of foreboding.

March 21st.

"Princess Thorn has completed her mission once again, and her abilities remain as strong as ever. Even though she hasn't grown any stronger since turning eighteen, she is still far beyond the average person."

"This superhuman ability seems to have affected my brain tissue, reducing my thinking ability. I gave myself away several times, but she didn't realize that I was actually an observer."

"She recently met a man and seems to have developed feelings for him."

"Strange, I thought she wouldn't develop feelings for anyone except Yuri. Could it be some kind of mutual appreciation among the experimental subjects?"

Upon seeing this, Xia Chuan's heart skipped a beat.

"The experimental subject, me?"

He tried to calm himself down and continued reading.

"Yuri's self-recovery ability hasn't improved either, but his mind remains as sharp as ever; his learning ability is too strong."

"Strange, what could be the reason that both of them have low alcohol tolerance? Their parents don't have this problem. Could it be a side effect of the experiment?"

"But speaking of which, what's going on with Number Seven? She didn't die with the scholar; she actually came to Japan."

"No, I can't keep monitoring them, otherwise one day they'll be discovered by mind-reading abilities."

For a moment, Xia Chuan thought he was the so-called experimental subject, and his heart almost jumped out of his chest.

However, the information before him was enough to surprise him.

The gardener knew so much about Anya and Yoryuri's affair that he even referred to Anya as Number Seven.

"He calls himself an observer, does that mean he's also a scholar?"

"No wonder Joel was discovered by the other party at such a young age and then guided to become an assassin. It turns out that this guy has been observing Joel's family all along."

"Scholars. Are they dead?"

"Are the scholars really dead?" The archives contain many fragmented pieces, but this year's entries are few, ending with the time the gardener discovered Anya, after which there are no further records.

Looking back at the records from the previous few years, it was confirmed that the other party was indeed the scholar's subordinate, ordered by the scholar to observe Joel and Yuri for many years.

However, since the scholars could not be contacted more than two years ago, the records in the archives have become much less.

The initial records were so numerous that Xia Chuan suspected the other party had installed surveillance cameras in Yole's house.

The last two years were much shorter, as if recording Joel, but it was just a habit.

Xia Chuan silently looked at the observation manuals, which resembled diaries, and examined them very carefully.

"So, it turns out that Joel had a very hard childhood."

"Speaking of which, I should even thank the gardener. If it weren't for him guiding Joel to become an assassin, perhaps Joel wouldn't have lived to be this old."

Xia Chuan muttered a couple of things to himself, then put the file back.

Then he looked at the last bookshelf.

The bookshelf was also full, and when Xia Chuan took one out, a look of astonishment appeared on his face.

"empty?"

The file was empty; it was just an ordinary box.

The same applies to everything else.

His fingers gently traced the bookshelf, his eyes scrutinizing it intently like a hawk's, as if he wouldn't give up until he found something.

Finally, Xia Chuan stopped in his tracks.

The bookshelf was actually made of iron, and in one area of ​​the iron frame, he felt an unusual textured surface.

The paint here looks like it's been corroded by something.

Xia Chuan glanced back at the other bookshelves and was surprised to find that this spot should have originally had the same label as the other bookshelves.

—The label is now gone.

It's obvious that the bookshelf isn't empty; rather, the items have been removed!

Someone is deliberately concealing the fact that there were other documents here originally.

The Velcro fasteners on several file boxes on this bookshelf are noticeably sparser, indicating that these boxes were frequently opened in the past.

But if there's nothing inside, why would the gardener open it?
There's only one answer: the information here has been taken away.

And it must have happened recently.

The dents and marks on the paint on the iron frame were probably formed in the last few months, after the gardener died. Someone found this place and took nothing else but a few files from this bookshelf.

"No one touched Joel's information, but they specifically touched these few files."

Xia Chuan made a judgment that even he found hard to believe.

