Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

"What does this have to do with the case?" Yamamura Misao asked, somewhat bewildered.

"If I'm not mistaken, your wife's death—" Chu Ming paused, dropping a bombshell, "...should be related to your father?"

"How did you know?!" Akashi Hiroto blurted out.

Chu Mingxin understood immediately. He knew that things were going to be this dramatic. It was obvious that Akashi Hiroto was deeply in love with his wife, and that killing his adoptive father on the anniversary of his wife's death was clearly a way to commemorate her.

That's how it's portrayed in TV dramas.

Chu Ming looked at him knowingly, and Akashi Hiroto met his seemingly all-knowing gaze, then lowered his head dejectedly: "That's right, I killed him."

???

Conan and Yamamura Misao both looked at Chu Ming with amazed expressions. Conan's eyes revealed admiration. As expected of Brother Chu Ming, his words published in the newspaper were sharp and insightful. He was able to grasp the subtle details and break down the criminal's mind. It was no exaggeration that he wrote them.

“That day, my wife was sick and resting at home. I drove out to work. My father asked my wife to go out in the heavy rain to buy groceries, saying that she wanted to eat mushroom fried rice. My wife walked unsteadily to the supermarket three kilometers away to buy the groceries, and then she fell on the way back…”

Conan frowned: "So this is why you killed your own father? But even though it started because of him, but—"

"Of course not!" Akashi Hiroto suddenly became agitated. "What do you know! It was him, he did it all! I heard it all. He said he finally broke this toy and wanted to find a durable toy like me in the future! I always thought that he made a lot of troublesome requests of me because he treated me like his own son, but actually..."

Conan fell silent. In his deduced method of the crime, Akashi Hiroto had tied the light cord to his father's hands, then tied a rope around his father's neck, stuffed a piece of rope into his mouth, and then hoisted him up. The rope gagged his mouth, so he couldn't speak, and with his hands bound, he couldn't move. The old man could only bite down on the rope with all his might until he was exhausted, until the moment of death arrived.

The way he thought about this death was extremely tragic and the means extremely cruel, but after seeing what the old man did, Conan only felt a little sad.

Chu Ming didn't have as many feelings as Conan. He who kills will be killed in return. This was a principle that Chu Ming understood in his previous life. Moreover, people like Akashi Hiroto were indeed very kind before, but he changed the moment his wife was killed by his adoptive father. After all, when a kind person loses everything, why should he still be expected to have good intentions?

He just felt that this method was a bit low-level. With only the two of them living in the deep mountains and forests, it wouldn't be difficult for Akashi Hiroto, as a strong man, to kill this old man quietly, right?

Why bother finding a so-called eyewitness to witness your crime?

Chu Ming couldn't understand these murderers' obsession with their so-called alibis. However, despite his incomprehension, after Akashi Hiroto confessed, Chu Ming picked up Conan, who was standing to the side with a clearly serious expression, said goodbye to Inspector Yamamura, and took his leave.

After all, they sneaked out, so it would be better for them to go back quickly.

-

Okay, people still shouldn't do bad things.

Chu Ming and Conan looked at each other, and stood quietly without saying a word in front of Kogoro Mouri, Ran, Sonoko and the others in the hall, who were clearly in a low mood.

Who knew that Kogoro Mouri would get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night? His fatherly love suddenly kicked in, and he decided to stop by to check if Conan's fever had gotten any better.

As a result, the bed was empty.

They thought the child had gone to the toilet, but after waiting and waiting, no one was in the toilet. They even wanted to ask Chu Ming for help to look for him, but Chu Ming's room was empty, and they couldn't get through to Chu Ming on the phone!

This terrified Kogoro Mouri. Remembering what Chu Ming had said about the mountain spirits that liked to roam at night, he quickly woke everyone up and prepared to go out together to look for them.

The security guards stopped them from leaving, saying that Chu Ming had taken Conan and left in a car around 12:00, saying they had some urgent business to attend to.

So everyone sat in the living room, ready to wait and catch Chu Ming and his companion red-handed, to see what urgent matter could make Chu Ming take a sick child out in the middle of the night!

Chapter 479 Joint Trial

"It's so late, what urgent matter do you have that you're in such a hurry to drive out in the middle of the night?" Kogoro Mouri sat in the middle of the living room with an unusually serious expression, as if conducting a joint interrogation.

Chu Ming tried to shift the blame: "In the middle of the night, Conan took a bottle filled with water and sprayed it at me, waking me up. He said he was going out on an adventure that night and asked if I wanted to come along. I couldn't stop him. Besides, I couldn't let a kid go out to play by himself, so I had no choice but to go with him. At least I'd be safer with him and could persuade him to come back sooner."

