Detective Conan: Developing a younger version of Ran Eri, and the stunning Yukiko.

"They're here! The big guys are about to show themselves!"

Sera Masumi stared wide-eyed, eager to see what the legendary snake demon looked like!

The next second, everyone saw that the newcomer was not a snake demon, but a young man.

The young man, holding a wine bottle, walked unsteadily, reeking of alcohol and burping. He was none other than Ryoichi, the son of Master Ryozo.

"Mr. Ryoichi?" Everyone was taken aback.

Ryo stumbled in, looking utterly bewildered, and asked, "What are you all doing gathered outside? Are you having a... a meeting?"

"Mr. Ryoichi! Mr. Yagura and Ms. Mimura just saw a snake demon..."

Sonoko enthusiastically recounted the entire incident in detail. Ryoichi stood there dumbfounded after hearing it, even dropping the bottle he was holding.

"Rie! Is that you? Rie?" He looked distraught. Rie's death had been a huge blow to him, which was why he was drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

Shiraishi suddenly remembered something and asked Ryoichi, "Mr. Ryoichi, where is your father?"

"My dad? How would I know!"

Ryoichi seems to harbor deep resentment towards his father. He believes that his father caused Rie's death, and that Rie would not have chosen to commit suicide if his father had not opposed his marriage to Rie.

"That's strange." When Shiraishihara came out, he passed by Ryozo's room and found that no one was inside. "The nanny said that Master Ryozo went to see you."

"Heh heh heh... My dad still has the nerve to come looking for me? He drove my lover to his death!" Liangyi said with a face full of resentment.

"That's strange. Where exactly did Master Liangzang go?"

Shiraishi Hara stroked his chin, deep in thought. The nanny was doing housework, Suzuki Tomoko was sleeping, and everyone else was here. So where did Master Ryozo go?

Ryoichi seemed to suddenly realize something and burst into laughter: "Maybe my dad was eaten by Rie, who turned into a snake demon. Haha! This is karma."

Upon hearing this, everyone felt that something was amiss.

"Oh no! Could it be..."

Everyone unanimously thought of Qingming Lake.

The snake demon is hiding in Qingming Lake, and the target of its revenge is Liangzang.

Except for Mimura Yukari, who went back to her room to rest because she was too scared, everyone else picked up flashlights and headed towards Qingming Lake in the mountains.

Qingming Lake is not far from the tea garden, and with someone familiar with the route leading the way, we arrived at our destination quickly.

The sharp-eyed Sera Masumi quickly spotted a shadow on the lake and hurriedly tugged at Shiraishihara's arm: "Master, look! There seems to be someone on the lake!"

"Uh...it really is!" Shiraishi looked over and saw a person floating on the lake, clearly lifeless, a corpse.

"That looks like Master Ryōzō!" Sonoko exclaimed in alarm.

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No. .

170 releases heat, hot milk is sprinkled among the orchid bushes.

Chapter 170.

"I'll call the police right now." Xiaolan skillfully took out her phone and called the police. She was always the one who called the police, so she was quite adept at it.

“That is indeed my father.”

Ryoichi clenched his fist, the effects of the alcohol dissipating somewhat, and found it hard to accept the reality before him. Although he had a conflict with his father over Rie's matter, Ryozo was still his father, and he didn't truly want anything to happen to him.

"I can't just leave my father's body lying there; I have to get his body out of the water."

As Ryoichi spoke, he prepared to take off his clothes and go into the lake to retrieve the body, but was stopped by Shiraishihara.

“Mr. Ryoichi, please do not act rashly. Doing so will not only put you in danger, but will also damage the body and interfere with the police investigation.”

"So we're just going to ignore it?"

"No, not exactly. Let's see if we can get the body to float over here first before making any plans."

"How to do it?"

"For example, throwing stones into the lake."

As long as you throw a stone into the middle of the lake to create ripples, the body will naturally drift slowly towards the shore.

Everyone thought it was a good idea. So they picked up pebbles from the shore and threw them into the center of the lake. Ripples appeared on the water, and sure enough, the body slowly floated over.

As the corpse drew near and the horrific state of it became clear to everyone, their pupils contracted sharply in horror; it was simply too gruesome.

"What a hell!"

Liangzang's corpse was covered in mucus, as if it were snot. All the exposed skin on his body had melted away, the epidermis had disappeared, and the dermis, muscles, blood vessels and some bones could be seen.

“It’s like his flesh has been melted away by something.” Sera Masumi frowned.

"How could my dad have become like this?" Ryoichi completely broke down, having lost two of his closest relatives in one day.

Terrified and paralyzed on the ground, Yagura Morio witnessed this scene and cried out in utter terror, "It's! It's a snake demon! The snake demon swallowed Ryozo-sensei and then spat him out!"

Sonoko muttered to herself, trembling, "I saw a movie where someone was swallowed by a python, and then vomited up halfway through digestion, it was just like this..."

"So... Master Liangzang was killed by the snake demon?"

Xiaolan felt her underwear was wet and was so scared that she almost peed her pants. Although she had experienced many cases and seen many corpses, it was rare to see a corpse decomposed to this extent.

After receiving the report, the police rushed to Qingming Mountain, led by Inspector Yokomizo, who had visited during the day. He never expected that just that afternoon, someone had drowned in the lake at Qingming Mountain, and now, as night fell, another case had occurred at the lake.

Just like during the day, the police used professional retrieval equipment to bring the body ashore.

When Officer Yokomizo first saw the gruesome state of the deceased, he was truly shocked; such a disgusting corpse was indeed a rare sight.

"You're saying this person was swallowed by a snake?" After listening to everyone's account, Yokogawa looked suspicious and completely baffled.

