The Different Color Tracks in the Detective Conan World

As autumn deepens, the streets of Beika Town are covered with fallen leaves, which rustle underfoot. Lin Mo has recently developed a habit of spending time at a used bookstore near Beika Park every Wednesday afternoon. The owner is a quiet old gentleman, and the store mainly sells out-of-print mystery novels and criminal investigation files, which always allow him to find some unexpected clues.

That afternoon, as soon as he entered the bookstore, he saw a familiar figure squatting in front of the bookshelf, intently flipping through a yellowed book.

"Ms. Miyano?" Lin Mo was somewhat surprised.

Akemi Miyano looked up, saw him, and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes before she smiled gently: "Lin Mo-jun? What a coincidence, you also like to read here?"

"Hmm, the old books here are quite interesting." Lin Mo walked over to her and noticed she was holding a book titled "An Introduction to Cipher Studies." "Are you interested in ciphers?"

"No," Akemi Miyano shook her head and put the book back on the shelf. "I found it for a friend. She's been researching this lately." — She was referring to Ai Haibara; ever since the incident at the art museum, her sister had occasionally asked her to find strange information.

The two walked side by side among the bookshelves, occasionally exchanging a few words about the contents of the books. Sunlight streamed in through the glass windows, casting dappled shadows on the floor, and the air was filled with the distinctive smell of ink from old paper, creating a peaceful and reassuring atmosphere.

"By the way, has there been any progress on the matter of Dongdu University?" Lin Mo asked casually.

Akemi Miyano paused, her voice lowering slightly: "The police are still investigating, but it seems they haven't made any progress. The lab has recently increased security, so there shouldn't be any more incidents." What she didn't mention was that the organization's people were also secretly investigating, and seemed very concerned about the stolen raw materials.

Just then, the wind chimes at the bookstore entrance rang, and Conan and Ai Haibara walked in. Seeing Lin Mo and Akemi Miyano standing together, Conan's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, while Haibara, as usual, expressionlessly looked away and headed straight for the science bookshelf in the corner.

"Brother Lin Mo, Sister Miyano," Conan greeted them, his eyes darting between the two.

"Conan? Haibara-san?" Akemi Miyano greeted them with a smile. "Are you here to buy books too?"

"Well, the professor asked us to buy a book about robot programming," Conan said, his gaze falling on Ai Haibara—she was holding a book called "A Guide to the Synthesis of New Organic Compounds," her fingers rapidly sliding across the pages as if searching for something.

Lin Mo noticed that Haibara was flipping through the book unusually fast, and only looking at a few specific pages. There were also some fine creases on the edges of the pages, as if it had been read repeatedly. He walked to the bookshelf next to him without making a sound, pretending to read a mystery novel, but keeping an eye on Haibara's actions out of the corner of his eye.

Suddenly, Haibara's finger stopped on a certain page, her eyes changed slightly, and she quickly closed the book and went to the cashier to pay. The whole process took only a few seconds, but Lin Mo caught it all clearly.

"I'm leaving now." After paying the bill, Haibara said this to Conan, then turned and walked out of the bookstore without even glancing at Lin Mo and Miyano Akemi.

"This child..." Miyano Akemi smiled helplessly.

Conan immediately chased after her, giving Lin Mo a wink before leaving. Lin Mo understood, and after Miyano Akemi also left, he went to the bookshelf where Haibara had been standing, picked up the book "A Guide to the Synthesis of New Organic Compounds," and turned to the page where she had been standing—it had the structural formula of a compound called "Cavasilone" printed on it, with a note stating that it "can be used to prepare highly effective sedatives, but overdose can cause irreversible damage to the nervous system."

Lin Mo's heart sank. This compound was the core component of the raw materials stolen from Dongdu University.

He wrote down the contents of the book, put it back on the shelf, and strode out of the bookstore. Conan was standing on the street corner waiting for him, his expression somewhat serious.

"Haibara just said that the compound in that book is one of the excipients for APTX4869," Conan said in a low voice. "She suspects that the organization stole the raw materials in order to mass-produce this compound to stabilize the effects of the poison."

"Could that used bookstore be related to the organization?" Lin Mo asked.

"The professor checked, and the shop owner is a retired high school teacher, so there's nothing wrong with him." Conan shook his head. "But Haibara said that there are a few suspicious names in the book's borrowing records, like aliases of peripheral members of the organization."

As the two were talking, a cry of alarm suddenly came from the direction of the bookstore. They immediately ran back and saw the old shop owner lying behind the cashier, with blood on his forehead and several books scattered around him. One of them was the mystery novel that Lin Mo had just been reading, with several strange symbols written in red pen on its pages.

"Sir!" Lin Mo rushed over and helped him up, checking his breathing; he was still breathing. "Call an ambulance quickly!"

Conan had already taken out his phone and dialed an ambulance while observing the scene. The cash register drawer was open, and the money inside was gone; it looked like a robbery. But Conan noticed that the old man's fingers were tightly gripping a pen, the nib pointing towards the book with a red pen mark.

"This isn't an ordinary robbery," Conan said confidently. "Those symbols are codes; the old man wanted to leave clues."

An ambulance and police arrived quickly, and the elderly man was taken to the hospital. After examining the scene, Inspector Megure also concluded it was an attempted robbery and murder, but he frowned when Conan pointed out the red pen marks.

"What do these symbols mean?" Inspector Megure asked.

Lin Mo picked up the book. The symbols on the title page were several crooked figures: an inverted triangle with a snake inside and three intersecting circles next to it.

"It looks like some kind of marking," Lin Mo pondered. "Who does the old gentleman usually associate with?"