As he spoke, Chu Ming took out the evidence he had previously confiscated from his pocket.

—It's that little bottle that I took back from Conan before.

Ran looked at Conan with disapproval. She had indeed seen Conan fill the bottle with water before, but she didn't know why he was doing it. Now she understood—it was a prank! She just hadn't expected Conan to bother Chu Ming in the middle of the night: "Conan, how could you be so naughty!"

Conan opened his mouth, wanting to say that Chu Ming was talking nonsense, but he couldn't openly say that he went there to investigate the case. He couldn't think of an excuse for a moment, so he closed his mouth blankly and lowered his head to let Ran scold him.

Kogoro Mouri stood up, clenched his fist of justice, and slammed it down on Conan's head with a "bang," instantly raising a large bump: "Hmph, Ran, don't waste your breath, this kid needs a beating!"

Conan scrunched up his face, yelped, and covered the freshly formed bump on his head. He squatted down, looking aggrieved, and then secretly glanced at Chu Ming's indifferent expression. He instantly felt extremely frustrated.

If only he were still Shinichi Kudo, this child's body is just too inconvenient.

"Brother Chu Ming, where did you guys just go? You even drove. Next time something like this happens, just wake me up and I'll talk to him." Ran felt a little sorry for him and helplessly went forward to pick up Conan, then turned to ask Chu Ming.

"We went to Mr. Akashi's house." Chu Ming didn't hide it, after all, it couldn't be hidden anyway. They were handling the case in Kogoro Mouri's name, and Yamamura Misao would definitely call Kogoro Mouri afterward.

"What were you two doing there?" Kogoro Mouri asked, somewhat puzzled. "Why were you looking at corpses in the middle of the night?"

"...After Kogoro Mouri said that, I felt like Conan and I were two weirdos. "I mentioned to Conan earlier that something was off about this suicide case, so Conan wanted me to take him to check it out."

"Something's not right? Could it be that the old man didn't commit suicide?" Xiaolan's eyes widened.

"No, it was a suicide scene staged by Mr. Akashi Hiroto." Chu Ming sighed softly. "When we arrived, Inspector Yamamura hadn't finished his shift yet, so we solved the case with him."

Kogoro Mouri felt his hands starting to itch again. Knowing he couldn't beat Chu Ming, he continued to linger on Conan: "That brat always likes to wander around crime scenes! This time he even got your brother Chu Ming to mess around with you. If there's a next time, I won't let you off the hook!"

Conan nodded obediently.

Kogoro Mouri then asked what other doubts remained about the case. Conan recounted the events that had just occurred, distancing himself from the blame and attributing all the credit to Chu Ming.

"This is so pitiful..." Xiaolan pursed her lips and sighed. It was unclear whether she was feeling pity for the victim who was dying in despair, or for Akashi Hiroto who was blinded by hatred, or both.

There was silence in the living room for a long time, with only the sound of the wind whistling against the window frame.

In the end, it was Kogoro Mouri who yawned first, waved his hand to tell everyone to go and rest, as he had to go back early the next morning for a TV program that needed him to help out.

I don't know which production team it was, but they were quite brave to summon the Grim Reaper to make a cameo appearance. Aren't they afraid the show will be canceled?

The next morning, Chu Ming got up early because everyone had been woken up the night before and hadn't slept well, so even though it was already seven o'clock, everyone was still fast asleep in bed.

Chu Ming quietly opened Conan's door, shook the bottle in his hand, and gave a pleasant smile.

He's such a trustworthy and honest person; he never misses a morning wake-up call if he says he'll provide it.

"Oh, it's raining!!" Conan jumped out of bed, standing there blankly wrapped in the blanket. His eyes widened the moment he saw Chu Ming. "Brother Chu Ming? What's this—?"

Chu Ming put his hand down, looking innocent: "I called you to get up. It's seven o'clock. You can get up and exercise now."

"...Brother Chu Ming, stop hiding it, I saw the bottle in your hand." Conan stared at the small, strangely familiar bottle peeking out of Chu Ming's hand, his gaze resentful.

Chu Ming shoved the bottle back into Conan's hand and said earnestly, "Your vigilance is too poor. I'm just helping you train, no need to thank me."

"That's so!! Thank you!!!" Conan gritted his teeth, clutching the bottle as if he wanted to smash it in Chu Ming's face.

"Come on, take your gear, let's go wake them up!" Chu Ming subtly urged Conan, "Let's go wake Uncle Mori first!"

Conan looked at Chu Ming, his eyes darting around: "Okay, let's go, let's go. I don't dare to go, Brother Chu Ming, you go first? Anyway, Uncle won't beat you up."

Chu Ming took the bottle from his hand, his smile undiminished: "Come on, Brother Chu Ming will take you to get a wake-up service."

