Conan: I'm a zaibatsu in Tokyo

"What do you mean by teaching Ai to kill?"

"Don't slander someone's innocence out of thin air."

"I'm telling you, I've recorded this, and I'm going to sue you for defamation."

“Go on, every word you say now is evidence of slander against me.”

Zheng Yi sat on the sofa.

He rubbed Ai's head and accused her older sister of slandering him.

After accusing Akemi, Masakazu pinched Ai's chin and asked:
Did you say something bad about me?

"I didn't," Ai said, slapping away Masakazu's hand with a righteous indignation.

Not only did she not say anything bad about Zheng Yi, she even spoke well of him!
Unfortunately, because of Representative Takada's death, her kind words were of no use.

"You said you were going to teach Ai how to compete in business, but the method you taught is to kill people?" Akemi asked.

"Have it?"

Zhengyi looked at Mingmei with a naive and innocent gaze, not understanding what was going on.

"Who died?" Zheng Yi asked.

“Councilor Takada,” Ai said softly.

"Oh? He's dead? What a pity," Zheng Yi said.

Ai glared at Masahiro.

Didn't you already foresee this outcome?

What are you pretending for now!

Zheng Yi wasn't embarrassed at all, because it really was the first time he had heard this news.

He said innocently:
"Ai has been by my side these past two days, so she should know whether I've killed anyone, right?"

Akemi turned her gaze to Ai.

Ai shook her head, leaned against Shoichi's arm, and whispered:
“Indeed, Zheng Yi didn’t make a single move to kill anyone.”

This is the truth.

Even if the police investigate, they won't find anything.

No, it should be said that even if a detective were to investigate, they wouldn't be able to find out.

Mingmei raised an eyebrow.

She asked her sister, "So what business skills did Zheng Yi teach you?"

At the congratulatory event, all she saw was the death of Representative Takada.

Besides this, what else is there?
Ai tugged at Shoichi's sleeve, wanting him to help her make up a lie.

But Zheng Yi grabbed Ai's hand and pushed her away. Ai lost her support and almost fell off the sofa.

That was his business secret, and teaching it to Ai-chan was enough; he would never pass it on to anyone else.

Ai steadied herself and took a deep breath.

"That... what Zhengyi taught me is... it's... um..."

After stammering for a while, and seeing Akemi's increasingly strange gaze, Ai finally blushed and said:

"It's sincerity!"

"what?"

After saying the word "sincerity," Ai seemed to suddenly understand.

She watched as Akemi spoke eloquently.

"Business competition is all about sincerity. As long as you are sincere enough, you can impress any competitor!"

Akemi looked at Ai.

She's not a child; she doesn't believe in unreliable things like sincerity in business competition.

Ai's face was flushed.

She said in a serious tone, "A scion of a wealthy family like Zheng Yi knows all the politicians and people from large corporations."

Everyone is in a competitive yet cooperative relationship, which is the only way to maintain one's position and prevent being surpassed by other groups.

As long as Shoichi shows enough sincerity and earnestly asks them, those people won't make things too difficult for him. Shoichi's lips twitched, feeling that Ai's words made a lot of sense.

In the early stages of his business, didn't he sincerely ask those people to give him their companies at a low price?

The reason he was able to expand his company so quickly is because of his sincerity.

Ai understands him!

Ai was still explaining to her sister: "That Representative Takada originally planned to say something about reconciling with Shoichi at the congratulatory party today, and to work together to promote the development of AI."

Moreover, Shoichi, Representative Takada, and the other deceased zaibatsu were of the same kind. How could he possibly hunt down his own kind indiscriminately?
No one else would allow Zhengyi to do that.

Ai Haibara is the one who has been by Shoichi's side the longest and knows the development of the Justice Group the most.

He said that the Justice Group has been able to develop to this day because of its sincerity, and he even gave some examples.

When the president of a company died, Zheng Yi took care of the funeral arrangements. The president's son was deeply moved and sold the company to Zheng Yi at a low price.

There was also the case of the company president's death and the heir's imprisonment, but Zheng Yi handled the case well, which moved the company's shareholders so much that they gave the company to Zheng Yi.

There are too many examples to list.

Even though Ai hadn't paid special attention to these things, she still managed to come up with many examples.

Ai was shocked to realize that Shoichi was really that bad.

"really?"

“Of course it’s true,” Ai said. “Sister, you’re not a chaebol, you don’t understand these things.”

"So you understand?"

“Shoichi taught me all of this.” Ai pushed Shoichi onto her. “I went to the congratulatory party to test the effectiveness of our sincerity and see if Representative Takada was really willing to reconcile.”

It's just a pity he died.

Ai looked regretful, and it didn't seem like she was lying.

"Alright, sister, if Zheng Yi really relied on murder, he would have been arrested by the police long ago."

Even conglomerates can't do whatever they want!

Ai had to use a lot of persuasion to barely manage to fool Akemi.

Seeing Shoichi leaning back on the sofa and laughing, Ai, unable to contain her anger, knelt down on the sofa and reached out to pinch Shoichi's face.

Zheng Yi shook his head and said with a smile:

"Ai, you understand me the most."

"Hehe, don't fool yourself too." Ai tightened her grip slightly.

Zheng Yi let her pinch him.

After being misunderstood for so long, finally someone is speaking up for me. What's wrong with letting her pinch my cheek?

He, Sumitomo Masakazu, achieved such success in less than a year of business, all thanks to his sincerity!

I don't know if it was sincerity that made the difference.

Justice Security's business has suddenly increased significantly.

It turns out that because Zhengyi's reputation has been maliciously smeared for a long time, Zhengyi Security is not very trusted.

Even though Zheng Yi had already tried his best to cause trouble for Sicom, in the newspapers, it had become a company that couldn't protect anyone.

However, Justice Security's market share has never been as high as Secom's.

Those wealthy and powerful individuals preferred Secom, which had a history of numerous accidents, to Justice Security.

However, after Representative Takada's death, the growth rate of Justice Security's business was truly frightening.

Zheng Yi pinched his chin, making a vague guess.

Could it be that the death of Representative Takada finally made those wealthy people realize that Japan is dangerous?

This is also true for these wealthy and powerful people, which is why they are willing to spend money on their safety.

If that's the case, then Representative Takada's death was well worth it.

No, the death of one congressman, Takada, doesn't amount to that much.

It must be the result of word-of-mouth spreading.

Sincerity has built its reputation over time, earning everyone's trust; such achievements are well-deserved. (End of Chapter)