No one understands the laws of Collider better than me.

Just as everyone was about to go inside, Tachibana Taka, who was carrying a shovel and starting to shovel snow, suddenly shouted:

"Everyone, please use the doormat to clean the soles of your shoes before entering the house. Please do not bring mud into the house. Slippers are in the shoe cabinet in the entryway. Please choose one yourself. Also, the red pair are mine, please don't take the wrong ones."

"Haha, Tachibana Takashi, your germaphobia hasn't changed at all. I'm so sorry, everyone."

"By the way, there used to be no doormat here in front of the villa, right?"

“We definitely won’t put it out in winter. After all, I remember when it was just a few of us getting together, the front door would usually be buried in snow, so we could only go in and out through the garage.”

As Tachibana listened to Tenta recount the past, he seemed to recall something, and touched the bridge of his nose, saying:

“That’s strange. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever been here in winter.”

The two were clearly longtime friends, chatting as they led the way. Upon reaching the living room, Ran and Curaçao both exclaimed "Wow!" Conan, being too short, couldn't see the various artworks of different shapes and styles on the storage cabinets. The interior was extremely spacious, with enough sofas for everyone to sit and have tea.

Just as everyone was admiring the artwork in the living room, a middle-aged man with a distinctly artistic style walked in from the balcony with two men of different ages and said:

"Oh, all the guests who came to participate in the reasoning competition have arrived. I am the homeowner Ying. Welcome to my Evergreen Villa. Please call me Ivy. And these two behind me are also here to have fun. This uncle is Asa, and this young man is Bread."

After everyone introduced themselves, the host, Ying, assigned rooms to each person. Although the villa had several guest rooms, it might not be enough for so many people at once.

Just as the seemingly carefree homeowner was looking troubled, Tachibana Takashi took off his mask and said:

“I can sleep in the garage. I brought a tent with me, since I really don’t like sleeping with other people. So Ying, you can just give the key to the guest.”

"I'm sorry, but I'll share a room with Tianda. There are three groups of guests left, so we have three rooms available. Oh! Kid, it shouldn't be a problem for you to sleep with your sister, right?"

Upon hearing this, Conan nodded vigorously, his goodwill towards the uncle whose name he had only just learned increased significantly.

After putting away their luggage, everyone came out to prepare dinner. There was a barbecue grill inside, and the homeowner, Ying, brought out a large amount of ingredients. The refrigerators alone were enough to fill an entire room.

The group chatted as they grilled the meat.

The homeowner, Ying, joked with Tachibana Taka, saying that if he didn't like her, he should leave. Tachibana Taka replied that he should at least get a free meal before leaving.

However, Vermouth also found this guy named Tachibana Taka to be quite strange, probably with extreme mysophobia, as he even brought his own cutlery and water bottle.

Both the middle-aged man, Asahi, and the young man, Bread, were talkative. After having two beers with Uncle Mori, they started bragging.

Vermouth said she brought her sister to relax, while showing off the ring on her ring finger. This made all the men present understand what she meant, and they all thought to themselves, "Who is this bastard who is so lucky?"

Chapter 318 My Daughter is Even More Amazing

The middle-aged man, Ata, was probably a shady businessman. After chatting with Uncle Mori, he started talking to the homeowner and their friends.

"Mr. Tachibana, you, Mr. Ivy, and Mr. Tianda are classmates, right?"

When the topic turned to their student days, the three homeowners began to reminisce:

"Haha! Ju Gao was a big star in our high school back then. He was not only good at both academics and sports, but he was also very gentle with girls and very popular, right?"

"Those were all past glories. Now I'm just an old man working at the city government. I'd rather envy A-Ying, who can always find fun in pranking people. A-Ying invited me to this gathering, I wonder what kind of activity he's up to this time."

"Hey, I can hear you! And I can guarantee this reasoning competition will be really interesting. By the way, Tachibana, have you been hiking lately?"

"No, so I plan to stay here and go hiking, which I haven't done in a long time."

Chatting and barbecuing, time flew by, and before they knew it, night had fallen. The person who would pose the questions to the participants was naturally the homeowner, Ying. Just as everyone, having finished their meal, sat on the sofa, ready to hear his questions, Tachibana Taka suddenly raised his hand and said:

"Before we get to that, let me warm things up a bit."

