An infinite journey starting from paradise

"I understand. Go get to work!"

"Yes."

Yukito Tsujii hurriedly trotted to the locker room, took off all his clothes except for his loincloth, then picked up the mortar and mop, opened the lock of the corridor leading to the Imperial Bath, and walked towards the Imperial Bath.

then……

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Someone’s dead! Someone’s dead!!!”

A shrill howl broke the silence of the night.

The Ultraman crew members who were drinking in the No. 2 private room did not hear the scream at first, but after a while, the door of the private room was opened and a young man wearing only a loincloth rushed in.

"Someone's dead! Someone's dead! Over at the Imperial Bath... a female corpse... Quick... Quick, call the police!!!"

"what?"

The drunken men didn't react immediately to what had happened. It was Hoshino Terumi, who was only slightly tipsy, who was the first to come to her senses: "What happened? Speak slowly."

Before Tsujii Yukito could recount the horrific scene he had witnessed, Conan had already rushed out of the room and headed towards the corridor. However, before he could enter the corridor, he was picked up by a large, old hand.

"Little friend, no outsiders are allowed to enter here." said Mr. Tsujii.

"Let me go, there's a murder in there!" Conan struggled.

"Murder!"

Old man Tsujii was shocked. It turned out that the cry of his grandson he just heard was not an auditory hallucination.

Thinking of this, Mr. Tsujii quickly...untied the belt of his yukata and took off the clothes, leaving only a loincloth.

"Ah this?"

Conan was confused by this weird scene. What are you doing at this time?

At this time, everyone who had come to their senses also came here and saw the scene of old man Tsujii's direct support. Mao Lilan subconsciously covered her eyes, and the others were confused about what this old man was going to do.

"In order to ensure the sanctity of the Imperial Baths, you are not allowed to enter wearing underwear. This is the rule! If you want to enter, you must do so."

"No... Lao Deng..."

The few people who were still sober among the crowd were speechless. People like Hijikata Yukisaburo and Kimura Tatsuya, who had no intention of joining in the fun, quietly retreated back to the private room, and the same went for the ladies.

A drunken Kogoro, burping and staggering out of the bed, was supported (or even molested) by Sayuri. Hearing Mr. Tsujii say he needed to undress, he instinctively moved to untie his tie. After a few moves, he passed out completely and fell asleep, leaning against Sayuri's broad shoulders.

"Haha... Looks like I can save an anesthetic injection today."

Conan was too lazy to argue with the stubborn Tsujii Laodeng, so he took advantage of the other party's inattention and went straight into the corridor and ran into the imperial bath.

On the way, he carefully observed the surrounding environment. The surrounding courtyards were completely covered with snow, pure white, and there were no footprints at all. It can be confirmed that no one has gone from this snowy area to the Imperial Bath opposite during this period of time.

As Conan entered the imperial bathhouse, the oncoming warm steam instantly caused a layer of frost to appear on his glasses. Fortunately, he was not really nearsighted. Taking off his glasses, Conan observed the environment of the crime scene.

I have to say that this Imperial Bath is worthy of the word "Imperial". The decoration inside the Imperial Bath is very luxurious and full of Japanese style. After walking through the corridor decorated with Gifu lanterns and wood crafts on both sides, and sprinkled with jade gravel, and bypassing the screen decorated with gold embroidery, Conan saw the natural hot spring.

I saw a naked female corpse floating face up on the hot spring water, her body covered with two spread out white bath towels.

Conan was just about to get closer to check on the female corpse when someone grabbed her collar and dragged her away.

"You little brat! How dare you barge into this holy land like that?!"

Looking at the furious grandfather, Tsujii Yukito quickly persuaded him, "Okay, grandpa, let this kid go."

"Hmph...Huh...Snowman, quickly get the person out. We must not let the dead pollute this holy water source!" Old man Tsujii, who was holding Conan, ordered.

"Yes."

"Wait!" Conan shouted, "Don't go in the water, and don't touch the body. You are destroying the scene! Stop it!"

Unfortunately, the Tsujii family would never listen to Conan. Conan could only watch them salvage the female corpse.

"How could it be! It's... Miss Sakihara from Okinawa?!" Tsujii Yukito said in surprise. He went into the water and picked up Sakihara Maki's naked body. Just as he was about to carry her ashore, he found that something seemed to be wrapped around her ankle.