The quick-witted Sonoko hurriedly interjected, "That's right! The snake demon swallowed him, digested him halfway, and then vomited him up, just like what I saw in the movie."

Yokomizo frowned: "A snake demon? How could such a thing possibly exist in this world?"

“Officer, it’s absolutely true! My junior sister and I both saw that giant snake demon with our own eyes.” Yagura Morio stepped forward to corroborate Sonoko’s account. “At the time, my junior sister and I were chatting inside when suddenly the lights went out, and a huge snake shadow flashed past the window. I thought someone was playing a prank, so I quickly opened the door and chased after it. What I saw was a snake as thick as a water tank, and its upper body was taller than the house when it stood upright!”

Upon hearing that snakes could be so enormous, Yokogawa found the claim absurd: "How could there be such a large snake on this mountain?"

"Officer, we also found snake scales," Xiaolan said, handing the scales she had found to Henggou.

"These...such large scales?" Yokomizo stared at the scales, utterly disbelieving they belonged to a snake, convinced someone was deliberately causing trouble. While he might be a bit simple-minded as a detective, he wasn't so easily fooled.

At this point, the forensic team had completed their examination of the body and reported to Inspector Yokomizo: "Inspector, the approximate time of death has been determined; it should have been about forty minutes ago."

"And what was the cause of death?" Yokomizo pressed.

"Because the body surface is too badly damaged, it cannot be determined by surface examination alone. It needs to be taken back for autopsy to find out." The forensic personnel seemed quite calm.

The time of death was forty minutes ago. Sera Masumi couldn't help but ponder to herself, Yagura Morio saw the snake demon about thirty minutes ago, and the nanny said that Ryozo had just gone to Ryoichi's place. So, Ryozo was swallowed by the snake demon before he even got to Ryoichi's place?

Oh dear! What am I even thinking? Being swallowed by a snake demon? How could that be! This must be a trick set up by the murderer!

Sera Masumi couldn't help but tap her head lightly, utterly baffled as to how the murderer had managed to do all this.

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Mr. Yagura muttered to himself nervously, "So, when we saw the snake demon, the teacher had already been eaten by it."

With witnesses and physical evidence, one would instinctively think that the murderer is the snake demon.

Suddenly, Sera Masumi discovers that Shiraishihara is gone.

"Huh? Where did Master go?"

……

Shiraishi had originally gone to the place where his eldest disciple, Yagura Morio, and second disciple, Mimura Yukari, had tea and conversation that evening. Now, Mimura Yukari was alone there. She had been severely frightened earlier and had not yet recovered, so she stayed there to rest.

After Shiraishihara entered the house, he found that even after so much time had passed, Mimura Yukari was still somewhat dazed.

"Miss Mimura, are you alright?" Shiraishi asked with concern.

.... . 0

Yukari Mimura was huddled in the corner. She only realized someone had come in when she heard Shiraishihara speak, and quickly replied, "I'm fine!"

"I have something I'd like to ask you," Shiraishi said.

"What is it?" Yukari Mimura asked.

Shiraishi Hara voiced his question: "Did you and Yagura Morio really see the snake demon? Could you tell us the details of what happened?"

Why do you ask that?

"I've only heard Yagura Morio's side of the story; I want to hear your side of the story."

Morio Yagura still felt lingering fear when he recalled the incident, and said with some emotional instability, "I was chatting with my senior brother when suddenly I saw the shadow of a large snake through the window, which quickly flashed from one side of the house to the other."

As Yagura Morio spoke, he pointed out to Shiraishihara that the snake's shadow moved from one end of the house wall to the other.

"Very strange!"

"weird?"

"Yes."

"What does that mean?"

"This is actually just a deceptive tactic, a trap."

"what?"

"Impossible! I saw it with my own eyes."

Shiraishi put on white gloves, reached out and picked up the teacup on the table, and gently sniffed it twice.

"Is there something wrong with the tea?" Seeing Shiraishihara smelling the tea, Mimura Yukari realized that there might be a problem with the tea.

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First.

171 Yukiko's eyes gleamed red as she pounced on him like a wolf.

Chapter 171

Shiraishi replied, "There are hallucinogens in the tea."

"How could this happen?" Mimura Yukari's face turned deathly pale.

"Miss Mimura, what color was the giant snake you saw?"

Yukari Mimura answered blankly, "It's white, all white, as smooth as jade, and its eyes even have a red glow."

Upon hearing this, Shiraishi thought to himself, "Just as I thought." He clearly remembered that Mr. Yagura had described the giant snake as brown, covered in armor-like scales. The two of them had seen the snake together, yet their descriptions were completely different; clearly, there was no giant snake at all.

"Miss Mimura, you don't need to be afraid anymore. There is no giant snake at all. You have just been used!"

"what!"

Mimura Yukari naturally understood what it meant to be used, that is, she was used by her senior brother "410". But why would her senior brother deliberately scare her?

……

After receiving an important clue from Yukari Mimura, Shiraishihara returned to the shore of Seimei Lake.

When Sera Masumi saw Shiraishihara reappear, she immediately went up to him and asked about his condition.

"Master, where did you go?"

"Let's go find out the truth."

"So...you already know the truth?"

"more or less."

"Master, please tell me about it."

Shiraishi gently pinched Sera Masumi's cheek: "Before that, tell me what the police have found out."

"Oh. The forensic team has just finished their analysis! Grandmaster Liangzang's body was corroded by hydrochloric acid! Hydrochloric acid! That's a component of stomach acid, which means that Grandmaster Liangzang was probably swallowed by a snake demon! But that's obviously impossible, right?"

"Hehehe... You're right, my good disciple. This was meticulously planned by someone. There's no snake demon at all..."

Shiraishi Hara told Sera Masumi the clues he had learned from Mimura Yukari.