The homeowner, Ying, very kindly gave him a seat, and after Ju Gao went up, he said:

"Five people checked into a mountain resort. One of them killed the other four at night and escaped. Afterwards, the police didn't suspect a criminal and instead assumed it was a mass suicide. Why is that?"

Naturally, no one made any demands on the riddle meant to warm up the atmosphere, and everyone shared their guesses.

Hearing things like "using complicated methods," "bribing the police," and "carefully erasing all traces," Tachibana touched his nose and smiled, saying:

"Actually, it's because the killer was invisible. Hahaha!"

Everyone present was speechless. This Mr. Tachibana was just here to cause trouble.

After helping her friend out of the predicament, the homeowner, Ying, began to recount the background story:

"I recently bought this villa. I heard that five years ago, the previous owner's wife fell from the balcony. The couple were inseparable, and all the neighbors envied them. But even so, the previous owner's wife died, and no suicide note was found. In the end, it was closed as an accident. The husband couldn't accept this result; he felt that someone must have killed his wife. So I want you all to solve this case, or uncover the truth behind the accident. You can explore any corner of the house except for the locked rooms and bedrooms. For example—the painting hanging on that wall was painted by the deceased wife, and she would make bookmarks from four-leaf clovers she found."

Conan looked at the four-leaf clover in the homeowner's hand and said:

"I heard that white clover originally has three leaves, but it turns into four leaves after being damaged. In other words, to find four-leaf clovers, you just need to keep trampling on the lawn, and you'll get more and more four-leaf clovers. If that wife is really happy, she probably wouldn't do something to harm the plants."

"Hey kid, where did you see all this stuff?"

"There have been programs on TV explaining plants."

Conan chuckled to himself while scratching his head. The absence of media and police made him feel a little cocky.

"Child, perhaps she believes that happiness lies at the end of suffering?"

After hearing Vermouth's words, Conan fell into deep thought.

At this moment, the homeowner, Ying, took out a bottle of red wine and said:

"This is the red wine that couple is going to drink on their 20th wedding anniversary. Let's drink it together later."

After recounting the background story, everyone set off to search for clues about the wife.

Vermouth led Curaçao around, and Curaçao stood in front of the painting her deceased wife had made.

"They've all painted flowers."

"Yes, ivy, lilies, hydrangeas, water lilies, marigolds..."

After looking at the painting, the two went to the underground storage room, where many books were stored. In fact, most of the books in the villa were kept there. Since the clues weren't in the bedroom, this kind of place with a lot of information was where the clues would appear.

Ran and Conan also came here, while Uncle Mori stayed upstairs to continue drinking.

"Ara, do you also think the clues might be here?"

"Yes, sister, do you think so too? After all, the homeowner gave us clues from the paintings on the wall and the bookmarks made of four-leaf clovers, so after looking at the paintings, we should naturally go to the place with the most books."

"Yes, the child is very bright."

Ran hugged Conan happily and joined Vermouth in praising the boy, making Conan look like he was on cloud nine.

After the four of them got to know each other better, Xiaolan said a little shyly:

"Actually, this is not quite the reasoning competition I imagined. I didn't expect to use real cases as a game, and it makes me feel very uncomfortable."

"Xiaolan, you are very kind. But that's precisely why we should investigate even more. If it's an accident, that's fine, but if it's really a murder, we should call the police immediately."

Xiaolan nodded after being comforted by Vermouth and continued looking for four-leaf clover bookmarks.

Before long, Conan, the guy who loves details the most, also found a clue. He found a briefing in the documents, which said, "On December 27, Ms. Ayako Uguisaki fell from her own balcony and died." There were also several letters, all addressed to a woman named "Ayako" and signed Ivy.

"This... could it be that the homeowner, Mr. Ying, was that husband, and the deceased wife was actually his wife! In other words, this past event is Mr. Ying's own story?"

All four fell silent. This was no clue that could be easily dismissed; what was supposed to be a deduction contest had turned into an investigation of a long-standing cold case.

Conan then picked up the books with four-leaf clover bookmarks, which were mostly plant guides, and exclaimed "Ah-le-le!" again.

Why are all the bookmarks on page 252?

Ran obediently followed Conan's guidance, while Vermouth and Curaçao glanced at Conan expressionlessly before flipping through the books with bookmarks, discovering that it was indeed the case.

