Ke Xue World: The Confrontation between Black and Red

Because the indifference shown by Utsunomiya Hiroshi was too impressive, and this morning it was discovered that this man actually boarded the train to Osaka with his bodyguards, completely ignoring his missing nephew.

While Conan and Hattori Heiji were discussing the attack last night and the disappearance of A Mian, Suzuki Sonoko, who was listening, recalled the news she had heard from her parents recently and bluntly expressed her guess:

"I think that Utsunomiya Hiroshi might be behind Amien's disappearance.

I got a piece of news from my mother. The heir of the Utsunomiya family has not been seen outside for more than three months.

The head of the Utsunomiya family has only two sons. If something really happens to the heir Utsunomiya Shoichi, his only son will also die.

Then Utsunomiya Hiroshi is the only candidate for the successor of the Utsunomiya family."

In high society, when it comes to establishing and replacing family heirs, few families are as peaceful and non-dispute-prone as the Suzuki Group.

Over the years, Suzuki Sonoko has seen and heard too much.

The phenomenon of children of wealthy and powerful families fighting openly and secretly for the position of heir has become a classic drama in the upper class circles.

It happens almost all the time, one after another.

"It is possible, but we have no evidence to prove it now."

Hattori Heiji also had this guess, but a guess is just a guess. Without evidence, no matter how suspicious Utsunomiya Hiroshi was, it was just a guess.

He originally wanted to stay in Fukuoka and follow up on the case of A Mian's disappearance, but the Fukuoka police were obviously unwilling to let detectives get involved in the investigation of this case.

Not only did he refuse to inform him of the progress of the investigation, he also refused to provide any case information to Hattori Heiji.

He was so tight-lipped and completely different from last night.

So, Hattori Heiji, who went straight to the local police station early in the morning, and Conan and others finally got on the red leaves special train to Osaka together.

Of course, he gave up so easily because he roughly guessed the reason. He knew that if he continued to fight with the Fukuoka police, it would be basically impossible to obtain the information he wanted, even if he brought up his father.

After learning that the Hojo family crest appeared in the case where Ameng was attacked at Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, and learning a lot of information about the Hojo family from Suzuki Sonoko.

Hattori Heiji made a special call to his father the next day.

He also learned about the power of the Kamakura Hojo family in the political world from his father, Hattori Heizo.

The change in attitude of the Fukuoka police was obviously due to instructions from their superiors, and that superior was most likely the Hojo family that was involved.

The Hojo family produced a minister of state who served as chairman of the National Public Safety Commission.

And the truth was indeed similar to what Hattori Heiji had guessed.

The Fukuoka police returned to the police station with the on-site investigation results and had just completed the case registration. Before they could proceed with the further investigation, Inspector Murashita, who was in charge of the case, received instructions from above.

The follow-up investigation of this case will be taken over by public security authorities.

As a result, the investigation was suspended, all investigation materials were taken away, and they were asked to keep the case confidential. Inspector Murashita and others signed a confidentiality agreement.

Naturally, he had nothing to say to Hattori Heiji who came to his door.

Suzuki Sonoko thought about it and realized that although Utsunomiya Hiroshi was a very hateful person and a strong suspect, there was really no evidence to prove that he did it.

Feeling that her brain was not suited to participating in this kind of case discussion, she looked at the people around her who were thinking hard and decided to let herself go.

Amid the rumble of the train, Kogoro Mori clutched the parchment in one hand and rested his head with the other hand, closing his eyes to catch up on his sleep. He looked very sleepy from staying up late the night before.

On the tatami opposite him, Hattori Heiji and Conan were sitting almost head to head, discussing in low voices the suspicious points of the recent cases.

Suzuki Sonoko, Toyama Kazuha, and Mouri Ran sat on the other side, discussing the case of the two people opposite them and whispering about other topics.

“Golden leaves, what special meaning do they have?

Moreover, the red leaf prayer paper was used instead of ordinary paper."

While Conan was scratching his head and pondering the special meaning between the two, he couldn't help but connect the red leaf prayer note left by the criminal last night with the hotel murder case discovered two mornings ago.

"What message does the murderer want to convey through this?"