The person who took the things was a scholar!
Joel's information cannot be placed at the very back; the very back can only contain information from scholars or their research labs.

Moreover, only a scholar himself could reach the point of not being interested in Joel's information.

Because he himself knows this information all too well!

Are the scholars still alive?
Xia Chuan suddenly felt like he was being spied on.

"But that's impossible."

“Now I basically live with Joel, and if someone is spying on us, we will definitely find out.”

This is not blind confidence, but simply an affirmation of one's own abilities.

"If the scholar wasn't monitoring us, why did he take the documents here? Is there something very important in those documents?"

"Or did the gardener destroy the data himself?"

This question is destined to remain unanswered; perhaps only a scholar could provide Xia Chuan with an answer.

But it's clear that our understanding of scholars is currently less than that of Karasuma Renya, and finding them is even more impossible.

At least he knew the distillery's boss was named Karasuma Renya, but he only knew the scholar by his code name.

"Karasuma Renya, I have another reason to find you as soon as possible."

The existence of this scholar is unsettling, and for the sake of his family, Xia Chuan has to deal with this guy!

The only possible breakthrough seems to be Karasuma Renya.

To shut down the mechanism and prevent Conan from appearing, Natsukawa simply took down the wall clock.

Behind the wall clock is a key-shaped jack, from which the key extending from the clock fits perfectly.

That's right, this seemingly sophisticated mechanism is actually a replica of a key.

To move the time to noon is simply to connect the clock axis to the key, and then turn it down to the six o'clock position, which is just turning the key.

After that, Xia Chuan walked out of the East Building.

However, before he even reached the entrance of the East Mansion, he heard Ai Haibara's exclamation.

"Ania, don't go up there, it might be dangerous."

Xia Chuan stopped in his tracks and looked at the angel statue in the East Pavilion.

All I could see was Anya climbing up the platform beneath the angel statue. In the blink of an eye, she had already climbed seven or eight meters.

"If you don't discipline them for two days, they'll be climbing on the roof and tearing off the tiles!"

Xia Chuan left those words behind and immediately ran out.

"Uncle Xia Chuan, what are you doing here?"

Ayumi was calling out to Mr. Clock from all sides when she unexpectedly saw Natsukawa and immediately covered her mouth in disbelief.

Upon hearing this, Ai Haibara looked over and, although she had some doubts after confirming Natsukawa's identity, she was relieved.

"Father is here?"

Anya stopped halfway up the mountain, glanced down, and immediately felt dizzy.

Anya didn't know what acrophobia was, but looking down from this height was truly terrifying.

"what--"

As the screams rang out, Anya's eyes went vacant as if she had lost consciousness. Like a rootless duckweed, she was blown by the wind and suddenly let go of her hands, falling halfway down.

"Ania!"

Conan, who rushed over after hearing the exclamations, nearly had his heart leap out of his chest when he saw what was happening from afar.

Mitsuhiko and Genta saw it too, and the two of them immediately abandoned the bronze bull statue in front of them and ran over, their faces pale.

In their eyes, Anya fell straight down, and the scene of her landing was just blocked by the landscaping in the courtyard.

Urgent footsteps approached.

"Where is Anya?!"

The detective's face showed only urgency.

If something happens to Anya, how will he explain it to Xia Chuan?

The other person had saved him more than once.

"Tell me quickly!"

Conan shook Ayumi hard, but no matter how he called out, she would only cover her mouth and mumble "Aba aba" for a long time without being able to speak.

"Haibara, what exactly happened?"

Conan suddenly calmed down, apologized to Ayumi, and looked at Ai Haibara.

He then noticed that Ai Haibara seemed to be in a good mood.

This isn't right.

He had seen how much she missed Miyano Akemi before. Although Anya was a headache, she and Haibara Ai were like family.

So Anya wasn't as bad as she had imagined.

Perhaps he didn't fall to the ground and get stuck on something, so he might only break his leg.

(End of this chapter)