Conan: When Shinjiu and Maolilan swap bodies

"Not bad!"

Qingze was generous with his praise.

Aside from giving me a heads-up at the beginning, he hardly gave me any further reminders.

Ran Mouri's ability to think of so many things and even find the murder weapon shows she has truly made great progress.

"Now we just wait for Inspector Megure to arrive!"

The campsite wasn't too far from Tokyo, and Inspector Megure arrived quickly.

He's completely used to responding to calls late at night.

He was somewhat surprised to see Xiaolan Garden.

"Just you guys? Where are Mori and Conan?"

"They didn't come," Ran Mouri chuckled.

"It's really strange that the case came to light while they were away."

Ran Mouri's smirk intensified.

Inspector Megure recognized Aozawa, who was standing next to Ran Mouri and wearing sunglasses, and exclaimed in surprise:

"Hey, Qingze, you're here too. Didn't you go fishing today?"

"……No."

"That's good." Inspector Megure breathed a sigh of relief.

Qingze: "..."

He doesn't always manage to catch corpses, so there's no need for him to go to such lengths.

Under police questioning and with clues provided by Ran Mouri, the whole case was quickly solved.

It was that makeup artist who fed the deceased cookies laced with crab meat, causing the deceased to have an allergic reaction and die.

To avoid suspicion, she dragged the body into the deceased's wife's tent.

After discovering the body, the deceased's wife, in order to avoid being suspected of being the murderer, dragged the body to the chef's tent next door and stuffed crabs into the body's mouth.

When the chef returned to the tent and found a body inside, in order to avoid suspicion, he used a marker to scribble on the deceased's face, trying to disguise it as makeup, and then dragged the body into the makeup artist's tent.

The makeup artist, who was actually the real murderer, was terrified when he saw the body return.

After calming down, she wrote down a note that read, "The murderer is my wife," and handed it to the deceased. She originally intended to continue dragging the body into the deceased's wife's tent, but because she was too exhausted, she simply left it outside.

Not long after, the body was discovered.

Hearing about this case, Sonoko Suzuki's lips twitched uncontrollably.

Birds of a feather flock together; people of similar tastes group together. This saying is absolutely true.

The three of them had such similar ideas that they all wanted to frame each other.

As for the motive behind the murder, that's a long story.

The murderer and the victim were lovers. During a date, the murderer, knowing that the victim was allergic, wanted her to eat crab to see if she would have an allergic reaction.

The deceased refused vehemently, and the murderer, enraged, smashed a crab leg into his face.

Then, the two broke up.

Then, the murderer became increasingly annoyed and lured the person out to kill him.

Chapter 227 It's time to see Xiaolan.

After hearing the whole story, Qingze was completely speechless.

There are always oddities in the world, but this year there seem to be an especially large number of them.

Ran Mouri also had some reservations.

"Do they really treat life so lightly?"

This is a human life.

But in the eyes of some people, it is something that can be manipulated at will.

Neither the deceased's wife nor the chef friend had any intention of finding out the truth about the deceased; in fact, they were willing to frame others in order to protect themselves.

They didn't take the deceased's death seriously at all.

"Sometimes life is just that fragile. What you cherish, others may not cherish."

Qingze yawned and walked back to the tent. "It's getting late, time to go back to sleep."

Sonoko Suzuki sighed, linking her arm with Ran Mouri's.

"The most innocent party here is the crab..."

"Yeah, let's go back to sleep. I didn't do anything, but I feel so mentally exhausted."

Back in the tent, the two girls, who had been playing all day, soon fell asleep.

Over here, Qingze's tent wasn't as quiet as the girls'.

Kyogoku Makoto lay on the bed and looked at Aozawa on the bed next to him.

What does Mr. Qingze do for a living?

With that kind of skill and strength, it can't be a normal profession, right?

"Freelancing".

"What exactly does it do?"

"Your curiosity is a little too strong."

"I'm sorry, but this involves Ms. Mori, who is Sonoko's best friend..."

"What you really want to ask about is my fighting ability, right? All my fighting skills were forced upon me by my deceased adoptive father, for self-defense..."

"I'm sorry, I brought up something that upset you."

"It doesn't matter, he's already dead, and no one can force me anymore."

After chatting for a few more minutes, the tent fell silent.