Hattori Heiji recalled the expression on Utsunomiya Hiroshi's face when he saw the prayer letter last night, and felt that it was not an ordinary blackmail threat.

"That Utsunomiya Hiroshi definitely knows something, but he's not going to tell us even if we ask him."

Conan looked distressed. The fact that the criminal left that prayer note at the crime scene was enough to prove that he had other intentions in kidnapping A Mian.

As a hostage, A Mian’s life should not be in any danger in the short term.

But the problem is, there is only a golden leaf painted on the prayer letter, and who can guess what it means.

If you want to be mysterious, this is too mysterious.

There is a string of words on the preview letter of Kaito Kid.

Unless the direction of the gold leaf mark is very obvious, someone who knows the situation will know what it points to at a glance.

After thinking about it, Conan felt that this matter was still closely related to the treasure hunt competition.

He was very curious from the beginning as to why Utsunomiya Hiroshi would bring Amien to participate in this treasure hunt competition.

And now, even Amian is missing, but Utsunomiya Hiroshi still appeared on the Red Leaf Special Train with his bodyguards and did not withdraw from the treasure hunt competition.

What is his purpose, or what does he want to gain from this treasure hunt?

Also, are those people whose identities do not match those of the original contestants appearing on this Red Leaf Special Train for the same reason?

Conan, who had vaguely grasped some clues, knew that he was now missing a key clue. As long as he knew this key clue, the fog shrouding this case would be at least half dispelled.

After thinking about it, Conan decided to ask everyone for ideas.

So, in a group chat that Kuroba Kaito specially renamed as "Promoting Truth, Goodness and Beauty", Conan, who took the position of group leader, began to tag everyone.

Sherlock Holmes of the Heisei Era: Do you know any special events or cases that have been marked by golden leaves recently?

As the message was sent, message boxes popped up on countless people's phones.

Hattori Heiji, who also received the news, looked up at Conan and guessed that Conan intended to use the golden leaves as a breakthrough point in the case.

Looking away, Hattori Heiji stared at the display page on his mobile phone. He had also chosen the breakthrough point of the case.

At the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, after returning from a late-night field mission, Jinpei Matsuda, who had just finished catching up on some sleep at his workstation for less than ten minutes, glanced at his phone, replied with an "I don't know" message at his super-fast speed, and then fell back to sleep.

Kenji Hagiwara, who was downstairs, looked at the three words that popped up quickly on the group chat interface on his phone and a happy smile appeared on his face.

Oh, Xiao Zhenping is still so straightforward.

Conan thought someone had sent back some important clues, so he looked down and the expectation in his eyes suddenly turned into silence.

Officer Matsuda, if you don't know, you don't have to reply to the message.

For the next few minutes, there was silence in the group message.

Under the tag of group leader Conan, all the members were left with the exception of Jinpei Matsuda, who said "I don't know".

Ten minutes later, the group chat was still quiet.

Just when Conan thought that he had misjudged the clue about the gold leaf mark, and perhaps the golden leaves on the prayer letter did not mean what he thought, Yahya, who rarely spoke in the group chat, suddenly popped up.

Recently, there was a gold leaf bounty on the dark web of the underground black market with a base price of 100 million berry golds. I don’t know if it counts.

Conan sat up straight and typed quickly, asking for details.

He had a hunch that this gold leaf bounty was the breakthrough they were looking for.

While Yahya was explaining, Kuroba Kaito, who was wandering in the other world, received the news at the same time and had logged into the dark web using the account of his butler Terai Huang Zhisuke.

I saw the bounty task that was at the top of the dark web bounty list, with a golden leaf mark printed on the top.

Looking at the 100 million Berry Gold marked on the bounty amount, Kuroba Kaito, who knew the rules of the Gold Leaf bounty, became curious.

What is worth 100 million berry gold? Why didn’t Grandpa Terai tell him about this?

Then he clicked on it and was greeted by a screen full of haiku, waka and other classical poems, which suddenly brought him back to his classical literature appreciation class.

Looking at the nearly one thousand words above, Kaito Kid, who always liked to write a bunch of riddles in the preview letters to embarrass the police, finally realized what it meant to have changing circumstances.

In the past, he was the one who riddled others, but now others riddle him.

This experience is really novel.

Kuroba Kaito immersed himself in solving the puzzle with great interest.