Tsujii Yukito took a closer look and discovered that what was wrapped around the dead man's feet was actually a bunch of black heads. Before he could pull it out, a pale human face emerged.

"is her!"

This person was the mean woman who knocked Conan down at the entrance of the women's bath.

"Two bodies?! It's over... It's all over..."

Old man Tsujii muttered tremblingly.

……

A few minutes later.

In the outer hall of the bathhouse, Hayashi Naoto and Kisaki Eri finally arrived. Due to the heavy snow, and the fact that he and Kisaki Eri had been fooling around a bit on the way, it took them quite a while to get here. On the way, they happened to run into Taira Ie and Ohira Gen, who were also searching for Sawara Maki.

As the snow got heavier, the duo who were looking for someone, who were unfamiliar with the surrounding environment, also got lost. If they had not happened to meet Hayashi Naoto and Kisaki Eri, they would have probably frozen to death in the heavy snow.

The four of them walked into the hot springs and happened to see people gathered in the corridor.

"What happened?" Lin Shangren asked.

"Ah, Mr. Lin!"

Seeing that the person coming was Hayashi Shangren, Director Mikami quickly reported to him: "Mr. Hayashi, there has been a murder here. Two female corpses were found in the imperial bathhouse behind the bathhouse!"

"Take me to see it."

Hearing that a murder had occurred, Hayashi Shangren immediately got into the mood. Kisaki Eri also followed him to the corridor leading to the imperial bath.

"Mom. Dad is drunk..."

Ran Mouri called out to Eri Kisaki and wanted her to help carry the drunk Kogoro Mouri back to the room.

Before Mao Lilan could finish, Kisaki Eri said, "Ran, your uncle Lin and I will go take a look at the crime scene first. You take care of yourself and your father first. After the case is solved, we can talk about our family."

"Ah... um."

Looking at the serious expression on Kisaki Eri, Mao Lilan felt her heart tighten, as if something bad was about to happen. She turned to look at Conan, wanting to tell him to go back to his room first.

As expected, Conan sneaked away and once again sneaked into the crime scene.

Another person who entered the crime scene with her was Hoshino Terumi. She had been planning to "reverse the unspoken rule" against Lin Shangren, and now that the real culprit had arrived, she naturally couldn't miss this rare opportunity to get up close and personal with Lin Shangren. Furthermore, she was an avid mystery enthusiast, and this was her first time encountering a true murder case. For both moral and personal reasons, she wouldn't let this opportunity slip by.

Due to Conan's escape, the unauthorized salvaging by the Tsujii family, and the subsequent intrusion of several others, the crime scene in the imperial bath was somewhat damaged. Fortunately, the damage was not serious, and the physical evidence was basically uncontaminated.

Lin Shangren checked the two naked bodies first.

The two deceased were 25-year-old makeup artist Maki Sawara and 41-year-old investment manager Noriko Sonoda. Both died by drowning. Because they had been immersed in hot spring water at around 50 degrees Celsius, their exact time of death is virtually impossible to determine.

"Who discovered the body?" Lin Shangren asked.

"It's me." Yukito Tsujii raised his hand.

"Could you tell me about the circumstances when you found the body?"

"Yes…"

Yukito Tsujii adjusted his glasses and recalled:

"At that time, my grandfather asked me to clean the Imperial Bath, decorate it, and light the silk lanterns on both sides of the corridor.

I unlocked the hallway door and entered the dressing room. After wrapping myself in a loincloth, I crossed the hallway and opened the glass door to the imperial bath. The bathroom window was closed, and steam accumulated inside. My glasses fogged up as I stepped inside, making it difficult to see clearly. Luckily, I took them off. Although I'm severely nearsighted, I'm so used to cleaning here that it didn't bother me much.

I first tested the water temperature—this was a natural hot spring, so the temperature fluctuated and needed to be manually adjusted to a comfortable setting. I dipped my hand into the tub and felt it was slightly scalding. I scooped five or six buckets of water from the tub and then, while adding water from the mains, stirred it with a bathtub wand to adjust the temperature.

Then, a slippery black object wrapped around the lower end of the stick. Then, I saw a white shadow wriggling in the water. Startled, I reflexively poked it with the stick, seemingly hitting something soft. Then, the white object began to spin, and a human face suddenly emerged.