Makoto Kyogoku is still a student and hasn't entered the workforce yet. Although he is exceptionally skilled, he has limited experience.

Although I know Qingze is very strong, I don't overthink it.

He wasn't the kind of detective who would pry into everything, so the conversation ended there.

……

Mihana Town.

Conan lay on the bed, staring intently at the photo on his phone screen.

This is a photo from a post on Yuanzi's social media.

In the photo, two figures sit together from behind. Xiaolan points to the stars in the sky, while the person next to her also looks up at the sky with their head tilted to the side. From the perspective of the photo, the two people are extremely close.

Looking at this photo, Conan felt like a jumbled mess of emotions, a mixture of sourness, bitterness, and spiciness.

Even so, he still couldn't help wanting to spy on Xiaolan's life.

Besides fishing, what else did they do today?

He commented on Xiaolan's post, why didn't Xiaolan reply to him?

How far has their relationship progressed?

Has Xiaolan fallen for him?

My mind is racing with uncontrollable speculations, all sorts of thoughts running through my head, I can't calm down at all.

Regret, annoyance... all sorts of emotions came rushing in.

However, there's no going back.

He could only watch from the shadows, feeling jealous and bitter... He didn't even dare to message Xiaolan to ask what they were doing.

He put down his phone and stared blankly at the ceiling.

What should he do if Xiaolan really falls in love with Qingze?

A bitter taste lingered at the corner of his mouth.

He had no way to solve the problem.

Conan Edogawa can't turn back into Shinichi Kudo; an elementary school student is destined never to become the lover Ran wants.

Now that Kiel is dead, only Bourbon remains as an undercover agent in the organization.

There are fewer and fewer channels to obtain organizational information.

Eliminating them seems a long way off.

He was somewhat confused.

……

The hospital was quiet in the night. In a luxurious ward, a doctor was trying to dissuade a patient who insisted on being discharged.

"Lady Vermouth, although your wounds have begun to heal, two of your gunshot wounds have penetrated the bone, and you still need to rest. We do not recommend that you be discharged from the hospital now..."

"I know my own body best." Vermouth stretched her limbs, her expression indifferent.

Being able to walk and move all four limbs normally is enough.

She's been in the hospital for a month already; if she stays there any longer, she'll be ruined.

"Okay... Please take your medication on time, avoid strenuous exercise, abstain from certain foods, and keep a calm mind. If your injury worsens, please come to the hospital immediately..."

Vermouth walked out of the hospital amidst the doctor's nagging.

She hailed a taxi and returned to her residence.

Back in her room, she first took a shower, wrapped herself in a bathrobe, and then leisurely turned on her computer to browse various intelligence reports sent by her subordinates.

A lot has happened recently, but the major events all occurred a few days ago.

Curaçao died, Gil was killed, and Gin deployed Osprey to try to kill Rae, but the Osprey was damaged and fled in disarray.

Although she had already received these messages, her embroidered eyebrows still furrowed when she saw the detailed report.

The organization suffered considerable losses this time.

Curaçao is gone, Osprey has been exposed, and the organization is missing one member, Kiel.

There weren't many codenamed members in Japan to begin with, and now you could count them on two hands.

Rum has become suspicious of Bourbon, and Gin's attention will likely turn back to Ray, trying to find him and avenge himself.

However, this greatly reduced the number of people doing the tasks.

Gin might turn his attention to Koniak and send him on a mission.

The most likely tactic Gin would use is threats.

Xiao Lan, I'm afraid she's not very safe.

"It's time to see Xiaolan..."

……

After a short, relaxing camping trip, back in Tokyo, Aozawa immediately started training Ran Mouri in tracking and counter-tracking techniques.

After instructing Ran Mouri to arrive at the designated location after school, Aozawa made a phone call.

“I’ve already taught you the theory; now it’s time for practice. I’ve hired three detectives to follow you, and your task today is to find them and get rid of their pursuit.”

"Three?" Ran Mouri looked around the mall. Although there weren't many people in the mall, there weren't few either.

"There are four of us, including me. You can try to find me too."

"Mr. Qingze stands out so much in the crowd, it shouldn't be difficult to find you!" Ran Mouri was quite confident in finding Qingze.

After all, his appearance is too striking. Even if it could be concealed to some extent, it's impossible to cut off a leg, right?

"So confident? Then come and find me."