On the other side, after explaining what the Gold Leaf Bounty was, Yahya simply pasted the task content of the Gold Leaf Bounty directly into the group chat.

Matsuda Jinpei, who couldn't sleep because of the message alert on his mobile phone, picked up his mobile phone with an irritated look, looked up, and his eyes immediately focused.

What the hell is this???

Conan, who had the same idea, looked at the words carefully again and couldn't help asking in the group:

Was this sent to the wrong person?

Conan, who had tried all the decoding methods he knew, thought this was very likely.

First of all, the Gold Leaf Bounty is a task, so it is likely to be a bunch of ancient poems that don’t make sense.

Secondly, Yahya is a Japanese, and he was probably learning about Japanese classical literature recently, and he accidentally copied the wrong thing.

Looking at Yahya's appearance, he is a melancholy handsome man. It is normal for him to have some literary talent and like to study the classical culture of other countries.

Conan was more convinced the more he thought about it and was looking forward to Yahya's reply. Then he saw the other party replied with two words below.

No.

Conan stared at the two words with wide eyes, wanting to make an expanded explanation to deceive himself, but in the end he couldn't help but typed in the group to complain:

Are the bounties in your world so cultured?

Or do you want to find a writer to do the task, and have such high requirements on the cultural level of the person who does the task?

If Kaito Kidd came, I'm afraid he would feel inferior and admit defeat.

Or maybe the person who issued the task sincerely doesn't want anyone to complete the task.

Conan, whose train of thought is the same as Toru Amuro's, really wants to meet the person who issued the task.

Ask him what he was thinking when he posted the reward. Was his literary dream shattered, so he wanted to find a like-minded person on the dark web?

Is there any difference between having this breakthrough point and not having it?

Looking at the densely packed haiku and poems again, Conan said coldly in his heart:

There is no difference at all, and it's a waste of brain cells.

At this time, Rina Hanano, who had already found out about the bounty for the golden leaf, glanced at the content of the bounty and silently pressed the exit button.

If you look at this thing too much, you won’t be able to sleep at night.

Feng Jianyuya took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on. When he saw the same content, he couldn't help but wonder:

"Are employment requirements in the other world so high now?"

Faced with this bounty that seemed like a divine book, everyone remained silent.

Hattori Heiji, who was sitting next to Conan, was silent for a long time before giving a suggestion:

"Isn't there a classical literature scholar among the specially invited contestants of this treasure hunt competition? Why not go and ask for his advice?"

Suzuki Sonoko on the opposite side looked up at me in confusion.

Why did she go to a classical scholar for advice? Did she miss something?

Conan silently sent a message to his father Kudo Yusaku, but he didn't know if it was because of the time difference or because Kudo Yusaku was locked in a small dark room by the editor who was urging him to submit his manuscripts.

There was no response from the other end.

At this time, a message popped up from Hanano Rina.

This gold leaf bounty was issued by the Utsunomiya family.

The publisher left a copy of the Utsunomiya family crest, which appeared to be printed with a seal.

Then, a family crest with a white background and red patterns appeared in the group chat.

Conan looked at the family crest and recalled the family crest he had seen on Suzuki Sonoko's mobile phone.

After comparison, I found that there seemed to be a subtle difference.

The family crest pattern created by Hanano Rina has an extra edge engraved line compared to the one created by Suzuki Sonoko.

So he asked Suzuki Sonoko:

"Sonoko-sama, under what circumstances would a person have a seal with an extra edge engraved on it than the family crest?"

Suzuki Sonoko looked up, looked at Conan's serious inquiring eyes, thought for a moment, and replied:

“A seal with a family crest is usually only owned by the head of the family.

If there is one more engraved line, it basically means that the family heir signs documents to the outside, which symbolizes the seal of identity.

But there are exceptions. If the head of a family dotes on his children, he may allow the eldest son to use a seal with one extra line, and the second son to use a seal with two extra lines. "

After hearing Suzuki Sonoko's answer, Conan suddenly understood. After saying thank you, he lowered his head again and started typing on his mobile phone.

Seeing this, Suzuki Sonoko's words "you're welcome" were stuck for a moment, and then floated out of her throat with a puzzled expression.