Detective Conan: The Ultimate Growth Space

He guessed that Conan must have triggered the mechanism.

Therefore, Zhiyong immediately activated the map function.

He happened to see it.

Conan stood in front of a skeleton.

Behind Conan, someone took a brick and hit Conan on the head, causing Conan to fall to the ground.

Zhiyong grinned as well.

"Ouch, that really hurts."

Zhiyong didn't care that Conan had been knocked unconscious.

Anyway, with the protagonist's halo, this is nothing to Conan.

Ai seems to understand too.

So he went into the room.

She lifted the chair, placed the books on the floor on the chair, and then prepared to stand on the chair to turn the clock on the wall.

Just as Ai was about to climb onto the chair.

Zhiyong walked over and said, "Xiao Ai, you can't be naughty now."

Then, he grabbed Ai.

Xiao Ai was pulled back by Zhiyong, just as she was about to ask a question.

"What happened?" Nobleman Mamiya asked as he entered.

Professor Agasa came over and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Doctor, Conan has suddenly disappeared," Miho said anxiously.

"Conan is missing?" Professor Agasa asked in confusion.

“I think he must have gone to the restroom, which is on the first floor downstairs,” Katsuo Tabata replied.

"You also believe Conan went to the restroom?" Ai asked in a low voice.

“No, just as you thought, Conan triggered the mechanism and entered the secret passage,” Zhiyong replied in a low voice.

"How can you be so sure?" Ai asked curiously.

"Didn't you notice? The windows in that room we were in earlier, and this room, are very close to the walls. But when we were down there, I noticed that the windows were quite far apart," Zhiyong explained in a low voice.

"That's true, it's really very strange," Ai nodded in reply.

“There’s something wrong with the distance between these walls. So I guess there’s actually a wide gap between these two rooms, and there’s a secret passage,” Zhiyong replied.

“Oh, I see. I saw the overturned chair, the scattered books, and the clock on the wall. That’s what I guessed too,” Ai replied.

He was still a little unaccustomed to the fact that Ai and Tomo had talked so much today.

These past few days have been because of Zhiyong's womanizing.

Ai Haibara always pretends to be aloof.

I didn't say a single word to him.

Zhiyong was very happy to be able to talk to him today.

Actually, Ai has been ignoring me for the past few days.

It was precisely because of Zhiyong's philandering that she felt extremely satisfied.

But since her sister had accepted it, for her sister's happiness, she had no choice but to say nothing more.

Especially when Zhiyong came to see her today, Xiao Ai was also a little touched.

Therefore, although she was still unhappy about Zhiyong's womanizing, her attitude towards Zhiyong changed.

……

Chapter 272 Unsuccessful Search

The group searched around, but couldn't find Conan.

Regarding Conan's sudden disappearance.

Miho and her friends thought it was Conan playing a prank to scare them.

Dr. Agasa's face showed his nervousness.

After all, he knew that Conan was Shinichi Kudo and that he was definitely not playing a prank.

While the group was figuring out where to find Conan.

A servant from the Mamiya family came to tell them that dinner was ready.

Ayumi and the others were initially worried about Conan.

However, when the topic turned to food, Genta and Mitsuhiko completely forgot about finding Conan. Only Miho was slightly worried, but she was quickly persuaded not to look for Conan anymore.

The Mamiya family was only a third-rate family in the island nation.

But that's only relative to large families like the Suzuki family, or the Hatamoto family, or the Morizono family.

Although their wealth is not as great as those of these families.

But they were still very wealthy.

Therefore, dinner was very plentiful, with the table filled with all kinds of delicious food.

Seeing all this delicious food made Zhiyong feel a little hungry.

The Mamiya family now consists of only three people: the matriarch, Mamiya Mitsuru, and Mamiya Noble.

Although there were still some servants.

But for Zhiyong, such a large castle with only a few people really made him feel lonely.

Especially in such a large castle, the fact that there are hardly any people around makes it feel eerie.

I don't know why these rich people like to live in houses like this.

Perhaps in his previous life, Zhiyong was just a poor nobody.

I was born into this world, and my family is only considered to be comfortably well-off.

Through his efforts, Zhiyong acquired some treasures and accumulated some wealth.

However, some ideas remain unchanged.

Even though he bought some villas, they were only medium and small-sized villas, not very big ones.

Even so, Zhiyong felt that the villa was very empty.

Of course, this can only be expressed in one sentence.

The world of the rich and powerful is something the poor will never understand.

A sumptuous dinner brought joy to everyone.

After dinner.

But Conan hasn't appeared yet.

Professor Agasa became even more anxious.

The Mamiya family also sent out servants to search for Conan throughout the castle.

"Aren't you worried about Conan?"

Seeing that Zhiyong was in no hurry, Xiao Ai asked him a question.

“What’s the rush? He’s a grown man. Even if something happens, he can handle it himself,” Zhiyong said with a shrug.

"If he were still Shinichi Kudo, he could handle some crises, but now he's become a child, after all?" Ai asked doubtfully.

“Conan has the protagonist's halo; even if something happens, he will be safe and sound,” Zhiyong replied.

"Protagonist halo?" Ai didn't quite understand.

"Just like the protagonists in movies and novels, even if they encounter a crisis, they will only be startled and face minor dangers, but they will not be harmed and will be able to turn bad luck into good," Zhiyong explained.

"this……."

After hearing what Zhiyong said, Xiao Ai was both amused and exasperated.

"Don't worry, as long as we keep an eye on the old lady, Conan will be fine," Zhiyong added.

"The old lady? Is there something wrong with her?" Xiao Ai asked doubtfully.

Although Ai is also very smart.

But before that, she was always conducting scientific research.

She currently has relatively few cases to handle and is not yet able to make reasonable inferences.

“From what the gardener said, I learned that the old lady is eighty-three years old this year and still has some mental problems. But from the way she acted when we saw her in the hall, or even during the meal, did she seem like an eighty-three-year-old woman?” Zhiyong asked.

"You mean the old lady is an imposter?" Ai asked in surprise.

“At her age, even if she’s in good health, let’s not even talk about how much she eats. Just consider the two times we met. When she left, wasn’t she moving her wheelchair a little too fast? That wheelchair isn’t electric. Even if she’s familiar with it, at her age, does she still have that much strength?” Zhiyong explained.

"That's true. She's so old, yet her hands are still very strong, and she eats a lot. It's something that someone her age couldn't possibly do." Ai nodded.

“There’s another point. When we met in the hall, she mentioned that her passport size had changed. She already knew about it from the gardener. She hasn’t left the castle in the last ten years. How did she know about the passport size change six years ago? Neither the servants nor her daughter would mention this in casual conversation,” Zhiyong added.

“That’s a bit of a stretch; maybe she overheard it by accident,” Ai Haibara objected.

“That’s possible, but I think it’s because she went abroad for plastic surgery. After all, if she had plastic surgery in an island country, her identity would likely be exposed. Only abroad would she feel at ease,” Zhiyong explained.

"That's possible. And after the plastic surgery, she'll need to maintain her appearance every year." Ai nodded.

“I think the fire the gardener mentioned was set by her to cover up her identity,” Zhiyong added.

"Kill her to silence her? She was afraid her daughter would see through her disguise," Ai replied.

“That’s right. Among those burned to death that time were servants who knew the old lady. Now, everyone in this castle who knew the old lady is dead. That way, she can disguise herself without being discovered. Moreover, she is now pretending to have mental problems. Even if she encounters something she doesn’t know, she can pretend to have amnesia,” Zhiyong added.

“What a terrifying person!” Ai replied.