He's in Detective Conan, and he's the mastermind behind everything.

Ok……

Shinichi Kudo stated that he could not accept this conclusion, finding it utterly absurd no matter how you looked at it.

One of the reasons, which is a bit strange, is that Naomi Yukimatsu looks so different from Kiyoko Yukimatsu; they're practically from different dimensions.

Shinichi Kudo thought that the shrewd and resourceful Mr. Moriarty couldn't possibly be so tasteless.

However, everything still depends on the evidence.

Where is Kiyoko Yukimatsu now?

she……

Sigh, are you alright?

At the end of a dark alley in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district, in the deepest lounge of an underground casino.

"Inspector Megure has arrived in Shinjuku. Be mindful of your timing. If you're unsure, a little later is fine too. Just let the police rush to the back of the auction to rescue you."

Kiyoko Yukimatsu was still wearing the same blue Teitan school uniform she wore when she left school. She was practicing her facial expressions in front of the makeup mirror, trying to make herself look as haggard as possible.

Although she was quite experienced in this area, the detective's eyes were very sharp, so she had to be extra careful not to let him discover any flaws.

Just as this thought crossed her mind, Ying Sheng's words came through the invisible earpiece, and Yukimatsu Kiyoko couldn't help but chuckle to herself in the mirror.

Mr. Holmes, you are indeed very capable.

But it seems he's a notch below Mr. Moriarty.

[Love +1]

Ying Sheng, who was leisurely strolling around the auction hall some distance away, received a system notification and raised an eyebrow slightly, smiling:

You seem to be in a good mood.

“Because all that awfulness is about to end.” Kiyoko chuckled softly, her tone unusually less cold. “But I’m a little curious, wouldn’t it have a greater effect on the tragic ending if I had shown up before the police arrived?”

"What, you really don't care about your reputation?" Ying Sheng shook his head: "Right now, the people here have only vaguely heard rumors and don't know that the final item to be auctioned is you."

"But if that happens, won't everyone here die? Even though the police and Kudo-kun survived, they know my current situation, so there's no need for them to hide it from me."

"That's just a best-case scenario. What if something unexpected happens? Besides, Xiaolan is here. When she sees you looking so miserable, she'll come over tomorrow to befriend you and introduce you to me that afternoon."

"Eh? Why is that?"

"Because I also work part-time as an emotional expert and life mentor, I am best at comforting young girls who feel life is not worth living."

"Puch-"

Kiyoko couldn't help but chuckle: "Is Miss Ran really this cute? And she even came with Hotaru-kun as a safety net in case things go wrong. I'm so grateful."

Ying Sheng laughed and said, "I would rather everything go smoothly, then we can just leave it to the police and not need to do anything."

By the way, those two hospitalized police officers, I gave them a little something extra last night, but killing them outright would be too conspicuous. Let's take it slow; you'll have a chance to do it yourself later.

"That would be nice, but I'd rather the other policewoman died."

"I already told you I provoked her. If you want to kill me, go for it."

Ying Sheng was full of expectations, but there was no system notification, which disappointed him greatly.

"But she's the one who acted directly."

"Either is fine, but don't be impatient. We have to wait a while. Don't push them too far."

"Hmm, making friends with time, does that make you feel better, Hotaru-kun?"

"As long as you're happy, everything is fine."

"Hmm... You should say that to Miss Lan. Goodbye, Mr. Moon."

Communication is temporarily interrupted.

Ying Sheng smiled and shook his head, continuing to wander aimlessly around the venue. Two minutes later, he reached a dark corner at the very edge of the hall and called Xiao Lan through another communication channel...

No, it's Alice.

Xiao Lan quickly walked over and asked Ying Sheng curiously, "I heard many people complaining that there is no signal in the venue, and they suspect that the organizers are being overly cautious and have installed signal jammers. Why can we still use the radio?"

"Of course I installed that thing; I specifically reserved a frequency band for our use."

Ying Sheng smiled and asked, "Did you find anything?"

Chapter 98 Never Overestimate Human Rationality

Xiaolan shared some observations about the general situation of the venue, mainly to determine the route of attack if they were to take action later. Yingsheng listened quietly, occasionally offering a few pointers.

In fact, the venue was spacious, and the defenses were rather amateurish, so there weren't many things to consider.

But for a novice like Xiaolan, it's just right to use it to accumulate experience.

There's just one strange thing about it.

Xiao Lan glanced at the way the two of them had come from, and just then, a bald man wearing a pig's head mask walked in, looking around everywhere.

"Didn't we knock two people out there and let one go? Why is Ni Can acting like nothing happened?" Xiao Lan asked, puzzled.

"Probably because of face-saving. Anyway, no one died, so the Nizan Society probably just thinks it was some hot-tempered customer and doesn't want to make a big deal out of it." Ying Sheng smiled.

