Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Chu Ming patted Ai Haibara's head: "What are you busy with?"

Ai Haibara seemed to want to ask something more, but since Conan and Professor Agasa were both there, she thought for a moment and answered Chu Ming's question first: "Conan said that his watch may have collected Gin's fingerprints, but because it has been soaked in seawater for too long, all the fingerprints are not very clear, so he came to see the professor to see if there is any way to confirm it."

fingerprint?

Chu Ming was stunned. Gin hadn't left any fingerprints at the time. Could Conan have mistaken his own fingerprints for Gin's because the fingerprint patterns were unclear...?

Seeing Professor Agasa still working hard for Conan, Chu Ming couldn't help but say, "I don't think it's very likely that you can get the fingerprints. You also said that Gin is cautious, so why would he leave his fingerprints so casually?"

Conan, however, had a different opinion: "Why not? I'm just a kid. He certainly wouldn't be on guard. Besides, the situation was urgent, so it's possible he wasn't paying attention for a moment!"

"..."

I think you're definitely talking about vodka.

Chu Ming didn't say anything more. Anyway, Conan never gave up until he hit a wall, so he didn't try to persuade him anymore.

Ai Haibara quietly tugged at Chu Ming's sleeve and pointed inside: "Brother Chu Ming, could you come over here for a second?"

Chu Ming realized that Ai Haibara wanted to take him inside to talk alone, so he followed her into her room as she tugged at his clothes.

Ai Haibara glanced back, but Conan and Professor Agasa were still engrossed in their experiment and completely oblivious to what was happening. So she looked up and asked Chu Ming, "Last time, under the Osaka Tsutenkaku Tower, you escaped alone. When we went to pick you up, we found you being taken into a car by a man in black..."

Chu Ming didn't expect Ai Haibara to ask him this, but he didn't hide it from her: "It was indeed the organization that sent people to pick me up. Although they left me on the airship at the time, I was still a code name member, and I wouldn't be abandoned by them like the peripheral members."

After a pause, Chu Ming thought for a moment and then found an excellent excuse: "Besides, there was another reason why I had to go and meet up with them."

Ai Haibara noticed Chu Ming's gaze was fixed on Conan outside and was taken aback: "Is it related to Edogawa?"

“There is indeed some connection.” Chu Ming casually found a stool to sit down and looked at Ai Haibara with a serious expression. “Think about it, who exactly was on the plane at that time?”

Ai Haibara was taken aback by Chu Ming's question: "Who? I only recognized Gin and Vodka's voices, confirmed Granburg's presence, and since everyone was disguised, Vermouth must have been involved. As for the rest..."

“Not a member of the organization.” Chu Ming’s eyebrows drooped slightly, looking somewhat gloomy. “It’s Phantom Thief Kid.”

"What happened to Phantom Thief Kid? Is the organization now targeting him—ah!" Ai Haibara suddenly realized something, "His disguise!"

Last time on the airship, Phantom Thief Kid disguised himself as Shinichi Kudo and stood with Ran!

If Gin were to see this—

Ai Haibara jumped to her feet, her voice trembling: "Did they find out?? Did Chu Ming come back this time to tell us to run away quickly? I need to go tell Edogawa right away—"

Seeing Ai Haibara's flustered and helpless appearance, Chu Ming grabbed her and stopped her from rushing out: "Wait, don't rush. I've been waiting so long to come to you, so it must be because the matter has been resolved."

Back on the airship, Chu Ming had already pointed at Kaito Kid, who was disguised as Shinichi Kudo, and jokingly asked Vermouth how she thought Kid's disguise skills compared to hers. She felt that his disguise as Shinichi Kudo was completely flawless, and even Shinichi Kudo's girlfriend couldn't tell the difference.

Such an inquiry serves two purposes: firstly, it makes the purpose less obvious, and secondly, it subtly tells Gin that the person is not Shinichi Kudo.

Vermouth clearly understood Chu Ming's intention and cooperated with him very smoothly, without arousing Gin's suspicion at all.

At the time, Vermouth was quite glad that she had joined Granbury's camp early on, because Granbury was even willing to help cover for her.

"So, Chu Ming went back for this reason?" Ai Haibara gently bit her lower lip, looking up at Chu Ming with gratitude in her eyes, but her awkward personality prevented her from expressing her thanks.

“Yes, so don’t worry, this matter has been resolved. But what was Conan thinking this time? He actually thought he could find Gin’s fingerprints? Let alone him, even I in the organization might not be able to collect Gin’s fingerprints. Didn’t you try to persuade him?” Chu Ming’s eyes swept over the old man and the child who were working hard outside, and then looked at Ai Haibara, who was obviously detached from the matter, and sighed softly.