The bookstore's neighbor, an older woman who runs a grocery store, told the police that a man in a black trench coat had been frequenting the bookstore for the past few days, spending a long time inside with the old man each time. She even heard them arguing yesterday.

"A black trench coat?" Lin Mo and Conan exchanged a glance, both thinking of the organization's people.

"Could those symbols be related to the organization?" Conan asked in a low voice.

Lin Mo didn't speak, but flipped through the mystery novel. Suddenly, he found a note tucked inside the last page with a string of numbers written on it: "734 619 258".

"This is... a 9-key keypad password?" Conan immediately realized, "734 corresponds to the letters PEG, 619 to NIS, 258 to KTL... put them together and it's PEG NIS KTL?"

"No, it might be a scrambled order." Lin Mo took out his phone and gestured with the numbers on the 9-key keypad. "734 could be SER, 619 is MOT, 258 is JQL..."

Just then, Akemi Miyano returned, holding a wallet in her hand: "I found this at the door just now, it seems to belong to the old man."

There was no money in the wallet, but there was a yellowed photograph in the inner pocket. The photograph showed a young old man and a strange man standing in front of a research institute. The sign on the background wall looked very similar to the inverted triangle in the symbol I had just seen.

"This is... the Tokyo Chemical Research Institute from twenty years ago." Akemi Miyano recognized the sign. "My father used to work there."

Lin Mo's heart skipped a beat: "Your father? Atsushi Miyano?"

Akemi Miyano looked at him in surprise: "You know my father?"

"I saw it in the documents," Lin Mo said, trying to cover it up. "He's a very capable scientist."

Looking at the photo, Conan suddenly said, "The snake in that inverted triangle is the old logo of the Tokyo Chemical Research Institute! I've seen it in Dr. Agasa's files!"

"What about the three intersecting circles?" Inspector Megure asked.

"It might represent the molecular structure of some substance." Lin Mo recalled the book "A Guide to the Synthesis of New Organic Compounds," "For example, the structure of three intersecting benzene rings is very similar to the structural formula of 'Cavasilone'."

The clues gradually became clearer. The old man may have worked at the Dongdu Chemical Research Institute when he was young and knew the secrets related to "Kavasilon". The organization came to him to interrogate him about this secret. During the dispute, a fight broke out, and the old man left a coded signal as a warning.

「那串数字呢？」柯南盯着便签上的数字，「734 619 258……如果对应九宫格的位置，横向看是7、3、4；6、1、9；2、5、8，刚好是九宫格的三行，会不会是指某个地点的坐标？」

"The area code for Beika Town is 160, no..." Inspector Megure shook his head.

Lin Mo suddenly realized something and took out the bookstore's map: "Look at the numbers backwards, 852 916 437, the corresponding coordinates on the map are... the abandoned factory in the west of the city!" — the very factory where Matsumoto hid evidence of arms smuggling in the last art museum case!

"Send someone there immediately!" Inspector Megure gave the order right away.

When the police arrived at the abandoned factory, they indeed found a large amount of research data on "Kavasilon" in a hidden warehouse, and several people wearing black trench coats were destroying evidence. A fierce standoff ensued, and the police eventually arrested the men, but the leader escaped in the chaos.

"Those documents show that twenty years ago, the Tokyo Chemical Research Institute began secretly researching 'Kavasilon' for military purposes. Later, the institute went bankrupt and the project was terminated, but the old man secretly preserved the documents." Inspector Megure held the investigation report, his face grave. "The organization probably wants to obtain these documents to restart the project."

The case was closed, and the old man woke up in the hospital, confirming their suspicions. He had indeed been a researcher at the institute in his youth, but withdrew from the project due to a guilty conscience; unexpectedly, he was found decades later.

In the evening, Lin Mo and Conan walked back to their apartment. The setting sun cast long shadows of the two, and the air was filled with the coolness of autumn.

"I never imagined that old bookstore held so many secrets," Conan remarked.

"What I didn't expect was that Professor Miyano was also involved in this matter." Lin Mo's feelings were somewhat complicated. "This means that the Miyano sisters' connection with the organization may be deeper than we thought."

"Haibara already knew," Conan sighed. "She just didn't want to say it."

The two walked to the street corner and saw Akemi Miyano standing under the bus stop sign, seemingly waiting for a bus. She saw Lin Mo and Conan and waved.

"Lin Mo-jun, Conan, thank you." Miyano Akemi stepped forward, her eyes filled with gratitude. "If it weren't for you, those secrets might have remained buried forever."

"It was nothing," Lin Mo said, looking at her. "If you ever run into trouble in the future, feel free to ask me for help. Don't hesitate to ask."

Akemi Miyano paused for a moment, then smiled, her eyes sparkling like stars: "Okay, thank you, Lin Mo-jun."

The bus arrived, and before boarding, she turned back and waved, her smile as warm as the autumn sunshine.

Lin Mo stood there, watching the bus drive away, a feeling he couldn't quite describe welling up inside him. He knew that as these secrets were revealed, his connections with Miyano Akemi, Haibara Ai, and everyone in this world were growing ever stronger.

Conan looked at Lin Mo's profile and suddenly said, "You seem to care a lot about Miyano-neechan."

Lin Mo turned her head and smiled: "She's a good person, isn't she?"

Conan didn't press further, but simply looked up at the sunset. He knew that Lin Mo's appearance was gradually changing the course of events, and perhaps, those destined-to-be-sad endings truly had a chance to be rewritten.

The fallen leaves were blown up by the wind, swirling and landing at their feet. Lin Mo gripped his phone tightly in his pocket; the screen still showed his chat with Miyano Akemi. He knew the road ahead would be even more difficult, but he was prepared.

Because of those people who needed protection, and those shared secrets, he could no longer remain uninvolved.