"Moreover, things have developed to this point, and the Muddy Association is already in a bind. If they say they're canceling the auction now, they're just asking for chaos to break out here."

Speaking of this, Xiaolan frowned slightly: "I heard that the final item up for auction here is a person."

"Yes, a very beautiful woman."

Ying Sheng sighed softly: "Didn't I tell you at noon that someone here was scammed and lost everything? I suspect it's related to that person."

I originally wanted to gather evidence of those people setting up the scheme and then have the police clean it up, but now that there's an open human auction, there's no need for that anymore.

Someone else has definitely called the police already, and our old acquaintance Inspector Megure should be here soon.

We need to take the opportunity to leave then; most of the masked people here will probably be questioned.

Xiaolan nodded. She didn't necessarily want to be some kind of Tokyo Robin Hood, and the original plan was for the police to clean up the mess. Now that they were arriving ahead of schedule, it was even better.

She was even a little nervous because she would need to evade the police afterwards.

It's not that I'm worried about not being able to escape, it's just...

I feel like my stance is a bit confused.

Even though she knew Inspector Megure very well, she now had to evade his pursuit... Hmm, Ran suddenly wondered if some terrible personality trait had awakened within her. Why did she feel a strange little excitement at the same time as she was nervous?

No, no, no, it must be my imagination.

definitely is!

"What do you mean by 'muddy will be caught in a dilemma'?" Xiaolan asked. "Didn't they anticipate this situation before hastily spreading the news?"

"Who knows what they're thinking? They're probably just simple-minded," Ying Sheng said casually.

In fact, that is certainly not the case.

While the Muddy Fair was indeed very unprofessional, it was not to the point of holding such an extremely arrogant and blatantly provocative auction without any prior preparation.

Or, besides the highly anticipated finale, do they really have enough items prepared for auction?

The platform is all set up; it can't be that there's only a single gem behind it while the front is all rubble.

That would be such a disappointment.

Even now, the true appearance of that pearl has not yet been revealed, and not all those who have gathered here have believed the rumors that it is a rare and exquisite delicacy.

More often than not, it's driven by the thrill of blatantly trampling on the law and a sense of superiority.

The human auction, which I had only ever seen in movies and TV shows, is now actually happening right in front of me. Whether or not I dare to raise my paddle and bid, just going to watch the excitement is enough to get my emotions going.

Look, I've been involved in something like this myself.

We are no longer in the same class as you ignorant, lowly commoners.

In short, regardless of whether the Muddy Association could have foreseen these aspects beforehand, as long as they still possessed the most basic thinking ability, it was impossible for them to rush to kidnap someone until 7 PM, start the auction at 10 PM, and release the news as early as noon.

Isn't this just setting a trap for yourself?

So the answer is obvious: someone is helping them to amplify the impact of this event.

Who is this kind-hearted and compassionate person?

Of course, it's Ms. Chiyoko Kanbara of the Sumiyoshi-kai.

Following Ying Sheng's advice, she seized the opportunity presented by the Muddy Association's foolish move and escalated the situation, attempting to use the police force to destroy the Muddy Association in one fell swoop!

As for who the person being auctioned off was, or whether such a person even existed, she didn't care at all.

Moreover, she believed that Hotaru didn't care and was simply helping her.

In reality, Hotaru was unwilling to wait a few more days for things to continue to escalate. Besides wanting to force the Muddy Association into chaos and make mistakes in their haste, another reason was to allow Yukimatsu Kiyoko to resolve the trouble as soon as possible.

Her kidnapping was indeed a self-directed and self-acted performance.

She herself is the lead actress, and the two accomplices who are deeply infatuated with her and can't shake her off are the supporting characters.

Ok……

Although there are only two cougars, she can already maintain a balance and doesn't need to worry about them getting out of control in the short term. But if those two cougars stay together for too long, who knows what strange balance they might achieve? That would be a very bad situation.

Adding to the factors related to Kogoro Mouri, and considering all aspects, everything happened so hastily.

Even the most foolish members of the Muddy Association had already realized that something was terribly wrong, but they had no way to refute the rumors. After much deliberation, they could only try to distance themselves from the auction.

The venue looked quite lively, with members of the Muddy Society on duty everywhere, but in reality, most of them were just small fry. The cadres who knew the inside story had already disappeared without a trace, which was why the defenses here were slow to react.

Nobody's in charge anymore.

Ying Sheng certainly couldn't have 100% control over the internal situation of the Muddy Society, but since things were developing according to the trajectory he had arranged, he could at least guess about 70-80%.

It's 9:55 PM now, and the show is about to begin.

But until then...

"Let's go, Alice, the police are coming."

Everything was just a simple rehearsal; Ying Sheng didn't want Xiao Lan to see the filth and ugliness that would erupt here so soon.