“I tried to persuade him, but he thought, ‘What if? We can’t be sure of the outcome until the very last step. If Gin really didn’t notice this time, and we think he would be careful because of our stereotypes, wouldn’t we miss a chance to find out his true identity?” Ai Haibara shrugged. “These are his exact words.”

“That’s true, Conan has always been like this, but it’s precisely this meticulous nature that allows him to find the truth time and time again…” Chu Ming sighed. “I wonder if the two of them will succeed. Generally speaking, as long as the fingerprints are not damaged to a certain extent, they should be able to be identified.”

"I don't know. They've already extracted all the fingerprints, but most of them are incomplete. The main problem now is that we can't verify whether Gin's fingerprints are among the incomplete ones." Ai Haibara got off the chair and looked at Chu Ming. "Brother Chu Ming, do you have any ideas?"

"Why don't we just compare them to see if there are any different fingerprints?" Chu Ming was a little surprised. He thought that Conan and Professor Agasa were busy until now because the fingerprints were too blurry to be extracted. He didn't expect that they were stuck on fingerprint comparison. "You've come to the right person. I've been good at puzzles since I was a child. I can definitely do this."

"Huh?" Before Ai Haibara could react to why Chu Ming had suddenly brought up the puzzle, she saw Chu Ming stride forward, walk to Conan and the others, and print out all the incomplete fingerprints to the same size.

Then, holding the fingerprints up to the light, overlap them one by one, moving them little by little along the ridges, repeating this process until finally—

When all the papers were stacked and held up to the light, they surprisingly formed the same fingerprint.

Chapter 578 Recording

Chu Ming held up a stack of papers, gesturing for Conan to look up: "These incomplete fingerprints are still difficult to compare on a computer. Rotating them is not as precise as adjusting them by hand."

Conan, upon confirming that there was indeed only one fingerprint, instantly became quite dejected, leaning back on the sofa, holding his head, and letting out a soft sigh.

He doesn't even need to check; this fingerprint is definitely his own.

After all, he left quite a few fingerprints on it back then. If there was only one type of fingerprint on it, it definitely wouldn't be Gin's.

They thought they could catch the Black Organization, but the trail went cold again.

Putting down the stack of papers in his hand, Chu Ming reached out and ruffled Conan's hair: "Alright, don't be too sad. If you could catch them so easily, this organization would have been captured long ago. Why would we have to wait until now?"

Conan didn't remain in a daze for long; he quickly rallied: "I know that one day, I will bring them all to justice!"

Seeing Conan's confident demeanor, Chu Ming chuckled and sat down on the sofa next to him, yawning.

"Did you stay up late last night, Chu Ming?" Conan composed himself and looked at Chu Ming with some curiosity. "Hattori asked me to go to Koshien to watch a baseball game with him last time. Do you want to come, Chu Ming?"

Chu Ming seemed to have fallen into a yawning hole, one after another, and physiological tears overflowed from the corners of his eyes: "I'm not going. I've realized now that something will definitely happen if I go out with you, without exception."

Conan's first reaction was to refute it, but after stammering for a while, he realized that it was really true. Most of the time he went out with Chu Ming, it seemed that a case would occur. And it wasn't just Chu Ming; it was the same with Uncle Mori...

Conan scratched his head: "It's all because of the cases that I'm being summoned. There really is a connection between great detectives and their cases!"

Seeing his slightly smug look, Chu Ming retorted, "What's so great about that? According to you, the reason there are so many cases is because there are detectives?"

"What? I meant that the detective only appears because there's a case," Conan retorted, arms crossed, somewhat annoyed. "Besides, it's not every time. There have been many times when nothing happened!"

"You've only counted a handful of times on one hand, what do you mean by 'many times'?!"

……

The two argued back and forth for a long time before finally deciding to call it quits and shake hands to make peace.

After all, one was an unbeatable debater after training in the organization, and the other was a detective with strong logical thinking skills. Neither of them could win an argument.

Chu Ming was lounging lazily on the sofa, his eyes half-closed, feeling drowsy when he suddenly remembered something and sat up abruptly.

The sudden movement startled Conan, who was standing nearby: "Brother Chu Ming, what's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"

Chu Ming sat up straight, remembering what he had forgotten...

He stole Noah's Ark but didn't tell the boss...