In the steaming bath stood a young woman, her pale face covered by loose curls, her black eyes wide open, as if staring at me.

I was so scared that I ran out of the imperial bathhouse screaming, not caring that I was only wearing a loincloth, and rushed into a nearby room to seek help.

Then, the guest in the room called the police, and I finally managed to calm down. Then, I returned here with my grandfather. He was worried that the body would contaminate the water in the imperial bath, so he asked me to fish it out.

How should I put it… The body was still warm from being in the hot spring. Even though I was freezing cold, I had a false impression as I held it – that it was still alive, that it was lazily clinging to me. It's a bit embarrassing to say… I'm boki…"

Hearing this, Lin Shangren quickly interrupted Tsujii Yukito: "Who asked you to describe this?! I was asking about the corpse!"

Yukito Tsujii lowered his head and continued, "Ah...ah, a body. When I was about to carry the body ashore, I found her feet tangled with hair. Then I found another female body at the bottom of the water."

"Is that so?" Lin Shangren rubbed the back of his neck.

A locked room, a detached house surrounded by snow, its only entrance also locked. This looked like a classic locked-room murder case. But unfortunately, this wasn't a locked room...at least not yet.

Although the windows in the imperial bathhouse were locked, one of them was not locked and could be easily opened from both inside and outside. Just outside that window was a snowdrift. Behind the snowdrift lay a complete set of ski equipment and a set of flesh-colored women's underwear.

After identification, these clothes were found to belong to one of the deceased, Maki Sawara.

Next to the snow pile where the clothes were hidden, there were two footprints. Although the footprints were not very clear due to the continuous snowfall, the patterns on the soles of the shoes could still be identified as belonging to the deceased Maki Sawara.

"It seems that Miss Sawara walked all the way from that direction to the back of the imperial bath, opened the window there, entered, and placed her clothes here.

Perhaps she chose to do so because she wanted to secretly try to bathe in the imperial bath. However, she had been in a cold environment, and suddenly soaking in hot water caused anemia in her brain. She fainted and sank into the bath and drowned.

This speculation was quickly corroborated by Gen Ohira, who was also a member of the documentary crew: "Before filming began, Sawara had always wanted to bathe in the famous bathhouse. Originally, she wasn't required to participate in the filming inside the bathhouse. However, she volunteered to take over the job of photography assistant Sato and forced her way into the bathhouse in a bikini. Perhaps she secretly opened a locked window at that moment, allowing her to sneak in."

Mao Lilan also testified to the time of death of the deceased: "Around six o'clock, I was texting my mother. At that time, I happened to see Miss Sawara in a ski suit."

"That means Sawara Maki's death should have occurred after six o'clock tonight. What about the other deceased?"

Chapter 292: The First Answer

"Sonoda Noriko, female, 41 years old, professionally a financial investment consultant. The purpose of her visit to the seaside hot spring baths was to discuss investment-related business with real estate agent Sayuri Touma. She was last seen around 4:50 pm. That witness was you, right, Conan?"

"Yes, Uncle Lin. I happened to meet this aunt at the entrance of the women's bath at that time. She even bumped into me, so I remember it very clearly."

Although Conan wanted to ask Lin Shangren about the three members of the organization, the current situation obviously did not allow him to pull Lin Shangren aside to talk about irrelevant topics. It was more important to solve the murder case in front of him first.

"I say...what are you doing hanging around the entrance to the women's bath?"

Facing Lin Shangren's question, although Conan blushed with embarrassment, he still forced himself to make an innocent expression and answered: "Because I have to wait for Sister Xiaolan. Uncle Maori was taken away by Aunt Sayuri to drink, and I couldn't persuade him. I could only wait for Sister Xiaolan to finish her bath and tell her about it. But Sister Xiaolan was not in there at all..."

As he was talking, Conan secretly observed Kisaki Eri, who had arrived at the seaside hot spring baths with Hayashi Naoto. It was strange that when he mentioned that Maori Kogoro was taken to drink by other women, the other party had no reaction at all.

Hayashi Naoto continued, "That means the deceased, Sonoda Noriko, was still alive before five o'clock. And the bathhouse has been locked since five o'clock, isn't that correct, Mr. Tsujii?"

"Yes."

Yukito Tsujii nodded.

"After that, I was busy preparing food and drinks for Mr. Maori and the others. I didn't notice anything unusual when I passed by the corridor door."