Chu Ming and Conan stealthily slipped into Kogoro Mouri's room like two little mice. Chu Ming held a bottle and spat it at Kogoro's face, then, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, grabbed Conan, who was trying to escape alone and leave Chu Ming to take the blame. He casually shoved the bottle into Conan's hand, pushed him to the bedside, and then turned and ran out of the room like the wind. He even thoughtfully closed the door for Conan, ensuring that Kogoro could only see Conan when he opened his eyes.

Conan, clutching the incriminating evidence, stared at Kogoro Mouri, who seemed to be engulfed in flames, and twitched his lips: "Uncle, um, if I said that Chu Ming did this... would you believe me?"

"Ha, why don't you just say that he shoved this bottle into your hand!" Kogoro Mouri sneered.

"Uncle, how did you know? Actually, it really is—oh—"

"You brat, didn't you learn your lesson yesterday? You're doing this again today?!?"

……

Chu Ming happily ate the bread served by the villa's butler.

In the quiet morning, only Conan's screams sounded particularly pleasant~

Chapter 480 Betting Gin's Hair

Ran and Sonoko, who overslept, were unaware of the love-hate relationship between the three men, so when they saw that Kogoro Mouri looked unwell early in the morning, they asked him a few questions.

As a result, Ran learned from Kogoro Mouri what Conan had done early that morning, and Ran kept teaching Conan to abandon evil and do good on the way back.

"Conan, this kind of thing is wrong. You can't just keep playing these pranks because you're young, and you even tried to frame Brother Chu Ming. Brother Chu Ming has been so good to you..."

Conan, his face contorted in pain, was practically begging Ran to stop nagging. He could only nod repeatedly in agreement with Ran's words, trying to get her to stop.

"Heh, this kid deserves a beating." Kogoro Mouri looked at Conan, who was sitting between Ran and Sonoko with his head down as if reflecting on his actions, in the rearview mirror as he drove, his face full of anger.

He was probably dreaming of getting close to a slim-waisted, long-legged female college student when Conan forcibly woke him up and turned on the camera. At that moment, his mood was definitely not pleasant.

Kogoro Mouri was supposed to make a cameo appearance at the film set today, and his anticipation had been incredibly high for the past few days. However, the unexpected incident this morning ruined all his gentleness. If he hadn't beaten up Conan to vent his anger, he would have been even angrier.

When the group arrived at the villa rented by the film crew, the director, who had been waiting outside, quickly came over to greet them: "Mr. Mori, I've heard so much about you. We really need you to do this for us. We need you to film an opening scene for the beginning of our TV series."

Being able to appear on television was already a great joy for someone like Kogoro Mouri who loved the limelight. He happily agreed and cooperated with the production team to change clothes and start filming immediately.

Conan stood next to Ran, watching Kogoro Mouri deliver his lines with great camera presence, and remarked with some emotion, "Uncle is quite handsome when he's serious, and he can be quite intimidating when he's serious."

Xiaolan smiled, her eyes crinkling: "Yes, it's rare to see Dad so engrossed."

“That’s true, Uncle Mori is really suited for this kind of thing. He’s funny, witty, and down-to-earth…” Chu Ming stroked his chin, seemingly pondering something.

"...I will meet you all again at the end of the program. Farewell." With these closing words, Kogoro Mouri suddenly had a whimsical idea and gave the camera a particularly greasy wink.

Chu Ming subconsciously took half a step back, glanced at Conan beside him who was also shivering from the oil, and the two exchanged a look. Sure enough, he was still the same Kogoro Mouri who could only be handsome for three seconds.

As soon as Kogoro Mouri finished filming, Ran jumped up and down and immediately praised him: "Dad, you were so cool just now!"

Hearing his daughter's praise, Kogoro Mouri modestly replied, "Oh, not at all. I'm just averagely handsome. I still have room for improvement."

The director, who had been at the beginning, came forward again: "Mr. Mori, thanks to your help this time, the program didn't go unfinished. I was so worried when that actor suddenly caught a cold. Thank you so much."

Kogoro Mouri waved his hand: "Not at all, not at all. You can always come to me if you need anything like this in the future. I can also make a special guest appearance if your mystery drama needs one!"

"Ah, no need for that, haha..." The director chuckled dryly. He had heard of Kogoro Mouri's reputation, which was certainly not a good one.

Rumor has it that murders occur wherever Kogoro Mouri goes. If it weren't for Ruri Amashiro's strong recommendation and the fact that they couldn't find anyone else, the director wouldn't have cast Kogoro Mouri. He figured it was just a cameo role, not a long-term commitment, and he'd leave after filming, so it shouldn't take long.