"Perhaps the wife originally intended to put the numbers on prominent pages like 110 or 119, but she was controlled by her husband, so she used 252, a number that is the radio communication code for the fire department, to alert outsiders. Now she is in deep trouble."

Vermouth found the child increasingly interesting, but it turned out that Curaçao had also told her these deductions, which meant that Curaçao's reasoning ability was no worse than the boy's.

What's with this sense of pride that my daughter feels when she beats other people's kids?

Chapter 319 The True and False Cases

Conan seemed to have thought of something, so he quickly grabbed the evidence and ran upstairs, while Curaçao and Vermouth followed slowly behind. With Curaçao's explanation, Vermouth gradually understood the truth of the matter.

When Conan ran back to the living room and saw the homeowner, Ying, pouring wine, he shouted:

"Wait a minute, there might be something wrong with that bottle of wine!"

After hearing the child shout, everyone looked at him in confusion. Just as Uncle Mori, already three-quarters drunk, was about to roll up his sleeves and throw a punch, Conan took out the letters and briefings from the underground warehouse. Since everyone was there to participate in the deduction competition, they naturally had some reasoning ability. After reading these two items, they understood that this game was not about anyone else, but about the story that happened to the homeowner.

The guests who came to participate in the reasoning competition were all shocked, while the homeowner's two friends remained silent.

"If Mr. Ying truly loved his wife, he wouldn't have treated her death as a game of deduction. Moreover, Mrs. Ying even placed bookmarks on page 252 of many books to indicate that she needed help, like a distress signal. Also, after I searched the entire villa, I discovered that the locks on the locked rooms were all on the outside, meaning that the people inside were the ones who were locked up. Later, you mentioned that the couple was 'inseparable,' which might have been the husband's coercive control over his wife."

Listening to Conan's reasoning, the homeowner lowered his head, still holding the bottle of red wine in his hand.

"Now that we've covered the clues in the book, let's talk about the clues in the flowers. I've already looked up the meanings of the flowers on the wall. In order, they are 'never to be separated, even in death,' 'disgust,' 'you're so cold,' 'I can't trust you,' 'indifference,' 'disappointment,' 'don't touch me,' 'lament,' 'despair,' 'hatred,' and 'hostility.' The second to last painting is a rock rose, and its meaning is 'I will die tomorrow.' So I believe your wife died by suicide. Besides finding the meanings of these flowers online, you can also find them in the books in the underground storage room, because there are many books about plants there, including a flower language dictionary."

The homeowner, Ying, remained unfazed, poured herself a glass of red wine, and asked:

"And what about this bottle of red wine? Why do you say there's something wrong with it?"

Just as Conan was about to reveal his deduction, Curaçao suddenly spoke first:

"The last painting depicts white clover, also known as lucky clover, which symbolizes 'revenge.' Although the wife is unable to leave the house and is controlled by her husband, there are oleander plants in the courtyard after the villa's entrance. Oleander is highly poisonous, and perhaps the wife intended to poison the husband in this way. That's what you think, right?"

Conan paused for a moment, then nodded.

"Sigh, as a detective, isn't verifying the authenticity of evidence the first step a necessary procedure? I checked on my phone, and there was no such murder case back then. Moreover, there was a receipt in the kitchen trash can with this bottle of red wine on it."

Eh?

Conan was stunned after hearing Curaçao's words. So, all of this was fake?

clap clap-

The homeowner, Ying, and Mr. Tianda clapped simultaneously. Ying then finished her glass of red wine and said:

"Haha, kid, you're really good at observing, but I've already said it's a game, so it's definitely fake, since I've always been single."

Vermouth and Curaçao remained calm enough that even if someone else had drunk the poisoned wine, it wouldn't concern them. However, Conan was too worried and acted rashly, fearing that if Uncle Mori drank directly from the bottle, he would probably kick the bucket. That's why he rushed back to the living room to stop the homeowner.

"Phew, that's great. I really thought something so sad had happened."

After confirming that these were only part of the game, Xiaolan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's not good at all!"

Tachibana Taka, who was standing to the side, suddenly said this, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"When they first said they were going to hold a deduction competition here, I had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but it was rare to get together like this, and since Tianda didn't mind, I came. But what is this game?! Five years ago, a woman really did die here."

Eh?