"That's very strange. According to Xiaolan's testimony, the deceased, Maki Sawara, sneaked into the imperial bathhouse around six o'clock. During this period, until you, Mr. Tsujii, opened the corridor door again, the corridor and the imperial bathhouse doors were locked. The only entrance was that window. And on the snow around them, there were only the footprints of Miss Sawara.

So, when and how did the second victim, Sonoda Noriko, manage to enter the Imperial Bathhouse so silently and without leaving any trace? And how did she die?

Although Lin Shangren's Eye of Innocence has been equipped with a fingerprint recognition module, it still cannot completely replace a forensic doctor. At least at this moment, the Eye of Innocence cannot detect whether the deceased had taken any drugs before his death, nor can it detect whether there are any signs of external trauma in the smallest places.

Lin Shangren's cursory examination revealed that both victims had died of asphyxiation. Their mouths and nasal cavities were filled with hot spring water, and their esophagus and trachea were clogged with water vapor, essentially confirming drowning. There were no obvious signs of trauma on their bodies, making it impossible to confirm whether they had been forced into the water and suffocated.

Because the bodies had been soaked in hot spring water at around 50 degrees Celsius, the time of their death could not be determined by the body temperature or the degree of water immersion, and it was even impossible to confirm the order of their deaths.

"Hmm~ kind of interesting."

Lin Shangren stood up and walked to the open window, jumped lightly onto the window frame, and then jumped out of the window.

Outside the window were the clothes of the deceased, Maki Sawara. Judging by the thickness of the snow and the amount of snowfall, the clothes were indeed placed there around 6:00 PM this afternoon.

On the right side of the clothes are footprints that stretch far into the distance. Due to the snowfall, the footprints have been partially filled with snow. If they are not quickly photographed or protected, this physical evidence will soon be completely destroyed by the snow.

Lin Shangren pulled out a Polaroid camera from the shadows and, while taking a photo of the footprints, examined their characteristics. Although partially covered by snow, they were still recognizable as the deceased's snow boots, which had been placed nearby. The force characteristics of the footprints indicated that they were made by normal forward walking, not backwards.

In other words, we can rule out the possibility that the murderer walked away backwards wearing the same boots as the deceased.

"Sister Yingli, please hand me a towel or a bath towel. I need to cover this footprint. This is important physical evidence." Lin Shangren shouted into the room.

"Let me do it. I just happened to bring some towels," said Hoshino Terumi. "The detective novels I've read mentioned that you should be careful to protect footprints and physical evidence at the scene in the snow. So I brought a few towels."

"It helped a lot."

Lin Shangren took the bath towel handed to him by Hoshino Terumi, unfolded it, and used it to cover the relatively clear and iconic footprints closest to him.

Watching Lin Shangren covering his footprints with a bath towel, Hoshino Terumi suddenly had an idea: "Mr. Lin! I suddenly have an idea!"

"Oh?"

Lin Shangren turned to look at Terumi Hoshino, an artist under his management. He didn't have much contact with Terumi Hoshino. He only knew that she and Kaoru Kusano were teammates in an idol group that debuted with Yoko Okino. Her singing and performing skills were decent, but for some reason she couldn't get good resources, which led to her failed transformation and she was eventually shelved by her original company.

He Huan had no trouble recruiting her. Originally, He Huan and Lin Shangren had planned to reunite her with a few other idols. However, the other members weren't in place yet, so they temporarily gave her a minor supporting role in the Ultraman production, where she also sang the ending. Her performance was quite good, and Lin Shangren was quite satisfied, so he decided to have her oversee the music production for future Ultra Seven and Return of Ultraman.

Lin Shangren didn't expect that Hoshino Terumi actually had such good reasoning ability.

Hoshino Terumi said, "Mr. Lin, what if Maki Sawara's death was not an accident but murder? The murderer knew that she would sneak into the imperial bath, or it was the murderer who suggested that she meet here. After Maki Sawara entered the imperial bath through the window that was opened in advance, the murderer followed her footsteps, entered through this window, drowned her, and then left from here.

The reason there were only the victim's footprints was because the killer used wooden planks. The snow here was compacted powder, perfect for skiing, and its load-bearing capacity was greater than that of ordinary soft snow. The killer only needed to prepare two thin, large wooden planks to cover the victim's footprints, and then step on them to move forward repeatedly.