What if the BOSS finishes his recuperation and is about to go have a chat with Hiroki, only to find that Hiroki is missing from the supercomputer? Would he be so anxious that he has to go back into the recuperation room?

hiss--

That seems like a good idea. If this makes the boss realize that his health is completely failing, will he take the initiative to step down?

It saved him a lot of trouble...

Forget it, let's not. After all, he was the only one who went to the lab today. The boss can confirm it was him without even needing to choose one of the three...

"No, I got something from an elder and forgot to tell him. I'll send him a message." Chu Ming said, intending to send an email to the BOSS, but he suddenly stopped after pressing the first email address.

No way! Conan is still here. He already overheard the BOSS's email key from Vermouth. If he sends an email in front of Conan now, wouldn't that be like handing his identity over to Conan?

His identity must not be exposed so easily; he still wants to use his identity to get a lot of points from Conan!

So if the BOSS really gets so angry that he has to go back to the sanatorium, it's definitely Conan's fault, and he has absolutely nothing to do with it!

Seeing Chu Ming stare blankly at his phone after pressing a few keys, Conan sneezed, rubbed his nose, and asked in confusion, "Achoo—Brother Chu Ming, what's wrong?"

"Forget it, let's not let him know for now. We'll deal with it when he finds out himself." Chu Ming replied casually, then looked at Ai Haibara, "Ai, there's something I've been wanting to give you for a while, but I kept forgetting."

Seeing Conan's eyes filled with curiosity, Chu Ming waved and led Ai Haibara back to her room, ignoring Conan's somewhat resentful gaze behind him.

Oh no, my friends are all having secrets from me, and they don't want me to know!

Although he was very curious, he still didn't eavesdrop.

"Brother Chu Ming, what is it?" Ai Haibara was clearly also a little confused.

Chu Ming took out a stack of cassette tapes from his side and handed them to Ai Haibara. These were cassette tapes that Miyano Akemi had hidden in the restroom of her father's friend's company. They were a gift that Ai Haibara's mother had recorded and given to her because she foresaw that she would soon die.

He had heard Vodka mention during a casual chat that Gin had once asked him to break into a house in the middle of the night to investigate whether Miyano Akemi had hidden anything in Miyano Atsushi's old house. However, the house had already been rented out by Miyano Atsushi to a friend who was running a company, and he almost got caught when he went there in the middle of the night.

What was said in jest was taken seriously by the listener. Vodka had just casually mentioned the topic, but Chu Ming suddenly remembered the relevant plot. He remembered that Miyano Akemi had hidden the item under the float in the toilet tank, so he took the opportunity to retrieve it.

"What is this?" Ai Haibara took the bag containing the cassette tapes blankly, looking up at Chu Ming with a puzzled expression.

Chu Ming's expression was serious as he slowly squatted down and looked directly at Ai Haibara: "I heard from Vodka that your sister had secretly gone to the old house where your father and the others lived. So Gin sent him to investigate whether your sister had secretly hidden anything, but they found nothing. I think that your sister wouldn't do such an unnecessary thing while under close surveillance. She must have hidden something, but Vodka just couldn't find it. So I got the address from Vodka and went back in to search again..."

Caught off guard by the news about her sister, Ai Haibara froze on the spot, staring blankly at Chu Ming, her eyes slightly red: "...Sister?"

She reached out and clutched the bag Chu Ming had given her tightly, as if drawing courage from the gesture: "This is... something my sister left for me? What did she say inside?"

Chu Ming looked up and patted her head: "Because it was given to you by your sister, I don't think I have the right to listen to it without permission, so you can listen to it yourself."

He didn't listen without permission; he had consulted Ai Haibara's opinion in his mind, and since Ai Haibara didn't reject his mental inquiry, he took it as her consent and listened very carefully.

However, with his improved acting skills, even though Chu Ming's thoughts and words were completely different, he couldn't make Ai Haibara see through his act.

Looking into Chu Ming's gentle gaze, Ai Haibara nodded vigorously, turned to get the tape recorder, and secretly wiped away the tears that were about to fall.

The moment she put on the headphones, Ai Haibara heard a gentle and loving voice. It was the first time she had ever heard her mother's voice since she could remember, but she recognized it instantly.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she slowly closed them, quietly listening to her mother's birthday wishes, which were more than a decade overdue.

Chapter 579 Chu Ming made Ai Haibara cry?

After a long pause, Ai Haibara, her eyes red, pressed the pause button. Just as she was about to listen to it again, she suddenly remembered that Chu Ming was still by her side.

She quickly took off her headphones and wiped away the tears that had accidentally flowed out. Because she had just cried so hard, her nose was blocked, and she could only thank Chu Ming in a muffled voice.